last hurrah.

so at some point in august, i determined that september 1st would be our first day of school.  it might have been just after i got the curriculum i ordered and was excited to start.  or it might have been because mikey kept asking when we'd start school (he was mainly excited about the magic school bus science kits i had bought).  or it might have been because i'm a homeschool newbie and didn't realize that all the "cool kids" start after labor day.  (i'm kidding on the last one.  but definitely will go for after labor day if i were to do this again next year.  not that i'm committing to anything beyond this year though...  maybe.)

in any case, i had casually mentioned my september 1st start date to phil and then promptly changed my mind about it a couple days later.  unfortunately for me, phil took that initial start date and ran with it.  held me to it even after i explained my many valid reasons for waiting an extra week.  but nope, he was firm on september 1st and no delaying the inevitable.  and this from a guy who is normally pretty flexible and goes-with-the-flow.  i think it was mostly because he's been having to study like mad for his upcoming oral boards (it NEVER ends, i tell ya!) and having the kids and me on a not-summer schedule would be easier for him to get in more regular hours of study time.

or something like that.

and so set was he on the september 1st start date that he even took us out for a "last hurrah/homeschool kickoff" day o' fun on august 31st.  man, who is this no-fun-havin'-immutably-set-in-his-ways guy anyway?  :p

so our summer's last hurrah took place at knott's berry farm.  it was hot.  jonah was hot.  daddy made a fan to cool him down.  jonah doesn't like to be hot.

but the kids loved all the rides they could go on there and managed to have fun despite the heat.  

there were lots of kiddie rides but most of them still required an adult to ride with the littler ones.  so phil and i had the enviable task of switching off between riding with the kids and staying with jonah and manning the camera.

and yes, the kids did want to go over and over and over on each ride.  lucky for them that there weren't too many other families having their last hurrah/homeschool kickoff there that day.  they must've all gone on labor day.

so allie was very sure she wanted to ride this envelope drop ride.  mikey was very sure he did not.  but i made him go anyway because allie didn't want to go alone.  i know, mother of the year right here.  but apparently allie was having a change of heart before the ride even started.

then the ride did start and she immediately dove for cover.  what else could i do but keep taking pictures?

yup, definite change of heart.  and the thing hadn't even dropped yet.

then it did.

and that's about when the operator stopped the ride to let the howling girl in pink off.  and that's mikey radiating an "I TOLD YOU SO" look her way.  unfortunately for mikey, the operator didn't realize he also wanted off and had only lifted allie off.  so then i heroically stepped in and told mikey he could jump off too.  he happily complied.  see?  mother of the year, right here.

all the while, this girl reveled in her good decision to stay on terra firma eating bon bons.

but all was well again as soon as he was back on the ground.  and especially when he got to fire a gun.

and this ride was definitely a favorite.

i lost count of how many times we whipped around this turn.

this girl however, was not a fan of the must-wait-your-turn rule for this ride.  (not to worry though, she got on this ride plenty of times too.  she just didn't like the times when it wasn't her turn).

say it with me now- "humph!"

like i said, i lost count of how many times we whipped around this turn.  but it was a lot.  so many in fact, that the mugging for pictures was getting out of control.  i think i'll go ahead and share the ones phil was in.  i'll spare you the ones i was in. 

so silly.

downright ridiculous.

the girl even got in on it too!  and had a ball with her daddy, i might add.

and because it was hot that day, we let the kids get dripped on.  this girl thought she was getting dripped on with dry drops.

here's her daddy steering her in the right direction.

yep, there's the wet drops.

finally she was brave enough to lift her head.

and then we couldn't get the monkeys out of the drops.

kids and water.  like sunshine and chocolate.  necessities in childhood.

ok, so i think she had fun, no?

summer's last hurrah.

then we told them to go run around to dry off.  cuz it was still hot and we didn't happen to have towels on us.

and this?  well, i don't know what this is.


and that, in a nutshell, is how we said goodbye to summer and hello to homeschool.  homeschooling adventures coming up next!

playdate.

something i've really loved about moving back is being able to have playdates with church friends again.  believe me when i say that my kids really, really love this part about being back.

because playdates mean having another buddy to dress up with.  and make faces with.  this is mad face.  (watch lauren in these pics- totally cracks me up how she completely ignores me in order to watch the faces made by friend a.  recall this is the one who normally is always making the faces.)

scared face.

surprise face!

a little friend for my allie.  something i've been praying for for her and am so grateful that God answers these seemingly small requests.

the girlies wanted to have a pretend picnic and requested strawberry smoothies, ham, crackers, and white peach slices for it.  thankfully i had all the ingredients on hand.  (just kidding, that's what i had made them for snacks and that's what they got for their picnic.  very marilla-esque.)  they all folded hands and bowed heads and let lauren pray for their meal.

meanwhile, the boys were in their "base" upstairs.  no intruders allowed.  unless she bears strawberry smoothies.

mikey's buddy j is one of the sweetest kids i know.  he loooves babies and is always coming up to jonah at church to say hi and pat his head.  so j was pretty happy to see jonah when he finally woke up from his nap and came down just in time for nerf gun wii.

just guessing here but i think the feeling was mutual.

you wanna know what i love about little girls?  i love how they'll naturally stay connected, be it through holding hands, or sitting right next to each other, or leaning close to share confidences.  or sometimes just touching feet is enough.

and you wanna know what i love about this little guy?  everything.  pretty much.

remembering.

just thinking about the events of 9/11 ten years ago.  so grieved for those who lost loved ones that day, especially the children who lost parents.  so proud of those who ran in while everyone else was running out.  so thankful for those who serve or have served in the military to protect our freedoms and this land we love.  so thankful for their families who send them as well.

and so very grateful that God was with us that day and has been with us every day since and will be with us every day forward.

blink.

and summer's gone.  at least it felt that way with the bulk of it being taken up with the whole moving again thing.  but once we got mostly unpacked and settled in (er, once we just plain got sick of unpacking and left the rest of the boxes stacked in the garage for the next move), we found ourselves well into august already.

and because i know i will never get around to doing separate posts for each of the following events, i'm going to lump them all together here in one fell swoop.

so hold on to your seats, because here is our ghetto grand attempt to make one month feel like three months' worth of summer fun.

if the tsai kids were to write an essay with the title, "what we did over summer vacation", it would go something like this:  "this summer, we spent a week at our grandparents' house, then we came back home just in time for...

vbs at our church!  we had a great time, except for maybe...

our little sister.  who mommy says was having a hard time adjusting after the move, being left at grandpa's, and then being dropped off at vbs the day after we got back.  but mommy always says we roll with the punches so that's what we did.  we think.  (thanks to laurie len for taking this picture- it's hanging on our fridge and still cracks me up whenever i see it!)

we also got to spend a whole day with our good friends and wished the day lasted way longer than it did.

then we got to go to the oc fair!  mommy likes to call us her little crew.

daddy let us do the dart game where we each won a prize!

what we didn't know was that daddy bought 100 tickets, and then bought the "30 ticket special" at the game booth which the australian-accented carnival game guy explained would buy us a handful of darts to throw for fun and then let us choose whichever prize we wanted afterward.  oops, forgot to mention that daddy bought THREE "30 ticket specials" so that each of us could win a prize.  we're still not sure why mommy kept groaning at this point, however.

daddy says it was worth it though.

we also got to go to the beach one afternoon with our favorite (and only) cousins!

it was really fun digging in the sand and getting really messy.

we love our little baby cousin and think she's the cutest thing ever!

we also got to spend lots and lots (and lots!) of days at home with nothing to do but play.  the sisters liked to play school in their ballet outfits.

while the big brother introduced the little brother to the wonder that is lego.

we're happy to report that our little sister bounced back to her old self with all those days spent together at home.

daddy also got to take part in a mens' ministry at church where they barbecued meat.  oh, and studied about God too.  daddy liked it so much that he practiced making meat at home and even let us help.  it was so good.  so good that we did it three nights in a row!

and that's what we did over summer vacation.

the end."