Grand Opening at Coffee Outfitters

A couple of weeks ago Tovah and I went to the Grand Opening at Coffee Outfitters, a coffee stand that opened last fall just down the street from our house. The owners are old friends of our family and everyone at the party I knew either from growing up around here or homeschooling. There were great acts on their stage and a petting zoo for the kids.

When they built the stand last fall they refurbished the swing that had hung from the tree for years. The kids love the swing (I guess Arin went down there with my mom one day and skipped the swing and climbed to the top of the tree) and getting yummy drinks so going down is a real treat. It's been hard for me to show restraint having a latte literally seconds away, it was really nice for all those rainy, cold evenings of baseball.

 

The one man band was my favorite- I think because I love Bert from Mary Poppins.

Tovah was explaing to this little girl that the goat with the burned off horns was the baby boy goat and the other one was the baby girl. A few minutes later another little girl joined her in the pen and when Tovah tried to tell her the same thing the little girl lifted the goats leg and showed Tovah how to really tell the difference!  Gotta love living in a farming community.

Monday Mingle

I've been wandering over to Mingle Monday the past few weeks. It's been fun to read about how other people homeschool, to find new art projects, or to just read for enjoyment and inspiration.

Tomorrow we start VBS. This year our church is using Answer in Genesis' Egypt File curriculum. I've missed most of the planning meetings and I really don't have any idea what its all about so it'll be fun to figure it out along with the kids. Tomorrow I'm making 200 food pyramids (grilled cheese sandwiches). It'll be interesting if nothing else.

Nathan left this morning to go back to Afghanistan. His area has been on the news several times in the 2 weeks he's been home. I'm having a harder time today with his going than when he first left in March.

100 Mile Challenge- Week 1

Well, we completed our first week. We didn't do so well- 2 days of exercise this week but yesterday instead of going to the pool we took the kids to see How to Train Your Dragon at our local McMenamins. This has been a crazy busy spring and we missed a bunch of movies we wanted to see so we decided to try and catch them as they come to the Olympic Club this summer. Tonight Ryan and Rush are going to the Mariners v Cubs game with Nate & Cheyney, tomorrow is the youth pool party, and Thursday they are all going to see Toy Story 3 with Grandma Carol Jeanne (I saw it Friday night at midnight- awesome movie even if it did make me cry) so yesterday was the only day we could do the movie.

So, for our mileage- Friday we walked on Rails to Trails to Littel, if we make it a big circle its 3 miles, the kids rode their bikes for most of it, it's paved for about a mile and then it's gravel, sand, and washrock so we pushed Tovah's bike for a lot of it. I forgot the camera but would have taken pictures of albino California poppies, a robin's egg fragment that was a spot of clear blue in a field of gray gravel, and the deck of the new bridge. Today we went to the gym and I used the recumbent bike and rode 3 miles- the guys walked on the treadmills or around the indoor track.

Ryan- 4.5m
Erica- 6.5m
Rush-5m
Arin- 4m
Isaac- 3m
Jonah- 1.75m
Tovah- 3m

Happy Father's Day pt 2

The moral of the story is Just Do It...

Happy Father's Day- We love you!

Ryan and Nathan on Guam, the day after Typhoon Andy came through in 1991

Ryan's first Father's Day was about 2 weeks after Nathan was born and I think I got him a card. The next year he had just come home from 6 months in Japan and I don't think Father's Day was on our agenda. To tell you the truth I don't remember really celebrating Father's Day for him other than a new movie or a new shirt that the kids "bought" him and trying to make sure we have a nice (steak, mushrooms, baked potatoes, salad) dinner. This year I had a good plan but didn't get around to it so we got him Tombstone on Blu-Ray and fabric for a new scrub shirt and I bought mushrooms for his steak dinner. Steak makes my dad happy too so its good all around. However, I still have about 27 hours before Father's Day is over so I may still be able to pull off my great idea (I don't have to worry about him reading this until Monday at the earliest).

Building a Blog Button

I found an easy step by step tutorial at Oikology 101 on creating your own blog buttons. It was very easy to do. I created the button image with StoryBook Creator Plus and then it was just copying and pasting from one place to another and dragging and dropping.

100 Mile Challenge

Ryan wants to do a 100 Mile Challenge from now until September 20 when school starts. I've done this before with MOPS and never done more than about 45 miles in the 3 months, however I've never had access to the gym before and had to rely on walks at the park in good weather (we live on a narrow country road that terrifies me to walk along it with the kids). Today is supposed to be Day 1 but we haven't gotten to it yet, we are enjoying a down day with nothing on the agenda.

For the MOPS challenge any activity that brought up your heart rate counted: 20 minutes = 1 mile. Biking and walking were straight mileage.

Want to join us? Leave a comment and check in weekly. I'll let you know how we're doing. I even figured out how to create one of those buttons you can have for your blog.

To Do List

I saw this on eighteen25 this morning and decided I had to make it. I used an old mirror I found in the attic and strips of scrapbooking paper leftover from another project. It'll be interesting to see how much we do when the list is out where the kids can see it rather than in my head

Summer Plan

I always have big plans for the summer but then they don't happen, part of it is that I fail to plan and part of it is that I really like to have a laid back summer and we have so many external activities that by the time we have home days I just want them to be down days (and its usually the hottest part of summer). But the kids are not going to spend all of August watching The Disney Channel so I need a plan...

External Activities- activities we take part in but are not just our family, I have no control of when these are going to occur and for the most part the whole family takes part

• VBS
• Family Camp
• Rush is going to IYC in Orlando
• Rush is going on our troop's High Adventure in British Columbia
• Arin & Isaac are going to Boy Scout Camp

Family Activities we have planned

• Camping at the Arlington Air Show
• 4th of July Demolition Derby (the boys will do the flag ceremony then we all get to attend)
• Camping in Eastern WA with friends from California
• Mariners or Rainiers Game?
• Reading through the Bible (this is a challenge from the Youth Pastor to do it in a year so we have to plan for it so the boys stay on track)
• Paint our bedroom (but this involves changing a window and siding so it may have to wait a year)
• DeGoede's Bulb Farm for a family picture
• U-Pick blueberries
• Agate Hunting
• Walk 100 miles (or do the equivalent)

Things I would like to do weekly (when we are home...)

• Library
• Craft Day
• Baking Day
• Farmer's Market- local, Olympia, and Pike's Place Market (my hope is that if the kids pick out the vegetables then they'll eat them)
• Work on the kids' baby books

I have a few ideas for crafts and I'm sure I'll come across more- I already bought the kite paper to make Waldorf Stars, and I have everything we need to make Georgia O'Keefe flowers and to paint with cornstarch. I think I'd like to start a red-work quilt with Tovah to remember our year doing Prairie Primer.

Saturday I took Tovah to Home Depot to make a soccer game (the boys wanted to play with it but didn't want to go so they decided one game was all we really needed and Tovah could make it- they didn't know I was listening to this discussion).

In with the new before the old has gone out

Ryan didn't find this shirt quite as funny as I did- it reads,
"I won't let school interfere with my social life"

This time of year I'm always itching to get the new year's curriculum together before we have finished up the current year. Rush and Arin still have a couple of subjects to finish up and I still have to write up their end of the year assessments. Throughout the year I have weeks that I feel like we aren't accomplishing anything but when I start listing everything we've done in each of the 11 subjects I am always surprised. One way or another we'll be done by August.

I guess I like to plan now because I have a pretty good idea of what each child needs and if I start now I can pick up the curriculum used or budget for the expenditures all summer.

Math- Arin, Jonah, & Tovah are going to continue with Math-U-See, I like the visualness of it for my concrete learners however it goes to slow for once they start "getting it" so this year Rush and Isaac will be using Number Power

Reading/ Language Arts- I like Pathways Readers for reading comprehension and practice. Rush and Arin will be using A Beka Language

Jonah will be doing Apples Spelling this year, haven't decided about the older 3 (they finished it up this year). Maybe Spelling Power (I already own it so its not something I have to find)

Tovah will be doing Prairie Primer for reading, history, copywork, art, etc. The boys will join in as they choose, I don't feel like making them enjoy it.

We'll be doing Answer in Genesis' Animal Kingdom with friends for science. Rush will be doing A Beka Biology. He'll also be taking Spanish 1 online.

Plus we'll have a full load of social studies- scouts, drama, chess, sports, swim lessons, church, field trips, and everything else that comes up.

Homestead Pioneer Fair

Today we got a preview of next year's topic of study- I took Tovah to a Homestead Pioneer Fair up in Tumwater. We're going to do Prairie Primer which is a unit study based on the Little House on the Prairie books. She and her best friend, Jillian got to pretend they were doing the same type of chores as Laura and her sisters.

Hoops is one of the games played in the schoolyard and with friends

They got to wash clothes, make candles, spin wool, split firewood, and make biscuits. They also got to make rope, punch tin, and use woodworking tools.

The weather was beautiful and the girls had a great time. Tovah did tell me that she needs a dress for next time...