For July 4th this year we decided to do something different, and last minute we decided to go to the Lake. We love Branbury, as it has plenty of grass area to sit and also plenty of sand for playing and building castles. The water is shallow a long way out, too. The kids have all really developed a love for swimming this summer!
Jacob has always been a fish and loves just sitting at the shore with as much of his body in the water as possible!
Leah is really working hard on going underwater and swimming and rarely likes to use a swim float.
Jacob found a little puddle someone had started digging and filled with water (well, mud!). We started digging it deeper till he was covered with the stuff! Some friends from church happened to be at the beach that day, too, so we got to play with them!
Later we came home and enjoyed the All-American hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill!
Then, yesterday, we enjoyed a parade in a nearby town. It was a pretty good parade, and we joined some friends to hang out and watch! There was a few activities for kids, including a bounce house which we had to drag Jacob out of. The parade was definitely the highlight!
This year's Summer Kids' Camp (a.k.a. Vacation Bible School) theme was Operation Arctic. I know, the last thing we want in Vermont in the middle of summer is an ice blast, but the kids really enjoyed it and it was a fun theme to prepare for. Here are some snapshots of our fun week. We had maybe 40 kids in attendance each night-- a huge number for our small community! I led a group around to the different stations-- no prep time but still got to build new relationships with some pretty fun kids.
Each year we have a penny war, boys vs. girls, to see who raises the most money for a charity. This year it got out of hand! Kids were even stealing from others to get more money! They turn their pennies into bricks or rolls and we do it based on weight. So Brett got his workout each night!
The weather proved to be pretty great all week. It wasn't too hot like years' past and I think it only rained one night.
Here is Leah's group from the week. I think her leader may have been the only one that took a photo!
We survived another season of baseball in the Cody household! May and June proved to be really busy with Andrew in baseball and taekwando, plus Leah in two different dance classes and finishing up school on top of that. It was a good kind of busy, though, and I loved that Andrew was active and outside. This was his first year of coach-pitched ball-- it was all 1st & 2nd graders. They didn't really keep score, and everyone got a chance to bat each inning. So Andrew had a chance to learn the game without the pressure of outs and strikes and scores. It was sometimes funny to watch!
My littlest fan was dragged to every home and away game (thankfully there was only 5 or 6 since his team was so large they had to be divided into two smaller teams). My bag stayed packed with plenty of snacks and sunscreen. But doesn't he look cute?
I can hardly believe we've wrapped up another year of school and summer is upon us! Here is what has been happening at the Cody house!
We put in a garden this year. The kids are learning about plants in science, and what better way than hands-on, watching it grow from seed to something edible! It's always a big undertaking but we will see what "fruits" we can reap from our labor.
Before we started our plant unit, we finished a Human Anatomy unit. We made life-sized posters of the human body with all the organs attached-- a fun project over the course of 6 or 7 weeks.
I really like how Jacob's turned out! :)
This school year we also took a "trip" around the US, visiting each state to learn a little more about the geography and culture of each. At the end of the year I let Leah do a video report about her favorite state. Here is what she learned:
Abi finished her second year of preschool at the local public school and it was exactly what she needed. She really needed those two years to grow socially and come out of her shell. We have seen big changes in her speech and her interactions with others. She made a few friends that she even has playdates with on a regular basis. This is her friend Bailey, who literally lives next door to us on our street.
Abi's teacher, Ms. Kim, was great! She always took time to make each kid feel special. At the end of this year she won me over even more by helping Abi make the transition to being homeschooled. When they went to visit the kindergarten class, she talked with Abi about how her school might look different, but she would still get to see her friends other places and really showed that she valued all types of schooling. We are sad she is leaving Whiting this year and won't be there when Jacob gets to preschool, but so thankful Abi got to be with her these last two years.
The kids have all really started developing some physical skills that seem small but are probably really important for their development. The girls both love gymnastics (even though I doubt we'll put them into any formal classes) and Andrew loves doing parkour. They always work hard on their cartwheels and flips and headstands.
Abi mastered crossing the monkey bars at the playground.
We've never really attempted bikes until this year, since we don't really have much of a place to ride, but after only a few tries Leah picked it up, mostly on her own!
And Andrew is still rocking it at taekwando.
Of course a favorite end-of-school year activity is ice cream at A&W, since it is only open in warm weather!
The third year of AWANA at church finished with a bang! We are growing in leaps and bounds and average about 20-25 kids a night. It's crazy and chaotic but we love the opportunity to minister to so many kids and see them memorize so much Scripture.
Abi finished her 3rd year of Cubbies-- an extra year more than most Cubbies, but she needed it and is now excited about moving up to Sparks. I think she'll do well!
Andrew finished his third year of Sparks and earned the Sparkie award for finishing all three Sparks books. He works really hard on his verses and even got to work some on an extra credit book after finishing his book early.
Leah finished her second year of T&T. She was excited to have her two girl friends join her this year so she wasn't the only one in T&T. She also finished her whole book and got an Excellence Award for finishing her 2nd book.
The kids enjoyed Game Time outside at our huge AWANA Game Circle on the last club day. They definitely have a lot of energy!
