Fun Pics from July 2015

We saw a deer very close to our house. I think one of the neighbors feeds them because we usually spot them in the same guys yard.

Geography has been very well received by the kids so I am running with it! Here we made some dioramas to learn some of our vocabulary words.

This is a really neat playground in Arcadia, FL that we like to go to sometimes. There is shade!

and cattle!

The cows were at the property next to the playground....and here were my tired, rosy faced kiddos on the way home.

We got a little bit bigger pool that the kids just can't get enough of :)

We met some friends at the Laishley Park Splash Pad!

....and my super awesome, new, grande coffee cup I bought recently ;)

Children's Museum of Naples 6/13/15

On Monday, I took the kids to the Golisano Children's Museum of Naples. It was really fun!

There was a trolley car where they could press buttons and even see their photo on a driver's license.

We enjoyed the outdoor water play tables alot!

The girls found their way through the garden maze fairly quickly.

They peeked through the windows of this giant "seashell."

The girls took a look at the world through the eyes of a sea turtle! (Korbin was upset that he didn't do this when he later saw the pictures. Ha!)

The fishing boat was one of the favorites of this trip. The "pond" rotated and upped the level of difficulty!

There was an entire play grocery store complete with a farm so the kids could "harvest" their own fruits and veggies.

The refrigerated igloo was another big hit! There was a panel of ice on the back wall, winter dress up clothes, and a fake snowman for the kids to assemble.

Olivia dressed up as the mama bird caring for her nest and eggs while Korbin "fed" the baby birds their seeds.

Future meteorologists maybe?? ;)

This was a very small (and packed) vet clinic play area. We didn't stay in this one very long. There were just too many people around.

And lastly was the hearing and sound section.  They had some really fun and interesting stations...and it was a bit noisy at times. Ha! My favorite was the screaming booth. The girls made it to 107 dB!!

There was also this huge screen that the kids took turns "drawing" on with the remote.

Our first week of homeschool

Monday, July 6, 2015
Our first day of 2nd grade and Kindergarten was absolutely flawless!! The girls did wonderfully, there was very little complaining or stalling, and the little guy was easily entertained with a few special activities for only him. He LOVES to use his safety scissors and practice shredding pages from the Kumon workbook.

Tuesday the 7th
I'm hoping to mesh going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week with our school year. My gym has a really fun Body Combat class so I'm shooting for that. It ended up throwing us off a bit so I'm going to plan a bit less schoolwork for gym days....maybe more games....

Wednesday the 8th and Thursday the 9th
Everyone was in a funk these days...ha. We managed to get our bookwork done, but it was like pulling teeth. The kids were at eachother alot for some reason. Here's a pic of the best moment of the day--Olivia doing Geography, Carly doing Math, and Korbin in the background practicing his fine motor skills by cutting up a piece of paper.  It makes a heck of a mess but occupies him for almost an hour so it's worth it. ;)

Friday the 10th

This morning was for running errands. Errands take SO much longer now than they used to a few years ago. We fit in a little math while shopping, then had some screen time (educational apps on tablets) in the afternoon while Korbin napped. After supper, the kids and I loaded up a few bunnies and chickens and went to the small animal auction. It was somewhat miserable with the July heat and humidity. Even after the sun had long gone down, everyone there was glistening, if not dripping, with sweat. The kids handled it all pretty well as long as I kept the $.25 popsicles coming!

Of all things, we ended up coming home with 2 corn snakes. I bought them more for the aquariums than the snakes themselves. They were REALLY cheap. lol

Saturday the 11th

Today I really needed to get the house cleaned up and Josh ended up coming home sick from work, so the kids got a break today.  I am looking into ways to tweak the things we do for school to better fit our days and our family.  I think we might hit a nearby museum on Monday and we are going to our very first Girl Scouts meeting next Saturday! (Very excited for that!)

All week we have been working on various art projects in the afternoons. We have done yarn weaving, dreamcatchers, fabric scrap bracelets, and lots of coloring pages and drawn pictures.

Sunday the 12th

I don't know how, but I managed to get the house cleaned, laundry done, and even plan school yesterday.  This morning went great again and we had all of our work done (and then some!) by noon. The rest of the day, we took it easy. The kids played outside for a bit until it started to rain and then we had a movie night when Josh got home this evening. I look forward to our field trip tomorrow!!

Thanks for reading! :)

4th of July Week 2015

This week the kids worked on art projects and tried to get little letters written to another homeschooling family that we stay in touch with. We didn't quite finish it all up, but we will!

We started homeschooling during Shark Week last year, and that seemed to work pretty well for us so we will begin on July 6 this year, along with Shark Week. The kids got to get a shark and 2 sea turtle toys (because they didn't have 3 sharks).

Here's one I'm pretty proud of ;)

Josh gave Carly one of his Loot Crate shirts for pajamas and I got out the sewing machine and made it fit a little better! (The symbol is for Dungeons and Dragons, but we don't really play)

The girls and I also took a quick trip to Goodwill on the 4th and bought a hand mixer, a VHS tape rewinder, and a tool kit (with most of the tools missing). The kids sat down with their tools and electronics and were entertained for a very long time taking things apart and seeing how they work.  :) I even introduced them to putting a 9V battery on your tongue!

My sister in law Sarah has been visiting for the past couple weeks and we had lots of fun having her here with us. Wouldn't you know it, though, that she got to be here for our well pump breaking down, the bathroom pipes needing snaked out and a small invasion of ants in our living room and kitchen! **sigh** Well, there's always next year to show her a better time I suppose!

And, of course, the obligatory fireworks pictures!

Lost Tooth, Girl Scouts, Vet Bills, & Tadpoles

I've spent the last couple days getting my blog updated and going over some of my posts from a year ago when I started. I know that all parents already know this, but wow, my kids change so much in just one year!  It's almost time for us to start our second year of homeschooling and I am really excited/nervous about teaching Carly to read and helping Olivia through 2nd grade.

Olivia has lost yet ANOTHER tooth yesterday too!

I had considered Girl Scouts awhile back when a friend of mine started her girls into it, but shied away after reading about the increased financial focus the organization has shown in recent years and that there is often difficulty just finding a troop with an opening. Well, that has changed now because I met a troop leader at the kids' Vacation Bible School who seems absolutely elated at the possibility of having *both* of my girls join and, after several emails back and forth, it seems like she has a similar mindset to myself, which is awesome! We will be going to our first meeting in the middle of July and I'm really hoping this works out so the kids can have some friends that they see on a regular basis instead of just the random children we see at the playgrounds.
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My 10 year old chihuahua Peppy had an abscess on his behind and was overdue for a vet checkup anyway so we went today.  The estimate to get him all up to date and fixed up was almost $500 so we just had the ruptured gland cleaned up and medicated for now. Hopefully we'll be able to get the rest of his treatments done within the next month. Ugh. 

The kids went outside this evening after a pretty lazy day and when I looked out to see them soaking wet and sitting in the kiddie pool full of tadpoles, I was fine with it.  No big deal. Let 'em play in the water.  We have PLENTY of tadpoles.

Any kiddie pool left full for about a week will fill with tadpoles of all sizes. I love Florida!

Speaking of water, it looks like our well pump may be taking a crap and needing replaced in the very near future. **sigh** Sometimes it's really no fun being a grown up. ;)