Our Home Gym

Last year when Viva became a gymnast, Kara decided to invest in some home gym equipment to aid our young athlete. She bought at least three different mats. She bought a small half length balance beam and a bar. She purchased a wooden ladder thingy (I do not know the proper name!) that is attached to a wall and aids in building ab strength which is essential to most gymnastic skills. 

The location of these items has changed over the months. For a while the bar was in the main floor family room, then the upstairs family room, and now it resides in the downstairs family room. The beam was in the living room for a long time, but then it, too, moved downstairs. The mats have floated from the main floor family room to the downstairs family room. 

All the children use the equipment, but, of course, Viva uses it the most. Bentley and Jake only very occasionally use it, but Evan and Lincoln play on it almost daily. Viva right now is on a hiatus from the gymnastics gym (we wanted more time with her!), so we are using our home gym to help her work on her skills. It's a good thing we have all this equipment!

Maker Faire

One of the members of one of Kara's homeschool groups mentioned that their school (FOCUS Homeschool) had openings at their Maker Faire on May 19. Kara signed the older three up and I took them. It was a very nice Maker Faire. We were there for the full three hours and did not get through all the cool activities they had to do. (FYI: I don't know what weird setting my iPhone was on that produced the pink tone to the photos. Sorry!)

B, J, & V made dancing beans from a super-sized gelatin capsules filled with a marble-sized steel balls. The kids were supposed to cover the pill with foil to hide the secret of how it worked, but the foil was a little hard to work with. I think we'll try covering them with tape. We have lots of that at home!

Then the children made dancing cups using a large plastic drinking cup, a small motor, and a glue stick for the propeller. A glue stick was a clever idea--it was both the propeller and the glue to apply it!

The activity that took up most of their time was making a racing car from a pop bottle. All the kids at the fair were most excited about this activity. The children were shown how to build the basic car and then were told to decorate it so that the car weighed 60 to 100 grams. Unfortunately, the decorations were too light weight. The children spent more than a half hour trying to add enough decorations to get to the minimum weight. I finally went outside and found some rocks and then one of the teachers donated a roll of pennies she had in her room. That really helped. 

The car races at the school took place using air power. They had a fancy contraption that you hooked the bottles up to and then an air pump was used to speed them on their way. We were given motors to take home to convert the cars to self-propulsion. We had a problem with one of the motors, but that was okay because you should expect to solve a few unexpected problems when you are making something. 

Next the trio made bugs from electric toothbrushes. The reason for using an electric toothbrush was to scavenge its motor--to show how you can repurpose an item. We were running short on time, so we grabbed our bugs before they were perfected (B's only had 2 legs!) and we headed over to the electric circuit cards.

I thought this was the coolest activity, but our circuits didn't always work, so the kids weren't as fascinated as I was with the activity. (They may have been overloaded at this point, too!)

Here's their treasure trove from the Maker Faire:

When the children lose interest in the items they made at the Maker Faire, we will rip them apart to make something new! 

Virgin Creek Falls and Friday Fun

On Friday my Mom and I took the kids on an adventure to Girdwood.  I'm not usually much of one for spontaneity, but I am trying to reform.  In as much as you can plan to be spontaneous, that is.  :)

The day started off beautifully:

Such a pretty angel baby face to wake up next to.  We started our day with some history.  Because school marches on.  Lucky kids, right?   After that we informed the kids that we were going to be spontaneous, at which point we learned that their vocabulary, sadly enough, does not include the word spontaneous.  Their guesses centered around the definition for synchronized instead.  Hmmm.... nonetheless, we decided to move forward with our plans instead of staying home to double up on vocab study.  :)

It took us 45 minutes to get out the door.  We'll have to work on that!  45 minutes later we were at the bakery in Girdwood selecting a variety of goodies.  We weren't super impressed with the bakery - but if that's the worst we can say of the adventure I'll call it a win!  We stopped at the Girdwood playground.  The kids loved the tire swing!

Next up was our hike (.2 miles to Virgin Creek Falls, nothing too crazy - I'm not really a hiker!).   Cute bunch:

Grandma told the kids they could bring what they wanted as long as they carried it.  Thus the sparkly shoulder bag Viva had.  :)  I like that they took the butterfly net.  You never do know when you'll need it, right?! (Grandma Julia: Viva brought it to catch some fish. She caught a rock!)

If you look closely you can see Evan was leading the pack up the trail.  He thinks he is in charge.

 

Not too far up the trail Lincoln found himself a branch gun.  Boys will be boys.  :)  Evan found himself a rock three times as big as his fist to carry, but we told him he had to leave it behind.... !

Later on up the trail Lincoln and Evan were banished to a log while the older three ventured down the side of the path to stick their feet in the river.  The trail was a bit too steep for little people.

An artsy shot....

The falls aren't huge, but they are quite picturesqe.

My Bentley-bug on the trail:

 It was a gorgeous day to be out.  Temps in the 70s, no bugs, and the trail to ourselves!  The kids wanted to keep going further up the trail - I told them to take their Dad back with them and do that.

We stopped at the playground again on the way home (thanks to Grandma's spirit of adventure, not mine!!!), and then we stopped to check out some surfers riding the bore tide on Turnagain Arm - pretty cool.

Back at the ranch.... Evan impressed me with his two bowls of food at once:

Viva decided to do art with Evan and Lincoln before heading out to party with Grandma Vicki:

Jake went to ukulele with Opa even though he was a bit tired from our day. Bentley was at karate finishing up his brown belt testing! (You'd never guess the two year old chooses his own clothes, would you?)

Aaaaaaand - it's a wrap!

Almost.  We finished the day off with Star Trek the Next Generatioin, popcorn, and a campout in the tent we set up in the family room.

Rock Fever

Rocks are once again a popular item with the children. The fever started on a Sunday walk. Bentley was throwing rocks and one cracked open revealing a new face of sparkling black and white. B was captivated!

When he got home he wanted to find more sparkly rocks and crack them open. Our 300 foot driveway has three feet of rocks on each side of it. Bentley spent a few hours scouring the beds for interesting rocks. The larger ones he cracked open to see if they were more sparkly inside than out. Opa showed him how to crack rocks open using a larger rock. (Opa forbid using his hammer for this task.) 

Jake joined Bentley in his rock hunt and found a few good rocks. He found a rock with three rings around (a three wish rock!), but he threw it back in the rock pile. Jake told me it was just too hard trying to decide which rocks to keep so he put them all back. Decision making can be very difficult!

Viva was out crushing rocks with Bentley for a while, too. I don't know where her rock treasures ended up. She and Jake are making a nature house, so maybe she put them aside for that purpose. Lincoln asked why he couldn't crush rocks with the older children. My objection to him joining the fun was that this activity is unsupervised, so I'm not sure how dangerous it is. Although, I'm happy to report they children were wearing safety goggles!

In the last two weeks B's collection has grown quite large. I gave him a shoe box to store them in, but if the collection grows much larger, I'm assigning him an outdoor treasure location.

New Belts!!

Bentley and Jake did belt testing at karate this week, and they both passed their tests!  They have been working very hard. 

Bentley has now earned his brown belt, and Jake has earned his brown stripe on his green belt.  

As is always the case they are already discussing their plans and goals for when they will be testing again.  I like that they have a vision.  :)

Way to go, boys!  You're looking sharp!

Sunday Cuties

Last Sunday we wanted a picture of Lincoln because his Sunday outfit of choice was particularly cute.
 

 

Viva was still dressed in her Sunday finery too.  You can't really tell, but I French braided her hair right over the headband.  I felt quite clever and inspired - she couldn't remove the headband until I was ready for her too!!!!  She never wears them very long... until now.  Ha!

 When Evan saw a chance to go outside he wanted in on the photo shoot too - we let him join in, even though he'd already changed.  We're flexible like that.  :)

Reading Reading Reading

The older children have been doing a lot of reading lately. 

Viva is reading the 37 Trixie Belden books that we own. They were Kara's 20 years ago. (Can it really be that long ago?) 

Bentley was reading the Spirit Animal series and is now waiting for library to get in the newest one. Bentley is currently reading The Children of the Red King series (main character Charlie Bone.)

Jake is reading the Beast Quest series. There are over 100 in the series, but fortunately the books aren't too long and the library has many of them. (#13 is missing so B quit reading the series at that point!?) Jake was also recently reading the Berenstain Bears Cub Scout books. 

I love summer because we are less structured so the children have even more time to play and read--two fantastic childhood activities.

Fieldtrip with Daddy

 

On Tuesday Matt took an extra day off of work to extend the Memorial Day holiday!  The big kids were already engaged with some plans (belt testing at karate and the start of swim lessons), so Lincoln and Evan scored the field trip of the day!  They headed out to Portage Glacier and threw lots and lots of rocks in the water.  And went on a short little hike.  And stopped for cookies and snacks.

They both reported back (in their brief two and three year old way) that the adventure was a big hit.  :)  Thanks, Daddy!

Baseball for Little Peeps

 

What big brothers are for.... to teach little brothers new skills! :)  (And, for the record, Matt claims that Evan did manage to hit a few of Lincoln's throws... !)

Armed and.... cute :)

 

Weapons class at karate is definitely been a highlight of the week for the boys!  This past week they were particularly thrilled because they have now started training with nun chucks!

Their karate gear bags are quite a sight (and a load, for that matter).  Sais, tonfas, and now nun chucks.  Fighting gear in blue.  Fighting gear in red.  Helmets.  Bos.... :)

Out of all the weapons I have been the most apprehensive of the nun chucks - it seems to me you could easily hit yourself in the back of the head or on the front of the face with a fast swinging piece of wood.  Sure enough, we brought home the nun chucks and within one minute Jake had attacked his own head!  I suggested he wear a helmet to practice while getting used to them, but he assured me that was unnecessary.  I hope his brain agrees.

That being said, they are already getting much better with them.  And having a great time learning new skills and defense.  I love it - and so does Lincoln.  He is quite jealous and wonders when he will get his own weapons.  I told him it will be a little while.... !

The Bikers

The big kids went out with Matt for a bike ride this past weekend and logged 10 miles.  They're getting big quickly.  (It helps to have bigger bikes with bigger tires.... !)  Apparently all went well until towards the end when Jake's tire hit something wrong and he went flying.  Oops and ouch.   And there was the matter of the over zealous Camelbak sipping and a lack of bathrooms on the trail.  But I'm sure the thrill of the Camelbaks will wear off and moderation will kick in.  :)

All in all though a good experience, and they're ready for more - I just hope Daddy can continue to keep up with them!