July Fun

We braved DC on July 5th, hoping it wouldn't be as crowded as on the 4th. Maybe it wasn't, but it was PLENTY crowded! I prefer going on a Tuesday in March when everyone else is in school and we have the place to ourselves. I didn't get many pictures because I was trying not to lose any children, but I did get Elise with her favorite display:

We examined this lion for a LONG time. 

Her second favorite display:

We played with the exit sign almost as long as the lion.

In an attempt to teach more 'life skills' to my kids, they've each been assigned a day where they have to cook breakfast and lunch. Seth isn't a huge fan, but all the others love when it's their day to cook. I have to mentally prepare myself for the subsequent mess that comes from lots of helpers, but hopefully it will be worth it one day!

Muffins are Aaron's favorite thing to cook.

And yes, we use Jiffy mix.

Annual "only time my kids ever get Slurpees" trip on 7/11:

The big ones were there too. 

Just not close enough for a picture.

July has had some crazy weather here. First we had two weeks of mid-90 temperatures and no rain. I had to go water my garden every day (I usually never water). After those two weeks, we had literally 10 days straight of rain. My garden drowned. I planted 20 tomato plants and only a few survived. So sad. 

And then we had storms every night for a couple of weeks. Generally just some heavy rain and thunder, but one night we got 70 mph wind gusts along with the rain and thunder. It hit so quickly and was so unexpected (we got a warning about flash floods, but not wind) that we didn't think about the trampoline. The kids watched in horror as the wind picked it up and flipped it. Aaron almost cried. 

We usually try to have it anchored, but with all the rain Jon had been mowing all the time and we didn't think about putting them back in. Of course, our friends lost their trampoline to the same storm and they had FOUR anchors in at the time. The ground was so saturated that the anchors didn't hold. So maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway. 

Jon passing on the love of Rome: Total War to the next generation.

I think I can safely call this both "history" and "geography" for next year's curriculum.