Home School Fair 2013

 This is our fifth year being a part of the homeschool fair.  Gracie decided to surprise Grandma this year...the pillow she worked on was for her!  She was pretty surprised and happy to see that Gracie won a first place ribbon for her work.

 I decided this year was going to be a "stress - free" year so I had the kids only pick things that they had already completed to enter into the fair.  Both Luke and Gracie have a lot of interest in learning how to use my camera.  They both entered shots that they had taken from our camping trip in Yucaipa.  Luke took a nice shot of the lake with a reflection of the trees.  Gracie took a cool pic of the dominoes while we were playing.  They both won first place ribbons.

 Both Abby and Winona did amazing table settings.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of Abby's, but here we have Winona explaining what she made to Bill.  With the help of Aunt Denise, they were able to make an amazing display.  She won best of show for her entry.

 Dylan decided to not enter anything this year into the homeschool fair.  I know he is growing up, and doesn't spend as much time on art or taking pictures.  He wasn't going to do anything at all, until he saw that there was going to be a 2 on 2 basketball tournament.  Bill's knee is still bothering him, so Craig offered to play with him.  They had a great time.

 It was Caleb's first official year to participate in the Olympics and he got pretty sick right after he did the standing long jump.  He missed the rest of the events and spent most of the day sitting in the shade.  Gracie was excited to win three out of four events for her age level.

 Winona doing the running long jump

 Wade's turn

 Some of our group that came out to watch all of the kids.  

 Luke enjoys the obstacle course 

 Wade's turn on the obstacle course

 I do occasionally let Luke have sugar and dye all put together into a scrumptious snow cone.  He enjoyed every minute.

 Loved Winona's cake!

 We were all so impressed with Wade's cupcake alligator! He won best of show!

 Gracie also entered one of the many pictures she took over the summer in Cayucos.

 The girls have such a great time together

We are really thankful to Marilyn for all of the hard work she put into making the homeschool fair a success this year.  We are thankful to Laurie for taking in our entries for us, and helping to check in all of the projects.  We are thankful to Grammy for getting up early and helping at the admissions desk on the day of the fair.  I'm thankful to Daddy for being so excited and interested in what all of the kids did.   Grandma, Grandpa and Bob came and stayed the whole day with us also.  It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by so many great people. The kids always enjoy it and are already talking about what they want to do next year.

I'm camping, I'm camping...

 I enjoyed our last camping trip to Yucaipa so much that I told everyone I didn't want any presents for my birthday, but instead planned another camping trip!  I was excited when I found an opening at Doheny Beach, which I have heard is almost impossible to get a reservation.  I must have lucked out and grabbed a spot that someone else had just cancelled.  I wasn't sure how lucky I was when we got there and I saw the size of our camping spot!  I took the kids down to the beach and let Bill and Bob figure out how we were going to get 7 people, a dog, a tent, car, and trailer into that small space.

 They did it!  Thankfully it was not very windy and they were able to set up the tent on the pavement and fill the inside with all of our stuff so that it wouldn't blow away.

 Jack was scared from the minute we got there.  The campsites were very close together and we were right next to the train tracks.   Every time a train went by, he ran into his crate or underneath the Sequoia.

 Bill really enjoys doing all of the cooking for breakfast.  He made fried eggs, bacon and pancakes.

 One of the kids dropped a marshmallow the first night right near the edge of our tent. I kept telling Bill that I could hear little nibbling sounds that first night.  He told me had seen a mouse running around.  The next morning I found this marshmallow with little bite marks all over it.  I didn't mind there being a mouse as long as it stayed outside the tent.

 We went for a long walk the first morning and found so many rocks.  If Luke could, he would gather them all up and bring them home with us.  He loves to look at them and notice all of the differences.  He also likes to take the really big ones and throw them into the water.

 We made our way down the beach quite a ways and a park ranger told us that we had to get Jack off of the beach.  The guys walked back to our camp on the street.

 Luke and I decided to try to dig a hole deep enough so that we wouldn't be able to see him inside.  We succeeded.  He asked me to take this picture and put it on instagram asking if anyone could tell who it was?!?

 Of course, Caleb wanted to do it too!

 Then they all took turns jumping over the hole.

 Then, they decided to climb into the hole and let Dylan jump over all of them.  It was their idea...

 This could have turned out badly, but Dylan was able to do it!

 We were out on the beach alone for almost the whole day.  We made sand castles, played in the water, dug holes, ate lunch, went for walks, ate some more, buried each other, slept, played in the water some more, ate some more.... It was the perfect day on the beach.

 Except for Bob and Bill burning their feet.

 Here you can see the train going by from where we were playing on the beach.  It was even closer to our campsite!

 Luke loves digging in the dirt, playing in the sand, collecting rocks and climbing trees.

Every mom loves her kids more than life.  I love how much Luke loves to camp.  I started doing it for him, but now I love doing it for all of us.  It's great making memories together.