Summer: Pre-road-trip adventures

Usually in the summer, I homeschool the kids.

I have them do worksheets and quizzes and book reports.

My philosophy has changed over the years

and while I still want them to take advantage of learning opportunities.

I have turned a lot of the responsibility over to them.

So this year, I asked each of them to come up with a list

of things they'd like to learn or accomplish this summer.

The girls did awesome!

They came up with lots of productive ways to use their time.

Brandon came up with two...

I guess that's better than none. :)

One of Caroline's goals is to help with dinner once a week.

She helped make tortillas.

She gets much more creative with the shapes than I do. :) 

 We spent a day in Raleigh and Durham.

We spent the morning at Defy Gravity,

a trampoline gym with a ninja course.

My little ninja warriors were in heaven. 

After thoroughly exhausting ourselves,

we headed to Marbles children's museum in Raleigh.

B is getting to old for stuff like this.

He hunkered down in a corner with his ipod

and their guest wifi. :)

 ...that is, AFTER all three kids showed off their hula hooping skills.

It was a GREAT museum for the girls.

We loved this building area.

You could use real tools to just build stuff.

It was awesome.

Love hanging out with these kiddos.

Erika invited several friends to swim in her friends'

backyard pool. Yes! We don't have a pool membership

this year, so we loved the chance to swim.

The friend also has animals: chickens, goats, rabbits.

The girls wanted to move in!

Tennis date night!

We're also playing on a mixed doubles team this summer.

The road trip falls right in the middle of the season,

but we still went 2-1 together and I won a match 

with a different partner, so was 3-1 on the season. Woot.

So, so happy we could share in Tae and Jam's baptism.

These young ladies are awesome.

They are vibrant and excited about the gospel.

Andrew baptized Tae and I gave the talk on baptism.

Father's day

We've had fun doing summer reading activities

at the library. This one was Snakes Alive.

C had fun learning about (and touching!) snakes.

B went on trek.

He did awesome and had a really good time.
I was so proud of him.

Summer haircuts: Before

After

Andrew and I went on a super fun geocaching date up by Lake Brandt.

Loved it.

The summer is off to a great start!