Vacation catch up is over and now it's back to reporting just regular old life which, if I do say so myself, is pretty darn good. I'm now nearly three weeks behind so I'm going to try and comment on just some of the big things.
Adventurers Starts
This one took me by surprise because it usually starts the last Wednesday of August. But, this year the club is adopting a new schedule - - the first Sabbath and third Wednesday of the month and the third Wednesday was August 19 so off we went in a torrential, and I mean TORRENTIAL downpour. Earlier, there had been a downpour - - of tears - - from Brady who did not want to be in Adventurers. We finally deciphered (other than his natural inclination to not be involved in any kind of classes, etc) that he didn't want to go up on stage. Adventurers ended in April with all the kids going up on stage at year end to get their awards so that must be on what he was thinking. After some assurances that he wouldn't have to do that (although we hope he will come around!) and Calleigh mentioning "If you are the Adventurer of the year you'll get a $10 gift card," he begrudgingly capitulated. Of course, I had to stick like glue by his side all evening, but it appeared he was finally enjoying himself when we got to the craft at the very end of the evening. Hopefully things will improve as we go along! The girls, meanwhile, are very excited to be back and we noted that there seem to be a bunch of new people this year. I think it's the biggest group of kids in it since we started five years ago now with Calleigh.
CPR Class
I took a CPR class about six years ago because I wanted to be prepared now that I have kids. I had been thinking about taking it again and noticed the church was offering a class on a Sunday morning. I never got around to registering for it - - until Jennifer did the Heimlich on Bruce and saved his life. He was choking on a piece of Naan bread. That's all the additional motivation I needed and Elaine and I took the class on August 20. We were delighted to find Amy in the class as well. The guy teaching it was an actual EMT so he had a bunch of real life stories to impart on us and it was amazing how quickly the time sped by. The interesting thing is that while we were on vacation Duncan had listened to a podcast that basically said that the Heimlich was overrated and that it's the pounding on the back that is really the most helpful when someone is choking. I asked the teacher and he said "No, pounding on the back is BAD because it could get the item more lodged in." So now I don't know what to believe! I guess I'll try both if need be.
Colby Turns 2!!
Colby had his birthday on Thursday, August 27. In keeping with my anti-party persona, we just had Ron, Elaine, and Aunt Wanda over as a small, family gathering. What more does a kid need, right?? Especially when they are too little to know the difference....I made supper for the group, and then we had presents and ice cream cake. About an hour later, I was doing a major face palm when I remembered that I had promised myself I wouldn't give Colby sugar before bedtime. Because, yup, he didn't go to sleep until like 10:40. I have GOT to do a better job at remembering that little problem.
Earlier in the day we took him in for his annual checkup. Ahhhh, how I love it when the kids are all back in school. We were in and out in 25 minutes. Everything was in good order and here are his stats:
Calleigh Aubree Brady Colby
Weight 30 lbs 26 lbs 24 lbs, 11 oz 26 lbs (25th)
Height 34.5 inch 33 inch 33 inch 32.5 inch (10th)
Clothing Size: 2T
Shoe Size: 6
So basically, he's about the size Aubree was. It's amazing how much he's started talking in about the last six to eight weeks. He knows, I would say, hundreds of words now and can repeat, fairly intelligibly, anything you ask him to say. He calls his siblings by their names. I like to thing that he's growing out of his obsession with me but then things like this happen:
We were at church and I had taken all the kids to the front for the children's story. As we walked back to our seat in the last row, Aubree says she has to go potty so I let Calleigh and the boys file into the pew as Aubs and I quickly push the door to go out. Unfortunately, Colby spotted my maneuver at the last second and makes a dash for the door. Not in time! The thing bashes him off the face and he starts to wail. I pick him up as we walk to the bathroom and this is what happened.
Me:"Colby, you should have stayed with Daddy and not tried to come out the door."
Colby (deadpans from the crying): "Nope!"
Me: "But then you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm coming right back with Aubree."
Colby (as he hugs me tighter):"Nope!"
Me:"Next time you stay with Daddy."
Colby:"Nope!"
There you have it in a nutshell.
Call to Worship
Last Sabbath, August 29, we were asked to do the Call to Worship, in the form of a responsive reading for third service. They were having families do it for the month of August and my friend Irene from the hospital was in charge of it, hence why we were asked, I'm sure. There were two parts where the leader speaks and naturally, Calleigh and Aubree were very happy to do those parts. I knew there was NO WAY Brady would say anything on stage but I was hoping to get Colby to say "Happy Sabbath church." He could say it but would he do it on command in front of a bunch of people? We had to gather in the back about ten minutes before going on stage and as we waited, the guy coordinated things hands us two handheld microphones. Well, as soon as Brady saw those, everything changed. Apparently talking into a microphone is very, very cool because now Brady was all excited about saying "Happy Sabbath church" too. I was seriously astounded! I was curious to see what would happen. We got out there and indeed, he did it! Colby said it too. I was very pleased. The girls did a great job too although Calleigh stumbled for a few seconds on the word "splendor." They had memorized their parts but I guess you don't use that word everyday so it slipped her mine for a second.
If you want to watch us, click HERE and pick the date of 8/29 and go to the 3:00 mark (that means, three hours in). It is first/second/third service all recorded together.
Kids and Family Expo
This past Sunday we went to the annual Kids and Family Expo at the Orange County Convention Center. Oddly, despite living here now for 17 years, I have never been to the convention center. Check and check. The expo was a big event with a ton of booths from local vendors, shows, food, a petting zoo, etc. They also had bounce houses, bull riding, and a zip line. I was pretty sure that there was going to be an extra charge for those and sure enough, $15 a kid. Um, no thank you! To their credit, the kids didn't complain about not doing it at all. We really had plenty to do without it and we were there the whole time it was open from 11 - 5. We had such a great time! We saw shows of girls doing Irish Dancing, acrobats, Medieval Times, Gatorland, and martial arts.
The Medieval Times was Brady's very favorite, as you can imagine. One morning last week he started talking to me very excitedly about what the fastest creature on earth is: a peregrine falcon. This was a tidbit he had learned on Wild Kratts and a fact I admittedly didn't know so I felt duly impressed at his knowledge. Well, as we were waiting in line to get into the expo, several men dressed up as knights walked by us and perched on one of their hands was...you guessed it, a peregrine falcon. Oh, the look of joy on Brady's face. So, combining that falcon with knights brandishing swords, well, I'm sure it made Brady's month or even year. He is such a boy! At the end of the show, which lasted about 15 minutes, I was thinking to myself, "You know, maybe we should get tickets and go see the actual show." They were selling tickets at the expo at the discounted prince of $30. Still quite a bit for five of us so I pushed the thought aside for now. About fifteen minutes later as were strolling along, I suddenly heard my name over the loud speaker followed by a few more names and then..."Please pick up your prizes by Stage 2." I wasn't quite sure they said my name because people can botch it but I definitely heard "Courtney" and a Gro-something. I made a beeline over there and sure enough, there stood a lady handing out prizes. One other lady was there ahead of me and I heard the prize lady telling her what all the options were. That lady took tickets to Fun Spot which left the Medieval Times tickets available for me! Jackpot! Apparently the prizes were just randomly being given out to people who bought tickets to go to the Expo and I got lucky.
Speaking of lucky, while we were watching the Medieval Times show, they asked for a volunteer and who gets chosen out of about 100 kids but Aubree. They have her go up on stage and try to get her to hold this big, long weapon that a knight would hold in his hand while riding his horse to try and unseat his enemy. Of course, Aubree couldn't actually hold it up but then, I think that was the whole joke. A little while later, Duncan takes the kids to the Gatorland show while I shop nearby at the consignment sale (yes, they had a consignment sale AT the expo. Nice!). As I'm wrapping up at the register, I look over to the stage and who do I see on it but Aubree! Yup, she got picked again. A minute or two later, the whole show is over and the girls spot me and run over to meet me. Well, the look in Calleigh's eyes would have lit a piece of wood on fire. She was SO mad that Aubree had been picked twice and her not at all. Thus followed the dreaded..."IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" Fortunately, she got over it pretty quickly.
Celebration Health Assessment
With Duncan's change in responsibilities at work, we have been privileged with the benefit of getting "executive" physicals at Celebration hospital where they run you through a whole gamut of blood work, tests, you name it to assess how healthy you are. We both were looking forward to it although on some of it, I knew it might not be the prettiest - - like an EKG stress test where I would have to run on a treadmill to see how fit I am. Yikes! Nevertheless, it would be good to have someone tell me to my face that I need to get my act together. It was an all day event from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm which necessitated some help from the grandparents with the kids. We were most grateful! Duncan and I left the house at 6:15 am. Kind of reminded me of going to the hospital for my C-sections - - the kids all still asleep in bed.
It was a good day. They provided us with breakfast and lunch and everything flowed so great. We barely had to wait at any time. I did my stress test and she kept pushing me to get to a certain point and I finally made it there right before I could go no farther. It turns out that I was at 50% - - perfectly average. But as the doc pointed out "Not bad for someone who basically doesn't exercise." I'll take it! The neat thing about the day was that the majority of the results from everything were available at the end of the day and the doctor discussed each thing in detail. Everything looked great with me (I've never had my cholesterol checked before so thankfully it turned out to be excellent - - the doctor actually said that the ratio of good to bad cholosterol was the single most important piece of data to use out of everything they did for the day to assess your overall health. Interesting.) except that my Thyroid level was slightly high. He recommended I get it rechecked in three to six months. Of course, everything that they did to determine that you are healthy, doesn't necessarily mean you won't keel over in two months from a heart defect or something but it is nice to know generally speaking, things look good.
The one lowlight was when we got massages at the end of the day. The same lady did both our massages, Duncan going first. He had a dazed look on his face when he came out and I soon found out why. The lady, Gina, was unbelievable - - and not in a good way! I asked for very light pressure but it was not. AT ALL. I had to ask her several more times. It didn't take long for me to silently start praying that it would be over soon. At one point, she was crawling up my back on her knees. I started looking around for the Candid Camera. Seriously. Who does that?! When I finished and saw Duncan, he confirmed it was the very worst and he was afraid she was going to break him! Mercy! We will not be doing that again.
School Starts
I have been ruminating for the last few months, at least, about what to do for a math curriculum for Calleigh. We did Math-U-See last year but we only made it through like 22 of the 30 lessons before she just really completely lost all interest in it. So we switched to doing Life of Fred which is math in more of a story type format which she loves! There are many people who attest to it being good enough as a stand alone curriculum and I've been willing to do that but there's always something that nags at you....is it enough? We looked at Teaching Textbooks at the convention because I thought that something on the computer might hold her interest much better. She didn't express huge enthusiasm so I came to terms with just doing Life Of Fred. Well, about two weeks ago, out of summer boredom perhaps, she tells me that she wants to do the Teaching Textbooks. So I go ahead and buy it and it has been AMAZING. Now, granted, it's been mostly review from last year up to this point but she loves it! She's been doing Math at all hours of the day. I pray, pray, pray this holds up when things get a little harder. She has always hated to write so I think doing it on a computer and getting that answer instantly is very appealing to her.
We had our first day of school this past Tuesday, September 1. It's different now - - I actually have to prepare a little more than I did before now that I have two official students. I registered Aubree with Florida Unschoolers (an umbrella school) as I have done with Calleigh which means we don't have to report to anyone. That is what I like best. Calleigh, my girl that generally says she doesn't like school, was actually quite anxious to get started. Summer boredom again, perhaps? Aubree, of course, kept asking every day when we would start. Things started out poorly when Calleigh got upset that Aubree's "First Day of School" sign had color on it while her's was black and white (a total fluke) and then she was mad that Brady got the new green clipboard and she got blue (she changed her favorite color from green to blue months ago so hence why I gave them as I did). It was utterly defeating to have things start off with her already in a funk. Fortunately, she pulled herself together and everything went smoothly after that. As a little treat, I had made school shirts with our new name on it, school I.D. cards, and then gotten them each new clipboards. I had all these waiting on the table for them when we started and they were delighted. So yes, we officially have a name as we start our third year! Green Gables Christian School. I will feel terribly sorry for you if you don't know where the Green Gables comes from but just in case you don't, it's from the book/movie Anne of Green Gables. I feel like it is very fitting since we love the movie so much and it's in Canada which is so near and dear to our hearts.
We are three days in and everything is going better than I expected. You get a little "worried" because while we do joint subjects like Bible, Geography, Music, Art, and Science, that still leaves Math, Reading, Phonics, Spelling, and English that are done on an individual basis and I can't be helping two kids at the same time. Fortunately I have been able to maneuver it so that when one is working on a subject that requires my help, the other one is doing something where they don't need my input. I say I worry about it but then I think of all the teachers who teach multiple grades in a one-room school so obviously it can work! Again, three days in but Calleigh says to me "Third grade is so much better than second grade." I'll take it!
On Wednesday, we were trying to do her spelling words and I couldn't find our boogie board that she likes to use to write down the words. She asks me "Can I use the computer instead?" I agreed and thus was born the computer being attached to her hip. She and Aubree got the bright idea that they could type up stories. For the last three days, the girls have both been working diligently on their stories. Yes, it has been driving me CRAZY with the constant "MOM, HOW DO YOU SPELL ANNOYING?" from the other room. Me: "You spell it C-A-L-L-E-I-G-H." But no, seriously, I'm really happy to see them doing this and it just goes to show me that Calleigh may hate to write but it's only the physical act of writing she doesn't like - - not coming up with the ideas.
I think that gets us almost to the end. I'll leave today for next week. Before closing, a couple of quotes:
I was going to the consignment store with Calaubra to pick out a few gifts for Colby when Aubree says she has to go to the bathroom. I told her she would have to wait until we got there.
Brady: "I have to go potty too!"
Aubree:"You know what they say. Girls before boys."
Brady:"Only if you're a gentleman. And I am not."
We were at a yard sale last week and I noticed a TV, like the one I had in my bedroom at our old house three years ago, sitting on the curb as if someone was throwing it away.
Me: "Look what someone is throwing away!"
Brady:"An old-fashioned TV!"
A few more pictures...
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Adventurers Starts
This one took me by surprise because it usually starts the last Wednesday of August. But, this year the club is adopting a new schedule - - the first Sabbath and third Wednesday of the month and the third Wednesday was August 19 so off we went in a torrential, and I mean TORRENTIAL downpour. Earlier, there had been a downpour - - of tears - - from Brady who did not want to be in Adventurers. We finally deciphered (other than his natural inclination to not be involved in any kind of classes, etc) that he didn't want to go up on stage. Adventurers ended in April with all the kids going up on stage at year end to get their awards so that must be on what he was thinking. After some assurances that he wouldn't have to do that (although we hope he will come around!) and Calleigh mentioning "If you are the Adventurer of the year you'll get a $10 gift card," he begrudgingly capitulated. Of course, I had to stick like glue by his side all evening, but it appeared he was finally enjoying himself when we got to the craft at the very end of the evening. Hopefully things will improve as we go along! The girls, meanwhile, are very excited to be back and we noted that there seem to be a bunch of new people this year. I think it's the biggest group of kids in it since we started five years ago now with Calleigh.
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| Colby will be a "Little Lamb" honoree this year. |
I took a CPR class about six years ago because I wanted to be prepared now that I have kids. I had been thinking about taking it again and noticed the church was offering a class on a Sunday morning. I never got around to registering for it - - until Jennifer did the Heimlich on Bruce and saved his life. He was choking on a piece of Naan bread. That's all the additional motivation I needed and Elaine and I took the class on August 20. We were delighted to find Amy in the class as well. The guy teaching it was an actual EMT so he had a bunch of real life stories to impart on us and it was amazing how quickly the time sped by. The interesting thing is that while we were on vacation Duncan had listened to a podcast that basically said that the Heimlich was overrated and that it's the pounding on the back that is really the most helpful when someone is choking. I asked the teacher and he said "No, pounding on the back is BAD because it could get the item more lodged in." So now I don't know what to believe! I guess I'll try both if need be.
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| Elaine pretending this guy is Ron. Unfortunately, he would have choked to death. It is HARD on a big person like that. If it were to really happen, you'd have adrenaline on your side though. |
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| Meanwhile, Duncan took the kids to the American Girl store while I was gone. I guess Brady was too embarrassed to show his face? |
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| Apparently not too embarrassed that he couldn't play with the dolls. |
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| On to Bass Pro afterwards. |
Colby had his birthday on Thursday, August 27. In keeping with my anti-party persona, we just had Ron, Elaine, and Aunt Wanda over as a small, family gathering. What more does a kid need, right?? Especially when they are too little to know the difference....I made supper for the group, and then we had presents and ice cream cake. About an hour later, I was doing a major face palm when I remembered that I had promised myself I wouldn't give Colby sugar before bedtime. Because, yup, he didn't go to sleep until like 10:40. I have GOT to do a better job at remembering that little problem.
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| Gigi seems to think Colby will be potty trained sooner than Brady and gave him some underwear. Colby thinks it's very funny! |
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| Love the excitement! |
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| Not the best lighting but you get the drift. |
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| He seems so grown up to me! |
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| Sitting with Grandpa after the cake. Probably thinking of ways to annoy Mommy when he's on the sugar rush. |
Calleigh Aubree Brady Colby
Weight 30 lbs 26 lbs 24 lbs, 11 oz 26 lbs (25th)
Height 34.5 inch 33 inch 33 inch 32.5 inch (10th)
Clothing Size: 2T
Shoe Size: 6
So basically, he's about the size Aubree was. It's amazing how much he's started talking in about the last six to eight weeks. He knows, I would say, hundreds of words now and can repeat, fairly intelligibly, anything you ask him to say. He calls his siblings by their names. I like to thing that he's growing out of his obsession with me but then things like this happen:
We were at church and I had taken all the kids to the front for the children's story. As we walked back to our seat in the last row, Aubree says she has to go potty so I let Calleigh and the boys file into the pew as Aubs and I quickly push the door to go out. Unfortunately, Colby spotted my maneuver at the last second and makes a dash for the door. Not in time! The thing bashes him off the face and he starts to wail. I pick him up as we walk to the bathroom and this is what happened.
Me:"Colby, you should have stayed with Daddy and not tried to come out the door."
Colby (deadpans from the crying): "Nope!"
Me: "But then you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm coming right back with Aubree."
Colby (as he hugs me tighter):"Nope!"
Me:"Next time you stay with Daddy."
Colby:"Nope!"
There you have it in a nutshell.
Call to Worship
Last Sabbath, August 29, we were asked to do the Call to Worship, in the form of a responsive reading for third service. They were having families do it for the month of August and my friend Irene from the hospital was in charge of it, hence why we were asked, I'm sure. There were two parts where the leader speaks and naturally, Calleigh and Aubree were very happy to do those parts. I knew there was NO WAY Brady would say anything on stage but I was hoping to get Colby to say "Happy Sabbath church." He could say it but would he do it on command in front of a bunch of people? We had to gather in the back about ten minutes before going on stage and as we waited, the guy coordinated things hands us two handheld microphones. Well, as soon as Brady saw those, everything changed. Apparently talking into a microphone is very, very cool because now Brady was all excited about saying "Happy Sabbath church" too. I was seriously astounded! I was curious to see what would happen. We got out there and indeed, he did it! Colby said it too. I was very pleased. The girls did a great job too although Calleigh stumbled for a few seconds on the word "splendor." They had memorized their parts but I guess you don't use that word everyday so it slipped her mine for a second.
If you want to watch us, click HERE and pick the date of 8/29 and go to the 3:00 mark (that means, three hours in). It is first/second/third service all recorded together.
Kids and Family Expo
This past Sunday we went to the annual Kids and Family Expo at the Orange County Convention Center. Oddly, despite living here now for 17 years, I have never been to the convention center. Check and check. The expo was a big event with a ton of booths from local vendors, shows, food, a petting zoo, etc. They also had bounce houses, bull riding, and a zip line. I was pretty sure that there was going to be an extra charge for those and sure enough, $15 a kid. Um, no thank you! To their credit, the kids didn't complain about not doing it at all. We really had plenty to do without it and we were there the whole time it was open from 11 - 5. We had such a great time! We saw shows of girls doing Irish Dancing, acrobats, Medieval Times, Gatorland, and martial arts.
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| View from above |
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| Petting Zoo |
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| Checking out a gator. He offered to let them hold it but there were no takers. |
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| Medieval Times |
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| Irish Dancers |
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| I told Jennifer if she just did a few of these a year, she'd be set. Yes, that says $5,000! |
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| It was so funny. This princess was next to the guy below. Everyone stopped for a picture with her first. The girls had no interest in her - - they just wanted to get to the guy. But I made them take the picture with her anyway so she wouldn't feel bad! |
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| "What is that?" I say. "A transformer?" What do I know. Apparently it is Iron Man. The kids had no clue either - - just thought he was cool. |
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| Trying out some new scooter type contraption. |
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| Practically every booth had a wheel to spin to try and win prizes. My favorite was when we won the chicken Mcnuggets from McDonald's. |
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| Some little animal, native of Australia. I think it's called "Animal in your pocket" or something like that. Apparently you take it with you everywhere? |
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| Saw this lady walking out ahead of us. Look at her shoes. HOLY COW! |
Speaking of lucky, while we were watching the Medieval Times show, they asked for a volunteer and who gets chosen out of about 100 kids but Aubree. They have her go up on stage and try to get her to hold this big, long weapon that a knight would hold in his hand while riding his horse to try and unseat his enemy. Of course, Aubree couldn't actually hold it up but then, I think that was the whole joke. A little while later, Duncan takes the kids to the Gatorland show while I shop nearby at the consignment sale (yes, they had a consignment sale AT the expo. Nice!). As I'm wrapping up at the register, I look over to the stage and who do I see on it but Aubree! Yup, she got picked again. A minute or two later, the whole show is over and the girls spot me and run over to meet me. Well, the look in Calleigh's eyes would have lit a piece of wood on fire. She was SO mad that Aubree had been picked twice and her not at all. Thus followed the dreaded..."IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" Fortunately, she got over it pretty quickly.
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| Look at that face! Doesn't look too excited. I think she had to hold a lizard. |
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| Well OF COURSE you know what the kids were playing as soon as we got home!! |
With Duncan's change in responsibilities at work, we have been privileged with the benefit of getting "executive" physicals at Celebration hospital where they run you through a whole gamut of blood work, tests, you name it to assess how healthy you are. We both were looking forward to it although on some of it, I knew it might not be the prettiest - - like an EKG stress test where I would have to run on a treadmill to see how fit I am. Yikes! Nevertheless, it would be good to have someone tell me to my face that I need to get my act together. It was an all day event from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm which necessitated some help from the grandparents with the kids. We were most grateful! Duncan and I left the house at 6:15 am. Kind of reminded me of going to the hospital for my C-sections - - the kids all still asleep in bed.
It was a good day. They provided us with breakfast and lunch and everything flowed so great. We barely had to wait at any time. I did my stress test and she kept pushing me to get to a certain point and I finally made it there right before I could go no farther. It turns out that I was at 50% - - perfectly average. But as the doc pointed out "Not bad for someone who basically doesn't exercise." I'll take it! The neat thing about the day was that the majority of the results from everything were available at the end of the day and the doctor discussed each thing in detail. Everything looked great with me (I've never had my cholesterol checked before so thankfully it turned out to be excellent - - the doctor actually said that the ratio of good to bad cholosterol was the single most important piece of data to use out of everything they did for the day to assess your overall health. Interesting.) except that my Thyroid level was slightly high. He recommended I get it rechecked in three to six months. Of course, everything that they did to determine that you are healthy, doesn't necessarily mean you won't keel over in two months from a heart defect or something but it is nice to know generally speaking, things look good.
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| I don't think he's read a paper newspaper in like 12 years. |
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| At the mall with Grandma and Grandpa |
School Starts
I have been ruminating for the last few months, at least, about what to do for a math curriculum for Calleigh. We did Math-U-See last year but we only made it through like 22 of the 30 lessons before she just really completely lost all interest in it. So we switched to doing Life of Fred which is math in more of a story type format which she loves! There are many people who attest to it being good enough as a stand alone curriculum and I've been willing to do that but there's always something that nags at you....is it enough? We looked at Teaching Textbooks at the convention because I thought that something on the computer might hold her interest much better. She didn't express huge enthusiasm so I came to terms with just doing Life Of Fred. Well, about two weeks ago, out of summer boredom perhaps, she tells me that she wants to do the Teaching Textbooks. So I go ahead and buy it and it has been AMAZING. Now, granted, it's been mostly review from last year up to this point but she loves it! She's been doing Math at all hours of the day. I pray, pray, pray this holds up when things get a little harder. She has always hated to write so I think doing it on a computer and getting that answer instantly is very appealing to her.
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| Doing her Teaching Textbooks |
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| The boys occupying themselves while we do school. I recently picked up these used desks for $20/each. |
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| Clearly they had OTHER things they were doing besides hanging out under desks. This is typical of how our school room looks at the end of school. |
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| We are doing "Exploring Countries and Cultures" this year so Calleigh had to do a pre-test to see how many countries she could label at the beginning of the school year. She was VERY excited about the assignment. She got 22. |
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| Colby got to help with an art project. |
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| Aubree's finished one. |
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| Each evening I clip a checklist to their clipboard so they'll know what they need to do for the day. We don't use the columns on the far right but I don't know how to remove them. |
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| I told Duncan we need to get a new laptop. When they are both using these, I'm left with nothing! |
I was going to the consignment store with Calaubra to pick out a few gifts for Colby when Aubree says she has to go to the bathroom. I told her she would have to wait until we got there.
Brady: "I have to go potty too!"
Aubree:"You know what they say. Girls before boys."
Brady:"Only if you're a gentleman. And I am not."
We were at a yard sale last week and I noticed a TV, like the one I had in my bedroom at our old house three years ago, sitting on the curb as if someone was throwing it away.
Me: "Look what someone is throwing away!"
Brady:"An old-fashioned TV!"
A few more pictures...
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| Love how he always uses whatever he can get into for his toys/weapons. Nothing like a beater to really threaten someone! |
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| Just one of his faces he makes that endears him to me. |
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| Went to a painting class with some ladies to support Jennifer and Ashley who were putting out new goodies and doing an Essential Oils talk, respectively. |
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| The artist's rendition. |
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| My rendition. The girls told me "Wow, it is ALMOST the same." Yeah, almost!! Have I mentioned that I am NOT an artist AT ALL and do not find it an enjoyable hobby? Sometimes we have to leave our comfort zone. |
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| "Look Mom! A heart!" |
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| Girls started gymnastics again on Thursday. Big class as you can see! |
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| Aubree designed these popsicle stick dolls on her own. I thought it was pretty clever that she came up with cut up rubber bands to use for the hair. She made our whole family, a house, and furniture. |
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| I guess this is why we keep all the old boxes. |