Our School's a ZOO!

We decided that the zoo would be our classroom today.

I found these super cute Zoo Passports on Pinterest.

Each animal they see, they put a star sticker next to it. Then tomorrow, I will have them draw some of the animals they saw that weren't pictured in the passport.

That's a ginormous polar bear napping on the other side of the glass!

3 boys in sand heaven!

Zoo's make us hungry!

It's a good thing we ate before we went to visit the lions, because this is what we saw when we got there!

I guess it was their lunchtime, also! Yikes!

The zoo volunteer there said that he has never seen them feed the lions a whole animal before, and this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience! So as gross as it was to watch, I am so glad that my kids had that experience!

You can't get this kind of an education sitting in a classroom!

We will be using the zoo as our classroom a lot this year!

Goooooo Utes!

Last Saturday was busy, busy, busy! Porter's soccer game was in the morning. Brandon had to miss the game because of a service project for church:( When he was done with that we headed for Oktoberfest, then to watch the Utah/BYU game at our friends house. I thought I'd be nice and bring cookies:) Porter helped me make them & did an awesome job putting the sprinkles on. Did I mention that everyone there were BYU fans??? 

Everyone loved the cookies, including these Ute fans!

They had this giant slip-n-slide there that we got to play on before the game! Porter's friend Liua was the brave one that went first.

Brandon went down with Hudson. Hudson only went down that one time. He said that was enough!

But Porter loved it, of course! We had to peel him away from it!

And the day ended great with a win for the Utes! Barely, but it was a win! Go Utes!

Oktoberfest

We got smart this year & did Oktoberfest differently than in the past years. On Friday night, Grandma had a sleepover with the boys while Brandon & I went to Oktoberfest kid free! We met up with some of our fiends & had yummy food & then a night of crazy dancing. I do have to say Brandon & I felt a tad bit jealous when our friends Jason & Dana won the Chicken Dance contest;) All I can say is Next Year! 

On Saturday, we took the kiddies to do the fun kiddie stuff they had there:

Porter's fav thing was climbing the wall. He did a good job!

Fall SoCceR

Porter started Soccer last week. He's on a Kinder-First grade team, which means a practice during the week now. He had his first game on Saturday & he was all smiles the whole time! I love to see him having fun! And he has 3 of his friends on his team.

Hudson chose gymnastics instead of soccer, but we haven't started that yet because our Saturdays have been so busy!(what's new, though?)

Lasts & Firsts!

This weekend we tried to squeeze every last drop of summer out before school started! On Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party. My little guys always have a fun time there!

On Saturday we ventured to the Oregon State Fair. We looooove the fair!

On Monday we labored in the morning for Labor Day, getting TONS of yard work done, then rewarded ourselves with a trip to the pool!

Yes, this is Brody hanging on to the edge all by himself...

But the longer we were there, the braver he got...

Until he was in the middle of the pool trying to keep up with his big brothers!!! He always keeps me on my toes!

Summer's almost over, but as long as the weather's nice, we are still going to take advantage of Grandma's pool! In fact, it's supposed to be hot on Friday, so I think we will head to the pool for "gym class". One of the many benefits of homeschooling!!!

On Sunday we relaxed at our friend's family farm with food, fishing, and catching up with friends. Thanks, Widings! I'm sad we didn't get to come more often because of our crazy schedule, but we sure enjoyed the few times we were able to come!

We have been enjoying the harvests from our garden. Porter is my bean picker. He finds so many every time he goes out!

Porter had his first day of Kindergarten on Tuesday!

Hudson had his first day of Preschool today! (that's how he writes his name right now! So cute!)

Here's some pics of Hudson's first day of Preschool:

Here's some pics of Porter's first day of Kindergarten:

All summer I have been so nervous about my decision to home school Porter. I feel like I am already so busy and then to add homeschooling to the mix made me feel worried I wouldn't be able to do it all. Then we had our first official school day. I LOVED teaching Porter and I had this overwhelming feeling that I will be able to do it all, and that my decision to home school was the right decision for me and my family. Now that I'm past the nervousness, I'm just really excited for what this school year will bring!

And there's no better way to celebrate the start of school, than over frozen yogurt!