Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fall and Family and Fun!

Woot! First day of fall! I love fall. LOVE fall. I know I've covered that. But for reals. I love fall.

Moving on.

Last week went super. It was crazy busy, but everything really just worked out the way it was supposed to. The boys' soccer games went well, the cake deco class went well, the book club went well and my Moms Night Out trip to the Bodies and Titanic exhibits went really well! We are all so family oriented, but us gals foresee at least a couple of MNO events a year. ;)

This week is super exciting for the boys (for all of us really), because my niece is going to spend the week with us. Sierra and Bailey are eerily similar, lol, and they get along SO good. They have been wanting to spend time together and it worked out that this week was the week.

Even though Sierra is homeschooled, she is on break this week, so she's able to visit school work free. The boys aren't so lucky. We got a late start thanks to DragonCon, and we are hoping to take a fall trip later in October, so they just can't afford the week off right now.

On top of his normal work load, Bailey is going to have to work on his 4-H portfolio. He is doing another DPA (district project achievement) this spring and the portfolio (which is due soon) counts for 40% of his overall score. We are a little more comfortable with it this year. Last year he and I both were nervous wrecks because we hadn't really done a formal portfolio before. It's good practice for us though. Not only does putting together his 4-H portfolio help us get a feel for putting together his homeschool portfolio, but the 4-H portfolio can go IN his homeschool portfolio. Yay for multi-tasking type stuffs!

Braeden is not able to focus as easily as Bailey. I'm a little concerned about getting him to settle down and do his school with Sierra here, but I think I've convinced him that if he spends the week learning about science (his favorite subject), and squeezing in some spelling, I will be happy with that and will leave him alone, lol.

Even though we have a visitor, our schedule is packed yet again. Homeschool Minecraft Club and soccer tomorrow. Soccer on Tuesday. Cake deco class on Wednesday. Master's and soccer on Thursday. Aaaaand...Stone Mountain Homeschool Day on Friday with friends. YAAAAY!

I wish you all a fabulous week, and I leave you with this:

COUSINS! :D



Sunday, September 15, 2013

Really Ready for Fall

Yep. I'm done with summer. Bring on the coolers temps, the pumpkins, the fall festivals and my favorite...the hoodies! :)

I had to post this...we seem to be all about the ponies here lately, lol. Credit for the image is HERE.

Soccer season is in full swing, and for whatever reason, we are really struggling this year. I don't know if it's the multi schedules. It might be the fact that this is Bailey's last year with this recreation department and we are worried about where he's going to play next season. I know everything will work out, but you know that whole "uh oh, change is coming" thing. :/

This past week was a busy one for us. We are adding more and more activities to our calendar than we EVER have. It's a lot, but we are all having fun. Monday, the boys went to their first ever Homeschool Minecraft Club meeting. That was SO exciting for them! I was actually surprised at how many families came. The kids sat around at a BK, all playing on their computer/gadgets, but they all interacted with one another! It was really cool. This is an every other Monday thing, so that works well for me.

Wednesday evening, Bailey and Z had their first course in their newest cake decorating class. If you remember, they did this back in January too. That one was the intro/basics course. This one is the fondant and gum paste course! They both have been really looking forward to this one, and it's been postponed for one reason or another since June.

Thursday was Master's, and Friday was our first park day with a new homeschool group that we have recently joined. The boys played while the moms chatted or did their thing. There are a couple of different book clubs going on, and I joined in on one. We are reading The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I think I will. And I've never done a book club before, so yay for me! :)

This upcoming week will see us having soccer, either practice or a game, every day except Wed and Fri. No Minecraft club, but we are having a "play date" at a friend's place on Wednesday. Last pool day before they close their pool. Following that will be another cake deco class. Master's on Thursday. Friday, myself and 3 other friends are having a Mommy's Night Out! I am SO excited! There are a couple of exhibits in Atlanta that we have been wanting to check out; Bodies and Titanic. On Friday, they are having a special free event for educators, to come check out the exhibits to see if it's something we want to expose our students to. Yep, homeschoolers qualify as educators. So not only is our night out going to be fun, it's going to be frugal. Woot!

As far as school goes, the boys are doing great with T4L. With all of the added activities we are doing, they are finding that they need to do school on the weekends to avoid getting behind, but they don't hate me for that, so all is well, lol. This week we're going to work in some vocabulary lessons about compound words, and I am going to have the wee one watch some educational videos (NOT YouTube for once!).

Man! That was a lot! If anyone is still with me, I thank you. Sorry for being so wordy, but there was a lot to tell this week. I will try to "cliff notes" it for you next week. :D

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Whew!

DragonCon came and went, and it was a blast. As always. The boys had a great time. They got to dress up, they went to panels, they got to meet famous people. :)

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

A view of the crowd, at it's LEAST, lol.
Bailey's Effie Trinket costume! He really pulled this off! :)

Braeden's Rainbow Dash costume. He loved this. :)
The boys and their friend Z in his Rorschach costume.
Silas Weir Mitchell. Monroe from Grimm.

Claire Coffee. Adalind from Grimm.

Manu Bennett. He was in Arrow, The Hobbit, and others.

Edward James Olmos. Admiral Adama in Battlestar Gallactica. So say we all! :D

Tahmoh Penikett. Helo in Battlestar

Nicholas Brendon. Xander from Buffy! :) :)
Lee Majors! The Six Million Dollar Man!! 
Sherrilyn Kenyon. One of my FAVorite authors! 
Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie! 

These are really the only pics we have. I will try and get some from Tracy, of the other costumes in our bunch, and of things we missed, lol.

This past week, on top of trying to recuperate from con, we had a busy week! We had soccer a couple of times, we had our monthly nature science program with Elachee. We met at Lake Lanier instead of the nature center this time, and it was a lot of fun! The boys learned about water treatment and filtration. Plus, we got to have a short little boat ride on the lake.

Even though we are supposed to officially start our school year after DragonCon, we failed miserably this year. Oops. So we will have our kickoff tomorrow.

Bailey will plug along with his new high school program, and Braeden will jump into 4th grade. They of course, will try to blow through the other subjects, to get to science (their favorite). I'm hoping I'm attentive enough to pace them. Heh. Bailey is hoping to learn a little about electrical energy. Braeden, bless his little heart, wants to do some of the science for kindergarten lessons on his science website. He says he missed them when he was in K, so he wants to do them now. Sigh. A couple of days shouldn't hurt anything, right? ;)

I'm off for now. I have 47 loads of laundry to do. I haven't done any since we got back from con, and we are all officially out of clean underwear. I rock, yeah? :D