3 Month Old Venture

The kids and I stopped by to see Mary and Baby Venture. He is almost 3 months old and looks so much bigger and different than he did a few weeks ago. Venture was tired and Mary had someone there that she needed to do some paper work with and my kids just wanted to watch movies on Netflix and pick out a Hot Wheels car from Shane, so I got to have Venture all to myself for a while. I spent forever walking around bouncing him and patting him on the butt to get him to fall asleep, but he is a fighter of sleep (just like my kids). I did finally get him to fall asleep. He is an adorable, sweet and happy baby. We need to visit more often! 

Kinderconzert - Strings

We went to our first Oregon Symphony Kinderconzert as a group of homeschoolers. It was held at an elementary school where kids from other schools and homeschool groups also traveled to to attend. This was the 1st of a four series concert performances offered with the intention to introduce the 4 instrument families of the orchestra to young kids. Each performance has a story to go with it. This story of the strings group that we attended was The Three Little Pigs (which just happened to be the fairy tale we discussed and compared during our recent fairy tale study). The strings group included violin, viola, cello and the double bass. They It was only 30 minutes long but it was SO cool. The woman who narrated the story was very engaging and fun.

We will be signing up for the other 3 for sure!

Black & Blue Paint Crew

When asked what color they wanted their rooms, Esperanza quickly said black. Black? Black! I of course had an initial response of wanting her to pick a different color...which of course made her want black more. Over time, we agreed on half a black room and found a black called Black Magic. Ezra, well Ezra just doesn't care. He found a blue color called Splashy and fell in love because of the name. 

So, Black Magic and Splashy it is! The kids wanted to paint their own rooms so we dressed appropriately, went to the hardware store the night before to buy paint rollers and Ezra even let me pull his hair back in a braid. They were so happy to help paint and they are both very happy with the colors they chose.

Mud

He just can't resist it. I can't resist him!

Chocolate Factory Tour

We went on a tour of Creo Chocolate store and factory in Portland with a  small group of homeschoolers. It was really good! The small business is family owned, they homeschool their own children, they are very active in the community with fundraising, farmers market stands and they give back to the community in various ways. They have very high standards for the products they use, the farmers they buy from and holistically are sustainable and environmentally friendly. 

The owner took us through the process via pictures from a trip to Ecuador to cover the portion of the cocoa beans on how and where it is grown, picked, dried and shipped, then in their facility she showed us the steps they take once they have the raw cocoa beans and how it all gets to the point of chocolate. She even gave us a quick chemistry lesson on the molecular changes that occur to chocolate during the heating and cooling of it, which we used legos to model. We bought some hot chocolate, some cocoa to take with us and a chocolate bar. It was delicious and we learned so much about chocolate!

Kid Selfies

My phone spent some time in the backseat with the kids, and this is what I found later

Crafting Lanterns At The Yurt

I love my friends. Have I ever mentioned that here? I'll keep saying it, as long as I have my friends that I have now. They are amazing...and we do amazing things together...because collectively, we are all amazing and I love us.

Anyways, this is about crafting lanterns at my amazing friends yurt. She is living there now and her space is magical and cozy. We brought some food for snacks (I made a quinoa salad), we drank some tea together and visited while the kids wrestled around inside then went outside and said they were going on an adventure. Eventually we did get around to getting our lanterns started. They will be used to brighten things up as darkness comes this fall. We will have a lantern walk soon.

Pumpkin Painting

We went to Joe's Farm again this year to pick out pumpkins and run around. We followed Esperanza through the corn maze as well as the fort maze. We picked out a few little pumpkins, a couple of big ones, some Indian corn and we bought some snacks from the farm store. I got no pictures of that day. I did however, get pictures of the kids painting their little pumpkins once we were home. I opted to go with acrylic for this activity and the kids had fun getting their art on.