Sarah Starts 2nd Grade

Sarah just sparkles, doesn't she?  2nd grade is lucky to have her.

Back to School photos by Black Hat Media.

And the actual big day!
 (She had to redo her first sign because the 2 was backward.  Clearly we are a little rusty around here!)

Guess which goals I suggested?  Yep, the bed making.  I wanted her to go for 99%.  She drove a hard bargain, but I wasn't giving in and we arrived at 93%.  So far (after 1 day) we are at 100%.

Ben Starts Kindergarten

Today my baby started kindergarten.  They made 1/2 the kids do morning K and the other half do afternoon K (just for today, then they are all full day).  All morning he just kept asking when it was time for him to go to school.  He was so ready.  And, he loved it.  I'm excited for this new phase of my life!  

Ben wrote his own goals, except the sight words one.  That was my suggestion.  We will see how he does.  So far 2 for 2 on getting to bed on time!

Actual first day pictures!  He wrote his own K sign.  It kind of looks like an F, but trust me, it's a K.

The sweet pictures taken by Black Hat Media (my sister-in-law and brother) while we were in Utah. 

Summer 2016 Memories

All of the kids, and especially Sarah, love to ask Derek and I to tell stories from our lives.  It is fun, but also hard sometimes to remember funny and entertaining things to tell them.  So for FHE last night we wrote down our favorite summer memories.  Except for Sarah.  Ironically she was the one who just couldn't come up with anything to write in the allotted time.  Maybe I'll add hers later.  

Ben and Mom worked together.  I put captions on his pictures.  Bombora (his first rollercoaster), a monster, Baker lake, etc.  It was an amazing summer with SO MUCH SWIMMING!  All of the kids and I have tan lines.  This is a great accomplishment for Seattlites!  We managed to get out there on the sunny days!  Next year I hope there will be even more camping and swimming.  It was so fun.  

Dad worked A LOT this summer.  But, we timed things right and got to spend several days with him.  He even took the kids camping to Baker Lake.  I have a before picture, but I forgot to take an after picture.  The hair was crazy and they were much dirtier.  But since pictures don't capture that camping smell, you can't really get the full impact of the "after" effect anyway.

I love what Libby chose to include in hers.  The Green Mile--(going around Cromwell 4 laps on M/W/F..didn't think that would be on her favorite memories.  Glad it is!)

I am ready to say goodbye to this summer.  But it does mean sending my baby off to school!  Where did the time go?

Research Symposium

As a teacher, test days and big due dates were my favorite days.  I loved the nervous excitement that hung in the air.  That sense of accomplishment tinged with fear and energy?  Remember it?  Creating opportunities for kids to stretch was my favorite part of teaching.  So, I decided to do this for my kids this summer.  Now I have a lot more empathy for the parents of my students, ha.  It takes a lot of parent support for kids to produce awesome work.
I had a few goals with this project:
-Give myself motivation to get my kids to the library.
-Work together with them each individually on something.
-Teach them how to research and draw conclusions from their research.
-Teach them about design for a presentation board.
-Give them an opportunity to present what they learned to a wider audience.
-Spend time with some friends who also wanted to research. (We got 2 friends who finished with us!)
-Have fun.

And, actually I would say that I accomplished all of those goals!  More or less.  For the younger 2 I may have drawn many of the conclusions and had to lead them toward them.  But it was a great growing experience for all of them.
Sarah's biggest complaint was that we didn't have more people come to see their work!

These were the first dates I chose (after our vacation dates).  I wanted to make sure this happened!

Sarah's original topic was Kuwait.  Then she switched to Anne of Green Gables cooking.  (We had been listening to the Anne books in the car over the spring. )  I had her add the fabric part since I was so interested in that...I helped her hone in on her final conclusion (okay, I told her what it was); that people love Anne of Green Gables because it isn't just a book.  It is a total sensory experience including touch and taste!  We made ice cream, the liniment cake, and raspberry cordial.  

 Libby decided on her own that she wanted to recite some Shakespeare.  I wasn't sure that she was ready, but she had it memorized.  Maren helped her polish it.  This girl amazes me!

Our invitation

The appetizer table setting.

Ben's monster project.  He actually did so much of this research because it was looking at pictures of monsters to figure out what made them scary.  Did you know the characteristic shared by most monsters is sharp teeth?  We learned that together!  I put the board together, but he helped pick which monsters made the survey and the board.  

Here are my favorite poems.  I was super proud of these because she also typed and formatted them herself.  

Libby was actually crazy about her topic and loved the whole thing.  She decided to focus on the lessons Shakespeare is teaching through his tragedies.  We listened to a bunch of the plays in versions for kids in the car over the summer.  The kids all loved them!  Since Libby loves poems, I suggested she make a poem on each gravestone about the lesson Shakespeare was trying to teach.  The poems are amazing. Aunt Maren dedicated 3 hours to helping Libby make the graveyard.  Libby is very determined about how she sees a thing being accomplished.  It can be a challenge to help her.  But Maren did a great job!

Libby also wanted to have a Shakespeare coloring pages area.

And a carpet where kids could read the stories of Shakespeare.  

Sarah was a master on the mic.  (She is practicing here).  She made so many hilarious announcements.  She loves to hear herself in the microphone.  Wonder where she got that?

Thankful to everyone who came!  Especially Grammy who came after a long day of getting teachers technologically ready for school.  

Ben explaining his project to Ms. Harris (Sarah's teacher from last year).  We have a great community!

Ward Campout on Bainbridge Island

Last year we had to cancel our ward campout due to an epic windstorm.  This year, it was back on!  I had to turn my phone off, since I forgot my charger.  Derek has some more pictures I can add later.  (As I type this, I know that will probably not happen, but you never know, right?)

Ferry waiting.  

It was hot, but we sent the kids to get ice cream and I gave Derek the Gretchen Rubin 4 tendencies quiz and the 5 love languages quiz.  He is definitely a Rebel.  His response, "These quizzes are just trying to pigeonhole people..."  

We had April with us (our favorite babysitter) and she took the kids adventuring while we waited for the ferry.  Then she took them to the windy spots while I found shelter out of the wind.

 We slept pretty well.  It was fun to hear the men snoring in chorus out of the individual tents.

For breakfast I got some amazing fresh bagels.  This is Libby being forced to try the most disgusting thing ever.  A plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese.  How dare we try to torture her like that?  She just told me she wanted to punch me for taking this picture.  Ha!  I want to punch her for being such a picky eater.  So we are even.   

Horseback riding

Waiting for horses

Ben on his horse.

Sarah on her horse

Day 1 was really hot. But day 2 was much cooler.  We kept the fire going all day and cooked marshmellows for snack and for lunch.  Ben fixed himself this roaster.  I decided to take a before, during and after shot.  

During.

After.  Poor guy.  I tossed the top ones, but since I hate to waste, I went ahead and roasted the bottom 3 to my liking and ate them (for the team).  

One of the service projects was wood chopping.  We had some amazing choppers, delivery boys, and a master wood stacker.  I did the blackberry cutting project, eating a few berries before I cut down the bush.  Yum.  

This piece of pipe provided many hours of entertainment before the inevitable happened.  A toddler got rolled over.  YIKES!  Heart stopping moment.  But, she seemed to be okay.  We tipped up the pipe and that was the end of that!

We missed the ferry on the way home by about 5 cars.  So, we had to wait another hour on the ferry dock.  But we used the time productively, annoying Derek (who was trying to nap) and discussing (arguing about) our Halloween costume theme.  Don't know if we will get to consensus this year!

Swimming Summer

My kids love love love swimming.  And I'm so glad.  They all learned so much this summer working with Anne Ducey.  

Sarah improved her kicking.  Before this summer it was kind of a cross between a bicycle and a bunny when she tried to kick.  But now she looks more like an actual swimmer.  Her side breathing has improved and she can do the elementary backstroke really well!

Ben can now float on his back, tread water (sort of--his head is still underwater most of the time, but he can now pop it up), and he is great at swimming underwater.  I give him a little push down and he can swim to the bottom and pick up several objects.  Next year, freestyle!  The biggest change I noticed from the first week to the last, is that he can now tiptoe touch the bottom in the shallowest end of the pool.  This kid has grown!! (Gonna have to get him some new pants this week!)

Libby made some amazing improvements this summer.  She can swim laps in the deep end!  She can swim freestyle with pretty good side breathing, backstroke, and she even learned to swim butterfly!  Next year I think I'll have her do a swim team.  She loves it!

Ballinger Lake & Celebrating Shoreline

We had a day with Dad this week!  He was home on Thursday so we went to Ballinger Lake.  I was too busy to take many pictures, but here are a couple and a video of the lake activities.

We were so excited to Celebrate Shoreline.  This has been our favorite festival.  But this year, it was not as fun.  It was HOT.  Like don't want to move hot.  There were fewer kid activities.  No cheap cotton candy or sno-cones.  And no bunnies in the petting zoo.  We came home early and called it a day after the reptile man and a few times in the few bouncy toys.  I had a chance to get busy on cleaning out the office.  I'm still not done.  It is in a shambles around me.  But I figured if I didn't blog, I never would.  

The other thing we have been doing is watching the Olympics every spare minute.  I really didn't want to do anything else all week.  The Olympics inspire me in a way that nothing else does!