Labor Day Weekend

Our weekend camping in pictures.

Uncle Jerry giving rides to Max and Melanie!

Those squished cheeks get me every single time!

It took us all day to realize that these 3 were dressed alike.  They loved Uncle Jerry's woods chicken call.  I couldn't get them to smile or look at me for nothing.  Jerry gave his chicken call and they wanted him to do it again and again...

It rained on and off on Saturday but it ended in a beautiful night!  

Steph and I took a walk and the view from the top of the sand hill was kind of fun.  You don't realize how big the hill is in my pictures.  But it is pretty steep!  

Uncle Adam giving rides in "the bomb".  We are never sure who is having more fun the kids or Adam. 

Left over rain drops while we walked in the woods.

We found some guys fishing in the river!!

They caught a tire!!

The moon was coming up and the sun was setting.

The fog was also rolling in.

The fires were big and the laughs were many.

It was snapper turtle hatching time.  The kids found so many we lost count.  At the end of the trip they had 4 in a bucket that they wanted to bring home and raise.  They were named Lucy, Lilac, Max & Jerry.  They were released into the river before we left!

Miss Andee was working her sunglasses for me!!

We had invited some friends to come out and there were so many kids and they were so cute sitting here eating supper.  We had 10 kids total!!  Max isn't in the picture.

Before you know it - it was time to pack up and head home.  When we are out here I sure soak it up.  I don't want the nights to end.  I am always craving more.  But it sure refreshes me for the weeks ahead!! 

First Day of School 2017

This past week was our first day of school.  Our 4th year homeschooling!!  

Up first in front of my camera for first day pictures was Miss Melanie Mae!!  

Melanie is only 3 but she has great interest in having her own work too.  I had super great intentions of doing some cute stuff with her.  I pinned a calendar to the wall and well it is still stuck on August 27th and tomorrow is September 5th.  However, I spent a day making busy bags with a girlfriend this summer and those have proven to be a life saver!  She loves exploring those bags each day.  

Entering 3rd Grade is Mallory Rae!!!

Mallory was super excited to get back into school.  She is super super super excited to learn cursive handwriting this year!  She has been wanting to learn how to type so I set her up with a typing program also.  Mallory is asking for a real guitar for Christmas... she has an interest in music and plays the chimes in choir.  She told me if she is going to be a singer she needs to learn how to play guitar.  

Entering 1st Grade is Maxwell David

Maxwell was pretty excited for school to start too.  He did so great that first day too!  He remembered how to read!  He is spelling words like a champ!!  Math comes naturally to him.  He is excited this year to dive into some 1-minute math!!

This year I am saying NO more!  We stretched ourselves too thin last year.  I have this bad case of everything sounds so amazing and fun and my kids NEED to be in THAT!!  When it comes time to get in the car and actually travel to these events it is a nightmare.  It involves yelling and panic and stress and running late.  So... this year I am saying NO!!

I am having to remind myself I am a HOMEschooler!  I need to be HOME more!  I can't be gone every single day of the week, and we were last year.  We ate so much in the car traveling from A to B to C back to A.  I don't want that this year.  I want a little more relaxed and a lot more HOME!!  

Skit Night

I mentioned a few posts earlier that I was co-leading our co-op and teaching drama.  We were preparing the kids for their first ever skit night to present to a live audience!!  It was a huge under taking!!  I put so much work, time & research into this.  As the performance day slowly inched closer the more nervous I got.  I was so nervous that I didn't even invite the grandparents to come!  I thought for sure it was going to be a flop.  From what I had seen at practices and rehearsals I had no idea how we were going to pull this off. 

Then!  We had dress rehearsal and it was the cutest thing I ever did see!  I quickly came home and sent both grandparents an apology for not inviting them and officially invited them to come. 

Up first were the preschoolers with a song.

I had to be with the skit kids and run around and move mics and set up props.  Get kids ready to go on stage so I couldn't be with Melanie.  She had to sit with the preschoolers and be with her "Other Momma, Jenn" and she did so good.  She was brave and walked up onto the stage and sang her songs so proudly.  I caught her sitting on Momma Jenn's lap and quick snapped a picture from where I was and they saw me. 

Mallory was in the skit Little Women.  She is dressed in the pink dress with the white bonnet.  She only had one line in this skit.

This was the skit, The Very Cranky Bear.  It is a book that I have and read to the kids all the time.  During one of our drama classes we did puppets to this book.  It was huge hit so I decided to turn it into a play.  I typed up a script and we had a play!!  Since Mallory only had one line in her other skit she was the narrator for the skit.  Max was the moose.   

The preschoolers had 4 songs they sang.  Here is Melanie and she has her very good friend, JoJo on the left and her other friend, Emmy, on her right.  She also talks a lot about the little boy on the far right.  : )

The last skit of the night was a military skit and it involved all the kids.  The kids loved this one.  We had our oldest boy be the captain and he is trying to command his solders who are doing the opposite of what he says.  The kids loved it!! 

At the end the captain gets fed up with his soldiers and says "at ease" and the all fall down. 

The end!

It was a huge hit!  The kids did way better then I ever imagined.  I saw them in rehearsal... I was scared!  ; )  They nailed it!!  Lots of moms came up and said thank you to me.  One Mom even said she can see this becoming a yearly thing.  It is so good for the kids and it was pretty fun to show off our kids to an audience.  The grandparents were super thankful for the official invite even though they were coming anyways.

I had to get a picture with my fearless co-director, Andrea.  We made a perfect team.

I mentioned how nervous I was about this performance.  Before the show I already had my resignation letter to hand into the Moms that I was not going to ever do this again.  I was not cut out to lead kids in drama.  Then the night ended and they really pulled it off.  It wasn't perfect by any means (I forgot to turn on a mic once and some preschoolers ran wild during their songs) but it was good for me to experience.  I don't need perfect as much as I want perfect.

I tucked Mallory into bed that night and she says, "Thanks for helping me with my play.  It was really fun."  My momma heart melted into a giant puddle and I decided I would certainly do it again.  And I am going to convince Andrea to do it again too.