Jonathan is 15... Almost

Jonathan is celebrating his birthday early this year because it works best for schedules. I really can't believe he's 15. I remember feeling very adult at 15. He's not a child anymore, that's for sure. 

He and Harrison C. did the ropes course at Natural Bridge Caverns. 

They've really got it nice over there. I sat beside a little waterfall in the shade and read and listened to podcasts while they climbed up all the levels.

And the usual crowd came over for cake and games and Minecraft.

Again, Jon is tall in our family, but he's the short one in this group. 

Liam is beating the group out for height so far. He's got to be 6'4" or so. Congrats, Liam. 

 School Planning has been happening all summer, and I believe re-arranging the garage wall was the last thing on my list! The plan is to start in two weeks. That gives us a week of homeschool under our belts before they start classes at Star Co-op. 

I found this on a walk. So very Texas.

Harrison comes into our room at night to tell us about the story he listened to. He really enjoys stories, so we've been feeding him lots of audio books. Elizabeth Enright seems to be a favorite author, and he's on the last of her series. She didn't write a whole lot of books, so he is almost done with her works. 

The three books that are in first place are The Melendy series, Gone-Away Lake, and Thimble Summer. His second favorite book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and his third is Danny, Champion of the World (both by Roald Dahl). I love how he fits 6 books into first place. 

Nana and Aupa

Have I told you how much I love this picturesque water tower? 

It's the best looking little water tower around. Such varied sky views to set it off.

And Charlie the Betta is surviving! 

This is good news.

Playing a game while waiting for tickets.

While Liz and Jon were at CIY (Christian Camp), Phoebe and Harrison and I braved the heat and the lines to get free tickets to The DoSeum, the children's museum in San Antonio. This was our first time and it was a hit. They give out tickets 2 1/2 hours early in order to control the crowd, so we had a couple hours to spend downtown while we waited for opening. We visited an Art store on Broadway ~ a win-win since it had free parking, air-conditioning, and lots to browse. 

Then we went to McDonalds for supper. We bet on how many families would be inside there with DoSeum wristbands. I won. It was above 3.

And since we had 20 minutes more, we stopped at Cheevers bookstore. Phoebe looked at sewing books. Harrison and I browsed. I bought Machiavelli's Prince with loose change I had in my purse.

And we also visited the Planetarium for their Friday night show. Harrison was scared last year (maybe it was the year before, can't remember), but this year he did great! He's been drawing comic strips of astronauts and aliens ever since. 

And the highlight of the past week. Nana and Aupa came to visit! They are heading to Louisiana and spent some time with us. Aupa and Phoebe had to have a Monopoly rematch, but I surprised them all and won, what is likely, my first win of Monopoly ever. 

At Baskin Robbins for ice cream. 

Yes, Liz will knit anywhere. 

Now that Jon is taking violin lessons, we have him play anytime company comes. Especially  grandparent company.

Nana and Aupa enjoying the music. 

It Was on a Monday....

Do you remember that song? 

"It was on a Sunday that the Lord saved me...." 

And everyone would sing through each day of the week and whatever day you were baptized on, you would stand up. Good Sunday school or camp or VBS memories.

Well, Harrison was baptized this past Monday. 

He had been talking about it for some time. 

But he didn't think he was ready yet. 

And then when we were driving to the Japanese Tea Gardens he said, "Mom, I think I'm ready to have that baptism talk now."

So Phillip went through a simple Bible study with Harrison and the rest of the kids (a good refresher course for them). And after that and several conversations, Harrison said he wanted to be baptized. 

He and Jon were both 9 for this decision. The girls were younger: Liz and Phoebe were both 7 (?). I'm putting this down because of my memory. I can't remember the way I used to, and I have hopes that the blog will be a good memory keeper. I also realized I never did blog about Jon and Phoebe's baptism, and that just made me sad. They were baptized the same day at the pool of a friend who was hosting house church. It was January and cold (but not as cold as up north), and they were baptized in the hot tub portion of the pool since the rest of the pool was empty for the winter. 

So, anyway, on Monday we went to Castle Hills Christian Church and asked to use their baptistry. The youth minister and a volunteer who happened to be there stood on the stage with us while we witnessed this burial. They gave H a new Bible and a certificate. It was a pretty special event to happen on a mundane Monday. 

Today he took communion with us. 

Phillip captured the moment.

Summer Time

Part of Harrison's birthday was his request to go to the Japanese Tea Gardens with me again. We went early one morning. No one else was there for a good bit (except gardeners and such). It was cool and misty, and we had a lovely time. 

What Liz does when she's not working. 

Jon's summer activities are including a lot of electronic projects. He's filming a stop-animation Lego deal here.

Phoebe has been fairly busy. She is taking volleyball classes and sewing classes this summer. Otherwise, she draws and reads and listens to books in her room. 

And we had sad news that Liz' boss at the Cafe passed away suddenly. It's a family-owned business and he was the father. He brought a liveliness to the restaurant that will be missed. To celebrate him, the Cafe gave away root beer floats last Friday. 

VBS and a Concert

On the way back from dropping Phoebe off at camp, we noticed a sign for blackberry picking. The boys were with me, so we stopped and picked about a pound of berries. It was $4 or something like that, so not expensive. It's not quite like finding them wild in the woods and having to throw yourself up against the prickly bushes to try to reach that one wa-ay in the back, but it was still a fun experience. I made blackberry cobbler the next day ~ a quite delicious way to eat blackberries.

There was a three night VBS type deal that Oak Hills does throughout San Antonio. The closest one to us was done at a gymnastics place, and it was close enough that I felt comfortable inviting the neighbor kids and driving them all there too. Jonathan was there to help me out since I wasn't sure how all the kids would act. They all did great though! They learned "Jesus Loves Me" and "As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34b" and new Bible stories. 

I noticed that they all had brown eyes, so I told them to show off their eyes.

And Liz and Jon bought tickets months ago to attend a 21 Pilots concert here in town. I also bought a ticket, because I wasn't going to let them go alone. I told them if they found an adult who wanted to go though, by all means, offer them the ticket. And their youth minister was glad to take them! Yes! I think a ticket to a 21 Pilots concert would be wasted on their mother. 

Friend Augusta went also. 

Don't ask about the tape and stuff. I don't know what it all means, but there is a lot of swag that goes along with 21 Pilots.

Jonathan's first words to me the next morning were, "I don't think I'd do that again, but I enjoyed it." The lights seemed to bother him more than the loud noise did. 

Liz' first words were, "Next time we're going to get floor tickets!"

A Beach Tradition

We are figuring this beach thing out! This time we played at the beach for an evening, spent the night nearby and then played in the morning. And No One Got Burnt!! Last year was quite the awful burnt experience. This year was not. 

Burying Westley in the sand is a must-do at the beach. Harrison thinks this is hilarious and talks about it every year. 

Westley, Wyatt, and William working together on a sand structure.

I loved the look of these sand dunes! 

So Dr. Seuss-like. So compelling. 

Some of us walked to that pier you can see in the distance. 

One of us slipped on that pier and fell splat on her back. 

Egrets and sea turtles abound beside the pier. 

I found these little guys on our walk. They were not alive, so I brought them back to show the rest of the crew.

Harrison is carrying on the tradition of the homemade raft. He made his own this past month and brought it to the waves. It worked quite well.

These two love the waves.

End of the pier. I guess it's more a build-up of land with rock, than a pier. 

They're pretty sure something died down there. 

This was a special time with friends and I do love traditions. 

I'm so glad we got to go again this year.

Harrison is Nine

Youngest is nine!  Ahhh! 

The other three are all teen-age-ry, and he's still a kid ~ into all the fun stuff kids are into.  He wanted to go to Olive Garden for his birthday because he had seen a commercial, and he really wanted those breadsticks. And I think there was a baby in the commercial, and he kind of wanted to see a baby chomping on a breadstick.

Phillip had the idea of getting him a fish as his gift from us. This is the first "real" pet we've had, ya'll. It's a Black Orchid Betta. When he first saw it, he starting tearing up and said, "This is a big responsibility. I hope it doesn't die because I will probably go to my room and cry." 

So he was feeling a bit of a burden on his shoulders. But we talked to him about how to take care of it and that fish often don't last long and we wouldn't blame him if it died, etc, etc. By the end of the day he said it was the best gift he's ever received. He named it Charlie.

We all realized too late that no one got a picture of the jello cake Elizabeth made for him. So I found a picture online that gives you an idea of what she did (picture above is a random internet picture). It was blue jello in a clear bowl with Nerds at the bottom for pebbles and Swedish Fish swimming around and other plastic sea animals. She put ground graham crackers at the top for sand with a dolphin splashing up and a crab on the beach. It was really cute. 

After Olive Garden for Supper, we came home and set up a table of snacks in the front yard. Neighbor kids came over, we lit the number "9" sparkler and sang to H. Then we played a bunch of party games that I remember playing when I was a kid: pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, drop the clothespin in the jar, egg on a spoon races, and wrap a mummy with a roll of TP. I don't know that he'll be into those kind of games next year when he's 10, so I was glad to get them in this year. 

Later that night he said this was the best birthday he's ever had. 

I asked him, "Why?"

"Because I got the best gift. And because we had the incident."

"Which incident?"

"Where there two?" he asked.

"Well, what incident are you talking about?"

"How I got two of the same gift."

"Oh yea, that was funny. Yep, I guess that does make the birthday pretty special."

Ha, ha. That kid. He got two of the same Lego set. It's a Creator sea creature set, and he said he wanted to keep both so he could build two of the projects and have them play together. With Creator sets you can build three different things out of the set of Legos, but you can only build one at a time. 

Anyway, he's a fun kid. Happy Birthday, Harrison!