School Days

Do y'all remember back when people left comments on blog posts? Those were good times.

Today is my first day home ALL DAY this week. I am super excited about it AND Friday and Saturday have the same thing on the schedule- nothing. Ok, well I do have to run Chloe to the groomer who lives 10 minutes away but that's not really anything. We are going to get the house cleaning caught up, the laundry caught up, and work on our memory work for school. School is going really wells far this year. We are only in the beginning so at any point things could change, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I set the bar very low so we are constantly hitting it. :)

Jason and his artist buddy, John, have started a new thing on their gallery site called Daily Study Auction. They post a new study every couple of days and people can bid on the painting until the timer runs out and the bidding is ended. It's a great way to collect one of their paintings at a very affordable price. You can go to their site by clicking here. You should check it often and see what's new in case they happen to post the painting of your dreams! haha

Morning Time starts in 11 minutes so I need to go get set up and ready. Have a great day!

Civita Castellana, Italy

WARNING:
LOTS OF PICTURES

Jason and his friend, John Lasater, taught a two week workshop in Italy this summer. I went for the last week of the class and then our families stayed an extra week to do a little sightseeing and so that Jason and John could get in some painting time. When you are the teacher, you don't ever have time to paint.  Of course, while we were there Civita Castellana was having record breaking temps. I think the highest it got was 110 degrees with a heat index of death. The streets are made of black stone, and while that is very pretty to look at in a picture, it just adds to the heat when you are there in person. You couldn't really be outside for a good portion of the day without melting, and the whole town basically shuts down between 2-5 in the afternoon, so I would sit on our bed, directly in front of the fan (no AC in Italy) and stare at the walls and celling. Not going to lie, it was a tad boring. I did read but I finished my books rather quickly and since we had limited data, I couldn't watch shows on the computer. Thankfully, the last three or four days were beautiful and once I left the apartment in the morning, I didn't go back until bed time. We would drink gallons of water every day and John's wife, Kara, and I both got excited on the first nice day because it was the first time in a week and a half that we had felt the urge to pee. Sometimes it's the small things, you know?

Overall, those three beautiful days were enough to let us leave Italy with dreams of returning and truly loving our time there.

P.S. Rome is super cool.

this song was constantly playing at the restaurants and cafes in Civita. I let the girls listen to it and they LOVE it and have already picked up some Italian from it. 

Big Thank You's to Aunt Kat, Bebe and Bubba, Aunt Abi, and Aunt Kara for helping the girls have a great time while we were gone.

Mary Poppins in Memphis with Aunt Kat

Elaina asked Bebe to throw a birthday party for Pink Bear.

Bubba and the golf cart are both big hits with the girls!

Carousel time with cousins

By Claire

By Claire

Aunt Abi was BRAVE and hosted all of her nieces for a sleepover. I think it was 10 girls in all!

Fun at Aunt Abi's house

Riding around Memphis with Aunt Kat

 SCENES FROM CIVITA CASTELLANA, ITALY

This KILLED my glutes.

Face Time with the girls in the only air conditioned place in Civita, the hotel lobby.

Trevi Fountain in Rome with my Audrey Hepburn sunglasses (a gift from Aunt Kat)

We had passes to go inside the Colosseum but it was way too hot to stand in line for a couple of hours. Next time!!

Inside a museum at the Vatican City

Italian Nocturnes

We had breakfast here every morning. It was called The Club and was a very popular place for morning coffee and evening visiting.

The fountain in the square of Civita

This was Ms. Gena's balcony. She is a 92 year old woman that loved Jason and John. She spoke no English but we always had fun "talking" with her. She constantly gave us food. 

Someday I will return and it will NOT be during a heat wave. I love you, Civita, but that heat is a game changer. Or just install some AC, then we'll talk. 

Spring and Summer

Over the spring and summer: 

(In no particular order)

Teeth were lost

 Daddy snuggles were very popular

 Dates were had with Uncle Josh

 LOTS of crafting and pretend playing happened

 Time was spent with good friends

Elaina and Kathryn Israel, BFF

The people in our area hosted a singing school (shape notes, song leading, harmony skills) in July and Elaina's friend, Kathryn, was able to stay the week with us and participate. I taught the youngest class and had the best time with those children. They were so engaged and excited about everything they were learning. And now, when I see them at church meetings, they are my best buddies. So fun. :)

We went to the Memphis Zoo:

Eily's posture in this will forever by my favorite thing

Trying to pose with the animals but they weren't very cooperative. Neither was Nora. 

Elaina and Claire participated in our co-op's Faces of History program. Claire wrote a report about Pocahontas and Elaina wrote one about Clara Barton. 

The entire Faces Of History Cast

We started a new year of school

6th grade, 5th, grade, 4th grade, Kindergarten

A montage of First-of-School Days. I'm just missing one year.

Reading Lessons with Daddy

Eily and Nora turned 9 and 6

Chloe is a trooper

Birthday Breakfast 

Big 6 year old! (I'm noticing there's a lot of dots in this picture. That wasn't planned.)

Eily is 9! (Nora's smile wasn't forced at all.)

Little Pee Wee isn't so little anymore. Ok, wait. Yes she is.  :)