We had our annual Park Day in Henry Cowell State Park. The short hike through the redwoods is beautiful,
and then we spent the rest of the day on the river.
We had four families, 11 kids (and a few extras who joined the kids' fun throughout the day.)
They spent hours playing in the water, skipping rocks, and hunting for critters.
There were a lot of people at the park--more than normal.
Maybe because the weather was perfect.
One of the kids caught a carp with his bare hands!
I feel like this is the best opportunity for the kids to just be feral.
They had a fantastic day.
We finished off with pizza in Santa Cruz to wait out the evening traffic and the drive home was painless. I always feel like our longer park days in the summer capture everything that is good about homeschooling and childhood in general.
Feeling just a little behind around here, and as much as I do want to catch up, I'm having a hard time imagining how. So, I'm dropping in some current photos right now.
Spring fun meets have started again with swim team. Peanut got talked into it (he really hates racing), and dropped several seconds on his breaststroke time! Hoping he'll keep improving his times and realize that it's fun to just challenge himself each meet.
I've been scheduling as many field trips and fun things as I can knowing that this is it for our homeschool life. And trying not to think about that too much because I definitely have complicated feelings around it. We went to the Sulfur Creek Nature Center in Hayward with my nature group, learned about animal skulls, and spent some time exploring the rescued animals on site.
We've been science-ing weekly--my classes are pretty good this year, with just a little extra chaos in the middle school class (I think almost the entire class has ADHD), but we've been having a lot of fun studying ecology and the kids have been getting better about doing their homework so when I assign posters or presentations, we actually have things to look at in the next class! It's the little wins that count. . .
Part of my field trip initiative involved setting up a few homeschool ski days at Dodge Ridge.
And, on the second one, I decided I was done sitting in the lodge waiting for my people. My last time on a snowboard was 7 years ago, and it was pretty painful. After breaking my ankle, I figured I was done. But I've been doing a lot of strength training and balance work for the past year (with a break in the fall while we were on our trip), and was feeling pretty strong. And. . .
I still remember how it's done! I was pretty nervous for the first run, but by the bottom, I felt like I had it. I'm not doing anything crazy these days, but I can cruise down a blue run with no issues and it felt pretty good. And it's fun to be out there with my family. Now I've just got to get Peanut skiing on harder runs and we can explore more of the mountain. He's kind of a speed demon, but if we can get him more comfortable with his turns, I think he could handle the steeper stuff, too.
We've used the van both times we went up to the snow. It's so much easier to drive up the evening before and not have to get up at 5.
And we stay nice and cozy in there, despite the cold temps outside. Dinner, family movie, and then a solid night of sleep before a day in the snow is pretty awesome.
Peanut has gotten back into 4H since we returned home. He's doing the cooking project this year and we're all enjoying the monthly dinners he makes. Last month was tacos in homemade tortillas--yum!
We've also been pretty busy with our nature hikes.
I've got a solid group this semester with about 6 families signed up for the whole package, and then several others who are coming as many weeks as they can. We had 22 kids on one of them!
These are still my favorite classes and we've had some really fun topics this semester.
Some of the kids get really into it (and then there are still the ones who just want to talk about their imaginative worlds for 2 hours with their friends--I think as long as they're out in nature, it's all good.)
Peanut falls somewhere in the middle--he wants to do whatever the topic is, but some of those conversations are just too alluring. I've been impressed with his nature journalling each time, and let the rest of it go.
And the weeks when we get to really explore are fun for everyone.
Found a couple newts on one of our February hikes.
And lots of mushrooms, of course. It wasn't the best season because we didn't get enough rain in January, but there have still been some good ones.
And finally, a property update. It's getting green over there, things are blooming, but the house is slow. It should be right along the right side of the property here.
But we did get the buildings cleared that we needed to, and they've come out to do testing for our septic system, which means we're making progress. Just not sure how much or what the timeline looks like from here. I'm cautiously optimistic that we might be able to move over there by the end of the summer. We shall see how it turns out. . .
Watching them walk is one of my favorite things--they are so cute!
Also got to go for a hike with a couple of friends on Saturday morning.
We did a few miles on the Bay Area Ridge Trail near the north bay and got beautiful views.
Love having friends to hike with.
And more exploring local ecosystems with my class. The Huckleberry Nature Preserve is a little pocket with unique native plants due to the way the bay fog comes in and funnels between the hills right there, keeping the area cool and wet.
Found mushrooms, and several native plants (and unfortunately I found some poison oak which got in my eye and led to a round of steroids. This was my first bad encounter since we moved back, which is kind of surprising considering how much hiking I do near poison oak, but I would have been happy to keep my clean record for a lot longer.)
Peanut loves getting to hang out with his friends on these hikes.
Love mushroom season.
I got out on some early morning walks with lots of sunrises.
And a little bird watching.
And we had another ski day. This time, I decided to try snowboarding for the first time in 7 years. I thought those days were over, but I started a pretty serious weight training routine this winter and was feeling a lot stronger. It seemed like I might as well try.
Ended up having a fantastic day with my boys! Turns out snowboarding is like riding a bike--you don't really forget how to do it. I did a few warm-up runs to get the feel of it again, and then started picking up speed and doing small hops. I'm not willing to do anything extreme these days, but it was so fun to be back out there.
It's funny how I go back and forth between feeling like our life is slower now that we only have one child at home, to feeling like it's flying by with so many things on the to-do list every day. This week has been full, but also had many slow moments.
We started of with a ridiculously warm Monday, so decided to have dinner at the pool with friends and the kids swam until 8:30. It was a fabulous evening and while it seems crazy for it to still be so warm at the end of September, we're soaking up the pool days. We went back the next afternoon with the same friends and a couple others from our normal park group because it was just too hot to be at a park. The water was fabulous though--it's holding strong at 84 degrees.
Wednesday, we skipped out on the typical school schedule and drove Daddy-o up to Mariposa where the truck had gotten a new transmission put in. We walked around downtown, talked with a rock collector at a little rock and fossil shop, met up with Grandma for the pizza buffet, and then stopped by the house to see Grandpa who wasn't feeling up to lunch. And of course, the only picture I got all day was of the cat, haha.
Thursday was much cooler and the kids had fun at the park. I love it when they play together--ages 6-13, all involved in something. This is one of the beautiful things that happens so organically with homeschooled kids that I think is a little tougher to teach when the kids are divided by age all day at school. I'm glad that Peanut has the chance to be one of the older kids here, instead of always being the baby at home.
When we finished up there, we hurried over to the library for their tarantula program. I learned a couple of new things and we both got to have the spider crawl over our hands.
Friday was a van day--we now have our power system hooked up to the solar panels! And we've planned out and ordered the wiring for all of the outlets, lights, and appliances. Slowly, but surely! Peanut and I cut out early for his swim team party, but Daddy-o did a great job finishing up.
And Saturday, we were back at it at the new property.
We have one building down
And another one gone (used to be in front of the red one in the middle of this picture. It doesn't really look like a lot in these pictures, but it feels like big progress.
We spent the day breaking down all the old furniture that we've pulled out and getting the dumpster full so we can have it picked up on Monday.
And we finished emptying the back porch. This was full, just like every other covered building, and now only has our collection of wheels and casters.
We finished up a little early so we could go listen to the Livermore Amador Symphony which had their free POPS concert in front of the Bankhead. And it turns out that one of our new neighbors is in the symphony, and we ran into another couple from our neighborhood, plus a family who I used to teach science to. It was one of those small town moments that I really love about where we live.
And then we finished off the day with another night swim and dinner at the pool, this time with Daddy-o's brother, J, and his family who were in town for a Giants game the next day. It was a little cooler--not so fun for those of us sitting outside the pool, but the water was at least 10 degrees warmer and the kids were happy!
By Sunday, I was really glad that we hadn't invited anyone over for dinner. We're going to try to plan more dinners with other families because it's nice to have friends over and Peanut appreciates the other kids being around, but I thought we might feel like we'd socialized enough for the week, and having a slow afternoon with time to read, nap, and hang out with the animals in our jungle length grass was really nice. We didn't even have to cook dinner because it turns out we haven't quite figured out the amounts of food to feed only 3 of us and had enough random things that needed to get eaten that we just had a snacky dinner. Honestly, it was perfect. We're figuring out this new stage and finding the balance between all the busy projects, and embracing the quieter house.
