Christmas in June

Not to be confused with Boxing Day, "Box Day" is the name given by many Sonlight homeschoolers to that red-letter day when our homeschool materials arrive! Rarely is everything able to be shipped in one package, so many parents liken the energy of Box Day to what they felt like as a child when Christmas Day was imminent. "Ooh, what could it be?" "I wonder what's in this one?" "Oh, I love it! It's just what I wanted!" We celebrated Box Day yesterday and my kitchen counters are still stacked with this fall's offerings as I attempt to find the time (and space) to arrange our "school" bookshelves. The problem is that with Sonlight, I don't want to remove any of our previous years' books or relegate them to another bookshelf! What I REALLY need are wall-to-wall bookshelves!

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The timing could have been better, I suppose, given the fact that Randy is leaving Thursday for an extended stay in Abilene, but he is participating in the Men's Retreat this weekend. I shouldn't complain; rather than going away this summer, the men kept it local and simply went to the (large) home of one of our members for a cookout/time of study last night, went home and slept in their own beds, and then met again for lunch at noon and will wrap things up by about 6:00 p.m.

Each of the kids was gifted with some money recently, and Darcy was champing at the bit to go to Michael's (the craft store) and spend the money that was burning a hole in her pocket! I told her we'd go while Randy was at the retreat so we headed over there last evening. She loves the various craft kits and has actually had her eye on one particular kit ever since Christmas, but for once good sense prevailed over impulse and I was able to convince her that she was headed for heartache if she purchased this kit which involved a motorized part that I was sure would break down the second time she used it! Instead, she bought a couple of kits that simply require her to exercise her boundless artistic creativity through the use of various mediums.

While Peyton doesn't doodle and draw to the extent that Darcy does, she can't help but to have received some of that interest by osmosis (they do share a room, after all), so Peyton's choice was an 80-piece art kit. "80-piece" makes it sound like some monster contrivance, but it's really just a big box of crayons, some markers, a few stencils, some of those spiro-graph tools, art paper and an eraser. Everything is stored in a handy desk so it was not a bad choice at all.

Sawyer, for his part, always goes for those very realistic-looking toy animals which I'm sure I've blogged about before (he's already got a jellyfish, lion, tiger, alligator and king cobra from this particular line of toys, plus a ton of farm animals). On this outing he chose a bottlenose dolphin, a sea turtle, and a set of mom-and-baby stegosauruses and t-rexes. Oh, and for a buck we got a starfish and sting ray that allegedly grow up to 600% after being placed in a tub of water for 72 hours. He is ANXIOUSLY awaiting the transformation!

And then there's Tyler, who could be a professional penny-pincher! He usually hoards his money but for good reason--there are a few Star Wars Legos kits he wants and he knows there's no way he'll ever get them from his dad and me! Too pricey! But surprisingly, he found a Star Wars Transformer at KMart that he doesn't yet have (between grandparents, "Grandma" Phyllis, "Aunt" Lynn, etc., I thought we'd covered them all!) and it's one of my favorites yet! When Sawyer isn't playing baseball, his next-favorite pastime is playing Star Wars with Tyler, and what a pair they make! Sawyer has been steeped in the Star Wars mythology since birth so he is a great playmate for Tyler!

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Here is a picture from Randy's recent birthday. Sawyer was already in bed on Tuesday night when we presented Randy with his cake which, I am proud to say, was made almost entirely by Darcy and Tyler! Here in the picture Randy is giving Peyton a little help in getting the lighter to engage. It's a new "child-proof" style and it does its job well! (Yes, I know Randy's birthday wasn't until Wednesday, but I wanted him to HAVE his cake on Wednesday so it had to be baked on Tuesday!)

 

Since Sawyer didn't make the previous photo, here's one of him a couple of days ago getting ready to ride his bike. Aren't his flip-flops cool? The girls just fell in love with them--"Ooh, they're so cute! And so little!"