A family visit, and some down time...

Last week saw the end of Bailey's 4H until fall. That means that as of right now, we have NO plans or schedules for the summer! Sure, we want to do things. But we will do them when we can, and we don't have to work around any other obligation. I love it! :) 

This past weekend, we went to hang out with my parents and my in laws. We hadn't been down since early April, and it was a good visit. The hubs and I took the boys, as well as my older nieces and older nephew to see Epic. We have never done a group movie thing, but I hafta tell ya...we can't wait to do it again! Everyone had so much fun. It's wonderful to see cousins having such a good time together. 

Great movie! "Actually, I'm a slug...ain't no shell over hrrr baby." HAHA!

We also go to help my youngest niece celebrate her 3rd birthday! My brother and his wife threw a little party, and set up a slip and slide for all the kids. Funny how those things never get old. :D 

For those that want to know...dish soap is SO much more slippery than baby wash, lol...

The birthday girl and one of her gifts.

I just threw this one in because of all of the awesome cuteness. :) The hubs playing with our youngest nephew...

Like I said, it was a great weekend. Hope to have another good visit soon. This week doesn't hold a lot of anything, other than playing catch up. Catch up on laundry (as usual). Catch up on house cleaning (more focus on thinning and goodwill-ing, rather than cleaning, lol). And catch up on the summer schooling we are doing. 

At some point in the next couple of days, we hope to take a day and go to a park or nature center. With the weather playing back and forth, there should be some good science learning going on. Some weather lessons are in order, I think. ;) 

In addition to the science fun, I think I will throw some extra math and social studies games at the boys, and call it enough. They have been working hard on their spelling and reading, I think I can back off of that for a few days, to give them a change of pace. 

That's all I've got right now. We are gearing up for a special summer movie thing at a local theater. Each week over the summer, they are showing all of the Harry Potter films in order. How freaking awesome?! I can't believe my boys are going to get a chance to see some of our FAVORITE movies on the big screen! Bailey was only 2 when the 1st movie came out, and Braeden...well gosh...I think they were on film 3 or 4 by the time he was born. We are so excited about this, and it's going to be a great addition to our summer! :)

Zoo trip!

This past week went really well. We finished up our soccer season on a great note, we got a chance to relax and rest, and I got to read a couple of new books (the last Sookie Stackhouse and the latest Stephanie Plum) which I haven't done in a while. We also took the boys to see the new Star Trek on Saturday. I actually enjoyed it. Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch is one of my favorite actors right now, so that helped. :) 

Yesterday was a lot of fun. After spending the morning and afternoon chilling at the house, we headed to the ATL for the evening, to participate in Dragon*Con volunteer appreciation night at Zoo Atlanta. It was raining almost the whole time, and we were all super soggy...but it was great time!! We laughed a lot, we got to see some cute animals, there was a special fire performer (breather/twirler...I have NO idea what to label him, lol) and D*C even fed us. Outside of the gas to get down there, we didn't have to pay a penny for anything! It was a fabulous evening, and I thank the Powers That Be at D*C for putting this together for their volunteer staff!

Because you're never too old to put your head in a hole. ;)

Pandas! They are my favorite animal at the zoo and the boys love them too. They are soooooo stinking cute!

This week should be mellow. Bailey has a 4-H banquet tomorrow evening, and practice for that today (he has a scripted speaking part), and we are going to visit our families over the weekend. We haven't been down since way before vacation, and my niece is having a birthday party. Other than that, we will be at home. Wow...nice to say that and mean it, lol. There is a lot of stuff I would like to do around the house, so fingers crossed that those things at least get started. 

The boys will plug away at school. It's nice to be on "school-lite" right now. To be honest, we all still feel like we are recuperating from vacation. At some point, I have to find a program, or programs, for Bailey for the fall. Gulp. We both wish we could stick with T4L. Use the same curriculum for high school that we used for early child education. But unless something changes between now and September 1st, that ain't gonna happen. Sigh. 

I have to run to Hobby Lobby at some point and try and get some magnet materials. The boys love playing with magnets, and Braeden has had some questions about how they work. I will try and have them work on age appropriate magnet lessons, and if I can find some magnets of different strengths to play with, that should be fun. 

Other than that, I don't have a thing planned. And I'm ok with that for now. :) 

I have some work to do, and some laundry to do (always!), then I might just find myself buried in a book again. Maybe. 

Have a great week!

And it's over...

Vacations are always too short, aren't they? We arrived back home about 1am this morning, but had a wonderful 10 days with the Bells and Harveys! After the nasty weather on the way down, the rest of the time was really nice. Not too hot, but pretty comfortable. Yay! :)

Our annual "1st pic of the beach" photo-op. 

We didn't do anything touristy this year really, but we did have a couple of new experiences. First, we rented a pontoon boat and spent half a day cruising the waters and checking out the sea life. I don't know why, or how to explain it really, but I hafta tell ya...the pontoon boat was one of the most relaxing things, lol! About half way through our boat ride, I could have curled right up on the floor and napped. The rest of afternoon I was just as sleepy. It was really nice though. We didn't see a ton of sea life, but we did see dolphins and lots of fish, and we docked at a little island and strolled around for a bit. All in all, a great day!

Most of our group, as we took off for the day. Tracy was navagatin' and Scott was photoggin'. :)

The most relaxed I've seen the hubs in a loooong time.

Dolphins!! :D

The other new experience we had was finding a new restaurant. I know that doesn't sound noteworthy, but it was absolutely incredible! So much so that even though we went on Thursday, we delayed our trip yesterday to eat there again before heading home! Meg O'Malley's is an Irish restaurant and pub in Melbourne, and I can easily say that it's my new favorite restaurant ever. Sucks that we will only visit it once a year, but it's so freaking good we would plan an entire vacation around eating there, lol! We all had something different both times we visited, and we sampled pub fare such as Bangers and Mash, Shepherd's Pie, Fish and Chips and more. Sooooooo good.

The kiddos, waiting for their food more patiently than the adults were. :D

The hubs and I, and the "Wall of Guinness." He giggled like a little child... ;)

We also celebrated a birthday while we were down there. Q turned 15! We had dinner at Longhorn's, and a Walmart cake at 10:00 at night. Do we know how to party or what?

There are hundreds of photos I need to sort through, and I really, really, REALLY hope I actually get to them and post some before Christmas. Now, it's back to reality. Work, school, soccer and summer stuffs!

The boys technically school year round, but it's lighter in the summer. We are pretty much on our summer schedule as of this week. Lighter T4L, a summer program from VSC to keep their spelling sharp (games like definition match are fun practice for both spelling and vocabulary), and Bailey's reading about some summer activities for teens over at LHSHS.com. Braeden is also going to play around with a new homeschool science curriculum for elementary grades. Neither of the boys can have too much science, lol.

OMG...speaking of science...we just found out that BOTH Adam aaaaaand Jamie, from Mythbusters, will be at Dragon*Con this year!!!!!!! We all squealed like we'd lost our minds when we heard this. The boys met Adam a couple of years ago, and it was most definitely a Con highlight for them. Jamie doesn't really do public outings like that, so to say they are excited is a huge understatement.

Now I've rambled. It's because I'm stalling. Heh. I hate unpacking, just as much as I hate packing. Gah! Ok, off to try and be responsible. Try. TRY. ;)

Vacation!!!

We are finally on our annual beach vacation! :)

The drive down was awful. We left about 5pm on Thursday, right after Bailey and Q were finished with their last class at Master's. It was rainy and gloomy the WHOLE way down. 500+ plus miles of  icky. But, we pulled in at about 330 am, and have been enjoying ourselves since!

Friday was pretty much an unload, unpack and catch up on rest day. While our family and Tracy's family drove down Thursday, Jen and her munchkin flew down Friday...so between snoozing and unpacking, we did take a trip to the airport to pick them up. Yesterday we did a huge church yard sale and headed to a local comics store for Free Comic Book Day!

We don't really know what the rest of the week has in store. We know that at some point we will see Iron Man 3. We know that we will have lots of beach time. We know that we will meander around historic downtown Melbourne (they have some great shops down there, and an Irish pub that the hubs wants to visit). We will more than likely visit the local nature center again, because that's a family favorite.

As far as schooling goes...we will be an unschooling family this week, rather than our normal relaxed, eclectic homeschooling family, lol. Not that that suprises anyone. We are on vacation after all. :) They have books to read. I have some word searches and crosswords they can work on if I feel they need to. They have done, and will do, some activities on their SpellingCity iPad apps and they are spending some time learning more about the local animal habitats here. That's enough learnin' right?

For now, I'm off to doctor some sunburn (I'm fine everywhere except the tops of my feet of all places!!) and enjoy some group board game time. Bailey and Z are treating us to dinner and dessert tonight. Yum! :)