Mom and Me Camp-out

Benjamin and I had a wonderful time together this past weekend at a local boy scout camp.  They invited cub scouts and their moms to come spend the weekend.

Benjamin and I left right from school on Friday afternoon and were there until late Saturday.  The first day we set up our tent and then explored the camp and talked before joining the whole group for an evening around a big bonfire.  We sang songs, drank hot chocolate, the boy scouts did skits and jokes, and we finished with just the two of us reading Percy Jackson in our tent.  When we got up in the morning Benjamin said, "This was the funnest campout!  I'm so glad we came.  Did you have fun?"  "Benjamin," I reminded him, "we have a whole day ahead of us still.  We've just begun!"  "Oh, that's right!" he exclaimed, "I forgot!"  He had only done a small portion of the campout and he already considered it a success.  That made me happy.

Saturday they woke everyone up at 6:45 by screaming "Wake Up Campers!!" as they walked around the tents.  Not appreciated by me since I'd slept poorly (as I always do when camping) and our assigned breakfast time wasn't until 7:45, but Benjamin didn't mind one bit.  We started with a group flag ceremony and then we shot BB guns, slingshots, and bows and arrows,

we made placemats, neckerchief sliders, and sand art (picture below),

 we branded wood and leather, we tied knots and lassoed animals (statues of animals),

 rode a hay wagon, made caramel apples, ate lots of junk food (next year I'm bringing my own food!), and chose a pumpkin from their pumpkin patch.  A station where you could make your own bird house was also available, but he'd made one in cub scouts the week prior and didn't feel like making another.  They also had a station where you could work with a compass and learn about map reading, but Benjamin refused to do it saying, "I don't want this to be ANYTHING like school and I study maps at school." I didn't push it. The whole trip was wonderful.  The weather was cold but the sun shone from time to time, the fall colors were so gorgeous, and it only rained during the night.  We'd brought plenty of warm clothes and blankets so we were fine.  It was so good to be with Benjamin one-on-one doing something other than homework or piano practice.  Being outdoors with him just having fun and learning new things was great.  He and I both came home very happy....and dirty...and over-sugared...and sleep deprived.....but very happy. :)

An Only Child for a Day

School has been going really well for both Bella and Benjamin.  She loves going to school, loves her teachers, the kids, and the work they do.  Her teachers know how to make everything fun and really engage the kids.  Benjamin doesn't have as many fun things to report every day, but he always has positive things to say and he's doing very well.  In the meantime, I have an only child again.  It has been so fun to hang out with Christian and have that one-on-one time with him that I've never had before.  He can be a bit demanding of my time and I have to often remind him that moms have work they have to do too.  They can't just play all day.  But playing with him really is so fun.

We've been having lunch in the tree fort nearly every day.

 Going on 'adventure rides' around the neighborhood.

Going to the kids' museum.

Visiting apple orchards.

Except now it's just Christian jumping on the hay bales.  My yearly tradition of photographing Benjamin on them might finally be over.

The corn box is just so relaxing.

We've also started a word of the day game.  He's learned all his letters and sounds now, thanks to our letter of the week game last year, so I asked him the other day if he'd like to learn to read.  He said yes, so we are starting very simply with a word per day.  Every morning we pick a new 3-4 letter word, and I write it on the window while he draws pictures of it.  Then we talk about it - the letters in it, their sounds, what the word means, etc.  Then I have him practice writing it on paper.  Then throughout the day, I'll bring it up as we're reading books and see it in print or on signs around town or in a song we hear.  I'll ask him to spell it without looking at it and we'll come up with rhyming words and guess how they would be spelled.  He's eating it up.  I am so amazed by how his desire for literacy learning has exploded.  He gets so excited about it.  It's so fun to see.  I have been starting with nouns for now - cat, ball, can, top, etc. - because they are more concrete and easy to work with and draw and play games about.  But hopefully as we go on a bit more, I can start doing sight words - at, the, with, etc. - so that he gets really familiar with them and he could actually read some stories on his own.

This week we went swimming together and afterwards, as we were leaving, we noticed the pool had set up a table with coloring pages and crayons for the kids.  I asked Christian if he'd like to color and he said he would.  He chose one page and I chose another.  I figured I'd color too as long as I was going to be sitting there.  I thought I'd just color until he was ready to go.  An HOUR later, we were still sitting there coloring.  Never had I seen him stay at one task for so long.  It was so much fun!  We dumped out the box and experimented with all the different crayon colors.  Macaroni and Cheese.  Mauvelous.  Purple Mountain's Majesty.  Atomic Tangerine. Asparagus.  Razzle Dazzle Rose.   Half the fun was reading all the unique names.  We talked about all sorts of things as we colored and I thought, "how amazing is this that this is how I get to spend my day?  Pool side with my cutie son just having a blast coloring.  This is truly one of the best parts of being a mom."

I've had request to post pictures of the tree house Kelly built this summer.  So here it is.

When the kids came home, I took another picture with them in it.  There's a solid attached wooden ladder leading from the ground to the first floor, the same kind of ladder from the first to the second, but Benjamin requested there be a rope ladder to the third so he'd have the ability to pull the ladder in and restrict access at times.  We obliged.  That top level really is a fun little hide-away.  The whole fort is a wonderful place to play and I think Kelly did a great job.  The kids love it immensely and are in it all the time.  You feel like a bird nesting in the trees up there.

Just a cute picture of my boys to end.  Getting ready for bed, both in their pjs. I have such cute boys. 

First Days

So far the 2014-2015 school year is off to a great start.  Both kids were ready and excited on their first day.

(Sorry that picture is blurry. Not sure why.)

We dropped Benjamin off and he didn't even want me to walk him in.  "Just drop me off at the door; that's fine."  Big third grader already.

Bella's school required that we walk them in, so I did and I was totally fine as we walked in, put her bag in her locker, said hello to her teacher, found her desk, etc. etc.  Even as I said goodbye and walked out, I was fine.  But then I drove out of the parking lot and the full weight of what I'd just done hit me and I started to sob.  My baby girl, my only girl, was in first grade and was now going to be gone away from me all day.  After all last year together every day homeschooling - this was a shock to my heart.  I cried the whole way home.  I thought of her all day and found it hard to concentrate on anything I was doing as I wondered about her (and Benjamin too, of course, but it being his second year since homeschooling, I was more certain he was ok).  Finally 3:30 came and I picked her up.  She came out of school grinning from ear to ear.  "School is so fun!  I can't wait to go back!  Can we make a time machine so I can make it tomorrow and go back right away?!"  It made me so happy to hear that.

 All week has been much of the same.  She likes her teacher and her classmates and the things they do there.  It's been a great experience so far.  I've just noticed she's been really crabby and mean to Christian this week.  More than usual.  I don't know if that's because of fatigue from school, or a subconscious backlash because he gets mommy time all day and she's jealous, or a struggle for attention in any form she can get it.  Whatever the cause, it sure has made the time when she's gone much less emotionally difficult for me. :)  I've really appreciated the peace and quiet of just having Christian home all day.  Preschool doesn't start until Monday, so we've made the most of our free week and gone to Greenfield Village, gone swimming, and played with friends at the park and loved every minute of it.   Kelly even walked over from work to join us for lunch at the village this week.  "I don't care what we do, I just love being here," Christian told me when I asked what he wanted to do at the village.  Amen, Christian.  You expressed exactly how I feel.

Benjamin seems to like his class and teacher this year even better than last year.  He's been much more positive about the whole thing so far.  Also, this year his teacher sends home a booklet with what they did in each subject that day so I can ask him specific questions and we've had much better discussions about what he's done away from me for 7 hours.  That drove me crazy last year that I never knew what he was doing all day and all he'd say was, "Nothing," or  "I forgot."  You've been there for the last 7 hours, how can you forget everything you did??!  So far his favorite part of the day, though, is the bus ride home.  He didn't want to ride the bus last year, preferring I pick him up rather than spending the extra time getting home.  But I insisted he ride it this year so I didn't have to do three drop-offs and three pick ups every day and he's really enjoyed the bus.

The Start of a New Year

Tomorrow is the last day of Summer vacation.  Our bucket list is almost complete.  We have a few unchecked boxes, but for the most part, we did all that we set out to do this Summer.  Still, it feels too short and it all seemed to go so fast.  Tonight, per tradition, we had our back to school dinner.  This year our theme is "Consistency is Key."  I had the kids each pick a key out of our old key stash and decorate it any way they wanted - with nail polish, sharpie, or paint and then put a ribbon on it. Then we printed out keys on cardstock and hung them from the ceiling fan, decorated the window with the theme, and made a banner for the wall.  Benjamin also drew a man opening a door to his goals with his key of consistency.  Then I finished up by making little place cards, gathering their favorite toys and setting the table.

They selected spaghetti, garlic bread, and lemonade - the same exact menu as last year. :)  As we ate we talked about how we don't have to be perfect at anything right away, but if we just practice a little bit every day, if we do something consistently every day, we'll get better and better and achieve any goal we set.  We calculated that if you just do something 15 minutes every day, by the end of the week, you'll have done it for nearly 2 hours.  By they end of the month, it'll be 8 hours.  At the end of the year, you'll have done that thing for approximately 96 hours or what would be the equivalent of 14 school days - nearly 3 school weeks practicing piano or math or reading your scriptures with just 15 minutes/day!

We watched a video from lds.org about a prospector who looked for gold nuggets and never found any so he wanted to give up, until an older prospector taught him the importance of patient accumulation of gold flecks to achieve great wealth.  Each child set a goal for something (or a couple things) they were going to do consistently every day this coming year and thereby get better and better at it.  Then we attached the keys to their backpacks so they would have them with them to remind them.

 After it was all over, Kelly gave each child a father's blessing. There are a lot of mixed feelings around here regarding school - excitement, fear, sadness.  But over all, I know it'll be a great experience and I'm looking forward to all that they'll get to learn and the time I'll get to spend one-on-one with my little Christian buddy.  He's already made several plans for our first few weeks together. :)  It will involve a lot of monopoly, guess who, and trips to Greenfield Village so he can ride in front in the Model T and without ever having to take turns. :)

Vacation to Utah

Just before school starts again, we went on one last awesome trip.  The big reason for our trip was Benjamin's baptism, but then we stayed for another week thereafter.  Benjamin was baptized at Martin's Cove in Wyoming.  Martin's Cove is a Mormon historical site - the site where the handcart pioneers, led by Edward Martin, were rescued from starvation and exposure on their trip west to Utah.  There's a river there called the Sweet Water River and stories abound regarding the pioneers crossing this river in November on their trek West.  It has become a popular baptism site and we thought it would be a wonderful family experience and wonderful memory for Benjamin and his two cousins, who also turned 8 this Summer, to get baptized in the river together.  We drove the 21 hours straight to get there, then met everyone at the site and spent the morning pulling handcarts the five miles from the river up to the cove and back.  I never want to pull a handcart again.  It seemed like no big deal to me at first. I'm strong and athletic.  What's the big deal?  But after that hike, I had real admiration for those pioneers!  I had a marked trail, good shoes, and warm weather and I was ready to leave that darn contraption in the grass and head back before I was half done.  Those things are heavy!  And then you add all the stuff into it! Then you try to pull it with a husband who's a foot taller than you and so you can never agree at what level the thing should be tipped - your level is too low for him and his is too high for you so it's impossible to really pull together.  It's a mess! And I didn't have to deal with snow or hills or mud.  Bless those saints that made that journey.

After the hike we gathered at the river's edge and Benjamin, Katelyn, and Spencer were baptized and confirmed by their fathers.  It was wonderful.  It is such a wonderful thing to witness Benjamin decide to follow Christ in this way.  I know his testimony is still just growing and he has many more decisions ahead of him in life, but he's on the right path and he told me that he "didn't notice if the water was cold because the Spirit made me feel warm."  I remember getting out of the water at my baptism and saying, "This is the happiest day of my life!"  How wonderful that we got to share that with so many of our family.

Before the big moment:

In the river.  Benjamin was the first to be baptized.:

Big hug from dad afterwards:

All the family after everyone's baptisms.

Our attempt at a family photo.  Benjamin had accidentally bonked Bella in the face right before and so Bella was in no mood for pictures.

After the big event, we spent the next week hiking, boating, motorcycling, hanging out in the mountains in Kelly's sister's cabin, and getting together with friends.  It was a wonderful vacation.

My kids are total motorcycle fanatics.  They all have no fear and will go as fast as the bike will take them.  Benjamin was off riding on is own immediately and Bella learned to ride alone before the week was over.  I have to admit, it is a lot of fun, but there's still a healthy dose of caution in my blood.

Speaking of no fear, you can take Benjamin tubing as fast as you want and he'll just keep hanging on.  He's amazing.  Bella and Kate preferred things a bit calmer.

There are wonderful trails up in the mountains near the cabin we stayed in.  One led to a swing up on the mountain top!  So much fun to swing and look over the valley.

Cousin selfies.  Such cute boys.

Playing with the cousins is really my kids' favorite reason for going to Utah.

Not to mention staying up late every night and watching movies....

 ...and piling crazy amounts of kids in small spaces up narrow winding mountain trails. :)

We also went to the Ogden Temple open house.  What a gorgeous building and what a special experience to be able to take Benjamin through the temple after his baptism. My only regret was that it didn't last longer.  I would have loved to stay longer in every room talking about it and feeling the spirit together.  Not every day you get to do that with your son.  Can't wait until he's 12 and old enough to really go in one with me.

Had to go get ice cream after the open house. Such a hot day!

They had a cute little blue screen photo op there.  I think it's the only good family photo we got all trip.

And I almost forgot to mention that we celebrated Christian's 4th birthday up at the cabin!!!  My little boy is four!!  I think the chocolate cupcakes were his favorite part. :)

 

Or maybe it was the presents. :)

Sweet Christian is such a joy.  He's our most optimistic, resilient, loving child and we treasure him.

It was hard to go home again and I don't mean the 26 hour drive.  I really hate leaving everyone.  We always have such fun together.  Maybe it's the not being together all the time that makes our time so special, though.  So grateful everyone could get together and make the whole thing so wonderful.