June Misc

 Here are some of our family's happenings from the start of the summer:

Family Vacation Bible School

Our family had a great time at our church's evening VBS in mid-June. Each night, we kicked off with a time of worship, then traveled to three stations-- missions, dinner, and games. During the 3-night VBS, we enjoyed playing water games, tying blankets and making onesies for a local pregnancy center, meeting new friends, and praising Jesus. I didn't take any photos of our family doing any of the activities, but we did receive this fun tropical family photo from the VBS team.

Ticket of Time

As part of my Mother's Day gift last month, each of my kids gifted me with a "ticket of time," a way that each of them wanted to spend time with me. I loved the individual time with each of my kiddos! Apparently, I wasn't into picture-taking mode at the start of the summer, as I only took photos of my time with Cody. As his chosen "ticket of time," Cody and I enjoyed going bowling together. He beat me handily during the first game!

In addition to this fun outing, I got to take Adley to a movie (Bad Guys) and play tennis with Jaden.

Oceans of Possibilities

All three kids participated in our local library's ocean-themed summer reading program in June. As prizes for their reading, the kids received a free book as well as an inflatable sea creature (sharks for the boys and a dolphin for Adley). They were excited to take these shark photos at the library too.

Noah's Birthday Party

My sister-in-law Chelsea planned an adorable baking-themed party for her son Noah this month. Adley loved participating in the party events. She got to dig for treasures in a pile of noodles, make puppy chow, do a relay race wearing oven mitts, build a creation with grapes and toothpicks, listen to a cute cooking story, make her own personal pizza, and decorate her own cupcake. It was great fun for the kids! Happy 5th birthday, Noah!

Summer Fun Days

For the first time EVER, Adley allowed me to paint her toenails! I'm not exactly sure what she's always had against nail-painting, but I was thrilled she finally said yes. Unfortunately, this cute pedi lasted less than five minutes before she asked to have the polish taken off. Silly girl.

Jaden demonstrated this popular "griddy" dance on video for me after some of my Bible study girls were talking about it one week. Like many other kids around the country, Jaden and his friends often did this dance at school this year. It's typically done as a touchdown celebration dance.

I have come to the realization that my house will probably always be a mess, especially during the summer when my kids are home all day. Sigh. The positive side of this coin, however, is that my children are very creative. This part I love. They are always building, imagining, and engaging in creative play. Thus, our house constantly looks "played-in." Most of the time, I don't let it bother me too much. On this particular week, however, I just had to shake my head. Our family had spent a good day or two cleaning up all the rooms in our house to welcome some company for lunch. The floor all over the house was spotless. Every toy was put away. Our lunchtime guests left by 1:00, and less than an hour later, my kids had the great idea to create forts. Jaden and Cody shared a larger fort in the back of the room, and Adley's is in the foreground. Here are the "after" pictures of our upstairs:

The kids gave me a tour of their forts, and contrary to appearances, the forts are actually quite organized! They created sections for reading, playing games, snuggling with stuffed animals, writing books, looking at their Pokemon cards, and more. They loved their forts and kept the house this way for a good couple of weeks. It's a mess for a good purpose, I guess. ;)

Beach Trip

Jason's brother Jon had the great idea to take a family trip together to Galveston one day this month. The cousins all loved playing together in the water and on the sand.

After time at the beach, we visited La King's Confectionery for ice cream. We were fortunate to arrive at just the right time for a taffy pulling demonstration.

We all got free samples of this bubble gum flavored taffy.

Conroe Aquatic Center

We used one of Jason's Fridays off to visit the same aquatic center that we had gone to for Jaden and Cody's birthday. The kids enjoyed having Daddy along too this time! 

Near the end of the month, we welcomed my Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary to Texas all the way from Florida. They spent most of their time with my parents, but we joined them for dinner one day at my parents' and hosted them one day at our home for lunch. The kids enjoyed giving Rick and Mary a tour of our home and even planned a scavenger hunt for them. The boys read them some books they've authored, and Adley showed them her letter book and country book. Rick and Mary are such an attentive aunt and uncle, and we enjoyed seeing them! 

Around the World: Part X

Adley and I "journeyed" to our last two countries in late spring/early summer. We both had fun with our unique learning activities.

ENGLAND

Our biggest activity related to England was hosting a tea party with Grammy and Grandma, which I detailed in an earlier post. What fun that was! Here are some other England activities that we did...

 coloring the Union Jack (and looking at England's flag with St. George's cross too),

making a tipping teapot,

designing a royal crown,

creating a double-decker bus,

designing London Guard popsicle sticks,

and making a picture of Buckingham Palace, complete with "fingerprint" guards!

We saw LOTS of pictures of the London Guard, double-decker buses, and people having tea in the library books we read. Adley was so proud to point out these English trademarks. We learned a new-to-us fact about Big Ben from these books too. The name Big Ben refers to the 13-ton bell that's housed inside the famous tower in Central London. The tower itself used to be called the Clock Tower but was renamed to the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to honor Queen Elizabeth II during her diamond jubilee. Our country studies continue to teach ME a lot too!

EGYPT

What a change it was to "visit" Egypt after England! This country was a fun one too. We started out by constructing pyramids out of sugar cubes.

Then, we read a couple of books about mummification and decided to mummify a few stuffed animals.

Adley had a couple of great ideas for the sarcophagus in which to keep her mummies.

Another day, we had an archaeology hunt. Adley helped me cut out some Egyptian artifacts.

Then, I buried the artifacts in our sandbox for her to uncover. This ended up being harder than it looked!

This little archaeologist found all the items, though!

Other activities included hieroglyphic writing,

making Egypt's flag,

painting Pharaoh's headdress (Adley LOVED the new gold paint we bought!),

designing Egyptian jewelry (again, more fun gold paint!),

and creating pyrmaids as well as Egyptian cats.

Our family sampled some Egyptian lentils (not a favorite for most of us).

As always, we checked out some great country-related literature from the library. Adley especially enjoyed the Bella and Harry book about Cairo.

And that's a wrap for our country studies! Learning about twenty countries over the course of the last year has been quite an adventure for both of us. We've tried some very unique food, read LOTS of cultural books, and learned countless new facts. I love that Adley can find many of these countries on a world map and that she can identify many world flags too! Maybe next on our list will be visiting some of these countries in person. ;)