"Insta"replay #5, let's go to the movies

This has been a busy week full of fun summer memories!!

Grandma Kelly treated the kids to a lunch of doughnuts.

My hubby was free in the evening for a surprise trip to DQ.

Another surprise was Charry going on stage at the Library's weekly kids event!  

Charry also completed her first junior scout badge!

Merry was a lalaloopsie garden gnome, the outfit is a toddler size Halloween costume, I can't believe she can still squeeze into it.

Summer clearance meant new outdoor toys, putter in particular. 

We saw "Turbo". That snail is fast.  Cute movie, girls liked it, and we'll probably buy the DVD.

 We saw yet another movie!  "Movies in the park" was showing "Brave" out by my inlaws.  (Your welcome Aunt Katie for not plastering that "great" picture of you all over the Internet)

And finally my big accomplishment, I made my first real bento box meal!  Compleat with flower shaped food.

So that was our week, fun, full and now we're ready for the next one!

"Whatchadoin?" Week 1~ lesson plans

I am counting the weeks until school starts again.  I think there are only five or so left.  Of course that is partly do to us starting only half way through August but still I'm starting to prepare.

To be honest I love lesson planning and scheduling.  Picking out curriculum is a blast for me.  My husband rolls his eyes and groans a bit when I try to get him to read text books but he still listens to me as I compare each of them.

Right now I am mapping out the first half of our year.  I always start with each subject on their own sheet of paper.

Then I try to put them in one planner so I can see my plans at a glance.  This year I am trying something new.  Instead of waiting for the teacher books to go on sale I found really cute student planners.

My hope is that these will also take the place of checklists for the girls.  The cuteness of the planners also inspired me to make the inside look nice too.

Since I tend to plan one subject at a time, the different colors were pretty easy to use.

The different colors also helped me to keep track of when I was scheduling reading vs projects so I didn't have her doing the same thing in every subject.

So my plans are coming along, Wednesdays I will try to share what we are doing in each subject, or at least hoping to do.

"Insta"-replay #4, a bit Buggy

Another week done!  This week we had some unexpected fun and learning. 

It started with the discovery of a giant, over two inches long, Crane Fly in the laundry room.  I for one had never seen one so large.  We of corse trapped it, examined it, and released it out side.  

Self highlights were the "highlight" of my week.  And yes I think I'm funny.

My sister bought board book kits and sent them over for the kids.  They loved coming up with their own stories.

My sister-in-law sent over some cool zebra print balloons.  Unfortunately they didn't fair very well outside, but they were fun while they lasted.

Our week ended with another large "bug."  I know spiders aren't bugs, but they sure bug me.  We took our little house guest to the department of Agriculture where a very nice gentleman explained what type it was and reassured us we were safe even if it wasn't the only one visiting.

Bugs give me the creeps so starting and ending with them was not my ideal.  My daughters (also not bug lovers) had a surprising amount of fun with magnifying glasses and our trapped "friends."   That made it almost worth catching the bugs.

"Insta-Replay" week 3 July!

It is hard to believe it is already July!  We have had a full week.

We started the week with hair cuts, hopefully the shorted locks will help beat the heat.

Then we had another trip to the library.  The weekly trips have been a lot of fun and Charry especially has been enjoying the many books at her disposal.

With the house feeling like an oven we have been spending most of the time outside, especially when the cousins are around.

My wonderful mother-in-law gave me an autographed copy of Fred's geometry book.  While the kids play out side I've been reading.

This week was the Fourth of July and we spent it in small town style.  The parade even had a fairy riding an unicorn (I wish I had gotten a picture of her)

The day ended with fireworks at the middle school.  

We finish the weekend by going to a reenactment.  Watching the civil war battles and hearing about life 150 years ago was educational and inspirational.  

It has been a great week but the summer is moving fast.

"Insta"-Replay Week 2: Feels Like Summer

Here again is my week, instagramed:

We decided it dissect our dirt babies, I was amazed at how few roots were visible in the soil vs grew  below in the water.  We were also able to see how the roots spread and why grass is hard to pull out.  

Mid-week library trips are becoming routine.  This week we saw a puppeteer.  After the performance he showed off the different types of puppets he used and taught the kids how to make different voices.

Merry had trouble finding a quiet place to read at my in-law's, but  I wouldn't let her play on the ipod unless she read a chapter first.  Luckily her Aunt Abbie had only half way put away her bed.

When the weather gets "hot" Oregonians go shopping.  It rarely gets over 90 so when it does we stay out of our houses and go to air-conditioned spots around town.  Our favorite is Dairy Queen.

Insta-Replay #1

So I have noticed when I go through my pictures that there are many times I will "Instagram" something that I won't take a lot of other pictures of.  These are the little events in life that make it fun, interesting and unexpected.  They are also the memories I like to share with others, So here are last weeks grams and a bit in insight.

 So it's been over a week since Father's Day but the fact that my girls picked out a Darth Vader shirt for their Dad says a lot about our family.

 We have been using Focus on the Family's "Around the World in 60 Days" family devotions.  To be honest we miss days often, double up on days and simplify activities because we forgot until bedtime.  But occasionally we remember and the activity turns out to be fun.  Last week while learning about Russia, we found out that in Russian schools chess is often taught as a subject.  That inspired my 7 year old to teach her 6 year old cousin.  She knew how the pieces moved but the other rules where a bit sketchy.

 I was super excited to see Monsters U.  Our family loved the first one, love going to movies and love photo props.  What made the movie even more "worth it" was my sister paid (I'll pay her back eventually.)

So that was my weeks highlights, I'm looking forward to what next week will hold.

SUMMER VACATION!!!

We started our summer break last week and are managing to cram all sorts of fun into it.

Once  Girl Scout promotion came it was hard to keep the girls focused on school.  Since both moved up to a new level, they felt like they had finish the former grade and they were eager to work on the new badges.  (Hopefully I'll have blogs sharing that as the summer goes on.)

Our first summer trip was to the library.  My older daughter was eager for some more books, she will be spending the summer with her nose in a book.  My younger daughter needed some incentives to keep reading.  We also signed up for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and Barnes and Nobles summer reading.   Keeping track of both hours spent and books read is helping me to make the older take breaks and encourage the younger to sit for a while.

 At the library we enjoyed playing in the dino themed "explorers room."  The Salem library has done an amazing job developing activities for multiple ages, which is especially nice when you come with multiple ages of cousins.

 We also enjoyed some quiet reading time.

 After the library we headed to a park to get out our wiggles.  It was fun watching my kids play on the same playground equipment I had enjoyed as a child.

 We finished off our first week of vacation with a field trip to OMSI.

 Highlights of the trip included seeing a 3D printer in action, the volunteer was very friendly and interacted great with my kids.  Merry especially liked seeing all the different items they had printed.

 Both girls had a blast playing with Google Sketch Up.  Their dad had used the program during school and I was surprised how quickly they caught on, in fact since it is a free program we might be getting it for our home computer.

The chemistry lab was fun also, if for no other reason than the safety goggles.

Our summer is starting off great, I'm looking forward to more adventures!