Killer Bunnies

I finally figured out what I felt was "missing". The past few weeks I've been feeling at a loss when we do school. And I finally realized it was because I am READY to do our regular stuff again! I had put it off indefinitely when Natalie was born - giving us all time to adjust and develop new routines. I guess our 'indefinitely' period was ready to be over because this entire week we would do what little I had planned (I was keeping up very, very basic routines) and then I would think to myself, "now what?" So I did what I always do when that hits. I hopped on the library's website and starting putting in reservations for books! It felt so good to be requesting books again! I started up where we left off with history, and made a few plans for this summer (we'll be having a "Summer of Shakespeare" - more on that later), and added a few math books to our library list. I went and revisited all my favorite homeschooling sites and was inspired and motivated. I really love teaching my children. I love planning and preparing the lessons. I love to see the joy when they learn something new and exciting! Children really love to learn and it's so fun to watch the process! I feel like we've pretty much arrived back to our lives. What a good feeling!

Summer of Shakespeare. A few months ago I got this idea that in the summers we would take the opportunity to focus on some special things during those months. Things that sometimes get pushed by the wayside. Things that can be delved into and really savored for months and months. One thing that I decided on is Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare. I want my children to appreciate the genius, the humor. Shakespeare left a huge, lasting legacy with the richness of his words and phrasing. So this summer is the Summer of Shakespeare for our family. I'm sure we'll have other summers of Shakespeare - but not every year. And this will be our first. One fun activity that I've put in motion is, of course, watching a play. We'll take advantage of our proximity to Ashland on our camping trip in August and visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to see "Much Ado About Nothing". That is one play we'll study in depth. But we'll familiarize the children with some of his other more family-friendly plays. They are already somewhat familiar with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" because I love that one. I'm really excited about this. We'll spend a lot of time outside this summer (I hope) and study Shakespeare. It should be fun!

Lately we've purchased several new games A few weeks ago we bought "Five Crowns" which is a fun game similar to "Phase 10", and the game "10 Days Across the USA" - an interesting challenge of geography as you try to arrange a trip across the States using state and transportation cards. It's similar to another fun game (which we don't own...YET) called "Ticket to Ride" that is VERY fun. On Friday Josh celebrated a good work month by purchasing a game he has wanted to get forever called "Killer Bunnies". It's fun! You've never seen so many mean bunnies. :-) The kids are in love with it right now. We also are going to try a game he got called "Small World" which looks challenging and complicated to me...but we'll see. It's got fun fantasy races like elves and trolls and wizards and sorcerors all competeting for space on a continent that is just too small. I guess it's a world domination type game, but I'm not sure. We haven't tried it yet.

We love games. The strategy involved is highly educational, and it is a fun way to spend time together. I also like the life skills it teaches our kids in the sense that we have to learn to be a cheerful loser, a gracious winner, and to take our lumps as they come.


On Saturday we went to the baptism of a young girl in the ward; a friend of our girls. I was asked to give a talk and spoke about the "3 Baptism Bears" - the 3 convenants that we make when we are baptized. It is always nice to see a baptism. This one will be particularly memorable for Miss C because the water was not warm. Oh, no. The warm water has had issues in the past and unfortunately this was another episode. Josh and Kyle, her Dad, almost forgot to allow enough time to fill the font. And then when they got there and realized the warm water wasn't going to work...well... Josh felt bad and so he ran home and grabbed a few of my biggest pots to start boiling water. That takes time to boil enough water...so the font didn't get very warm. Maybe outdoor swimming pool warmth. Miss C gave a little gasp from the cold when she came out from under. Poor girlie! But that didn't stop her from having a big smile on her face! Our girls joined her on a birthday hike later that afternoon - and then all the families gathered together for a cookout. It was a fun day!

Friday was our day with Sarah! The family arrived Thursday evening and we went to Hannah's Fine Arts Night at school. Hannah sang a song with two of her friends. It was cute. Way too high for Hannah, really, but she did a good job. There were some other fun acts, including a rock band (drums and an electric guitar) that played the song "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. It was really fun! :-)
On Friday morning all the grown-ups got up early to visit Seaside Beach at low tide and go sand dollar hunting...and they were successful! But they also had to get up at 5:15, so I don't know if it was worth it. :-) I was up, but I stayed home and fed my baby. We went to Mendocino and the beach later that day.

I just have to add one thing. Hannah's beekeeping class released the bees they ordered into the beehives that they built! I wanted to go take pictures, but wasn't able to. It looked like it was going to be quite fun!