Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the older kids had an extended time off until Thursday. But it wasn't supposed to be relaxing or anything, instead they had to work on Independent Study Projects. Each grade did a different project and you had all week to work on it to present on Friday. For 2nd grade, all the kids were historical people in a wax museum, so they had to dress up and give a little speech. Eli got John Hancock and said, "Who's that??" (Sad, isn't it?) For 5th grade, Elina had to create a poster and give a 2-3 minute speech about a historical person. Elina got Queen Elizabeth I.
Well, you know us...we weren't going to let 2 huge projects stand in the way of having some fun! So we went to Austin to see J and V from Friday afternoon until Tuesday morning. BUT while we were there, we checked out library books on our historical figures and still did lots of work...but we also played a whole bunch too.
Most of the days we hung out at J and V's house. It's just so fun there! The kids binge-watched Master Chef Junior and LOVED it! We learned to make sushi (a New Year's resolution for many of us).
J drove the kids around the block MANY TIMES on her scooter.
We had a movie night. We sang our hearts out doing karaoke. I must say that the kids really love to perform and sing. Eli definitely wins the award for the most animated singer though. And B wins the award for the most heartfelt singer...he likes to sing with his eyes closed.
Even J was showing her skills...
The kids loved playing with J and V's dogs. Eulee is definitely the best with Ponyo. She is so good at giving commands and bossing him around. We all think she excels at this because she has no one at home to boss around. Ponyo is her only option...and she loves him for it!
The girls got makeovers from J. It was the best! But Elina was not a big fan of it all...the little girls, on the other hand, were in heaven!
We also played lots of games. We taught Eli how to play Blackjack and he loved it....but he wasn't into the idea of using any of his own real money. I just thought it would be a fun way to practice his math facts!
And the adults played Settlers of Catan at night. This is all very exciting...although Catan is a little too much thinking for my brain (as you can tell from the picture below)!!
Besides hanging out at the house, J and I took the littles hiking at Bull Creek. It was a beautiful day and the area was so pretty. Eulee was a trooper and hiked the entire thing. Her legs are so short, but she really enjoys it! What a perfect outing!
Then the boys and Elina went to an indoor rock climbing gym. They all had so much fun!
After we returned to reality, the kids finished up all their work and I made Eli's costume. It actually turned out pretty well. I bought a used, plain, black suit jacket and sewed on gold trim on the edges and lace on the sleeves. I also bought a used ruffly shirt to help make it look fancier. Then I made the powdered wig using an old cap with quilt batting all over. I just hand sewed all that batting on. It wasn't pretty, but we made it work. The example I saw online made the "hair" look so smooth and neat. By the time I made the wig, I was already mentally checking out. I kept saying, "This looks good enough to last for a few minutes." Ha! We also had Eli carry a big feather as a quill. Eli wore his costume proudly and he did a great job at school. He came home saying, "I think I got a 100%..."
Elina did an awesome job putting her tri-fold together. I especially loved the font she created for her board!
She also memorized her 2-3 minute speech. It was really interesting to learn about Queen Elizabeth I with Elina. I enjoyed it so much that I even watched a few Elizabeth movies after it was all done!
It was definitely a nice week off to spend with the kids. But it was certainly more work than I had imagined! What a fun week of learning!
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