This year, Kelsey will be working through Exploring Creation through Zoology 3. She loves animals so this will be a great curriculum for her. She has flown through the first lesson and we were ready to do the first experiment today. Here she is as The M&M Predator:

Here is her prey:

Here is the safari:

Here is the predator searching for her prey:

She decided she wouldn't like to be a blue M&M in that safari! Although she did have a great time nibbling on M&M's today!

Kelsey and I have been working through her quilt curriculum and she has finished her first quilt block. Here she is with her completed Sawtooth Star:

I had another quilt class this week as well and learned about borders. Today, I put the borders on my quilt:

Yes, Saturday was our first day of school and I believe we now have a first day of school tradition started.

The 20th Maine was doing a living history day at Fort Point in San Francisco so we decided to go as spectators and do a little sight seeing at the same time. I had checked to forecast ahead of time and it was suppose to be 40 degrees cooler in the city on Saturday than it had been at our house on Friday. I encouraged everyone to bring layers of clothing. We packed a lunch and headed over.

After about a 2 hour car trip, we arrived at the Fort. We walked around the Fort for a while and were even able to go up to the top level and take some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge with all the fog. Since we were so close to the bridge, we decided to walk up to the bridge and walk across it part of the way. I had never walked across the bridge before!

Once we left the Golden Gate Bridge area, we drove over to the Palace of Fine Arts. We walked around these huge columns and saw a few swans swimming around the pond.

We were hoping to drive down Lombard Street, but the wait was very long (since it was a Saturday during the summer). We drove around to the bottom side of the curvy street so Kelsey could at least get a glimpse of it.

It was about time for dinner now and Pier 39 was our destination. Matthew loves fish and chips and since his birthday is next week, we planned on this being his birthday dinner out. We walked around after dinner for a little bit so Kelsey could see the sea lions.

Overall, we had a great day and now have a whole year to decide how we should start our school year next year!

...to see where we went on our first day of school, visit Matthew's blog. He actually posted before me! I will try to post about our trip very soon.

Kelsey wanted to take her quilt to the quilt store to show the ladies that she finished her quilt. While we were there, one of the ladies was talking about some techniques that I have never learned. She told me that I should take a class and, by the way, there was one starting the next day! After checking with Kev, I went ahead and signed up!

Here is the material that will be my quilt:

Here is what we learned in class this week:

Here is what I have put together on my quilt so far:

I have two classes left and really want to get this quilt to the point that the instructor can help me with the machine quilting and binding, two things I have never really done before.

At our recent homeschool conference, I picked up a couple of books (that is an understatment!) I have finished one already and am really enjoying another one.

If you have teenagers, you really need to get Do Hard Things. This book will challenge your teenagers to basically, do hard things. Society expects so little of teenagers, but our teenagers are capable human beings, able to change the world if they have the passion to do so.

The book I am currently reading is Family Driven Faith. Not having been raised in a Christian home, this book gives me hope that God can use me to raise my children to serve Him. Voddie Baucham shares some great stories and truth to take to heart as we raise up a new generation of Christians who can have a positive impact on our world.

Kelsey and I made another trek to the quilt store to get material for the backing and binding. I had never done a binding on a quilt before so we asked the ladies for a little assistance. We bought what we needed, ran some errands, and headed home. Once we got home, again, we got that material washed and dried. We brought out the batting and cut up the backing to fit. Then I had Kelsey 'stitch in the ditch' to quilt the three pieces together. I cut up and sewed together the binding pieces. Kelsey sewed the binding on all the way around the quilt. By this time, it was time for her to be in bed!

This morning, we ironed the binding away from the quilt. I pinned the binding onto the backside so again, Kelsey could 'stitch in the ditch' around the binding edge of the quilt. After having to take out some stitches and re-sewing them, here is the final product:

And the back:

Our next quilting project is going to be from a book called Stitches in Truth. They had a booth at the homeschool convention last year and I just didn't think Kelsey was ready to tackle a quilt at that time. Well, she is definitely ready and I think this will be a fun project for her.

I was going through the internal memory of my camera and found a couple more pictures from our latest reenactment. Here is one of part of the camp:

And here is one with Matthew in it. He is over on the left side with that big smile on his face. I just love his smile!

Matthew has gone to work with Kev the last few days, so Kelsey and I went to go visit my sister and her girls. Jessie and Kelsey worked on a couple of crafts while we were there:

I decided that we need to work on PE a little more this upcoming year, so I found an idea in one of my many books to do some activities with bean bags. Kelsey decided she wanted to make some bean bags also:

Filling the bean bags:

Today, it was just the two of us again, so we headed to Turlock to the tea place for lunch. After lunch, we went to the quilt store and found some fat quarters for Kelsey to make her first quilt. Once we got home, we put the material in the wash and tossed her new bean bags for a quick game:

Her Flat Friend arrived home from Israel with some flat bread for a snack!

We have a very busy few days around here so I probably won't even see my computer until next week. Hope you have enjoyed my little update!

...you forget to put the memory card back into the camera after you upload pictures onto the computer??

You hardly get to take any pictures!!

I was so bummed when I turned on my camera this past weekend only to discover that I only had 5 pictures available on my camera. Yikes!!

So here a two pictures from our latest reenactment:

Oh, I did happen to get Kev's shirt done this weekend also:

We didn't know they were going to have a dance on Saturday night for the reenactors. Kev and Matthew stayed at the camp, but Kelsey and I decided to go. We watched a very large group of people do the Virginia Reel. It looks like a lot of fun! Then Kelsey was asked to dance a waltz. She was so excited and now wants to teach Kev how to waltz so they can dance together at the ball in November.

We don't have another reenactment until September which gives me plenty of time to get more sewing done. If you noticed, Kelsey now has a hoop skirt, so she needs me to sew drawers for her. I am currently working on another shirt for Matthew. I want to sew another dress for Kelsey and a wrapper for me for the mornings at the reenactments. Balls gowns need to be done before November, another petticoat for each of us...did I mention that I really am enjoying all of this sewing!

I have been sewing for days now trying to get outfits done for this upcoming weekend's reenactment. Here is a picture of Kelsey in her newest dress:

To which Kev says, "Hey, when are you going to finish the buttons on my shirt!"