Birthdays

Phoebe's birthday is April 13th. 

Her first birthday was on Friday the 13th; Her SS includes the digits 666; she was born on a Thursday ("Thursday's child has far to go"); I'm not saying anything particularly, I'm just sayin'.........

 Of all our children, she's the wildest and also extremely interesting ~ you never know what she'll say or do! When she was just a toddler I watched her drag both Elizabeth and Jonathan off the couch because she wanted to sit there. They both came crying to me ~ I was like, "You guys are bigger than she is ~ get her back!" Not really. But kind of! She's a firecracker and we love her.

Happy 10th, Baby Girl.

Charlize had her birthday a few days later and Phoebe got to join her friends for laser tag. 

And my birthday was also a few days later and the kids got me these plants and card. Liz made me lemon cake (so delicious!). 

We found a tame river to enjoy Liz' boat at. We met another homeschool family. How is that we can tell when another family homeschools? There's a certain look or something. Anyway, that was the first question we asked when came upon them on the river: "Do you homeschool?"

This girl has got to stop! Liz is perfecting her yeast breads. They are THE best! 

She's made Japanese milk bread and garlic breadsticks. 

Neighborhood and Nature

We are heading into the end of the school year, and I've been doing a lot of school planning for next year. I always like crossing things off a list, so as we finish up a book or map work or grammar or what have you, I'm excited to cross it off and watch the schedule get a little lighter these last few weeks. 

These are Amaryllis is our neighbor's yard. She's had all sort of colors coming up. I had the kids do a little nature study with them, and Ms. Monica was glad to teach us a few things. 

I guess there are several peacocks roaming around the neighborhood of friends of ours. This is the first time I've seen them though and I was so excited to get a picture for the kids. 

Phoebe and Charlize hanging at the mall. With Mom. 

They're young enough that it's okay for a mom to be there. 

Japanese Tea Garden

I've been wanting to go to the Japanese Tea Gardens downtown. It was built a long time ago in an old quarry and has some interesting history to it. We went Easter afternoon ~ just Jonathan, Phoebe, myself and Charlize, a neighbor friend. I didn't realize how crowded the area would be on Easter. I guess it's a thing here to camp out in the parks (the Tea Gardens are part of a large park downtown) to save a spot for all your friends and family on Easter. There were tents and music, barbecues, piñatas, celebrating of all kinds...... and no parking. We drove around a little while and finally just sat there waiting for someone to leave. Which someone did after about 5 minutes, so no big deal. 

It was beautiful. 

Phoebe would love to go back early in the morning when there's no one else around and enjoy it alone. 

I love that girl.

We had some kids over a few weeks ago to play board games. Blurry pictures, sorry. 

Hiking up Lookout Mountain near our house. 

A neighbor boy had a birthday party in the backyard right next to ours. Phoebe got to ride a pony! She's so looking forward to horse back riding lessons.