A Fun "Dig-Out"

We kicked off Story of the World with some great friends and an archaeological dig.   Or, "dig-out" as Sean likes to call it.  The night before, we read the introduction to SOTW and the book, Archaeologists Dig for Clues.  Sean was so excited about doing our own dig.   He got all of his tools together and packed his bag.  

In the morning we went to Amanda's house where she also had the book so
Sean got to hear it again with Ivy.  

Amanda had batter ready for them.
They looked through an artifact book and picked out some relics to shape into cookies.

These are bones.

Then they watched the Magic School Bus while Amanda I got got a quick visit.  :)

After the cookies came out, we were ready to head down to our site. 

Little archaeologists

 What we need to remember: there were ants everywhere and the poor children had to keep swatting them off their legs.  We said they are always going to remember when we forced them to dig in the dirt with all the ants (not red ants- no danger here!).  The kids were such troopers and they did a good job digging through to find artifacts left behind (by Amanda who buried them earlier!).

They put their "finds" into egg cartons to keep them organized.  

Mission accomplished.  Heading back up to clean their objects.

Ivy is cleaning her bottle with baby wipes.

Miss Hayley joined in.

We ran out of time to log our findings, so we finished the next day at home.

These are the tools he picked out to use for the dig.

 He made a grid with his ruler.  I had him pick out 4 things to record.  He drew a picture and wrote the name.  Then I asked him what the item told him about the people who left it behind and I wrote that part.

Finished work.  He had to have it on the clipboard. :)

Sean said his favorite part was "finding the items."  Apparently we have to set up more digs for him so he can show Luke how to do it.  It was great sharing this learning time with good friends!

Easing into school-ish things

I had sorta big plans for the first day of school.  Little prizes for the boys throughout the day (school supplies), cool chop stick thingys to use with lunch and a grand intro to our new books and lesson plans.  Because little boys get excited about lesson plans, right?!

But here we are in late July and school-ish things are sneaking their way into our days.  I gave Sean a little break from his workbooks.  But with the purchase of new pencils, sharpener and erasers... workbooks are not content to rest in the drawer. 

Luke got some new beeswax crayons.  Apparently also good for stacking.

Sean is crazy about crocodiles right now.  No way we're going to keep that on hold until school "starts," so I found some online goodies and we had a fun time working on some projects. 

 More on our crocodile learning to come.

Our days are starting a new rhythm and, for now, it does not feel forced.  I like the idea of adding little activities here and there until we have made a relaxed way of incorporating it all.

I am looking forward to organizing my thoughts for this fun blog hop coming up.  Lots of homeschoolers will post on curriculum, school rooms, student photos and "day in the life."  

And, better late than never.... we planted a pallet garden.  I have no clue what I am doing with this, but it was an experience getting it done with the boys.

Worms!

Hard at work.

Now we wait for something to (hopefully!) grow.

The days of summer are racing by.  

Time to slow down and cherish them a little more than I feel like I have been.  

Myrtle Beach 2012

In May we went back to Myrtle Beach (can you tell I am going through older pictures now?).  Here are just a very few shots from the wonderful trip.

The much-loved golf cart

Ready for first beach visit of the trip

Busy at play

This one army crawled all over the place

I love, love this picture

Littlest chilling at the over-stimulating Wonder Works

A favorite... actually putting money in the machine and riding

Cuties on the sand

Jeff said this was a random picture... but I love it!

The boys discovered the indoor pool and loved Jeff taking them everyday.  We went back to the aquarium and that was pretty fun.  Wonder Works was way too loud and crowded for me, but I think the boys had a good time.  I think the money would have been better spent outside on the boardwalk (FYI for next time!).  Overall, it was fantastic getting a mini retreat with my family.  I am indeed blessed!

Boys and Pictures

I should really title this "How to Not Lose Your Joy When taking Pictures of Boys."  Except, I actually have no tips.  I have learned (am learning...??)  to relax with the idea of taking the perfect picture and instead, embrace the reality.  These boys are a wonderful kind of crazy.  They cannot be contained in poses and pixels.  I'll still give it a shot though. 

Finally... they are all looking and the faces pretty much resemble normal.  I'll take it!

And because I am a glutton I had the big boys stop for one more.  Luke's face says it all.

Okay, okay, we're done... for now!

Family camping

I have been oh so absent from this little blog.  My other computer bit the dust and I have pictures on there (!!!!!).  Until we can take it into the shop to extract all the important stuff currently being held hostage, I am just going to pick up as if a several month gap is completely normal. 

We took our first family camping trip earlier this summer.  It was so much fun.   It was rainy when we got there so Jeff had us upgraded to a sheltered site.  I was thankful to have that so I could park Eli out of the rain while we got all the gear unloaded.  I did not like how verrrrry close we were to neighbors, though.  Guess there was a trade-off to not getting soaked!

roasting marshmallows

Jeff took the boys to look at the creek while I put Eli to bed.  I had 5 minutes of this:

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 Hiking the next day was the highlight for me.  It was so beautiful.

The stinka'

Pondering....

Some sweet passersby took our family picture.

I just love the looks on their faces.  

Overall, very good experience.  We are already planning our next trip!