Homeschool Camp out 2010

Ahhh, the homeschool camp out!

This was another highlight of our fabulous summer.  We stayed on the coast at William Tugman State Park with many other homeschool families.  We got to know some pretty amazing families and children this weekend. There were many fun activities planned to keep us all entertained.  We got to swim, play games, make stilts, paint stilts, have stilt races, worship the Lord together and eat candy, lost and lots of candy!!!!

This event kicked off our school year and what a way to start the year!!  The children came home excited to be a homeschool family.  They are motivated and ready to dig in to their school books.

They are certainly not going to be short of friends this year.   This is a picture of a lot of the children in our co-op.  There are many more besides this that could not make it to the camp out this year.  The girls have several new friends their age and a lot of them even attend our church.

Michael made some new friends this weekend too.  There were 4 boys including Michael who were all about the same age and played really well together.  We are excited to spend more time with them and develop their friendships.

Daddy and boys are hanging out in the motorhome.  We just finished up breakfast and were getting ready for the day.  AJ is getting SO big!  Michael is too for that matter, he turns 4 in two more days.  UGH... where does the time go? 

This last picture is one of the Minute-to-win-it games we played.  The boys had to put an Oreo on their forehead and use only their facial muscles to move the cookie down to their mouth.  It was very fun to watch - quite the sight.  These little hands just could not stay off the cookie.  Can you blame them?

In the evenings we all sat around the camp fire and sang songs.  The girls learned a lot of new fun songs.  They have been singing them all week.  It so great to listen to them and know that they have some very fun memories of camping.

Oregon Gardens 2010

This was so FUN!!  Every year the Oregon Gardens invites homeschool families up and teaches about trees, plants, animals, fire safety and many, many other wonderful things.  We all learned so much on this trip.  
Up above, Emily is modeling this years fire gear complete with fire hose, hat and water canteen.

Emily and Alyssa are standing in front of the fountain where the kids caught a frog!  Emily was thrilled to catch him and get to hold the little guy.  All the kids got to pet him and feel his smooth frog skin.

Here you can see the kids had spotted the frog and were headed in after him.

Emily is holding the little guy down below.  After the excitement of the frog wore down, she did place him back in the pond to go about his little frog life.

At another pond, one of the moms caught a snake that she let all the kids touch.  Yes, my girls were right in there petting the slimy snake.  They loved every minute of it.  Of course, I didn't get a picture of it because it was that very moment that my battery died.

AJ's first food

This is AJ's first experience in his new highchair with Cheerios. He tolerated it for a bit, but overall he was really not pleased or excited about it. He had no interest in the Cheerios, but the girls sure had fun trying to teach him to pick up the tiny Os and try them. I am sure the girls enjoyed this a lot more than AJ did.

Boshart Bash 2010

Very fun weekend!  We made some family memories this weekend.  The kids got to ride the cows, which is always a crowd pleaser.  This is Michael with his cow Betsy and Alyssa is pictured at the bottom with Chloe.


This year we had a bounce house and a racing house, which Emily is standing in front of.  Emily played on these most of the weekend.


At the bottom, Anthony and Michael are learning the Hula dace.  It was very funny to watch the boys and men Hula.  

Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons 2010


What a fabulous summer! We got to enjoy 8 weeks of swimming lessons year. The girls went from no water skills at all to being good swimmers. Emily made it through all of the classes in one summer. She can swim from one end of the pool to other. I was amazed at her progress. Now she needs to work on her side breathing and endurance and she may be ready for the swim team next year.

Alyssa had a good summer too. She made huge progress as well. She has one more class to complete next summer and then she is well on her way. She went from not wanting to leave the steps to jumping off the diving board and swimming across the short side of the pool.

Michael had a lot fun this summer once he figured out it was okay to get his face wet. The little turkey spent 7 weeks refusing to do a bob or get his face wet. The teachers were very patient with him and entertained him. One afternoon he was swimming along the wall of the pool and started screaming. He was screaming that a crab bit him. His teacher pulled him out of the pool and took him straight over to first aid. He was crying pretty hard and absolutely convinced a crab bit him. As it turns out, he was stung by a bee. However, to this day he will tell you a crab bit him during swim lessons this summer. He improved a lot this year too. By the beginning of our last week he finally decided he would try a bob. To all of our surprise, he now LOVES bobs. His entire last week he was so excited to finally be swimming and getting his face wet. Hopefully, he will still like it next summer...

All in all, we had a wonderful summer and I am thrilled that the girls can swim and Michael is comfortable in the water now. It was money well spent.

Osborn Park, Corvallis

 September 5, 2010

What a gorgeous day this was! The children and I drove to Corvallis to meet up with our homeschool group for one last summer outing.  The weather could not have been any better.  It was actually in the 90s and scorching, but we had a wonderful time.  


This kids got to play and swim.  The girls really wanted to try out that fun water slide, but mom was a bit nervous.  Actually, I was a wreck.  Trying to keep a close eye on 4 young children in water FULL of people is quite the task.  We all had fun and made it out of there safely and without incident, thank goodness!  


Even AJ got to swim for a while.  He splashed and played and even let out a few giggles.  It is so amazing to watch him grow and learn. He is quite the little swimmer.  He enjoyed playing in the warm water just as much as the other kids.