Week 44 - Our Supposed Vacation Week

Yeah...we were supposed to be on Vacation this week.  It didn't really feel like it though.

We started out our week barely moving.  Joe had finally arrived home from Germany on Saturday.  We were all just plain exhausted....although my exhaustion was different from the kids.

Lydia, Caty and I enjoyed attending a friend's baby shower.  It was so fun.  There was a superhero theme.  Lydia worked hard on the cake.

We made the onesies at the top.

They had fun playing with their friends.

We ended up oversleeping and our Sunday started out bad.  But we made improvements throughout the day and the majority of the family went to see the new Batman/Superman movie.  But Caty and I went to visit Grandma.  Caty played UNO with her.

My brother helped the girls cut out their Powderpuff Derby cars.

Now we are up to decorating.....They think they have their designs created.

On Monday we attended a glass art class that a friend arranged in her home.  They learned about Picasso and then made their own face designs.  We haven't gotten the finished projects back yet.  It'll be a couple weeks.  I can't wait to see them.  I think the boys enjoyed this.  They don't love art class, but I wanted them to try this project.  It was something different that I can't do at home.

Then the girls had scouts.  We missed the first half of the meeting and then made the 2nd half.  A lot of traveling for me that day.  The girls didn't want to miss Archery though.  I should say Lydia.  She LOVES archery!

Brayden was going to shoot also that day, but there was so many people so I told him we would go later in the week.

Tuesday we learned about the state of Nebraska and watched Aerial America.  Then the boys watched the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl.  It was very interesting.

Lydia also had her last online art class for this semester.  They both loved this class, we signed up for the next session!  Blossoming Artists with Ms. Sarah is a great option for families.  Lydia is in with kids from around the US and even in other countries.  They are live classes held in Google Hangouts.  Very easy to use and they love the projects.  Takes one subject off my plate !!

My parents celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary.  The girls and I took them pie and balloons to the rehab facility. Mom gets to come home probably next week.  So everyone is excited.

The girls had riding this week.  We had a couple weeks off due to stress with Joe being gone.  But Lydia starts an equestrian class with this stable on Tuesday.  She is super excited!  She will be digging into all thing horses.

This week was the annual Book Carnival.  Ok, so it's been 3 years since the last one.  I need to make sure this happens every year.  It's so much fun!  With our group you build a diorama/shadow box based on something from a book you pick.

Building their projects.

 Brayden did a Star Wars Battle Front book

Lydia worked so hard on hers.  She was about 98% independent on the whole thing!!  I was very proud of her.

Joey's King Arthur depiction.

Caty won 1st place in her category.

Joey won 3rd place in his category.

Lydia was disappointed because she worked so hard.  But her category was full of some great projects.  All the kids worked very hard.  I reminded her of that.  Can't wait till next year.

I did promise Brayden I would take him to Youth Archery since the next Homeschool session doesn't start for a couple weeks.  He remembered.  So we also went to that one evening.  He does a good job when he remembers to follow all the steps.

 He was proud of his grouping here.

Lydia did pretty well.

We planned a bowling alley tour on Friday, but several of the kiddos were sick.  So we just went bowling with another family that could come.  I rescheduled it again for a couple weeks from now.

Lydia is doing pretty well with bowling and so is Brayden. I even got up and bowled a couple frames while trying to help them.  I may take them again next week just for some exercise and fun!

We also had 4H this week.  In Cloverbuds (the group I help with the most), we worked with bubbles.  The kids had a blast making a bubble lamp and then mixing our own bubbles using corn syrup, baby shampoo and water.

 They made their own bubble wands with pipe cleaners.

 Then it was off to be home to celebrate our family anniversary party together.  Joe and I will be married 18 years next week.  We include our kids in our celebration together.  We celebrate the start of our family.  Since Joe is going to be gone next week and we can't go with him, we celebrated together early.

 Realizing she is getting her own dollhouse with an elevator

 We bought them LEGO Dimensions as a family gift to share.  They got to open that present all at once.

 Lydia's assembled dollhouse.  This thing is huge.  It's taller than I am.  She loves it.

 Caty's dollhouse assembled.  She was so happy!

Those dollhouses took us over 4 hours to assemble working together.  The directions were all wonky.

We ran some errands and went to see my mom at the rehabilitation center.  And we got a surprise.  I knew there was a chance of flurries all day, but we got some snow!  Not enough to accumulate a lot, but visibility was down.  It was rather nasty.

Only in Ohio does it seem we can experience all seasons in under a week.  It's definitely spring because today we had sun, then rain, then large snowflakes, then sleet, then thundersnow and a high wind advisory.

Right now I am trying to stay warm in front of a space heater and hoping that warmer temps and sunshine return tomorrow.  It was a long week.  I really want a day of just laying around and watching TV.  I know that won't be happening anytime soon, but I can dream.

I hope everyone had a great week!!!  See everyone next week.

Linking up with other moms at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.