So...We Had A Little Bit of Fun This Morning....

My friend, Wendy, is 40 today. She was not super kind when I turned 30, so I've been waiting for my chance to get her back. This sign is in her front yard (along with 40 silk flowers and a lot of black forks/spoons/knives). I asked my mom and brother to decorate the inside of the house. They took their jobs very seriously.
Her "Over the Hill" cane hanging from the chandelier:
Here's my silly boy. He got into a roll of string and some tape, and left his own 'personal' touches all over her house and yard. :)

She's on her way home from breakfast now. I don't think I'll be answering the phone when it rings!!

A Little Bit of School Panic....

Ok, so maybe I don't need to hit the panic button quite yet, but as I (finally!) got my kids settled down and in bed last night, I had a chance to sit down with my calendar. The cousins will be here in TWO weeks. They are also staying for two weeks, and will actually be leaving the day before our local homeschool conference. That means I need to get my ducks in a row before they get here. I do have a general plan, and thanks to MFW, it will be fairly easy to turn that into a detailed plan. BUT, I wasn't really planning on doing all of that in two weeks! There are a few things that are making me a little more stressed about school this year. First, we're MOVING sometime after school starts. Also, I have switched to Singapore Math and Spelling Power. I started using Singapore with Abby in the Spring, so I'm getting more comfortable with that (and loving it by the way!). Spelling Power on the other hand....I have not even opened the book (or the DVD for that matter!), so that will probably be first on my to-do list. I have to admit that I am a little bit intimidated by it, but I have spent a lot of time reading reviews and I'm hoping this is the answer to our spelling woes! So here is my tentative plan:

Girls:
Exploring Countries and Cultures
Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World
Singapore Math (on their own levels)
Spelling Power
First Language Lessons, Level 3
Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Handwriting and Cursive Success

Caleb will be a barely 5 when school starts, so I was planning on waiting until next year to start Kindergarten with him (I'm not moving him up at church this year), but he's BEGGING for his own school work. So, I think I am going to do MFW K with him three days a week, and continue working on his fine motor skills with Handwriting Without Tears, the other two days. I'm planning on taking 3 years to cover K and 1st, so by the time we're done, he will be where he would have been if I had held him back. Clear as mud?!? :)

I guess I'm going to go read my Spelling Power book now!

Cousins!!!

There is great excitement at our house tonight! For the past 2 summers, my parents have hosted Cousins Week.....a week for all of the grandkids to be together.

2006

2007
Because we are ALL in various stages of the moving process, it looked as if Cousins Week would not happen this year. Well, Grandpa surprised everyone tonight with tickets for all 3 Seattle cousins to fly here for two weeks! We are so excited! This summer has just not seemed the same without them here. As if being wound up from the last night of VBS was not enough....now this.....my kids are never going to sleep tonight!! :)

Something Fun....

I saw this on Heather's blog today, and thought it looked fun. Let me know if you decide to make one so I can see how it looks! :)


Here are the directions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's Mosaic Maker.

The Questions (with my answers):

1. What is your first name? Sara
2. What is your favorite food? Mexican Food
3. What high school did you go to? Redmond High School
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Matthew McConaughey
6. Favorite drink? Coke
7. Dream vacation? Disney Cruise
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Mom
10. What do you love most in life? Family
11. One word to describe you. Blessed
12. Your flickr name. forsuchatimeasthis

Rubbing Off On Me

I have been very fortunate throughout my life to be surrounded by people that I have learned from. Traditions, recipes, life skills.....my life is made up of bits and pieces of the people that are close to me. For example, thanks to Heidi, we make Christmas candy and Candy Turkeys every year. Because of Kristin, I make MORE Christmas candy, in more flavors and colors then I knew existed! She was also the one to introduce me to Oreo Balls and Facebook. Because of my mom.....don't even get me started. I talk like her, I look like her....there are too many things to mention here. Thanks to Wendy, I sell at and attend our local kids consignment sale every year. I also make double batches of cookies and freeze them in dough balls after our short-lived attempt at Once A Month Cooking. Because of Carlee, I now love guacamole and would love to be able to glean groceries like her, but as of yet, no such luck in Georgia. :( Thanks to Chris Pearce, I am growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and carrots in containers in my back yard (I'm SO excited!!). She also introduced me to egg rolls, which lead to my fryer, which lead to Southwest Eggrolls, Empanadas, and Donuts! Yummm!!! Because of Tami, I can drive through a thunderstorm without windshield wipers and I know how to escape from a 14-story apartment building. (Ok, that is a really LOOOOONG story.) This week, I have had the opportunity to learn something new from my friend, Heather, and I'm pretty excited about it. She recently posted about making her own household cleaners on her blog. You can read about it here. I have to admit that she is much better about being environmentally friendly than I am, so that is not what really got me thinking about this. After talking with her about it though, I realized that it is so much cheaper and so much safer my kids (AND environmentally friendly!!). So, I ordered the book, had a crash course with Heather over lunch the other day, and headed to WalMart to buy my initial supplies. The total cost for Window Cleaner was $.58!! A bottle of Windex was $2.83! And my homemade cleaner worked every bit as well as Windex. My book
came from Amazon a few days ago, so now I'm looking forward to trying some of the other cleaners as well, but it really did make me think of all the things that I have learned from my friends and family.....I would not be the wife and mom I am without each of you! Thank you!!

A Six Flags Father's Day

The girls and I received free tickets to Six Flags through a reading program that they participated in this year. Michael decided that was something he would like to do for Father's Day. Pre-kids, we had been to Six Flags in San Antonio and we have both been to the one in California, but we've lived here for 10 years and have never been to the one in Georgia. We had a great time! I think overall (at least for this time in our lives) we have decided that we are more of a Disney kind of family (especially Kelsey), but in a few years, I think Six Flags is going to be a favorite for the roller-coaster-loving boys. Speaking of the boys, my BABY decided that he was ready for his first 'big' roller coaster. He LOVES Thunder Mountain and Goofy's Barnstormer at Disney, but he's never been on a big one. As we were leaving, he told Michael he wanted to ride the Great American Scream Machine. We stood and watched it for several minutes to be sure he understood what he was doing....."Let's go Daddy!" So, off they went...little did I know that my husband was going to get in line for the front row!!! Michael said he thinks that this ride pushed him to the very edge, but when it was all over, he looked up at Michael, and said, "I'm OK!" :)

I think our favorite ride as a family was Thunder River. Here are some pictures of the girls on that ride.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The crowds were not bad at all. With the exception of maybe 3 rides, we walked on to almost everything with very little wait. When we got in the car, Michael said he had a lot of fun, so I think it was a great way to spend Father's Day. Here are the rest of the pictures from our day.

Pool Time

Here are a few pictures of swimming this week. The first is some kind of weird continuation of the male bonding that took place two weekends ago. They are 'racing' (SOOO slowly) across the pool on their hands...are there any words for 4 legs as white as these?

My two mermaids and the blueberry (Caleb's nickname when he wears his swimming vest!)

Staying cool during these HOT, HOT days.....

Painted Desert Soup

While we were in Hilton Head, one of Michael's co-workers SO kindly offered to watch our kids (and four others) so that we and 2 other couples could go out to dinner "kid-free". We (quickly!) accepted, and headed to our most favorite restaurant on the island, Santa Fe. Ok, so the atmosphere is great, the food is FABULOUS, but do you want to know the real reason we go there???Painted Desert Soup!!! Isn't it cool? And the best part is, for as cool as it looks.....it tastes even better! It definitely has a bit of a kick, but oh, my goodness....it is so yummy! If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it, and in the words of my husband....."get the grouper!" That is what I ordered, and he.....well, he did not. The next morning, before my eyes were even open, he announced (quite loudly), "I'm still ticked! I should have ordered the grouper!!" So, in an effort to avoid prolonged anger....if you ever visit Santa Fe, GET THE GROUPER!! :)

Fun in the Sun

We just returned from our yearly trip to Hilton Head Island, and we had a blast! As always, it is part business trip for Michael, so he is not with us for some of the time. However, the day he was working, the kids put in several hours at the pool, so they still had a fun day! The next two days we were able to spend quite a bit of time at the beach. Can I just say that the beach gets so much easier as the kids get older?? Here is a picture of the girls with their friend Jessica.

Here is the crazy boy being pulled around by his equally crazy daddy! :)

Last night we headed back to the beach to take the pictures that we had attempted to take in Jacksonville in April with my brother, sis-in-law, and their kids. We raced to the beach trying to get there before the sun went down, but it was quite a bit farther than we had been told and we did not make it before it got dark. So....I had these white and khaki outfits, I thought we might as well take advantage of them! I'm so glad we did too. While we were there, we met a couple that adopted a little girl from China, and now they are in the process of adopting a boy from Ethiopia. It was neat to talk with them about their experiences. Anyway, here's a few of the pictures.

And what would a trip to Hilton Head be without the men fishing in the alligator pond?!? They catch fish, dangle them over the alligators until they come up on the shore, and then drop the fish down for alligator food! Notice Caleb safely on Michael's shoulders? He kept saying, "Daddy, the sign says...DON'T feed the alligators!" :) This particular one was about 7 ft. long. He's half in the water and half on the bank.

Sign of the Times

Seen at the Hilton Head Shell Station....I couldn't resist taking a picture. Kind of sad when the people working at the gas station will admit to this, huh??