Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Went to It.

This was quite the week of ups and downs!  We installed our new fireplace mantle and went on a super fun trip to It.  We picked up our finished pottery and enjoyed a fun afternoon at the park.  We also had some minor health issues, a death in the family, and lots of strife over schoolwork.

Friday we went to It at Jordan's Furniture.  Before leaving town we headed to the shop to put another coat of urethane on our fireplace mantle.  Alec spent most of the ride reading Jedi Academy A New Class; both starting and finishing the book!  We spent a few hours climbing through the course and trying out the zip lines. Alec had enough energy left to try climbing up the various rock walls and structures they have set up.  He did amazing!  Making it to the top of each and every one.   All day long we kept making up sentences and stories about It; "Can you see it?"  "Where is it?"  "It is so fun!"  "Hey we finally went to it!" After a nice lunch out at Texas Roadhouse we spent a quiet evening at home.  Alec and I watched a few more episodes of Cupcake Wars and decided on the cupcake recipe to try this week.

Saturday Alec helped me make banana blueberry bread and Ian headed off to work.  We ran into him at the shop while we were putting our first coat of paint on the mantle.  He was using the drill press helping his grandfather add storage hooks to the truck.   We played a few family games enjoying a round of Scattergories and trying out a new game Cranium that the boys had not tried before.

After our new mantle was installed on Sunday, Ian headed off to work with his father learning how to make new parts for his screening plant.  The younger boys played outside.  Once Ian arrived home Ian and Evan went riding their four wheelers around in the woods.  We spent a lot of time outside since the sun was finally peeking out.

It was a bit painful to get back into our schoolwork on Monday after taking the past week off.  The boys all worked in their spelling and math books. The two older boys completed a page in the grammar books while Evan worked on another two pages in his word family book.  Evan read The House Takes a Vacation.  Alec read a few chapters in Darkstalker and Ian read a few more chapters in Double Down.  We learned some more about the country of Ghana today reading One Hen and Emmanuel's Dream.  We also read a couple of chapters in The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase.  We ended up at the Doctor's office for an infected toe and stopped to pick up some antibiotics at the pharmacy.  We spent the afternoon and evening outside; riding bikes and four wheelers, climbing trees, and playing wiffle ball.

Tuesday the boys got right to work; finishing up all their schoolwork by the time we left for karate.  The boys each worked on spelling, math and cursive.  Ian read Double Down.  Alec read Dark Stalker and Evan read Our Great Big Backyard.  We learned about Gambia reading One Plastic Bag and Boundless Grace.  We read a chapter in The Candymakers and spent the rainy afternoon watching The Air Up There.  After dinner we had another family game night playing Cranium.

I hardly slept Tuesday night and was quite tired Wednesday so it was a good thing the boys settled right down and got to work all on their own.  Alec wanted to start making strawberry cupcakes using fresh strawberries before he even ate breakfast.  I sat at the table and read the instructions to him while he worked and got the cupcakes made. He them topped the cupcakes with ganache and whipped ganache frosting.  Ian, who does not like strawberry cupcakes, asked if he could make brownies from scratch so I looked up a recipe for that and instructed him from the table as well.  These boys are dangerous to my waist line!  All three boys worked on spelling and math today.  Ian finished Double Down, Alec finished Darkstalker and Evan read How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA.  Evan worked in his word family book while the older two boys had a writing page working with exciting synonyms.  We stopped to watch a crazy squirrel at our bird feeder and then packed up some toys and headed to the park for the afternoon to play with some friends.  It was cloudy and cold but at least the rain had stopped for the day!

Thursday I had a few errands to run so I told the boys they just needed to work in their spelling books and with their language arts books; Evan had his word family book and the older two boys had their Grammar books.  They finished them up quickly and my mother came over to visit for most of the morning.  After lunch we headed out to pick up our finished clay pieces!  We were so thrilled with how they came out.