A Look Back ~ September

Besides going to Disney, we had several other things going on during the month of September:

We visit Pap once a week in the nursing home.  Often times, we bring cookies or other sweet treats!

I forgot to add this to the Disney posts and Homeschool Highlights.  Each car had a map and colored in the states of license plates we saw.  This was Gavin's map and they had a few more states than us.

This is Macie's map from the girl's van and we were so pumped to find Alaska!

Aunt Julie had a kitchen "purging" party and gave Lilah this crystal vase. She was so proud!

She added some embellishments!

Lilah's school picture

When the boys went to a Jr. Thunderbolts game, the girls and I had fun at home.  We watched Aristocats and had some yummy snacks!

Lilah made this cute crown for Gavin's pikachu.

The kids made pictures and wrote notes to Uncle Alan.

Lilah failed her eye exam at school and so I had to take her to the eye doctor.  At first the doctor said she was fine, but after further testing discovered that she is slightly farsighted.  For now, we are just supposed to keep an eye on it and come back in a year.

Lilah found this onesie from her first birthday!  Even though she couldn't snap it, she could still put it on!

We had the Whitley kids over to spend the night.  We made homemade pizzas, did crafts, and had ice cream sundaes.

Eislin and Lilah

Ryland and Gavin

Dylan and Macie

Top: Dylan Bottom: Macie

Top: Gavin Bottom: Ryland

Top: Lilah Bottom: Eislin

To support hurricane relief, Lilah was able to dress like "Florida" or "Texas" for school if she donated money.  Since we'd just been to Disney and we were leaving with all of the evacuees, it only seemed fitting that she dressed like "Florida".

A Look Back ~ August

Once again, time has gotten away from me and I haven't been blogging as much as I wish.  I enjoy looking back at the small moments, so here's a look back at August:

I don't always love having my picture taken and I don't always think I look that great, however, my kids don't see that part of me. They only see the beautiful side...so when they ask me to take a picture, I try to oblige.  These moments fade too fast!

Our neighbor, Chad, sent us this photo.  Emilee was checking them out when they were setting up for a yardsale!

Room Swap: Just when we get things settled, we change it up again!  Right before school started, I was wanting to clean out Lilah's room.  Well, on a rainy Sunday, the girls came to me and said, can we change our rooms to a sleep room and a play room.  While it was totally not what I had planned for that day, I decided to go ahead and tackle the project knowing that I'd be really happy at the end to get rid of more stuff and have two clean spaces!

How can you not just eat up that grin?!?!?!

He's lost two of the teeth they were going to remove during surgery so I was teasing that he was just being frugal and trying to save some money!

We love it when all of the cousins get together!

 Lilah's Soccer: Lilah has been looking forward to playing soccer for a long time.  She was able to play in the Mater Dei league and Motoux and really liked it.  She had to miss three games because of Disney, but still was able to play in 7.  I just cracked up because it was a Mater Dei team and she wore Memorial's royal blue!

 Happy Anniversary Aunt Gloria and Uncle Bill!: My aunt and uncle celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 19th.  Brian and I will hit 10 this year and it is hard to imagine 50!  They had a wonderful celebration with great food, music, and fun!

There was a kids area with rock painting, bubbles, and play dough!

Glow sticks were a huge hit once it got dark!

Naptime!  School wears this girl out!

Soccer Sass!

The cutest luggage I've ever seen! 

Hanging out with Uncle Alan

Homeschool Highlights

Routine?: We've still been plugging along with school around here.  Even though we are in our third year, it's taken us a bit longer to get into a routine.  Our Disney vacation and Lilah starting school at St. Joe have definitely thrown us for a loop!  We FINALLY feel like we are starting to get into a groove and of course have a million Riley trips coming up.  But, I am once again reminded that this is why we homeschool.  We need FLEXIBILITY and GRACE.  We wouldn't survive without it!

Wesselman's Science: Signing up for this science class was a must again this year.  It will be Macie's last year and she will have to move up next year!  So far, they've done sessions on the solar eclipse and bodacious beetles.  I am so impressed with this program and how much they cram into 90 minutes! 

Freezer Cooking: I've been doing a lot of freezer cooking lately and I enlisted the kids to help me assemble some crockpot bags.  Reading recipes, finding ingredients, and measuring things are all great life skills!

Mneme Therapy: Macie has been doing Mneme therapy for about a year now.  I thought it would be neat to show a picture of her first painting and her 20th painting.  All I can say is, WOW!

The Spooky Tree

The Rocky Beach

School on the Deck: As I've mentioned before, one of the joys of homeschooling is the ability to do it anytime, anywhere.  Many days, I prefer to do it in our school room to curb distractions, but it is nice to change it up!  On this day, we ate lunch and did school on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine and breeze.

Read Aloud ~ Judy Moody: I love reading chapter books to the kids and we've decided to keep Lilah included in this part of our schooling.  On this day, we finished reading our book on the trampoline!

Library Cookbook: Macie discovered kids cookbooks and craft books at the library, so as you can imagine, she was beyond excited.  She picked up a Paula Dean cookbook and made some amazing oatmeal cookies for us last week.  She was able to do it with very little assistance!

 Harmonie: Lilah was out of school last Friday, so we decided to take our schooling on the road.  We went to Harmonie State Park and the kids did some of their book work on the drive there and back.  We had a picnic lunch, finished a chapter book, drew nature art, walked Emilee around, and played on a few playgrounds.  Everyone was worn out that afternoon!

Oops...Blurry!