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| Ferry view |
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| Our little walker |
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| The view from our condo |
Pictures from the top of Mount Constitution:
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Quick Trip
World Traveller picked up a groupon deal to Orcas Island. We, of course, waited until school started to go. I'm not sure I'll have time to post about the trip but I wanted to get some pictures up at least.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Back to school
We started "back to school" last Wednesday. I admit that I was dreading starting up this year. Last year was a really hard year for us. I have always been a hands-on teacher and with a new baby, I didn't do much hands-on. Attitudes were not good-for mom and the kids. It was just a hard year.
I also lean towards a relaxed approach to homeschooling-especially elementary years. Now, I have a junior high (or middle school) student with my oldest starting 7th grade this year. I feel the need to be a bit more traditional. So this year, I forked out more money than previous years for curriculum. And this year, I am keeping grades for my oldest. The grades are more for practice. I do not want to hit high school and try to figure out how to keep grades and organize transcripts, so we are practicing that all now.
The kids were not too excited to start school. We had several comversations about attitudes and how we are all(mom included) going to have good listening, teachable hearts and good attitudes. I really worked on going with the flow and patience and we had a great first day! Really, the whole first forst two weeks have made this mom happy. We have some tweaking to do, (I do not like the math curriculum I ended up choosing for Creative Princess, despite much research) but overall things are going in the right direction. I am under no illusion that every day will be great. We have even had a tear or two but the goal is to have the right attitude, respond appropriately to the kids and just keep moving forward.
We took out the rice bucket for Little One to play with.
We have been dealing with a fair amount of sickness around here. Creative Princess started it off on our last days of vacation. Then World Traveller came home from a business trip, sick! Then it was my turn. Hopefully the other two stay healthy and miss it.
In August we took a family vacation with some of my extended family-two of my sisters, three of my nieces and their families-about 20 of us in all (including about 9 kids). We went to the beach and hung out. Our first day was an adventure. We rented a pontoon boat and went to find an island to hang out on. It took a bit to find a place and we had some issues but once we were there, we had a blast. All the kids loved the water and sand. We had also rented jet skis so everyone took turns with them. Heading back to the motel was interesting. The guys dropped the gals at a park. The plan was they would return the boat and jet skis (after filling with gas) and then get the cars and pick us up. It ended up taking 2 hours-longer than expected. Sadly, those of us in the park got eaten up by mosquitoes, except the two babies. Not a bite on them. We ended up not even eating dinner until 9:00. The next day was more relaxed with no boats or jet skis-just time at the beach.
August also brought Little One's first birthday. We had a "small" family party (small is in quotes because just my extended family brings about 25 people). We BBQ'ed and just kept it low key. Little One enjoyed it.
I also lean towards a relaxed approach to homeschooling-especially elementary years. Now, I have a junior high (or middle school) student with my oldest starting 7th grade this year. I feel the need to be a bit more traditional. So this year, I forked out more money than previous years for curriculum. And this year, I am keeping grades for my oldest. The grades are more for practice. I do not want to hit high school and try to figure out how to keep grades and organize transcripts, so we are practicing that all now.
The kids were not too excited to start school. We had several comversations about attitudes and how we are all(mom included) going to have good listening, teachable hearts and good attitudes. I really worked on going with the flow and patience and we had a great first day! Really, the whole first forst two weeks have made this mom happy. We have some tweaking to do, (I do not like the math curriculum I ended up choosing for Creative Princess, despite much research) but overall things are going in the right direction. I am under no illusion that every day will be great. We have even had a tear or two but the goal is to have the right attitude, respond appropriately to the kids and just keep moving forward.
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| Precise Prince's suspension bridge |
We took out the rice bucket for Little One to play with.
We have been dealing with a fair amount of sickness around here. Creative Princess started it off on our last days of vacation. Then World Traveller came home from a business trip, sick! Then it was my turn. Hopefully the other two stay healthy and miss it.
In August we took a family vacation with some of my extended family-two of my sisters, three of my nieces and their families-about 20 of us in all (including about 9 kids). We went to the beach and hung out. Our first day was an adventure. We rented a pontoon boat and went to find an island to hang out on. It took a bit to find a place and we had some issues but once we were there, we had a blast. All the kids loved the water and sand. We had also rented jet skis so everyone took turns with them. Heading back to the motel was interesting. The guys dropped the gals at a park. The plan was they would return the boat and jet skis (after filling with gas) and then get the cars and pick us up. It ended up taking 2 hours-longer than expected. Sadly, those of us in the park got eaten up by mosquitoes, except the two babies. Not a bite on them. We ended up not even eating dinner until 9:00. The next day was more relaxed with no boats or jet skis-just time at the beach.
August also brought Little One's first birthday. We had a "small" family party (small is in quotes because just my extended family brings about 25 people). We BBQ'ed and just kept it low key. Little One enjoyed it.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Catching Up
I would really like to get back to blogging semi regularly. I love looking at old posts and remembering what we have done.
Little One is 11 months old and it has been so fun to see her growing. The big kids absolutely adore her and I love it! Both have stepped up their responsibility. Oh, they still complain, but it isn't as often now. Precise Prince says he loves to watch Little One when I don't ask but doesn't like it as much when I ask. I just laugh at that.
Little One crawls on her feet and hands (as opposed to using her knees) most of the time. She started that when she made her way to our slate flooring. It's too hard on the knees.
Precise Prince and Creative Princess can sure get Little One to laugh. I'll have to get it on video. So much fun.
The big kids and I are really enjoying having a summer break (even if the weather isn't very cooperative.) I really burned out on school last year. I have always been a hands on teacher and with Little One in the mix, I wasn't very hands on. Mostly I assigned work to the kids, they did it on their own and then I corrected it. Boring! I was wondering if I was ever going to get motivated for next year. The motivation is coming very slowly but at least I see glimpses of it. I think I'll be ready by September.
Saturday was family camping with my very extended family-sisters, cousins, their families... World Traveller won the ladder ball competition last year with one of my cousins so they had to try to defend their title. Alas, it wasn't to be-they were out before the final round. We all had a good time and I am so glad that Little One handled the car ride pretty well. She has never been one to like the car so long car rides tend to be stressful.
A few weeks ago, the big kids tried to have a camp out in our yard. They made it until about 2:30am. To be fair, I had World Traveller go wake them and bring them in the house because it was thundering and lightening out.
We went to the Great Wolf Lodge back in May before the schools got out. That was a blast. We just took our time and even I had some fun on the slides. Little One enjoyed the water but it really flared her eczema so we kept her out of it for the last day.
Little One is 11 months old and it has been so fun to see her growing. The big kids absolutely adore her and I love it! Both have stepped up their responsibility. Oh, they still complain, but it isn't as often now. Precise Prince says he loves to watch Little One when I don't ask but doesn't like it as much when I ask. I just laugh at that.
Little One crawls on her feet and hands (as opposed to using her knees) most of the time. She started that when she made her way to our slate flooring. It's too hard on the knees.
Precise Prince and Creative Princess can sure get Little One to laugh. I'll have to get it on video. So much fun.
The big kids and I are really enjoying having a summer break (even if the weather isn't very cooperative.) I really burned out on school last year. I have always been a hands on teacher and with Little One in the mix, I wasn't very hands on. Mostly I assigned work to the kids, they did it on their own and then I corrected it. Boring! I was wondering if I was ever going to get motivated for next year. The motivation is coming very slowly but at least I see glimpses of it. I think I'll be ready by September.
Saturday was family camping with my very extended family-sisters, cousins, their families... World Traveller won the ladder ball competition last year with one of my cousins so they had to try to defend their title. Alas, it wasn't to be-they were out before the final round. We all had a good time and I am so glad that Little One handled the car ride pretty well. She has never been one to like the car so long car rides tend to be stressful.
A few weeks ago, the big kids tried to have a camp out in our yard. They made it until about 2:30am. To be fair, I had World Traveller go wake them and bring them in the house because it was thundering and lightening out.
We went to the Great Wolf Lodge back in May before the schools got out. That was a blast. We just took our time and even I had some fun on the slides. Little One enjoyed the water but it really flared her eczema so we kept her out of it for the last day.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Mother's Day
What a beautiful mother’s day we had! Creative Princess made me two books about
Mother’s Day. She made a scavenger hunt
for me that ended with the books and chocolate.
Precise Prince also gave me chocolate-peanut butter Dove-my favorite.
We took walk to the neighborhood park and enjoyed the
beautiful sun. I am so excited to see
sun in the forecast for the next week!
World Traveler’s mom came over and World Traveler grilled
steaks-delicious as usual.
It was a quiet day that I truly enjoyed and I feel very
blessed to have my family!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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