Hot Fun in the Summertime

We're kicking off summer with a bang.

Copycats in the wild

The kids had a homeschool field trip to the Wild Bird Fund, a space in the Upper West Side that rescues and rehabilitates injured birds.  We got to learn all about what they do there, why their work is important, and were able to even meet many of the birds.  This was especially fun for Holden who has taken a real interest in birds this year.

The pool where they teach ducks to swim

We also met up with their buddy Phoenix at Victorian Gardens, an amusement park in Central Park, for some rides, games, and too much cotton candy.

The kids and I headed up to Woodstock on Thursday and enjoyed a gorgeous day by the swimming hole, all by ourselves.  School isn't out yet in New York, so we still have most places to ourselves during the day.

This may be the last weekend that my peonies are in bloom

Nature journaling

Holden has found his happy place: reading in a hammock

We discovered how to turn a BBQ into a pizza oven and made the best homemade pizzas (I even made the dough from scratch).

 

Kevin joined us after work on Friday and we all cooled off on Saturday in the river.

With a lot fewer people there this weekend than in weekends past, the wildlife were even more plentiful in our garden.  Our mama deer and her fawn are still hanging around.  The baby has grown quite a bit in just two weeks since we last saw her.

 

And a family of foxes is living under our deck and were not shy about visiting us (right up on the deck, while we were sitting there!).  They have three adorable kits now that were playing around and nursing on mom, just like puppies.

 

The four of us headed back into the city bright and early on Sunday morning for Holden's last baseball game of the season.  The poor thing stood in the outfield for two hours in the blistering heat.  But apparently it was worth the trophy ceremony and pizza party in the playground after.

And of course we celebrated Kevin for Fathers Day by having dinner where else?  Our home away from home, the beer garden across the street.

Missing my dad today and everyday.  Happy Fathers Day to all!

xo

Animal Kingdom

The kids finished up school on Friday and Ella is now officially a middle-schooler!  We celebrated with sushi and then got to enjoy the end-of-the-year art show for their fine arts class.

 

We headed straight up to Woodstock after the art show and had an awesome weekend with our friends Alina, Tom, and Luke.  We're so happy we've been able to lure friends upstate to our new pad.

A rousing game of horseshoes

A walk along Cooper Lake

Tortoise sighting

In addition to the above tortoise, we also saw a beaver, two foxes, deer, fireflies, and even the International Space Station.  Did you know that you can sign up to receive texts when the Space Station is going to be flying overhead?

After having a great lunch back in the city on Sunday with our very good friends Chris and Crystal who were visiting New York, the kids finally got to get their hamster.  Ella's persuasive essay was indeed very persuasive.

Please meet the newest member of Team Skaggs, Bob Dylan.

Outward (and Onward) Bound

Kevin and I celebrated thirteen years of marriage this week.

Sorry, we didn't take a selfie of the two of us.

We all celebrated the first woman ever to be nominated for President of the United States.

The kids finished school this week which means that Ella finished elementary school.

They had a great time competing in a scavenger hunt in Central Park with their Math Club.

Ella still LOVES playing soccer.

And Holden still LOVES dressing up and chasing people with swords.

Ella submitted a persuasive essay lobbying for a hamster.  She awaits a ruling.

And the biggest news of all doesn't even have any photos to go with it.

Ella, Kevin, and I had an orientation at her new school.  Yes, you heard me.  She's going to middle school in the fall!  We're all really, really excited.  The school seems like a dream, so far.  It's a brand new 6-12 school that just opened this year.  They currently only have a 6th grade.  Next year when she starts they'll have 6th and 7th grades and will continue to grow one grade each year all the way through high school.  We're pretty proud of her because it sounds like they got a whole lot of applications for the incoming class.

While it follows the same standards that all public middle and high schools in New York are required to cover, they go about it in a very alternative way.  It's an Outward Bound school which means that they use real world issues and concerns to learn their academic content.  Throughout the year they work in various project-based expeditions where all disciplines (math, science, language, history, etc.) are covered following a single topic.  For example, one expedition last year was called "Down the Drain".  The students spent weeks learning about the sewage system in New York and how the Hudson River is affected.  They conducted experiments on the water, worked with a documentary film maker to create short films about the pollution in the river, incorporated art, math, engineering, even history into learning about waste water in a large city.  There are no textbooks.  When it's time to learn something, the kids all go out and do research and bring it back to teach it to each other.

Ella got to meet her "crew" - a group of 12 students who will stay together and meet twice weekly all the way through high school.  She saw a couple kids that she already knows through soccer and her previous school.  We got to hear from the principal and teachers and current parents who all have so much positive and exciting energy that comes with starting something new from scratch.  We also got to hear about the principal's previous experience starting a new school which helped put our minds at ease.  The school has even been in the news several times this year for their innovative approach to education.

Ella will start off the year with a 3-day backpacking trip with her new class led by Outward Bound leaders.  Fingers crossed, but I think we've found a perfect match.