End of School celebration

Summer Fun:
We finished our homeschool year a couple of weeks ago and finally had the opportunity to celebrate with a trip to McWane Science Center in Birmingham. Four floors of fun for all! John switched his schedule around so that he could join us and we also met up with another family that also does prison ministry. It was just such of a fun day.

There were some new things this time - a piano that you could play with your feet. Anyone seen the movie "Big"? I tried playing the tune (can't think of the name), but had many interruptions :)


Even the big boys had a blast :) This is a recumbant bicycle suspended on a cable that has a weight below it to keep it from tipping. The picture doesn't show it really well, but John likes to swing it from side to side to see how far he can tip it. John's pretending to be Batman!

I tried it the last time we visited, but once was enough for me :) Savannah is actually tall enough to ride it now, but she wasn't interested either.


Another fun new area - they had a play grocery store, cars to "drive", a dress up area, puppet area, place to plumb a house (we got some good practice in :), and many more new things.


Kind of a cool illusion - this is actually an accurate cube if you look closely. It looks kind of caty-wompus in the picture, but I assure you that John would build it "plumb".


This is an old favorite - playing with sand and a spinning wheel. I have to admit that it is fun.


How would you like to sleep on a bed of nails??


Another new one - a car repair shop. Hadden LOVED it, but Savannah got into it, too. Notice the license plate that she chose!


Sunsets:
I told you that I would never tire of them ...


Caffeine:
For those of you that know me well, this will be a huge shock to you ... I am pretty much caffeine free these days! That's right - not drinking coffee everyday. After ten+ years, I have decided that it is just too hot to drink hot coffee. We'll see what happens when the cold weather hits again.
We haven't given it up completely - but I don't have to have it everyday. Usually, on Saturday mornings, we splurge and I make a nice, hot mocha.

Bible study:
I have just joined a new women's Bible study with a group of ladies at church. We are doing Beth Moore's "Stepping Up" - a study of the Psalms of Ascent. Pretty interesting so far and I am hoping to get to know some people a little better through it. It is Tuesday evenings, and the kids are counting the minutes (literally), because they get to go to some friends' house while John is finishing up his class in the prison.

Staff day and beach day:
To say that the kids are excited for our upcoming trip would be an understatement! They are both packed (and have been for a week) and are busy making little treasures to take as gifts. Oh - and Savannah did finally find a bag that she liked.

Thankful for:
Hadden was in desperate need of some kick around shoes for here at the property. Obviously, I didn't want to spend on new shoes since they were intended for use in order to keep his new shoes nice. I went to what I considered a discount store and the cheapest they had were $20. Nope. So, in search of the perfect bag for Savannah, we went to a thrift store. We didn't find a bag for her, but I decided to check out the shoe department for Hadden and was absolutely THRILLED to find not one, but 2 pair of shoes that were his size and in nice condition. A pair of sneakers for $1 and an almost brand new pair of hiking boots for $3.88. I am praising the Lord that the exact shoes that we needed were there when we needed them!

House progress:
Nothing new to report. We did remove the forms, level the basement floor area and are trying to find someone who sells PlyForm and foam insulation ... John did find someone this morning, but it would be nice to find their competitor, too, to make sure that we are getting the best deal.

Signing off - I need to finish the dishes before heading of to Bible Study.

Have a wonderful evening!