Flubber and Skyview Ranch

May is a great and yet busy time of year. The last three weeks of school are packed with concerts, field trips, enrichment day, field day, the last of the testing, parties, programs, write shop, and more. It is jam packed in May but it's all good. To relieve stress, we created flubber. Flubber? I found a recipe here and the kids LOVE it. Sarah has a fascination with slime and all things slimy so she really loves flubber. Matthew has enjoyed playing with it too.

Making flubber

 Ben is one of Matthew's friends in school and lives 4 houses down from us. Here is a pic of Matthew and Ben. Unfortunately Ben will be going to kindergarten next year so he won't be in the same class as Matthew. Bummer!

Matthew and Ben

 Last year we worked with Sarah to ride her bike without training wheels. I was worried that she would forget over the winter but she didn't. In fact, she is riding like a champ! We rode bikes to school and our next stop will be to ride bikes out to Handels ice cream. It just needs to stop raining! The beauty of this is that Matthew is riding on Erik's trail bike and I don't have anyone on the back of my bike. I'm free!!!

No more training wheels

Monkey bar queen

This doesn't seem balanced

Matthew on the trail bike

 Last weekend our Club 456 at church went on an overnighter to Skyview Ranch. It is a Christian camp about 2 hours away and we took 15 kids (10 girls and 5 boys) in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. I had a car of 5 girls for the trip and they were all Jenna's friends. Marissa, Campbell, Abigail, Grace, and Jenna. The main thing I learned from this trip was that boys are crazy. The boys were out of control and I don't know how Shane (the leader with the boys) survived.

The accommodations at Skyview were excellent. We had a hayride, bonfire, swimming (I did NOT go swimming in the freezing water), did archery, petting zoo, games, and horseback riding. Jenna's horse was named bogey and mine was chuckles. Jenna really loved the horses.

Every year our church does this retreat and I loved going as a chaperone. I think I'll plan on going in the future.

hayride

smores

horseback riding

Jenna on the horse

Ticket to Ride

In other news:

1. A missionary from our church will be moving in with us. He takes mission trips to Mexico and Brazil and needs a place to stay in between his trips. Since we have an extra room he can stay with us!
2. Our home inspection went well with only a few minor things. We close May 20th and plan on working that weekend to get the house ready to put up for rent.  
3. I finished the Broken Eye by Brent Weeks. LOVED IT! I really love that he is a Christian and has become one of my favorite authors (next to Brandon Sanderson). His characters have real struggles with God. On page 559 of this book is the following sentence "The Most High will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten". Ummmmm that's Joel 2:25. This isn't the only example, it's just one I found blatant. Now his writing is pretty gritty (in between GRRM and Sanderson) and he uses the f word but I like his style. (note: the f word is not fairy....)
4. This session I'm teaching 3 courses and in charge of two course developments. It should be busy but not too crazy (crossing my fingers). I've taught all the courses before and I'm not teaching onsite like last session.