Some May happenings

Yes, still playing catch-up, but trying to combine some things into one post.  So many things happen in May - lots of things coming to an end and a lot of celebrations.  Things seemed especially busy this year as we were preparing for a graduation.

In the midst of the busy times, it is always good to stop and remember what is really important.  People.  The most treasured things in my life are people.  Family.  Friends.  My precious Savior Jesus.  It can become so easy to get caught up in things, stuff, schedules and miss out on the important things.  Its something I constantly have to remind myself.

Here are a few glimpses of the celebrations with those special to me.

Our FIAR group had a Mom's outing in May.  Just a little something sweet, but mostly we just enjoy the company.  Time to talk, remember, share and laugh.  I'm thankful for good friends.

We celebrated Mother's Day.  I love being a Mom.  It has been the best thing!!!  God has been so good to bless us with wonderful children and I am so thankful to be their mom.  They did a great job in treating me to a special day.

I love homemade cards!

 All my meals are made for me.  I even got the red plate!

 Fun time playing Wii with my boys.

 Some sweet gifts.

I've been blessed to have a wonderful mom - a beautiful example in so many ways.  I love you Mom and am thankful for you!!!

Making memories together with Five in a Row.  This was our Chinese meal to go along with the book The Story about Ping.  Food is a fun way to make memories!

Laughter.  Shared times.  I love seeing my children enjoying being together.  Yesterday, I was talking with Eliana about something and one of the kids said something about being awesome.  I asked Eliana, "Who is awesome?"  Without hesitating, she gave me an answer, "Bober" awesome.  She is consistent too.  Today when we would ask, she would give the same answer and when other siblings would ask "Am I awesome?", she would reply ... "No.  Bober awesome."  LOL  He is pretty awesome.

 Little Miss Sunshine in a cute outfit that her grandparents gave her.

There are times with friends too that are hard.  Saying good-bye is one of them.  We had a party for one of our friends just before she and her family moved.

 It was a sweet day.  We miss you Jasmine and girls!

My life is full and blessed in so many ways.  I am thankful for so much!

Blessings
Leslie

April & May book club meetings

Well, I'm still catching up on some things and hope this is a fun look back.  As we look ahead to the coming year, we are trying to select books for our book club.  This is a mother-daughter book club and it's been a lot of fun.  We wanted something to challenge the girls to lead discussions, form opinions (and share them) and also just to have a great time!  If anyone has suggestions for book titles, please share them as we haven't come up with too many for the year yet.  

In April, we met to read Prisoner in the Palace by Michaela MacColl.  I really enjoyed the book, though it does have some scenes that are difficult and I would recommend pre-reading it to see if its right for your daughter.  I'm happy to share more specifics if you want more details.  We thought it opened up a lot of good avenues for discussion.  

Rebecca made a delicious spread for us to enjoy!  The foods were like a tea party.  Petit fours, tea sandwiches (cucumber and chicken salad), scones with jam (which were so yummy)!  

Afterwards the girls played some games - one of them pretty silly.  Its fun to hear them laugh and just enjoy being together.

In May, we read the book Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.  This is the first book in a three part series.  I enjoyed the book, but it was challenging to read of the harsh treatment of the main character, Isabel, and her sister Ruth.  They were both slaves during the Revolutionary War.  I would recommend this book! 

As always, we enjoyed a delicious spread after our discussion.  This is a sweet part of our time together.

We are looking forward to another fun year together.   

Blessings

Leslie

Lazy days of summer

So many things that need to be done and yet we need some lazy days.  Our summer has been full, especially for Christopher.  Here is a blog post he wrote about one day of his experience at Summit Student conferences.  This has been a great experience for him and one I'm glad he has had the opportunity to do.  If you are interested in learning more about the experience, the student posts are a great way to get a feel for what goes on there.

Its nice to have a week without much planned.  We can sleep in, read books, play legos or just relax.

I've been trying to do some planning for school.  I haven't made as much progress as I would like, but I still have another good week.

I've also been working on cleaning up and decluttering.  It also isn't going as quickly as I would like.  It never does.  I've finished the boys rooms including having them try on all of their fall/winter clothes so I could get things ready for the next consignment sale.

The other room on the list has been the playroom.  If you have been in this room, you know what a job that has been.  We are trying to sort through all of the playmobil and organize what they are playing with.  One of the neat benefits of getting this room more organized has been having Eliana play more with the kitchen.   She is really enjoying playing and pretending.  One day Joshua played kitchen with her and when he told me all of the things they had done, I was so impressed.  He was helping her to learn and work on new skills - just the way we need to play with her!  I love that he did that.

I've also been working (with others) on getting things ready for our homeschool group - setting up field trips, planning the mom's meetings and more.  It is looking like a fun year!

The other huge thing on my mind has been learning about Celiac disease.  I'll post more on that as we work through this process.  I'm reading some books and trying to cook foods that are safe for her.  There is a lot to learn and to think about.  I'm thankful for friends who are helping me navigate this new path.

So, back to the lazy days.  I want to figure out some fun things to do in this last week and half with all of my family home.  Any fun ideas?

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Boxcar Children #4

I'm going to play a little catch up on my blog.  First a little about what is current.  Christopher is home!  I love having my whole family under one roof.  For a little while anyway.  We don't have much planned for the next couple of weeks and that is a good thing.  We have lots of planning and preparing to do for the upcoming year.  Him for college and the rest of us for our upcoming school year.  Its a time of big transitions for all of us.  I would love prayers for all of us.  I'm excited for Christopher.  I also know that this will be hard on the rest of us to have him gone.  Its a new way in which I need to learn to trust God and grow.  

I wanted to share a bit about our co-op.  This was our last formal meeting, though I also have another activity day to post.  I hope this is encouraging for anyone wanting to do Beyond.  It is a great unit study to use!  If you have any questions about it - know I'm happy to answer them.  

A fun ending to a fun year with Volume 1.  We covered the last chapters in the book.  One of the lessons we covered was on marathons.  We asked Christopher to talk with the children about running a marathon.  He gave some interesting facts on the history of marathons and told some of his experience in preparing for and running a marathon!  I loved having him share and think that the kids did too.

After listening and learning it was time to put them into action.

We had them run a race.  We marked out a 1/2 mile course for them to run and told them that a marathon would be like running this more than 52 times!

On your mark ... get set ...

GO!

They all found their pace.  Some running solo and others with a friend.

Next we focused on the part of the story about the names of two of the characters.  We talked about the meaning and family history behind some names.  We asked each of the children to share a little bit about their names and any meaning behind them.

For a fun art project we did potato prints.

I helped with the cutting for the younger students.

It is always fun to see the variety and creativity that they display!

We ended our day with a campfire.  This was from an earlier lesson in the book, but we were rained out on that day.  It was a fun thing to save for the last day together though!  Christopher showed the others how to build and start a fire.

They stopped for a group photo before starting to cook.

First we roasted hot dogs.

And then marshmallows to go in s'mores!

Gooey and yummy!!!

This has been a really special year.  I'm so thankful for this group of friends with which to learn!  We have had fun, learned a lot and made many sweet memories.  Thank you friends!!!

Love
Leslie

Creation Museum

Today we headed to the Creation Museum.  I've heard so much about it and my children were really excited to see it as well.  We arrived at opening time and there were already a lot of people there.  We were greeted by a large dinosaur outside.  

 The staff at the museum were very helpful and the site is impressive.  This is a model of a dinosaur that was found while digging for a line or pipe.

 There were spots around the museum that were geared for younger children, but a lot of the material is suited for older kids/adults.  Not that the younger ones won't have fun!  There is so much to see and just soooo much information.  We ended up pairing up and working through the museum at different paces and that worked well for us.

 There were hands on exhibits and lots of interesting stories.

 Visually fun and interesting!

 We learned some interesting new things and we appreciated that it all came from a Christian worldview.

 The Garden of Eden.

 No fear of the dinosaurs.

We spent some time in the outside gardens.  It was a beautiful and warm day.  This bridge was a lot of fun - bouncy!

There was a petting zoo with some interesting animals like wallabies.

Eliana was attracted to the goats.  She has seen these before.

She was terrified of the Zorse and Zonkey.  Yes, I typed it correctly - it's a cross between a horse/zebra and a donkey/zebra.  I should have gotten a better shot of their bodies so you could see the stripes.

Alpaca.

Eliana having fun with her Daddy.

This bridge was great!  Very bouncy - especially when there are a few of you on it trying to bounce it.  We went over this a number of times.  :-)

We stayed until close to closing time.  It was a fabulous day and I would highly recommend a trip here.  (As well as to any of the other fun stops we made!)  Now it was time for a long drive home.  We stopped to pick up dinner after a couple of hours and then kept driving.  We arrived home very, very late - middle of the night.  It was good to be safely home.  

I'm thankful we were able to make this trip and we have a lot of fun memories from our time.  I'm ready to plan another long journey, but not sure when we'll be able to swing that again.  Its good to know that this works for our family.  I do love a good field trip and when you add in family and friends it just makes it all the more fun!

Blessings

Leslie