Homeschool Convention

Memorial Day weekend means the homeschool convention....an event I look forward to all year. As per usual, it was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, a mere 35 minute drive. Because Colby has always been napping, each year we seem to arrive around 5:00 o'clock and it's a bit chaotic with the convention hall opening at the same time. Plus, I can never bring all the stuff in myself so I have to valet park and have a bellman bring up our stuff which just causes a delay and money out the door. This year things were different. Firstly, Colby is mostly done napping so it was a piece of cake to leave the house at 1:00 pm. Secondly, I figured with everyone helping, we could manage to get all of our stuff in by ourselves. No more valet! Here we are Thursday afternoon...parked in the front row of parking to boot. We did have to drop the dogs off at the kennel first so our weekend got a little more expensive this year.

I think we pulled it off!

We went early so that we could try to get rooms next to the Bergherms, Biris, and Hazens. The found four rooms next to each other but unfortunately ours was the only one not ready. We put our stuff in the Hazens' room in the meantime. After a few hours, and now after 4:00 pm which was the regular checkin time, I hadn't heard from them about our room being ready. We traipsed back to the lobby and were told it still wasn't ready and they didn't know when. I thought that a bit odd although the lady was at least nice. I decided to forgo being next to the friends and we took a room on the floor above. We decided it was a little nicer view than the one on the fifth the previous year.

Room 6129. Writing it down so we can compare next year!

We got settled and then it was off to the big convention hall to be overwhelmed by all the tables and tables and tables of curriculum. Actually, each year I get a little less overwhelmed. This homeschool convention in Orlando is the biggest in the country with over 17,000 persons attending (as of 2015) so there is a lot going on. There is, of course, way more to it than just curriculum. In fact, no surprise here, the busiest spot in the whole hall was the booth selling fidget spinners. I do not comprehend the popularity of those things but I'm happy for the people selling them.

I have been blessed with such a great group of friends. Vasti, me, Jennifer, and Leslie. Not pictured: Ashley. Leslie is new to homeschooling and we were so excited to have her there this year.

Duncan arrived in the early evening which is a big help. He is basically in charge of the kids during the convention so that I am free to do all my browsing. The highlight of their day Friday was the new water slides that we were in awe of as we pulled in on Thursday. We didn't make it to Gaylord during Christmas as we usually do so we were completely surprised to see the new additions. Very exciting! One of them you stand sort of in this shoot with a door that closes you in for a few seconds and then the bottom drops out and you go straight down for some odd feet. We watched for a little bit on Thursday afternoon and we noticed one girl, who looked about Aubree's age, go into the shoot about three times and then come out...apparently her nerves got to her. I was wondering if the girls would actually do it. And they did without any problems! Honestly, they are braver than I because I am not a fan of waterslides at all. They freak me out.

It's a long shot but you get the picture.

Kids did a scavenger hunt around the hotel. Daddy is apparently a little more liberal with the binky usage.

I got all of my shopping done on Thursday and Friday since of course, I wasn't purchasing on Sabbath. The last bit I had to find was something for Science. Vasti is one year ahead of me and she reported that the human body stuff for first semester involved a lot of cutting of diagrams of the body so I decided to go in another direction. In the end, I'm just getting something off Amazon.

Duncan took the kids and dogs hiking through the Seminole Forest (?) on Sabbath afternoon.

I love the juxtaposition of the dog heads. Duncan didn't even notice it!

It did seem like I bought a lot (sometimes it's just really hard to resist buying something even if you aren't sure if you'll ever use it. What can I say...curriculum excites me!) of stuff and I marveled that I was only purchasing for two children. Imagine what it will be like with FOUR! It is hard to picture that day.

The girls had their well visits last week. Calleigh was right along her same track but although Aubree's height is on a nice slope up, her weight curve is becoming significantly "uncurvy." She only gained three pounds this year and three pounds last year. The nurse practitioner we see wasn't overly concerned but she gave some tips on getting more calories for her and also recommended Pediasure (a 240 calorie drink they do twice a day). They are very expensive but I've gotten some for Aubree and also Brady as my non-vegetable eating boy could no doubt use some extra calories as well. But, they're both already getting sick of them so not sure how long we'll last.

Also regarding Aubree, she's had some mosquito looking bites on her face that have just never gone away. I finally remembered to ask and the NP said they are "spider telangiectasia." It's not a big deal but the only way to remove them is by laser. We won't be doing that now but perhaps in the future.

The NP tested the girls iron because of our vegetarianism. The girls had never had their fingers pricked and were relieved it wasn't a big deal. Their iron was indeed fine.

Calleigh - 10 Years

Weight - 80 pounds (68th percentile)

Height - 57 inches (84th percentile)

BP - 112/74

Shoe Size - 5

Clothing Size - 12

Aubree - 8 Years

Weight - 50 pounds (22nd percentile)

Height - 50 3/4 inches (58th percentile)

BP - 108/60

Shoe Size - 1

Clothing Size - 7

A couple of big things for Calleigh. First, she finally reached that coveted 57 inches mark a few weeks ago which means she is officially out of her booster. She was pretty sure that every one of her friends was already out of their booster but I told her that I didn't care, she wasn't out until the recommended 57. So there you go! Secondly, a girl's size 5 shoe is the same as a woman's size 7. I am a 7. She and I now have the same shoe size! Only a matter of time until she's wearing my shoes although I have a feeling she will be passing me.

In other news, we have started our swimming lessons up again for the summer with Brady and our newest swimmer, Colby. After just three lessons, he's swimming under water to the edge of the pool and most importantly, he likes it! I was a little worried about the whole "getting the eyes wet" thing but he did fine (I wouldn't say he liked it but he didn't cry). We got him his own goggles before lesson # 3 and that has made it even better.

Colby and Mr. Robin

Putting his face in on lesson # 1.

Just a snake after his swim in the pool.

This past week Aubree attended an art camp with Violet and a few other kids she knows. The camp was Tuesday - Friday from 10:00 - 2:30 in Longwood (about a 30 minute drive). The one problem was that we were still in school which seriously threw a monkey wrench into things but I knew how much Aubree loved art so I just went for it. And yes, it did throw our schedule off with two hours a day spent up driving back and forth but it was worth it to see all her projects. We only ended up doing partial school on the Tuesday and this coming up week seems so busy that I've decided to just call it a year. I was going to go through Wednesday (7th) but I don't see it happening. I told the girls all this today and Calleigh said "No, I don't want to be done with school." The weird thing was that I think she actually meant it?

She didn't quite have time to finish it at class so she brought it home.

Her teacher Miss Laura. I hope Aubree will be taking classes from her regularly come the fall.

The biggest news of the past two weeks, of course, is that Ricky and Ana had their baby! She was due June 4 but came early on Friday, May 26. I felt an instant kinship since my birthday is also on the 26th. She was born while we were at the convention and I tried to stay awake to hear about it when it actually happened but I didn't quite make it. She was born at 11:05 pm (CST) and was 7 lbs, 19 inches...Breana Nola Brace. She is so, so precious but I'm not quite sure which parent she looks like yet. Ana started her labor in the middle of the night Thursday which gave my mom time to hop on a plane early Friday and make it down there for the birth. Plenty of time as it turned out...not surprising for the first baby, of course.

Speaking of babies, my baby is slowly making his way out of babyhood. I have not been pushing potty training, at all, as my usual but the last few days he's been peeing in the potty on his own and keeping his diaper dry at night. He has yet to poop on the potty though so until that happens, I'm just cautiously optimistic that this could be it. The only problem with him using the toilet is that he often forgets to flush and the dogs like to drink out of the toilet so....yeah, I'm pretty sure the dogs drank pee. He is mostly finished with his naps, not necessarily because he won't nap (about half the time he will if you put him in the crib) but more so out of scheduling since we had to pick Aubree up during nap time last week. He still likes to cuddle with me in my bed with his binky and blanket though. Someone got him out of his crib the other morning and he suddenly appeared at my bedside. I threw off the covers for him to get in. For some reason I was in my nightgown instead of my usual sweatpants and t-shirt. He moans, "Noooooooo! I don't love your dress. It's ugly." I was somewhat appalled at the use of ugly. He was quite distressed about the whole situation and complained about it for about the next 20 minutes. The next morning when he saw me in my usual nighttime attire, he face lit up and he says, "Mom, I love your clothes!" So bemusing. Anyway, something I should add is that when he doesn't like something, he doesn't say, "I don't like cauliflower." He'll say, "I don't love cauliflower." I always say, "It's okay if you don't love it...just liking it is fine." I don't think he gets the humor though.

Here are some other pictures of what we've been up to the last few weeks:

Forgot to post this from when the cousins were here in March. The kids, or should I saw Nature Hunters, created this binder to keep all their pictures of cool animals they find. I'm still not sure what the whole pig thing is about.

This is an example of what's in the book...Toba, the beetle. They name all the creatures they find.

Calleigh got a guitar! She has wanted to learn to play for months and seeing Camden get one for his birthday made her even more desperate. We worked a deal that we would pay for half and she'd pay for the other half. She didn't have quite enough for her half so she said she'd pay us each month, "like how you pay for a house."

We will find someone to teach her in the fall but in the meantime, she's watching YouTube videos from a guy named "Justin Guitar."

See what I'm dealing with?? Dasher thinks he's a cat. We've gotten a shock collar to help train him.

The boys have taken this session off from ice skating so they bring their animals to have something to do while the girls skate.

Year end Homeschool PE picnic at Chapin Station.

We hit up the American Girl store on the Sunday before Memorial Day. No purchases were made but Calleigh was understandably drawn to the new girl, Tenney, because she plays guitar.

New play area at Florida Mall

Memorial Day at Grandma and Grandpa's.

This is the life!

We got the game Ticket to Ride for the girls for their birthday. It is SO fun! I need to get it to take to Nova Scotia.

Last photo at our Casselberry rental property. We sold it on Friday.

With Aubree at art and us running back forth with rental property stuff we had to do on Thursday, the kids and I ate at Hubbly Bubbly in College Park for lunch. Lunch for four for $18. Can't be beat! This place is a dream for a vegetarian with the lentils, hummus, falafels, etc. It is so delicious.