GeoDrawing Camp

Last month, I was asked to leada 3 day Geography/Drawing camp with 40-something 6-8 year olds while their parents receive training for Classical Conversations.  I was a SO excited...and a bit overwhelmed.  I prayed a lot leading up to the camp because I knew I couldn't handle so many kids alone for 6 hours over 3 days.

However, the camp turned out wonderful!  I think the kids had a great time...I had fun...and my teenage helpers were wonderful! 

For Geography we learned about : The Continent and Oceans, the "Great Circles" (equator,  tropics lines, Arctic circle, etc), we learned about the compass and how to read a map (using this).  We did LOTS of world map tracing, and Africa and S. America Tracing.  I read books like "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain", and  "J is for Jambo (a Swahili Alphabet book)".  We learned a worship song in Kitubi, a language spoken The Democratic Republic of Congo, Yesu Azali Awa.  We played map games with my giant shower curtain world map.

For Art we learned about : The 5 elements of drawing and used books like "Not a box", "Ish", "Dot", and "The Pencil".  We drew a mirror/line drawing of King Tut and Masai warriors with abstract robes as well as "Not a box" pictures.   We also "traced" the world with play dough, drew the world on balloons (this as NOT a hit like I thought it would be) and learned about missionaries from Africa and S. America.

Masai Drawing

Masai Drawing

Masai Drawing

Play dough map

outline Africa with Play dough

It's Not a Box!  It's a horse!

It's not a box, it's a submarine

Free Hand Drawing of South America in the "art book"

I can't remember where I found instructions for this guy....

This was My "Not a Box" man that I drew step by step on the board.

This was what the kids drew...pretty good, huh?

Another Not a Box man.

Last Not a Box man:)

It was great fun.  I hope they ask me to do it again :)

As the Deer Pants for water...

So, one fun thing about our new house is all the deer we get to see. After the tropic storm passed through, they really came out a lot.  Jeremy caught some cool pictures of the deer one night.  I want to remember this beautiful place :)

Swimming and Snorkeling

We have really enjoyed living in a neighborhood with a community pool.  I have never lived anywhere with very quick, direct access to a pool.  I'm glad we don't have our own pool to take care of...I think we'd be lousy pool owners...but it's great to have one nearby to use.

We try to go swimming 3 times a week, sometimes more. 

I am excited to say that Nicole has learned to swim this summer!  She has never taken any swim classes and she's doing great.  It started by her being able to touch the bottom of the pool and just sort of bounce around...to diving for rings and sticks that sink to the bottom, to full fledged swimming.

And now...she's snorkeling!  She's having a blast!  She loves to swim all around the pool and not have to come up for air.  One day, she seat in one place and watched some teenage girls "do gymnastics" underwater.  Nicole had her mask on, her snorkel in her mouth and she was set. 

Hannah doesn't try to swim at all right now (although I think she was swimming last summer).  She won't get in the pool without her little floating ring.  As annoying as this is at times...it's also fine because she will have hours of fun without my help.  So...I'm not to worried that she won't play without it...at least she's in the water playing ;)

Nate loves the water too and has a cool pair of floaties called Puddle Jumpers.  He just swims all over the place and has a blast up at the pool.

Just another cool thing about our new house and where we live.  We love this amenity.

Mud Pies

We have had a lot of rain lately.  We were hit by Tropical Storm Debby several weeks ago which really began the onslaught of rain this summer.  It has been needed though!  Our lake behind our house was getting VERY low...it's now VERY full :)

The kids love the rain.  Unless it's lightning out, they almost always end up on the back porch, and eventually in the yard with their bathing suites on...covered in mud.

This was the case a few weeks ago.

They even delighted in the holes Lucy dug for us in the back yard, which quickly filled up with rain water...and then mud :)

Check out Nicole's face !

Nate loves to play in the mud.

I think Hannah is the one who started the mud sitting :)

I love to see my kids get dirty and play outside. 

Happy Birthday to my SIX year old!

Oh, my dear, sweet, darling baby is certainly NOT a baby anymore.  She is growing up into a beautiful, caring, God fearing young lady.  Ooooo...I just love her so much!  My heart breaks that she is growing so quickly, while at the same time swells with pride as I watch her learn and grow.

She is such a blessing in our lives!  We have had an exciting 6th year with her.  She's lost 4 teeth since her last birthday and learned how to ride a bike.  I wonder what this year will bring (I already know 3 more teeth will be gone by the end of summer...poor thing won't be able to eat for a few months ;)

We have had a fun day celebrating her 6th birthday so far (and there are still a few more hours left). 

I found a great idea a few months ago and presented it to Nicole and she wanted to do it as well.  We thought of 6 "Random Acts of Kindness" to perform today, on her 6th birthday.  I read the examples I found on another blog and it inspired us to come up with our own ideas. 

1.  We took a plate of cookies to a neighbor who has three ailing parents they care for...all in their 90s.  They have helpers during the day and we just thought it would be nice to bless them with a plate of cookies.  Most of the residents in the home speak Spanish, so our conversations are often pieces of words in each other's language, but I want this to be something we do more often.  They are right across from us and I'm sure could use a bit of encouragement. 

Our little note and cookies for our garbage men...complete with a balloon :)

2.  We also left a container of cookies for our garbage men.  These guys do it the "old fashioned way".  No strong machine lifting these garbage containers...nope...just the strong men.  And, bless their hearts, we have some pretty wretched garbage at times...not to mention the two cans full of grass clipping we saw fall out all over the road last week (and then watched them shovel up). These guys honestly deserve more than cookies...we should grill them a steak sometime! hahaha.

Delivering cards to a Veteran's Nursing Home

3.  This was my FAVORITE part today.  The State Veteran's Nursing Home is just around the corner from our neighborhood.  Ever since we moved here, I've wanted to volunteer there in some way.  Yesterday, the kids (all three) made several handmade cards each...complete with "Have a Happy Day" and stickers and drawings.  We went by the nursing home and asked the front desk staff if they could give a few of the residents our cards and let them know that we were thinking of them and praying for them.  Well...they did better than that!  They invited us back with them.  We spent about 10 minutes handing out cards to 8 or so Veterans, some of whom even passed on a hug to the girls.  It was such a blessing to spend a few minutes with these men, who served so faithfully for our country.  I know that one man is a Colonel, and he just loved the girls.  I want to expose my children to opportunities like this so much more!  The staff said we would be welcome back any time :)  I think everyone loved seeing the little girls (and Nicole was dressed in her flower girl dress with a tiara).  Nate also got involved and showed off his McQueen cars. 

Clothing donation

4.  Next stop was to drop off a clothing donation we've been putting together to the Christian Social Services.  They have a thrift store (which I frequent ;) and seem to have a nice ministry in the area.

Dropping off cookies to the fire men

5.  Then we headed to a local fire station.  We took another plate of cookies with a note saying, "Thank you for serving our community!".  They were so excited to have visitors (and again impressed with Nicole's dress ;)  They gave us a tour of their facility and showed off the fire truck.  Only Hannah would get in though ;)

Hannah inside the fire truck

6.  Our last stop was to our church.  We are so grateful the Lord has allowed us to find a church with all of the qualifications we were looking for after we moved.  We thought it would be fun to honor our pastor, an avid Starbucks drinker with his favorite coffee...but, since we didn't know what that was, we just gave him a gift card and hand made cards instead :)  The kids love our pastor and his family...and Nicole made sure I didn't forget this last stop in our 6 Random Acts of Kindness on her 6th birthday.

(by the way...Nicole really did have fun doing this.  She looks miserable in most of the pictures, but I think it was the sun;)

We spent a few hours at Busch Gardens as well today, and one of our 'acts' was going to be there...but it didn't work out.  Nicole wants to feed the Lory birds (I'm dreading this by the way...these birds land on your head and arms and everywhere.  I know I will get pooped on when this day comes.  Anyway....)  She's been wanting to feed these birds. So...I told her that she could buy the food with her birthday money.  I finally figured out that this is why she wanted to go to Busch Gardens on her birthday.  We were in line to get food when we found out that they were shutting everything down because there was lighting in the area.  We were going to buy a thing of food for the person in line behind us...but we didn't get to.

Riding the ONE ride at Busch Gardens

After almost 2 hours of waiting inside a restaurant, the storm let up enough for us to get to the tram and out to the car.  So...we spent over 3 hours at Busch Gardens today, but only rode one ride.  hahaha.  The kids did great though, and I think they had fun.  We played games and got to watch a dancing show while we waited for the storm to pass. 

Now, we are home and watching Beauty and the Beast.  I think 5 guys has been requested for dinner tonight. 

Nicole has been so excited about her day and gave specific decorating instructions to me yesterday (by the way...I didn't do it right....she sounds  a lot like me! haha).

Nicole knows how to make a birthday fun...both hers and other people's.  I can not wait to see what this next year will be like for her.  As always....we pray that the Lord would be glorified in her life, wherever He leads.

Happy Birthday my little princess.  I love you so much!!!

The Braves Game....oh...um...I mean...The Rays Game!

Outside of Tropicana Field

A few weeks ago the Atlanta Braves were in town playing against the Tampa Bay Rays.  Jeremy loves the Braves so we decided we were crazy enough to take the kids to a game.  Once I got over the sticker shock of taking 5 people to a baseball game :( get use to it Michele:( and the fear of a child having a tantrum in the middle of the stadium, we actually had a great time.

Jeremy walking his son into the stadium to see the field for the first time.  This was a big moment for him.  Jeremy I mean ;)

We got there early and watched the teams warm up. We tried to catch some balls out in right field during batting practice, but never got one :(

Watching batting practice.

Let me say...the Rays stadium is VERY kid friendly.  I would most certainly go back again with the kids.  They have a whole family friendly section.  We didn't get to explore much of it, but we did get to let the kids sit down and color for a while.  They also have a carnival game area (where the games are free to play...isn't that nice?)  If we want to touch the sting rays, we'll have to go even earlier next time.

We had seats with a great view.  We were in the upper deck....just to the right of home plate.  It was great.  The girls borrowed some binoculars from some neighbors and that kept them busy most of the game.

Hahaha...so silly!

Nate watched for quite a while and was busy eating snacks and lollipops, until I ran out of treats.  Then, he got to play on the phone :)

I took this picture, anticipating the steal. 

Isn't our camera cool?!?!  From the upper deck, this is the detail I got.  Clearly he was out!

It was  a wonderful family afternoon.

Golfing

Nate went golfing with Jeremy and Greg while we had our Fancy Nancy Party.  He was very well behaved, and apparently had a lot of fun.  At the end of each hole, when asked his score, he always said....."TWO".

Way to go Buddy!