Kicking Off The School Year - 11th and 9th

We love our homeschool gig and yes, I CANNOT believe we now have TWO HIGHSCHOOLERS. 

I'm so grateful to spend my days with these two.

Last Day of Tenth Grade

Lorelei wrapped up her school year...August 3rd. (She started 11th grade August 4th.) Honestly she is still finishing psychology but she is loving the material so taking her time learning it is working for us. We do NOT plan to repeat this future years and she is excited to stay on schedule so she can have summers off.

Lorelei's favorite subjects this year were psychology, speech, P.E., Spanish and English II. (What can we say, the girl loves school!)

Her favorite parts of school was lunches with friends at HOPE prep, Spanish classes at the library, writing papers and learning, giving speeches/all of speech class, fun games in P.E., schoolwork in pajamas, fitting in extra fun because of our schedule.

Summer Fun - Girl's Surprise Day, Half Price Books, Stella's Ice Cream, Pool Time

Girls Surprise Day

You may remember Lorelei requested more surprises, which turned into the idea of a surprise day in the summer. This looked like a perfect girl's day so it turned into her surprise day! I woke her up at 6 a.m. and told her to get ready! She didn't know the plans throughout the day until we went to the locations. Such a great day and SO thankful for these sweet friends.

Country's Longest Floating Boardwalk

Chandor Gardens

Downtown Wall Mural

This town is considered the peach capital of Texas.

We concluded the day with rolled ice cream - everyone but L had never had it before!

Half Price Books (Flagship Store)

We drove the extra distance so the kiddos could see the Flagship Half Price Books. Lorelei found a few books but Makin struck out this time. Lorelei also loved that she got to bring Watson along as they are a pet friendly store!

Stella's Ice Cream

This ice cream shop is very close to home and we hadn't given it a try yet so it seemed like a great choice for a summer bucket list item. It was YUM.

Pool Time

Love our pool time to beat the heat!

Nebraska Visit

We enjoyed our annual summer visit to Nebraska.

We stayed the night in Lincoln on the way up so that we could fit in a short visit with Dan and Michelle.
This is Makin showing them some of his robot combat videos.

Ah, Runza!

The fair was going during our visit!
Lorelei was amazed at her huge taco salad.

Visiting the animals.

Rolled ice cream with Brooklyn.

Rubber Check Race. So fun to watch!
This event is very much a local phenomenon and here is the description according to an online search:
"Rubber Check Race is a unique and informal type of competitive event that involves various participants such as horses, ATVs and wheel barrow men."
 

Lorelei asked if she could ride The Zipper.
We were shocked at her bravery (she is not a heights girl) and had to let her try it.
She screamed the entire ride and kept her eyes closed for most of it.
We went in later that week and she asked to ride it with Brooklyn again a second time "so I can keep my eyes open this time" and she kept her eyes open more than the first time and screamed much less. :)

All three rode the Gravitron.

Home Ec with Grandma - making her famous smothered burritos!

The kids covered Aunt Evie's fridge items with googly eyes.
She barely noticed.

A game of scabble while waiting on...

Home Ec with Aunt Evie - making Brad's Grandma's famous cinnamon rolls!

Delish.

Burrito Babes as we gear up to take in a concert at the fair.

Love country skies!

Girls evening out at the concert.

Hunter Hayes

We fit in lots of Wii sports this visit!

Bags Bar Tournament
Brad's "Cousins Team"
(And another team they play with...and some more people)

Brad's Second Team - Dennis, Grandpa, Makin and Brad

Duckpin Bowling

We played Funky Bowl.

The Town's Current Tin Roof Creative District project that I loved.
They asked students and adults to paint bricks to look like books
and you can find them throughout the town.

Sweet Coffee Treat

This was the first visit for us at Grandma and Grandpa's new place in town.
A favorite activity was driving the gator around town.

The kids picked up rhubarb from Aunt Evie
so that I could make some into a crisp when we got home.
Thank you Aunt Evie!

The view from the front porch.

Thanks for a great visit Grandma and Grandpa!