Last day of school!

We finished up the school year for Kindergarten, 2nd and 5th grade!

The kids have worked hard and finished strong even with colds.

Big water? check.

Cold medicine? check.

Crackers? check.

Reading lesson? check!

Teaching Colin to read with forever stay on my resume.  I am so proud of US...I may have had to bribe him, but here's a clip of him reading.

For the last day, I wrote up a list for each one of them on the white board, that they had to complete before they could "graduate" (kind of like final exams) and then they could erase each one as they completed it.  They all left the math test for the end:

When everyone's list was erased we partied!  

They requested Del Taco for lunch and this is how Eli feels about having a cold:

He is the epitome of "man cold".

We went to a friend's house for the afternoon to swim and play and then came home for our family party.  Ben made certificates for each of the kids.

And these pictures show the epitome of teaching a tween.

I can promise you that she was happy, but sure didn't want to show it.

Alison was celebrating the end of elementary school and convinced she is now in middle school, although we don't really know where we stand on that.  When Ben and I went to school, you were in elementary until 7th grade, but each state we've lived in has done school differently and I cannot keep track of how "regular" school does grades anymore. 

We ate pizza and watched The Greatest Showman.

Alison made a cake for dessert.  Perhaps the best thing about year round homeschooling is getting what you need for dirt cheap because you're on a different cycle than the rest of the school world.  I got our party decorations for $1!

We're taking a few weeks off with a few trips and then we're jumping back into school for a new year, with hopes of getting some good ground covered before we move.

This and That

Lego creations are abounding.

Eli continues to be able to build the most intricate creations that always amaze me.  The boys of the house have been spending the evenings working on creating a Lego city.  The big grey board is actually a subway system Eli built...I may have to take some close ups of the buildings because they are just so cool.

 Colin prefers to play with the creations over creating them, but he's happy to participate in whatever is going on that evening.  He took this video and it always makes me smile; he's trying to shine a light on Ben but I love seeing Ben immerse himself in the mess and join the fun.

This not-so-little-anymore girl is turning 11 next week!  EEK! 

She wouldn't let me take a single picture, but Alison spent the last 2 weeks at volleyball camp and ended up loving the game.  We're looking forward to some beach volleyball in our near future :)

On top of camp, we finished up our school year! You can see our celebration pictures here.

I may have a teachers chair, but that doesn't stop everyone from climbing in my lap throughout our school day.  I was trying to give Alison a spelling test and Colin would not leave my lap and where two or more are gathered, there Maya will be.

Speaking of that chair, I was sitting in it one day when I heard the piano start playing.  I literally froze, trying to figure out who could be playing.  Ben was at work so I began to wonder if one of the kids turned on Pandora.  Nope.  I walked out to find Colin making up his own song that sounded so legit it blew my mind.  I tried to get a recording but once he knew I was listening, he wouldn't do it the same.

You know it's a Yuma summer when these shenanigans are happening:

We are partially moving ourselves in a few months and with our new camping adventures, it was time to get a trailer.  Ben got a steal of a deal off craiglist and is working (in the HEAT) to fix it up just a little.  Just had to document the craziness.  Actually, the funniest part of the day was when the neighbor came over and asked Ben wanted his old workbench...thought it might work better than the princess table that is currently being used.

Our First Camping Trip

What an adventure we had!

{making notes of what worked/didn't work for future trips}

We have been talking about camping for a long time and planning/prepping for months.  We knew that we just needed to go to figure out all the details and work out the kinks.  It was a busy weekend, during a heatwave, so we reserved the last spot in the closest, coolest location that we could.  Ben usually gets off mid-afternoon on Friday's, so we planned to have everything set so we could leave as soon as he got home.  Packing for a family of 5 + a dog to go camping is no joke.

*Using 2 pelican cases worked wonderfully.  One for food/kitchen and one for clothes and towels.

While I prepped the food, the kids finished up school for the week.

*Getting meals ready before leaving and half cooking some things was smart.  Next time, have pancakes already mixed with water in ziplock bag.  Take scissors and oil.  Pack ice chest with food grouped together by meal.

*Meals that worked well: carnitas, breakfast burritos, hotdogs, tandoori chicken-sweetpotatoes-naan, pancakes-bacon.  

Naturally, Ben got stuck at work and then loading up the car with all our gear took longer than we anticipated.  AND it was 120°!  So much for my plan to start camping nice and clean.  By the time we got the car set and were on the road, it was past dinner time...the time we had planned on being around the campfire.  The kids were great about it though and didn't even complain about being smashed in the car (and Maya's under Colin's feet).  Don't worry, coming home was much prettier.

*Unroll sleeping mats and lay them flat under the cases=lots more space

We got to our camp site as it was getting dark, which I'm pretty sure is worst case scenario 101 when camping.  Thankfully Ben had set up our tent in the backyard to figure out how to do it beforehand and could set it up quickly by the light of a lantern.  I quickly made quesadillas and we had a few marshmallows and called it a night.

*Make sure camp site is flat!  The slight hill of our campsite=falling down the tent while sleeping.

Ben, Alison and I never really fully fell asleep that night.  Altitude and the craziness of the day probably had a big part in that.  Then, 4:45am Maya heard the birds chirping and decided everyone in the tent needed to share in her excitement and went person by person, licking their faces to wake them up.

*Take Maya's crate next time!

We stalled until 6:00 and then Ben and Alison made breakfast.  I love how much the kids wanted to be involved in everything and really enjoyed being out there.

Alison even volunteered to wash the dishes.

We got a little more settled, now that we could actually see what was what and then went on a little walk around camp.

*Best things we brought=hammock, bug catcher kits and the "nice" camera for the kids to take pictures with.

The kids took turns taking pictures with our "nice" camera (crazy enough, our phones take better pictures than the real camera now) and I think it may have been one of their favorite things. 

Photo by Alison:

It looked like it was going to storm and we some thunder rumbling, so we prepped camp for rain and ate an early lunch just in case.  The rain never hit and we ventured out to find a lake to swim in.  We were a little misinformed and there was only fishing at the nearby lake.  A downside to this park was that they didn't allow dogs on any trails, which meant we had to take turns exploring.

Maya and I hung out while Ben and the kids went on a little hike.

It got pretty hot that afternoon and with no options to cool off, we played cards in the shade and drank lots of water.  I taught the kids how to play nerts and then we all played Phase 10.

Eli will not quit until he wins...which isn't always possible.

*This extra sheet was a life saver, for the car and for the table.

When it finally started to cool off, the kids were able to run around more.  They climbed on this log and eventually met some other kids that were camping nearby.  Alison loves being around lots of people and Ben, Eli and myself would prefer no one around. 

We picked this spot as an intro to camping spot because it had bathrooms, showers and drinkable water at every site.  The bathrooms were right up the hill from our site...it was a little bit of a workout to get there, but close enough that the kids could go on their own.

Alison loved walking Maya around the park.

After dinner, we walked across camp to a bird show.

photo by Eli:

When we walked up, a ranger told us to get up on the tables because there were harvest ants that would bite you.  Well, while were getting the kids up on the table, poor Maya got bit.  She started limping and licking her paw.  The ranger told us to get her some Benadryl and warned us that it might take a week for her to feel better.  I thought it was a little funny that the only thing I used out of our first aid kit was for the dog, but also thankful I had it on hand.  Ben carried Maya back to our site and got her to swallow some children's Benadryl and she zonked out.

We attempted to make s'mores while Maya recovered but our marshmallows had melted together in the afternoon heat. 

Alison went to play with her new friends and the boys were happy to just play with sticks and fire.

 Apparently Saturday was party night at camp and we missed the invitation; people were loud until 3 am and then others up at 5 packing up to go home. Note to self: don't go camping in hopes of sleep.

The next morning, Ben taught Eli how to start a fire.  We ate breakfast and then started cleaning up our site.  Maya was also all the way better by the morning, which was a huge relief.

We were home by lunch and went swimming that afternoon to cool off.

We knew this first trip wouldn't be perfect and we definitely have thoughts on our next trip, but in all, we had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the trip.  The kids are all asking when we can go back and that makes us really excited that this is something we'll enjoy for years to come.

Happy 4th of July!

Alison and I made star sugar cookies and they turned out amazing!

For the record, Alison thought we should have iced them with red and blue frosting, but I thought it made sense to make them yellow and only bought yellow coloring.  However, everyone thought they were lemon flavored because of the yellow and it deterred some people.  It's okay, though...more for us to eat!

We joined most of church at the White's for a party.  We stayed out way too late, but had a great time with friends.