Our Vacation Books

***First off, congratulations to Becca Stanley for winning my Embroidered Owl on last week’s giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who entered!  That was our largest entered giveaway to date!  I’m going to try to do them more often, since it seemed like a hit.  Please stick around and keep coming back!***

My project I would like to spotlight this week is my boys’ Summer vacation books.  We worked on them all week in school, and they are so completely proud of them!

I have wanted to incorporate making a summer book of our big road trip into our school days, but it kept getting pushed to the following week’s to do list.  Finally, I just decided we needed to do it, and this was the week!  I am so glad we did it!  We have all had a blast with this project!

We have talked about and learned so many valuable things this week through the process of making these books.  One of my main lessons was to try Super glue before many other strong glues needed to hold these thick babies together!  The boys have learned about the author and illustrator of books.  They know the names and the difference between the two roles.  They learned what a title page was and where it is located in a book.  We talked about key events and order and sequence.  We pulled out the map and showed the path we took on our 25 day road trip, while talking about states and distance.  We talked about the difference in opinions and facts.  They did a mock interview and are now doing “show and tell” for all who will sit through their reading of their books.

I love the pride that was earned with the completion of this big project.  Everyday Caleb wanted to “finish” his book, so it really taught patience to work a little at it everyday.

We picked out flag fabric for our cover since we drove across the United States for our vacation.  Caleb created both boys’ covers by glueing and wrapping the fabric around big pieces of cardboard.

We glued postcards that we had collected at our different stops on sheets of paper to insert as pages.

The boys sorted through a huge pile of pictures from our trip to pick out the ones they wanted to use in their book.  It was so fun to see and talk about the different things/events we did as the memories came back to us.  It is really quite funny to see the pictures they actually choose to use in their books.  They might not the the ones I would have chosen, but it is their books!

We worked on writing as they created title pages for their books.

Everyday, Caleb wrote a sentence for his book.

You know we love dictation.  He also dictated lots of stories or memories to me for pages in his book.

We printed out maps and drew the route we took to and from California on our maps.  We talked about distance and the United States, and had a blast talking about places we would like to travel next.  Caleb wants to travel across a different country on the other side of the world now.  Dream big my boy.  I love it!

Once we had finished creating all our different pages, we had to sort them into an order for the book.  We talked about events with similarities/differences as we placed all the “same state” pages in piles.

I get to do my job in my pajama pants. Awesome!

I had plans to sew the pages together with my sewing machine, but our books were too thick with all the pages and card stock.  We opted to punch holes and string thread though them to bind all the pages together.  I then glued the two outside pages to the cover.  It has taken several different types of glue to figure this step out.

The boys are so proud of their creations!!  They worked so hard writing, cutting, gluing, and learning this week.  I am just as proud of them as they are.

Today, we also talked about being a hard worker and finishing strong.  They were not wanting to complete the last steps, but they came around and finished strong and I adore their results!

Thank you so much for reading this week’s Project Spotlight.  Thank you again for all of you who entered my giveaway and might have started following me in a new way!  I really appreciate it!!

Tomorrow, I am attending the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain with a group of other DIY Atlanta Bloggers, and I am so excited about it!  I will be sure to share it with you next week!

Do you have big plans this week?  Are you going to check out Mitcham Farm?  I hope whatever you do, you have a wonderful weekend!  Happy Friday!!

Summer Stuff (with pictures)

Highlights from our summer so far (literally the last few weeks)

*legoland: Our boys are obsessed with legos right now! They have been wanting to go for weeks, and they loved it!

*zoo: I took the kids for a few hours before picking Matt up from the airport the other week. They wanted to do the playground more than seeing the animals:). Do you think we go too often!?! #seasonpass

*aquarium: We got season passes! The kids loved going! We’ve already gone twice now!  Plus, Centennial Park is right next door!!  It’s so nice to let the kids run there (after having to stay close and not run in the aquarium) before driving home!

*my sister, Joni’s high school graduation: I’m so proud of her!! She’s going to UGA in the fall!

*time with my sisters in town: Annie and Olivia came in town for Joni’s graduation. We literally were at the my mom’s pool five days in a row to hang out! So fun!

*hanging with my nieces: Two of the cutest girls I know!! I can’t believe they are both turning one so soon!

*our air conditioner broke: There were a few really hot days around our house, but God so graciously provided us with a replacement!!  There were a number of pool days in there too 🙂

*I think there’s been six family member birthdays!?  Haha I feel like I am always trying to think of a gift to buy or make that would be sweet and special.  Coming from a big family definitely keeps me on my “deal” look out while shopping!

*running: since a bird, her nest and four eggs have taken home in my jogging stroller…I’m getting to enjoy some runs without pushing my cute kids! Haha although the run is easier, I kind of miss that time with my kids!?!  Here are some pictures from my Memorial Day run with my sis and niece.  We might have bought tanks from Old Navy to be our “race shirts”…cause we are fun like that! 🙂

*the pool: the kiddie one and my mom’s pool, have both been enjoyed!! Caleb is obsessed and would swim all day everyday if he could! I love it!!

*water spray grounds: I love that this is right by our house! I should probably get a membership there too!:)

*sewing: I have been working on two rag quilts! Here are a few pictures of one I made for Emily’s Reese.

*playmates with new MOPS friends: I have been so blessed by this group in the last few months!!

*two college students coming in town for the summer to work with us and Broken Voices: there’s a team atmosphere and our kids love, love all the excitement of people coming and going all day.  One of Katie’s first jobs was organizing the office!  What a horrible task, and she did an amazing job.  She’s incredible!

*we got new floors in two rooms! They are gorgeous! No more dog “accident” stained carpet!  Here are two of my cuties dancing together on the new floor!

*we went to the lake for a day/night with some close friends who live in Iraq: It was so good to see them and get extended time to catch up!

*Traveling:  Matt and I both have been traveling!  Our poor kids are all out of whack from having solo parents on duty at different times.  Matt was gone for a week, I was gone for five days, and now Matt is gone for another week.  Can’t wait till Matt is HOME and our next trip will be a FAMILY trip all together!!  Whenever one of us leaves, we write each family member a note and hide it somewhere in the house.  The kids literally run looking for their letters.  It is so sweet.  The person leaving usually finds hidden letters in his/her luggage too.  It’s so good to know you are loved and missed:)  We usually put a recent picture of us with that child/spouse at the top of the letter.  Plus, we write about whats going on and any new milestones we are so proud of.  I guess these letters could be like a collection of love letters that are like our family diary?!  Here is our sweet set of letters from Matt’s first trip away.  I save all these in a shoe box…one day I hope to make a book with them!!

Whew, that is a lot and I couldn’t be more excited that it’s only the beginning of the summer and there is more fun to come!!  I hope you are all having a wonderful summer too!!

I’m in California!!

(a day delayed…I’ve been having fun here in the Morgan household:))

Its been crazy busy around our house!! There have been a lot of fun things taking place and I have so many pictures, and I will post them soon!

But FIRST as I type this I am 10,000 feet in the air headed to CAlifornia!! I am so excited to see Em and her sweet family!! (I will be posting this when i am safe on the ground because I have no clue how to hook up to the Internet in the sky. Note to self: Should have gotten a longer lesson from Matt last night.)

Matt was gone for a week, we were than all home together for a week and now I am headed to CA. When I get home, I’ll be home two days and than Matt leaves for another week long trip. It’s been so busy…but good!

Highlights from our summer so far (literally the last few weeks)

*legoland: Our boys are obsessed with legos right now! They have been wanting to go for weeks, and they loved it!

*zoo: I took the kids for a few hours before picking Matt up from the airport last week. They wanted to do the playground more than seeing the animals:). Do you think we go too often!?! #seasonpass

*aquarium: We got a season passes! The kids loved going! I can’t wait to go again!

*my sister, Joni’s high school graduation: I’m so proud of her!! She’s going to UGA in the fall!

*time with my sisters in town: Annie and Olivia came in town for Joni’s graduation. We literally were at the my mom’s pool five days in a row to hang out! So fun!

*hanging with my nieces: Two of the cutest girls I know!! I can’t believe they are both turning one so soon!

*our air conditioner broke: There were a few really hot days around our house, but God so graciously provided us with a replacement!!

*I think there’s been six family member birthdays

*running: since a bird, her nest and four eggs have taken home in my jogging stroller…I’m getting to enjoy some runs without pushing my cute kids! Haha although the run is easier, I kind of miss that time with my kids!?!

*the pool: the kiddie one and my mom’s pool, have both been enjoyed!! Caleb is obsessed and would swim all day everyday if he could! I love it!!

*water spray grounds: I love that this is right by our house! I should probably get a membership there too!:)

*sewing: I have been working on two rag quilts! I can’t wait to share the pictures with you!

*playmates with new MOPS friends: I have been so blessed by this group in the last few months!!

*two college students coming in town for the summer to work with us and Broken Voices: there’s a team atmosphere and our kids love, love all the excitement of people coming and going all day.

*we got new floors in two rooms! They are gorgeous! No more dog “accident” stained carpet!

*we went to the lake for a day/night with some close friends who live in Iraq: It was so good to see them and get extended time to catch up!

Wow, I’m exhausted just typing all that out. Haha part of that could be I am not use to matt’s iPad and I feel like I’m just learning to type again.:) You can see why a quiet five hour plane ride didn’t sound all that bad. So far, I have edited photos, deleted lots of pictures on my phone to free up space, read 1/4 of Katie Dwyer’s latest book, A Year and Seven Months.

We are now descending and I get to see my best friend!!! Ahhhhh!! Pictures of this trip will come soon!! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer too!!