Chivalry

Last Saturday we met two of the Knights of Veritas. These knights took us back to the year 1300 a.d. and taught us real fencing techniques vs. Hollywood style sword fighting. We learned about Johannes Liechtenauer, a fencing master who wrote one of the most influential fencing manuals of his time, a manual from which real knights studied. We now know what the "plow", "roof", "ox" and "fool" stances look like in sword fighting. We were given the German names for these stances, but alas, those I have already forgotten. 

And of course we learned about the code of chivalry for Knights. 

We can safely say that chivalry is not dead.

Now the question we have for you is: How much does a Longsword weigh?

More Summer fun

Keeping cool with our friends at the splash park

 Visiting the chickens and goats.

Matt was fascinated by this little chick. He would keep going back to its cage and say "hi chick".

 Flying a big yellow airplane.

  Snowcones!

Like most young boys, Matthew loves machinery, vehicles and aircraft.

He LOVES lawn mowers. 

The first time he saw a lawn mower he got the name confused with the word "more" so he started doing the sign language sign for more. He still will do that sign sometimes when he says "lawn mower". 

The other day we were at the park and happened upon 2 lawn mowers parked on the grass (only one is in the picture). Matt loved it especially when the city workers got back from lunch and started mowing again. 

For about a week afterwards Matt would randomly mention the "two lawn mower" he saw. 

Lately his story of the lawn mowers has developed into somewhat of a "fish" story. He started out by saying "three lawn mower" one day. Then it was four, and now when he talks about the mowers he will vary between five or three lawn mowers. I'm not sure if he's keeping a tally for the week of all the lawn mowers he's spotted, or maybe he just likes to tell a good story.

Summer so far

Catching frogs and watching tadpoles grow.

Digging in the dirt

Climbing trees

Harvesting peas

Catching snakes.

Sleepover with sisters. We found them all crammed in Alia's bed one night.

The Lake

We went to the lake with cousins. It was sunny and warm and a lot of fun.

Celebrating the 4th of July

We toured a police station on the 4th. We met a robot that the bomb squad uses.

The girls tried on police gear. This is the suit the K-9 trainers wear.

Matthew's favorite part was of course the motorcycles

Hmm...this could be interesting.

Then we celebrated at Grandpa and Grandma's house with the cousins and Aunt Laura and Uncle Kevin.

Sparklers!

Strawberry picking

We were determined to go strawberry picking on the day our community has it's annual Strawberry Festival. Even though it was raining a bit and we got muddy feet, we enjoyed ourselves and the fruits of our "labor".

We brought the berries home and made strawberry shortcake and freezer jam. Mmmm.