Vikings and Visitors

A few weeks ago, we had some pretty special Grandparents visit.  

We enjoyed a great weekend of lounging and visiting and then Monday rolled around.  A school day.  Grandma and Grandpa had some errands to run (and they were kindly picking up some things to fix one of my cabinet drawers!) and Dylan wanted to go.....this was great! I could spend undivided time schooling Ryan while Dylan enjoyed spending time with his grandparents! Except....Ryan was in tears because he wanted so badly to go too.  Well....what is the point of homeschooling if you can not take advantage of the flexibility it provides?  So around 10:00 am, two boys bundled into Grandpa and Grandma's car and headed out to run errands.   They returned several hours later, treated to Chick-Fil-A and sporting new hats and gloves.  Ryan still refers to this day as his "best day ever!" and Dylan has taken to wearing his bright orange gloves anytime we go out to run errands.

Another school day, the craft called for making viking shields and swords out of cardboard.  I had a webinar to attend that afternoon, but Grandpa was a huge help in making really awesome cardboard weapons.

 First, he and Ryan researched what type of viking design they wanted on the shield over the internet.

 Then the cutting and assembling began.   They used tin foil and brads and really strong glue.  Grandpa made the shields very strong using the same glue he used to fix my cabinet and doubling the cardboard (one on each side glued together).

 Obviously, Ryan loved this project and the time spent with Grandpa!

 When I came out of my webinar, these things were spray painted (black, silver, gold) and they were using duct tape to give it a cool edge.

 The final product was pretty awesome!  

and the swords turned out really sturdy and neat too!