Blueberries, anyone?

Have you heard how HOT it is in California lately?? Since the end of last week, most places in California have experienced 100+ (some 110+) temperatures! Needless to say, we are experiencing unusually HOT weather here in Eureka too! OK, don't kill us. Our HOT temperature actually barely goes over 70 :) heh heh heh. But it's hot enough for us to actually wear tank tops and shorts!!! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Unfotunately, with the warm weather came mosquitoes... and I seem to be allergic to any sort of bug bites, so they swell up a lot and leave scars for months....

Changing to a more pleasant topic...we went blueberry picking on saturday.
There's an organic blueberry farm about 20 minutes from where we live (for those of you more familiar with the area, it's in Mckinleyville, just past the Eureka-Arcata airport). The kids had so much fun picking AND the berries tasted sooooo sweet!!! I didn't know blueberries can taste so good!!

We just got back from golf lesson today, so here are some golf pictures of the kids!
It's actually Kepler's lesson, but Tesla brings her bag too so she can practice putting. This time Reagan took his bag too. Kepler seems to enjoy the lessons, but then again, he enjoys everything... They are actually getting ready to go out on the golf course next week!! On the last day of the lessons (Aug 24), there will actually be a little tournament!! That should be very interesting....

I think it's finally summer!!

But how long will it last?? Well, I should enjoy while it lasts! It's been so warm this week, sometimes it might actually register 70 degrees (or maybe not...). In any case, it's soooooo nice, we had to go out!! So, we went for a little walk. This is the first time I actually didn't feel COLD by the water!! The sun actually felt very nice!

We also went down to a hotel meeting of ABEKA books. They make homeschooling materials and are affiliated with Pensacola Christian College in Florida. Definitely worth looking into for those homeschooling parents out there!! We used their whole curriculum for the first year and branched out slowly. Now we're using their math, reading, and health curriculum. The readers are full of great character building stories (very Christian too). They come out to hotels in different cities (if they come out to Eureka, they must go to your town too!!) and if you order at the hotel meeting, you get free shipping! Plus you get to actually look at the books and browse through textbooks and teacher books, so it's a great way to see what you are getting into!

Since we spent the day going to the dentist (poor Tessie!) and walking around town, we didn't do school yesterday. Today, Tes had her ballet lesson! As requested, I FINALLY got the photo taken of Tes in her ballet outfit. She's really enjoying the lessons!! We also went to the library today! I got Kep some easy books to read so he can meet the goal of reading 22 books before the end of August. Well, maybe they were too easy. Last week, I got him the Magic Treehouse book (great for 1st graders), which has about 70 pages. So we took that to the dentist while we were waiting for Tes. Well, he finished that in 45 minutes. what? hello?? you're done?? ooooookkkkkkkkkkk. So he was bored stiff for the rest of the time we were waiting (hey, I didn't think he'd start AND finish the book before she's done!). Then I got him another book of about the same length to take to ABEKA meeting. He started and finished that before I could process my text book order! So we went back to the library to get MORE books! He's also reading Tom Sawyer right now. He started that during Tes' ballet class, but by the end of the class (1 hour), he was almost done (he was on page 164 out of 200 or so). I guess he likes to read.

Here's a bonus photo of Reagan and Devin. We found some cute Chinese outfit online. As you can see, Reagan didn't want to stay still :)


Not much schooling done today either, but we did get a lot of books at the library AND they had a story time with arts & crafts! Tomorrow is Kep's golf. Maybe I'll get some pictures of him and his new club set.

Is it really summer?

So it felt a bit warmer today, but it's only about 63 right now.
That's Eureka for you :) Today Kep had his golf lessons so we, Tes, Reagan, and me, just hang out at the club house waiting for Kep. Fortunately, Kep's friend has sisters and a brother waiting for him too, so Tes and Reagan got to play with them.
After Kep's class, though, Tes had to practice her swing. Yesterday was Tesla's ballet lesson (sorry, still no photo...). She is really loving it! Interestingly, Tesla's friend brought her cousin to the lesson yesterday and his name is Reagan too! He is 15 months old, so Reagan met another Reagan, a younger one at that, for the first time!

Whatelse have we been up to lately? Well, the first weekend of July, we went to the city of Ferndale to go hiking. While we were there we encountered a dog show! We got to meet several Irish Wolfhounds. They are taller than Tesla! But they are so gentle and mild mannered. The dog show went on all weekend, so we went back on sunday to see them again! It was a great fun and the kids just loved the dogs.

For the Fourth of July celebration, we went back to Ferndale. It's a small, Victorian town with lots of cows. They had a parade preceded by fire engine rides for the kids and followed by a barbecue at the town hall! The whole town probably showed up! It was so quaint and cute!
Of course we got to ride the fire engine. It's not the newest model they have, really! This one is actually from the 20s I believe. The parade consisted of mainly old cars. These are really not the only cars available in Ferndale. Jim Carrey's movie "The Majestic" was shot here, though parts of the town were created by CGI, I think. If you do see the movie, the diner is not where it is supposed to be. I'm sure it's digitally put in there, instead of builing a whole facade. But I digress as usual...

After that we bought some little fireworks and enjoyed our own little show. The kids loved to watch and they even got to hold some of the safer fireworks. Even Reagan got to hold some and he was really excited! (is that legal??)
At night we went to the bay to watch the fireworks. Because we get to see it so close and there aren't that many people (compare to say, SF), it's so beautiful. It starts pretty late, because we are so far north and it doensn't get dark early. So it started at 10PM. By the time it was over, the kids were sooooooo tired, they couldn't sleep! And Tes had her ballet lesson the next morning!!! After the firework show, Kep, Tes and Devin got to see the inside of USS something or another that is a WWII ship. It was docked where we were watching the fireworks, so they let us in for a quick tour.



As for our summer school, we are doing really well. I decided not to do too much. I just wanted to keep Kep's brain going. So we are studying biology 3 days a week, history, math and spelling everyday, and we are studying about different countries too. Right now we are studying the exodus in history and for a foreign country, we are studying Egypt. And of course, there is the golf lessons, ballet lessons and we go to the library and to the river once a week. that's enough to keep us busy! Tesla is beginning to read very simple books, so we're keeping her busy there too. Yesterday at the library, she actually got on the computer herself and looked up "Tesla books." She found one that was in the children's section, so I got it out for her and she checked it out. Apparently she knows that she is named after the scientist and she was interested in finding out more about him. Kep and Tes both signed up for the summer reading program at the library. They are to read 22 books to get a prize. For Tes, it's not so bad, since most of her books have a lot of pictures. But for Kepler who is reading much more advanced books, 22 books in 2 months will be pretty interesting. So for now, I'm trying to pick out books that are not too long and easy to finish. We'll see how it goes, but knowing Kep, I'm sure he'll somehow manage to finish 22 books before the end of August.

Well, I'll try to come back soon...

oh yeah, I found out that my friend's due on August 8. My cross stitching project may have to be for the baby's first birthday! But I'm working on it! I got a bit busy and couldn't get to it for awhile, so it doesn't look like I've made any progress!!! yikes! But I'll keep working and update ya'll on the progress next time!!!