Crazy life calms down

Summertime is my favorite time, mostly because Homeschool goes a little slower and the daylight hours stretch much further:) We love to play outside, especially in the water. We are true to our name- Ka'aumoana. We are water lovers, and if we had an ocean nearby- we'd be swimmin' in it! Our schedule has been much more lax, and most of our learning has been out of doors- as I believe it should be. We read/study a few different times a day, but that's not too difficult to manage. Once we complete morning scripture study, we can study whatever the children desire until after lunch. This last Friday Determined really impressed us with her organizing and packing skills, decorating too! She is preparing to decorate her own new room, and has grand plans that she researched online herself! Once lunch is over, we have set aside more time for studying the classics, and then whatever else the older children want to. Once the afernoon exploring, investigating, and service is done, we have cooking/baking class and evening relaxing. Besides roasting marshmellows, or playing at the local waterslides, we like to watch movies outside and read in the mild (mostly anyway)evening air. That's our summer days! We also are preparing to possibly move, play at a friends' cabin, and camp at least one more time this season:) We spent the first few months of sunny weather- May and June, training a few mornings a week to run our annual family 5K. The older children did really well preparing. Everyone got new running shoes this year- which helped a ton! Funny Guy showed more determination than ever- focusing (most of the time) on finishing his half-hour run BEFORE goofing off with his friends in the building! Determined helped me more than ever- tending to the littles (mostly Mini) when they needed some attention during my running time. She is becoming quite the babysitter and "little mother." I am proud of her developing compassion, kindness, softness, and responsibility. Little Kaleo is, of course, full of energy! He didn't even really need to train to easily complete the planned "Mayor's Fun Run." As it happened, we didn't do the event. We were psyched, but it wasn't "in the cars" for us this year. The Freedom Run is still our favorite though, and we'll plan for it next year again. Grandma Hutia helped us celebrate the 4th in style! She bought us all bleacher seats for the Freedom Festival Grand Parade. We didn't all get to use them, as the littles were sick with Hand-Foot-Mouth. Myself, Funny Guy, and Determined got to enjoy the parade with Grandma, Grandpa, and Ioane. We even managed to sell one of the tickets, AND earn another one as impromptu "Bleacher Security." Seriously! An official looking lady in a neon vest drove by in her golf cart and asked us to assist her in checking tickets and making sure everything went okay in our little bleacher sections. I thought it sounded silly, but agreed anyway:) There were at least one group of people who tried to sit there without tickets, so I guess we were useful?! Did you know that after a certain time (9am was printed on the tickets this year,) the empty bleacher seats become available for whomever wants to chance it?!