Favorite Tradition!

Yesterday Camille said, "I get so grumpy when I think that we aren't going to the North Pole until tomorrow!"

The girls were so incredibly excited! And, it was even better because their cousins got to come and enjoy us!

And, without further adieu, here are a bajillion pictures:

Audra is probably a little old for the North Pole. Next year I think we will need bring a friend for her to play with. She went and jumped to the bigger rides while the younger kids stayed on the kiddie rides.

Camille is the perfect age- just tall enough for most of the rides, but not too tall.

Claire said the boats are her favorite. I don't now if that's true, though, or if she is just saying that because next year she will be too big for them:

Tilt A Whirl was a huge success for ALL the kids. Max was jumping up and down wanting to go on the ride, and it did not disappoint. He LOVED it. I, however, was not so lucky. I was sick for the next 2 hours after riding.

Like usual, it rained on us. We decided to wait it out. After the rain, there were literally about 8 kids left in the park. We went on 4 more rides, and then the rain came again and they closed the park.

The Girls To Do List

I need them to be in charge more often:

1. Build carriage*play carriage

2. Play doll house

3. Color

4. Spy

5. Legos

6. Play outside/backyard

7. Tea Party

8. Games

9. Snack

10. Dress-ups

11. Pillow fights

12. Cross stitch for 4H

13. Homework

14. Listen to Playaways/read

15. Paint nails

16. Find kaleidoskopes

17. Record voices

18. Calendar

Paint Mines

We crossed another item off the bucket list: Going to the Paint Mines. I have wanted to go for several years, but something always has come up. But, finally, today we made it!

It was beautiful, and HOT. Very, very hot. But, there were a ton of rocks to climb, so the children were happy. They were supposed to be very colorful rocks, but they weren't. They were white. But, they do rub off as the rocks are actually clay. We came home hot, tired, and dirty. That's a perfect day, right?

Another Year Down!

I simply cannot believe that we are wrapping up our FOURTH year of homeschooling! When I started, I thought all those women who had homescooled for four years knew what they were doing and were wise and all-knowing.

Oh, man, that is not the case! But, there are some things that I have learned:

-I no longer care if people roll their eyes when they hear I homeschool. I am totally comfortable with this choice and I love our lifestyle
-While there are hard days, it really is totally worth it
-Curriculum is not nearly as important as everybody thinks it is. There are so many great curricula out there, and I have a Master's Degree in curriculum design. Homeschool moms spend months agonizing over curricula thinking about how much we will forever scar our children. But, guess what? It doesn't really matter. Kids will learn, and they will be just fine.
-There are so many great things to do. The hard part is choosing how to spend our time on the most important things.
-Snuggling on the couch reading is still the best part of any day

And so, tomorrow, I turn in our curriculum for last year. Looking at the picture above, we did A LOT this year. Like, A LOT. And it was wonderful and fun and tedious and difficult and perfect.

It's been another great year. I am ecstatic that Camille will be home with us next year and I will no longer have to cut my days in half picking her up or dropping her off at school

Time continues to pass and life moves forward. I don't know how long we will homeschool- we are taking it one year at a time. But, for now it continues to be a marvelous choice for which I am very grateful.

Summer Hikes!

Our first Summer Hike of the season was a success. I made a FB group and invited all my friends who live in the area to come hike with us on a weekly hike all around the area.

Todays hike combined with a co-op where we met with some volunteers and they taught us about rocks and minerals. Then, we went for a pretty short hike- only about a mile. It was nice, though, because the kids wanted to stop and look at everything- they were searching for all the different minerals. It was nice to stop and see the rocks.

It was so beautiful! So much better than sitting on the couch and watching TV (though, admittedly, that's all I wanted to do when I got home!)

After the hike, they spent an hour playing on a really big rock where they turned the rock into a house with various rooms and built a teepee. I LOVE nature play!