Ice Skating, A Praying Mantis, and Quilts

 Last Saturday Rhaevyn and Aeva went ice skating for YW. They both had such a good time. Aeva was able to leave the railing fairly quickly. I think all that roller-blading helped.

I'm not sure if it's due to the weather, but we've seen so many praying mantises lately. We found this guy at our front door last Sunday morning.

Our back fence is nearly done. It has been nice to have it down, as it allowed us easy access to our new neighbors. That helped us finally get to meet them. They have a little girl who is six, and she is home-schooled. She has been over three times, and I've gotten to talk and visit with her mom on two occasions. I was talking to my best friend on Tuesday, and putting two and two together I found out our neighbors go to the same church as she does. Small world.
A good friend came and dug the post holes on Thursday. Friday he came back to help Chris set the posts. Yesterday Chris, Myles, and Elsa worked on the boards.

While Elsa helped Chris for a bit, Myles started a fire in the fire pit. I sometimes have to remind myself that he is not such a little boy anymore. Chris had to help him keep the fire going since it decided to downpour and kept putting the fire out. In between downpours we went out and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. So much fun, and so PNW style!

 

 

 

 Just a wee bit singed.

 Some more rocks were decorated on Friday. We took them with us to the hospital to hide after we delivered quilts.

 
 
 Ten quilts were donated to the birth center, and five were delivered to the Chaplain for the ER. I had one lady who made 11 quilts. They were really cute, but seven of them needed the binding redone. I have a friend fixing three of them for me. Friday morning I worked on redoing the binding for four of them. Luckily I had another friend who stopped in and sat and took all the binding off for me. Tender mercy: I had enough matching fabric to do new binding. 

One of Aeva's latest drawings:

  Meg wore her new skirt last Sunday. I love the colors on her. It's a bit long, but it gives her room to grow.

I sent one skirt to Noisette, and I gave one skirt to a friend whose baby is 10 months old. I had one left. Since I couldn't seem to figure out who to give it to I decided to let Meg have it. It goes with her
shoes :)

 

 We've had a fun last week of summer vacation with another walk and ride at Lewisville Park. Chris had some races with the kids at the park. Aeva had fun taking pictures there. Meg has discovered she has a love for slides. We also watched a few movies this week; stayed up late since it was our last week to sleep in. Chris, the older girls, and I sat and watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The girls and I have read the book, which is much better. I'll put a plug in here for Vidangel. We love being able to watch movies that are clean and filtered of all the unnecessary things. On Wednesday the girls and I watched a scary movie called The Boy. Kind of creepy, but I think we all liked the creepy British mini series "Secret of Crickley Hall" a lot better. Friday night the whole family watched the Chinese film "Hero" and had popcorn and cookies.
Time to get back into the groove of school. And we are starting our first week back with a bang. Nothing like plunging in with so many other things going on..........
orthodontist appointments, Eye appointments, violin, and two playdates. Tuesday we find out if the braces come off of Rhaevyn.
This past week Aeva and I went down to buy books for her (and Rhaevyn's) college classes. I have forgotten how expensive college books can be. Tender Mercy: The Japanese book that was $200 was optional and not required.
And with that update I say to you "May you all have a calm first full week of September."