So then, we thought, “Ok, we’ll send him to St. John’s for sure.”  St. John’s is the church that we attend, and the school does have a half-day kindergarten option, but there isn’t a separate half-day kindergarten class.  Most of the kids stay for the full day, and the half-day kids just leave halfway through.  This past year, there weren’t even any families who chose the half-day option, so Stryker might be the only one.  Full day kindergarten there costs $2,496, and half-day is half that cost.  So it’s a little pricey. 

And the more we learn about school and learning and teaching, the more we see that there is a lot of wasted time in any school.  Kids have to sit and wait a lot, or “learn” things that they already know.  We know a few homeschool families, and their kids are turning out quite well.  There is a big homeschooling association in our area, and a homeschooling mother that I know told me that there are at least 7 homeschooling families in our church alone.  I also had some students when I taught high school at Living Word who had been homeschooled, and they were some of my best students.  I am already homeschooling Stryker for preschool.  It takes a lot less time than traditional schooling, and Stryker still has plenty of time to play, as children are meant to do.  We could also tailor the kids’ education to suite their interests.  Our kids will also have a strong foundation of our Christian values by the time they do enter school (which they eventually will do), and less likely to succumb to peer pressure.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed school, so I would feel bad keeping Stryker and Peytra away from something they might like.  Here’s a positive AND  a negative:  I would be with the kids ALL the time.  We’ll probably end up sending the kids to St. John’s, but it’s nice to have options.  I wish there was a half-day option for grades 1-12.

Our garden, as of July 11

As for our garden, the corn is taller than Stryker, and there are at least 3 ears of corn growing that I can see.  The green beans are doing very well.  I’ve already picked and frozen a bunch, which is really not much (3/4 of a freezer bag).  More keep growing every day.  The peas taste very good, but for some reason, the plants sort of fell over, and they look like they are turning brown and dying.  My dad said it might be due to the heat.  So most of the pea pods that are on the plants are kind of going bad because they are sort of sitting in the dirt and moisture.  Was I supposed to prop up these pea plants or something?  And the other day, we pulled up a carrot just to see how they are doing.  The one we pulled up was a few inches long and about half an inch thick.  It looked pretty good, and tasted fine.  Oh, and we have some tomatoes growing, too, just in a different spot.

And here’s a random video of Stryker with his track that he got for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Finke.  It’s made out of a bunch of little pieces, which he put together himself.  The little truck runs automatically on it.

Stryker and his track

North Wall

We finally got around to painting Stryker’s room, only a year and a month after we moved in.  (We still haven’t painted our bedroom, or any of the other bedrooms or bathrooms, for that matter).  You may recall, from the paint-spilling episode, that we chose Stonewall Jackson as our color.  It turned out very nice.  Stryker helped by painting the all the areas he could reach, and Peytra helped by taking a long nap that day.  About a week or two after we painted it, we put his star stickers back up on his wall, as well as the “Stryker” name sticker that he got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Hagy.

West Wall

South Wall

Stryker by his closet door on the South Wall (Those are sticker cut-outs of cheering people above his door.)

East Wall

For a 360 degree video of his room, click on the red words below.

Stryker’s Room

Peytra with a green bean by the garden

This week, Peytra wore a pink skirt, and a yellow dress, both from Grandma Hagy. 

Peytra's yellow sundress

Today is the day we celebrate Peytra’s baptism birthday.  She was really baptized on her real birthday, but we celebrate on the day that she had her rededication.  That way, we can have separate special days for her birthday and baptism birthday.

A girl and her dog

Peytra at the Family Center (playgroup); we were the first ones there that day

Ok, Mary Moore  – I said No Movies Where Something Bad Happens to Children!  We watched The Time Traveler’s Wife last night, and I won’t ruin it for everyone else, but let’s just say that I was glad I was sitting next to the Kleenex box.  I will not say anything about Keith’s emotions about the movie because I am prohibited from doing so. 

Also, Keith wants to say that he doesn’t know why anyone would want to make a movie like that.  I thought the plot was very good and kept my attention.  He did a practice fantasy football draft during the middle of the movie, just to stay awake, I guess.  He said there was too much estrogen.  We were watching the movie with his mom, too, by the way.

We streamed the movie Surrogates to our laptop, and that was pretty good.  Keith also watched Push, which had a decent plot, but they could have used better actors.  And we also saw Night at the Museum 2, which was better than I thought it would be, although I did fall asleep toward the end.  Hey, I was tired.

My new basement shelves

For my birthday, Keith built me some shelves in the basement that I have been wanting ever since we moved in.  (He also got me a new bed pillow, gummi bears, and Doritos).  I was most excited about the shelves, though. 

The same shelves

Now I have all the Christmas decorations, teaching supplies, kids outgrown clothes, and most of the baby stuff on those shelves, which frees up the rest of our basement. 

Toys out of the rotation

Also, I rotate our toys, so the ones that are not in use right now are on some smaller shelves in the basement.  Sometimes I replace almost all of the toys at once (about every 2 weeks-1 month), sometimes I just replace a few, and sometimes I just get out one new toy if the kids seem bored.

Garage shelves

Keith also built himself some nice shelves in the garage, too.

Ankylosaurus and My Little Pony

Random note:  I got a My Little Pony and this dinosaur at a rummage sale for 10 cents each this week!  Peytra also got a green plastic lei for free, and I got her 4 shirts for 25 cents each, plus one for 10 cents.  So I’m pretty excited about all that.

Peytra in my t-shirt, and her morning hair

Here is Peytra in an old t-shirt of mine.  It says “My Mom and Dad skiied Big Powderhorn, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”  My parents got it for me when they went skiing when I was about 18 months old.

Peytra going up the slide; Stryker on his beanbag chair

Stryker giving Peytra a flower that he had picked

Me in the t-shirt, circa 1981, age 2

The title of this post reminds me of a children’s book, like Franklin Wants a Badge, or Curious George Goes to School.

Anyway, my sister Gina, her husband Jon, and their daughter Sasha of Grand Junction, Colorado, now have a blog.  They join me, our brother Chris, our sister-in-law Christina, our brother Jacob, our cousin Rachel, and our cousin Mary in the virtual world of blogging.  Well, they join millions of others, too, but those are just the bloggers on our side of the family.  You can tell none of us live close to each other, or we probably would not spend this much time on the computer.  Well, Chris, Christina, and Jacob probably still would.

In order to view Gina’s blog, just go to http://holterfamilyblog.blogspot.com, or click on the “Holter Family” link to the right here on my blog.  She has quite a few pictures up already.

Peytra's fruit and flower dress

Peytra’s dress this week was made for Hannah by her grandma.

Peytra is now beginning to bite and pinch when she doesn’t get what she wants.  She’s also learning to use a spoon.  She seems to really like that because she screamed when I tried to take her spoon to help her finish her oatmeal yesterday.  I’m surprised she didn’t bite or pinch me.  She also said “more” yesterday and did the sign for it, when Keith was sharing his ice cream with her.

Happy Independence Day! 

The pictures in our stairwell

I normally would post something about the 4th of July today, but I have some time-sensitive information about Peytra’s professional pictures.  She got her pictures taken at Walmart on June 21, and we ordered a bunch.  I wanted to kind of  “surprise” you all with the pictures, but when we picked up the prints, we also got a coupon code for 2 free prints when you create a free account at www.myonlineportraits.com.  The code is only good for 2 weeks (until July 14), so I feel obligated to tell you what you are getting in case you want to order more:  Grandparents and Godparents:  5×7; Great-grandmothers:  3 1/2×5; Aunts & Uncles:  Wallet size.  Everyone is getting a print of Pose 4, where Peytra is sitting on a white rug.  There are only 7 pictures to look at, but on 2 of them, she is way off-center.  You’ll need the Session Number, which is 103851, and the Password is PP2PX.  I am assuming this will work for anyone who tries it, not just me.  If you want the two free prints, you will still have to pay shipping, which seems to be $4.  Also, I’m not sure how it would work if you wanted to order two 3 1/2×5s because they come in sheets with wallet sizes attached.  So if anyone tries this, let me know how/if it works!  And even if you don’t want to order any, you can still go to the site and look at the pictures.  The light green dress she is wearing is borrowed from her friend Cate.  We chose it because it seems like a timeless style, and it was a solid color, not a print, with just a few white flowers at the bottom.