Exciting Updates!

We're so excited!  Dan got his orders to Hawaii yesterday.  Before that we had been "slated" for Hawaii, but it wasn't official.  Now it is and we can start making plans.  We immediately went about finding a place to stay when we get there while we're waiting for housing and looking for a place to live.  We were able to find a place on the Air Force base that has two bedrooms, a seperate living room and small kitchen that will let us come with six kids!  It's only $65 a night and we will be centrally located to most everything on the island.  I'm thankful we've lived there before and have an idea of what to expect and kind of remember where things are.  Our next big challenge is shipping our car so that it will be on the island when we get there or a day or two after.  We looked at rental car prices for vehicles that will fit 8 people and it's terrible!  No way can we afford that.  Worst case senario, we'll just rent a compact and only have 1 car.  We'll be on base and able to walk to the commissary (and beach!!!) so it will be OK until our car gets there. 

Today we walked to the Walmart.  It's close to our house, but along streets that are pretty busy.  It was nice to get out and enjoy fresh air instead of drive and be smashed into a car.  We've been taking walks pretty much every evening on the base (we're a block away) and I'm hoping it will help get me in better shape since I don't really have the time or room to work out here.  At Walmart we bought frisbees and had a lot of fun throwing them when we got home.  We also made hop scotch and an obsticle course with sidewalk chalk.  Ahhhh summer! 

Today was Q's first day of Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS).  We had been using My Father's World with him and he was doing well doing it independently, but we decided to switch to SOS since we were having trouble using 3 different curriculums and grading all of Q's work.  Q was so excited to start, but was exhausted from looking at a computer for so long (a couple of hours for all 5 subjects).  I hope once his typing gets faster and he gets used to the curriculum it will go more quickly for him and not be as exhausting.  Q wanted to do school through the summer so we said "OK"!  It does not take that long and he'll still have time to do the things he likes to do. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids with their tie dye shirts we made a couple of days ago.  It's been fun being busy doing activities this summer.  We've made castles from boxes, been to storytime at borders, made flower pounding prints, watched our garden grow, baked a ton and now tie dyed.  The girls have loved playing play doh and water outside in a big bowl. 

Baby onsie for a friend of mine. 

My favorite shirt.  Technically I did it but Mareea helped and it's her shirt.