Eagles Homeschool Picnic

Our end of the year picnic was in mid June so the weather was perfect! Each year our homeschool group gets together at Mountain Crest park for a end of the year pot luck. This year was bittersweet because my good friend Beverly wouldn't be at next years picnic. She and her family are moving to Ohio. Alyssa will miss her friend Charis while Zachary will miss his buddy Arden. I am really going to miss Beverly! So we all took advantage of knowing this and stayed well after dark talking while the kids ran wild. Our friend Heather was contemplating moving at this time also, but has decided to stay. Yay!

My first loaf!

I may not look too happy in the picture but I was very proud of the way my first loaf of bread turned out. I was a little nervous at first. I was told that I must follow the directions in exact order! But then figured, what could happen? After simply adding each ingredient, following the directions to a tee, that was pretty much it. As you can see it turned out perfect. It was so good! Too good. Not something to make every night! That could be dangerous!

Mt. Charleston

Mt. Charleston is a beautiful little community about 40 minutes northwest of us. I'd heard about it for years but never made the trip, until a few months ago. We made our first trip back in early April right before the snow melted. Yes...snow in Vegas! My mom was visiting and wanted to see the kids play in the snow so we jumped in the van and off we went. We could not believe our eyes...SNOW IN LAS VEGAS! Snow everywhere. It was so strange, so beautiful! Since it was around lunch time we decided to check out the Lodge first. We had a yummy lunch and then we on our way. On the way out we bumped into Carrot Top. He has a show on the strip and later we found out he comes up there a lot for the privacy. Eric was in his element. He loves nature. He was grabbing flyers on houses for sale and kept saying "I can see us living here". With houses/cabins at about $350,000 we will not be moving anytime soon! Did I mention the houses/cabins were about 1000 square feet? NOT going to happen! We drove around for a few minutes until we found a great little area covered with snow on a pretty steep hill. We didn't think to bring saucers and couldn't find a place to rent one, so...we had to get creative. Eric found tarps, cardboard boxes, and some rope. The kids had so much fun. We had a blast watching their little faces screaming and laughing as Eric pulled them down the hill.

Fast forward two months. My friend Beverly, her five kids, along with me and my two kids went back to Mt. Charleston. It was June 5th and almost 80 degrees. Beverly knew a great little spot by running water and picnic benches. So, I packed up sandwiches, fruit, and juice and headed over to Beverly's house. I spent a few hours at her house going over Sonlight curriculum. After going over it with her for quite some time (thanks Beverly!) I decided that this is the curriculum for us.

After that, we packed up her gigantic SUV and headed out. It was another beautiful day up there. Not quite 60 degrees and so peaceful. The first picnic bench was free so we took out all our food and let the kids so wild. It was too hard for the kids to sit for too long because they would rather be exploring. Almost immediately I told Zachary to PLEASE be careful not to fall in the water. I did not bring an extra pair of shoes or socks and the water was cold. Well, about two minutes later I saw him step right into the water!!! Opps. Luckily he's only five and doesn't care a whole lot about these things. Alyssa and Charis found their own little hide a way away from the boys and were very content just hanging out and talking. Beverly and I got some much needed girl time in too! We will definitely be escaping the heat and heading back very soon.