Monday, June 30, 2008

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures of our day today so far.I'm trying to think of clever little sayings to include with them but can not come up with much.

How many kids can swing at one time? Let's see...one,two,three,four...



Five!



We have a few special goals for our summer...1)keeping our heads above water parenting 14...ohh...that is my goal...

We have two special school goals this summer.

The first is to have the kids remember all the states and their capitals by the end of the summer as well as identify them on a map.I'm sure most of your children already have them memorised but I realised even I can not tell you most of the capitals or where to confidently identify them on a map.Of course,smarty pants Jeff can.I think he married down academically the poor guy.At least I give him reason to feel smart!Back to our goal...the prize they are working towards is a huge bag of M & M all to their own.

(Credit for the idea of this goal is given to A Baker's Dozen:Daily Life in a Large Family.Great blog by the way.)


Our second is to see how well fed we can keep our newest family pet Bookworm.So far he has grown 11 circles! The kids have visions of Bookworm taking over every wall in our house.He just might!




OK.Any of you who have more than a few kid might just appreciate this picture. If not I hope it has some shock value at least.

I will caption this picture...

I Proudly Prop!

OK.Truth be told I even propped bottles with Elena.Bad mom...good mom...you decide Keep in mind by this time in our parenting life I earned to break a few parenting rules now and again!So I say again...

I Proudly Prop!

An Afternoon at the Zoo!

What is the big deal about the Minnesota Zoo, anyway?

Well we will tell you...

There are the crowds...Oops that crowd is just us!


The food










The water






There are the animals,insects,and fish

















But most of all the loved ones who join you!



















A BIG THANK YOU to the local ECFE for giving us 16 free tickets to the Minnesota Zoo.

I wonder if there is a prize for fitting the most pictures on one blog post.I might just win!

A few finished Quilts

With the help of my helpers,I finally finished 4 more quilts last night!These are all tied quilts.I think they look real pretty.

Behind the Scenes

This is a behind the scenes look at my quilt making..I have a bunch of good helpers!

Laundry Mountain

It seems that when the air is very humid our dryer does not work well.For some reason the dryer either thinks the laundry is already dry and shuts off or the dryer thinks it is overheating and the shutting off is a safety thing.Either way,it can take all day to do one load when it is humid like it had been this week.In a house where 3 full loads a day just has to be done to keep the dirty laundry at bay,a sensitive dryer is bad news!

Finally,today the dryer was working the way it should and I worked non stop to get the laundry finished.I thought you would like to see what about three days of clean laundry looks like at the Frye house.

Notice that I put a yard stick against the pile so you could really appreciate the laundry mountain.

The piles on the floor are the kids clean socks and underwear.What I am wondering is why the boys underwear pile has about 5 pairs of clean underwear in it and there should be about 18 pairs according to my calculations...I might just need to have a little talk with them...



Now all of our bins look he way they should...empty...at least for a few hours!

Dragonfrye Graduates!!!

CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!!!

Ekie finished up all of her kindergarten school today! Hurray Ekie!!! What's next? Monday, Ekie will start her new books.(We school year round,sad for the kids but no Summer break over here) She is not quite ready for first grade so she will redue her K5 phonics.Ekie will move on to first grade math.Ekie is very good at math.



Josh finished up all of his first grade books this past Wednesday! Congratulations Josh!!!
Josh is a few days into all of his second grade school books.His reading has really improved this past year.



Nolan did not officially finish all of his second grade books yet.We had a late start last year with his second grade English so he will be working on that over the summer.Nolan is a few weeks into his third grade math,though.He is REALLY exited about that.I am SO impressed with his reading.

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Now What Are You Up To Lily?

Lily,let me explain something...you are supposed to stay in your car seat not wiggle out of it!

Lily is up to Something New

Lily are you trying to crawl?!Hmm...Those interesting scraps of paper must be just a little out of your reach.

A Quilt Pattern Block of The Month

I found a free quilt pattern block of the month site that I think any of you quilters out there will really appreciate.If you are interested visit BYANNIE.COM for her home page or here is the link to her quilt pattern of the month for June.



I sure wish I could say I made this quilt but I did not.It is an example on ByAnnie.com of her 2008 free quilt of the month patterns.This year's is mostly foundation piecing and applique.I am very exited to start it.I will put it on my list of my other zillion projects I would like to do this summer.

I Never Knew the Fryes Went To Paris

I bet you never knew we studied fashion in Paris...well maybe just Joel.Laugh now but he is on to something that will sweep the world much like big hair,leg warmers and shoulder pads!




P.S. Erica the background was included just for you!

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY GRANT!!!

It is very hard to believe Grant is already 13!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!!!

I love you VERY much!!!


The crew waiting for a great birthday meal!



Chinese food is a treat.Good birthday meal choice Grant.



Oops we ran out of wrapping paper but by the pleased look on Grant's face it did not matter!



Another gift winner. Cyrus bought the water gun with his very own money.What a generous brother.



Lewie Lemore on CD is great



Grant has entered the realm of 'big kid gift requests'. It must be a teen thing.Loud big stereos.



Happy Birthday to Grant...



Cherry pie ala-mode with cookies and cream ice cream is one of Grant's favorites



Great pictures Elena!