Back to Reality....Beatrix Potter, Lego, Ballet Folklorico and Swimming

Wow...it was a whirlwind vacation.  We were supposed to spend a week in the Outer Banks and then a week at Disney World.  But Hurricane Matthew threw a wrench in our plans.  We fortunately had hurricane insurance on our house....and for the first time in the nearly 15 years we have been visiting there, it's the first time we used it.  Our realtor told us we couldn't get into our house even if the EMA lifted the visitor ban.  So along with the other people in our group, we had to find an alternate vacation.  We decided to head to Florida early and stay in Clearwater.  While in Clearwater we played on the beach and went to Clearwater Aquarium to meet Winter and Hope the dolphins.  We also toured an orange orchard.

I actually had an agenda of computer projects I needed to finish.  With Hurricane Matthew throwing a huge wrench in our plans, I didn't get things done that I planned.  So when we finally got home over the weekend, I was exhausted unloading the van and getting life set back up for us.  Of course, grocery shopping since we had almost no food in the house.  Then getting Joe ready for his new job....did I mention we were both exhausted?

I am spending this week catching up.  The kids are working on review work, since we have a ton of field trips and activities this week.  Next week we will be back to more book work.  Chip has been helping me make it through....

We did have several activities this week.  The girls had their Girl Scout meeting on Monday.  They really enjoyed the First aid project that was set up by one of the older girls.

Caty also enjoyed the knots, even though she struggles with that.

We had Lego Robotics

The girls had their online art class.  They really love Ms. Sarah from Blossoming Artists.

This week we knew we would be seeing a play on Beatrix Potter.  So we spent time watching the stories of Beatrix Potter.  We watched a special on badgers (Tommy Brock).  And we watched the movie Miss Potter about the life of Beatrix Potter.  I have been trying to encourage more story writing.  So they wrote and illustrated a story about "Matty Meerkat" after we watched a special on Meerkats.    Each child illustrated a page, and I typed up the story as they made it up.

Caty decided to do an art project on Peter Rabbit.  She wanted to paint a picture from his story.  It took her a couple days to finish.  But it turned out nice.

The kids thought the play was corny...but they all enjoyed it.

On Thursday we had two field trips.  The morning trip was to a local metropark for a program on Orienteering.  This is something we have done with the kids before, and had fun.  But this program was with our GS Troop.  It was cold and wet, but we survived and had fun.

This week was also our field trip to the Ballet Folklorico event for our American Girl Club.  The girls spent an hour or so learning about the various dance styles in Mexico.  WOW is there a lot.  A lot of different costumes also.  Some are similar, while others are very different.

They made dolls wearing various costumes.

Then tried the dance steps also.

The girls also tried out for swim team.  They passed the tests and will be continuing.  They are both very excited!

It was a busy week, even though we didn't have typical work.  Next week we are back to including some more book work into our schedule.  We will be adjusting into swimming, on top of our other activities.

Dad will also be back to working from home.  So there will be a couple weeks of adjustment with noise levels and how we balance all 6 of us home.  But we are all excited about this new adventure.

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