September

We did lots of fun science experiments.
Pictured here is our lava lamp and our balloon kebab.

Even though a couple of meets have been cancelled due to weather,
these two are having a great cross country season.

It has been raining almost non-stop this month,
but that hasn't kept us from having lots of fun!

I've had some pretty amazing early morning runs!

I encountered a bobcat in my alley.

Our resident bartender has put together some fun drinks. 

Weston went camping with his Scout troop in Broken Bow, OK.

The kids have played hours of Ticket to Ride.

Weston received four merit badges at the
Court of Honor ceremony for his troop.

We watched Forks Over Knives and became inspired
to experiment with a more plant-based diet.

This kid is reading more and more just for fun
(and I love the pure concentration on his face).

Many games of chess have been played. 

Many football games have been watched. 

This kid took on his first paying job.

We attended Homeschool Day at the Perot Museum

We also attended Homeschool Day at the Lego Discovery Center.

The boys worked on adding some wiring to our little barn.

I participated in two different book clubs.

Ruth got to spend a weekend at Airman Leadership School in Mineral Wells,
where she was awarded Honor Cadet for her character, enthusiasm and leadership,
 and where her flight gained the honor of Warrior Flight for 
exhibiting excellence throughout the weekend.

Jeff and the boys attended a Rangers game.

Clay worked on learning the sign language alphabet. 

Ruth earned the CAP rank of staff sergeant. 

This cutie lost his second tooth.

Ruth finally got the letter jacket she earned during track season.

Our kids became outraged when they realized that certain
books they love, including some they are currently
reading, have been banned at certain points in time.
Ironically, we discovered that our library was celebrating
Banned Books Week just after we encouraged the kids
to keep on reading the banned books. 

This enterprising kiddo volunteered to help sell
popcorn with his Cub Scout pack. 

Clay participated in the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta and got 2nd place in his den.

Museums on a rainy day

We started our day with a beautiful rainbow!

Rainy days are perfect for hanging out at museums, and that's just what we did today. First, we visited Artequin, which is an awesome interactive art museum mainly aimed at kids but lots of fun for everyone. They have made touchable reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures and displayed them all at kid level, so they can be fully seen and explored by the smaller patrons. There is also a whole floor of art stations where visitors can create their own masterpieces. We had a blast!

Fun at Artequin

Afterward, we visited the Museum of Science and Technology. Hands-on science museums are always a hit with our crew, and this one was no exception. We loved learning about simple machines, magnets, mirrors, color and sound waves, space, and so much more.

Museum of Sciece and Technology

The mother of all homeschool days

I think I can say with some certainty that there will never be a homeschool day as epic as this one. I seriously doubt the stars will ever align again where we experience scissors, glue, a fire set purposely in a sink, and lunch from an oven set up in the backyard all on the same day.  In fact, I may just retire now so I can go out on my highest possible note. 

It just so happened that we had three big projects scheduled for today in three different classes. Clay has been desperate recently to add scissors and glue to art class and has not been satisfied with my suggested drawing activities. He has also been hinting at paint, so I decided I better take my chances with what seems to me possibly the lesser of the two evils. I ended up doing most of the cutting because "the pieces [were] too small," but Clay was 100% in charge of the glue, which still wasn't dry several hours after the completion of the project. He did produce a cute little pizza though and was very proud of his work.

Pizza Project

The younger boys have been studying about the Great Fire of London this week in history. Today, our project was to demonstrate the rapid spread of the fire through the densely packed city by coloring a picture of some houses set very close together and then setting it on fire. The boys were delighted and somewhat shocked that I deliberately set fire to their coloring pages in the sink. I have no pictures of this event, because I was playing an active fireman role and just didn't have a chance to grab my phone. Priorities, you know. 

Max and Weston have been learning about various forms of energy in science and have spent the last couple of days building a solar oven. They finished up just before lunch and were happy to be able to make quesadillas in their creation. 

Edible Science

La Duni and The Perot

This morning we had brunch at La Duni in Dallas. The food was wonderful, and it's always fun to try a place we've never been! After filling our tummies, we headed over to The Perot Museum, because Clay had some important business to conduct (and because we really love science museums). One of Clay's scouting requirements was to write down two questions about space to ask an expert, and then track down an expert at a museum or planetarium and ask the questions. Clay wanted to know, "Why does the moon appear smooth when you look at it, but if you go to it, it appears rough?" and "Why do the planets appear to be brighter than the stars?" He found his expert in the Expanding Universe Hall and did a great job of asking his questions and gathering the information! Once the business was taken care of, we were free to explore and enjoy the rest of the museum, and we had a great time.

La Duni Latin Cafe

Musical brothers

Fun in the Leap Frog Forest

Making silly Math jokes at the museum enterance

Asking an expert about space

T-Rex

Soaring with eagles

Learning about tornadoes

Total concentration

Revenge of the Robots

Future of Flight and Puget Sound

We spent much of the day at the Future of Flight Museum and Boeing factory, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Jeff and the three older kids got to tour the factory, which includes the largest building in the world. They all absolutely loved the tour and were completely fascinated with the process and the immense scale of everything. There was a height restriction which kept Clay from participating in the tour, but he and I enjoyed the kid's area of the Future of Flight Museum while everyone else was touring.

The largest building in the world, and Mt. Baker

Mt. Rainier at the other end of the runway

Having a blast in the Kid Zone

Pilot and co-pilot

Taking a ride in the flight simulator

Boeing

In the late afternoon, we headed over to Mukilteo, a little waterfront town on Puget Sound. We grabbed a bite to eat at Diamond Knot and then went down by the water to see the quaint lighthouse, watch a ferry come into port, and observe a guy doing jumps on his jet ski. It was big fun!

Clay was thrilled to get to make his own pizza!

Mukilteo Lighthouse

The ferry coming in

An awesome hunk of driftwood

Playing leapfrog in the grass

That's how you know it was a good day!