Feeling sentimental

Colin did not want his picture taken, but I had to document this; he completed first grade grammar and math.  Our school year still has another 4 weeks so he'll work on other things during that time, but completing these things was a big day to me.

I held the books, almost paralyzed...I will never teach 1st grade again.  That realization made me so sad.  And maybe a little scared too.  In just a few months, I'll be teaching 2nd, 4th and 7th grade!  That's legit stuff!  For the last 4 years of homeschooling, Colin has pretty much just hung out with us, doing little kid stuff.  His schooling didn't take very long and he caught on to things fast since he's heard it so many times before.

Now I feel this new wave of schooling coming.

And I'm having a hard time letting go of these sweet little years.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Colin is 7!

He requested we open presents before daddy had to go to work...so a bright and early Star Wars party it was!

Naturally, there had to be some Legos built before daddy could leave.

The best thing about opening presents in the morning is that they can play with them all day long.  After the Lego sets were built, they made race cars and then played golf.

 We went to In N Out for lunch

 And then when daddy got home from work, we went to the Secret Life of Pets 2 movie.

{Colin has not been a fan of getting his picture taken}

 He had Papa John's for dinner...seems like it's been years since we've had Papa Johns.

And our new friends, the Leite's, came over for ice cream cake. 

 

Having an intense conversation with Luke about Star Wars:

They stayed to play for awhile.  Seeing this room full of boys building Legos just makes me smile.

Then they all played golf

I'm not ready for Colin to be 7, but we had a great day celebrating him.  He is still sweet and hilarious and gets HANGRY fast, but when you ask him what he wants to eat, he'll request raw veggies.  Yesterday, he was out with Ben and Ben scooped him up and was singing him a silly song.  Colin whispered to him, "Daddy, do you see any other daddy's singing silly songs right now?" HA!  That's what I say to him when he's misbehaving in a store and it's little moments like that that keeps us smiling and laughing all the time.

We love you Colin!

Science Fair

I did an experiment for a science fair about how different ingredients work in a cupcake.  It took about two weeks to complete.  I had to pick which ingredients to take out and then make different batches.

my supplies

my ingredients

baking!

more baking!

Alison presenting her project

seeing other people present there projects

*written by Alison

Camping at Rose Valley

All props go to Ben for this trip.  While I was focused on my half marathon, he was planning, prepping and mostly packing for this trip...and taking care of the kids.

 

Since my brain wasn't fully on the trip, we forgot a few things.  I suppose that's the beauty of camping; it's good to learn how to make do with what you have.

We stopped in Ojai for lunch and realized that we forgot all cooking utensils.  The boys and I held down the fort in the truck while Ben and Alison tried to find something in the hardware that would work. 

 Ben also wins for picking the best campsite and at a time when no one was there! 

 

This was the one picture I got before my phone completely died.  Thankfully we brought the camera and Ben's phone held out the whole time.

 

We camped right next to a stream, which provided lots of entertainment and peaceful sounds during the night.

 

 

We were also by two ponds.  It was said that there were fish in them, but we didn't see any.

 

The best part of the campsite was the short hike to a waterfall.

I love waterfalls and one evening I said to Ben, "I don't know why waterfalls make me so happy." and Eli jumped in and said, "That's easy.  It's because you like them."

 

We stopped at this spot several times and Maya, for the first time in her life, would retrieve sticks we threw in the water for her.  The water was super cold, but I would stick my legs in as a nice ice bath.  I really do think it helped me recover from the race.

 

 

 We tried making s'mores with cookies instead of graham crackers this trip.  We thought it would be easier than taking the crackers and chocolate, but it was a fail.  The cookie was too thick and just made the marshmallow squeeze out.

Oh Maya dog.  You were quite the entertainment this trip.

 

We learned from last time and brought her crate.  We all slept way better without her trying to wake us up when she started to hear birds chirping in the morning.  The only problem is she would growl at me if I got up to go to the bathroom, although I found comfort that she's a good guard dog.  The crate also came in handy when Maya decided she was an explorer and fearless and wanted to roam the campground catching all the birds.

 I love camping for lots of reasons, but the top 2 are:

The kids LOVE to cook

And they put themselves to bed without being told.

Alison loved hanging out in the tent during the day, curled up with a good book.  She read 3 this trip!

 

It was a great trip, and one we may keep on our list to go back to.