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! :)

Beach bound!

Well, almost. We leave on Thursday the 2nd, and will be returning on Sunday the 12th. Our spring vacay is always a blast and we are so grateful for our awesome friends who let us go with them and stay in the family vacation home. They are a homeschooling family as well, so you know we have fun AND squeeze in some learning, lol.

One year we went to a nature center (I actually think we went to this on two separate occasions), one year we went to Kennedy Space Center and one year we went to a new zoo. We have no idea what we will do this year, but we will decide that when we get down there, and we know we'll love it!

We also make it a point to see a new movie together. And it always works out that it's a Marvel movie, lol. Iron Man 2, The Avengers and this year Iron Man 3! :)

The hubs will mostly have off for the week. He has a few things that he has to do as far as editing goes, but no writing work for the week. I will do a little work in the mornings or at night (just to have a little income come in when we get back...oh the joys of being self-employed and not having paid time off...) and the boys will mostly have off of school.

Yep, only mostly.

I know. So evil. ;)

They will take a break from their core program, and really only work on spelling and reading. They can do some spelling on their SpellingCity iPad apps (yay!) and I will print off worksheets from some of the activities so they can have some non-gadgety time. The worksheets also double as handwriting practice so woot for multi-tasking.

Braeden is working on identifying contextual cues, and VSC has a WhichWord activity that can be played online or made into a printable. Bailey is working on sentence and paragraph writing practice. Again, that can be done online or in a worksheet. Isn't it nice when things are so easy?

They will also have reading time. Bailey is currently working through a series by Raymond Feist. Braeden is working on his Beast Quest series, but has also asked to look for something to read on HomeschoolLiterature.com. This is a site focusing on literature for homeschoolers...books about homeschoolers, books by homeschoolers, etc. We'll see what we come up with.

See, that's not that evil after all, is it?

Today is hair cut day. Bailey takes off his fro. Braeden gets his mohawk. The hubs gets a little less shaggy. And I get a trim and convince myself that I should dye my hair purple (to match my new glasses!) after vacay, so the chlorinated pool and the salt water don't strip it right out. :D

Have a great week! Next time I shout at you all, it'll be with the sun on my face and the sand in my toes!

Here's one my favorite shots from last year's trip. My boys, Tracy's boys and Jen's sweetheart. :)

It happens too fast!

The kiddos grow up waaaaaay too fast. Most days, I would swear to you there is no way I have a teenager. None. He's still a baby. Then there are moments like this:

That's the hubs tying a tie on Bailey for the first time, because Bailey is getting ready for his first formal. Gulp, sniff... 

Saturday night was the formal for the 7th-12th grade students that attend Master's Academy. While the older kids met and did their thing prior to the dance, the 7th and 8th graders and their parents met at Olive Garden for dinner before heading to the dance. I enjoyed the gathering, and all of the kids seemed to as well!

After dinner, Tracy and I dropped of Bailey and Q, peeked inside to see the decorations, got a quick (and cute!) group shot, then took off to do some shopping. Bailey was so excited and not the least bit nervous...which is better than where I was. ;)

Saturday was a big deal for Bailey, and it ended up being a wonderful evening for him and all of the other kids. On top of all that, yesterday Bailey finally joined Facebook. He has already had a Twitter account (to follow artists and celebs that he enjoys) and a Pinterest account (because he can repin a bazillion troll face memes, lol) for a while, but those didn't make me as antsy as FB. Not sure why. Anyway, we stayed firm on the "when you're old enough that we don't have to lie about your birthday to create an account, we'll talk" thing. He turned 13 back in August, so it was time I guess. 

Even though it sounds silly, the formal and the new FB page together just seem almost overwhelming to me. Maybe it's because we homeschool, that I am able to hang out in this denial period about how quickly they are growing up? I mean, before you know it I'm going to need to find an SAT writing tutor for Bailey and we will be starting homeschool middle school with Braeden. SLOW DOWN ALREADY. Please. :D

I know it's crazy...but in my feeble mind I went from a newborn to this, in what feels like a day...

My very cute little boy handsome young man. Yes, those are skulls on his tie. He's mine, whaddiya expect? ;)

Tax season is OVAH!

Well, mostly. Tomorrow is my last day! YAY! :)

This past week was ridiculously busy, as I worked Monday through Saturday. Haven't done that since February. I'm not whining; I do realize that I am unbelievably blessed in that I only have to work outside of the home a short time during the year...but still...made for a long week, lol.

Add to that, we had soccer on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It was good though...both boys' teams won their first games, so that was a very encouraging start to their season!

The boys did well with school last week. I didn't have anything planned, but they plugged away at their T4L and they chose their own spelling lists. They also worked on making some stop-motion films using some modeling clay and an app on Bailey's iPod. Awesome stuff. I don't have anything to share right now because the boys want to tweak their technique before I start sharing with the world. :)

This coming week will start to quiet back down. I work tomorrow, but then I am done! We again have soccer on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Bailey has Masters on Thursday, and since Braeden is done, he and I are going to have a special lunch and enjoy some quality time together. Nothing else really going on.

For school, they will do their normal T4L thing. For spelling, I will have them work on some printable games and some worksheets. Maybe a crossword. I have to stay on them both about their handwriting...that will be focused on again now that I will be back home more.

Since I suck at laundry when I am home, you can imagine what my laundry area looks like after 7 days of me not home. GAH. I am going to try and tackle that (try being the operative word, lol), then we are going to proceed with a mini-marathon of more Battlestar Galactica. Courtesy of Netflix. :D

Have a great week everybody, and for those that wait until the last minute for your taxes, don't forget to have everything postmarked by tomorrow!