Summer Fun! (weeks 4-10)

Real quick, I posted some pictures this morning before things got going. Scroll down to see them! It's quiet time, so I'm taking advantage to catch y'all up on the summer!
WEEK 10 ~ ANIMALS!

We spent a lot of time with our new friend, Ella, learning about puppies. Then on Friday we went to the KC Zoo. It was horribly hot and humid so we couldn't stay very long but we got to have lots of fun with CHALK, meeting new people and making more new home school friends, and we got to see otters up close for the first time! One of the zoo keepers came out and told us all about the cute little creatures. These otters we saw are native to MO. It was neat to hear about them.


WEEK 9 ~ WONDERFUL WATER!

This was a perfect week for water. The heat really started to rise! We played with soaked sponges (the car wash kind), water balloons, and the water hose. We also spent another afternoon at the pool with some friends. At the end of the week we went to down-town KC, to the Crown Center. They've got some fountains that shoot out of the ground. There were tons of children there, all running through the water. It was a delight to watch! A perfect end to a wet week!


WEEK 8 ~ PLANES!

I found a super book at Mardel~ *My American Journey: From Ground to Air with the Wright Brothers* by Deborah Hedstrom-Page.
It's got eight chapters about their story. Corisponding with each chapter, there is a character building section about Patience. Each chapter has some questions and Bible verses and application. We did a few of them for our family devos and they are awesome! The very last section of the book has some activities and exxperiments. We made paper helicopters and paper airplanes. We've been taking our time going through the book and we've all enjoyed learning about the Wright Brothers! At the end of the book, the kids will have honorary flight wings!

We didn't make it to the Amelia Earhart Festival. This was the weekend we took Ella in and decided to stay home with her. Next year we can go and it'll still be great!


WEEK 7 ~ STORY WEEK!

We read lots of books and cuddled a lot. Jonathan did write a short story that I hope he builds on. It was about chickens. At the end of the week, I took the kids to the Deanna Rose Childrens Farm to hopefully inspire more to the story. We saw chickens and they were cute, but we had fun checking out all the cool stuff they have.

Adie also really got into telling us stories, the favorite was Goldilox. It's such a joy to watch and hear her tell it! She's so animated!

Here is Jonathan's story, maybe we will add on to it this year:

One morning, there were three little chickens and their mom. They told her that they wanted to go out and pick berries. Their mom told them to be careful and not talk to strangers.
So, the three little chickens went out. While they were on their way, they saw a wolf. The wolf's name was Garlic and they knew him from church. So Garlic went with them to pick berries. Then they saw another friend from church, a hippo named Lion! So they were on their way to the berry patch. Before they got there, they saw a stranger! It was a pig named hippo! The pig talked to the three little chickens and they talked to the pig. They talked to the stranger before they got to the berry patch and they got in trouble.
The End

WEEK 6 ~ FAMILY CAMP!

Hot dogs, hamburgers, grilling out
This week our family had a camp out!
Swimming pools, popsicles, cooling off
The camp out was full of cool stuff!
Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows galore
You know the name ~ we had s'mores!
Black and red was the color of our tent
Sleeping outside, the whole night we spent!
We loved it so much I just want to shout
This week our family had a camp out!


WEEK 5 ~ PLAY BALL!

Really there isn't a whole lot to say about this week. We played T-ball a lot andwaatched a few games on TV. I think we also went to a T-Bones game. It was a lot of fun but we didn't do anything too big or exciting. Some times a more relaxed, normal week is good!


WEEK 4 ~ MUSIC WEEK!

The big event for this week was our talent show! Most of the week the kids were singing and picking out their songs and music for Saturday. Adie decided she wanted to sing "Part of that World" from Little Mermaid. Jonathan wanted to sing "Do Re Mi..." and play his guitar with his daddy. Jeff played a couple of songs and then played some chords that we could sing a few of our favorites with him. Then I sang a karaoke song from "A Walk to Remember." Jonathan and I also played on the dulcimer. He played "Twinkle Little Star" and I did the few that I know.

We are turning out to be quite a musical family! Jo and Adie are constantly singing church songs - their favorites are "The Glory Land Way", "Heavenly Sunlight", "Our God, He is Alive" and "This World is Not My Home." Jonathan even has the song #s memorized! They often ride their bikes in circles in the basement singing at the top of their lungs! They both also tinker on the piano and dulcimer. Jonathan has a guitar and keyboard in his room and loves to sneak up there while Alex is awake and play. He also enjoys playing the guitar for his brother and Alex loves it! For a few years now, Jo has wanted to play the fiddle. It's looking like that may be another instrument in our future! We'll see! Oh, and I mustn't forget, Jo still plays his band!

Well, I'm sorry I haven't been the greatest on updating y'all about our planned out summer. But we've really had a great time! I highly suggest planning out the summers, at least some sort of planning. Being able to tell the kids some kind of theme about what is coming up is so helpful. They looked forward to the activities that would come with each week. It was also a neat way for us to do a little research to find out more of the things that are available around the region. We didn't make it to the capitals, but we still intend to do that for sure. We also want to try and make it up to Nebraska and possibly Iowa, but we'll have to judge those.
School is right around the corner. And for my teacher friends, I'm sure most of you have already begun your year! Good luck to all of you. In a way, we are all teachers! I look forward to reading about more things going on in your lives. This week is Bug week - look for details coming up. I've already got so much to write! and Next week is Olympics week and next Thursday (14th) is our first day of school! I'll be posting our school activities as often as possible.