Hershey Park

I have fond memories of going to Hershey Park as a kid and as a teenager.  I was excited to show the kiddos the sites.  We started with factory tour.  It is one of my favorite parts of the park. I still love seeing how the chocolates are made and smelling the warm cocoa, not to mention the free candy bar at the end!

The amusement park is huge! We were there all day and did not get to see all of it. 

The weather in the morning was perfect, breezy and not too hot. Baby L spent the first part of our visit relaxing.

We did the Carousel first and brother S was pretty scared. It was a good gauge for the type of rides to let them go on.

I didn't know the carrousel was an antique.  I remember riding it when I was a kid.

They have rides for all ages and we were busy going from one to the next.  Luckily the lines for little kid rides were pretty short.

The kiddos met some candy men, but they were afraid to get too close.

By afternoon it was pretty hot outside and we changed into our swim gear for the water park area. I don't remember much of the waterpark from my previous visits. It was amazing. Huge.  They had a wave pool, giant splash pad, this crazy water slide play area called Water Works:

Baby L was not too sure about the water temperature:

They also had this huge "beach" area with a life size sand castle for the kids to splash through:

The only ride that we all went on together was the Ferris Wheel.  Most rides are not good for babes in arms, so one of us always had to sit out.

Big sister A rode on her first roller coaster with daddy.  He said that he looked over at her after the first hill and her face was white with a look of pure terror.  But then at the end she said "I want to go again!"

By 6pm we were all super exhausted.  We had dinner at the factory deli, bought some souvenirs, and enjoyed looking at the huge chocolate bars ("Biggest in the World") that they were selling. We stayed at a hotel near the park that night. Everybody was asleep as soon as they hit the bed (or before that).

Daddy's Phone

Here are some photos that I just found on hubby's phone from the 4th of July with the cousins: 

And brother M sleeping in a box:

All-in-One Update

The big news this week is little miss L is pulling herself up.  I keep thinking that she must really want to keep up with her siblings, she is growing up so quick. She has had a couple big tumbles from her new heights.  She also had her 6 month check-up this week and measures 16 lbs 10 oz. and 27 inched tall. 

 Slumber parties have been the name of the game this week.  Last night the kiddos all slept upstairs together. It is perfect timing since I will be repainting their room and the hallway this week.

I almost ripped out these cauliflower plants so many times. With all the rain they did not go to seed and finally made 3 nice heads.

We have lots of self starters in the garden this year. Since I have been focused on the house updates, I just let a lot of them be and set aside my formal garden plan.

 I have several unplanned squash plants growing. I dont usually plant them because of the squash bugs. They are all from seeds in the compost. This one made a nice little pumpkin before the bugs found it.

House progress. I was going to just touch up the paint in the LR and DR, but I kept thinking I should just do a full update to one of the popular grays of decorating lately. I know whoever buys it will want to change it again, but at least this color will be a neutral crowd pleaser.  It is one of Benjamin Moore's best sellers ever, Revere Pewter HC 172:

For some reason it looks way cooler (color tone wise) in my house than in than in all the samples?  It is supposed to be a "warm neutral".  Maybe it is just that we are used to the super warm grello (greenish yellow) that has been on our walls for the last 6 years?  It's pretty and I like it.  Just not what I expected exactly. I will take some more pics when I finish getting it all prettied up.  I took this one after one coat in the LR and nothing in the DR yet.

Here are some pics after the second coat:

 And here are some fabrics for making new throw pillows and such:

Family Schooling Summary

A couple ladies in our homeschool co-op recommended books by Peggy Kaye. I borrowed these two books of hers from the library and they are fantastic. 

This week we did 2 writing exercises from the books. One was outlining a shape. I drew a small daisy shape in the center of a page. M outlined it and then I did. On and on taking turns until we filled up the page.  It is a fun way to prepare kids for writing their alphabet. 

We also did beaded lettering with each of the kiddos choosing a favorite word to work on.

A reading exercise we tried was making "posters" of some new words that big sister A learned to read this week.

We learned about Pablo Picasso this week in our Meet the Masters class.  They practiced principles of cubism with the little drawing activity at the end.

Big sister A finished the first 100 pages of her writing practice sheets! Only 200 to go before we exhaust all the free ones available from Simply Charlotte Mason.

We also did some of the Simply Charlotte Mason "Delightful Reading" exercises for advancing beginners.  Big sister A and I memorized this Robert Louis Stevenson poem called "Rain". 

We also babysat the cousins Thursday night. Baby E and L bonded over their love of chewing on dirty shoes. 

Recommended Reading: June Books

Lots of reading going on around here this summer. My mom recommended Prayers for Sale as a great story for quilters. And indeed it was a lovely story.  I picked out several others by the same author from the local library. I believe the Persian Pickle Club would precede Prayers for Sale in terms of chronology - though there is no reason that you can't read them in reverse order as I did. Their are just some character and fabric connections between the two. Tall Grass is a completely separate story, which still includes a lot of quilting, but is told from a young girl's perspective.  All three of them center on life in a small rural town, but the Persian Pickle Club and Tall Grass both have elements of a mystery story to them.  All the stories have pleasant Christian leanings as well.

We are planning to read all the Roald Dahl and Narnia books this summer, but several others have seemed too good to pass up as well.  Clementine is a Pippi Longstocking type story about a unique girl who "pays attention" to the needs of the people around her in her own unique way. The Sign of the Beaver is an old favorite of mine. It was a nice segue from the Kaya books that we read earlier in the month.   Hubby read The BFG aloud to the kiddos 2 weeks ago and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last week.  I think it brought back happy childhood memories for him.  The kids enjoyed them both and were laughing and giggling at the silly language throughout The BFG.