Cabin

Canada

We started out September 

with our annual trip to the 

cabin for labor day.

This time we decided to bring our

good friends and neighbors with us.

The Hamond crew came with!

We had the best time....the kids 

went wild with one another.

bb guns 

 

Fishing

 

(Challenging)
  Hiking

 

Duck Boat Rides

Swimming

And lots more... they had a blast.

Really great way to kick off our September. 

A wonderful way for our family 

 to end this summer before our school

year begins.

When we return home from our trip 

is when we start back with our 

lessons.

 

 

Until next time

~blessings

 

 

 

 

~August~

~August~

The boys started out August 

heavily into AAA hockey.

Wesley had tournaments 

with his vulcans team 

and Matthew with his Fusion 

team.
Matthew also began playing 

soccer this year.

He finished up 

his field day for his gun safety

classes.

We spent a day checking out
antique and unusual aircraft
at the airport.

Then...Matthew broke his collarbone
during a hockey tournament.

This was a real bummer for him.
Out for six weeks!

We made the best of it.
It really did shut down
our extra curricular activities.
No more swimming, soccer, hockey
biking, rollerblading.
These are the things he had been
doing everyday.

The pontoon was reduced to
leisurely trips to Hudson for lunch.

The kids spent many Tuesdays
downtown Stillwater
enjoying summer Tuesdays
with friends and neighbors.
 Fires in the backyard with fireworks
is always a family favorite.

We managed to remain busy
despite his broken bone.

~July~

I have not written in some 

time.  In case you were wondering

Matthew has made it home from camp:)

In fact he enjoyed his time at Manito-wish

very much.  He has plans of attending 

again next year and possibly becoming

a counselor someday.  For months now he has 

been relaying stories to us from camp.

After we welcomed him home we 

were busy with hockey skates and baseball bats.

Wesley finishing up the season of baseball.

Parade Day!

We had a huge parade day turn out this 

year.  Almost everyone from the 

hockey association stopped by.

Lots of friends and family too.

When Tom took his annual trip 

to Lake of the Woods

my mom and I took the 

kids to Breezy Point.

We were lucky enough to be able 

to stay at Wayne and Candyce's 

condo.  We had such a great time.

They are so amazing to let us stay up 

there.  We took full advantage of the 

amenities.  We took a nine mile bike ride 

from Pequet Lakes to Nisswa.

We raced 

turtles in the annual turtle race.  Swam 

in beautiful Pelican lake and the pool.

Tillie, my mom and I even had a 

spa day! 

We saw Frog and Toad at the community
theater and of course had ice cream.

The rest of July and August were
fully dedicated to the pontoon.

Any free time we had we were on
the water.

The kids love tubing and swimming.
Mostly they have loved exploring all
the islands on the St. Croix.

This summer had been thoroughly
enjoyed by our whole family!

June week 3

~ Boys Camp 2016 ~

Matthew with his cabin

mates and counselors at camp

Manito-wish.

 

We have only received one post card

and this one picture so far.

I hope he is having too much 

fun to even think about us.

 

Now that Matthew has been 

gone it has been really weird.

We have still managed to 

keep excessively busy without him.

Tillie and Wesley 

have both had a practice and

a baseball game each week.

 

We have spent many 

days on the river.

 

 

 Wesley even caught a 

long nosed gar minnow.

We took our good friends 

the Millers with us for fathers day.

 We had a really great time.

As always we were with 

the Hamond family as well.

We also had friends over 

for a fire.  The kids 

love this... playing late

into the night, catching 

fireflies, and eating s'mores.

We took a big bike ride 

downtown and stopped by 

our mulberry tree 

 

and lowell park for a 

picnic.

Wesley and Tillie spent

four days at Pioneer school

Where they recreated the

year 1910.

They learned songs,

practiced handwriting,

crafted, listened to 

stories from people 

who attended this 

one room schoolhouse

as children.

Both of the kids really 

enjoyed working through 

history at the Mckean school.

We have had a lot of fun for the 

last two weeks.  This weekend 

Wesley will have a hockey 

tournament.  We will welcome 

Matthew back home on Sunday.

Summer has started out really 

great.  I hope everyone is enjoying the 

warmer weather and longer days!

Until next time

~blessings

June weeks 1 & 2

~

June

~

June started out great.

Matt and his family 

were here from Colorado

We had all of Tom's side together

on the pontoon.

It was good to see them.

The kids love to be with

their cousins.

We also got to celebrate Tillie's 

7th birthday with everyone!

She had the best time.

I still can't believe 

she is 7!

The kids finished up the 

school year with the 

Peabody test.

They both did really well.

Mostly I am thrilled 

with the improvements

Wesley has made.

Here are the scores.

Looks like we still 

have a lot of spelling to 

work on :)

We had an end of the year 

beach party with our 

homeschool co-op.

I still try to work on things in

the summer.  

But for now we are on 

summer time. :)

Matthew has had a lot 

of baseball.
We even did our first baseball
out of town tournament.

We went to Blue Earth for
the tournament.  The kids
loved staying in the hotel and
swimming in the pool.
The team had a really great time
too.  They had a squirt gun fight
throughout the hotel.  They also
managed to take home second place!
 

The day we came home from
the tournament
Matthew left for his first time
at camp.

We drove him four hours
away to camp Manito-wish.

He will spend two weeks
there exploring the north woods
of Wisconsin.

We miss him dearly.
I sincerely hope he is
having the time of his life.
Making new friends and learning
new skills.  I can't wait to
hear all about it.


Until next time
~blessings

May

~

May

~

This month we have

been occupied with 

baseball, hockey,

home improvements,

and the pontoon!

Tom's dad decided to dock 

his boat in Stillwater.

We have very much enjoyed it.

It doesn't hurt that the Hamond's

have the slip next to ours.

 

We have still managed to

fit in some lessons though.

 

We took a boat tour with

homeschool co-op.

Where bridge engineers explained 

the new crossings bridge work.

Here is a link to the construction

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/stcroixcrossing/ 

I think it is fascinating and 

we have really learned

from watching this process.

We have been doing daily 

workbook lessons for 

English.  And we have been doing 

daily math with Fred.

Just moved into Goldfish.

For history I read the 

kids 

The Courage of Sarah Noble

Sarah Plain and Tall

and 

The Cabin Faced West

I had the kids draw from the

stories. 

Wesley finished his 

art class he loved so much.

Here is his final work.

During his class the rest of 

us would go hiking

through the Crosby farm park

This park is very beautiful 

 full of huge old trees along 

the Mississippi.

We had more hiking 

adventures this month

foraging for morels.

We found a few,

but it really wasn't a 

very good mushroom year.

 

 

Memorial weekend

we were on the river.

Our new favorite place.

 

 

Until next time

~blessings

April

I have not posted in  a 

long time.

I will attempt now to do a 

pile of back posts.

I know I will be forgetting 

a few things.  I have to put it 

down before I forget 

everything!

~

April

~

Matthew and Wesley

each had their first 

tournaments with their 

spring and fall hockey teams.

Matthew is on the Fusion stars

and they play awesome together.

They took first place in 

the border battle tournament.

Wesley took third place 

with his Vulcans team.

It has been great watching

them play.

I really love being a hockey mom :)

Tillie lost her front tooth...

 about a week later she lost 

her other front tooth.

She also started playing 

softball.  She is on 

a coach pitch all girls

team.  She loves to play 

and she is with Emma.

For some field trips this month.

We went to Jimmy johns 

for customer appreciation

day and received FREE

subs.  Then we went to 

the swimming pool.

All with our really great 

Hayner friends.

We also went to open gym at

the Maplewood community center.

Matthew played his violin at the 

wardens house.  He did great.

Then he had his big end of the 

year concert at Trinity.

The big boys went 

spear fishing this month.

 

Of course they absolutely loved it!

 I love that they are getting exposed 

to all kinds of adventure.

 

 Until next time

~blessings

March week 5

Started out the week 

with a great hike

at William O'Brian.

The kids were excited to 

catch the first frog of the year.

 

We had our first picnic of 

the year as well.

The kids really love every minute of 

being part of the 

Tree of Life homeschool co-op.

They have made some really 

good friendships.

Wesley had violin lessons

Wednesday.

We had a little spring break 

from Scope.

Thursday we went to the 

Bell museum at the U.

They were show casing a 

great exhibit 

called Hungry Planet.

It depicted how people 

eat around the world.

The family from Germany 

happened to be the 

Melander family!

Here we have the German and American 

versions of Melander.

It was a good week.


Until next time
~blessings

March week 4 & 5

Spring officially began 

this week and along 

with that came Easter.

We celebrated at my Aunt Susie's
house with all the cousins and
even a second cousin!
Of course with chocolate bunnies too :)



We had birthdays this week too.
Crosby turned 2 years old at
Choo Choo Bob's train store.
My brothers and I took Dad
to a Wild game to celebrate
his birthday. 


For our lessons we had violin.
Wesley is still doing well.
We bought him the next size up.
He loves to play and practice.

Our Tuesday co-op was
about orienteering.

We spent the afternoon
learning about maps, legends,
and finding our way.
Specifically without
a GPS. 
This is a lost art.
I would love for the kids
to have a healthy sense of direction.
There are more of these classes
and I plan to attend everyone.

We also hiked Sunfish lake Park
this week.  I also plan
to return here often.
It is a gem.
Beautiful rugged trails.

Wesley has been working on
more drawing projects.

He has been focusing on
animals more lately.



I love his artwork.
He has been able to
join in a drawing course
through the Art Academy.
I am excited to see how
he will blossom.

Until next week
~blessings