And then you were six

 Our Phoebe bird is six! What a marvel she is.  She's tender and loving with a kick of fiesty energy. She can "talk the hind leg off a mule".  She is starting to read and draw some really lovely people. She is a good encourager and a very loved big sister and little sister.  Phoebe has an incredible ear for music and has figured out how to play Bach Inventions on her own. She can speak French and German and plays piano and recorder.  This year she really came into her own as the chicken whisperer.  She loves her flock well.  Phoebe loves fruit and veggies and "snacky" lunches.  She is a wonderful ballet dancer and loves to play in imaginary lands with her fellow actors.  She is potty training Levi now and has learned to get him dressed and do diaper changes. What a girl!  Phoebe loves being outside, in the vegetable garden, in the fairy garden or mud kitchen, getting muddy and gathering wildflowers or watching the birds. She is really great with numbers and is also learning to be a good cook! Phoebe is our darling girl who is fast becoming a big girl now with a big and beautiful heart.  She loves Jesus and asks so many good and hard questions about the world she lives in.  How we pray for a good year and for many blessings as she grows and learns and lives. Happy birthday birdie! We took a trip to Crystal Cave together on your day and enjoyed a Beatrix Potter themed cake! 

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Through the Wardrobe

For Lena's 11th birthday we took a trip through the wardrobe and traveled through all of the Chronicles of Narnia.  Lena read them all this year and we had so much fun planning this event. We had a Cair Paravel cake for her actual birthday but a turkish delight cake for her party. We had tea with Tumnus, the white witches drink, a Narnian salad, Edmund's stale bread and cheese, we searched for the magic apples and rang the bell, found magic rings and jumped into pools of water. We found the missing twin and raced on horses to warn Narnia that the Telamarines were coming. We toured the ruins of Cair Paravel, blew the horn, found the missing swords and jumped like Dufflepods.  We played wink and sleep with Ramandu and searched for Reepicheep, we went underground and searched for the silver chair, we drew Puddlegum and repeated the four signs.  Then we did archery for the last battle and had a feast. 

In the last month our days have been rich and full of beauty but also stressful and exhausting with illness and worries.  God's goodness continues to break through our darkness! We enjoyed a trip to Tyler Arboretum, made strawberry jam, had more parties, took a trip to the hospital, had icecream with friends, jumped in puddles, had a ballet recital and choir concert and finished our school year, 

 

Into the Mountains

We escaped for a bit to the mountains and enjoyed some quiet days boating, resting, reading, hiking and discovering waterfalls.  Full of some hard moments and some adventures that laughing cured (think slipping at the waterfall, sciatica, poison ivy, a skunk in the house and teething toddler) we were glad for a renewed perspective on the gifts God has given us in each other, in Himself and in the world around us. Water seems so unencumbered by the stress and toil of daily life.  It joyfully leaps with abandon over cliffs and settles quietly in stillness that matches nothing else.  Special gifts this trip include a kingfisher, a really large happy toad that made us laugh, an alpine columbine plant (purple), our first sighting of fireflies and storms over the lake. It has been quite rainy so the waterfalls were impressive. Levi amazed us by enjoyed hiking immensely and wanted to do it himself every step of the way.  We learned a lot of new birds in our forest romps (hermit thrush, black throated blue warbler, veery, pine warbler, chestnut sided warbler, canadian warbler, oven bird, great crested flycatcher and red eyed vireo). The girls saw a bear too.