Some more Activities of Late

George and I got to go on a field trip to the museum with Owen's class and learn all about life in the olden days.  Afterwards, I took him down to the river for a walk and some outdoor time with just the two of us.  He's always up for a spontaneous date with Mom, it's quite flattering actually!

This bridge makes me happy--I feel so lucky I get to see it almost every day

This thing is just really cool.  Must be something to do with the coal miners, but I'm not sure what.  Forgive the ignorance!

I just love watching kids throw rocks into the river.  He could do this all day, literally.

Owen and I have started doing home school afternoons once a week--just for the last two months of school--on Mondays.  Its been pretty nice to have some one-on-one time with the O.  He told me he wanted to learn cursive writing, do science projects, and learn some cooking.  I haven't taken many pictures of our activities, but so far we have:  made two kinds of muffins, shopped for ingredients and made some yummy white chocolate chip cookies, learned about the history of flight and done an experiment on flying a balloon.  He made a kite with some spare material and yarn, which we haven't been able to fly because its ALWAYS raining these days.  He can write his full name in cursive, but that's as far as we've got.  I think that's mostly why he wanted to learn--to have a "signature."  Next he wants to learn more about art, so we went to see the new art/music building and art exhibit and got some materials to do more.  He is currently working on a "stained-glass window" of a knight, and a friend of mine is going to teach him a small class on painting with pastels.  

Mostly these afternoons have been great bonding time with the two of us.  Because he's such good buds with Dad, sometimes the two of us are at odds together, so it was time to freshen that up a bit, and this seems to be doing the trick!

The muffin man

We've been blessed to be able to have all four of the oldest boys join the same soccer group.  It is mostly learning drills and skills, and there are short little games afterwards.  The kids are divided up into their age groups--and they really like it!  We like it because it is right down the path from our house, and it is just once a week for 45 min.  No crazy soccer mom in this house!!  George and I enjoy cheering everyone on and G can't wait for his turn next year.

We had a quick visit from some of the Edmonton Spencers and went on a fun bird-watch nature hike down at the river.  It is always so fantastic to see cousins get together.  They love being with each other.

An old famous cottonwood (it even has a plaque on it) that the kids climbed.  Tommy did need a hand down, but he was quite brave climbing up!

Sweet girls!  Tommy spotted a robin's nest, we saw some wonderful pelicans, a family of Canada geese, and a very large EGG in a nest, which we did not identify.  Found lots of neat flowers and interesting odds and ends as well.  We ended off at our favorite place--Ryrie Island.  It was a bit flooded over!