neimeyers for lunch

larry & judy neimeyer are missionaries that are supported by the church scott grew up at. it was such a treat that they are back on furlough AND visiting orange county at the same time scott's parents are here from atlanta! (and that our soccer tournament schedule was accomodating!)

we were able to have everyone over for lunch and it was so neat to hear about the work the neimeyers have been doing in africa over the past 40+ years. it was a blessing to hear about the vision God has given them and the fruit of their labor in following that vision.

another treat for us was being able to help them out with some technical troubles. they are travelling giving presentations to their supporters and their projector & computer were not working. scott was able to fix the problem and that was a joy to us as using our gifts and talents to serve the body is always on our hearts.

the kids got a kick out of meeting the grandparents of some friends they met in texas on our trip a few months ago! (although at first when we kept saying the niemeyers were coming for lunch they were expecting friends their own age.)

God bless the neimeyers as they continue share the goodnews and make disciples!

zoology FAST

i wanted to try out the apologia elementary science curriculum, so i ordered it through interlibrary loan. this is NOT the best way to use the curriculum, but i like to try before i buy, so this worked well for us. the book i received was from the library of congress - this means you get access to it for 3 weeks, no renewals, AND you can't take it out of the library!

well, i still wanted to see how my kids would take to this book because apologia has 6 elementary books and another 9 jr/sr high books and from what i had seen in the 8th grade text, i really liked the way it was written and the experiments.

so...

we did a 28 week (14 chapter) science curriculum in 3 weeks! again - NOT the right way to do it, but i work well with a deadline, so this is what we did.

every day we went to the library twice to read. when we came to questions, i recorded the kids' answers on my phone - after the book was gone, we would take time to write out these narrations for our zoology notebooks - making it last much longer than the 3 weeks we had the book.

every day we did the mid-chapter experiment and in the evening would do the end-chapter project with daddy.

we studied birds, flying reptiles, bats, and flying insects.

we built a bird house, bird feeders, experimented with feathers, bones, different bird seeds and locations of bird feeders & bird baths. we made "fossils" of flying reptiles and experimented with echolocation. we built an ant farm, brought ants back to life, and caught a variety of insects to inspect & study.

it was an intense 3 weeks! we had so much fun though and we continue to enjoy and learn from all our experiments that are in motion and the copywork we're still doing!

more farm animal science with ky & mommy

some more photos

from our farm science class.

we've enjoyed learning about chickens, ducks, pigs, alpacas, and of course, horses - ky's favorite!

photos of our days

some cute pics from days this spring

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY SY!

My itty-bitty is 4! I'll have to come up with a new nickname!

Zion National Park

we took a weekend trip to explore St George, Utah and Zion National Park. It was the most beautiful place I've ever been - incredible - highly recommend it!

we spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the park. The first night we camped at a nearby lake, but the second night we were able to get a spot in the park.

after a long drive we stopped to stretch our legs at a little park. There was a super-cool rock to climb. (and there were lizards to chase.)

We stopped at Costco in St George to fill up on food for camping and grabbed hot dogs for lunch. All the drinks were offered in caffeine-free versions! and there were no chocolate muffins! hmmm...

we explored the area around St George - 2 lakes and various parks. at one point, driving down a pretty regular looking suburban street, we passed 4 mormon meeting places ("churches"). there was one for every block! (obviously my first trip to utah)

camping the first night was extremely windy and cold. the kids slept great, but scott & i were up constantly with the variety of unusual sounds and the tent blowing down occasionally (meaning more than once!)

Zion is breathtaking! we hiked about 9 miles total in our 3 days.

we definitely would like to return to Zion and this time of year was perfect as the snow-melt made for rushing rivers & streams, and the spring temperatures were a lovely 68-75 during the day - perfect for lots of hiking.