Birthday, Butterfly Garden, and Swimming Lessons

My intent in the last post was to get it all done in one post, but I had to change my course of action, b/c after the last image I posted, I was unable to write anything below! 

So continuing on...

Jaden William turned eight this month.  He's wanted to take a flight in a plane for a long time now, so we made it happen for him on his birthday.  He'd been up for a short helicopter ride with my father two years ago for the latter's 50th birthday.  This was Trusten's first flight, though, as he went with William.  So did Nathan, because Nathan had never been up in a private plane before, whereas I have many times.  They all enjoyed it, and I'm so happy William finally got to fly.  :-)

Whereas Nathan got Trusten his first bike on his birthday, he gave William his second but first new one.  He loves it!  I got William a lot of books--some Hardy Boy mysteries, a godly science fiction book, and a whole set of new graphic novels on inventors and their inventions--as well as a Light Wedge, which is one of those things that fit over the pages of a person's book and lights them up in the dark.  JW loves reading in his bed at night; now he no longer needs to use a flash light.  He loves this, too. 

We finally planted our butterfly garden, the plan of which was shown in a previous post.  I had to get seeds for all but one of the kinds of plants, of which I got two (for the tops of the butterfly antennae).  I planted a bit late, but I'm pleased that I did it, and even if it doesn't turn out to be the best I wanted, I'll be content if some flowers come up, and the butterflies come.  We have a lot of butterflies, anyway, and hey, the butterflies like just the manured dirt I used.

We reviewed seeds, roots, and other plant parts, as well as the importance of earthworms, which included reading some of our favorite books we have (worm book was posted in a recent post):

The Organic Farm by Shawn Frost and What Do Roots Do? by Kathleen Kudlinksi

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and The Organic Adventures of Tucker the Tomato by Ray Ortega

We haven't worked much on JW's spelling and math practice, because he and Trusten have had swimming lessons, and there's been plenty else to do after we get back home.  Soon we'll get to really working on the plant project.  Here are some pictures of things on our nature walks:

Just beautiful!

Found this to be quite a blessing

Deptford Pink

I love these red wildflowers...wish there were more!

And a couple more pictures:

Queen Anne's Lace...my sweet Trusten picked this for me

William had loaded up bark from where a log pile was in the yard, strapped it in his dump truck for plans to haul off

Until next time...

Pentecost and Birthdays

Okay, I'm going to bunch everything together quickly in two posts for the sake of catching up, b/c otherwise I likely never will!  This will be like the last main post with mainly pictures and less words. 

Both my boys had their birthdays this year.  Will turned eight; Trusten turned four.  I love that we take our children on trips on their birthdays, because I believe it's a great opportunity for them to experience new things from which they can both learn and enjoy.  Trusten kept talking about tigers.  He wanted to see tigers and get a stuffed tiger.  This wasn't hard, because we live near Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, a habitat for tigers, other big cats, and even bears and other creatures (like monkeys) that have been rescued from neglectful, abusive, or deceased or elderly owners.  We'd been there once, back in late 2005 as a therapeutic family outing shortly after our second-born son died, nearly two years before Trusten even came along.  Some pictures from Trusten's birthday:

The wrapped gift beside the bike was bought by Will w/ his allowance money and wrapped by him...so sweet!

Beautiful cat!

Lovely flower...couldn't resist snapping a picture!

Majestic cat waiting for his time to go to the natural habitat area, outside of the cages

We got to see this tiger splash around in his bath.

And of course, Trusten picked out a stuffed tiger in the gift store.

NEXT came Pentecost.  Funny story this year, though.  I got a double Pentecost, because I was so messed up with everything going on that I miscounted my weeks in my planner calendar!  Consequently, my bigger celebration was on June 5, rather than June 12, the latter of which was the correct date on the Roman calendar this year.  We had a great feast of barbecued brisket, macaroni & cheese, salad, and punch.  I always fix punch on Pentecost, because I like to use it as symbolic imagery in teaching my children about God "pouring" out his Spirit upon those he begets. 

Pentecost gifts for the boys...always biblically-based gifts on this holiday

Delicious pineapple punch! 

I enjoyed a great deal of time in meditation to reflect on what a blessing it is to be a begotten child of God.  I went through my list of self-compiled scriptures I use for Pentecost for the boys' lesson, plus briefly went over the plan of salvation as pictured by the seven feasts of God, as is my custom to do each holy day.  I always use the feast map that was made by someone in the United Church of God:

Feast map