Weekly Wrap Up–The End of 4th Grade

The last week of school, woohooo!!   I don’t know who is more excited, the kids or me.  The dog is loving all the extra attention he’s getting now that school is out and the girls can play all day.    He was even happy to pose for a photo in front of one of my corner gardens.

Olivia finished up her 4th grade work on Tuesday.  We skipped all the review work and headed straight into her finals.   She did really well, especially on her math final.  It’s hard to believe she’s now in 5th grade!

Wednesday was our end of year Awana awards program.  Olivia came away with the Excellence Award for finishing her 2nd TNT book.  Lindsey brought home her Sparky Plaque for finishing all 3 Sparks books, and also the Sportsmanship trophy.

Thursday was a baking frenzy as I prepared for a fundraising event this weekend, for our Ethiopia trip.  I don’t know how you bake cookies at your house, but here’s how we roll in ours.

In case you’re wondering, that’s Laura Ingalls and U.S. Marshall Wichita Slim baking together.  Lindsey said “You don’t see THIS everyday.”  No, no you don’t. The view from the back is even funnier. 

Late Thursday evening we had severe weather move in. It was the remnant of the storms that hit the midwest earlier in the week.  Thankfully we didn’t get anything other than winds, hail and lightning, but it sure looked bad coming across the horizon.  Please continue to pray for the people of Oklahoma.

Friday and Saturday were both spent inside this lovely hot dog stand, for 9 hours each day.  The temperatures plummeted from high 90’s to mid 50’s with high winds.  We almost froze, but we’re oh so much closer to our goal for Ethiopia!

Did your week go as planned, or did you let go of the plan?

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–The End of 2nd Grade

The monsoon’s dried up this week.  Monday night into Tuesday morning we had a HEAVY frost.  The heat ran most of the day Tuesday.  Wednesday we set a  record high of 93 degrees.  Thursday we had hail, and lots of it.   Very odd indeed.

Olivia and I were finally able to get out and go walk about some.  We traveled down to the park and found out that the cygnets hatched during our absence. 

Thursday was our last Activity Day  for this school year.   My class focused on Africa.   Olivia’s sign language and guitar classes did a presentation at the end of the day. 

This is stage week for the spring ballet (Snow White).  Wednesday through Friday were dress rehearsals.  The shows are Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.  Then we are finished with ballet until the fall.

Lindsey is currently celebrating the end of 2nd grade. I’m still not sure how I managed to get her finished a week ahead of Olivia, but she’s thrilled none the less.  She celebrated by getting a new pair of toe-socks.  It’s the little things that make her happy.

Here is one of my favorite photos from last weeks co-op grand finale.  The periodic table of elements, in cupcakes.

How was your week?

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up..

Weekly Wrap Up–Shots…

If you ever decide to go to a third world country, and need immunization shots read these next few sentences VERY closely.  First of all, you can go to your local health department to get your immunizations, and they’ll bill your insurance, this is convenient…and cheaper than going to your family doctor (no co-pay for a doctor visit) and their meds are typically less expensive.  If you make the appointment with your local health department and upon arrival you find they want to give you ALL the shots the same day tell them NO.  You can even use an expletive if you are so inclined, to solidify your stance on the subject.  If by chance you don’t take this bit of advice, expect to spend the next 12-24 hours close to a bathroom, and in a great deal of abdominal pain, very similar to hard labor contractions, and think of me saying “told you so” often.  Don’t ask me how I know all this.   You may also want to put your fingers in your ears and do the “la-la-la I can’t hear you” thing while they explain all the potentially life threatening side effects that could take place once you take the vaccinations.  Really it doesn’t give you a warm fuzzy feeling at all.

Then the monsoons set in.  Seriously we have had between 5 and 6 inches of rain over a 3 day period.  Incredibly hard rains.  But at least I didn’t have to worry about getting yellow fever or typhoid…ahem.

This week was the Awana TNT pinewood derby race.  We consistently build one of the slowest cars in the race.  This year was no exception.  We actually built a car that stopped dead on the tracks, to a round of “aaaawww” from the spectators.  Ahem.   The good news is while we can’t build fast cars, we can build cute cars.  Olivia’s cat car took 1st place in Design.

In preparation for my trip to Ethiopia, Lindsey has been practicing her African mothering skills.  Here you can see one of her new fashion ensembles as she carries one of her “kids” on her back.  Seriously guys, she comes up with this stuff on her own!

Olivia has had this little crush this year.   I started noticing that the same little boy that she was looking at was looking back.  He’s a wonderful boy.  He goes to our church, Awana and co-op. He’s shy, bright and has a great sense of humor, and he is such a little gentleman.   They finally got up the nerve to start talking to each other and sitting together.  His dad got a job transfer this week and he’s moving out of state in 6-8 weeks.  Part of me is saying “whew, crisis averted”.   The other part of me is saying "well darn it, this kid had potential.” 

We finished our year at co-op today. Tomorrow is the official year end program, but today Lindsey’s “Meet the Masters” class held an art show. For 2nd and 3rd graders, I think they did an awesome job. Here’s a small taste of their abilities. There will be a more photo laden post coming over the next few days.

Next week will be our first 5 day school week in a long time.  Lindsey will finish her year next week.  Olivia will finish the week after that.   How close are you to the end of your school year?

Linking up with Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–Welcome May

We’re quickly coming up on the end of our school year.  All of our extracurricular activities will be wrapping up in the next few weeks and then it’ll be on to summer time!   I’ll be glad to get a little downtime, if there is such a thing!

On Saturday we had Olivia’s birthday party with her friends.   We had a wonderful time creating Junior She-Art.  I love watching kids be creative.

We went out and enjoyed some of the wonderful weather.  Check out our field trips.

I’ve also been making progress on my trip to Ethiopia.  My passport should be here any day, and I’ve scheduled my appointment to get the necessary vaccinations.   My big issue now is to raise the funds.  If you would like to help fund the trip to the Ajuja orphanage, please read this post, and find out how you can be a help! 

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Celebration Week

This has been such a fun week for us.  Sunday was our 12 year wedding anniversary.  We skipped church and traveled to Amazement Square, in Lynchburg, Virginia.  If you are ever in that part of Virginia, I highly recommend taking the time to go to this kids museum.

Monday through Wednesday we hit the books hard and squeezed in 4 days worth of school work.  Yes, I know, I’m a slave driver…but I really want this year to be finished.

The real  reason for the big push was so we could take Thursday off to celebrate Olivia’s 10th birthday.  The girls and I traveled north to go to a new to us playground, and also to visit the James Madison University Arboretum.  We had such a good time, and I took lots of photos…which I haven’t had time to download to the computer yet.  There will be a separate post probably next week.

Friday we had co-op.  I registered the girls for next year’s classes, and our yearbooks came in!  Throw in that it was pizza day and it was pretty awesome.

Tonight we clean like crazy, for tomorrow is Olivia’s party with friends.  We’re making crafts! Be expecting a post about that too.

Only 18 more days left this year!   Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–The One With A Surprise!

Wow, what a week!

Friday night (April 12) the girls were in a “Broadway Showcase” dance production.   It was a really cute show.  Both Olivia and Lindsey were “Newsies” in King of New York.  This was the first tap show they’ve been in…and no, I didn’t get photos.

Saturday evening the girls participated in the Performance Awards.  They both did well, each bringing home a gold medal.  Olivia did extremely well, her confidence level and gracefulness was off the charts!

Thursday was our monthly Activity Day.  In addition to my class, we were also privileged to get to watch locally homeschooled students perform their presentation for the National History Day Competition.  

Friday was of course co-op and grocery shopping day, and tornado watches and warnings…lots of those. 

Now, for the EXCITING surprise.  Through an interesting turn of events, things have lined up for me to go to Ethiopia in July!  Yes, July as in 2.5 months from now.   I have a whirlwind of activity going on, trying to line up childcare for 3 nights (you’d think family would be an option, but nooooooo), and trying to work on fundraising ideas that can be carried out in such a short time.  If you would like to support the trip financially I’d REALLY appreciate it, and you can do so via Paypal, and it’s tax deductible!    I’d also appreciate your prayers leading up to my trip, and especially while I’m in Ethiopia.  More information to come as it all falls into place.

We are counting down the days until our school year is finished.  Only 22 more days to go!  How much longer in your homeschool year?

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and the Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Hot One!

April in Virginia is lovely, and it keeps you on your toes.  Last week we had snow and sleet.  This week we’ve hit the 90’s.  The good news is that the oppressive summer humidity hasn’t moved in, so the 90’s have been quite nice. I dare not break out all the summer clothing yet, I know there must be at least one good cold spell left to go through.

I often mention the morning walks that Olivia and I go on.  This week I actually remembered to take the camera and capture some  photos to share with you.   It’s a lovely little walk with lots of built in nature study opportunities.

Here is what greets us each morning as we walk into the park.  This  little island in the middle of the fish pond is it’s own little world.  Notice the male swan directly in front of the island, and the mother swan to the back right, sitting on her new eggs.

Here’s a better shot of the mother swan on her nest.  I can’t wait to take pictures of her babies when they hatch…they are truly some ugly little creatures.

The pond is home to ducks, geese, the swans and lots of fish, big  fish.  The fish below are roughly 18 inches in length.

The warm days and sunshine have caused many of the bushes and flowering trees to bud already.  There are forsythias, dogwoods, tulip trees and this beautiful weeping cherry tree (and my beautiful smiling daughter).

This was one of “those” weeks with Olivia.  She was just…off.  It took me until the end of the week to figure out that her allergies have kicked in and she’s feeling kind of muddled.   Math is Olivia’s favorite subject, and her strongest subject as well…and it’s the one where “issues” show up when something is causing her wires to get crossed.  Thursday I started her on Claritin and I could already tell a bit of a difference by Friday morning.

Lindsey continues to plow through second grade.  She’s a strong reader and can be found reading late into the night.  Yet, her phonics test scores are poor.  It’s an odd situation indeed. 

This has also been the dreaded “stage week” at ballet.  Friday night will be the “Broadway Musical” and then Saturday is the Performance Awards.  Olivia will be working through Level 3B and Lindsey will be Level 2.   By Saturday we’ll have had ballet 5 out of the 6 days this week.

Our family has decided to host a child this summer through the Fresh Air Fund.  The girls are SO excited about this opportunity.  We had our home visit on Thursday.  Now we wait for our background checks to process and our personal references.

Friday was co-op, followed by a dinner from McDonald’s drive thru on our mad dash to get home and get the van unloaded and everyone changed into their outfits for tonight's “Broadway Show” for the tap/hip-hop/jazz performance.

Only 26 more days of school!   Linking up with the Homeschool Review and Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Wrap Up–Another Year Older

This week has been a whirlwind of activity!  Saturday I hosted a baby shower for my nephew and his wife and their twin girls.  Then we came home and colored Easter eggs until way late in the night. Below are a few samples of our art work…there were much, MUCH more.

Sunday of course was Easter and we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.  Also on Sunday, our church plant team had our preview service!  It was so exciting to see all these months of plans and work come together!  Check our Church Downtown on Facebook!

Monday was April Fool’s Day, and you know we didn’t get pranked, nor did we prank anyone.  Such a waste.  Although I THOUGHT I was being pranked when my sister in law called to tell me the twins were being born (at 31 weeks).   Welcome babies Zoe and Chloe!  Between the two of them they weigh a little over 6 pounds.  Please pray that they continue to gain weight, stay strong and get to come home in a few weeks.

Tuesday I turned 45.  Go me.  I guess I’m officially “middle aged”, if I plan to live to 90.   My older brother, as usual came through with a totally awesome birthday cake with homemade frosting!  He also found this rocking Snoopy card, complete with music and flashing lights!

Wednesday Lindsey was scheduled to be the first day of Lindsey’s new homeschool basketball camp.  It was grand plan, right up until we loaded up in the van at 3:30 and “click click click”.  Dead battery.  The husband was already at work and basketball camp was 20 or more miles away.  Didn’t happen.  We did end up walking to Awana.  My goodness our city has a LOT of hills in it!  Thankfully the weather was nice, so it made for a lovely 60 minute walk.  We bummed a ride back home when Awana ended.

Speaking of Awana, Olivia FINALLY got through all of her Gold/Silver sections for her TNT book.  Now she can move on to her next level book.   Did you know that there is now an Awana homeschool program?  Another interesting thing that I learned this week, is that if you finish the 10 book (10 year) middle school thru high school program, you can earn a $2000 – $6000 college scholarship to some of the major Baptist based colleges in the U.S.

We had yet another freak snowstorm Thursday.  Snow and sleet, all at once, out of nowhere.  It made the drive back from ballet a little more interesting anyway.  The next day we hit 70 degrees, I kid you not.

Friday of course is co-op.  We’re quickly wrapping this year up.   I’ve signed up to teach two classes next year, but I haven’t heard yet if either (or both) of them have made the cut.  Olivia also had her monthly youth group meeting.  They had asked her to bring her tap shoes and teach them some dances.  She had SUCH a good time.  They also surprised her with a birthday cake.  Her birthday is later this month, but they won’t see her again until May. 

It’s been a really good week.  Academics are going well.  We have 30 days of school left in this year!   This week I mailed our standardized test results and Notice of Intent information packed off to the local school board.  We are officially noted as homeschooling for 2013-2014!

I hope you had a lovely week!   I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and with Homeschool Review.  

Weekly Wrap Up–Goodbye March

We had our second significant snow fall this week.  Spring isn’t working out well here.  Although, by Wednesday the sun was out and I was able to go purge some dead flowers from one of the flower beds…then it started to snow on me, seriously.

Most of our extra curricular activities were cancelled this week for spring break (haha, spring yeah, sure).  Ballet was supposed to be cancelled but we ended up with two makeup days so we got those out of the way.

I did take advantage of being home in the evenings by knocking out additional school work.  I know, I’m a slave driver, but we now only have 34 days left in this “year”.  The kids will thank me in early May.  We also completed the state required standardized tests.   I always use the CAT from Seton Testing Services.  The testing is quick and easy to administer, the results are usually back within one week and the price can’t be beat.   I mailed our tests back on Tuesday of this week, the results were in the todays mail.  Amazing!

The kids helped me make molded candies for an upcoming baby shower.  Those would have been some really good photos too…use your imagination, ok? 

My husband is off on Good Friday, so we spent today doing some fun family activities.  Bowling was first on the agenda, followed by lunch out and then some shopping.  A trip to an amusement park was originally the plan, but roller coasters in 30 degree weather just doesn’t sound appealing.

We’ve had a great week together.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus!

Linking up with Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Review.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Blustery One

March is supposed to be windy, but wow!  This week has been something else!  We had another nice snow early on in the week, and sustained winds of 40-60 mph several days.  Temperatures are now back in the teens, with heavy snow in the forecast for the weekend.   Me thinks the groundhog hast indeed pulled a fast one.

Lindsey finished her basketball season this past weekend.  They won the last game of the season and Lindsey made a basket!  You can read all about it in my post The Fans Went Wild!

Awana:  Lindsey has finished her 3rd grade Sparks book twice this year.  She’s officially done as far as I’m concerned.  She’ll just go each week and observe until the end of the year.   Olivia is trying her best to finish up her Gold and Silver sections in her 4th grade Awana book.  By all appearances her leaders are working against her as they’ve not had time for her to say her verses for the last 6 weeks.  Needless to say there is a lot of frustration going on and I’ve had several discussions with her leader and the Commander.  One of her projects (that doesn’t require verses) was a report on a foreign country and a missionary to that country.  Since she has friends who are adopted, she picked their home country of Ethiopia for her project.   In addition to making a flag of Ethiopia, and writing several pages about the country and the missionaries, Olivia also decided to make Ethiopian Honey Bread.   It turned our really yummy, but my yeast must have been old as it didn’t rise like I expected.  Although my husband said the texture was pretty accurate for what he’d eaten in Africa back in 2000.

Our monthly Activity Day was on Thursday.  The girls in our class “visited” China.  We celebrated Chinese New Year (a bit late, but better than never) and had yummy snacks!

It was a good Friday at co-op, although about 1/3 of the population was out sick.  I had the opportunity to sub in “Meet the Masters” and  while I was there I learned a great deal about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

We have moved into our last 6 weeks of school!  My goal is to be finished by the 2nd full week of May.  Our standardized tests (required in our state) arrived in today’s mail, so we’ll be working on those next week to get them out of the way.

Linking up with the Homeschool Review and the Weekly Wrap Up!