Mt Hermon Science Camp

We decided to attend the outdoor science camp at Mt. Hermon in the Santa Cruz Mountains this month.  It was entirely Classical Conversations homeschool families who attended.  There were a number of different Northern California CC chapters represented.  The kids were each in a class of their own age group and had a naturalist who taught them a number of new things each day.  Some highlights from the week included:  a night hike with a solo for Garrett, a long hike for each of the boys during which Brett and Joy took the opportunity to walk along the ocean together,  rocket launching class for Bryce and Garrett, celebrating a friend's birthday with an ice cream party, playing games in the Fieldhouse, walking along the creek, ropes course for Garrett, having friends over at our cabin, and going to Natural Bridges beach for fun in the sand.  We also went in the pool at Ponderosa where Bryce mastered the art of wedging himself into an inner tube and asking Dad to try and tip him out of it.  After hanging on despite being flipped over so he was submerged upside down, Dad reflipped the tube with Bryce still holding on.  This was repeated again at Bryce's excited urging and he survived another round of being flipped over and back.  Bryce was then congratulated on his accomplishment and probably had a new appreciation for having his nose cleaned out with pool water...

We stayed in Upper Holly this year, here is the path up there.

Foosball with Noah and Will in the Field house.

Andy and Gina joined us for a hike to the cross.  Dad kept on saying this is the one that his sister photographed for him in college.

Ropes course goers listening to instructions (Garrett on the far right).

Joy gets ready along with Sam and Josh for the ropes course adventure.

This is Tough Mudder training, right?

Jamming with Dad on guitar.

This time Griffin got the top bunk.

Ice cream party:  happy birthday Jeremiah!

Swimming with Dad at the Ponderosa pool...Dad spent time here in high school at camp.

Jeremiah and Garrett box each other out playing a little water basketball.

Maybe we should play a little inner tube water basketball?

CC friends:  Noah, Will, Garrett, Colson.

Mexican Train was won by Mommy, but Garrett came in second.

Crab soccer brought out the beast in Dad, he was ruthless playing defense against the junior high boys.

Mom on the creek hike with Griffin and Bryce.

Our groups skit for the Talent Show night around the campfire entitled the doctor skit.

Jan/Feb Birthdays

We celebrated Haley, Wendy, and Brett's birthdays toward the end of the month.  Haley and Wendy get the delayed celebration and Brett gets an early one.  This year the cakes were made in the style of American Girl dolls, because Haley is such a great collector of these and Brett sort of came up with the idea.  We had written the words to song for Wendy and Haley's birthdays to the tune of Like a Lion, also known as God's Not Dead by the Newsboys.  In it we sang the lyrics:  "Haley's not ten, she's surely eleven, She's living for gymnastics and collecting A-G dolls..."

We also had the privilege of celebrating baby Avery's first birthday with her mother Caitlyn (Brett's cousin) and her father Austin, along with a handful of other guests.  There was good food and fun games for the kids to play.

A cousin mob scene.

Pin the banana on the monkey.

Avery was queen of the day and loved her stash of balloons.

Avery's dad (Austin) and mom (Caitlyn) enjoyed showing her off on her first big celebration.

That's how you open your new basketball hoop/soccer goal.

Sick Days

Bryce developed severe abdominal pain that was periumbilical and doubled him over in teeth chattering pain.  He had had some fevers up to 104.5 twice isolated for less than 24 hours in the three prior weeks that were non-focal.  All of this together led to a trip to the emergency department.  He had complete relief of pain within about 2 hours of arriving at the ER.  He watched "Happy Feet" and drank a little water.  Soon he was feeling really good and wondering why he needed to stay longer.  We explained that his ER doctor was probably upstairs at one of the code blues that had been called overhead, which indeed he was.  There have been no recurrences of the abdominal pain and Bryce wanted to go to Panda Express afterward for dinner, we tempered his expectations and gave him chocolate milk and pretzels from the hospital cafeteria.

A few days later, Griffin came down with pink eye and needed treatment with antibiotic eye drops.  He got so good at remembering his eye drops, which were 6 times a day, that he would politely come up to Mom or Dad and announce it was time for his eye drops, which he would bravely take.

Sharks Game

We didn't buy tickets to the Sharks this year before the season began and we figured we might not make it to a game this year, but we had a free evening and Brett found tickets cheaper than face value for a Saturday night game against the Flames.  So we were sold on the idea of getting to experience an NHL game this year.  The game was back and forth and went into overtime, so we certainly got our money's worth, but the Flames won it in, 4-3 in OT.  Bryce and Griffin received big Shark hands from two of the "cheerleaders" so that was fun to take home.

Sharks on the power play...

Raising Shark fans, maybe this will be their year?

I got to sit with Mom in the seats in front of the others, so we weren't in the last row like Dad.

Yes, that is my Redwing loving wife wearing a Sharks beanie!

Cat Tales

The story begins that Theo failed to show up for dinner and breakfast before Bryce spotted him on top of our across the street neighbor's house on the way home from piano lessons.  Sure enough it was Theo stranded up on the second story roof.  He would meow and ask for help but made no effort to get down.  Brett was working in the hospital on 12 hour shifts again, so he was not around during daylight hours, so on his first day off, he recruited the help of the neighbors whose house held our cat captive.  Nathan volunteered to help, so he got Theo off the second story roof with a food assist from us and then a handoff to me to bring him down to the ground, where he immediately found a comfortable spot to urinate and defecate in private.  After four days on the roof, I guess he just really needed to go.

Help me, I know how to get up here, but I can't get down.

I have a perfect tooth brushing companion.

Two kittens curled up on their new Christmas present scratching post tower.

Luke cuddled with Mommy and Griffin on the couch.

Luke laid down long enough to have this fort built around him.

Geography Bee

Garrett participated in our charter school's geography bee.  He was the youngest grade to participate in the event.  It was a three round process and Garrett flew through the first round of ten questions not missing a single question.  The second round proved a little more difficult, but he had a great time and wants to take part next year.  All of that CC geography is coming in handy.

The bee competitors stand for a picture before the event.

We drew while Garrett was tested.

We baked a US cookie with candy or frosting decorations for major landmarks.

January School

In January we began to do our training for the science olympiad events that Garrett will be participating in:  orienteering and rock hound.  This led to outside adventures at local parks where we set up orienteering practice fields for Garrett and his partner Hannah to test their skills and teamwork.

We also continued our study of the human body as we entered some time dedicated to the nervous system.  There were actually two separate events that were spent studying our nervous system:  the first on the central nervous system and then subsequent on the peripheral nervous system.

The science bunch:  Ben, Molly, Reagan, Bryce, Garrett, Jack, Chad, Sailor, Griffin.

Lego Pirate game of walk the plank played with anatomy questions.

Everyone remembers dendrite-cell body-axon from high school, right?

The new large hall whiteboard gets lots of school use.

And is so much "easier" than writing in a math book?

Gum drops representing water molecules and rubbing alcohol...pour the two together and the volume is less than expected.

Our first day of orienteering practice with Danny and Hannah.

Rock hound study is all about knowing the minerals in different rocks and hardness and...

...making sure your brothers and sisters know something about rocks too.

A spelling lesson completed on the new whiteboard.

Racing Mom on my Essentials Grammar charts.

A shout-out to Norman Rockwell and his inspiring paintings...what is Joy trying to say about how some days feel as a homeschool mom?

January 2015

January started the year off with a pretty steady pace of new adventures.  We experienced outdoor science camp at Mt. Hermon for a week as a family, which included a beach trip.  We celebrated family birthdays for the first two months of the year.  We experienced an ER visit with our children.  Garrett entered a geography bee competition at our charter school.  We went to a relatively spontaneous Sharks game as a family.