Science Tuesday.

It's kind of funny that it is only the SECOND day of summer vacation....and the whines of "I don't have anybody to play with"s and the "I don't have anything to do"s reared their ugly heads today. My approach to summer vacation is what I called "unstructured structure"; most days are about just riding bikes and playing with friends and swimming in the pool and taking mini-trips into town and trips to the beach and picnics at the park or on the front lawn.....whatever moves us.

However, I also have "spots" of structure that I inject into each day....reading time, science time, reading time, math time, art time, computer time, etc. I firmly believe that kids need to be kids and they need plenty of room and space for freedom and exploration and, YES, even boredom. When I think back to the summer days of my childhood, the most creative plans were born out of boredom......making forts, playing Swiss Family Robinson, creating neighborhood clubs, planning and running Bible school for the younger kids....such great memories, and all stemming from my mother's instruction to "Go out and play."

The "spot of structure" today was all about science; we have informally declared Tuesdays "Science Tuesdays" for the summer. Today, we made GOO. During the activity, we talked about science concepts like "dissolve" and learned about measurements and fractions as we measured ingredients.....and states of matter (solid, liquid, gas).....and just had plain fun creating blue and pink goo and making goo monsters with lots of googly eyes. The kids had a great time creating....I'm pretty confident that I could home-school my kids effectively and creatively, so I like getting little tastes of what that might be like if we had chosen that route for our family.....which we haven't, as we believe quite strongly in public school education. Anyway, that whole discussion is for another post on another day.....We happily survived day 2 and even learned a little bit along the way.

Summer Vacation, Day One.

It is here. Vacation felt really REAL today as we slept in until almost 9:00. The kids then went up to school with Matt for football camp, while I went to a meeting (hopefully my last of the summer!). The rest of the day involved:

• Going to the library to sign up for the summer reading program and to check out some new books. Kennedy selected 3 new Trixie Belden mysteries to read until we pick up Harry Potter Book #5.
• We took a trip to the dollar store here in town. I gave each of the kids a 5 dollar bill to pick out whatever they wanted. The scene went something like this: Hayden walks in the store, quickly surveys the toy section, and within 5 minutes, he was already up at the check-out paying for his purchases. Kennedy, on the other hand, carefully took time to look at the toy section, jewelry section, makeup section, and craft section. And she changed her mind several times. And 20 minutes later we are still waiting for her to make her final selections. And then, as she is paying, she decides to switch one of her items for a different one.
• We made a quick trip to Costco for a couple of more memory cards so I can document all the summer fun around here. We also picked up some yummy blueberries, a large can of crushed garlic, and a Father's Day gift for Matt.
• We also stopped quickly at Michael's so that I could stock up on foam paint brushes....20 for $1.00 can't be beat! We also picked up a "gooey science" kit for tomorrow....so we have declared Tuesdays "science day" for the summer. Tomorrow will bring make goo, while next Tuesday brings making erupting volacanoes. Ahhh, remember those from grade school?

All in all, it was a great start to our break. The weather is finally cooling down and it looks like tomorrow should be another nice one.

Under Water.

It has been very stranger weather around here the past week. I love, love, LOVE a good thunderstorm, but this has been a bit much. The weather has been so hot--near 90 degrees--and very heavy and humid. This is weather that we would typically see in July and August. We have had multiple thunderstorm watches/warnings and tornado watches in the past week. Last night was one of the hardest rains that I have seen in a long time......our backyard flooded very quickly. We live in the lower part of our neighborhood, and when there is a lot of rain or thawing, the water can rise above the level of the door stoop and get into the basement. That is no fun. Last night, we felt sort of helpless as the water rose....and the edges of the carpet started getting damp. And then, thank God, the rain stopped. Our neighbors weren't so lucky....we awoke to see that they had called a pump truck in, had all of their basement furniture out on the lawn, and were pumping their basement out instead of heading to church. No fun. And our back field was completely mud.....hopefully, the farmer hasn't seeded the field yet, or much of it was likely washed away. And I guess there are some positives about procrastination. We don't have our garden in yet, and our neighbors was flooded away.

Today, we attended 2 more open houses for some delicious dinner....and it rained some more. However, like everything in life, there is always a silver lining to the dark cloud. For the kids, this was the silver lining:

They had a total ball splashing around in the muddy water....and they went directly into a hot soapy bathtub afterward. It gives new meaning to the phrase "mud bath" and it made for a very entertaining view from the back deck.

Aloha, Summer.

Dear Kennedy:

You finished first grade today. I sit here in complete awe of how quickly the year has gone, and how much you learned in 9 short months. Looking at these photos of your first day of school and the second taken of you this morning, I see how much you have matured over the year. When I stop and think of how much you have learned and experienced, I am so proud. Here are just a few of things that stand out from the year:

• Went the whole year without missing a spelling word, and while working on VERY difficult words from the 2nd and 3rd grade spelling word list.



• Read over 3, 400 minutes during reading month.



• Read books 1-4 in the Harry Potter series independently.



• Advanced more than 8 levels in the A-Z reading assessment program.



• Gained the highest mark possible for first grade writing.



• Earned an award for points earned in Reading Counts.



• Was selected to have your artwork displayed in the district art gallery to celebrate Art in the Schools week.



• Sang the main part of the "Big Bad Wolf" in the 3 Piggy Opera.



• Completed all of your addition timed testing levels and advanced to level E in subtraction.



• Participated in the math club for enrichment in the area of math.



• Developed further your interests in science, social studies and Spanish.



• Went the whole year without getting a yellow or red light for behavior.



• Made many new friends and was a friend to all.



• Demonstrated excellent character and consistent good choices.



• Made Mommy, Daddy, Hayden, Jesus, Mrs. Hill, your grandparents, and you entire family very proud.

I love to see the person that you are becoming....a quiet leader who leads with increasing confidence and by example. A student who wants to do her very best but who is not overly driven by competition. A girl who loves reading and writing and learning new things (especially about nature, animals, and God's amazing world). Always remember, sweet girl, that we want you to do your very best, but that success is not marked by grades or awards or accolades, but by developing your God-given gifts and talents and using them for His glory. He is shaping you to do amazing things, My Girl, and I look forward to continuing to see what He will do in and through you. Let's have an amazing, fun, restful summer together before we head into the adventure that is 2nd grade.

Love, Mommy

So, my little girl has completed 1st grade. I am at once excited and amazed, sad and thrilled, proud and weepy. We ended the year with a class luau that included outdoor water games and relays......
And it was a million degrees and hot and humid and just downright nasty.....can you see how sweaty we are? The temperature here hit 93 degrees before noon today.
...and of course fruit drinks with twisty straws and colorful drink umbrellas......
and a fruit sculpturing contest (the kids were so creative!) and the Limbo......


Another shot of my aloha princess, this one taken by the stone post outside the school. I photograph both of the kids in this spot on the first day and last day of every year.
After cleaning up, we headed to our annual Last Day of School celebration at Lake Michigan. We have made this our last-day tradition and, although it looked like rain as we left town, we decided to pray for the best and make the drive. As you can see, it didn't take long for the kids to rip off their clothes and leis, and hit the water. The ICE-COLD water. They didn't stay in the water very long, as it was very icy and had a pretty strong under-tow due to the wind and waves. Matt and I sat huddled in towels while they built sand castles. It was nice to cool down (way down!) after the hot, sticky morning, and it was quite relaxing.


And we got about 1 hour in before this rolled in:
So, with the first crack of thunder, we got back in the car to head home. We stopped for ribs at Sam's Joint for lunch and learned that the whole area was under a tornado watch until 10 pm. So, we high-tailed it home, grabbed some movies, and just finished watching National Treasure II. Next comes "Things we Lost in the Fire" while the kids watch Harry Potter and Underdog.

Tomorrow brings our last t-softball game (if we don't get stormed out), a regional baseball game, and hopefully some scrapping with friends. We also have many open houses this weekend, which means that my cooking will be minimal. Enjoy the first weekend of summer, y'all!

Wednesday Happies.

Ah, this photo just makes me happy today. Ever since I saw http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/05/index.html in Ali Edwards' Life Artist book, I have wanted to do one for our family. I just love how all the little pieces of life are showcased here. I haven't been able to find one around here in Michigan, so I have been bidding on them on E-Bay. And I guess that I hit the proverbial type-drawer jackpot this week; I bid on this first one, and got into a bidding war that went right down to the wire; I won it for 60.00 plus shipping. While it was a bit more than I had hoped to pay, I wanted it so splurged on it. Then, I was casually bidding on a second one, which was only at like $9.95 with a couple of hours to go in the auction. So I kept bidding thinking "I'll just take this up to $40.00 and then let someone else have it. Well, I got it up to just about $30.oo.....and then noone else bidded. So, I ended up with 2 of them. Ths first arrived today, and it just makes me smile with the possibilities. I will be working on it this summer and will be sure to post photos when finished.

And, here's a riddle about the second thing that is making me happy today. Where in the world can you:

• Share lunch of a hotdog, pizza slice, 2 diet cokes, and a strawberry yogurt sundae for just over $5.00?
• Stock up on snacks for the entire summer in one fell swoop?
• Pay $15.00 for a bag of rawhides that will keep your chocolate lab content all summer?
• Find beautiful berries for a fraction of the price you pay at Meijer? And yummy bright red sweet cherries....I can't wait to dig in!
• Nibble on yummy samples throughout the store as you shop....melon, dips, breads....mmmmm.?
• Find plastic scrapstorage for half-price compared to what Michaels charges for them?
• Buy 4GB CompactFlash memory cards for $30.00 using the 8-dollars-off coupon (Best Buy charges $90.00)?

Any guesses? Yep. COSTCO. Hayden and I spent part of the morning stocking up at Costco, and I am reminded that when you are careful and choose wisely there, you really can save a lot of money. Here's a bit of what we came home with today:

Only 1 1/2 days left of school!

Party Week.

This week is pretty much about celebrations for my first grade girl. Yesterday, the kids enjoyed a Water Party for meeting their Reading Counts goals; Reading Counts is a reading comprehension program where the kids read books and then take a short comprehension quiz over their book. Kennedy met her original goal mid-way through the year, so it was doubled and she met it without a problem. Because she is reading longer books (she is on chapter 32 of the 37 chapter Harry Potter Book #4), it takes her a lot longer to get to the point of being ready to take a quiz, but she seems to retain the information to do well on the quizzes. Good job, my little reader. The water party consisted of a swimming pool filled with ice (brrrr!), a home-made tarp slip and slide down the hill, sprinklers, hoses, water games and ice cream......a fun time had by all and great opportunity for some fun photos.

And today was the kids' final Loop Party of the year. Their teacher does a behavior program wherein the kids earn loops for good behavior; when the string of loops reaches the ground, they earn a Loop Party.....an afternoon for PJs, pillows, movies and a treat. The kids love these days and it has been a good motivator for them.

Kennedy went off to school in one of her new summer shirts, a cute fabric-quilted ice cream cone that just screams SUMMER!.....I just love Mini Boden because they have unique graphic tees. It is a European company, and it costs a bit more, but they are exceptional quality and well worth it. I just love this shirt, and add some red-and-white polka dot ribbon for the piggies (from my scrap-stash), and she was going off looking cute as a bug.

And, imagine! These paper and embellishments that I picked up at Michael's yesterday will be perfect to scrap these photos. The line is "Berry Sweet" by K&Company, and it is fruity, bright, and fun. If you love cute little owls and whimsical fruit and bright patterns--and especially if you have a little girl to scrap--you need to check this line out!
Happy 3rd Day of June! What will you do today to make it count?

June.

Can it be already? I already feel my summer break slipping away....every year, I try to slow it down, but I am all too aware that it will be August before I know it. So I am working hard at really trying to be PRESENT in the moment and to savor these summer days before both of my kids will be heading to every-day school in the fall.

Today was a gorgeous day. Church as amazing....an incredible message and great music and just good to be with God's family. After church, we grabbed breakfast and then, on a whim, topped it off with Coldstone Creamery. While we were eating our dessert (yes, I know, dessert after breakfast....hey, it's summer!), we sat out by this little pond. Within minutes, we were surrounded by ducks and geese which seemed to come out of nowhere. I don't know about you, but geese make me a little nervous when they get to close to my kids (or me, for that matter!)...and these were close. And we were surrounded on three sides with geese who obviously equated the presence of humans with FOOD. And then, my husband made the cardinal error....he threw them a little piece of his waffle cone. My motherly instinct went WAY up as these geese got within inches of my kids and were sort of hissing. The kids thought it was great! It ended up being one of those "funny but a little uncomfortable" experiences that had the kids talking all the way home.

After that, I took a nice long nap. Yes. ANd now, I am making dinner (taco salad) after which we are headed out for a long family bike ride.

This week will be a full one, with lots of last-week activities for Kennedy and some creative projects for me. Oh, and I need to get my sunflowers planted because I AM going to have a sunflower patch this year if it kills me! Pictures to follow, if my plans materialize!