Family Bike Ride

Since Katie got the training wheels taken off of her bike last spring, we thought she would be ready to ride with us on her bike, instead of in the bike trailer, the next time we went on a family bike ride. We found a nice paved trail at a state park and tried it out recently. Katie did great and we all had a fun time.

The bike trail wound through beautiful woods and ended at a beach and playground area. We found it was important to keep moving, though, so the mosquitos didn't have time to surround us! We think we might try it again in the fall, so we won't have to worry about that! :-)

Golf Ball ~ Sized Hail!

We recently had a thunderstorm that produced hail. The kids were excited to hear it tapping on the roof. Then the tapping sound changed and it actually sounded like someone was hurling golf balls at our house! Huge balls of hail were bouncing as they landed in the grass in our yard.

When it ended, the kids ran outside to collect the evidence before it melted! We put the pieces of hail on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer. They have pulled the hail balls out a few times to impress their friends, who usually want to touch and then eat them! :-)

Pictures From Homeschool Camping Trip

Boys and their light sabers. :-)

Fun at the playground.

Every year the kids make a special t-shirt.

Homeschool Co-op Camping Trip

Every year several families in the co-op we are a part of go camping at a small privately-owned campground about an hour away. This tradition has been going on for the past seven years. Our family has joined the group three times now and it has become the highlight of the summer for my kids.

Since the campground is small, most of the people camping there are from our group. It is kind of like a little city of campers where the kids can safely run around. There is a playground, a baseball field, a private lake with a swimming area and some canoes and paddle boats you can take out on the lake. The area is surrounded with woods. The kids play ALL DAY long and at night they play, "night games," in which the older kids hide and the little kids try to find them and then they switch and the big kids hide. The younger kids have a harder time finding the big kids! :-) Everyone wears dark clothing and runs around with flashights and has a BLAST!

While the night games are going on, the adults gather at picnic tables in a shelter and play games. The last couple of years the game of choice was, "Settlers Of Catan," which I finally learned how to play this year. It is pretty fun.

The first couple of years that we went camping with the co-op, we camped in our tent. This year we borrowed some friends' tent-trailer camper and now we are spoiled forever! :-) It was so nice staying in the camper!

We just got home last night from the homeschool campout and now I am facing all the laundry that needs to be done! It is hard to believe that summer is coming to an end soon and school will be starting in a couple of weeks!

Body Worlds

Yesterday Dave and I and the kids went to see the Body Worlds exhibition that is in town. Wow. It is an exhibition of real human bodies preserved through a process called, "plastination." Some of the bodies show mostly muscles and others emphasize the nervous system or various organs. It is fascinating. There is a separate room that has babies in various stages of growth, starting at a few weeks and going all the way to birth. (A sign states that all of the babies died through accidents or natural causes.)

Body Worlds is like an amazing anatomy class. We were in awe of the intricacy and detail of all the systems of the body and how they work together. God is so creative! Seeing more of His creation up close causes wonder and awe to well up inside me. It causes me to worship God and give Him glory.

Check out Body Worlds and see if it is coming to your town!

Swimming Lessons

Grant and Kate had a great two weeks of swimming lessons at the local pool! They both had great instructors who made the lessons fun while helping them learn. Now we need to give them opportunities to practice the things they've learned with some trips to the swimming pool and maybe some days at a lake before summer ends. :-)

August

Is it really already August?! Wow, the summer is flying by! Tomorrow is the kids' last day of swimming lessons and then we do not have any more regular activities scheduled for the rest of the summer! Of course, summer is almost over. :-( But, don't tell my kids that. We are just finishing up school this week and they are excited that they will have four whole weeks off for summer vacation! :-)