This Is It

This is the last of the busyness!  This past week was another busy one but the calendar isn't looking too bad from here on out.  :)  Wednesday, Brian started his drive to work to discover his exit was closed and, long story short, was going to be late by 30ish minutes.  So, he took the day off to go fishing and I invited all of us along.  I didn't realize he actually wanted to catch fish--I thought he wanted to spend time outside with the family.  Ha!  So, it wasn't a productive trip but most the kids had fun.

Lily gave me a nice pose to show her worm off.  

This would be the child that it was not fun for.  He can't fish and I don't let him that close to the water so we played in the van, walked in the grass, yelled at geese, threw rocks in the water and yelled for fish (which is apparently frowned upon by avid fishermen).

Most of the fish we caught were this size so we just held them and tossed them back--my favorite kind of fishing.

Hunter impressed me so much--very independent with fishing--I don't think he ever required help for any of the putting bait on/taking fish off/etc.  

Just a quick picture of this geese family because they were fun to watch.

On Thursday, Hunter had his end of the year Scout picnic.  

Do you see him mid-picture getting his Bear scarf?  He was so excited to show me his awards and new book!  Brian will be leader or assistant for the Bears next year so that's exciting for them!

 On Friday, we had that homeschool program I had mentioned previously.  The bummer was that the Scout picnic had been the night before so everyone was grubby from the park and everyone got to bed late.  Nathan, in particular, was pretty grumpy all morning.  The surprise I had that I, personally, felt was hilarious was homeschool shirts for the 5 of us.  I felt I was pretty clever.  I didn't get a picture of my shirt but it said that homeschool moms rock.

Nathan's shirt: "Homeschool Wanna-Bee" 

 Lily's: "Homeschool Girls Rock"

 Hunter's and Samuel's: "Homeschooler by Day, Ninja by Night"

My parents looking at the work the twins had set out.

Shortly before supper, Samuel fell asleep on the couch and that kid did not wake up for anything--until 4ish hours later when it was bedtime.  He was then up until 11:30 but that's another story.  We couldn't get him awake for the 2nd part of the program so he wasn't able to show off his preschool work to the Kregers.  Bummer!

 Brian's parents getting a look at the info.

It was a fun day!  The kids enjoyed looking back over their notebooks and it was fun to realize how much work we did this past school year.  Now, I'm busy taking things down, posting curriculum for sale and getting boxes of the new books out! 

Saturday was a nice warm day and it was time to try out the pool!  We were out for 2.5 hours or so and it was wonderful!  Hunter and Lily did plenty of swimming in the shallow and deep ends and jumped off the diving board quite a bit.

Samuel hung out in the deep end and I'm not sure if he ever did get his hair wet but he enjoyed himself.

Nathan was not sure why he had to be held onto and didn't enjoy being restricted.  He headed straight for the diving board and didn't want any part of a water wings, life jackets, rings, etc.  He just wants to be left alone in the pool!  So, that's a danger!  My parents ended up dragging out a water table, a kid pool, their fountain and this red tub to distract him from the pool.  It could be a long summer!

Mother's Day

I ♥ Mother's Day because I get to plan the day!  The last few years I have surprised Brian by wanting to do something outdoors (not my favorite location).  I think the spring weather always inspires me.  So, I picked a  location that I thought would be pretty empty and bought some picnic food the night before so we could get up and head out.  

We brought a stroller just to haul the goods:

Plenty of room to jump:

Or be at peace:

It was a no-brainer to find the tree we would picnic under...the weeping willow is my favorite tree.  We were excited to find one!

The kids' blanket was placed where they wanted it--partially in shade.  I preferred the sun because it seemed less buggy.  A spider did run over Samuel's plate but they stayed calm.

This was the last picture we got because the camera died and I forgot my phone.  No big deal!  I'm glad I got 1 picture with Mom and kids, though.  :)

After we ate lunch, we walked the trail before heading out.  The next part of my day included shopping but for plants.  I asked if we could plant an herb garden for my gift.  We had to stop at 2 stores and the kids were getting antsy but we found some nice-looking basil, cilantro, peppermint and dill.  We headed home for popsicles and planting.

I painted the name on the pot and then the kids painted a picture.  They enjoyed putting dirt in, too.  :)

We headed inside to rest from the sun.  It was too late for Nathan's nap so we let the kids relax in front of a movie while I challenged Brian to Skip-Bo.  Unfortunately, Nathan came to "help" and spilled my cherry limeade all over the game and into the bag of chips from the picnic.  Sigh.  We got that cleaned up and decided it was rest time for parents.  Ha!  Brian got me a salad for supper and then took the kids to his Mom's house for the evening.  I enjoyed some quiet time and I loved it.  It was a great day!  I have to share the cards the kids made me:

Hunter: lots of hearts and he wrote "Mom rocks.  Math rocks.  We love Mom."

Samuel: drew a picture of me and I was yellow, which is the highest compliment

Nathan: a wonderful mass of scribbles on paper, instead of furniture

Lily: outside of card said "Happy Mother's Day Mom" and the inside said "Your the greatest mom ever. Your beautiful as a marigold. You don't need makeup. Your already beautiful. Your so awesome I'm going to  die.  Love your daughter, Lily." {yes, I intentionally misspelled "you're" because she did}

How precious are those gifts!!  

Done!

Our last week of {regular} school!  And it flew by!  The weather has been unbelievably good so we spent a lot of time outside...

Taking walks around the neighborhood

 and at the walking trail.

Lily planned a play performance at my parents' house so we gathered for that on Monday night.  My Mom was narrator, my Dad was the Cat in the Hat, Lainey was Sally and Mom, Lily was the fish (and whatever the boy's name is because Hunter dropped out).  I can't remember when I've laughed so hard but that was mainly because of my parents.  :)

The boys were a good audience.

Samuel made me this pretty flower during his speech appointment this week.  Lily made me a present at book club but she is making me wait to open it.  Mother's Day is so fun!

Our focus was goodness this week, symbolized by the apple.  We had a good and fun talk about good works and how important and unimportant they are.  We want to show our light but we don't want to think we can "earn" anything with God.  It led to some great conversation with the kids.  At the end of the week, we made apple light catchers: (that's Hunter's, Lily's, Samuel's and Nathan's from left to right)

On Friday, I woke up so early, just like on the 1st day of school!  I had a chance to think about a whole school year of learning and fun and challenges.  I gave the kids their last morning assignment and then we celebrated by going on a field trip with one of their favorite teacher's aides, Grandma PJ.  :)  We went to Usher's Ferry (with some quick stops at garage sales) to walk the grounds.  The building aren't open during the week but I figured that would work best, anyway.  No one was there and we got the running tour of the park.  Because my kids run!  They did show some interest as we peeked in windows and explored the grounds.  The village is a little ahead of what we studied (close to 1900) because we ended in 1862 but I figured it was close enough!

Hunter trying his hand at pumping water.

Grandma helping Nathan peek in the doctor's house.  He wanted to see what the fuss was about!

Checking out an outdoor kitchen (no door so we went in).  Samuel noticed the paint can right away, not circa 1900.  :)

An outhouse picture.

Visiting the gazebo.  It would be a great place for a picnic--we wished we had food/drink!

Afterward, we grabbed subs and had lunch with my parents before heading home (plus few garage sale stops) for the final afternoon of school.  All we did this afternoon was sit in a circle, have a popsicle and talk.    We talked about what we learned and what the summer plan is going to be.  Our focus next week will be preparing for our homeschool lunch/evening for the Grandparents.  :)

*I have to share their precious journal entries from today:*

Hunter: "1+2=3  4-4=0 Math.  I love my Mom.  Thank you Mom for teaching me."

Lily: "I like being in school because I love my family so much." She then drew a picture of her, me and Hunter.

May is Already Here!

I knew I should have written down notes on the week earlier this week because I do not remember a thing at this point.  It's Friday and we are done!  :)  All of the following pictures are activities we did together for our Fruit of the Spirit study.  This week was on Kindness and we used Oranges for our symbol.  All of these ideas came from the Impress Your Kids blog but they are really great ideas.  1st up, we focused in on Colossians 3:12 which talks about putting kindness on and we talked about putting kindness on like our clothes.  So, one day, I wrote KIND on 4 pieces of paper and the kids made clothes collages on their letter.   Unfortunately (or fortunately?!), I only had magazine of my own so I had to take from Brian's stash.  He has years of hunting, fishing, tool magazines that he insists he will read!  Anyway, a lot of the boys' cut-out clothes ended up being camo.  :)

The next craft we did was super fun, as well.  I printed off hats, gloves and shoes and then cut them out and attached a toothpick to each item.  I gave each kid a set and an orange and let them dress up their orange.  Putting kindness on, as if clothes.  That was our mantra!  We then ate the oranges!

Otherwise this week, we finished science until August!  We started Aesop's Fables as our read aloud but none of us liked it, me especially.  It was our last assigned book (through our curriculum) so I picked Swiss Family Robinson for our next novel.  I don't know how long we'll keep a story time in the afternoon as summer comes but it's a nice routine right now!  We actually "did school" all gathered on the couch this week and that was a lot of fun.   Things are feeling very relaxed right now!  Next week is IT for much of our work so I am already thinking of ideas to include to make it special.  Samuel has been mainly working on things for our homeschool end-of-the-year program that I am planning.  Nothing major--really just an elaborate scheme to get my parents to bring me lunch but now I'm excited and plan on having some things to show/tell and inviting Brian's parents over that same evening.  So, mark your calendars (when I pick a date).  

Otherwise, this week....

We dressed the cat.

And made more play dough to play with.  This is the best recipe and idea ever.  The kids keep busy for hours, which I needed because this was Nathan's 2nd day of no-nap.  The upstairs is getting sooo hot with this recent weather.  I've been letting him hang out but it definitely adds chaos and noise to the afternoon!