Summer Update - 7 Quick Takes

We keep on having fun this summer!  It has been hot and busy, but we are finding ways to stay cool and enjoy our days!  Here are a few things that we have been up to!

 

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Hydrant Party Fun
 

Our city sets up super fun Hydrant Party's throughout the city during the summer.  The fire trucks come, tap into the fire hydrants and set up big sprinklers for the kids to run through and cool off!  We were so lucky that they had an event right down our street!  It was a blast!

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Lego Fun
 

Our city Children's Museum has a traveling exhibit of Legos right now!  It has been a great place to go and explore while it has been incredibly hot outside!  There are lots of awesome Lego displays to explore and also places to build Legos.  Our boys favorite activity is the HUGE ramp to race Lego cars down!

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New Chores
 

With each developmental stage and each phase of life we are always re-evaluating our schedule and also what is working and not working at our house.  One big thing that we have been working on over the summer is our boys learning more responsibility.  Our oldest boys (5 and 3 years old) are both expected to get dressed, brush their teeth, and make their bed all by themselves.  They then eat breakfast and help put their dishes away and their newest chore is cleaning the counters!  They think this new chore is lots of fun and I love that there is another thing that they can take responsibility for!

Our goal is that we keep adding things as they get older and also before the new baby comes this November!  Our oldest son is working on being able to get basic breakfast ready for himself and his brothers including toast or cereal, fruit, yogurt and drinks.  These little things help SO much!

 

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Homeschool Conference Fun

 

Our homeschool co-op put on their first Catholic Homeschool Conference in our city this past weekend and they did such a fantastic job!  The first night we had a big used book sale and I found all of the things below for $57!  We found a lot of Seton Materials, CHC and some fun learning extras that we will definitely enjoy in the years to come.  I definitely saved HUNDREDS of dollars from the list prices!

 

The second day of the conference we had Karen Edmisten and Suzie and Tony Andres as speakers.  I was so excited to meet and hear Karen Edmisten as her book After Miscarriage was a great gift to me after we experienced the loss of our son Samuel.  She had so many great words of wisdom about homeschooling and increasing our prayer lives.  It was so wonderful to spend some much needed time alone re-charging and setting goals for myself and for our homeschooling year to come. 

 

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Lake Time
 

My in-laws bought a piece of property on a nearby lake and also bought a boat this summer!  We have been LOVING getting out to the lake for a few hours each week to go boating, swimming and tubing!  It is such a fun family activity and really brings me back to my childhood spending all of my summers at our family lake cabin!

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Camp Google

We have started the 4 week activities with Camp Google and have been really loving this free resource!  This past week has been Ocean Week and we have learned all about the Ocean and done experiments How Things Float and How Dolphins See Underwater!  We also got to watch a Deep Sea Dive and see lots of fun fish and animals!  In the weeks to come we get to learn about Space, Nature and Music.

 

Learning how Dolphins See in the Ocean

Watching the Live Ocean Dive

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Minions Movie
 

Our oldest son went out for a morning with my parents and again it was SO hot outside so we decided to go to the $5 morning movie!  Our middle son loves Despicable Me so he was excited to see the new Minions movie.  It was silly and we had a fun time!