Summer

Summer is and has been in full swing for a good two months now. We are enjoying all of it. I have spent a large majority homeschool planning, but thankfully that is done. It has finally warmed up and the kids are enjoying afternoons of water balloons thanks to Grandma. The mosquitoes have come out in full force which has not always made our evenings pleasant like they were in May. That being said, we have loved nights of jumping on the trampoline.

This picture of Eli and James is kind of sad. I am glad I captured it that night. James has been missing since right before July 4th. He was a sneaky cat and I worry he got in somewhere and could not get out. We tried to keep him inside for a long time. Unfortunately he had made the rounds to different places it sounded like for a couple of years. The kids miss him and so do I.

Eli spent a week at summer day camp in June. He really loved it. He did not want to go at first. We told him he had to try it. Everyday I drove him to our church for the day. The most I could gather from his days and the pictures they posted was he spent a lot of time at the water activities. This does not surprise me. He had two great counselors. 

I was able to go the last day and watch some of the songs they learned and enjoy a few minutes of his week. He did not want me taking pictures. The kids were all jumping around singing in front of us. Eli stood there still as a statue and did not want to have any part of it. He really does not enjoy performing in front of others. He did better when they broke into smaller groups.

They all get a character award from their counselor. I was very proud of him for his award. It really shows who Eli is. He has such wonderful FAITH. 

We did sparklers on the 4th. The older two did fine. Ari pretty much just threw his on the ground. He did not enjoy it. 

We have spent a lot of time doing nature study also. One particular morning we found this moth thinking it was a dried up leaf. It flew and  landed on my phone so we left it there to study.

It happens to be a yellow necked caterpillar moth.

It gets dark so late the kids don't always get to enjoy the firefly show. The other night we let them stay up to watch. Then it turned into going out and catching them. I indulged. They loved it. Well I should say, Ari loved the freedom to run and jump. Lilliana liked the idea until one flew on her face so she screamed bloody murder and is now scared of them. Eli really enjoyed them and caught a bunch. He wanted to see if they would light up. I tried telling them they would probably die if he kept them inside over night. Unfortunately they did. He had fun though. 

Needless to say we are enjoying everything summer.