June Updates...

Here are updates on my To Do List for June.

Homeschooling: We finished school in mid-June! YAY!!! I (and my Dearest and two boys) have all survived our first year of homeschooling! There were times I wondered how this would work, but God is so gracious. Ethan has learned to write cursive, tell time, do fractions, read better, count money and so much more! Isaac didn't have formal school, but we had art, math (counting), and phonics (at the fridge). Now, he's reading!! So excited about all of our successes. At the beginning of the month, I looked at Ethan's tests and figured out that he wasn't really learning anything that he didn't already know, I gave him tests every day instead of school lessons. If he already knows it, why not skip the tediousness of doing worksheets?? LOVE the flexibility of homeschooling!

Graduation parties: Congratulations to all of our friends who have graduated!

Ethan's birthday: Our boy is now seven years old. I can hardly believe that this is the same boy who had hiccups like crazy. In utero. This is the same boy who cried with every minute change of altitude when we held him. We couldn't sit. We had to stand. The same boy who said, "mama" (Mama) and "mama" (apple). We had a small birthday for him on his birthday and then a family party with grandparents and other relatives the Saturday afterwards. His requested menu was chili hot dogs, pasta salad, and carrot cake to eat. This is the first year he hasn't requested strawberries and blueberries. He had fun being with the relatives and opening his gifts.

My birthday is tomorrow (the 28th). This is the first year I will be home for my birthday. The past two years I was in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City for my stamping and scrapbooking company's convention. Convention has been moved to the end of July to better coordinate with the launch of our new catalogs so I will now be home for my birthdays. It's fun to be with my girlfriends for Convention and my birthday, but I'm looking forward to spending it with my boys. We're going out for dinner to one of my favorite Greek restaurants. I can't wait to see Ethan's and Isaac's faces when we have the Saganaki brought to our table and hear "Opa!". It'll be fun.

We usually go to our friends' farm on Independence Day, but this year their Independence Day celebration is on the 30th. They have quite a bit of land, many sheep, two or three border collies, and mulberry trees. We play bocce (on the lawn, not on a court), croquet, volleyball, and horseshoes. The owner does a sheep-herding demonstration using their border collie dogs (think Babe). Last year I took Dance Praise which was super fun and made me feel younger than I actually am.

That is June in a blog post. :-)