Saint Canoes

I taught my first saint class of the year last week, and our saint, St. Isaac Jogues, spent a lot of time traveling via birchbark canoe, so I decided to do an easy canoe craft.  First, I cut pieces of felt:

Basically, one sheet of felt can make 2 canoes.  By folding before cutting, the sides will match up, but the bottom will be connected.

Then I let the kids have their choice of embroidery floss to sew up the sides.  This caused all kind of joy.  You would not believe how excited the kids were to pick whatever colors they wanted from my floss box, which admittedly has a ton of colors (probably around 80 or so).  None of the kids was familiar with sewing, but they all caught on very quickly, since this was a very straightforward project.

Gyunay sewed his by himself, which surprised me.  I thought I'd have to hold it for him, but he is always so capable.

The boats are upside-down in this photo, but you get the idea.  I told the kids they could decorate their canoes with markers if they wanted, but so far, my boys have left theirs plain.  I originally thought we could make some peg people to go inside, but I was out of pegs, and so was Walmart.  Since I only had this idea the day before class, I didn't have time to run to Louisville to Michael's or anything, so we just didn't make people.  I think we may do that next class.

 

Amaranth, Puzzles, and the Mall

 

I told the kids that amaranth is edible when they saw it in the history center's garden, so Lydia promptly pretended to eat it.  The boys couldn't be left out, so I had to take a second picture:

I've done a couple of puzzles lately.  The first was this bunny puzzle.  I think I'll stick to puzzles that are square or rectangular in the future!  Also, it was brand new, and was missing 2 pieces:

The box did say "approximately 1,000 pieces", which I thought was weird.  Maybe they meant it literally.

After that, I needed an easier, more straightforward puzzle, so when I saw this one at a yardsale, I knew it was for me:

"Walk Like an Egyptian" was going through my head every time I worked on it.  I really enjoyed amusing myself with this puzzle, because I am quite familiar with the items from Tut's tomb, so I was having fun showing off to myself by recognizing items.  Fun times.  My daughter assures me that I'm a nerd, and I don't dispute this.

And then, today, I took Lydia, her friend, Gyunay, and Emry to the mall.  I've never taken Gyunay or Emry to the mall, ever, so they had a great time exploring the stores and feeling rather big.  Here Gyunay was making the turkey gobble at me:

Both boys had a great time.  Emry said his favorite part was smelling everything at Bath and Bodyworks.  Gyunay agreed that he loved that, but he couldn't pick a favorite because he also liked exploring the Gamestop and the story that sold unusual candy.  

Family Camp Part 3

 On Sunday, the kids had the opportunity to try archery.  None of them were enthusiastic at first, and Gyunay and Lydia both thought they would just go on the hike to the archery range but not participate, but all three of them loved it and ended up shooting for the full 2 hours.

They even had a mounted bow that Gyunay could operate with one hand.  He was in heaven!

If we ever need to defend the castle, he's game.  

Family Camp is always such a hit.  The kids also dipped candles, tie-dyed t-shirts, had a campfire (Nathaniel took them, since I can't), hiked, played sand volleyball, basketball, and gaga ball.  We went into Nashville only once, to attend Mass in a really pretty church, but otherwise were at the camp the whole time.

They are already talking about next year.

Freshwater Jellyfish

Did you know that there are freshwater jellyfish in Indiana?  I thought they were pulling my leg, but it turns out that it really is a thing, and the lake was full of them at Family Camp.

Freshwater jellyfish are tiny, but they don't sting, so it was really cool.  Lydia and Gyunay loved picking them up and holding them in a bit of water in the hand.

We had a good time kayaking and canoeing.  Lydia stuck to her kayak the whole time.  She was delighted by the jellyfish.

Gyunay started off in our canoe, but he later decided to kayak on his own.  He really enjoyed doing it himself.

Emry bounced around a lot.  He started in a kayak, then into a canoe, then to a different seat in a canoe.

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed a good hour and a half of time on the lake.  The boys ended up pretty wet from paddling, so we headed back to the cabins to change afterwards.  

 

Catholic Family Camp Part 1

 

We spent this weekend at a Catholic Youth camp called Camp Rancho Framasa near Nashville, IN.  It's a gorgeous camp, and there is so much to do there!  We really love family camp.  This is the third time we've gotten to go, and everyone really enjoys it.

First up, we had the giant swing and high ropes, which is climbing a cargo net up to a rockwall, and then trying to reach the top.

Both Lydia and Emry attempted the rockwall.  Emry only made it up the cargo net before calling it quits, and Lydia made it about 2/3 up the wall before losing her grip, so neither made it to the top this year.  Actually, last year Lydia and several members of our group made it to the top, but this year, only one person did, so I don't know if the holds were moved or spun more, or if everyone just had a bit harder time.

Lydia did go very high on the giant swing!

Gyunay and Emry also enjoyed the swing, but neither of them went up very high, so they had a much smaller swing.  All three enjoyed it, though.  I've never tried the swing, but it does look fun.  I did do the rockwall once, three years ago, and it is hard but very fun.  (And no, I didn't make it to the top, but I made a good climb up.)

We also did the low ropes circuit, which Gyunay remembered as his favorite thing from last year.  Each participant has to have 2 adult spotters, one on each side, so that's why there are so many people standing around the climbers.

All the kids went through several times, and although Gyunay still loved it, he couldn't call it his favorite this year because he had so much fun on so many different things!

Nathaniel even did the tightrope section to show the kids he could:  

August Harvest Totals

 The star of the harvest for August was tomatillos.  I've never had a year where I harvested tomatillos before tomatoes, until this year.  We are also getting huge amounts of fresh eggs.  Here are the numbers:

Arugula - 3c

Beans, Blue Lake - 7.8oz

Beans, Crescent - 2.5 lbs

Beans, Dragon Tongue - 2.3 oz

Bok Choy  - 1

Butternut Squash - 1 (1.6lbs)

Carrots - 3

Cucumbers, Edmondson - 16

Cucumbers, green pickling - 4

Cucumbers, North Carolina White - 10

Eggs - 224

Peppers, Bulgarian sweet - 4

Tomatillos - 6.4 lbs

Tomatoes - 3

Turnips - 1

Plus basil, cherry tomatoes, mint, parsley, radish pods, rosemary, sage, thyme