Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Catching Up

I know my blog has been rather silent lately, which is mostly due to both a lack of internet and the Compass summer program being in full swing. Here are a few pictures to attempt to catch you all up on some of the going's on at Compass. 


A few weeks ago we went to Lincoln for our field trip. A stop at the Sunken Gardens for lunch and to see the fish made everyone pretty happy. 


We got to see some giant mammoth skeletons. 


And some dinosaurs... 


We had a splendid time. 


In the last few weeks it hasn't all been fun and games. 


But there have been quite a few "This is why we do this" moments. 


We made playdough. 


Which was probably the most popular activity of the summer to date. 


We have been learning about mazes. 


And taking coloring breaks. 


Every Thursday we write about our greatest adventure of the week in our Adventure Journals.



We have been learning a lot. Not just in the classroom. 


It dawned on me that this is my third summer at Compass. Three summers ago I first met these ladies and we were like (three fingers crossed). 


Gosh, when did they grow up so fast! 


We went to the Durham. Not the best shot of the museum, but hey, we got the important part... :) 


I was put in charge of teaching gardening again this year, and this time our garden is flourishing. One of my students confessed to me today, "I keep picking gardening class because I like to play in the water and the dirt." I told him that was why I liked it too. 


It is crazy to think next week is our last week. It hasn't always been an easy summer, but it has been so full of great teaching opportunities for both us and the kids. Stay tuned for more pictures hopefully after next week! 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Monday

Summer at Compass is fully underway. With this being my last 6 weeks with the kids I am trying to enjoy every minute as much as possible and not focus on all the craziness too much. :D Here is just a slice, what we did this Monday. 


Our theme is adventure, so I asked my very favorite adventurer if he would mind coming in and talking about a few of his adventures a little bit. The kids acted like they were meeting a movie star, since they have heard me talk about Josh forever. 


He brought some of his cool adventure stuff for them to look at. 


He answered all manner of questions from "Why don't you have any pictures of bears?" to "Was Miss Emily's wedding dress really just plain white?" 


A few of them decided on the spot to climb mountains some day, so I would say his goal was accomplished. 


Also this week we have on loan a ginormous amount of Lego's. When the idea for using Lego's this summer first came to me I had no idea where to find them. God provided like He always does and the little kids are having more than a little fun building every afternoon. 


My favorite is when they make something awesome and then ask special permission to go show it to Miss Jenny... 


Singing while we are building. 


It was a really great Monday, I had two guest speakers. The other was (or rather were) Miss Joanna and Miss Elsie who came to teach dance class. They taught the kids a stomp, which was more than a little entertaining. 


It took some practice, but they got the hang of it in no time. 


Isn't this about how we all feel by the end of Monday? Let's just say I might be busy but I am enjoying close to every minute of it. :D 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Home Improvements

I have made a few improvements to my house in the last month. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.... 




*Pretty darn happy* 

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Honeymoon

A few months ago we started talking about our honeymoon. It took a few different ideas, but finally we thought of the perfect plan. Go on a semi-unplanned road trip with the motorcycle. 


For the sake of record keeping, we took a quick pic of the odometer before we left. 


Nimrod, all packed and ready to roll.


It was an amazing trip. We did a lot of things. 


We rode on our motorcycle... 


We went to the end of the road, South Padre Island, TX...


We got a little windblown a few times... 


We rented fat bikes and rode down the beach for hours... 


We were very much in love... 


We watch the sun set over the ocean... 


We endured a 93 degrees and sunny day of riding across Texas... 


We found our namesake...


We ate amazing food.... 


We camped a lot.... 


We rode out over Lake Pontchartrain... 


We watched the sun set over New Orleans... 


We enjoyed being married.... 


We canoed in the Louisiana swamp (and saw a baby gator)...


We ate amazing BBQ in Birmingham... 


We went out on the town on music row in Nashville... 


We saw some beautiful cars.... 


We toured Mammoth Cave.... 


We camped in Mammoth Cave National Park... 


We outran some storms...


We drank a lot of chocolate milk... 


We kayaked into a cave... 


And in a storm... 


We dropped by St. Louis... 


We looked out at the world from the top of the arch...


And finally rode off into the sunset. 


We came home quite sun kissed and happy. 


12 days, 3700 miles, and 13 states later, it was a spectacular honeymoon. 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Lake Sunset

A lake sunset is a perfect occasion for taking your little brothers out in the canoe. 


And to let your fiancĂ© use your iPhone to take cool pictures of you while you are doing so. 



We each only get so many sunsets, catch as many as you can.