This week illness kept Garrison from his letter class with Aunt Katie, so I took a little time to do some activities that went with the letter ‘S’.
S is for….
Stuffed (animal) Stories – with Uncle Kevin.
Sandbox
Shovel
Snakes!!
Swing
Sad
Slide
Supper help
Stories – this time with the big kids.
Strider bike
Seeds
Smile
Sweep (all those seeds!)
Silly
Ever since I had pre-schoolers, I’ve gathered other mothers in my home and engaged in activities. We started with a simple music class from a book and have gone all the way to a multi-family educational school co-op. As my family grew I had to slowly downsize until last year I just shared some activities here and there with my sister next door.This year we were accepted into a larger co-op that meets one morning a week. It’s a pretty big undertaking to get our family off bright and early but the kids are loving it!
Here are a few pictures I’ve managed to get so far:
Skye in her pre-school class. I helped in there this morning. They played with play-doh, sang a letter song and did ABC “yoga,” an art project, read a book then free play with several activities. Her choice was matching cards.
Eden and Iris go to a Spanish class – here they learn “helado” by making some ice cream! I coach 2nd-3rd grade PE but have few pictures – I’m busy corralling 22 kids! 
This week I put together an obstacle course which the kids were able to run without much direction so I snapped a few photos. Here Flora goes through a ‘web’ as part of the course. 
Lance and Ivy are in the older PE classes that have split into male/female groups. Ivy is having a blast playing group games and learning a bit about volleyball. You can see her standing up on the right playing a game called Submarines and Sea mines.
Lance enjoys a good game of dodge ball the first week. The next 4-5 weeks were spent learning the basic skills for flag football and then trying out those skills in a few games. He wasn’t sure if he liked football until the week he caught a pass and made a touchdown! I’m so glad he’s getting an intro to these team sports so he can feel able to join in pick-up games in the future.
The oldest four are in science – this year studying land animals. One fun experiment on camouflage involved m&m’s that were eaten at the end! 
Our first unit was on the various canines. Lance shows the canine habitats we made for what will become an entire model zoo. 
Ivy shares a report on a drug sniffing dog.
Flora and Eden combine their reports of sled dog and rescue dog.
Garrison and Ryder are in the nursery, but even there they must have fun because every week Garrison is pumped about going to “PEP co-op” and gets his backpack all ready.
I’m so grateful to have this opportunity for the kids to experience some new teaching styles, watch peers work on similar subjects and just get to have some fun!
Found this unfinished draft awaiting release, so at the risk of “overwhelming” my readers, I’ll publish two posts in one day! Enjoy 
When you have little people, things are always changing! Here are a few of our recent happenings:
Eden celebrated her March birthday with a trip to the Waco zoo.
In May, Skye changed from 3 to 4 with a Madeline birthday party.
Garrison is learning letters – his favorite, of course, is letter G
Our school year ended for the summer. Eden and Ivy show off their ocean box that we made as part of our science class.
Ryder is becoming more and more of a playmate for Garrison.
My sister directed the cousins in a play set in China in preparation for camp Grammy.
Ryder went from crawling….
…to walking!!
One of our goats had kids! Then another goat turned out to not be pregnant…and our third had to be put down due to a serious birth complication. With only one goat in milk (and a fence jumping trouble maker at that!) we decided it was time to move into a new line of dairy animal…
Meet Ms. Viola and little Alfred (for all you Hank the Cowdog fans). Our Jersey cow and calf.
We expected to hand milk, just like we did with our goats, but quickly realized this would not work on a daily basis, not to mention finding someone who could milk when we took a vacation.
Brian spent hours researching and experimenting with pumps and now Ivy and Eden can handle the job themselves.
So there you have some of the news and times of the Cahill Crew!
Summer is usually spent seeking water sources to cool off!
Sometimes it’s the creek with cousins…
Other times a puddle in the neighbors driveway.
However, the biggest source this summer has been my parents new pool!
This has made for a wonderful time to get wiggles out when hot summer days mostly chase us indoors.
Daddy fun day has taken on new dimensions as well
With the constant practice, our oldest five are now strong swimmers.
But coming up in the ranks are two new swimmers!
Skye is thrilled with her new skill and hopes she it tall enough next year to touch the bottom so she won’t have to wear floats anymore.
The big surprise though is my two year old who pretty much taught himself to swim! He kept purposefully putting his face in the water and kicking around in his float. Then when we decided to practice some drown-proofing he surprised us by leaping right in and mastering each skill with ease. He seems to get a thrill out of the whole thing.
I can tell you, when I took this group to the public pool by myself I was much more at ease and really only had to watch Ryder.
The weather forecast shows another week or two of warm weather so we’ll be making the most of our last chances to swim!
In May we took a family trip to Corpus Christi as the culmination of our school studies in ocean science and explorers that sailed the high seas. 
First stop was the USS Lexington – a WWII aircraft carrier.
We tried out life aboard a ship – suddenly their rooms at home seemed a lot bigger!
On deck we admired several planes and tried out a cockpit or two.
Garrison preferred the captain’s chair!
Later that evening we walked around the Marina, admiring the fishing boats. We also looked at a replica of the Columbus ship “Pinta.”
Amazingly, the owner was there along with a diver who was attempting to patch a leak in the bottom of the ship. We got quite the informative talk!
Because my grandparents lived near Corpus I knew of a special beach that held many memories from my childhood visits.
We called it “The Mountain Beach.” The clay mountains are still there to play on, though they have eroded a bit since I was young.
We gathered driftwood and built a fort – another childhood memory.
This was the first time at a beach for half my children! A small inlet where sea grass broke the surf and provided a gentle first experience with waves and salt water.
Good thing I brought a change of clothes!
A good time was had by all!
Next post – the Gulf!