Everyone Loves Bob Ross

Lex loves to paint, and Lex loves to watch Bob Ross paint, so when we found a local Bob Ross painting class, we signed Lex up.

I think his painting turned out wonderfully, and we need to get it framed so we can hang it upon our walls!

Summertime Homeschool

We don't really homeschool during the summer, but we do keep up a few things.  Mainly we tackle a new science topic each summer using the Sassafras Science books.  This summer our topic is Earth Science, and this is why we constructed a rain gauge in the back yard.

I also purchased some new books for the boys to peruse this summer.

The Last Day of School!

Today was the last day of 4th grade for Lex, and 6th grade for Connor!

To celebrate the beginning of summer, we cleaned the patio furniture and got new cushions for the swing and chairs.

These cushions are Tik approved.

Today we finished up our Civil War History Pockets project.

We have been finishing curriculum every day this week, so there were only a few things to get done today.

Both of the boys handed in their final refutation papers for Writing & Rhetoric.

Connor's Refutation

Lex's Refutation

I bought the boys the rest of the playing pieces for our newest Monopoly game as a reward for completing another year of school.

After they opened them all up, they set about ranking their abilities.

Here's to the end of the school year!

Here's to the beginning of summer!

Connor will be studying the Renaissance this summer (Summer of Shakespeare!), and both of the boys will be studying Earth Science (another Sassafras summer!).  

Summer is Coming

Another one bites the dust.

And another one bites the dust.

Latch Hook Dog

Lex's latch hook project is complete.  We finished off the binding and framed it and hung it upon the wall in his room.

It looks pretty great.  He did a really good job with it.

Lex has new skillz

This is what he was practicing today when he was supposed to be practicing the piano.  I'll give him credit: it does look cool.  And fun.

The End of the Year is Coming

...and I have all the plans...

In which Lex makes a cake

Tonight Lex started mixing something up in the kitchen.  He didn't use a recipe, and he ended up making a chocolate cake.

Also a big mess.  But a cake.  With chocolate frosting.

Then, he left it on the counter to cool.

He left some notes to make sure no one ate it before it was ready.

"No touchy"

It was a great cake.  Very chocolaty. 

Is it obvious that I use my blog to document our progress?

This is what homeschooling boys actually looks like.

Because Science.

Lex's Latch Hook Kit Dog is Done!

The last remaining work to be done is to frame it.

Lex did a great job following the provided graph to get the colors in the correct places.

It looks really great!

National Mall Squirrel and Memorials

We began our day by stopping by a little food hut to buy a snack.  The boys got hot dogs and chips and I got a muffin.  Then, we ran into a little tiny thief who wanted our food.

This squirrel was super fat, and it wanted us to feed it.

After this video, the squirrel hopped on top of our table and grabbed our food tray.  I grabbed the other side of the food tray and played a little game of tug-of-war over our food, while saying "shoo, shoo."  It was very comical, but I was too busy defending my muffin to take a video of the whole thing.

Once we were done, we walked away and another woman took our table.  From a distance, we saw her drop her food off at the table, and then walk away to get napkins or something.  Then the squirrel stole her food.  Of course.

Bellies full, we headed to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.



















You can see the Washington Monument and White House across the Tidal Basin.



Our next stop was the George Mason Memorial.












Do you see the White House?



We could also spy the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Lincoln Memorial across the Tidal Basin.

In which we go to the National Archives

After we were done at the National Gallery of Art, we ventured to the National Archives to see our national treasures.

One must not take photos in the National Archives, so there are no photos of the national treasures. But we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta.  We explored a few exhibits that were very interesting. One was about how the documents are preserved and protected.

The kids came up with a set of rules for how to behave in the heavily guarded and fortified exhibit hall that housed the important documents and national treasures.  The first rule of the politics room was that you were not to discuss politics in the politics room.  You also had to make sure not to get too mixed up with the school groups that were marching through to glimpse the documents.

My friend Jala met up with us and walked through the National Archives with us, and put up with all the kids' crazy politics room rules.  And when we were done in the Archives, we headed to a pub kinda place for dinner.

Lex ordered a steak and poured and entire bottle of A-1 sauce on it because he had already eaten wings at every other meal during our DC trip.  Connor ordered wings, because Lex didn't.

And it turns out that my friend Jala and I have excellent taste in purses.