The Week with No Camps

 We started our week at our friend's pool.

This sweet friend not only invited us to spend half a day swimming with her, but she provided a beautiful lunch for us all.  

Then she invited us back again!

(In a couple of weeks)

We sat down to write thank you notes the next day.

And Nature Angel drew this pencil sketch as the main card and gift.

I'm of the opinion that our friend should frame this signed original and hang it in her cabana!

I love that she included the three mom friends (the friend with the pool, an old homeschool friend, and me) in the left loop of the pool.

Several of the kids learned to dive on this day, so not only did we have lots of fun, we had P.E. as well!

For our Summer Baking Bingo activity, we made homemade lemonade.

Nature Angel interviewed for and got her first out-of-the-home job.  She'll be working for an Eldercare community.  It's huge--covering acres and acres of land--with services from apartments for seniors who live independently all the way to full-service memory care.  She'll be working in one of the dining centers helping with food service and clean-up.

One of Nature Angel's friends works there already, and they are going to get to work together.  Those seniors who get to see these two young women on a regular basis are going to feel so blessed!

Brother finished his math program!

That makes 3 full math grades in a single school year!

I don't have Math 7 already purchased, and I'm still saving money for our next school year's curriculum, so he's on a math break.

He doesn't like it.

I may have to just spring for an individual class for him sooner rather than later.

The kids and I are reading Super--the sequel to Powerless.

The kids LOVE it!

We're also still reading The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Story Girl.

We finished D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, and we're still plugging along with 2 elements at a time from Basher Books Chemistry.

Nature Angel did a lot of work in her Personal Finance class.  And I have to say, it is one impressive class!!!  She's learning stuff I didn't learn until I was in my 30s or 40s, and the assignments are useful for real life.

This class is not on this year's transcript--rather it will appear for 12th grade, even though she's done the work during 11th grade and the summer.

Little Princess has done several math lessons (which are already on her 9th grade transcript).  

However, she spent most of the week unpacking and recovering from two full weeks away from home.

At the moment she's packing for FSY--a 6-day church camp--which she will attend starting tomorrow (Monday).

Beowulf and Baymax's apprenticeship meeting was canceled due to their mentor being ill, but Brother was able to go over and mow her lawn as a paid job.

The whole crew of us went over to our American Rhythm director's home for a playdate (the kids) and an organizing meeting (the moms and Nature Angel).  We have all of the dates scheduled, the songs chosen, and the show order done.  We now have 5 weeks to choreograph our numbers before our first meeting date on August 8.

I get to continue to teach the 2 little kid classes (3-6 and 7-10); Nature Angel is teaching younger kids with more skill and older kids with less skill (ages 10-14); then our director is teaching the older kids with more skill (12-18).  Nature Angel will also choreograph a number for the 4 most advanced dancers we have (herself included).

We're returning to our traditional All-American/patriotic theme, and this is my favorite theme of any that we do.  

Of great importance to us was the endowment of Super Star and her husband in the Kansas City, MO temple.  

It was a powerful experience to share with them, and I am sincerely grateful for the effort they've put into their spiritual development individually and as a married couple.

It was desperately hot and muggy beforehand, and then it was dark afterward, so we didn't take any group pictures.  Instead, Sir Walter Scott and I ran off as quickly as we politely could to get back to our kids so that the oldest 3 girls could attend the last 2 hours of a special church youth activity.  Sir Walter Scott took this picture of us:

Please don't mind my crazy eyes! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think I was trying to find the camera lens!

We drove home in a rather extravagant thunderstorm, but the girls were still able to attend their outdoor activity because an all-weather tent was set up.  They put up some twinkle lights and turned on a fan or two, so that all of the girls could enjoy themselves safely.

Lastly, we helped my dad celebrate his 76th birthday.  He and my mom came over for a simple dinner and celebratory rootbeer floats.  We interviewed Grandpa, getting to hear lots of stories about his youth.

Singing Happy Birthday to him

Family history is often the most interesting history of all!