Summer time!

Well this summer has been really busy and packed with fun, and we have really been trying to enjoy the time off from school. Buster and Sweetpea have still been reading and doing a bit of handwriting practice but other than that we haven't done any school work. The girls are doing a once a week art class at our church and they really enjoy that. The kids also have had the chance to play with cousins from out of town. My husbands brother and fam were up in June and had a new baby in July, and my brother and his kids were here visiting yesterday. My big kids got to spend the night with them and have some fun. Buster is continuing swim team through the summer and Sweetpea is now in the Shark level of swim lessons which is kind of a transition class between lessons and team. Buttercup is taking the summer off of swim lessons because there was not a good time for her class. I have been trying to take her to open swim time and she is swimming like a fish. Also my nice camera broke so I was without a camera for most of June and these pictures are not the best since they were taken on a  little point and shoot. Other than this here is some of the things we have been up to. 

 Board game time!

  

4th of July!

 

Waiting for the city fireworks! 

 

Berry picking!

   

Our half price fireworks.

   

Slip and slide and fireworks!

   

Park time!

   

Buster turned 10 and had a Hobbit sleepover!  

Graffiti night cruise!

  

Buster got to ride in a friends car for a spin around the parade route.  

Buttercup with cousin E!

  

I'm starting to think ahead to this coming school year and getting things ready. Hopefully I will be able to post soon about curriculum and such.  

Summer Time!

I have done a terrible job of keeping this blog up to date over the Summer. We had a crazy busy Summer, I was sick, and for some reason my computer hates photobucket. Every time I use it I get kicked off the internet for like an hour. I was finally able to get some photos uploaded. I really didn't take that many over the Summer. I just wanted to give a quick photo run down of some of our Summer happenings before I start trying to do Weekly Wrap Ups again.

Buster turned 9 in July!

  

The Party Guests!

  

 He loves birds so this was his cake. It was our first time using modeling chocolate.  

 Sweetpea decided she could finally ride her bike! 

 

She has ridden for short spurts before without the training wheels but now she is unstoppable! 

We had a crazy week of VBS!

   

 I helped out all week.

  

 We did some waterfall hiking!

   

Buddy explored the moon!

  

We celebrated Daddy's birthday! 

Summer School Plans!

We finished our school Year last Friday! Buster has completed all of Bigger Hearts, Sweetpea finished Beyond through unit 18, and Buttercup finished through unit 13 of Little Hands! We will not be starting our 2012-2013 School year until the last week of August. For the summer we will be using the following resources.

Buster and Sweetpea will both be using the Singapore Math extra practice book for the levels they completed. We are also doing a world geography study, and they each will be reading daily.

Sweetpea just started this stack of books last week with the Bible!

These are the books Buster is working through currently.

For Spanish they will be using some Spanish computer games we own. Summer school has gone really well this week and I'm trying to keep it short and fun. One way I came up with to make it more fun was to give us an extra theme for each day. Which go as follows:

Math Monday(we will be playing math games together as a group)

Tea Tuesday(Each Tuesday we plan to have a tea party for lunch and read poetry)

Word Wednesday(On this day we are doing fun things like Mad Libs, Grammar Rock, and Ruth Heller books)

Park Thursday(We plan to meet some friends at the park each Thursday and maybe do some nature study)

Fit Friday(I'm hoping to teach the kids some of those things you would normally learn in PE)

This week we had a special guest for Tea Tuesday!

My cousin is visiting for her brothers graduation and she joined us for tea. I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the tea party. It was very lovely.

Other than these school plans we hope to enjoy as much time outdoors as we can, enjoy family, and go crazy with all the parties and weddings. Buster is joining our local swim team for the summer and the girls will be continuing swimming lessons.

Summer/Spring Fun!

We have been on Summer break for almost 2 weeks, and yesterday the nice weather finally kicked in. We have had a very wet and dreary spring here, and literally had 23 days of rain in May, and pretty much the rest of the days were overcast. In light of that last week we had to think of some creative ways to entertain ourselves. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Buttercup loves to dance so she had fun dancing! We all had to join her as well.

Sweetpea Decided we should have a play and everyone dressed up!

I'm not really sure what the play was exactly intended to be about but it slowly morphed into a version of Tangled!

Buster trying to be a villain!

So frightening!

Grandpa forgot his hat after game time on Wednesday!

Buster had an idea for the kids to make things out of paper.

I set out paper, cardboard, scissors, glue, tape, and markers. They had a bunch of fun creating.

Buster took this picture of the fort he made!

Sweetpea made a drawing of the family!

Since it was too cold outside the kids did some swimming in the tub with finger paint, and shaving cream.

We ordered some caterpillars in the mail!

The butterflies began hatching last weekend while we were at Busters soccer tournament!

We released them into our yard this week!

Right now the kids are outside enjoying the 70 degree day and it is supposed to be a lovely weekend. We will have to enjoy it from our house since our mini van is in the shop for a little body work.