His Potato Has Hair!

Ok, so, not actual hair. But made ya look. ;)

The plant lesson that Braeden started a little while ago has been going well. Remember the potato head he made, and was growing grass in? Here's its progress:

This is the photo I shared last week, a day after he planted the seeds...

This is just two days after he planted the seeds...

One week after the seeds were planted...

And this is today, about 12 days after the seeds were planted...

Isn't that awesome?! He is SO proud of his little potato head. He's added a couple drops of water twice, but other than that, he's just left it alone and documented the changes every morning when he gets up.

We all had a good week last week, and this week is starting off very well. I had to spend yesterday at the tax office (nope, not tax time yet, lol) because we had some extensions to file. Bailey stayed home and got caught up on things he wanted to do, like his writing. He is not ready for SAT essay writing help yet, lol, but his creative writing is really coming along! Braeden went with me because he wanted some time with me. I know...awwwww. :D

Other than yesterday, this week is the first week in a while where we don't have to be out of the house more often than being able to stay in. I need to play catch up with some of my stuff,  and we are wrapping up soccer season. I'm going to try and stay on top of my work, and the laundry. Always with the laundry!

Until next time...Happy mid-October, errbody! :)

Doing something good...

I always tell the boys that I want to do more good around us. In our community. I'm quick to donate financially when I can, and I tell myself that the money is really needed and it's a good thing to give it.

But it's easy to donate money. I'm not saying that everyone has large amounts to give, I know I don't. But still...it's easy. You write a check, hand over some cash, click pay online, whatever. Once you've done that, it's done. You're done. You gave. Pat on the back.

It's really easy to forget that, even in our world today, there is something that we have that is worth far more to someone than our money.

Our time.

The only thing we truly own. One thing that many of us feel we never have enough of. Something that can make such a big difference to someone else.

A few months ago, I read an old friend's Facebook post. I haven't seen her in more than 20 years, but we reconnected (online at least) through FB a couple of years ago. The post was a quick explanation of her mom's battle with Alzheimer's. However, it wasn't just her mom's battle. It was about her battle. The battle that her children face. It was the pain and sadness that this horrific disease brings to everyone, not just the one who has it.  The story was accompanied by a link to donate or sign up to participate in a walk. The Walk to End Alzheimer's.

I decided right then, that I wanted to do it. I have never done a charity walk in my life, and for those that know and love me, you know walking 3 miles on a Saturday morning is never something high up on my "to-do list." :D

The boys (who, in their awesomeness decided to walk with me) and I ended up having a great morning, with some great people. We felt good physically, but we also felt really good knowing that we gave our time to a very worthy cause.

The other part of the week went well too! Bailey had his last cake decoration class. He and Z had a ton of fun with this particular course (fondant and gum paste), and they both did a fabulous job on their final project. I have to remember to download a picture that Tracy took of both of them, but here is one I snapped on my phone of Bailey's:

All told, he invested about 9-10 hours on this cake. The 50 calla lilies took the most time...about 6 hours. Pretty freaking amazing, if I do say so myself. 

The school week went fine for them as well. Wednesday they had their monthly nature science program, and we went to an arboretum to study trees. I don't really take a lot of pictures of school stuff, because I never think about it. I know, shame. I do document what they are working on, but photos elude me. This week however, I have photos!! Woot for me! ;)

Bailey isn't following a specific art curriculum, but he's improving a lot thanks to his art teacher at Master's. This is one of his current projects, studying shading and lighting and looking at an object while drawing it.

A bell at a church. This is an 18" x 24" sketch pad, so a lot bigger than it looks here.

Braeden combined art with one of his science activities. Well, kinda science. Plant science? He made a potato head. Per his words, here is what he did:

"I got a potato and I scooped out the inside. Then I put on googly eyes. Then I glued on a feather. Then I got three wet cotton balls and stuck them in the potato. Then I got a bunch of grass seeds and sprinkled them down inside there with the wet cotton balls. Now I'm waiting for the grass to grow. So my potato will have hair."

Now seriously...how great is my kid? ;) 

Here is his hairless-for-the-moment potato head:

If you look closely, you can see a little sprout of grass already,  right above my thumb. And no, this isn't a cyclops potato head...the other eye is on the other side, lol.

I don't really know what this week holds yet, but I'm all right (oh oh...side note...I *just* discovered that alright isn't a correct word, grammatically. Who knew?!) with taking it as it comes. I know it will busy, but I'm trying to not let it stress me out before it even starts. 

For now, I'm enjoying some down time with my guys. The eldest is making us his homemade fettuccine alfredo for dinner, and we are getting caught up on some our TV shows. Tonight is Sleepy Hollow, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Haven! 

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Stone Mountain Field Trip!

I have been wanting to take my boys to Stone Mountain for the longest time, but it never worked out. Outside of their special "homeschool day," the cost was just too great. Every time that annual homeschool day rolled around, we had problems fitting it into our schedule. Just never fell into place.

This year though, everything worked out. Aaaaand, it worked out so that we could take the niece with us, and we met up with friends for the day! Woot! :)

The weather was absolutely perfect for our field trip, and we all had so much fun. The kids did a sky hike type thing (totally counting that as P.E....you know me, meeting those homeschool requirements whereever we go, lol!) to start off the morning.

Braeden first...

Bailey next...waaaaay up high!

We also rode the train around the park, and learned some interesting things about the granite from Stone Mountain. We had no idea it was spread all over the place. There is some of it in the US Capital building and the Lincoln Memorial!

After the train ride and lunch, we played a round of mini-golf that felt like it was 47 holes long, but was fun. Then we hopped on the skyride. I really had to work myself up to this because I'm afraid of everything. But once on, it was beautiful, and such a short ride. Not to mention, you get to view the carving on the mountain from the neatest angle...

Once to the top, Brandi and I followed the kids around for a bit. Then we all just sat and chilled and enjoyed the fantastic view.

The day ended with a great dinner, then the boys and Sierra and I heading to take her home and visit my parents for the weekend. Much to the annoyance of my kids, I was able to extend our field trip over the weekend, by creating a couple of grade level word lists from words associated with our trip and the things we learned there. I made them (yep, made...) use said word lists to do spelling and vocabulary. I did not make them test or anything, or but I did make them practice by playing games like hangman and sentence match. Horrible of me, I know. ;)

This week Bailey has his final cake deco class and cake presentation. He is so excited, and has been working so hard. I can't wait to post pics next week of the final project!

Until next time...

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

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

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

Dragon Con Countdown!

This is one of the most exciting, and stressful, weekends we have ALL year! Why? Because it's the last weekend before we head to the ATL for Dragon Con! We are sorting through our packing lists, finalizing costumes and getting ready.

Our biggest "getting ready" item is hair dying, lol. It takes a lot to bleach and color three heads! The hubs doesn't really do the hair color thing. Pahty poopah.

Here are the three bleached heads:

And here are the color results:

Aren't they fun?!

We will leave Wednesday afternoon. Even though the con doesn't start until Friday, my staffing position starts Thursday morning.

Trying to weed down our autograph list is proving to be tough. There are a ton of great guests this year! I hate that they all cost so much money (both of the boys are math visual learners so we are actually taking the cash out of their wallets and dwindling it down with each autograph so they can SEE just how much money each one is). Some of the ones we are reaaaally looking forward to:

Jamie Hyneman (they met Adam Savage in 2010!)

Amy Acker - Fred from Angel

Edward James Olmos - Admiral Adama. So say we all.

James Marsters - Spike from Buffy...I met him a few years ago (Sigh), but since last DC, the boys watched all 7 seasons of Buffy with me, so they would like to meet him

Jim Butcher - author of the Dresden books

Silas Weir Mitchell - Monroe from Grimm

Eddie McClintock - Pete from Warehouse 13

Kris Holden-Ried - Dyson from Lost Girl. This is alllll me. He's so pretty.

There are more, but those are the ones I can remember without having to pull out lists, lol.

Needless to say, there won't be any school stuffs this week. In between crazy packing, both boys have soccer practice on Monday and Tuesday. I will double check the state homeschool requirements (don't wanna miss any new laws/changes), and submit my Declaration of Intent. That has to be in by 9/1. But beyond that? Naaah.

Ok. Fingers crossed we remember everything we need to bring. I will try to post some pics throughout the weekend. If nothing else, my next post will have photos and highlights.

Happy Dragon Con week, errbody! :)