As we head into June...

Just a look at what's going on around here today...

- Noah is enjoying printing things with the 3D printer that arrived last Thursday. He spent Thursday and Friday building it (it came as a kit, not assembled) then has been honing his skills over the weekend. (There were a couple hiccups in learning to use it, but Noah and Nathan have been in contact with the manufacturer and had a nice conversation about all that.) It's pretty fascinating to watch and I'm loving watching Noah design things!

- I took the younger two to the pool again this morning to swim laps, as has become our routine. Now that schools are out, though, things are changing...it was a bit busier, there was a lifeguard on duty and the slide is now open. After they'd finished their lap workout, I let them mess around in the well portion of the pool for a bit and was happy when Asher asked if they could go down the slide before we finished up. Last summer, you might remember, Asher had a bit of a bad experience with this slide and pool, which ended with him having bandaged toes for weeks. So, I was relieved that he wasn't letting that keep him from trying again...

(You'll notice, though, that his feet are firmly in the air, lol.)

- And then we came home for lunch (yummy leftover calzones from the batch Micah made last night!) and are now tackling part of our required standardized testing for the year. (In Colorado, homeschoolers are required to either do standardized testing or a performance evaluation every other year starting in 3rd grade. There are a number of options for both routes but we've always just gone with the PASS standardized test. It's easy and I can administer it at home with no time limits, but it still gives the boys experience with taking a test like this and filling in bubbles and all that.)

We discovered that Micah and Asher don't work well at the same table (though they're doing different test subjects anyhow), as Asher has a definite preference to read his questions aloud, which irritates Micah. So, Micah opted to take his to his room:

...but is less than pleased about the whole thing:

Yeah. He knows I took this picture and said that it accurately reflects his feelings on the matter, lol. It's not actually that he dislikes taking tests...it's that he dislikes getting anything wrong. ;P

- And, finally, I'm patiently waiting for my peonies to bloom:

I was really hoping they'd have opened yesterday...as I thought that would be so fitting on Memorial Day, since my favorite memories of Memorial Days growing up were of placing bunches of peonies at the cemetery with my dad.  

(Incidentally, we had a very quiet Memorial Day here. Thinking of and thanking all those who gave their lives in service for our country! Memorial Day, for me, has also always been a time to remember all those who are no longer with us, not just service men and women...so I paused yesterday to think about my dad, obviously, and all the other people who played a part in my life but are no longer present in it.)

And now I must go chat with Micah (who's getting worked up again, lol) before letting the boys have some down time before karate. After that, we're going to need to stop and get some shorts for Noah, who somehow has none again.