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!

Field Trips

This may truly be the busiest week we've had.  We had one day where we stayed home and had a normal day but we've been busy otherwise.  I call our running around this week "field trips", even though I don't take that term too seriously.  It's just the point that all kinds of activities can be learning opportunities!

I will now tell in way-too-much detail what our week looked like.  Our first field trip was to the Mall of America.  Maybe not the "ultimate" field trip but a pretty fantastic one.  The kids have been counting down the days and we've all been so excited to have a little get away together.  It was more exciting to do this mid-week instead of the weekend!  On Tuesday, we woke up really early to be on the road at 6am.  By 7:10, we were pulling into a gas station while Lily threw up in the bucket we had packed for her (she is a known puker on car rides) and Hunter was borderline hysterical about his stomach.  The gas station was packed--people going to work, I guess--and we managed to find a spot, get Hunter out just in time for him to lose breakfast on the concrete.  He was very worried this meant we had to turn around. Nope!  He doesn't get car sick as often so I was a little worried it was a stomach bug but it worked out.  The gas station had packets of Dramamine and the package said it was approved for children so we bought that and gave each twin half a pill.  They were totally fine the rest of the trip.  Whew!

We then made our 2nd stop close to the border.  As you can see, it was chilly for shorts but we were all hot by the end of the day so it worked out.  This was the cutest rest stop--shaped like a barn.  

We arrived at the Mall about 45 minutes later than planned but it was fine!  The parking lot was empty so we were so excited.  I was nervous about crowds--just because it's not as fun to corral kids in a crowded place--but it was a great time to be there.  We parked and headed toward our lunch location...Rainforest Cafe.  We ended up being seated in the monkey section--not a good choice.  Nathan was petrified of the sounds and Samuel wasn't too happy about it, either.  Nathan got through most of his lunch before becoming inconsolable about the noise and I took him out at that point.  We shopped and gave change to the alligator while we waited.  Nathan was happy to be free to skip around.  He actually didn't spend a lot of time in the stroller, even if the pictures look like it.  

After lunch, we just took off walking to see what we could see.  I had looked at the map ahead of time and knew we only wanted to be in a couple different areas of the Mall.  Why walk the whole thing if we don't need to??  We saw the Disney store first and it had the prettiest castle inside.  The kids were given spending money and they all wanted to buy something here.  Hunter and Lily picked out a bow and arrow set from the movie 'Brave'.  When I went to pay, the cashier said something about brave and I thought she was saying I was brave because I was buying 2 bows and arrows.  Ha!  I realized what she meant and managed to answer appropriately.  :)  

Next stop was the Lego store.  The kids were impressed with the amazing Lego creations here.  Do you see Nathan peeking in the background of this picture?

The 3 oldest made their own mini figure to take home.  Hunter and Samuel then picked a small set to buy.  The ironic thing is that Hunter got a Harry Potter set and Samuel got a Spongebob set.  Those are 2 shows/movies that we haven't let our kids watch.  Ha!  Oh well, nothing wrong with building the sets, I guess.  :)

The little boys building some Hero Factory guys.

We actually had to go back to the van after this to put packages away.  We decided to head to the aquarium next to take a break from stores.  I bought our tickets online ahead of time because it was way cheaper to do so.  I checked in and they told me that there was a behind-the-scenes tour coming up and no one was signed up.  I could get tickets for half off.  So, even though Brian  and I had just discussed our dislike for guided tours, I said yes.  Ha!  We visited  a couple exhibits while we waited.  

And then waited for our tour guide.  This is the type of face you may now expect from Hunter in the following pictures.  He is apparently in a phase where he makes some different face instead of smiling.  It reminds me of my brother, Steve.  

School work in action:  The kids are inspecting shark eggs.  They learned a lot and got to touch a lot of dead animals (or parts of animals).  They also were shown the different foods they feed the animals there.  Finally, we were taken to the top of the tunnel to see the sharks and turtles and other animals swim in the big pool.  Lily was pretty concerned about the small area of injured animals we visited, as well.  Our tour guide was all right--kind of morbid but informative.  :)

We then toured the rest of the aquarium.  Nathan is getting tired at this point.  :)  The kids most enjoyed petting the starfish and sea urchins.  I also petted them--so fun!

We gave in to the demand for rides at that point and headed to Nickelodeon Universe.  We bought our passes and the kids picked out their 1st ride.  Well, the boys both changed their mind after she scanned the pass so we had to wait for someone to come give us our points back.  That all worked out but as we stood, waiting for Lily to ride, some man walked by and gave "mystery tickets" to Brian.  These had around 90 points on them and  he gave us a few of them.  What a blessing!!!!  So, the kids had fun running around to ride what they could find--and they were the only kids on many of the rides.  Nathan was really getting into it but he was also going on almost zero nap.  So, after we rode the Ghost Blaster ride twice, he protested the end by throwing himself around and screaming.  Ha!  This seemed like a good time for Lily and I to sneak away for girl time.  :)  I told Brian good luck and the girls headed off.  We had supper reservations at American Girl but wanted to shop before that. 

Lily has 1 American Doll and it's the Rebecca doll.  When I asked Lily to bring me Rebecca to pack for the trip, I questioned if that was how she wanted to take Rebecca.  The doll was wearing pajamas and had her hair in a ponytail.  I think the sales lady balked at that.  Ha!  She stumbled over her words but managed to tell Lily that Rebecca looked pretty.  :)  She said we had the store to ourselves so enjoy. I had Lily pose by the Rebecca case:

And we also headed right over to the salon to get Rebecca fixed up.  Lily chose a hair style and the lady (in the picture) asked if she'd like to have Rebecca pampered with a spa treatment (aka cleaning the doll).  Lily, of course, said yes.  We walked around the store while Rebecca got pampered.  We found so many fun things!!  I let Lily get Rebecca a pet (kitten named Praline) and some stick-on earrings, as well as a new Rebecca book.  

Once Rebecca was ready, we headed to supper.  As you can see, an empty restaurant!  Ha!  Isn't it pretty, though?  I love pink.  Lily loved that her doll had a seat, cup, plate and menu (that she got to take home).  It seriously was the fanciest meal I've had.  And Lily and I had a blast!!!  We used the table talkers and talked about dolls and just had a great time.  So stress free and fun that I almost felt guilty when I looked out the window and saw Brian rolling his eyes at me while the boys ran around in circles.  Ha!!!  I waved with my iced tea.  :)  So, yes, something that I would totally do again and Lily wants to know when our next girl time is.  It was good to have some positive time with her!  

Brian said the only thing the boys could agree on for supper was onion rings so they ended up at Arby's.  The boys told me they had onion rings, curly fries, root beer and strawberry shakes.  Ha!!!  We had to find the boys after our supper and they were as far away as they could be so we walked and walked to find them.  We decided to make a quick stop at Sephora but it was a mistake.  The boys were tired of doing nothing and Lily wanted a lip gloss but I couldn't find one under $20.  So, we both picked out a nail polish and hurried back to the rides.  Unfortunately, that only lasted a little bit because Nathan was DONE.  We decided that we didn't have a lot of plans for the next day so we'd just come back.  Walking to the van was pretty long and painful.  The kids were complaining of tired legs/feet and I felt the same way.  Brian had to carry Nathan the whole way so he was feeling equally DONE.  But our hotel was across the street and we got right in to our suite.  This perked everyone back up!  

This room was where the boys slept (including Brian):

And this room was where the girls slept.  The couch folded out to make the most uncomfortable bed ever but the kids enjoyed having boys/girls separate so it was worth it.  :)

We bought microwave popcorn, lemonade for the kids, Coke for the adults and played Uno until Nathan's mood dictated bedtime.  Brian may have been lucky enough to sleep in a nice bed but he had to share with Nathan, who usually sleeps in a crib, so I wouldn't have traded with him.  We all fell asleep by 10 and everyone was up by 7.  

The kids loved the fluffy pillows and felt the need to stack up as many as possible.  :)  I didn't take this picture but I thought it was funny (Hunter used my camera for awhile).

The room seemed to be a big playground, which was a problem at times.  Mainly where Nathan was concerned.  Poor guy.  He isn't all trouble but he is 2.

The next morning, we hit the free breakfast.  Yum!  It was a great buffet and the kids did pretty good with it.  I was bummed there was no chocolate milk because Nathan hadn't had milk at all the day before.  Otherwise, we all enjoyed the fruit, waffles, ham, eggs, yogurt, biscuits and gravy.  

We then checked out and drove around the mall to find IKEA.  We drove back to the mall to park in the most convenient spot to head back to IKEA as soon as we were ready.  Nothing was open in the mall yet so we just enjoyed some picture time.

School work in action: Learning to read a map.

Also, phys. ed. in the form of chase.

Posing with the Turtles.  This ride was closed for maintenance.

Brian posing by the big Peeps sign. He enjoys that candy for some reason.

I made Brian pose by the Hot Tamales sign because I thought it was funny.  :)  Hunter doesn't care for the candy so he's showing that.  The main point is that Brian is a Hot Tamale.  

I loved the Blue's Skidoo ride--so cute!

The Jimmy Neutron ride was a blast, apparently.  The scariest ride ever but they did it twice.  They being the twins because Samuel was too short and they wouldn't let him ride, even with a parent.  He was broken hearted but found a little dollar ride he could do in the meantime.

The Fly Boat was a hit.

Samuel did bumper cars without anyone else in the family--kind of a big deal, I thought.

I think everyone got to do the rides enough times.  They would have done more but we were out of points and it was time to move on.  The rough part were the rides that not all 4 kids could ride but overall, they all did great.  Brian and I rode a handful of things but I didn't ride anything scary. Brian was forced to ride one that he hated but it made Samuel happy.  :)  We then headed to Johnny Rocket's for lunch and spent our life's fortune on burgers.  Seriously.  I wouldn't eat there again just because of the cost!  But the kids all got a  kids' shake with their meal and were happy with that.

Next stop, IKEA!  I was pumped!!!  The kids actually really enjoyed it here.  Weird, huh?  They loved how it was set up like houses.

Hunter said, "I have work to do!" and sat right down.

I totally wanted to buy this chair--how cute!

We did the top floor and then stopped for a drink break.  I let the 3 biggest have Dr. Pepper so it was such a treat!!  Brian and I shared Mt. Dew and felt a ton better.  Nathan finally got his chocolate milk and he was really happy!  This is the kids' area in the cafeteria.  I seriously love this store!

We finished up and I gave up on trying to fit any shelving into our packed van.  I did get some toy storage things but I still could use some more shelves for the homeschool area!  We left IKEA about 3:30pm and headed out of town.  Or at least we attempted to.  Our GPS got us lost.  It said we were on the interstate but we clearly weren't. We had to turn around and when we did, we saw Sonic!  I miss Sonic!!  It happened to be Happy Hour so we ran right over there and got 6 cherry limeades.  Brian said it was the best purchase of the day.  Ha!  Our GPS figured out where we were and got us back on track.  It was the beginning of rush hour, apparently, because the traffic was horrific.  I had to close my eyes and talk myself out of anxiety.  I hate traffic!  We finally made it out of town and drove until we reached Cabela's.  Brian's favorite stop!

So, I'm not a big fan of killing animals like this but this was a neat display.  The kids were able to get a good look at elephants, rhinos, lions, zebras and many other animals throughout the store.  Lily did say that IKEA was way better and I had to agree.  But, Brian enjoyed it!  

It was supper time after that so we decided just to hit Subway since it was at the same exit.  It ended up being the longest wait of our lives.  Our kids were getting looks so Brian took them out to the sidewalk to wait.  We ended up eating picnic-style.  

The twins were given their half-pill of Dramamine and on we went.  We got gas and I let the kids get chips before we headed out.  We then had one more stop on the way home and I let the kids get a candy.  They then wanted another stop but I was pretty sure it was because of the food so we said no and still made it home just fine.  :)  We were home at 10pm and shuffled the kids to their own beds and I didn't wait too long myself to collapse.  :)

The next day, the kids were anxious to play with all the goodies they had bought.  See Hunter's face?  That's because he hit something with his arrow--can't remember what.

Poor Nathan.  He really isn't a grumpy kid but lack of sleep is killer for a 2 year old.  He wasn't in the mood for pictures.

We got right back to regular school.  Here the kids are separating insects and spiders for science.

We then took our butterflies outside to release them.  We left for MN with 2 butterflies and there were 4 before we let them go. This one sat on the sidewalk for awhile before flying away so we got a good look!

One butterfly never emerged so we inspected that.  It was clearly a butterfly but must have died for some reason.

We then made a bar graph to look at the population explosion in California during the gold rush.

We also ate watermelon, our fruit for the week.  The trait was patience, which was really appropriate for our trip.  We talked about it a lot.  We finished our read aloud and our science book.  We had a "field trip" to the community theater to see Uncle Steve in Alice in Wonderland.  We have another "field trip" tonight to see their cousins in School House Rocks!  Just a full week but it was a lot of fun!