And then we were done...for now...

Y'all. We are calling today the official last day of our 2013-2014 school year. We are heading out of town for a family vacation this weekend so I am in packing/cleaning mode. The pool will be open when we return. Aaron is finishing up his last week with students and is about to start his final round of classes for graduate school (he is working on his Education Specialist degree). The weather is warming (after a very strangely cold snap, which I will not complain about) and we want to be outside. So it just seems like this is good time to put away the school books for a little while and enjoy our summer activities.

Last week was our final week with Jude, ever. He starts Kindergarten in the Fall. He has been a big part of our lives the past few years and definitely felt like a member of the family. We will miss him.

This has been a good year. It has been really fun to study early American history with Sonlight Core D. We have taken lots of fun field trips and read lots of great books. Next year we will officially be doing two separate Cores (B for Nathaniel and E for Jeremiah) and that will be a new experience for us. But for right now we are shelving the books (except for the basket of fun read alouds we do all summer!) and are going to enjoy our two months of summer!

Science Fair - What are Pterosaurs?

We are slowly winding down our school year here. Math and Language Arts were finished a few weeks ago and our goal is to finish our Core reading this week. Jeremiah had his science fair for Hilger Higher Learning yesterday. His class studied "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" this year and since he has a slight obsession with dinosaurs he decided to do his project on flying dinosaurs. Again, he did all the research himself and came up with his display himself, with only minimal help from us. We think he did great!

This science class has been such a blessing to us! It is so great for Jeremiah to have a classroom experience with a great teacher. He is learning so much! This was his 2nd year in the 3rd & 4th grade class. Next year he will be in the same class again, studying Botany, and his friend Eli will be joining him. We are also going to add a Creative Writing & Grammar class, so he will be taking two classes at Hilger. But for now we are ready for a break.

Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day this year was quiet and normal and full of all the ordinary things that are the best things. We spent the morning in the church nursery surrounded by the children of some of the people we love the most. Small group gathered at our house after church and we ate and prayed and dreamed about ways to love our community. I took an amazing afternoon nap while Aaron and Jeremiah worked on Jeremiah's science fair project. I woke up to little crafted love notes scattered on my nightstand by Nathaniel. We ended the day with leftovers for dinner and introducing the boys to "The Princess Bride." They were enthralled.
It was a great day.