Mia "the brave" at Horse Camp!

Mia is my animal lover and little mom!  She is happiest when anything with fur, wings, or warts is around.  This week she attended her first summer camp ever "Horse Camp"! 

She spent the week, riding, tacking, cleaning, mucking and playing with horses.  She and 11 other girls bonded while learning all about these wonderful animals. 

Although she loves horses and being around them, she was truly scared to trot! Trotting can be a scary thing anyway (when the horse is at a slow jog, just above a walk) and she would get in the car each day telling me how "Mom, trotting hurts my tenders".  Thank you Jack Black and Kung Fu Panda for teaching her that word. 

My sweet baby girl got on Marge for the Horse Show, walked her around the cones, and then, even though she was scared to death, she and Marge trotted! 

Congratulation Mia Kate on your 3rd place ribbon!  We are sooooo proud of you! 

The very "Cool" Creek Park!

Still don't think this is how I want it to look on my page but . . . what the heck. 

So last week while Mia was at Horse Camp the boys and I went creek stomping (a new term even for me) at Cool Creek Park.  It was great.  The water was just deep enough for us to walk through and still find goodies. 

The night before our adventure I was telling Andrew that when I was a little girl, the kids in my neighborhood would all meet up at the Creek out back and look for crayfish.  Andrew had never really heard of them and was a little surprised that his mom would partake in such a "cool" thing.  After explaining to him what they are and how to catch them, he went to bed with very high hopes of catching one the next day. 

This was our first trip to Cool Creek and it really was a COOL Creek.  The boys and I had a blast walking up and down the creek crayfish hunting.  Our spirits were getting a little deflated and we were ready to throw in the towel when SURPRISE, Mom found one!  Andrew helped me use the 2 small buckets to ease him out from under the rock and into one of them.  The boys were thrilled. 

After meeting up with some friends, the kids continued the hunt.  They didn't find any more crayfish that day, but they did see a snake, catch a few water worms (really strange things) and a few squirrels. 

Not to shabby for our first trip to the truly COOL CREEK! 


 

PS. Yes this is the same crayfish now in the cup holder in the back of my suburban!  I am sure you are asking yourself "Well how did that crayfish get there?" and that is a very good questions.  Andrew may have turned his listening ears off when I said " DO NOT PUT THE BUCKET IN THE CUP HOLDER! IT IS TOO BIG!" Yes, I am pretty sure he didn't listen and hence the crayfish ended up swimming in the cup holder until we could get more water.  I have yelled at my kids for a lot of things being put in the cup holders but this was a first. 

PPS.  The crayfish did make it out of the car and back into the creek (well our creek) safe and sound! 

Off to an already Rocky Start!

Well . . . so much for staying on top of this Blog thing and updating weekly.  Opps.  I still haven't figured out how to upload pictures to put on the page so it looks a little more. . . you know like us! 

Today is the last day of school and we have our STOP, QUIET and PLAY signs ready to go for the front door.  Pictures to follow as soon as I figure that part out. 

Tadpoles (that I almost paid for, but ended up finding some out back) are still kicking, well swimming.

Andrew found a Grey Tree Frog yesterday at the pool in the filter so we spend a lot of time catching him bugs, but I am feeling really bad for the little guy so I think tonight be his last night as a Colvin.  Time to rejoin the rest of the tree frog colony!  Again, as soon as I can upload pictures I will. 

I have decided that next week while Mia is at Horse Camp, Andrew and I will be having a crash course in "all the things on the 1st grade checklist I don't know yet"!  Thank goodness we only a few things to go and the list will be complete.  We are going to spend our morning on Monday at the library (ok let's be real, more like 15mins because we have H with us) and then since it is Math Monday we are going to hit NUMBER WORD recognition, heck maybe I will throw in a little addition and subtraction review. 

Let's all cross our fingers that he will know how to spell his middle name, recognize his number words 1-100 and master his phone number and address by the weekend. 

Can't wait to spend some quality time with Erica, Lexi and Grampy this weekend. 

. . . . . .And then the real fun begins! 

The Planning Stage

Think we are starting to formulate a plan for this "project" of mine:

Andrew gets 1 week of just Andrew stuff (the week that Mia is at horse camp)
Mia gets 1 week of just Mia stuff (the week Andrew is at Connor Prairie)

Some topics:
Frog and Toad
Life Cycles
Insects vs Spiders
The USA
Our World
Healthy Living
Get Fit

MONDAY:
Math Monday
Head to public library to get ready material for unit.
TUESDAY: 
Craft Day
Writers Workshop
WEDNESDAY:
WILD DAY! kids will get to pick a card or 2 and that will determine how we spend our day.
Zoo Day, Road Trip, Park It, Swim Day, Cul-de-Sac Picnic, Movie Marathon, etc. . .
THURSDAY:
Writers Workshop
FRIDAY:
Fun Friday
Finish up unit with games, putting books/binders together

The kids will each have to keep a reading log and will be required to read something every day.
ME time will also be an every day occurrence (most likely when H-man is down for his nap)
Traffic Lights at the Colvins will help neighbors know when to knock and when not to knock. 

My hope is to outline our weekly activities based on the topic over the previous weekend, but let's get real, I will most likely post what actually happened during the week the following weekend!  Either way we do have some loyal followers (thank goodness) and we don't want to let you down! 

And so it begins. . .

Let me just start by saying I am very new to this BLOG thing. 

I have decided to structure our summer a little like a summer "camp" or maybe summer "school" is a better word.  Either way the Colvin kids are about to be introduced to a

s c h e d u l e. 

I know! What a crazy thought right?  My type A personality would make many people think that "of course the Colvin's are on a schedule" but let's get the cat out of the bag . . . we are NOT.  We have always been just very relaxed about things: we go to bed late and get up even later, we eat breakfast and sometimes lunch in our pj's, and we usually rush around at 11:30 to make sure that everyone is ready for school by 12:15.  After school is pretty much the same: drop your backpack off, rush to get to a friends house, play outside until called in for dinner.  Summer time is even worse, spend the mornings watching TV so that I can get some house work done, then it is off to the pool for a few hours, then back outside with the neighbor kids until dinner time.  Oh and just cause it is summer, back out they go until we call them in for showers and bed.  It doesn't sound bad does it?  It isn't. . . but it is time for a change. 

I swear every year I am going to get the kids on a schedule, I am going to get myself on a schedule!  But then Life happens and I don't do it.  My hope is that by keeping this blog, YOU will help me stay focused and on track.  Plus I would love to hear suggestions for lessons or activities that you think the kids might like.  I hope to have a tentative schedule in place by the 16th so that the kids can start choosing topics. 

My goal is to create a casual yet structured calendar that will help them stay on top of school work, play with friends, and get some quality time with mom, all while learning about things they love. 

So. . . let the count down to summer vacation begin~