Wet 'n Wild Hawaii

Can't really beat this deal....buy one day, get the rest of 2012 free!  

The boys and I trekked over to Kapolei on Tuesday to try out the only water park on the island.  Needless to say, they LOVED it!  It was the perfect size for them to adventure on their own and still find their way back to Jonah and I in the keiki pool.  And Caleb is exactly 48 inches tall which makes him tall enough to ride all but one slide....which was closed for repairs anyway.

I foresee many days at the water park over the next six months.  One day, the boys may even brave The Shaka!  Looks a bit too steep for me.

The Hawaiian Racers was a favorite...besides the Raging River.   Below you can see Caleb coming down head first!

 Anytime you can ride together on a tube is good.

 The wind makes it a bit chilly in between slides...and also makes you forget to reapply sunscreen.  Rookie mistake which led to some red shoulders on Noah.

 Jonah loved the baby slides with mom....but I think he enjoyed eating the goldfish crackers even more. :)

 The lazy river is always fun.  The boys met some friends and connected "ships" to traverse the waters.

Jonah even snuck in a nap! 

 And of course we ended with juice boxes to prevent a melt down from being buckled into the car seat.

Good times, fun times.

And yesterday, we used these adventures to complete our journal entries.

Summer is in full swing.  I can't believe it is JUNE already!  Ahhh!

Week 3: Sports

This past week we spent our extra time on reading all about different sports. For our field trips, we went bowling one day and also attended the season opener for our WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury. The game was much more entertaining than I had thought it would be. I mean, I love playing basketball, but I also realize that watching men play is much more exciting than watching women. Diana Taurasi is one fun player to watch...extremely talented and very passionate about the game.

The rest of the week included our regulars.....
Monday = computer time at the library

Tuesday = doctor visit where I was told the baby is VERY low (as if I couldn't already tell) and that I am 2-3 cm dilated already

Wednesday movie day = Megamind

Thursday's Library activity = zoo animals (after which my boys proceeded to pretend to barf like a scorpion eating the entire way home)

Back to Work...

On Monday, we tried to get back into an after-school routine...without watching TV! Homework went well, reading books went better than expected, and then it was time for some real fun. I'm still debating about carving pumpkins this year but one of my favorite things to do is let the kids paint pumpkins. This year I bought fake pumpkins for them to paint so I can use them as decorations again next year. We also had a real pumpkin from the "patch" that we are going to use as the head for our homemade scarecrow. I'm sure everything will look extremely spoooooky when we are finished. :)

Supplementary School

I've never thought of myself as a home-schooler, but I do recognize that I am the first and most influential teacher in my children's lives. I'm all for social interaction and discipline that a formal school setting provides for children. Besides that, the free time it gives me, even as a stay at home mom, is invaluable. Free-time...I hate that term. I prefer to call it me-time. I also realize that there are many families out there that home school, and it works for them....and works well. As I tell my kids, different families have different rules. "Traditional" schooling works for our family. The kids love it. I enjoy my me-time, even if it is spent doing laundry and making beds, I will always make time to read a book, ride my bike, go to the gym, something for me. That being said, I do what I can while my kids are at home to stimulate their love for school. Whether its helping with their workbooks, playing board and card games, reading, or working on art projects, we try to build on their formal education. Today's art project began with the start of the NFL football season. We collected toilet paper rolls, colored and cut out templates from the here on the Internet, and glued together mini football players to decorate our mantle until we break out the Halloween decorations. Of course, they wanted to make their players exactly like moms and both boys did a great job. Check out their masterpieces here....

We are still working on saying goodbye to the STL Rams, and hello to the AZ Cardinals. :)

I also decided to make a matching game for Caleb using the letters of the alphabet. He still gets many of them confused and I'm hoping the new game helps with that. Of course Noah, my little perfectionist, couldn't keep away from the game very long! More posts to come on my ideas and activities used in our at-home Supplementary School!