Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Went Peach Picking.

We had a fabulous week.  We spent quite a bit of time outside just about every day hiking, swimming, jet skiing, tubing and kayaking.  What more can you ask for in the summer; right?

Ian had a friend over on Friday and the boys had quite the time with Nerf battles!  They also ended up having a pretty big water balloon fight too.  Alec made a mocha chocolate cake as part of a trifle cake he was making for a party over the weekend.  The boys all went swimming and jumped off the bridge (I kayaked over).  We were a bit alarmed to run into one of the state workers who informed us that the lake was not really safe for swimming due to a high bacteria count so we cut our swim short and all the boys walked home.  We spent most of our afternoon outside and the boys took turns spraying each other with the hose and chasing each other around with buckets of water.  We went to the library and picked up some books and movies and all the boys watched Boss Baby after dinner.

Saturday I woke up at 5:30 to a bat in our bedroom... now I HATE bats. They're great mammals and I love that they eat so many bugs but their skin like wings and fuzzy bodies creep me right out.  I was up for the day and knew that Alec was already awake and since he loves bats I told him he was welcome to go help try and catch it.  Once the bat was gone the other boys slowly woke and made their way downstairs.  Ian headed off to work.  Alec made a mocha chocolate trifle cake and then the two younger boys helped their dad hang some shelving.  Most of the day the boys played video games as we watched storm after storm move through our area.  After dinner the sun made an appearance and the entire family headed off for a walk.  It was great to get outside and to get moving.  We really need to start walking and hiking on a weekly basis.  After our walk the older boys and I played some more Monopoly and since the properties are all pretty evenly distributed it's a never ending game.

Sunday my husband and I worked on trying to finish up our shed.  Ian headed off with his grandfather for the day while Evan rode his four wheeler around our house and up in the woods nearby.  Alec worked on stacking some wood for a bit and then decided to spend most of the day in his room coloring.  We ended the day with a birthday party!  The boys went swimming, played cornhole, and went tubing.  

Alec finally finished his wood stacking job on Monday.  Once he was done working we settled down for a bit of schoolwork.  Each of the boys worked on some math and reading and then we watched two fill episodes of Travel With Kids on YouTube.  We have always loved this series and were thrilled to find new places to explore with them.  After lunch the boys and I headed out to the bowling alley for a free game of bowling.  They also brought some money to play at the arcade when we were done.  It was a perfect way to spend a dreary, raining afternoon.  Alec, Ian and I continued playing our Monopoly game after dinner we negotiated a few trades and Ian ended up loosing.  Alec and I decided to take another break and try playing out the game another day.

We got up early to meet some homeschooling friends and go fishing on Tuesday.  No one managed to catch much of anything other than a few trees.  Evan ended up sliding down the bank and landed in the water so he had a bit of a wet ride home.  Alec is not one for fishing so he brought his markers and coloring book with him. He had a good time coloring and socializing.  We were chased away by the rain and home in time for lunch.  Afterwards we all worked together to clean the upstairs.  I helped the younger two boys download Pandora onto their Kindles and they started building their own listening library.  Alec opted to work out for 30 minutes on the treadmill while Evan went to play toys and Ian colored in his coloring book outside while listening to music.

Our plans fell through on Wednesday, but when the day dawned sunny and clear we invited my sister and nephews to come hiking with us at Purgatory Chasm.  We weren't meeting until the afternoon so the boys did a bit of schoolwork.  They each worked on a page in their math books, did some reading and worked on two pages in our Captain's Guide to the Grammar of Story books.  We headed out right after lunch and spent a good hour hiking through the woods; taking a new trail we had not tried out before.  We then followed the stream to a waterfall and ended with a hike through the chasm.  The boys then played on the playground for another hour.  We stopped for groceries on the way home and had my mother in law over for dinner.  She took the boys on jet ski rides, my husband took them tubing, and Ian got a fire going in our fire pit.  We ended the night with all of us re-watching Despicable Me together.

Alec had an orthodontic check up on Thursday and I offered to take the boys peach picking afterwards. No one wanted to go so they worked on some school work and we settled in for a quiet day at home.  After lunch, when I noticed that BOTH packages of blueberries we had bought the night before were gone I mentioned that the orchard was also  picking blueberries.  Suddenly all three boys wanted to go so we spent our afternoon picking peaches and blueberries after all.  It was hot in the orchard so the boys ended their night on the lake swimming and jet skiing.

All those yummy blueberries had us thinking of blueberry boy bait, muffins, and pie!  

We filled one bucket 

Alec and I shared one right in the orchard!  A yummy, juicy treat on a hot day.