Soccer Update

Caleb scored his very first goal this Saturday! His team also won, so it was a very exciting day!This has been a really good experience for him, and he's having so much fun (especially with daddy being the assistant coach for his team)!

Pumpkins!

I love fall. I love the cooler weather, the colors, and pumpkins. The past few years we got our pumpkins from a semi-local farm where we also pick berries throughout the year. This fall, I was feeling the need for cooler weather (there are years that we get our pumpkins in shorts!) for our pumpkin patch trip, so we headed north to the mountains. We arrived a bit before lunch to outrageous crowds and a line for the hayride that was easily an hour long. Hmmmm. Time to rethink our plans! We decided to take our picnic lunch to a nearby state park to eat and hang out for awhile. It was a beautiful day!It has been awhile since we've had time to just be together....it was so fun! We went back to the pumpkin farm later in the afternoon, only to be asked to leave because we had our dog! :( We're new dog owners.....who knew pets weren't allowed on a FARM?!? Oh well....Michael wasn't too excited about the hayride anyway, so he and JJ took a nap in the car while the kids and I did that. It was fairly cool, so he was able to roll down the windows and leave the dog asleep in the car while he came to help the kids pick out their pumpkins after the hayride. It was a very productive day.....3 big pumpkins, several little ones, AND a dog-etiquette lesson! What more could you ask for?!? :)

I Feel Like I Have a Newborn!!

Never having been responsible for a puppy before, I was surprised how very similar it is to having a new baby! :) He sleeps a LOT during the day......

And is awake a lot during the night!! The first week was crazy! It didn't help that Michael was out of town that whole week, we were hosting a Fiesta to celebrate the end of our 'travels' through Mexico, and I had a bone marrow biopsy (nothing serious, but good grief...I was SORE!). We did take an extra week to get through Mexico and to recover....that made a world of difference. I feel like we're ready to start Canada on the right foot tomorrow. And as an added bonus....he slept through the night last night. Woohoo!!

Mexico has been very fun. We started the two weeks by setting up a "bus" in our kitchen. Caleb was to be our bus driver for our trip to Mexico, but once we all boarded, he got shy and Abby took over for him! He keeps asking when we're driving to Canada, so maybe he'll be willing to drive tomorrow!

Our fiesta was SO fun. We had 6 families, for a total of 15 kids. We never did get to our pinatas, but my friend, Wendy's kids did, and they were kind enough to bring one to display and one to break (AND due to my "soreness" she came early to help me set up and decorate! Many thanks to her!!!) The kids had a great time!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our study of deserts. There has been some talk on the Yahoo groups about the Science being dry or light in ECC. To be honest, there are some pages that we skip, but my girls have really enjoyed notebooking after the daily readings. I feel like between that, a couple of extra things that we've done from Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World, and a couple of DVD's...they've learned a lot. We are fortunate enough to have access to BBC's Planet Earth DVD's. I have been SO pleased with how well they have coordinated with what we're learning. I would not recommend allowing especially young children to watch these without parent supervision....especially if your kids are squeamish. We have fast-forwarded through a few things, but overall....well worth it!

We are settling into a new routine...puppy and all, and we're looking forward to travelling to Canada!

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

We are now the proud owners of a dog! Kelsey has been wanting a puppy forever, so we decided that she could have one for her 10th birthday. He is a little bit early as her birthday is not for a week and a half, but she is so excited to have him. He is a short-haired Havanese, and she named him J.J. We picked him up right after lunch today. So far all has gone well. He did start to cry as we got in the car. My girls were both soon in tears thinking that he was crying over leaving his litter-mates. As soon as I convinced them he just wasn't too sure about the riding in the car thing....everyone was happy again! He soon fell asleep and did great the rest of the way home. He is now passed out cold in his kennel....so apparently it has been an exciting day for him as well! This is a video that Kelsey took of her new puppy.

Soccer Star

Caleb started his first season of soccer today. He is playing on an Upward team. The girls have played on Upward basketball teams and we have been very happy with our experience with them. He was SO excited to get his uniform and play his first game. His team is the Junior Bears and they won their first game 2-1!

Mini-golf Determination

While we were camping, we played a round of mini-golf. Here is just part of a video of my son's determination to conquer this particular hole.

Camping

We just returned from our second annual Labor Day weekend camping trip with the Timms Family. We had BEAUTIFUL weather....sunny and warm enough during the day to spend some time at the lake,

but just chilly enough in the mornings to allow us to pull out our long lost sweatshirts and enjoy some hot chocolate!

The girls all brought their Nature Notebooks and sat down together to work on those.

Michael had a close up encounter with nature while we were there.

These signs were posted everywhere, so I was careful not to let my kids wander around off the paths.....no one told me the snakes would come into my campsite!!! We were all over at the Timms' campsite (it was late and DARK!), and Michael ran over to get our extension cord. After unplugging our lights from the cord he felt something hit his foot (did I mention he was wearing flip-flops?!?). He put the light from his very little flashlight down by his foot and sure enough.....copperhead snake! It wasn't super big.....12-18" but hello, it was by our table!! I had just sent 2 of the girls over there alone to get water bottles from the cooler that was on the table! He threw his hammer at it and injured it enough to keep it still. Then he and Michael Timms went back with a bigger, brighter light to look for any snake friends and to finish it off. Needless to say, we didn't sleep super well that night! :)

Caleb had a much happier nature encounter....he caught his first fish!! Of course, I wasn't there and so neither was the camera, but here is a pretty cute picture of him fishing with his daddy.

On Saturday, we hiked ALL the way to the top of Fort Mountain. There was a beautiful view from up there. We would have been able to see forever if it had been a little clearer.

Near the top of the mountain is a stone tower and rock wall.

The where, why, who, and how of the structures is a mystery (did I mention that I hate mysteries?? I'm very much a "need to know the facts" kind of girl!). There are several different legends.....one of which has a Prince Madoc from Wales building the structures in the late 1100's.....some 300 years before Columbus! The big question is if Prince Madoc was even a real person.....or just a made up legend. It's very interesting to me that even with all of the research, there is still so much that we will probably never know for sure.

And now, back to school and every day life...... :)

The First Two Weeks of School

One of my goals this year is to slooooooow down and enjoy our days a little bit more. These days spent with our kids go by so quickly on their own, without me hurrying them along the way. The past two weeks have been good for that, as we are not full swing in to every subject and some of our "extra" activities have not started yet. It was nice to just be at home and enjoy our introduction into our year of travels.

The first 10 days of ECC do a nice job of introducing globes, different kinds of maps, and atlases. We also started discussing other religions, and that not everyone believes the same things we do. I think this year will be very eye opening for all of us, and will hopefully give us a greater heart for missions.

All three of my kids enjoyed the activities. The girls had a great time making a map of their room to scale, and also a map of our community. The favorite activity for both of them was the Hands Across the World project from Global Art that they worked on for a week. They had so much fun coloring all of the clothes and putting the outfits together. We printed clothes from Making Friends.Another highlight of the week was our Globe Cake. We didn't get Asia and Australia on there, but we squeezed almost everything else on.Caleb loved the Creation unit and was SO proud of his book at the end. He learned his first official school Bible verse (John 3:16), and got a refresher course on the Pledge of Allegiance.

I did tweak some of the activities since he already knows his letters and sounds (thank you Leap Frog DVD's!!). Instead of having him find specific letters on his chart, I had him listen to words and place a button on the letter that either started (or ended....we alternated) that word. I felt like that was great practice for him to listen to individual sounds in the words. He is oh so competitive, so everyday as we sat down to this activity he said, "I bet you can't trick me today!" I'm finding that if I can turn pretty much anything into some kind of game or contest, he's all for it!!

I was reminded this week how much I really enjoy being with and teaching my kids. It is so much fun to learn and grow together, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool. We are really looking forward to 'travelling' the world together this year. :)

Homeschooling a Boy

I know, I know....I already said that homeschooling a boy is way different than girls, but as I was sitting at the school table this morning about to pull my hair out.....one of the major differences was staring me in the face.

Caleb is working on a Creation book. Every day, we make a page that corresponds with the day of creation that we're learning about. Friday was Day 5....Birds and Fish. Easy, right? Nope! It took FOREVER! I was kind of excited because he was really getting into it, and not just flying through it so he could get down from the table. Today, as we were doing land animals of the 6th day, it occurred to me exactly why it was taking so long. When my girls did this project as kindergartners, their attention was on the "activity". They cut, colored, and glued until the page showed what they had intended. Caleb's attention is on every single, itty, bitty, detail and wants to know how and why every single detail relates to anything that he has encountered EVER before. For example:

Caleb: "Mommy, this is a raccoon like RJ in Over the Hedge. Can raccoons live in the water?
Me: No, raccoons live on the land.
Caleb: Can they live BY the water?
Me: Sure.
Caleb: Can they stick their heads IN the water?
Me: I'm not sure....probably.
Caleb: Can they put their heads all the way UNDER the water?
Me: I don't know!
Caleb: Can I put my raccoon sticker with his head in the water?
Me: YES!!!
Caleb: This is a hippo like the hippos we saw on the science DVD we watched last week. Those hippos were in the water.....
Me: Just put the hippo in the water!!!!

Needless to say, he is so particular. Every sticker had a place, and every place had a reason. He really is doing much better than I thought he would. But, I have decided that he is going to be my child that forces me to slow down and enjoy more of the schooling process instead of just getting through it as fast as we can. He is also going to be my lesson in patience! :)

Here It Is....FINALLY!

The first week of school is done, our first Mom's Night Out for co-op is over and went very well, and tagging is DONE (three cheers and a happy dance for that!). I tagged 160 items....woohoo! So, after a long wait, here finally is the last week of Cousins Camp!

We spent a little bit more time "on the go" the second week. First on the to-do list was a day at the movie theater. They boys saw Wall-E, and the girls saw Kit: An American Girl Movie. My girls and I saw it when it first came out, but this was the first viewing for everyone else. Two thumbs up from everyone....it was darling!! The men didn't seem quite as impressed with their movie, but I think the little boys had a great time!

Mayfield is always a "must-do", so we headed over there one afternoon. This is an especially attractive picture of Tanner! :)

Tuesday, we headed back to the movie theater for the free summer movie, Robots. I had somehow missed that when it came out....maybe my kids were too little....I don't really remember, but I had never seen it. That movie is great on a big screen! After the movie, we had lunch in the food court. Here is the obligatory table picture, because again this is the only time it is possible to get a picture with ALL 8 of them at once.

While we were eating, some men came by and handed Kristin, my sister-in-law, several free passes to the new Monkey Joe's. It was so, so hot that day, so we decided Monkey Joe's would be a great afternoon activity. Here they are, all looking so pretty after jumping for two hours. :)

The next day we split up boys and girls. My mom and brother took the boys to a Magic Show at the library and to lunch. Kristin, Ali, and I took the girls to the American Girl Boutique and Bistro. It was a craft/activity day, so they made hair scrunchies and did a scavenger hunt. It was very fun!

After lunch, we did some shopping and then headed to Nathanael and Kristin's for an afternoon at the pool.

The three big girls and Ali had been working on a project since day one. Towards the end of the week they performed, Actions Speak Louder than Words, an American Girl play. They spent HOURS getting ready for it. They made a set, complete with props, costumes, a curtain, and back stage areas. We all received tickets with assigned seats and printed programs. They even served refreshments during intermission! They all did a great job, and had so much fun working on it. We even managed to get all the boys to sit through it!! Here is a short clip from the play.

When the two weeks were over, and everyone was starting to get sad, Grandpa came to the rescue with a trip to Sonic for ice cream. This particular Sonic is a favorite for the kids because it has a waterfall. I'm pretty sure they were all wet by the time we left.

We were sad to have everyone go home, but we were very thankful for the time spent together and the new memories made!!

First Day of School!

Today was our first day of school. I can NOT believe I have a 4th grader, a 3rd grader, AND.....a Kindergartner!! Michael asked me last night where the past 10 years have gone. My answer? We blinked. We decided then and there we were done with blinking! :) In all seriousness, our first day went really well. We went out for breakfast with Michael before he headed to work this morning. After breakfast, we went through the Starbucks drive-thru for me, dropped some books off at the library, and headed home for chores. They must have been at least a little bit excited for school, because they were done with their chores in record time! As I've said before, we are spending the year doing Exploring Countries and Cultures. We're all super excited to learn more about people groups, habitats, and cultures this year. The Olympics have been a fabulous start to that! One of the things they had to do today was apply for their passports. They filled out an application and a 'check' to pay for it, and the passports will arrive in a couple of weeks. Here are their passport pictures:

A year ago, I had read a post on a message board about a shower curtain at Target that was a map of the world. Knowing we had this year of geography coming in the not too distant future, I went and got one. It's been sitting on my shelf for a YEAR waiting for this day! After their geography pretest (boy, do we have a lot to learn this year!!), we spread the shower curtain out on the floor and took turns going from country to country. I think it will be a great hands-on addition to our studies this year.

This is the first year I'm balancing curriculum for all 3 kids and I have been a little nervous about it. Caleb, however, did great today. His kindergarten work was just the right amount of time for a boy on the go. Teaching a boy is definitely WAAAAAAAY different than teaching girls!! :) I think this will be a great year for everyone though. I'm excited to see all the things we get to learn and do together!

Oh Yeah, So THIS Is Blogging.....

So....it's been a few weeks since I've done this. People are starting to notice. My neighbor stopped me on the street two nights ago and said her girls keep asking when I'm going to update my blog! :) (Hi Jaime and Linz!) Really.....I've sat down to do it a few times. Twice I had SO much to blog about, that I was just completely overwhelmed and I got up and walked away. The last time I finally decided to do it, and my blog wouldn't load! GRRRRR! I've also been spending a bit more time on Facebook. Kudos to those of you who can maintain your Facebook AND your blog, and do them both well. I've decided I'm a one or the other kind of gal. So, here I am three weeks later, finally getting back to blogging.

I know a few of you are still waiting for the last half of the cousin's pictures. That's my next project. It will be here soon. I hope. :)

The day after my dad took the Seattle cousins home, I went to one of our local homeschool conferences with 7 other moms. We got 2 hotel rooms, spent the weekend at the conference, and had dinner all together at the Cheesecake Factory (YUM!). It was such a great weekend. Susan Wise Bauer was one of the speakers, along with her mom, Jessie Wise. I had the opportunity to hear Susan at the very first conference I had ever been to and was very impressed with her. When I found out she was coming to this one, I told all of the other moms how fabulous I thought she was. Once we all got there, and were seated in her first workshop, I had a moment of panic.....I thought, "what if she wasn't really all that great, and it was just because it was my first conference and I didn't know any better?!?" I was terrified that I drug all of these poor ladies along with me, and that she would be awful! I was not to be disappointed. She was THAT fabulous. I know, I know, we could have all kinds of debates over classical vs. Charlotte Mason vs. whatever.....but that wasn't the point. She had so many things to say that I can apply to my family, with the curriculum we already use, in our every day lives, without being totally overwhelmed. Some of the things, I was already doing, but didn't really understand WHY I was doing them, and therefore, I feel like now I will do them more effectively. Some of the things, I knew I should have been doing, but was overwhelmed with the HOW, and so I just wasn't at all. I did pick up her new book, Writing With Ease, and I am super excited about that because it will be so easy to use along with the History and Science that we're already doing. She was able to sum up ALL of our writing/spelling issues in one hour, and sent me out the door feeling much better prepared to face this year. Long story short....it was AMAZING, and I'm so glad I went. (And as an added bonus, we had a blast staying the night and going to the Cheesecake Factory. Thank you to everyone who went, I had a great time!)

After the conference was over, I spent the next week wrapping up co-op registration, ironing out small :) kinks in the schedule, and putting together the class schedule and descriptions. Thank you to Wendy and my husband for all of your help during the last 2 weeks with that. Poor Wendy, I called her with a major scheduling issue while she was in bed with a stomach bug. I'm lucky she didn't hang up on me!! If you're interested, here is how the schedule turned out. Now that is done, and class sign-ups are almost over.....now I can focus on getting ready for school to start! Did I mention that was in five days?!?

Last on my "to-do" list for this week and next is TAGGING. If you live anywhere near the metro-Atlanta area, you have probably heard of Kidsignments. It is a HUGE kids consignment sale that takes place twice a year. I sell and shop there for a good bit of my kids' clothes every year. If you are a seller, you get to go to the presale and shop before it opens to the general public. This is a big deal. I am literally gone for at least 8 or 9 hours. It's exhausting and crowded, and we stand in line for hours.....BUT I get some great deals and that makes it all worth it. However, before you can even get to the crowded, exhausting, standing in line part, you have to TAG. Every article of clothing, every toy, every book, has to have a preprinted price tag on it. I'm hoping to sell at least 150 items.....I better get going!!

So.....now you're all caught up and I'm not near as overwhelmed with the thought of blogging. I'll get pictures up soon!

Week 1

Well, after one week, 2 birthdays, 2 bottles of bug spray, 1 bottle of sunscreen, approximately 100 bottles of water, a case of Coke (mostly for the moms and grandma), 3 trips to the poola diving competition,

2 parks, 3 sleepovers, 4 manicures/pedicures by Grandma, an entire box of sidewalk chalk, quite a bit of ice cream, and a LOT of paint/markers and paper......I think the first week was a success. Here are more pictures (especially for the ever patient mommy in Seattle that has not said one word to me about the fact that I have not blogged all week long....thank you Carlee!!).