Lily Point

So far, my favorite beach we've visited is at Lily Point Park at Point Roberts. After getting through the border just north of Blaine, you continue driving north then west through Canada and then back down south. Lily Point is on a tiny peninsula that is technically on American soil. After a nice leisurely walk through the woods, there is a steep hike down to a field and then this:

{this is one big switchback path!}

Each time we discover a new beach, we happen upon even more exciting sea creatures. Elijah and I even tried our hand at digging for geoduck! We were unsuccessful.





Ruthie Mae and I on top of star fish rock (as the boys named it).




These are sunflower sea stars and have 16 legs!!! They were everywhere!







We enjoyed watching bald eagles fly overhead and feast on marine life during low tide.

What I love about beach days:

I never understood what was so cool about a low tide, until I started spending time on these beautiful beaches. Now, we both have a low tide ap on our phones and I check it frequently. I'm a low tide junky!! We are planning another trip here soon, as there will be extremely low tides next week!

Siblings - Elijah and Ruthie Mae

Ruthie Mae generally reminds me of baby Lazarus, but lately, she's been making baby Elijah faces! I think it's the added chub since she's started solids.

 

Point Whitehorn

A new friend invited the kids and I to Point Whitehorn last week. It's a beautiful rocky beach just south of Birch Bay. After walking 3/4 of a mile through electric green trees, moss and ferns, a few stairs bring you down to an open rocky beach with piles of driftwood splayed out. The hike through the woods is smooth and easy but expect to make stops to save the many banana slugs you'll find along the way.

This is a great beach for a playdate.

 This was the first time we found sea anemones at low tide!!! Can you see them beneath the big rock?

I can't wait to explore this area with Dan. I think I'll need his help the next time we decide to make the trek, though. The beach continues a while in both directions, so there is a lot to explore.

Getting our Hands Dirty!!

Afternoon. It's amazing how a compound word can give you the shakes. That time of day is usually very trying for us homeschool moms. Quiet time is over. Dinner responsibilities are looming over head. Boys want to FIGHT. NAKED. And the baby, well, she's needing all sorts of everything that you just can't give because of everything else going on.

These are my top 3 go-to activities that are guaranteed to keep my boys busy for at least 60-90 minutes.

SLIME

Mix 2 Cups clear Elmer's school glue (ends up being about 1.5 bottles of glue) with 2 Cups of very warm water. Stir well and add beads, confetti or glitter. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tsp borax with 1 and 1/3 Cups very warm water and dissolve. Combine two bowls and watch the slime immediately begin to form!

As it cools, it hardens a bit. The next day, I put it in a metal bowl and heat it on low in the oven during breakfast and it's ready to go again!!

Moon Sand

This stuff is cool but the store bought moon sand is expensive!! Instead, I give the boys equal parts corn starch and very cheap shaving cream. They mix it up with their hands, add a few zoo animals and you've got the next 2 hours to yourself!! This stuff does dry out but can be revived by adding more shaving cream.


Fizzle Sizzle Drips (as the boys have named it)

Put baking soda in a container (square dish, muffin tin, etc.). Use old medicine droppers to drop colored vinegar onto the baking soda for colorful sizzling art!

All three of these activities count as science lessons. The kids learn about how different materials interact with each other and they have a great time doing it!

Unit Study - Money

Elijah has been earning money (I no longer clean my bathroom, WOOT WOOT!!). After a few weeks of earning nickles and dimes and multiple exclamations "I have 300 million and 2 dollars!!!!", it became clear that we should do a lesson on money. I picked up some things from the dollar store to play around with. I also got out all of our money from traveling, and we placed each piece on the map. We got creative and invented our own money.

 We also played a game called "Race ya to a Quarter". I printed up a few game boards with four columns-one for each type of coin. You roll a die to collect pennies which you then trade in for the next biggest coin. Continue until you reach a quarter, or $.50 or $1 or however long you want to play. Playing this game really helps solidify place value and coin recognition, and it's fun to come up with different combinations for the total you are reaching.

The longer we homeschool, the further away we get from workbooks and traditional lessons. I am such a rule follower and I love checking things off a list. Workbooks are tempting because you can measure how much work you are doing and what's being taught. That said, games are way more fun!!! Plus, we can include Lazzy and the boys don't even realize we are doing school! Win win! Next goal-teach the boys how to tell time for REAL!

Celebrating Elijah

This is Elijah, excited about his birthday. H'es been counting down the days all month!

 

 In St. Louis, we celebrated birthdays with a free trip to the zoo and an all out par-tay! This year, we planned a party, but with no zoo in town, we enjoyed low tide at the beach. We took Dan to Teddy Bear Cove, our new favorite spot.

Below, you can see where the line of water usually is on that giant rock.

The beach is his new happy place. This boy is so brave and will pick up ANYTHING that might be in cool in any way. He's such an explorer, always searching for truth and life. I love his mind.

This is Lazarus taking a break in the middle of our up hill hike.

After resting from our adventure, we set up for the party. This year's theme was Vintage Super Heroes! Everything was "POP!", "BIFF!" and "KERLPOOSH!". Even the cake had pop rocks on top, so the kids were literally POPPING! It was such a fun day!

The "Spider Web" was so awesome. I wondered how long it would last with 14 kids climbing all over it, but is held up! And the kids never got tired of pretending to be stuck and needing rescuing!

In the middle of the party, we got bad news! All of our super hero friends had been visited by Mr. Freeze and were stuck!! The kids were split up into two teams and had to unfreeze their friends with water shooters!

Then, we had cake :)

It was truly a special day, celebrating Elijah and building him up. Sometimes, I can't believe I am old enough to have a six year old. Sometimes, I am SO thankful he's finally six and has more independence. All the time, I am thankful for his life!

Teddy Bear Cove

Teddy Bear Cove is another beach off Chuckanut Drive but it's much closer to town. The hike is completely downhill but is relatively short. This is a beach I can take all 3 kids by myself and is the perfect spot to do homeschool. Once again, it's a thrill walking along the train tracks to get to the beach!

The boys love to listen to trains coming. Makes my belly turn, but I try to play it cool.

Not pictured is the other tiny beach on the oposite side of this huge rock. These boys climbed and climbed till their legs fell off! The other tiny beach is especially fun because it reveals a cave and other marine life that's only exposed when the tide is really low (below -1.0). May in the NW is a wonderful time to explore tide pools. The weather is mild and the kids are aching to get outside again. I think we'll dedicate every May to outdoor exploration homeschool lessons.