Family Movie Night

Tonight, Me, Kelsea, Joshua, and Jeremiah are going to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy. That's right. All 3. We are big fans. Ishmael is visiting family, and Leon is away at IOLS training for Boy Scouts.



We like to make Family Movie Night special. We start with dinner and make something fun. Usually it's pizza. Tonight we set up a taco bar.



This is my favorite meal.



We also have a treat and some popcorn while we watch the movie. Sometimes we'll have brownies, or ice cream, tonight we had "movie candy". We take our favorite candies and divvie them up into little cups. I usually cut the Twizzlers in half so they fit. We have gummi bears, gummi soda bottles, and a square of chocolate each.



The "mom reason" for the cups is to cut back on the sugar while making it special for the kids. They get to sit in front of the tv with their treats. Having food in the living room is a big deal around here.

The drinks you see in the picture are actually unsweetened rasberry tea on ice. If you haven't tried this refreshing treat, you need to soon! It's perfect!

What sort of things make family movie night special in your house?

Boy Scout Training

Leon is headed off for a weekend of Boy Scout training. He will camp out, just like the boys do, for 2 nights.



It's always hard to spend the weekend alone without him.





I'm proud of the work he's putting in to being a Scout Leader. For me it means less stress to stay involved with both Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. I still sit on the Troop committee, and I'm usually there hanging out with several moms during his meetings.

Happy Birthday To Me

Leon baked me a cake...all by himself.



It was perfect.

The kids always get excited about my birthday...I'm not sure why. Jeremiah was so excited he couldn't stand himself. Notice my new earrings and necklace? He was in on the surprise. Kid had to work SO hard to keep the secret.


Leon always works hard to make sure my birthdays are special. I love that man!

Daydreaming

Joshua has taken to daydreaming. We were driving down the highway to take Kelsea to ballet. We had just crossed the bridge over the lake and I was preparing to take the next exit. I rode over the side of the road across those bumps (the ones that make the tires sound like a drill). Joshua snapped out of a trance and yelled, "Mom, you'll scare the fish!". Methinks he was daydreaming of fishing.

Then when reading our history lesson the other day, I paused midway to ask a question about the previous passage. Joshua answered, "My fingers are shaking, because they want to go fishing." Say wha??? What will I do with this boy...

Waxing Poetic

On reading the Canterbury Tales,

Calvin said, "The book is my droghte, it hath perced to my root."

Nice. Real nice...

Garden in Fall

This has not been the best year for gardening. It started off beautifully. My plants grew so fast and were so lush and green. The it just got too hot and way too dry. I got a fair amount of tomatoes, some peppers, and I'm just now getting cucumbers...if you can call them that.

My poor German Queen (bucket to the far right in wooden box) did not do well at all this year. She started off with a bad case of blossom end rot. But after I gave her a dose of calcium she didn't produce any more tomatoes at all. Now she's just withering away. The Celebrity tomatoes were very good, but much smaller than I was expecting. I'd say they were the size of a roma but round. The grape tomatoes were good. I'm still getting fruit off both of these plants.



I added a bunch of flowers this year. I decided I really love tending them. It's surprising because I'm not much of a flower person. I don't choose floral fabrics, and I don't care to get them as gifts. But I liked tending them. The pruning and watering each day was...relaxing. It felt good and I looked forward to my little chore each day.

My marigolds from the spring all died away. Leon bought me some Vincas and a Lantana. The Lantana was by far my favorite. The colors were so vibrant. Now it just looks like a bush...but I do see the start of a blossom. I'm hoping it will re-bloom for me.

*notice the Jedi Light Saber*





I honestly don't know what went wrong with my cucumbers. I planted them from seed. Next year I might cheat and buy plants.

Busy Busy Day

It was one of those days where I know I'm going to spend most of it in the car. We packed up our school work, filled up our water bottles, and hit the road.

After a few errands in the early part of of the day, we picked Leon up from work mid-afternoon. He was due to be in Lillington for Boy Scout leadership training. It was a bit of a drive, and he was worried about driving home that far late at night after a long day of work. So we worked it out so that we'd all tag along.



The boys explored the outside of the museum.











After we got Leon where he needed to be, we decided not to hang out in the heat and humidity. It was about dinner time so we headed over to McDonald's. I admit I was a bit terrified worried that this McDonald's wouldn't have internet access, being in the middle of nowhere, but we were safe.

I even let the teenager check her e-mail.



While Kelsea was plugging away inside, I went out to the play area with the boys and we went over science lessons together. The beauty of homeschooling, school is where the students are.





On our way back to the museum to wait for Leon, we stopped at the Cape Fear river. I've seen the river before, but never had much of a chance to explore it.



It was gorgeous.





We had a really good day, despite how long it was.

...we didn't make it home until almost 1 am...

Pointe

The battle to fit Kelsea for Pointe shoes has been long. No local ballet stores carry a size that fits her, on place even told her she would not be able to find shoes in a size she would need. Her feet are long, wide, and flat. Not a very helpful combination.

Gaynor Minden was there to help. We downloaded their foot tracing pages and mailed them in for our order.



We've been really nervous about the fit.



They're on. Here we go.



So far so good. They appear to fit nicely so far.



We won't really know for sure until she attempts to get up on Pointe. We'll have to sew on the ribbon and adjust the elastic. I'll update next week and let you know how she does.

Afternoon

We ventured away from our little "Mayberry" and ran some errands in the big city.

I had some time to kill between stops, so we spent some time at the park.





While they played I did a little crochet. I decided I wanted a few coasters. These were fun and super quick to make. I'm still adjusting the pattern, I'm not sure what color I want them in for the house. I'm thinking maybe green.

Subway - Step it Up

Occasionally, different companies or organizations offer resources for schools. Usually they also include homeschools.
I've recieved free things from NASA, USDA, Pizza Hut, and more. Today we recieved a package from Subway. It's part of a program called Step It Up.

Honestly, I had forgotten I signed up. So it was a lovely surprise this morning.



It was full of so many goodies, I'm not sure where to start. There are pedometers for the boys, lesson plans, and a calendar.



I'm sort of excited about this one. I think if I motivate the kids to get moving, that they will help keep my momentum going.

Look stickers!! I love stickers.

Bug Fest

We went to Bug Fest at the Museum of Natural Sciences. There were so many neat things to see and lots of interesting people to talk to.

Here the kids are looking at hissing cockroaches, preying mantises, and leaf bugs.


This table had representations of how many bug segments are allowed per gram of popular processed foods. Yummy...



The Scorpion display.


There were lots of crafts. For the most part the boys have outgrown these types of things. But Jeremiah can't resist a buggy transformation.





Visiting the bee keeper.



A celebrity sighting.



More motor bugs.





A couple of lady bugs.



BTW, the boys were there in uniform because the BSA was giving out a special patch to scouts.