Chutes and Ladders and 19th century beauties

Right before the 4rth of July activities we took the kids to Chutes and Ladders which is a big plastic tube slide and wooden play structure. They love going here and is a great way to get some exercise in. Hubby got out the metal detector while the kids played and had fun finding money and braclets. On the way home we got to see the 19th century ship that we were honored to have in our Portage Canal for the week. I do not know to much about the ship other than it being from the 19th century and was here for a week for people to be able to ride on down the canal. It sure was something though seeing it sail!.

Hands on Museum

The day before we took our eldest son home, we all headed to the Children's hands on Museum in Marquette, which is a 2 and a half hour drive to get there but worth it. We spent the day there and all had fun playing around and enjoying each others company. It was a great day to spend the last day with their older brother and burn off some energy.

Eldest son visits

Eldest son coming back from his cliff climb at the barbecue

Freaking over the flying insects at the barbecue. She almost ended up staying in the car the whole time flipping out, but we got her calmed down and eventually she even started enjoying being there.

Eldest daughter at our waterfall barbecue

Enjoying the barbecue and being outside

Papa at our waterfall barbecue

A whole crew of copper sculptures

Another rest area with copper art scupltures

Yeah, I'm good looking, and I know it!

An overlook at a rest area, they really enjoyed all the catapillars crawling all over the look out.

what can't handle the 10 hour drive?

awwwwwwwww they all sleep alike!

Last week was spent with our edlest son where we drove the 10 hours down to get him and bring him up here for a week. Hubby had a vacation that he took to coincide with our sons. It was a really good time, we even stayed at a hotel on the way down with a pool and hot tub, I forgot to get pictures but the kids loved all the pool time and hot tub time there! We have all missed our eldest son and although we did not get a chance to see our grand kids, it was great to see him and we all had a good time. We played cards, went on a barbecue at the waterfalls, played 20 questions on the ride back up and went to the childrens hands on museum, I will post pictures of that later. The kids stayed home with their eldest sissy this last weekend so we could take him back home and our youngest daughter could still go to her party that she had been invited to which she had a blast at the party.

Today

I seem to be getting a little system going to try to get everything done as far as freelancing articles, designing lesson plans and activities for my pagan curriculum site, blogging, housework, researching for full time rving, looking for an rv and getting organized for it, garage saling, decluttering and downsizing and doing things with kids and as a family! Wew, that sounds busy!

Anyway today I worked with my daughter on her reading, we got the level 2 Bob Books today that she had asked me to order so she read the first book to me today out of that. She is really coming along great and getting confidence as we go to the next book. She has even gotten to the point where she gets frustrated if I try to help her without her asking for my help. So lesson learned, keep my mouth shut and let her read until she asks for help!

We watched 2 episodes of Mythbuster today

The kids had a friend over and they all wrote their own newspaper, they turned out GREAT!

They went outside for a little bit today, for some reason my daughter has not spent too much time outside today which is highly unusual for her. She usually wants to be outside a lot on nice days.

I also noticed in my son's room that he had a bunch of army men all strategically set up over a wiscosin map!

In between all this going on, I got an article wrote for my freelancing, a lesson plan done for my pagan curriculum site, sent out a list of requested art for my niece to draw for me for an idea I have, got a few things put up in a couple of my communities I run , laundry and dishes done and a dog walk in.

Tonight my son's friend will be spending the night, my daughter will be helping me make homemade burritos, I will get the vacuuming done, another article wrote and either reading more with her or playing a game and well we will see what else we may get in.

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The little things

We have, well at least I have been pretty busy so it is hard sometimes to catch things that have been going on at the moment. However some of the things that I do remember happening are:

Well it is summer now, public school is out so the kids have been playing A LOT with their friends and going to the park a few hours everyday for outdoor play.

We have had several interesting dinner time discussions one that sticks out real well is one we had the other day on artists and how many do not become famous until after their deaths, with some exceptions. Artists we covered were VanGogh, Thomas Kinkaid, Leonardo Devinci and a few others.

Our daughter has been working hard on reading with Bob Books, she completed the first set and I ordered the next level so we are waiting for that.

We are all starting a weight management and nutrition program as 3 out of 4 of us are overweight.

Our son has been doing his physical therapy daily, with a day off here and there.

Of course there has been hundreds of questions such as "is sand grains the smallest rock, how do you say rainbow in spanish and many more I can not bring to memory at this time.

There has been barbecues, swimming, tree climbing, dog walking, bike riding and other typical summer activities.

Our daughter has been coming up with her own "recipies" which I have been coerced against my will to taste test them, so far one was a complete failure ( she learned butter and milk do no mix when none of it is cooked!) and one is more of a peanut butter spread much in a way my mom use to make and is delicous!

Basic Math has been brought up in some activities covering division, multiplication and addition. This tends to come up when the kids are trying to figure out how many pieces of fish, or pizza, or other dinner items there will be per family member.

And of course there is still some TV watching , computer and video gaming going on. Some of the TV shows we have been watching lately are Man vs Cartoon, Monster Quest, The Deadliest Catch, Operation Repo and such.

This is not a complete update, but is all I can remember at the moment, there are always many things going on I never seem to remember, I really should get better at writing some of it down but we are so busy getting ready for our full time traveling and now my freelancing articles ........logging activities have taken a back burner for now!

uh huh

Okay, now really, do you really need to ask? NO! It was NOT warm enough for swimming this time either! But hey it seemed like a good idea at the time! This particular day was 75 degrees with the sun out and a mild breeze, plenty warm enough for swimming for a yooper.........when we left our apartment. Upon getting to the beach 20 minutes away, there was nothing but clouds and a very STRONG wind! With the wind coming off of Lake Superior, it was a very cold wind at that but the kids delighted in the waves it was creating so what the heck? We were already there with hotdogs and portable grill and metal detector in hand so why not? You can not tell a child NO when you already blew it by pulling up to the beach and telling them they were going swimming. We tried to lay a blanket down but within seconds you could no longer tell where it was as the wind buried it in blowing sand. We did not stay long but the kids went swimming, we grilled sandy hotdogs, with sandy paper plates to eat them on and sandy mustard and ketsup and did 2 seconds worth of metal detecting before the kids were huddled in the car trying to warm up, eating their sandy hot dogs and chasing them down with their sandy soda!