Random Bits from the Last Three Months

So, this post is full of all the little bits in between the big bits of our last three months that I already posted. I’m exhausted again, just going though all the pictures of what we’ve been up to! Wow! I think I am ready for an easy rest of the summer!

Homeschooling

Homeschooling Tegan began our March. I had to figure out quick what I wanted to do, so I got her over to a Family Learning Center in Mount Vernon. They tested her and told me what I needed to do. They gave me some math books and other ideas and off we went into the Adventure of homeschooling. Yikes!

We really ended up slipping into it pretty easily. She had to read 30 minutes every day and journal about what she read. She had a vocabulary book and a reading comprehension workbooks she had to do each day.

For math we used two curriculums. One was on the computer and the other was a book that I had to grade her work. I just gave her the tests from the book until I figured out where she didn’t understand the material. Plus we added in some speed work to help her memorize her multiplication facts.

For science and social studies we did a couple random things like an explorer project and electricity experiments.

It was hard work for both of us, but in some ways it was easier and fun. We learned a lot together. I saw that Tegan was a very hard worker and good learner, but she didn’t like to make mistakes. She learned that if she could learn from her mistakes, they weren’t that bad.

I think, in the end, that she got caught up with what was missing in the school. It was a good decision for the teacher situation that we had and I’m very glad we did it. However, I have her all signed up to go back to Evergreen next year for 6th grade.

Missoula Children’s Theater

Anika and Tegan got to do the Missoula Children’s Theater play again this year in March. This time it was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Anika was a blue bird and Tegan got to be a dwarf. They let Tegan participate in the show even though she was homeschooled, so we were very thankful for that! They both did a great job!

Our nephew Zane turned one in March. The little cutie doesn’t like me though, so he won’t even let me pick him up!

Band

Kelby still loves band. She even played the bass clarinet for part of the year. The got to go on a bunch of fieldtrips at the end of the year.

Easter

I guess I didn’t take a lot of picture on Easter at the Wright house. We just got home from our trip to Arizona the Saturday before Easter Sunday. We had a full day starting with two services at church. Then we went to Gramma and Grampa’s house for lunch/dinner and watched the youngest cousins have an Easter egg hunt.

Tegan and Naomi are getting so old!

Mother’s Day

After a busy spring, I went to the beach alone for Mother’s Day to enjoy a coffee and fish and chips by the water in Fairhaven! My favorite special treat.

AVID Fieldtrip

I was a tutor of this AVID class at the middle school all year. They got to take a fieldtrip down to the University of Washington and I got to go with them. It was so fun because we rode the Amtrak train down there! Then we rode the city bus over to the university. I loved that class of eight grade kids. It was fun to spend the day with them.

End of the Year Fieldtrip

Anika’s class go to Padilla Bay Interpretive Center and the beach for a fieldtrip at the end of May. Since Tegan was homeschooling, she got to come too!

Sleep Over for Anika

Anika got to spend the night at a friend’s house that has some little quads. She had so much fun taking them for a ride!

Ski to Sea

Mike ran the Ski to Sea race again this year with a team from work. His boss has a lake house on the mountain where the race begins, so he invited all the families to dinner that night. The girls were introduced to kayaking and they LOVED it! Actually, so did I! I wish we could buy a kayak or two.

It was a beautiful evening on the lake!

The next day we went up to see the team come in at the end of the race. Mike’s part of the relay was early in the morning. He ran downhill for 8 miles! The last leg was the kayak into a beach in Bellingham, so it made for a nice day!

Blast from the Past

In early June our town has a little festival called “Blast from the Past.” The library put on a “murder mystery” game by planting clues in most of the stores downtown. The girls and I spent that Saturday afternoon downtown collecting clues. You even got to interview some of the suspects and witnesses that they had planted at the stores. It was very fun and a clever idea! We didn’t guess correctly though.

Plus, we enjoyed some carnival type food down there!

Baptism

On Sunday, June 3rd, Kelby and Tegan got baptized. Our church did this at a neat location that had lots of fun stuff to do plus we had a potluck picnic. It was a really special day! The girls wrote about what they were choosing to do and why they did it, so we know that this was something that they wanted to do for themselves.

This place was out in the woods and had rope swings and a zipline. These rope swings were so much fun! You ran out and swung around the tree. Even I tried it!

Amazing Race

The local hospital is putting on a fun activity for the summer called “Amazing Race”. It is 6 hikes throughout the summer where you collect clues. At the end there will be a final race to the prize. My friend Jessica and I decided to make a team. So far there have been three hikes. It is amazing what a beautiful area we live in and how many great hikes there are! We are getting a chance to try new places that we have never done before. Even the girls are excited to go on the hikes.

Hike #1: Little Mountain – We got a little lost on our way back home on this one! We went back down the backside of the mountain. Uncle Zach had to come and save us and take us back to our car! The hike was supposed to be 2 miles, but ours was longer!

Hike #2: Sugarloaf Mtn – This one was out near Anacortes. It was a very steep hike of about 2.5 miles round trip. The view was amazing though and totally worth it!

Hike #3 – We did this hike just yesterday. It was 4.5 miles. Each hike will either get longer or steeper! This was a great hike too up to Fragrance Lake. Kelby was there, but didn’t get in our pictures because she was sketching the view!

Last Day of School

The last day of school was on June 15th. Anika’s egg drop entry survived. Every year the school tosses the kid’s egg protection units off the roof to see if the egg lives or dies. Anika’s had an Angry Bird theme!

Here is Tegan with the teacher she had before we started homeschooling, Mrs. Heyne.

Anika will likely have Mrs.Davidson again next year!

After school we went to Chinese food for lunch…my favorite tradition!

First Camping Trip of the Season

The weekend right after school got out, we took our first camping trip of the season.

We were looking for sun because the weather was just awful for the beginning of summer. Luckily we found it! It was a really nice relaxing weekend…especially since I would have the VBS to work on for the next couple weeks after. It was good for me to take a break!

Speaking of “brakes”, we are lucky we made it home because the brakes on the trailer weren’t working and by the time we got home, our van brakes were screeching. I took the van in the next day and had to replace the them because they were running metal on metal. God was watching out for us as we came back down that steep mountain pass!

Running

I was taking it easy because my leg was hurting. I have not been running for about a month now to let my torn tendon in my leg heal. I have done a little bit now to ease back into it. I am so happy because it does seem to be healed up. I even ran along with the kids at the Fourth of July Race. It was nice and slow though.

Fourth of July

Besides the VBS pictures of our float, I didn’t really get any good pictures of our 4th adventures. We really took it easy. Our cul-de-sac neighbors got together to eat BBQ for dinner and blow off fireworks. It was sweet and simple. The best part was the beans I made from my dad’s recipe that reminded me of all the fun family gatherings we used to have!

Okay, well that about catches me up for everything! Wow! I’m going to go take a nap! Love you all and hope everyone is doing great!

~Shawna

CTK VBS

I don’t remember if I mentioned before, but I recently took on the mini job of Children’s Ministry Director at our little church in Sedro-Woolley. I am in charge of making sure that there is a place for kids with teachers ready to go each Sunday morning.

Many churches put on Vacation Bible Schools in the summer and we wanted to see if we could do a little something too. Instead of a full week, we decided to put on a one-day event in the park. We don’t have a church building (we rent the local community center on Sundays), so VBS in the park was a great way to get around that obstacle.

Since the Olympics are coming up this summer we decided to go with an Olympic theme! Most churches these days buy a program for their VBS, but I made this one up from scratch. For the last couple months I’ve been working hard to get it going.

I altered a logo I made for my last year “Mommy and Me” camp for my girls to include the Olympic Logo and it turned out so cute…so we ordered tshirts for everyone.

Here the girls are painting a banner for me. I traced it on this drop cloth by using our projector to cast the image on the fabric.

After all the preparation, Friday, June 29th was the day. We’d been praying for good weather and we got PERFECT weather! We were so thankful. We had fun putting up some colorful decorations. The girls were good helpers that day.

We had four different stations of activities and three group sessions with music and a message. At each activity the kids got a card with a verse on it. We had silly games, skits, great music, fun crafts, and even an object lesson snack.

We had four units of kids divided up by their age. Each “team” decorated a flag before things got started.

We kicked everything off with the Olympic Fanfare music and a torch/flag ceremony.

Aren’t our shirts cute?! I just love them.They have our church logo on the back too.

Here is Kelby helping at the craft station. They were making God Medals…instead of Gold Medals. They wrote their own personal goals on the back.

I shared a little bit at each of the group sessions, then I ran one of the game stations during the rest of them time. I was quite busy, but I loved being engaged with the kids the whole time!

Here are some the kids on Tegan’s “team”.

We had fun grooving to some old school fun kid songs! John even made up a song just for us!

This was a target for our “javelin” throw.

There were about 45 kids there that day. Here they are all together for a group session.

At the end of the day, we wrapped it up with a free hot dog dinner for the families! It was amazing. The kids had a great time. Although the adult and youth helpers were exhausted by the end of the day, I think they had a pretty good time. The format worked great and I would do it again next year with only a few changes…like me delegating more. I’m not a very good delegator!

The fun didn’t stop Friday night! To finish out the athletic theme, we challenged the kids to come back and run/walk the Sedro-Woolley Fun Run on the 4th of July. These are the kids that took the challenge! They looked great running down the street in matching shirts.

Here they are after their hard 2 miles!

After the race, we all joined in the local fun by entering a float in the parade. We just recycled our VBS decorations and made an excellent showing as a float! The kids all had great fun riding in it this year. We handed out lifesavers and some flyers to the people on the street.

I am proud of what we accomplished with all this fun. We’ll never know what seeds that we planted will grow into for God, but I am sure that there will be some fruit from the efforts. I see it already in the camaraderie between the adults and kids…just getting to know each other better!