Back to school

Happy Thursday everyone! Are you have a good week? Mine hasn't been too bad. Monday, I spent the day at home getting some stuff done...aka laundry! Tuesday, I had a very busy day with taking Rebecca to the high school to pick up her schedule and find her locker and classes, to CVS, to Kroger, home to put groceries away, babysit, Bill took Jacob to the middle school for his open house, and then I took Ben to his school for his open house. Yesterday, we didn't go anywhere but just hung out at home for the last day of Summer Vacation. We were treated to a nice surprise last night, when a rain shower came in out of nowhere when it had been sunny and left us with a nice rainbow in the sky. Seemed fitting to end Summer break. 

That meant that this morning bright and early was BACK TO SCHOOL!!! 

The kids were excited to go back to school. 

This year Rebecca is a FRESHMAN! Seems like just yesterday I was taking her into her Pre-K class. 

Jacob is starting middle school. He is in 6th grade this year!

 

Benjamin is in 4th grade this year and has the same teacher that Rebecca had when she was in 4th grade! 

I am not sure how this school year will turn out. Our school district is not requiring masks right now, but allowing the parents to decide. They had permission slips at open house that you needed to fill out if you wanted your child to wear a mask. Although like Ben's teacher said, I am sure masks will be mandated sooner rather than later. I just pray that my kids have a happy, healthy and encouraging school year this year no matter what happens. 

I will admit that I teared up after dropping Rebecca and Jacob off to school. Thankfully, the high school and middle school share a campus so I dropped Rebecca off in one spot and then drove down the lane to drop Jacob off in another spot. We walked Ben to school this morning. I can't wait to hear how their first days went!

Well, I am off to make some lunch before my babysitting kiddo gets here. Today is my last day with her as she officially starts Kindergarten tomorrow! 

Hope everyone is having a good day! Any fun plans for today?   

Rebecca made her singing debut and cool chalk art

 Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope everyone is having a good day! Yesterday, I posted about our adventures at the National Museum of the United States Air Force from Thursday. That was just the beginning of our fun activities of the weekend. Up next in our plans was attending the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival for a very special reason!

  

Rebecca made her solo singing debut singing an original song that she wrote! 

Rebecca was invited to take part in the Youth Showcase, which showcases local youth and their talents. There were 12 youth involved, most of whom sang cover songs of more famous songs. Rebecca decided to play her ukulele and sing her original song titled " Sage, Roses, and Ice." (If you click on this link you should be able to see the video! Sorry I don't know how to put the video live on here.)

 She did amazing! I am so very proud of her. She actually performed once on Friday and once on Saturday. On Friday, my brother and his fiancee came to show her some support. 

Saturday, my dad came with my niece and nephew. Her best friend, their mom, and another friend also came to watch on Saturday. 

On Friday, after she performed we walked around the festival. Got some fair food for lunch. 

The kids were able to do some kid activities like painting rocks, etc. 

It was so hot and humid out, so I treated the kids to snow cones which was a fun treat. 

On Friday we spent several hours outside and honestly it was too much time outside. After we got the snow cones, we headed to go back to the van. Well, as we were walking across the town square, I started seeing double of things and feeling like I was going to faint. So I had the kids head to a candy store on the square that I knew was open and had air conditioning. After cooling down for a few minutes, I felt like I could walk to the van. I came home and immediately set in front of the fan and had a tall glass of ice water. It took almost an hour of being in the AC and in front of the fan for me to feel well enough to take a cool shower. Honestly I didn't feel back to normal until around 9pm that night. It is another example of how my heart issues are still affecting me. 

Thankfully, Friday night we got a couple of storms go through which cooled things down and took the humidity away thankfully. Saturday, we watched Rebecca perform again and then we walked through the art activity of "Chalk the Block" which featured chalk artists out of Columbus who were creating AMAZING chalk drawings on the street! They were absolutely amazing! 

After we walked through the art, I got the kids more snow cones and we enjoyed those before we headed back home as we had a cookout to go to later. 

In the afternoon, we headed out to my parents' house as my dad wanted to have a final cookout of Summer before my brother headed back to college. I only took one photo that night but we had a great time chatting and hanging out. 

Overall, it was a great Friday and Saturday and again I am so proud of Rebecca for stepping out of her comfort zone and performing! 

Sunday, we went to church and then came home to spend the day cleaning house since this is back to school week and I wanted to get a nice clean start to the week! Yesterday, I finished up laundry and babysat. Today, I need to take Rebecca to the high school to pick up her schedule. Later, we have open houses for the boys at the middle school and at the elementary school. I also need to pick up some prescriptions and go to the grocery store. It is never ending business of life! :)  

Have you ever performed in public? Have you ever done chalk art? 

National Museum of the USAF visit

Happy Monday evening! I hope you all had a good weekend and previous week! We had a HOT, HOT, HOT week and part of the weekend and we were also super busy with life and getting in a few last minute activities before school starts again this week! 

On Thursday, we actually had a family day. Bill was off work, I didn't have to babysit, and the kids were still on break. We decided to get out and do something as a family. Originally we were going to go to Columbus and spend the day at the Columbus Zoo, however Mother Nature had other plans. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we were supposed to have very high humidity and very high temperatures with real feel temperatures of over 100 degrees. So, we went with a back up plan which turned out to be really fun!

 

We headed to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It was a little over 2 hours to get there. Admission and parking are FREE! It is a huge museum with 4 hangers (which are all inside and air-conditioned) full of aircrafts and exhibits from throughout history. The kids and I had never been there and Bill said he was 11 years old the last time he was there. When we went in, the attendant suggested that we start at the back hangar and work our way back to the front. So that is what we did. 

We were able to see the very first Air Force One. We were able to walk through the Presidential plane that carried JFK's body and were Johnson was sworn in. It was really kind of awe-inspiring to see.

 

I was very impressed with the amount of plane art that they had on display. 

They had a space exhibit set up with rockets and other items from space craft that was really cool to see. The kids got to touch a meteorite and see a space rock.

 

Bill said his favorites were the SR71 blackbird and Air Force One. 

The kids really liked the different planes too, even if they didn't necessarily understand the historical significance of them. They loved being able to walk through a few of the planes and sit in a cockpit! 

We did end up eating lunch in their cafe as you were not allowed to bring in outside food or drinks. It was a bit pricey for what they had, but it worked for our needs. 

We spent several hours inside the museum. Thankfully, throughout the museum there were plenty of areas that had chairs where you could sit and rest. I only had to sit down 2 times even though there was a ton of walking.

When we left, we could have explored the outside grounds where they have memorials set up, etc. but it was way too hot. When we left our van read 100 degrees, and real feel outside the museum was 109 degrees! It was so humid! Originally, I had thought we would stop at a nearby dairy to feed some goats and have ice cream, but it was honestly too hot and too humid out. I cannot deal with the heat very well anymore due to my heart issues so I was perfectly okay with just coming home and not doing anything else that day. 

Overall, it was a really nice day and a great day to spend with the family learning about history and seeing some very interesting planes, even for someone who is not really into history or planes ;) 

Have you ever been to the National Museum of the USAF? What is your favorite kind of plane?