Special Outings

This past week we've had some opportunities to spend time with just a few kids at a time or in the case of the girls, with Grandma and Grandpa.  First up was Wednesday evening when Grandma and Grandpa picked the girls up at 5:00 pm and whisked them away for supper at Perkins (Aubree later told me that they went to a very fancy restaurant for supper.  Ha!) and then on to the Amway Center where they caught the Cirque du Soleil show called "Varekai."  Cirque du Soleil is kind of like a circus only much fancier.  The girls had a great time and were most eager to not only talk about the show but give me great detail on how Grandpa was taking pictures and movies even though there was a big sign of a camera with a line through it.  Oops!  They got home after 10:00 pm but I guess one of the advantages of home schooling is that you don't have to wake up at a specific time in the morning! Of course, Calleigh is my little night owl so it doesn't phase her in the least anyway.

Meanwhile, we didn't want Brady to feel left out so he had an evening out with Daddy.  Duncan was going to take him to Bass Pro Shops but I was anxious for them to be home by 8:00 so I could go to a Mom's Night Out event at a consignment sale so the boys spent their time at Chik-Fil-A.  Really, Duncan doesn't even need to take the kids anywhere specific because they are just so excited to ride in his car....as if it was a Jaguar instead of a Jetta!

I did make it to "Mom's Night Out."

Another one-on-one opportunity came on Sabbath when Duncan and Brady decided to check out another church...the Apopka SDA church where the kids are doing their soccer league.  We attend the 2nd service at our own church and they are taking the service in a different direction than we would like so we are considering either attending the 3rd service instead or perhaps going to a different church.  That would obviously be a big change as we love all of our friends at our church but we figured it can't hurt to see what else is out there.  The Apopka church is much smaller so they only have one service with SS starting at 9:30 and church at 11:00 which is the traditional way of things.

There were only about seven kids in Brady's class but Duncan said everyone was very friendly.  He discovered that the pastor was one of the fellows that was in charge of the kids' soccer who we thought was really nice but he didn't actually preach...a doctor that Duncan knew did.  But then, as I was looking through the bulletin, I discovered that the soccer coach was actually the associate pastor and the head pastor was someone named Steve Jencks who just so happened to be the pastor of the Cape Cod Church for many years and good friends with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Not sure why none of them mentioned this fact to me!  Anyway, I think we will all go back there in the near future so we can hear him preach and say hello.  The one downside of going to a church with SS first is that Colby naps in the car from about 9:40 - 10:30 on Sabbath morning which works well because he's just missing part of the church service and not SS whereas obviously if SS is first, he would miss a good portion of that.  

First one to Sabbath School.

Catching a snooze between Sabbath School and church.

Yesterday I got to spend a good deal of time with just the girls which was really nice.  First we went over to Ron and Elaine's for a terrific breakfast and then I went with the girls to Macey and Marley's birthday party while Duncan took the boys.  We took Duncan's car because there is a car seat and booster in his which doesn't work for the two boys.  The girls were very pleased with this.  The Whitakers moved recently so we got to see their new house and I now have a serious case of school room envy.  They homeschool as well and they have a phenomenally huge room which includes a sink and fridge even.  Lucky ducks!  But, I'm happy to at least have a separate room which many people don't so it's all good.

Jealous!

Oh how nice it is to be at a social gathering and not have Colby to worry about it.  I caught myself several times looking around as if to check on the boys but then kept remembering that I only had the girls and they didn't need to be watched 24/7.  I did have one little scare though as one of the triplets, Price, took a tumble off the stairs of their little kid pool and fell onto the concrete.  I didn't see how he fell but the girls said he somersaulted backwards.  I ran over and picked the poor thing up (he kind of reminds me of Brady with his blond hair) and there wasn't any blood fortunately but he did end up with a giant bump on his forehead.        

Birthday girls turning 7 and 9.  They are 1 year and 359 days apart so almost the same as Calleigh and Aubree with their 2 years and 2 days.  So it's always interesting to watch Macey and Marley and their relationship to see what we may have in store. 

I'm not really big into the girls doing make up at their young age but I can make exceptions for birthday parties.  When I came upon Aubree getting her toenails done, the first big toe was done and it was black.  I was like "Aubree!  Seriously?  You've never had your toes done before and you go with black??"

Fortunately Calleigh chose something more girly.

After the party, it was errand time.  Before the party, we stopped at JCPenney to get the pictures of Colby and then afterwards we hit CVS, Costco, another CVS, the gas station, library, and finally Publix.  We got home about 6:15 with the Isidros at our house so that Allen could watch the Broncos game.  When the girls found out that Braelyn was waiting for them at our house, Calleigh declared that it was the "best day ever!!"  What wasn't the BEST at all was that when I walked in my front door, I could say a happy and contented Colby sitting on the couch with Braelyn.  And then as soon as he saw me, he started in with the crying.  Duncan said he had been great the whole time.  He honestly was crying pretty much non-stop as soon as I got back.  Duncan finally had to take him out in the backyard so as not to completely annoy our guests.  So the moral of the story is that I guess it is ME who is the problem and apparently I need to be around less.

Without the boys around, the girls get the cart at Costco.

Got some beverages at the gas station.

The reason I wanted to get all the errands done yesterday is that I discovered that our school week goes so much better when we don't have to break up our day by going places.  On Monday mornings we have gymnastics so there is that but Tuesday - Thursday we didn't have anything going on during the day and it was wonderful.  There was no rush to get school done in the mornings so we are able get probably two thirds of it done and then the rest for the afternoon.  I imagine that once the weather is cooled off, as it is slowly starting to do, we will be outside more and do walks and such....I don't want us to be cooped up in the house for three days straight necessarily.

So yes, last week was a really nice week of school.  Calleigh did have her few moments, mostly when it came to having to write.  She is doing some copy work on a poem and she has to write two lines of it a day...not a big deal.  One of the days she really started complaining and said she didn't want to do it.  I encouraged her to just get it done and when she still kept complaining I finally said "Fine, just don't do it.  You're excused."    But she just sat there so I questioned what was going on and she said "I'm going to do it because I don't like it when you aren't happy."  I thought that was a rather insightful statement on her part.  Sure enough, she then proceeded to copy it without another word. Hmmm.

One of my new things is that I write on our board all the subjects that have to do for the day and then as they finish it, they erase it.  After the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer, we always do our word of the day and then Life of Fred book.  But then the schedule isn't set and I let them pick what they want to do next.  Since I've started doing that, Calleigh has picked Reading as the first thing which entails her reading a book of her choosing for 15 minutes.  I've been intrigued by her selection of doing this first.  Is she trying to get her worst thing out of the way or is there any slight chance that she doesn't detest reading as much as she used to?  I haven't asked for fear of ruining anything!

Aubree, on the other hand, is flying through her reading book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons."  She loves her lessons and we will do 2 - 3 lessons a day.  We are already up to lesson 20 and she is more than anxious to be reading other books.  I have a few BOB Books which she's done and a few others as well.  So it turns out that it might be Aubree that takes after me.  For some reason, I was thinking it would be the first born since I was the first born but it's not working out that way!

Another difference in the two girls...for Bible, Calleigh has to copy her memory verse in her best writing.  She is very hard on herself with the writing...trying to get it perfect.  I will give her this - - even though she hates to write, there is a HUGE difference in how neat her writing is this year compared to last.  So something is working!  The memory verse this week was about three sentences and she was adamant that she didn't want to do it it all in one day.  She would do half one day and the other half the next day.  Meanwhile, there's Aubree who insists that she's going to do the memory verse too (I had gotten her all the same worksheets as Calleigh because they advised that the younger kids may want to do the same things).  I told Aubree she could just write the first sentence but she said, "No, no.  I'm going to do the whole thing."  And indeed, she did.  When Calleigh finished the half of hers, she came over to see what Aubree was doing and I wondered if she would make some rude comment to Aubree but she just smiled and said "Wow, Aubree, you are a go getter!"  I had to laugh.  She had asked me earlier in the day what a 'go getter' was and I said it was someone who gets things done.  She was paying attention!

We've been studying Indians so we made a wigwam.

The finished product.

Love, love, love, these colored pencils. They write so smoothly and brightly. You can tell Calleigh's favorite color!

One of the things I really like about our Spelling curriculum (A Reason for Spelling) is that they have the kids practice spelling the words using all kinds of different mediums.  This week it was shaving cream which was a huge hit, as one would imagine.

Brady and Aubree refused to be left out.

Did create a bit of a mess.

Another great game for school that we just picked up at a yard sale.  Rack-o!  Awww, reminds me of Nova Scotia.  

Let's see...we have some news on the sleeping front.  All good news, in fact.  Last week I wrote that it looked like Brady was done with his naps but I'm taking back that pronouncement.  He more is than isn't.  I think it's a good thing.  I recently read that a 3-year old should be getting 11 to 13 hours of sleep a day and without his naps, he's not hitting that.  You would think that without a nap, he might sleep a little later than his general 7:15 - 7:30 wake up but it wasn't happening so I'm glad he's getting some extra zzzz's in the afternoon still.  As for Colby, he's been sleeping later in the mornings with about half his mornings going past 7:00 this week.  Yay for me!  I can take the daytime woes a little better if I'm at least not hearing from him at night which I very, very rarely do.  Oh, and I've decided that the new goal is that he will become much more pleasant once he's talking.  I was aiming for walking but that evidently didn't work.

On a day after a day with no nap, things like this happen.  He was mad about not getting a particular cup so he laid down on the chair to cry and ended up falling asleep.

Before I close, a few other comments and conversations with the kids...

Things you hate to hear from your son: "Well, when I'm a girl..." (In response to him not getting to wear fingernail polish because he's a boy).

Things you love to hear from your daughter: "I love the way you smell" as they give you a big hug and bury their face into your chest. (This was courtesy of Calleigh and see...you DON'T have to shower everyday!)

On the way to church, we somehow got on the topic of names of schools and I told the girls that I thought we really should come up with a name for ours.  So this ensued.

Me: "What do you think?  Any good ideas for a name?  How about the Grodack Academy of Higher Learning?"
Calleigh: "Nah, I don't like that.  I don't want Grodack to be in it."
Me: "Okay, well, maybe it could have something in the name that's part of nature.  Like how it's Forest Lake Academy."
Aubree: "We could have it be something we're learning about now.  How about Indians?
Me: "Umm, I don't think we're going to be called the Indian School."
Calleigh: "We could have it be "Christian School."
Me: "No, that's just too general.  I think we need something in front of Christian."
Calleigh: "I know!  How about Awesome Christian School?"

I wasn't sure if I should laugh because it was cute or to smile because she thought our school was awesome.  I guess both!

One day the family was sitting around in the living room trying to figure out where we should go and this happened:

Duncan: "Anybody have any ideas of what to do?  Maybe we could go to the playround?"
Calleigh: "What about if we go to the P-U-L-L?"
Duncan: "Huh?"
Me (whispering): "I think she meant to spell pool and didn't want the other kids to know what she's talking about.  Should I go ahead and send back our spelling curriculum?"

Okay, I just made that last sentence up.  Honestly, she is doing great with spelling so I have no explanation for that one!

Sabbath afternoon walk at the Oakland Nature Preserve.  

You probably can't see it but we saw an alligator with about 10 babies sleeping on it including one right between her eyes.  It was pretty neat!

The church next to the preserve.  

This is the girls gymnastics class on Thursday nights.  It cracks me up because it's all girls between the ages of about 5 - 8 and then there is one boy who is like 13 in it.  He's the kid on the far left.  He looks so out of place but it doesn't seem to bother him.

Have a great week!