Weekend at the beach

Our dear friends, Dave and Sarah, invited us to spend a long weekend at the beach in the beach house they rented for their family vacation. As much as I wanted to go (beach + good friends = good times) I was hesitant because I am so busy with work and I knew that taking a weekend away would lead to a ton of work upon my return. But then Sarah sent an email that closed with the words "you only live once"....and that instantly changed my mind. So we took advantage of the amazingly short 4 1/2 hour drive to the coast of South Carolina, and enjoyed a beautiful weekend at the beach with the Eshans (Sarah, Dave, Willow and Zoe) and the Stottlemeyers (Shelley, Karl, Nadia, and Santi). The 7 kids got along amazingly well (I was stunned!) making the adults experience even sweeter. We feasted on oysters, shrimp, scallops, grouper, and tuna.....with a side of margarita and mojito. And we I was able to pick up a wireless internet signal ~ a blessing and a curse. I was able to stay on top of my email but that meant changing gears from vacation beach mama to conference coordinator, which was a bit dizzying. When we returned, I somehow managed to erase all of the beach pics I had on my camera (and I had some great ones!) but luckily David's made their way onto the computer.

The kids within a tradition David sand-art installment.

Zoe and Nim

Noah sporting a starfish

Dave, Sarah, Shelley, (and me) out for our nightly beach walk

Tiki Tuesday

While I was melting at work today (physically and mentally), David and the kids were living it up at the Tiki Bar pool. They have been joining some friends at the pool on Tuesdays and today was the last Tiki Tuesday of summer for the kids that go to "real school". Gita kept David on his toes by insisting on swimming without her floaty ~

Notice in the photo that Noah is still wearing his splint/cast thing. He went in for the 3rd set of xrays on Monday. His elbow seems to be healing up nicely but there is still a lot of swelling so the Dr wants him to keep the splint on for 10 more days and then come in for another set of xrays. It is a relief that he is healing and that it does not seem to bother him much (he can even wear the splint swimming) and also frustrating that they still can't really figure out what is going on with it. Hopefully it won't give him trouble at the beach this weekend.

Other happenings of note:
*we finished the slab for the bathroom. hooray!
*we killed and cleaned the 89 meat chickens on Saturday. Very intense but it went really well.
*we are going to the beach two times this month. Awesome because we love the beach and a vacation is definitely a must....but crazy because I am so busy with work and it is hard to imagine taking time off.
*we are expecting 2 new nieces/nephews! Sarah Joy and Tim will welcome in their new little one in December, then Kelcey and Alex are due in March!

Summer Arts Camp

Nimuae enjoyed a wonderful week of fun and friends at Summer Arts Camp at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. The week had a circus theme and was full of dance, music, and crafting. Nim was so excited to spend a week with her favorite dance teacher, and loved meeting new friends. Here are some photos from the afternoon of the"Big Show"

Nearing the end of summer

I feel like someone just hit the fast forward button on the summer! This Saturday, our meat chickens will meet their fateful end as farm poultry and their new beginning into the freezer. (many mixed feelings about this whole thing.......). And our beach trips are right around the corner. This is also my busiest time of year with the conference 2 months away. So the thought of starting our homeschool year (7th and 3rd grade and pre-k) in less then a month is incredibly daunting. But I have been plugging away, ordering curriculum and feeling the pull to clean out the cabinets from the end of last school year (by the time we are done for the year, I don't want to even think about homeschooling for at least a few months. So I stick everything in the cabinet, shut the door, and don't open it again for as long as I can hold off.)

This past weekend I really dove in and got my act together! I glued magnets on all of the letter tiles on our spelling program, I ordered a bunch of art supplies, I opened the box that the curriculum came in (yea, it has been sitting unopened in the cabinet for at least 6 weeks....another testament to my summer out of sight out of mind practice) and put all the books in the appropriate baskets, bought planners and all the school supplies, and finally dealt with all of last years stuff! A great success it was! I feel much more, even if not yet totally, ready for the upcoming year. Now we just need to figure out our schedule with extra classes in town and with our co-op. We are getting there.......

As the approaching school year becomes more of a reality, I realize there are some wonderful summer activites that we have not made time for this year (not too suprising when I think of all the new farm animals and the whole bathroom addition thing). So before summers end, we must:
1. go blueberry picking
2. visit the waterfalls down the road
3. have at least one more dance party
4. go to the beach

A day in which I saw

...a fox!
It was right off the side of road on the way down the mountain. I had never seen one so close before. What a treat!

... a girl in "farm clothes" going to collect eggs.

And a family rockin the 3D glasses to watch Coraline in style.