Field trip: Medieval Court

This weekend we attended a special “Medieval Court” day at one of our local museums, where the boys got to be knights on a quest, roar like dragons, play with silly jesters, and make several items of medieval themed crafts.

~some of the items they got to look at and try on~

Actually some of these items we needed to support while the kids were trying them on, they were SO heavy they almost knocked them over.

~Costumed dancers~

~Rylan working on his coat of arms~

~His completed shield with the symbol of first born~

~Stained glass window art~

River boat ride with my boys

Yesterday the boys and I spent a very pleasant morning doing a little river boating.

{paddle boarders}

{on board entertainment}

A wonderful way to spend a weekend morning with my sweeties…

Weekending and what we’ve been up to…

Yesterday we spent a fabulous day on this lovely beach.

We snorkeled, swam, splashed, built, had water fights, and fish nibbling our toes while we sat in the shallow water at the shore. A perfect family day and the last of our summer vacation!

I have been posting a lot about our summer travels and not so much about what we have been doing the last couple of weeks. That’s because I had nothing completed to write about. We were waiting for curriculum to arrive, and it did, all on the same day. My hubby came home from the post office with five boxes piled in his arms and Rylan and I squealing with excitement.

Since that day I have spent hours and hours familiarizing myself with the material, planning our new daily schedule, and planning in detail the next two months of school. I now have planned lessons, materials ready (or notes to remind me what to prepare for a particular lesson the night before), even craft projects planned for the next two months (I am planning to have one afternoon for a planned craft project every week). I am sure I will make adjustments to the schedule as the year goes on, but for now we have what we need to make a good start. And I have lots to share here!

We are all very excited about beginning the new year together, Rylan has been counting down the days all of the past week! Gotta love an enthusiastic learner!

More to come on our first day of first grade and what our school area looks like (I have been working on that too, since it became a bit of a storage area over the summer!)…hopefully a little later today. Stop in and take a peek!

4th of July

{view from our spot on the beach}

{a little bit rock ‘n roll} {lots of climbing and jumping}

{first and last taste of cotton candy…”too sticky, too icky mommy!”}

{tug ‘o war}

{heavenly sky}

{golden sunset} {lots of oohs and ahhs}

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Movie night on the beach

This past weekend we went to a free community movie night on the beach. We spent the evening eating hotdogs and popcorn, chatting with friends, the kids playing with glow sticks, and watching the movie “Surfs Up”.I have to say, watching a movie on this beach (the sunset while we were eating our hotdogs and waiting for the movie to start),And under the moon was probably the coolest way I have ever watched a movie! I am definitely loving this summer so far!

Celebrating Dad!

This morning the boys excitedly gave Ramtin all the goodies they made for him during the past week getting ready for Father’s Day. They made him a super cute popsicle stick puzzle from a photo of the two of them that I printed out, the idea for which we got from here (sorry no pic of ours). The boys also made him cards.

And Rylan used the left over popsicle sticks to build him this cute little house.

They put it altogether in this envelope, which also included a sweet photo booth photo shoot with two of their best buddies.

After breakfast, gift giving, and lots of hugs, we spent the day doing what Dad loves best…being here. Snorkeling heaven!

During the day I spent some time thinking about my wonderful husband who works so incredibly hard to make it possible for me to stay home and focus completely on raising and educating our boys, not to mention getting to live in beautiful Hawaii! But that is not all he does, he comes home after very long days at work and immediately focuses on Rylan and Damian, listening to their day, reading to them and playing with them before dinner, getting them ready for bed, praying together as a family, and then reading bedtime stories. On weekends he focuses completely on spending time with the boys. He spends hours building with them, reading to them, answering questions, teaching them to ride their bikes, playing soccer, snorkeling and swimming with them, building in the sand, introducing them to classical music, drawing with them, and loving them. He is very much a part of our homeschooling, not only making it possible financially and in offering me the support I need to keep going, but in being a very active agent in the boy’s learning.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dad's out there!

Some images of our last few days

{Glorious beach}
{Beach bums}

{humuhumunukunukuapua`a - that's its name...for real! The State fish.}

{Mr. Crab}

{The view while floating in the water}

{Hula dancing chipettes}

{Train ride around a farm}

{Feeding the no-longer wild pigs}

{These guys outnumber us humans 5:1 on this island!}

{This face may greet you on a forest hike... :)}

An evening picnic with friends

We spent a lovely few hours this evening hiking to a small waterfall and picnicking there with friends.