Snippets of Sullivan Life.

Snippets of Sullivan life of late.

We just finished up hosting another semester of our homeschooling book club--Liberty Girls. This year we read (or re-read, in our case) the 8 books in Little House series. We've had a great group of 9 girls this year and it's been so much fun. Each time we meet, we review and discuss what we've read. The girls give presentations on the reading and then we do various activities related to the time period and the books that we are studying. At our last meeting we made pie plant pies (aka rhubarb) and they were the best pies I've ever eaten in my life! Seriously.  

Hallee and Laine's masterpiece.

Charlie and Sophie with their pie plant pie.

At one of our Liberty Girl's meeting this month we made molasses popcorn balls. They were so good that we made them again for our Friday Family Movie Night treat.

Making molasses popcorn balls

Last week marked the end of our school year and we celebrated with homemade pizza and cheesecake on Friday night. Sometimes I feel like we aren't making much progress academically, but as we sat around the table over dinner, I had each of the kids talk about what they'd learned and accomplished this year and then Casey and I reflected on each of them and took turns verbalizing our observations about their learning. When I look at a year's time, the growth is obvious.

Lindy doing "school" along with the rest of the kids. She commandeered Zeke's math book on this day and did some advanced computations on her own.

Lindy is making serious advances of her own. She has a vast vocabulary and is stringing words into short sentences now. She is determined, spunky, fun, and a delight to have in our family. We all love her so much! Her latest feat is learning the words and actions to Wheels on the Bus--her new favorite song.

Lindy, jumping on the trampoline like a big kid.

Zeke's been part of his own homeschool book club this year--Henry and Mudge--with a cute group of boys. Here are some photos of him with his friends:

At the blacksmith's shop at Wheeler Farm

After last conference, our family decided to do something to assist the refugee population. We watch ed several videos on the church's website, one about a woman who received a donated quilt that brightened her life and home. Casey thought that we should try our hand at making one together. Over the past few weeks we've been cutting out fabric squares and sewing them together. Everyone participates (Sophie, Hallee, and I sew and Casey and Zeke cut out fabric) and finally last Monday we completed our first quilt front. (I need to take a picture of it.) All I have to say about that is that by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. The kids have loved this project!

Sophie in the FHE quilt sweat shop

Hallee is an expert at ironing.

Zeke, cutting numberless concourses of quilt squares for the people.

Each Sunday over the past month, we've been studying church history. We started with Joseph Smith's First Vision (1820) and finally today ended with the Saints reaching the Salt Lake Valley (1847). We've reviewed a few years of history each week, watched lots of church history videos, made several visits to the Church History Museum (the new first floor exhibit is about the Restoration, covers exactly this time period, and is absolutely incredible), and crafted a timeline complete with original drawings in our kitchen.

The reason: We are ramping up for our epic ten-day road trip to Nauvoo this week.  Friday afternoon we'll start the journey to Illinois where Casey's parents are serving an 18 month mission. We are all super excited. Studying church history this month has been such a blessing and I know that our kids' experience in Nauvoo will be so much richer because of it.

Part of our church history timeline.

Last week also marked Zeke's last soccer game of the season. The week previous he scored his first two goals in a team game. He was beyond excited and we celebrated with Slurpees on the house.

Zeke is beyond stoked when he's on the field.

A few weeks ago the kids also made amazing strides on the slopes. We started them all skiing 3 seasons ago--Zeke was 2, Hallee was 4, and Sophie was 5. Each season we have high hopes, but usually only get up once or twice. This year we set a family goal to get up skiing 5 times. By the end of this season (April 16th at Brighton), all three kids were pulling down some black diamond runs.

We've had some chances this month to get out to Casey's parent's house to do some work--weeding, sweeping, cleaning out horse runs, etc. Yesterday while we were out there, Jessie let Hallee and Sophie (and Lindy) ride Pecos. Hallee was so enamored with Pecos. She was drinking in the time that Jessie spent teaching her how to ride and care for the horses. At one point I watched Hallee circle Pecos, her nose pressed into his fur. She told me that she loved the way he smelled. I was so impressed that this tiny girl just handled that horse like he was an old friend. Hallee is a natural horse whisperer, like her cousins and grandfather before her.

Hallee, in love.

Loo getting in on the action.

Mike, introducing Lindy to the neighbor's colt.

Early yesterday morning, Casey and I ran 6 miles together in the rain. On our route, we found a mother duck in a state of panic. Upon further investigation, we found that her 5 babies had fallen through a storm drain. She was absolutely frantic. We ran home and Casey took Soph and Hal back along with an arsenal of climbing equipment and pry bars to attempt a rescue. (Zeke was still asleep.) With the assistance of a passerby who had some helpful tools, they rescued five scared little ducklings and gave them back to their mommy. Hallee was in heaven!