Where did the summer go?

 I love how much these two love each other.  Caleb spends a lot of time after church visiting with his "friends" as he calls them, his cousins, Delaney and Madison.  We started off the month of June with celebrating Madison's graduation from Chaffey High School.  Aunt Gail made her a friendship quilt to take to college, and Gracie worked on a pillowcase to match.  As I write this, she is getting ready to pack these things up in a box to be sent off to Pennsylvania, so that they will be there waiting for her to arrive.

 For the first half of the summer, we had an extra mattress on our living room floor to jump, climb on, and have sword fights on.  If you ever spend the night at Molly's house, you might end up sleeping on this mattress!

 Before everyone left on their summer trips, our homeschool group met for a play date at Red Hill park.  We had a blast playing soccer and football.  It was a hot day, but no one minded.  We were all thrilled to find out that Kim Medina was expecting a baby!!!! Right now she is in our prayers as she is on bed rest because she keeps having early contractions.

 We went to Arizona with Bill's team for a summer tournament at Arizona State University.  It has become a fun tradition for Lori, Chris, and Emi to join us. Grammy came for the first time too. We spent time enjoying the pool at the hotel, especially at 9 in the morning when no one else was there and it was already 90 degrees outside.  We made a few trips to Cracker Barrel this time of course.

 Nothing says summer around here than dominoes and Dr Pepper on a Saturday afternoon.

 Caleb overcame his fear of the water and made amazing steps towards being an independent swimmer this summer in Aunt Judy's pool. Miss Patty came for only a couple of days of lessons but it made a huge difference for him.

 Enjoying popsicles in the driveway while watching the kids play basketball.

 Caleb loves playing Aunt Judy's Ipad after swimming lessons.  He also loves the strawberries and ice cream she provides!

 We also followed Bill's team down to San Diego for a tournament at San Diego State University.  On the way down, we took the time to stop at the Creation Museum in Santee.  It was amazing and it was free!  It was so nice to be able to go inside, and not have to correct anything!  What an amazing display of God's power and wisdom.  It was definitely worth the stop.

 a miniature model of the tower of babel

 They had a gorgeous full wall painting of the inside of Noah's ark.  Loved the little dinosaurs in one of the stalls!

 We also went together to see Monsters University with Owen.  It was his first movie.  Molly reminded me that she went with me to take Dylan to see Monsters Inc. when he was little.  Time goes so fast.

We also squeezed two weeks of basketball camp into the month of June.  We were excited to have Reuben and Isaac join us for a few days during the second week.

 As Dylan and Gracie become more involved with different activities and friends, I find that I am spending more and more time with just these two crazy kiddos.  Love them! Next post...our annual trip to our home away from home... Cayucos!

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.