Grandpa and Grandma Visit

I wanted to post a few pictures from Grandpa and Grandma Bleeker's visit early in May.  Zoe was so excited when they arrived.  Not only did two of her favorite people come to visit, Caleb (another much loved human) was with them!  Okay, so maybe I was just as excited to see those three drive up on that Saturday evening.  It is just so good to hug those you love after only talking on the phone or through FaceTime for so many months. 

While they were here we made a trip to Edwards Greenhouse for garden plants and flowers, took in a the district track meet, walked the Boise River in Eagle, visited the MK Nature Center, drove to Stanley for a day outing, enjoyed street tacos and ice cream at the Village, worked in the garden and landscaping, attended a piano recital, did a little shopping, and best of all, just enjoyed visiting face to face!

Our trip to Stanley was a little chilly, even beginning to rain at our destination, Redfish Lake, but we enjoyed the hot springs on the trip back.  No trip to Stanley is complete without a stop at the Lowman Ranger Station for a bathroom break and a Krispy Kreme doughnut!

Getting our feet wet in the hot springs.  Some hot springs are up in the parking lot, but for the bigger pools you need to hike down by the river.  The Payette River was a little high this spring making it a little more of a challenge.

Helping Grandpa plant a new rose. 

 Watching the rainbow trout and sturgeon at the MK Nature Center.

Waiting for ice cream at the Village!

On our walk along the Boise River.

Track 2016

This is the view from a walking path near Borah High School where the kids practiced and had meets.  I took this earlier in the season while the kids were at track practice.

The homeschool kids ended their track season last night with a meet at Borah High School.  It was a beautiful evening.  Caleb and Nicolas were even able to join us to watch their younger siblings compete.   Here are just a few pictures I took over the season:

Since Borah HS is only ten minutes from the airport we are constantly seeing planes take off.  Last night we counted at least twenty-two in the time we were at the meet.

Nicolas finished his track season last weekend at the state meet.  He qualified in the 200m and the 4x100.  He did not make it out of prelims in the 200m, but the 4x100 finished 4th.  The weather was not great--mostly cool and rainy all weekend, but they still had a great time and made good memories.  We had fun hosting the state qualifiers in our home for a pasta supper after practice the Thursday night before state.

Love this picture with the mountains in the background

Caleb helping his dad coach at the district meet.  We were glad  Grandpa and Grandma had a  beautiful evening to watch Nicolas run.

3rd place finish in the 200m at Districts qualified Nicolas for State!

4th place in the 4 x 100 at State

Parade of teams--CVCS state qualifiers

My awesome family supported Caleb in his track season at Dordt and were even able to snap a few pictures.  His outdoor season was limited due to weather, only running three outdoor meets.  Although he came into college as primarily an 800m runner, Caleb was finding that he might have hidden talent in the 400m!

GEMS Secret Pal

This year the GEMS leader at Cloverdale URC initiated a Secret Pal program.  She paired up each girl with an older woman in the church.  The women knew what girl they had, but the girls did not know their Secret Pal.  The girls each had a number and a special place was made at the church to drop off notes and gifts for our girls.  They would write back, and it became a great opportunity to get to know the young girls in our church and pray for them specifically.  At the end of the year, a special tea was held for the Secret Pal Reveal.   This was just a wonderful idea to nurture fellowship, community, and a mentoring relationship with young girls.

I was the Secret Pal for sweet Natalie.

Lydia's Secret Pal was Mrs. Vander Stelt.

When Not in School...

A few weeks ago the Idaho Theater for Youth put on a free play on Saturday afternoon at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus.  Seth and Lydia and I decided to try it out and we were delighted to have gone.  What fun!   We can also say we did a little something to commemorate 400 years since Shakespeare's death.

When schoolwork is finished, which is usually sooner than most school kids get out of school, the kids usually have chores and some instrument to practice.  Then they like to roller blade, bike, play games, read books, or just hang out together.   One afternoon I noticed that they hauled out all the Little People tubs and make a big set-up in the backyard.  Didn't think I would see those toys until grandchildren!

Seth loves to take things apart.  Not put them back together--just take them apart.  We had an old CD player that didn't work and were planning to junk so we let him fiddle with it.  I can't tell you how many hours he spent dismantling.  He enjoyed it so much we have to guard the things that do work around the house.

This birthday present for Russ has been a huge favorite this spring.  We can usually find someone reading or doing schoolwork in it sometime during the day.

Japan and Russia

Here are a few highlights from our Japan and Russia units.

Japanese tea ceremony.  This year I directed Anna and Lydia to a website, bought the green tea and Japanese treats, but had the girls lead the ceremony.

Haiku poems

Origami.  This is a card Lydia made for her Gems Secret Pal.

This was a fun little activity.  I ordered this kit from Amazon--quite inexpensive.  It was a little difficult to set up, but with Nicolas' fine motor coordination and patience we were able to make it stand up.  The pictures represent before and after you put the solution in the troughs for the paper to soak up.  You are basically growing crystals and because the paper is dyed in strategic areas it appears colored.  For us this was nice representation of Mt. Fuji and the beautiful cherry blossoms of Japan.

Anna made these dolls from this website.  Aren't they adorable!

They also colored these Japanese dolls and put them together.

I splurged at World Market and bought this set of Japanese nesting dolls since they fit both the Russian and Japanese units.

The only project we did for our Russian unit (besides making yummy borscht) was to make our own Faberge eggs.  We used this website to get us started.