Kite Flying

Kite Flying at the Harbor

I took the kids to the Ventura Harbor and we bought some new kites. Owen got a pirate kite with a tail like a treasure map and Emma got a fairy kite. Emma was doing great, not letting out too much string, running all over the place, until she let go. The kite kept going and going and going until it stopped on the antenna of a boat docked in the harbor. The owners of the boat where there and willing to help untangle the kite from the tall antenna, luckily!

Emma was off again, running around like a crazy girl, until she stepped on something and let go of the string, again. This time the kite went straight into the water. After I had to rescue the kite AGAIN, I decided we had enough flying of the kites for one day. Owen did great, he got the hang of it right away, and it was a prefect day for flying kites.

Tony and I both took the kids back a few days later to fly the kites, and yes Emma let go of the string, AGAIN! This time it was really windy and the kite took off straight into the air, luckily it got caught on Owens kite. Emma’s kite kept unraveling but was attached to Owen’s kite. We had a few people come by us and say, “Wow, that is a great trick.” No, it wasn’t meant to be, but it did look really cool and her kite was very very high over the harbor. Tony carefully pulled both kites in and neither sustained any damaged. Once again, we decided to take a break from kite flying.  

Owen's kite 

Emma's kite 

Homemade Lemonade

Homemade Lemonade

Last week the kids and I decided to make some homemade lemonade. The kids each squeezed three whole lemons, giving us a total of about 1 ¾ cups of lemon juice. The recipe that we tried said to use:

1C of lemon juice

1C sugar

5C water

When we tried this we all agreed = TOO SWEET!!

So we decided to modify the recipe a little, this time we tried:

1 3/4C lemon juice

1C sugar

5C water

This time = STILL TOO SWEET

The third time we tried it this way:

1 3/4C lemon juice

1C sugar

6C water

This time it was= SUPER YUMMY!!

The kids did everything except for cut the lemons on their own. It was great to see them predict what we needed to change to make the lemonade taste better. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy! 

Kids getting ready to make lemonade

Owen was showing Emma how to juice the lemons

Emma said, "I know, I know!" 

Team Work! 

The finish product 

The taste test 

Emma Approved!! 

Owen's dictation number one

Owen reads a short story every morning in “school.” Once a week he is suppose to dictate a story to me that is related to the story he read to me. With a dictation you have to write word for word what the child says, even if it doesn’t make sense. Owen did pretty good, he caught a few of his own mistakes and asked me not to write certain things down. The stories that he is reading are about a fat rat named Pat. So far we have only had todo one dictation but because he enjoys it so much we have done three. Here is one of Owen’s stories:

                                                Pat the Rat

He sat on a chair and he fell off. He hitted his head. He had to go to the doctor. And they never saw Pat again. But one day he came back. When he came back the mom had children and pat never saw the children. The children loved Pat. The mom said to Pat, “Why did you come back?” “Because I wanted to see if you had any children,” Pat said. “Can I live here for a few days?” and the mom said, “yes.” Pat had a new room. But they had to buy a n=bed from him at Costco.

                                                The End 

Homeschool Week One

We decided to start homeschooling Owen last Monday. We are on a four day a week plan that way we can participate in park dates and field trips with other homeschooling groups / families. We are using a Christian Curriculum called Sonlight, it includes: language arts, Core B (bible, history and geography), math and science. I add cooking, art and music to the program on rotating days. Our first week went pretty well, I was nervous about so many things; how Owen would respond to me as his teacher, would we be able to include Emma in a way that she felt a part of it but not distracting to Owen, things like that. The first morning we did all of our lessons outside on the picnic table, but the rest of the week was way too hot for that so we managed to mix it up a bit by reading on the floor in the living room, or lying on sleeping bags. This particular program uses literature books instead of textbooks and was one of the main reasons that we chose it. We have multiple books that we are studying at one time. We are reading Charlottes Web (we actually read that already last year,) a book about Missionaries who travel around the world and their stories, book of poems, and may more. I believe it’s a great way to learn and the curriculum has a lot of fun activities. It is a lot of reading and that is something I want to break up so that we can incorporate more hands on activities while I read to Owen.  I usually let him paint, draw or something while he is listening to the lessons. The math program that we chose has a lot of hand on manipulative and that helps. Of course Owens favorite is science. There is a science experiment every week at the end of the week. Last week our experiment was about magnetics and Owen walked around with a magnet for a few days trying to find anything to stick to it. So far so good, please keep praying for us.

We read, "If you give a Moose a Muffin," and we made mud muffins. 

Kids had fun making them but they said they didn't taste very good. They added everything to them, felt like a brick! I didn't want to try them! 

Owen's butterfly 

Working on building towers in math.

We also made sock puppets to go along with , "i
If you give a Moose a muffin." 

Emma wanted a lot of hair on her sock puppet 

The materials for sock puppets 

Owen's sock puppets 

Owen working on language arts
He loves to dictate stories
I will put one of them on the next blog

We were trying out some oil pastels 

Owen made this for daddy, I think we are all hoping for a quick winter around here! 

Summer Fun

So I’ve been a little bummed.  I have been taking pictures of the kids doing things that were included on their list of summer activities and of course my computer crashed with all the pictures on it!!! So frustrating! I was hoping to get the computer fixed but its not looking too good for us. So I will let you know what we did this summer without the pictures L. I have a few from my phone that I will include, just not as good as the camera pictures.

On Owen’s list we have done the following: Science projects, go swimming (a lot), went to Pismo Beach, watched fireworks, went to the fair, painted, watched Madagascar the Movie, made play dough, went bowling, made lemonade slush and went tubing. We didn’t get everything on the list but close! We are going to San Diego this weekend and will probably do a few of the other activities in the next few weeks.

On Emma’s list: Went on a walk, went to Chuck e Cheese, played with Roxy, hula hooped, played with Dakota and rode bikes.

Summer has gone by so incredibly fast this year. We have had a great summer so far and actually have seen a lot of family.  I have 19 cousins and this summer we have seen 15 of them! 

King Owen and Princess Emma 

Some of the paintings that Owen did 

We even painted each other 

And of course they painted me

Lion Owen

Making pretzels 

Emma was helping 

Yummy, going into the oven 

Another busy day 

Visiting some family, Owen was trying to look like the face on his shirt

Kids on the swings at the Fair 

And goober Emma 

Emma and our cousin Dylan 

Kids Summer List

The kids summer list of “to do’s”

I asked each of the kids separately what they would like to do this summer. Here is what they came up with:

OWEN’S LIST

Make Gak

Do Science projects

Go swimming

Go to the Santa Barbara Zoo

GO to Pismo Beach

Go to Children’s Museum

Watch Fireworks

Go to the Fair

Paint

Draw Chalk

Watch Madagascar

Camping at Lake Casitas

Go to San Diego

Go to Gull Wings

Make homemade pretzels

Make play dough

Make lemonade slush

Go Bowling

Watch the new Spiderman movie

GO Tubing

EMMAS LIST

                Go to zoo

Go to the baby shop (not sure what that is)

Camping with the trailer

Go on a walk

Chuck e Cheese

Play with Roxy

Hula Hoop

Play with Dakota

Ride my bike

Play Basketball

Nothing Else

Lake Buena Vista

We just took our first little summer trip! We spent three nights at Lake Buena Vista with Friends and Family. Kids had a great time and haven’t stopped asking when we get to go back. The weather was rather warm the first few days but we had a great time. Both the kids discovered that they love to tube!