Back at it

Here are Naia and Eaden last Saturday before softball and gymnastics. Eaden was supposed to dress up as a superhero.

 My grandpa died last week and Lynni had a death in her family as well. She had to drive to Mexico and I was driving back and forth to New Braunfels. We took the week off of homeschool.

But back to normal this week!

 We have been sending and receiving lots of mail.

Taven was very excited to get a postcard from his buddy Aidan.

 Naia received mail from her cousin Abby.

 We finally finished our Aztec lapbooks. I am thinking we will start using Story of the World again for history. It makes things a lot easier for me and if the kids are not interested in something we will just skip it.

 Working around Mirek can be a challenge!

 And of course no one saw him turn into a smurf.

 

This week's poem.

Gymnasts and windows don't mix

The Rainbow Loom is still going strong in our household.

 We love these First Discoveries books! Typos and all.

 Mirek and I do really weird stuff together. He likes to lick my face and so I lick him back. Don't judge me.

Naia is still not interested in anything "school" related. No reading. No math. Just art, dolls, pretend play. She is my little radical rebel unschooler and I love her for that.

 Taven, on the other hand, loves math workbooks (and is at the same level as Naia) and also loves his Rainbow Loom.

 Experimenting with various soaked and unsoaked beans in light and darkness.

 Circuits were a hit!

So far, having Lynni over to homeschool has been a success. She seems to like it besides the occasional headache from all of the noise. I am sure the constant screaming takes some getting used to.

Oh and yesterday Eaden and Lynni were doing gymnastics upstairs (I had already kicked them off of my bed for doing back handsprings). Well I heard a huge crash and then Eaden yelled "Lynni did it!!" Lynni started crying hysterically saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" and I carried her downstairs to look at her foot. She had kicked up into a handstand off of the window and her foot went straight through the glass. She had a pretty deep cut but all is well and the window can be replaced.

A Nature Walk, Tortillas, and Sewing

We only met three days this week. Mirek was not feeling well on Monday and Lynni went out of town on Friday. However, we managed to get plenty accomplished.

On Tuesday, we went to the arboretum. It was Lynni's first time to visit.

It was hot.

 There were tons of love bugs.

 Cooling off.

 Lunch at the park.

 On Wednesday Lynni's mom taught all of the kids how to make flour tortillas.

 I helped the girls sew a pillow.

I'm at home now on a Saturday night all alone! I had to mention that. It's so weird. My husband took the kids to a birthday party and I went to clean my sister's house. I am done and they are still partying into the night! I had to wake up at 4:00 AM this morning to get Eaden ready for her gymnastics meet in Galveston. It was at a convention center and we nearly froze to death. It was torture. She did not do well and told me it was because her muscles were frozen. I was a little surprised that she was not more upset with her performance. She did very well at her meet last week and her expectations were high. However, all she said was "mom, did I do bad on bars?" I told her it wasn't her best but that I'm sure she will do better next time. Then I told her she got an 8.8 on floor and she said "WHAT!!! But I did good!" She had previously not scored below a 9.3. I said "yeah well your muscles were frozen and thank goodness gymnastics is not very important in the grand scheme of life." This is so important to remember when all around us people take the sport so seriously.

Mail, acorns, mummies, concerts, and gymnastics

I am sticking to my resolution to keep in touch with friends and family through mail.

Acorns! One of nature's greatest toys.

Dumping a bowl of acorns on his head.

Acorn math.

When the kids are testing my patience we play "mummies." It gives me a break for a bit.

Little boy princess with a light saber.

My own personal concert.

Excuse Mirek's crying. He wanted his light saber back.

Eaden made some necklaces for her cousins.

And then wanted to make some for her gymnastics teammates. One necklace led to many bracelets and other hand made gifts for the coach and team.

Eaden's first meet was on Saturday. She did really well and will be competing placement in the next meet. Unfortunately, she is the only one on her team that will be competing placement. That means it is just her and the coach during her session. She does not want to do this. She does not want to do private lessons either because she only wants to do gymnastics as a team. I think this is a good thing.

 However, she will need to get used to not always competing with her team. Once a gymnast does placement they are divided by age and everyone does not always compete at the same time.

Here is her floor routine from Saturday.