Art Camp Pool Party

On Thursday, the week of art camp, the teacher hosts a party at her lovely pool! It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast swimming with friends! Our boys love, LOVE swimming and it looks like they aren't the only ones ;)




These kids were going off the diving board so fast! A few times, I think they almost jumped on top of one another!

My Little Artists!

Yes, I'm going to blog today until my family drags me away from this computer :)

A couple of weeks ago, the boys attended an art daycamp hosted by the same wonderful art teacher that they take art from at co-op. Last year was our first year participating and the boys loved it! They look forward to seeing their co-op friends and the projects are so creative! This year, the camp we signed up for was in July which worked out great for us! Just about the time they start to get a little bored :)

Here are some of their projects:

What are these things called? Shadow boxes? They aren't paintings. There are actual objects placed inside! Very cool!
Brandon's kiwi:
The tall piece is called a bead pole. They each got a certain amount of shapes and could choose the color for each shape. They painted the pole and the base as well then layered the shapes in the order they wanted.
Do you see that flower Nicholas is holding? Adorable!

Now I have to find the perfect place for all these lovely pieces! They really did an amazing job!

Camping-Part 2

My computer is again up and running (for the most part) now I really want to get caught up here! The pictures I've posted since I started this blog are the only ones I have left since January so I'm thinking I should get better at recording my memories here! (and also find a reliable way to permanently store all my other pictures ;))

Back to our camping trip; on Saturday, we went out on the boat. It was a little chilly at times as the sun was in and out, but we had a great time! The lake is beautiful and being on the boat is lots of fun!

We were looking forward to eating dinner at this cute little restaurant on the lake, but it's only for private parties now.


My little, boating girl :)

Looking back toward the campgrounds:
All in all, it was a nice getaway. Maybe next time it will be warmer so we can enjoy the cute little beach they have :)

For All My Home Schooling Friends!

Honestly, I don't know how much of this I'll be actually participating in, but I'll be "hopping" around to see what everyone else posts! I love new homeschool ideas and this seems like a great way to pick up on a new tip or two!

Slightly Traumatized

A little advise to all my friends, family, and anyone else who might visit this blog....back up everything that is on your computer that you hold dear. Even if it isn't dear to you, but took time and effort, back it up.

Monday morning I was on the computer and the whole thing just froze up. I restarted it only to find it would come all the way on. Todd came home at lunch to take a look at it and sure enough there was no hard drive showing on my computer. He removed it and took it to the computer place to verify and yes, it was gone.

I was stunned.

I lost co-op email lists, all saved emails, Kristen's high school transcript, and many pictures. Of course, this had to happen the SAME DAY that I was to send out the fall schedule for co-op. I managed to get it all out today to as many people as I could find (I had some addresses written down).

Todd bought me a new computer yesterday and spent a good deal of time setting it all up and downloading stuff for me, but it isn't working out. It's nice and all but today he bought a new hard drive for my old computer so he can get that one working for me. Hopefully tomorrow before he goes in to work :)

Needless to say, I have been completely unmotivated to get any thing else done around here. The wind has left my sails too many times lately and now I'm just tired and...heartbroken. The rain and cold is really not helping here ;)

I'll recover, of course, a little wiser for my lessons this week.

I still have pictures on my camera to blog...art camp last week, swimming, and camping, but I'm going to wait until Todd gets my (old) computer up and running :)

Camping

We had a wonderful trip! We left later Friday than we'd originally intended because of the storms going through, but the trip went smoothly. Here are some pictures of our first night there:
Megan and her Tigresses. She is all about cats right now!

One of the things Todd reminded me to add to our list was the roasting sticks, but I told him they were already in the camper...I was wrong. So we had to find some sticks and carve them up ;)


See the boat on my van there in the background? I pulled that! It was kinda scary on the way down but on the return trip I was like an old pro ;)
Let me just say this family puts away the food! I spent a good deal of time Friday cutting up fresh fruits and veggies for the trip so we didn't eat too horribly and not very much made it back home! That's my Pampered Chef veggie tray on the table (yes there are hotdogs too! shhh). I've been keeping it stocked this summer for lunches and it's been a life-saver! I just pull it out at lunch and the kids fill their plates while I make the rest of lunch (usually sandwiches).

End of the day:It was definitely colder than I had planned for so I didn't pack very warm pj's but the kids stayed pretty cozy thanks to blankets and our wonderful space heater! I don't know why the weather has to turn cold every time I plan a camping trip....

A Little Fun for Us

We leave this afternoon for a little impromptu camping trip. We've had the camper for two years now and this will only be our third trip...ugh. Turns out we have busy little schedules ;)

Each trip has had weather issues (tell me again why we live in Ohio?). We froze the first time even though it was mid-May, the second time we evacuated a few hours after we set up camp because a tornado was coming through and this time there's a chance of thunderstorms all weekend. I'm beginning to think I'm cursed or something ;)

We'll have a good time anyway! We're taking the boat for a little extra fun (not during thunderstorms of course ;) we have a DVD player for that!). I get to pull the boat down...my first time pulling anything. I don't think Todd really wants me to be the one to pull his toy, but it's easier than the camper so that's the way it is. I'm sure he'll have his eyes on me all the way there! Pray that there aren't many right-hand turns! The curbs are in trouble ;)

I'd better get back to packing! I'll post lots of pictures when we return on Sunday! Hopefully they won't be filled with wet, muddy people...ugh.

One of My Favorite Things

At our church on Wednesday night we all split up into our different groups. Brandon and Nicholas go to RA's and Megan goes to Mission Friends; they are both groups learning about evangelism so the kids will know how to talk to others about God. Hopefully, in their lives they will all have lots of opportunities to witness to others about Jesus and the saving grace of God.

Kristen goes to Youth group which is where I go as well. Yeah, I'm a little old ;) I just help out there :) I love watching these young people getting into some really deep conversations about their faith and the Bible.

After all our lessons are over, a group of families stay to fellowship and allow their kids some time together. I love this! I get to hang out and talk to other moms while the kids run around and play! When co-op is in session, we have to scurry home in order to wake up early on Thursday. I bark orders continuously in order to keep them moving to their beds...I hate that. I start when we pull into our development telling them where to put their shoes and to get pj's on immediately, reminding Brandon to have his backpack ready, and as we enter the house they hear the same instructions until they are all in their beds ready to be tucked in. It's exhausting, but if I want them to be rested somewhat for a busy Thursday, it's what I have to do.

But...

When co-op ends in April, and if the weather's nice, I indulge them every Wednesday with their play time :) We are often the last ones to leave. Bedtime is out the window! I snapped these pictures last night after some of the kids had already left. They play "Ghost in the Graveyard", "Sharks and Minnows" or just run around! They all absolutely love it! It is definitely one of my favorite things about summer :)

Soccer Begins!

Last night, fall soccer season began. Brandon and Nicholas were really excited! Brandon has played before, but this is Nicholas' first year. I only managed to get pictures of Nicholas since every time we walked over to Brandon's team they stopped and did something sitting down! ~sigh~

The Upwards soccer program teaches kids the fundamentals of the sport while also teaching them good Christian sportsmanship. They focus not on scores, but on encouraging everyone to do their best. They also have a short devotional and a memory verse each week at practice. This weeks verse is, "Only the Lord gives wisdom. Knowledge and understanding comes from Him." Proverbs 2:6

Here's a few pictures of Nicholas at his very first soccer practice, I'll have to get some of Brandon next week!

Getting a Little Bored?

We spent some time yesterday running errands then in the afternoon we relaxed with some playing and some reading. The funny thing is, I think my kids are actually kinda missing school! Especially Megan since all her schoolwork is fun stuff anyway ;) She pulled out this alphabet/numbers book and found some pages to work on. She called it her "math book". It was cracking me up!
Thsi is a page of connect-the-dots that she did. Of course it's a cat!

Beautiful Start to the Day

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm usually a pretty early riser, especially in the summer when the sun comes up so early, but not that early! After tossing and turning for a bit trying to get back to sleep, I gave up, got dressed and came downstairs. About an hour later, I got a nice surprise:
There was a gorgeous sunrise! When I went out to snap some pictures, I found out it was also raining a bit although the sky was bright and beautiful. Soon after this picture though the clouds took oever for a while. Sunrise is one of my favorite parts of summer :)

Fourth of July-Part 2

We extended our holiday with a visit with my mom today.

Brandon doing one of his favorite things ;)
Nicholas and Todd waiting they're turn:
Meemaw Diana and Megan:
Lady kept trying to lay on the coloring book. Silly dog!
Thank you, Mom, for the food and the fun!

Fourth of July-Part 1

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon with the Wilson side of the family. It was really nice to see everyone!

It was a little cool and drizzly but we stayed nice and dry under huge umbrellas.

Todd's Uncle Wayne, Aunt Carol, Judy (Todd's mom), Scott (Todd's brother) and Barbara (Scott's wife).
Next table is Chris (Scott's son), Russ (Todd's dad), Nicholas, Todd, and Brandon.

Judy had some little crafts for the kids. Isn't that tiger cute??

Russ and Judy were unable to make it up for Nicky's little birthday party so he opened up his gifts from Meemaw and Papaw yesterday.
Megan and Brandon playing with Molly:
These guys were cracking up! What's so funny??

Everyone was cracking up!

They were all cracking up at this:
Silly dog! Molly was entertaining everyone with her toys :)

Megan and Papaw:
We had so much fun yesterday :) Judy, thanks for everything!