Pioneer Day Activity

A friend, and neighbor, decided to organize summer activities for the kids in our area. She asked different parents if they would be willing to put together an activity they were comfortable teaching. I decided to teach about the Utah pioneers. Many years ago, my family would do this type of thing for school groups and the general public. Mostly in the month of July.

It was fun to pull out all my pioneer treasures. I have so many wonderful memories of from that time in my life. Sadly, I also remember how horrible it is to have present in the middle of July. The heat is just so awful! Thankfully, we were in the shade for this entire presentation. The kids ate "homemade" (aka Walmart) ice cream, made butter, and assembled edible covered wagons. I had them for 2 hours and they were so funny. At one point, one of the boys asked me when we were going to do something active. It was so funny. Thankfully, the pioneer games were active enough for him.

Instead of having me do all the talking I let each child take turns picking one thing they wanted to know about. These were all the items they asked about.

Birthday Party for Grandpa

When we were knee deep in snow last year, I realized that my paternal Grandfather would be celebrating his 110th birthday on July 10th. I was craving the sunshine so badly, and I decided right then and there to organize a party for him.

I set out to discover what his favorite foods were plus any other things about him that I could. I read my fathers life story, and looked on family search. I was also able to talk to his daughter about him. In the end, we had a really fun day getting to know him, and enjoying some things that he did.

For dinner we had grilled fried hamburgers with milk gravy plus mashed potatoes on the side. I made them fairly chunky since I'm not sure they had hand beaters back them. As a result, my boys wouldn't eat them, but all the more for me and hubby.

Then, we drove up to the Orem Cemetery to enjoy cake and icecream. I also took some pictures and 11 balloons (one for each 10 years). The boys tolerated the few stories I shared of him. Then, we released the balloons and they were so excited about that. After they soared out of sight we sat down and had cake/icecream. 

We had such a nice time. It was a beautiful, cool July evening. I think this will become an annual tradition. I think next year we will invite other family members to participate. Celebrating Grandma's birthday might be a bit more cold. While we were there, I noticed her birthday is on December 14th. Next year (2018) will be her 100th birthday so......we'll have to brave the cold and do something fun. Maybe, if it's cold enough, we can blow bubbles and watch them turn to ice. 

Scouts - Running with the Pack

Most of the requirements for this assignment have been done with Peter's den. Except for:

Requirement 6 - Since Peter makes dinner 2x a month for our family, this one was easy to complete. I made sure though that he made the shopping list this time and paid for the ingredients that went into this meal. This time it was a tossed green salad with chicken tetrazzini.

Scouts - Call of the Wild

Requirement 1.a The boys went on a camp out up Spanish Fork Canyon

Requirement 2 - The weather changes that could happen during the camp out:
     Hot - hat, fans, lots of water
     Windy - stakes
     Rain - umbrella, tarp, rainfly

Requirement 3a - The outdoor code, done
Requirement 3b - Leave no trace principles, done.
Requirement 4a - Take about what to do for flood or earthquake, done for FHE (4/17/17)
Requirement 4b - Show what to do to keep from spreading germs, done for FHE (4/17/17)
Requirement 5 - Show overhand knot and square knot

Scouts - Paws on the Path

Requirement 1 - Pack the Cub Scout Six Essentials to take on your hike
Requirement 2 - Talk about buddy system, done
Requirement 3 - Choose appropriate clothing to wear on your hike based on weather, done

Requirement 4 - Recite Outdoor Code; Leave No trace. After hiking discuss how you showed respect for wildlife, done.

Requirement 5 - Go on a 1 mile hike and find two interesting things you've never seen before, done. The boys found a beaver house plus saw a deer.

An update on piano lessons

Luke had his first complete meltdown over playing the piano this week. It was awful. With tears streaming down his face, he told me that he wasn't any good at playing the piano and that he wanted to quit. I remember going through really rough patches with Peter too, so I patiently helped him to see how good he really is at playing. He is the child that will just sit down and plunk at the notes when he is bored. I love it.

I snapped these pictures of them both doing their piano theory books. I am learning right along side them as I peek over their shoulders. I have enjoyed it. I even played one of Peter's very simplified songs the other day. It was enjoyable.

Peter was also pretty sure that he was never going to be able to figure out how to play this song. But, within a week he had it memorized. It's so fun to hear him playing it at random times of the day over and over again. His goal is to keep playing it faster and faster. I love to just sit and watch his fingers skim over the keys.  

It's beginning to look a lot like....

SCHOOL STARTING!

I have been planning on what we would do this next school year ever since we got out for summer break. It's so true, that as a homeschool Mom, you are also planning, researching, hunting for the best curriculum out there for your kid.

I am starting the boys on August 1st, again, this year. I love starting that early because we are all tired of the hot summer days. Then, we can take off most of the month of December. Most of their friends are also busy during the mornings which is when we get the bulk of our school work done.

This is the school schedule I've come up with this year. It looks scary, but I promise it isn't. Some of those subjects will just be once a week. Also, for our technology class this year we are going to teach the boys about Engineering. I asked Brandon if he would take over this subject, so we'll see what he comes up with. We will probably do this class on Monday nights (for FHE), or on Saturdays. I'm excited to have him be a coteacher this year.

This is the stack of some of the curriculum we will be using. At least, these are the daily things we will be going though. I have another stack tucked away behind a couch. I am seriously running out of room with all these books! Secretly, I enjoy it though. There is something thrilling about spending hours and hours searching for curriculum, then buying it, using it, and seeing it work. There is no better feeling for a dedicated homeschool mommy.

Independent reading

The one thing I've always dreaded about being a homeschool mom is teaching the boys how to read. I have struggled so hard with Peter and I've made so many mistakes. But, this summer we've been continuing with daily reading practice, and I've seen significant progress.

Peter is now catching on to it very quickly and I can see that he will be an independent reader soon. A few days ago he took this book and started reading it aloud to Luke. My mother's heart was jumping for joy. Perhaps, I haven't ruined this child after all.

Mud wasps

I noticed a few days ago that we had wasps in our flower bed. So, I took spray and killed the nest. Those insects were determined to keep their home, so they built another one nearby. Then, today, Luke stepped on one of the wasps. Poor kid. He cried and cried and cried. It gave us a good excuse to sit and read to each other for over an hour. It's been such a long time since I've been stung, that I didn't even have any sympathy pains.

The Patio

Since moving to this home, we have wanted to extend the patio and include a roof on it. We had looked into it before, but we had a difficult time finding a company that could do it for us. We knew what we wanted was beyond the skills of Brandon and his Dad.

Finally, in February we started looking into it again and we found Boyd's Custom Patio's based out of West Jordan. They quickly came out and got the measurements and gave us a quote. Amazingly, the cost was less then we had anticipated. We made arrangements to have everything ordered and we got on their installation calendar.

This is what the patio looked like before. We had a sandbox area on the left hand side. Finally, after a what felt like decades, the crew came out and started demolition on the old concrete.

The boys were astounded at how they removed the cement. Truthfully, so was I. Such a hot, hard, dirty job. They even removed the stair and poured new ones for us. It was awesome.

The crew was beyond courteous and they loved having the boys watch them through the back door. We really did do a lot of staring at them throughout the process.

Sadly, the process wasn't without casualties. While removing the cement they had to push back some of the sprinklers and this is what happened to one of the pipes. It caused us a HUGE headache later on, but we were blissfully ignorant at this point.

It was amazing to see the progress that happened in just one day. These guys worked so hard! By mid afternoon they hadn't left to go have lunch. I couldn't understand how they were still able to work without food in their tummies. Then, I did what any good 50's housewife would do, I made a plate of sandwiches and let them take some time to eat. They were so appreciative.

The next day the crew plus the cement guy came and started pouring the cement. This was also a pretty dirty job. I thought about how awful it would be to be married to a cement guy. You would  constantly be fighting the stains in his clothes. I felt gratitude that I didn't marry a cement guy, if only for this one reason. 

After a day of drying we were able to walk on it. Which amazed me. I saw how much wet cement they poured and I thought it would take a week, at least, to dry. 

Next, we waited and waited and waited for the next phase. Finally, the guys came and started putting up the structure. They came on such a rainy drizzly day. I'm surprised they got as far as they did in the process. They were soaked though before they finally said it was just too rainy to finish.

 By the end of the week though, the structure was up and ready for the stucco people. We waited and waited and waited some more. I would call the company and be given a day that they would come, and then they never showed up. I was so glad that we hadn't given them payment in full, because I could at least use that to threaten them.

When they finally showed up to deliver the supplies, I chewed them out a little bit. The fellow that came didn't speak any English, so I doubt my words even made sense to him. I was pretty ticked.

For the most part, they did a good job. There were two guys the did it. The experienced guy did the right side post, and the new guy did the left side. As a result the left side is just slightly crooked. I'm trying not to let it bother me too much.

They left extra stucco mud so when I get some motivation I'm going to use it to do some touch up on the back side of the house.

After some more miscommunication regarding the position of the post lights, we finally had a finished product. We did have to hire an electrician to come and install the fan, pot lights, post lights, and electricity ports above the post lights. He did a fabulous job and he also came in under budget. I would absolutely hire him again. He was a local guy too, which made it easy for him to work on the project.

Sadly, he left us with this hole in the kitchen wall and ceiling.  He had to pull electricity to the structure and this is where it happened to be. Brandon & I tried to think of something we could just hang there to hide it, but in the end, we decided to stop being lazy and repair it.

We have absolutely loved having the new porch. The boys love playing outside since the porch stays shady until 4pm. We've ordered a retractable shade to help with the bright sun that comes in after 4pm. Hopefully, by August, it will be here and installed. 

The other day the boys were playing charades with their BFF's out there. It was so cute. It has also made a perfect yoga area for me. I love to go out in the early mornings to practice yoga. We have a lot of birds around and there is always a cool breeze. Our plan is to keep saving up our money so  next spring we can purchase some relaxing patio furniture to go out there. It's been such a project, but it has made a huge difference for us.