Happy Father's Day!

 Happy Father's Day to an amazing dad, husband and doctor!  We love you!!!

This year we surprised JM with a hot tub (or hot bathtub as Colleen calls it)!

Gridiron

 JM & Tyler took a few days to go to the GridIron Men's Conference in Birmingham.  They went up a day early so they could spend some extra time together.  they went to see the new Superman 3D movie, shot automatic rifles, and played 9holes of golf!  At the conference they had the privilege of hearing from Dan Cathy, Tim Tebow, and Fred Luter.  They both enjoyed the experience of worshiping with a forum of 7500+ men!

Art Camp with Mrs. Barb

This week Lauren & Lyndsey went to Mrs. Barb's art camp for 2 afternoons.  They had not painted with Mrs. Barb in years so they were very excited when I surprised them onTuesday afternoon.  6 paintings in 2 afternoons (4.5 hours total)!  They were busy artists!

Just being a Kid

 Tyler, I am ready for you to take me on a ride!

BEE Camp

Since the girls had finished their Science curriculum by the end of April, we spent a few weeks on Bees to lead up to Lauren going to Bee Camp at the beginning of June.  We read multiple books and made a lapbook about Bees using Bees Express Lapbook and Bees Speedy Lapbook from Currclick.com.  Our favorite book was The Life and Times of the HoneyBee!

 

 

 

On June 7th-8th, Lauren attended BEE Camp at Bear Exploration in Montgomery.  This was the 1st year for the Central Alabama BeeKeepers to put on the camp, and they did a fabulous job!  

 They attended classes for a few hours the first morning - Bee Biology, Bee Chemistry, and Hive making.  The classes went over all the material we had read about a few weeks ago during our bee study.

Then they learned how to suit up in a BeeKeepers suit for protection.  They learned about the fogger and why the Beekeepers use it.  They also extracted honey from the hives.  Lauren is the one holding the fogger in the bottom picture.

For a girl who was not excited about going to Bee Camp.  She came home Friday excited to return on Saturday.  By Saturday afternoon, I got a big "thank you for signing me up for Bee Camp!  It was SOOOOOO much FUNNNNN!"  She came home with the part of the hive she made, honey she extracted, and lip balm she made from the wax!

Summertime

We are barely into June, and I am amazed at all we have done this summer!  It is going by so fast or maybe I am just getting old!

This summer we are trying something new at our house.  For 3 reasons...
1.  I cannot do it all on my own.
2.  To encourage some of the kids to learn to work together.
3.  To give them incentive to continue learning through out the summer.
I made up these "chore charts"  for no better name came to mind!

Yes, some of it is just the basics like laundry, dishes, and cleaning.  I just don't have time to fold all the clothes that get dirtied and washed around here!  Other things are educational like SAT review for Tyler, Ly 1st grade reading lessons that we did not finish at the end of the year, and the girls reading Little House in the Big Woods.  Reading Eggs and Always Ice Cream are learning computer games.  I have wanted La to learn how to type since last summer.  Always Ice Cream presented the lessons as a game, and *tada* she has learned!  And some are to encourage cooperation like Tyler and Lauren's power point project and the girls art projects with Corynne.  If you complete your list by the end of the week, you get to participate in the prize for the week.   The prizes are really basic--go to the movie with a friend, invite a friend over for the afternoon, go to Craze for a special yogurt treat!

I figured that Ty & La would never be able to work together on a project, but they have proved me wrong!  After discovering that Corynne did not know how to use basic computer programs when she started 7th grade, I was determined that Lauren would have a basic working knowledge of how to design and put together power point and word processing documents. Tyler has taught her how to make a slide show this summer.  Each week I tell them a new feature that I want to see on their slides.  They build new slides each week.  They CAN work together!!!

I wondered what was taking Ly so long to come back with the laundry, and this is what I discovered!

The 4 older kids participated in the Alabama Qualifier on the weekend of June 1st.  We had 4 kids playing at 3 different locations around Montgomery.  It was a busy weekend, and we had great friends that helped us out when we needed to be at 3 different places at the SAME time!

Lauren played in the 10&U division.

 Lyndsey played in the 8&U division.  This was her FIRST tournament EVER!  She had so much fun and won a few matches!

 On June 4th, we went with the homeschool group to Sunbright Organic Farm.  It is just a small farm where we got to pick some veggies, blueberries, and black berries.

 Opps, that one was sour!

Colleen got her 1st haircut today!  She was not excited about going to get her hair cut.  Corynne was able to convince her that it would be EASY, and she would get treats.  A cup FULL of smarties later, and the hair cut was over!!!

 Just a trim of 2 inches, but a big change for split ends and shag to healthy looking hair!

 In the middle of all of that fun, Dad moved offices!  His staff moved across the hall to newly refurbished offices and clinic spaces.  We spent a whole day getting his office to look this good!  New blinds and curtains, hanging diplomas, and organizing nicknacks and collectables.  He has a new desk and chair that was handed down from his dad!

 I finally framed the Biscuit jersey that he won years ago.  Now I need to find the baseball card and other items that went along with the jersey to go in the frame.  I know we had them before we moved across town 3 years ago....

The mean old wife made the poor Doc sit in the corner and go through years of ...

...trash.  That was what it had to have been since this is the trash pile when we finished!

Cruising on the Harriott II

I am loving being a part of the homeschool group!  They always have the ticket for fun and educational!  Today we joined them for a tour/cruise of the Harriott II which boards from the Riverwalk in Montgomery.  They serve meals on board during the 30 minute cruise up the river and 30 minutes back down.  On the cruise back down, the captain spills out a lot of Montgomery history and interesting facts for the kids to listen to.  The girls had a great time on the Harriott II!