Home School Days and Family Vacations

Every day has elements of learning it, but some days are a bit more memorable than other days.  Here are a few things we have enjoyed with home school this fall.

 Some days I wonder how we can get it all done.  We seldom get it ALL done, but some days we get quite a few accomplished, and we are experimenting with learning while doing other things.  Grace read out loud while John ate the apples we were preparing to dry.  Reading on the kitchen counter is becoming a norm around our house as I prep a meal or do the dishes one of the kids will sit beside me and read.

 John likes helping with the school projects.  Everyone has a good time....even if there is a whole lot more clean up!

Anne recently finished a history unit on Ancient Egypt. To celebrate we spent the day getting ready for our Egyptian party.  The day included  art lessons, jewelry making, dancing to traditional music and preparing lots of food.  

Dad made it home for dinner.  He didn't get dressed up with us, but he sure was happy to take our picture!

For our local home school outing we went to a pumpkin patch and enjoyed the afternoon at the corn maze.

We all learned mom does not like corn mazes, John can't swim despite his head first plunge into the creak, and a pregnant lady should not carry a naked, cold wet toddler through the muddy pumpkin patch because she will assuredly fall into the muck, leaving both mother and baby filthy and cold. 

 The kids came home with giant pumpkins and I think Edwin had fun with the older kids out in the pumpkin patch!  We'll be back next year!

Our best buddies, Tally and Seamus came over for an evening and made traditional Halloween cupcakes with us!

It's a Roman Feast!  Grace has been studying Ancient Rome.  We decided to host a toga party and even dad joined the group for barley stew, olives, home made pitas, and grapes.

History has never been so fun!

We took a trip out to NH to see my grandfather.  Mostly I think we went so Grandpa could play cribbage with Edwin and the girls!  We enjoyed two full days at the table playing cards and chatting.

Here we are together before we bid our farewells.

James 4, Jen holding John 19 mo, Grace 7, Anne 6, Grandpa Ray, Grandma Evie

My Uncle Steve and his wife Vikki met up with us for dinner one night. 

Life at Aunt Shanna's while the ladies were out shopping, Uncle Ben was resting and Edwin and Kevin had to man the house for an hour!

Happy Halloween!  James is a green snake, Seamus is our local ninja, Tally is a Monarch Butterfly, Anne is a black cat, and Grace is the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The local  businesses on Main St give out candy after school for trick or treaters.  The whole community shows up in their costumes and have their pictures taken by the news crews.  Since many people make it out for the community trick-or treat festivity it makes for a quieter evening in the neighborhood. I purchased way too much candy for this year!  Anyone want to come eat M&Ms with us?

Edwin spent the afternoon with the kids carving pumpkins.  I think they all turned out splendidly!

The large pumpkins are from our pumpkin patch adventure.  The small pumpkin Grace is holding was grown in the garden.

  I think we are done traveling since the weather is sketchy at best, and I'm getting to the stage in the pregnancy when I just want to be home. This winter will be full of snowy days, lots of hot chocolate, and school festivities.  I bet there is a fair bit of baking involved too.

Weather

 Anne hooked and caught her first fish on the Popo Agie river on a daddy daughter date

 We had a good visit from Aunt Rachel, Grandma Butler, Devin, Tyanna, Anton, Zachary, and Isabel

 James wanted a snake cake for his birthday.

 We got 3 inches of snow the last week of September. It flattened the trees in the front yard and quickly melted.

 The next week we got 12 inches of snow. It has now melted again.

 We took a trip to Vernal to visit Aunt Karen, Uncle Porter, Gabe, and Lorin. We took a hike to gather rocks and look at the petroglyphs and played a lot with cousins.

After the snow melted we decided we better harvest the potatoes in the garden before more snow came. Even Johnny wanted to do some digging.

A Little Bit of Summer

Edwin's been missing the blog.  I've been missing a camera that isn't so quirky! 

Since the camera is holding power for more than a day lately, I've taken a few more pictures of this summer.  Sorry everything is piled into one post, but it's now or never!

 Enjoy the pictures.

 

In July we went to Idaho and enjoyed playing in the irrigation water at Grandma's house with all the cousins. There was also camping, kayaking, and fishing involved, but alas no photos from my camera.

 

James went fishing on the lake one weekend while family was in WY visiting us.

 

Grandpa Butler and Grandma Butler have been up twice to visit this summer.

We enjoy spending time with them, and Grandpa is on a mission to catch some fish.

At this rate he may need to visit every weekend, the fish don't seem to want to be caught by the Idaho boys.

With all the 95F weather we had I neglected to pack jackets for our trip up to the lake.  It was too cold to swim so we used the swim towels for shawls to keep warm.  Living in the mountains is taking a little getting used to again.  I've been in humid weather for too many years!

John likes being outside, but not as much as he likes driving the van.

The kids came chokecherry picking with us, can you tell?

There are play grounds all over in this little town.  It's great for the kids to get out of the house and run around a bit.

A local forest service man told us the chokecherries weren't quite ready for picking.  So we played instead.

This big stone bison is in Sinks Canyon. I love that John is waving to the kids up tall and showing them his belly...."Ha! Ha! You can't tickle me from up there!"

Everyone thinks John is so cute.  The kids take pictures of the poor guy whenever they can.  Occasionally James jumps in the photo too.

Edwin had his first day of work in August.  The kids decorated the house for him.  They were so excited for dad's new job.

John at City Park

Anne at City Park

Grace at city Park

Anne asked me to make her a jewel box quilt.  I got the pieces finished and I'm now putting together blocks.  However, Anne decided to make a bit of a change.

Using the same pieces I already made we arranged them a bit differently.  Anne decided Sunny Lanes was more her style so this will be her quilt when I get the pieces sewn together, I have no idea when I'll finish, but it will be lovely.

Edwin enjoys being home most of the time I think.  Some days are a bit overwhelming and I pat his back and say, "I understand."  He's adjusting to his time off and I think we are finding a good balance of free time and family time.

The library had a Lego Exhibition here in August.  James and I made this Diego Alien.  Lego club starts next week and I think James will enjoy meeting people and playing with Legos, Anne will join too.

Grace didn't know about Lego club, but she sure wanted to build an FBI station for the Exhibition.  Her photo made to local paper and she is proud of her creation.  We missed Lego Club this month for Grace, she's start in October.

This is John's favorite chair.  He reads here.  Sleeps here.  Eats here when mom's not looking.  Sometimes he even cooks here!  This summer whenever I was reading a book in this chair he would wander over to the book case and start throwing things on the floor.  I would scold him and then go pick up the books.  While I was busy cleaning up his mess, John would climb up in the chair with his favorite book and laugh and laugh and laugh.  It was quite charming. He knows how to get what he wants from time to time.

With no dishwasher and kids in home school they are learning the fine art of household chores.

I love this little vacuum.  It was a birthday present several years ago from the kids.  This is truly a gift that keeps on giving.  The kids can't quite sweep the floor, but they sure can vacuum!

John and Edwin sorted chokecherries late into the night while mom simmered and mashed them.

We have delicious syrup in the house and more chokecherries in the freezer if we need to make more syrup.

Ah, mountain deliciousness is here!

Wyoming and Family

The first morning we arrived Edwin was outside prepping the garden.  We had no furniture, no AC, and no food, but boy howdy we were going to have a garden!

Anne thought walking the red carpet with the movers was tons of fun.

John enjoys spending hours at the river throwing rocks into the water.

Grace enjoys climbing through the rocks and waterfalls.

Anne is just as adventurous as her sister and didn't mind being all wet.

Edwin's been fishing lots.  We haven't had any fish to eat yet.  He likes to catch and release.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a week.  We visited Sinks Canyon.

Everybody loves family

Feeding the fish is a treat.

We took the kids on a hike to the waterfalls.  James hiked the 1.5 miles up hill.  He was dirty and tired, but he made it!

Once we made it up to the falls we found a swimming home for everyone.

Uno is a great way to wait for the 4th of July parade to start.

John loved all the free candy.

Cousin Kaylee and our good neighbor Tally all came for fireworks.

Uncle Scott put on a good fireworks show for us.

(Notice the water heater on the driveway...moving in had a few set backs the first week, but I think we are settling in.)