City School 2016

One of my (and definitely Aubree's) favorite summer traditions is City/Farm School.  This summer, the stars aligned, and Jaylen joined us for a weekend with a party every evening (which made "city" life seem rather more exciting than reality).

We picked her up late Friday afternoon, and made a straight beeline to the end-of-sports-camp carnival.  Jaylen was with us for this event last year as well, so she and Aubree knew just how to navigate themselves around the best attractions (with a special focus on food).  

 

The next morning we batted around a bunch of different outing possibilities, before ultimately deciding to stay local and check out our city's KidsFest.  That ended up being an extremely fortuitous decision.  The KidsFest was really quite fantastic - with face painting, balloon animals, more icees, games, and prizes.

A particularly fun activity was the candy cannon.  Yes, candy cannon!  They load it full of candy and shoot the candy into their air.

Mark and I employed a divide and conquer strategy.  He took Thane and Graham, while I  (with Nellie in the carrier on my back) took Aubree, Bryce, and Jaylen.  I think I got the easier end of the deal.  The big kids were largely independent, and spent a lot of time at arts and craft tables.

Thane and Graham moved through their activities quicker, but had a rollicking good time.

In fact, Thane even willingly let me take his picture.  I guess all he needed was cool-guy sunglasses.

Following the KidsFest, we stopped at a local church that had advertised an open-to-the-community BBQ.  That was a little awkward, but the kids loved it.  After eating, Aubree and Jaylen jumped over to the woodworking table and proceeded to build themselves bird houses!

Before we left, they even got ice cream cones. 

The day's festivities still weren't over.  After putting the little ones to bed, I took Aubree, Jaylen, and Bryce to our friend's annual Open Mic night.  When we arrived, we were asked if any of us would like to perform.  Everyone responded with a quick, "No!"

Aubree, however, soon changed her mind.  "I want to sing," she told me.  I was nervous.  She was not.  When it was her turn, she walked confidently to the mic, and sang "Rip Tide" acapella.  She totally rocked it!  She loved performing, and immediately started talking about what she wants to do next year. Here's a clip:

Sunday, being Sunday, was a more low key day.  I was super impressed with how well these girls got along this year.  I am also treasuring every summer we have when they spend their time playing with their American Girl dolls and creating elaborate make-believe games and scenarios.  I know the clock is ticking...

Speaking of their American Girl dolls, while Aubree and Jaylen had a wonderful weekend, their poor dolls did not fair nearly as well.  Both suffered from broken limbs, fevers, braces, and possibly a plague or two.  At least they were taken care of quite well.

It's nice to have capable kids around to help make treats.

Monday we went to the Museum of Flight and were excited to discover that it had been totally revamped in the few months since we'd last visited.  There were a ton of new things to see.  Mark walked over from work and joined us for a little bit. 

Walking through the insides of some of the big planes (777, 737, 787 Dreamliner, Concord jet) was really neat.

These kids are a bunch of posers!

They also found some fun interactive games.  In this one, they are virtual geese trying to stay in correct flight alignment. 

Another night, another party.  This time it was a graduation party for a young woman from our ward.  Basically it meant an enjoyable evening at the park with friends.  Which reminds me... the previous day (Sunday) was Pioneer Day, and during primary, the kids got to participate in a bunch of pioneer related activities - eating homemade bread, making butter, and playing pioneer games.  One of those games involves putting a button on a string and turning it into a whirligig.  Aubree and Jaylen practiced ALL Sunday afternoon until they became shockingly good.  They could do partner whirligigs, whirligigs fast or slow, even whirligigs on their feet!

Tuesday morning we loaded up and drove to Jaylen's house for the start of Farm School.  I think City School was a success this time around.

Wrapping Up Last School Year

Summer is winding down.  I have months of adventures still to blog, but school starts in just a couple days.  Before I can write about what we'll be doing for this upcoming school year, I realize I should probably take a minute to go way back and wrap up last year's school year.  Yikes.

The couple months of summer break have likely softened my view of how the year went; most thing seem rosier in retrospect.  We did have a lot of fun. We did a slightly better job this year of incorporating art projects and field trips (thank you, Five in a Row!).

 

One day even Aubree was able to join us for a field trip to the Museum of Flight.

It was nice having a bigger kid around to help (quite literally) keep the younger kids in line.

But sometimes, you've just got to let them fly...

We continued to get together weekly with the Coberly's for a history/science/Five in a Row co-op.  This is one of the most beautiful parts of our homeschool schedule.  We love getting together with our friends, and it ensures that we actually do the extra, fun projects that might otherwise get pushed to the side.

I did not love the weekly co-op we joined.  It wasn't terrible, but we won't be doing it again this school year.  I taught the preschool class and Graham (in typical fashion) loved every possible moment he had to be social.  Bryce and Thane had classes together.  They liked their classes, which is the primary reason we stuck with it the whole school year.

 I had similar feelings about their weekly gymnastics class.  It was just "meh."  The boys got a little bored of going, but we stuck with it because it was good exercise.  The teacher ran it more like a PE class than a gymnastics skills class.  I think the boys wouldn't have gotten as bored if there was more skill building and/or variety of activities. 

Thane had a strong academic year.  He made tremendous progress and proved himself to be a quick and willing learner.  His reading is fantastic, especially after he discovered chapter books this summer.

Bryce is also a solid student, but ever since we started school up again after Christmas break (yes, 8 full months ago), he's had a very difficult time with self-control and task completion.  We had a lot of whining, obnoxious noises, defiance, and even full on tantrums.  

One particularly difficult morning, I got a text from a friend, "I'm out on a jog, do you want me to take Graham with me?"

I thought this was a strange request, since she already would have 2 kids in her double jogging stroller, but I was able to fairly quickly figure out a likely reason for her offer.  I texted back, "Are you by chance jogging by my house?  If so, it's my 8 year old you hear throwing a fit, not Graham."  Ugh.

We are still working on these issues.  I think we're making progress.  I guess we'll see how it goes when we get back in the swing of school again.  Wish me luck.  I'll need it.

Summer Soccer

I decided not to organize a co-op soccer camp this summer, but I still wanted my kids to have a chance to play, so we hatched the idea of weekly pick-up games.  Starting in mid-May, every Wednesday at 6 pm, we got together with whatever friends (and friends of friends) decided to show up, and played a soccer game or two.

Initially, we hoped to get playing time on the new, beautiful, turf fields, but soon realized those were much too busy.  Instead, we moved to a neighborhood park and never had anyone else trying to use the fields at the same time.   

Our weekly numbers fluctuated wildly, but we usually had enough kids to set up two games - 8 and up, and 7 and under. 

8+ game

7 and under game

We got great use out of the jerseys and cones I got for the soccer camps.

 

Aubree played a couple times.  Graham always started out with enthusiasm, but would soon meander over to the swings or play with other little kids.  Nellie usually crawled around trying to eat rocks and grass.

 Bryce and Thane, however, played their hearts out. 

I'll admit there were weeks I cursed myself for committing to this endeavor.  Some days were busy and it was just one more thing we needed to do.  In the end, it was worth it.  The boys' skill levels increased dramatically, and they had a lot of fun.  They are more than ready to jump right into the fall soccer season. 
Hopefully our friends had a good time as well.  I think we'll do it again next summer (maybe just twice a month, though).

And there was that one week when the kids decided to be matchy-matchy in their Phillies gear from Grandma & Grandpa Winters.

Scenes of Summer

In between our wonderful (but not yet blogged about) vacations, we've had some really enjoyable, more low-key and closer-to-home outings.
We started the summer off with quite a few hikes. We live in such a beautiful area!

Often, we explore super close to home.

Sometimes, we venture a bit further.  We finally made it up to hike Franklin Falls near the top of the  Snoqualmie Pass.  It was a chilly day, but the destination was stunning!

It certainly helps to have great hiking buddies.

 

Since the weather's warmed up, hiking hasn't been the preferred excursion. Instead, we've returned numerous times to our favorite summer spot on the river.  Sometimes we've gone with just a couple friends.

 

Other times we've gone with a crowd.

 It's great fun both ways!

 

We've had bigger activities, like the annual week long Mega Sports Camp, which Aubree, Bryce, and Thane all participated in again this year.

The cookies are always Thane's favorite part of the night.

 

Sports Camp runs from 7-9pm, and it just might be the only week of the year that we're super lax about bedtime.  The kids have a great time, even though with so many kids it can get super crazy!

Most of our activities have been smaller, like the occasional birthday party...

and storytime at the Park.

 

Last week we met up with Katie and her kids, and Ashley and her kids, and went to explore the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder in Seattle.  I hate driving into Seattle, but we've been meaning to visit this destination for years.  

We were hoping to view tons of salmon heading up the fish ladder from the Pacific Ocean back to their fresh-water river birth places.  Alas, we only saw a few, but it was still fascinating.  

 

The locks are also quite interesting to watch.  The kids really enjoyed seeing the boats go through.  Katie, Ashley, and I were most intrigued by the yachts that went by.  Who owns those things?  What kind of jobs do they have?

We explored a little bit around the Locks, including the small Visitor's Center.

It was a worthwhile day trip, but probably not something I'll do again soon.

 

Summers in Seattle are heavenly!