Reports Complete

Emma and Robyn and worked diligently on their unit study for the past few months and recently have completed the tasks! Here are some pictures of their hard work. (Emma did the report on horses and Robyn did hers on birds)

Moab in May

So, for school this week we decided to go on a three day field trip to Moab and visit Arches National Park to work on our nature journals. The pollen was very high where we decided to camp and my allergies kicked up for the first time in years. The cotton "fluff" was thick like snow on the ground. For the second night we decided to stay in a hotel. To make it fun we went swimming, jumped on beds and watched animal planet (a true treat since we don't have cable).

While we were hiking we had a great time playing in the sand and exploring Arches. This is what we learned on our trip.

Emma:

Don't step on sharp things. It hurts. We saw lots of cool lizards, they were really quick. I can climb up the arches even after I stubbed my toe. Arches are formed with water that goes through the rock. I loved the petroglyphs because they were cool and had horses. We camped and mom got a bad head ache.

Robyn:

To form arches there has to be a pool of water and eventually the water seeps through the rock and forms an arch. Don't step on the live dirt. It's alive. I can climb sand dune arch. There was a lot of fluff that made mom's head hurt.

Aiden:

I forgot. Ahhh... I loved the sand dune arch and playing in the sand. I loved the hill with a lot of sand that was taller than our house. It was fun to run down. It was soft sand and thought it was quick. I liked to climb double arch and that's it.

Robyn carrying Gwen on her back

Aiden running toward double arch

Robyn, Emma and Aiden in front of the petroglyphs near Delicate Arch

Robyn and Emma working on their nature journals

Gwen at the opening to the slot canyon that Sand Dune Arch is located in.

Aiden under Sand Dune Arch

Robyn and Emma on top of Sand Dune Arch

Gwen, Emma, Robyn and Aiden at Sand Dune Arch

Declaration of Independence 1776

This unit study has been on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. We read many books and made our timeline picture. We made paper and wrote a part of the Declaration on that paper. It was great fun...

Q&A:

Robyn

Q: What do you remember about Thomas Jefferson?

A: Ummmm His dad died when he was young. His dad said before he died "I want my son to have a good education." So when Thomas was older he received a good education. His dad left him TONS of books. He wrote the declaration of Independence. He had red hair. He got married.

Q: What is the Declaration of Independence?

A: It was a paper that said we wanted to be free from England and King George because they were taxing us like crazy. It was a miracle because all thirteen colonies signed it.

Emma

Q:Who was Thomas Jefferson?

A:

Q: What was the Declaration of Independence?

A: More to come...

Aiden

Q: What do you remember about Thomas Jefferson?

A: He wrote the Declaration of Independence

Q: What is the Declaration of Independence?

A: I remember the Mayflower....

Our timeline picture

Don't forget the lid to the blender when you are making Paper...

Emma and Aiden dunking the paper screen

Emma and Aiden giving the paper some pressure

Robyn giving the paper some pressure

The kids finished work

Picture of me and the kidos

Here's a picture we had done while we were in Washington.

Kids having fun

So today I let the kids play with my camera. There were a lot of pictures of the ceiling and the floor but then I came across this one. I thought it was VERY creative :)

Gwen decided that she loves the movie Enchanted and is often singing the song "True love kiss". Today however she also tried playing the piano while singing (like what her auntie Sharon does when she comes over) She sang a combination of "True Love Kiss" and "I am a Child of God". She loves to sing the part that the troll sing in his deep voice. I thought this was cute :)

Trip to Washington, visit with the Thompsen's and Friends

We recently went to Washington to visit the Thompsen side of the family. Gwen and Nate are done with their Korea tour and were having a 6 week vacation at my families house. We wanted to see them again before they are off to Cuba where the communication won't be so easy. Here's a little about what we did and some pictures to go with it.

Aaron cuddling with Gwen at one of our pit stops along the way

Baby Oliver (Gwen's youngest child)

Robyn with her cousin Max (Gwen's oldest child)

While we were there we drove to Maple Valley to visit my close friend Elise Nilssen and her family. This is Emma, Alura and Robyn, old buddies :)

Here's the rest of the Nilssen crew along with the Kibbies (Robyn, Alura, Emma, Alexandra, Aiden, Zavier, Zane, Azure and Gwen)

One day we all headed off to the Woodland Park Zoo.

We met up with my childhood friend Christy and her daughter Ruby.

We were lucky to see the baby Gorilla up so close. A lady who worked there told us that the mom has been hiding with her baby for quite some time and that we were lucky that she was so willing to show off her baby :)

The kids acting like monkey's

While we were there we had some family photos done. This was an attempt to get all the grand kids...hahaha at least they are all in there (minus Ashley, of which I'm sure she would have sat still for it :) )

Aunty Jill with the kids have a great time.

This is sweet baby Elizabeth (Ron and Michelle's new baby). I got the oppertunity to make her a dress for her blessing the Sunday we were there.

Elizabeth with her proud mommy Michelle