Cool Fruit, New Shoes, Lots of Chess, and Other Tales

Middle of the night Chess University lesson

Aaron History:
Caravan across the dessert

Aaron math shapes

Aaron semi-blindfolded playing

Evie!

Aaron science

Starting 7th grade math book!

Teaching Abigail chess

Aaron won 1st!

Bought Abigail her first shoes

Sort of sitting

Abigail's first bite

Mashed potatoes

Alexander got the stomach flu first (later the rest of us got it)
He enjoyed watching his birthday videos...

from both sets of grandparents a lot though.
Thank so much!

Andrew science

Alexander's map of the world

Andrew handwriting

Andrew history:
Caravan across the desert

Andrew's map of the cheetah-bear world to ours

Andrew math

Andrew piano

Banana bread helper

Catching up from the stomach flu.
Grateful for the clothes dryer. It helped a lot.

Conquered Europe!

Cool fruit

Purple dragon fruit smoothie

Cool dude

Making diaper covers for baby #4 with pattern still from #1

Sometimes the view out our window still amazes me

Feel Better Great Grandpa!

We're all thinking about you and sending you virtual hugs.

Treats from the Grandparents, Fun Video Lessons, and Other Tales

Aaron has been really nice to Abigail lately.
Here he shared his star sunglasses and then took a picture of her wearing them.

Do you know what this vegetable is?
I didn't at first.

Spinach is packaged pretty differently here.

But it is still really tasty.

Art class videos

Aaron art- contour drawings looking at object not page

More from Aaron

Thanks for the box of goodies from America grandma and grandpa!

Aaron won a tournament online

And he made himself a trophy
(semi-ironic how the 8-year-old won a tournament probably playing mostly adults
and then built himself a Duplo trophy)

Abigail cuteness (especially for all of the grandmas and great grandmas)

Alexander art- contour line drawings (of apples)

Andrew art- contour line drawings looking at object not paper

Andrew made you a chess puzzle. You can play it right here.

Thanks for the pudding!

Kids were loving the Latin videos this week.
A silly monkey makes anything entertaining.

Piano lesson fun

Numbering fingers

Science- lung volume test

Thanks so much for the treats grandma and grandpa!

"Why did grandpa give us presents on his birthday?" -Alexander

Andrew got up early and then fell asleep again with his glasses on.
And a brother put the knex robot on top of him.

Happy Birthday Grandpa John!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!
Love, Abigail

Birthday Blessings from Alexander

"A beautiful rainbow I painted all by myself!"
By Alexander

Clockwise from the top:
Brown Grandpa John exercising,
Grandpa John with balloons,
Grandpa John exercising again,
Grandpa John being silly
by Alexander

Pompa made an explosion and then the purple guys clean it up for you.

Happy Birthday!
I love you!
Love,
Alexander

Andrew made this map and a birthday story for you.

The History of the Bronze, Smalls, and Oranges

By Andrew Rugg

A long, long, time ago the Bronze land was big and the Oranges did not have much land. For 16 years the Orange's land shrunk more and more. Every time they fought the Bronze they lost more land. After 16 years the Orange's allies arrived from across the sea. Now the Bronze land was shrinking. The Bronze fought for land but all they could get was one single dot in the country. The only problem was that it was hard to travel from that dot to the other part of Bronze. So the people inside the dot decided to turn away from the Bronze and made allies with oranges and named their kingdom Smalls.

The End

Happy Birthday!

Love, Andrew

Game by Aaron
(Get from the purple X to the green 0, each time you get a picture dot you get a weapon or a carrot)

Happy Birthday Hammer Card
by Aaron

Inside the card
Love, Aaron

Happy Birthday Grandpa John!

We all hope you have a very wonderful birthday!