Hunter with Red (at our house in Boise - almost 3)
Noah eating Broccoli - (House in Boise - He's 9 months old here)
Hunter, Noah and Abbie went to camp today. It is at the same place that we were at for family camp this weekend, so the transition was easy. Quite a few kids from school are there so it will be a fun filled week spent with friends.
This weekend COSSA (Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association) had an open house at their range just east of Bend. It gave the kids (Hunter, Noah and Abbie) a chance to shoot for the first time. Hunter and I both got to shoot an old fashioned cowboy 38 single action 6 shooter. You had to be 12 or older to fire it. Here is Hunter shooting it.
Something interesting I leaned about these classic weapons you see in the movies. Even though the revolver has 6 chambers cowboys from the old west only typically ever had 5 shots loaded with the 6th chamber empty at the top is so that if for instance the gun fell out of hits holster on the floor in the saloon it wouldn't go off. If however they were going into a gun fight, they might then load a 6th into the last chamber with the trigger cocked and ready.
Here is some pictures and video of the kids shooting 22 caliber rifles at targets. Hunter had a more full sized rifle, whereas you can see with Abbie she has a small one for her size.
A good friend of mine told me once that if you teach kids about guns and gun safety when they are young, the 'mystique' of guns goes down and respect for them goes up resulting much lower chance of an incident/accident. They don't have a desire to play with it, and they will avoid other kids who do not respect it. Its the kids told 'never to touch' that often get into trouble when an opportunity presents itself. I think this is wise advice.
Today, Morning Star had their year end awards ceremony. Each child got a spiritual and academic award. We are very proud of all the accomplishments that they made this year. Their teachers said some pretty wonderful things about our children. They had a great year and we love their school. ❤
The Spring Performance and Project Night was last night. The kids sang some great songs. Abbie is in honor choir and is in flower dress with a white cardigan. Noah is up near the top right in a green plaid shirt. Hunter is off to the far right in a blue shirt and you can see him with the shaker. Hunter is also playing the guitar at the bottom of the video.
In Hunter's class they designed and built a robot. The students over the course of the month integrated this into all areas of study. The driving questions were:
How can you use computer programming to modify your robot to better solve a problem for Benjamin Franklin?
How would taking this robot back in time affect the culture of the colonies in the late 1700's?
The students presented their robots and wrote persuasive papers. Parents then got to vote for what they felt the best robot.
Abbie's class had to design a seed dispenser that would disperse seeds over a large area. Noah's class did a study of the prediction of weather in the summer time. They surveyed parents and asked them their predictions of the weather over this summer.
Each month our school focuses on a character trait and then once a month at chapel recognizes students for demonstrating them. Last month we had a snow day on our chapel day, so this month they recognized two traits. We had been informed that Hunter was up for the December award but we didn't know that two of our kids would be getting them and it was such a wonderful surprise. So proud of Hunter for getting the Character Trait Award for Self Control and Abbie received the award for Gentleness. Great way to start out the day!
Today marks the first night of Advent. We lit the first candle which is HOPE on our Advent wreath. We talked about what the different colors represent and how we can prepare our hearts for Christmas.
PJ's first time at the climbing gym. Plus Hunter and Noah trying routes on the bouldering wall.
Just a few pictures of picking out our pumpkins, a Halloween party at the High Desert Museum to pumpkin caring and making our annual acorn squash. Fall is one of our favorite times of year.
It's that time of year again for soccer. A fun filled fall of soccer has started for the Donaldson kids.
