Recent Excursions

We had a great trip to Mount Vernon today with our friends.  I told Tanner we were going to George Washington's house and he kept saying, "I want to go to George's house."  When we got there he said, "Mom, don't leave me at George's house, okay?" 

Hunter, Haly, Kayla, Logan, Cade

Tanner, Cade, and Hunter on the wagon ride.  We have been to Mount Vernon many times but this is the first time we've seen a wagon ride.  It turns out they only do it in April and we happened to come on April 30th, lucky us! 

Hunter and Logan 

Tanner walking through the beautiful gardens, I mean, running.

Cade 

Best Buddies

Haly, Kayla, and Cade

Haly, Kayla, and Logan

 Kayla was so happy to have GIRLS on our trip.  So often Kayla is the only girl in a big group of boys.  She wishes these wonderful girls didn't live 45 minutes away.

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These are photos of some other recent excursions:

The kids had a great time at Tamarack Stables in Lorton, VA. Someone arranged a great special for homeschoolers and we were able to have a one hour lesson, 30 minute stable lesson and 30 minute riding lesson for $17.00.  My kids loved it (at least the riding part), they are anxious to do it again!  The pictures aren't great because I was far away and zooming in with my not-so-fancy camera but it will have to do since it's all I have.

Kayla with Destiny

Hunter with Chester

Tanner didn't get to ride, he had fun watching.

Early in April we visited the Eleanor C. Lawrence Park in Centrville for a Botany field trip.  I'm learning a lot about plants and realizing how much I don't know.  Did you know that poison ivy grows on enormous hairy twisted vines?  "If it's hairy...it is scary."  I can recognize the vines now but I'm still having a tough time recognizing the leaves.  I think everything looks like poison ivy.  Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we all had a great time hanging out with our friends.

Our Science group in front of a dogwood tree.

Did you know the Dogwood is Virginia's state tree 

AND the state flower?

Kayla

Hunter

Tanner and his buddy Will

Jason's Birthday

Today is Jason's birthday.  As I've looked around at other blogs, I've noticed that people seem to write some sort of tribute or walk-down-memory-lane when a family member has a birthday.  I think I should do that with Jason.  He wasn't really a fan of me starting a blog (he thought it would take too much of my time); maybe he'll warm up to it if I dedicate a post to how great he is. :)


To put it in a few words: Jason is the best thing that has ever happened to me.  Since I'm never a girl of a few words, I'll go on!  Watch out, I may gush a little, you've been forewarned.

Kassie's first birthday!

Our dog, Kassie, turned one last week.  I guess that means she is no longer a puppy.  Does that mean she won't chew on things anymore? That would be nice!


I never planned to have a dog.  My children were enough to take care of, I didn't need a dog that would shed, smell, bark, and have accidents.  But Kayla desperately wanted a dog for years.  She knew all the dogs in the neighborhood and continually used all her powers of persuasion to convince us to get a dog.  I think she would still be hoping and wishing if it weren't for my parents getting a little dog I fell in love with.  Every time I visited Utah I just loved their little chihuahua.  Before Pepe came along, I thought chihuahuahuas were super annoying.  Maybe they still are, but I love Pepe anyway.  That little dog broke me down to the point I would even consider getting a dog.  Kayla broke me down further and finally, we became dog owners (we didn't go with a chihuahua though).


Do I like having a dog?  I'm not sure I like all the things that go with having a dog but I sure do love our dog.  She has destroyed a few things in our home and she is a bit annoying with her barking but I really love her.  She is like the toddlers who drive you crazy but you love them anyway.  She is always so happy to see us, she is my little companion wherever I go in the house.  She always settles down next to me whether it's on the cozy couch or the hard kitchen floor.  She is super cute and soft and I more or less adore her.  I'm glad she is part of the family.  That being said, I don't think I'll ever buy a dog again. :)

Past Photos

 Christmas Eve

Snowy Days

Hunter & Cade Bloomer

Kayla

Kayla & Tanner

Tanner

Hunter

Kayla and Jason

Tanner and Kayla

What's the verdict on the Read More button?

So, I figured out I could just show part of my posts on my front page and then put a "read more" to get to the rest.  I liked this idea since my posts tend to be really long!  But as I was looking at other blogs, I saw that most people don't do this and I started to wonder if it is a pain to have to click a "read more" button.  What do you think?  Is it better to have long posts or a "read more" button?

Trouble with Tanner

Tanner, Tanner, Tanner. For so long he was my little dream child. It took us many years to add another child to our family and he was all the more precious to me because of the wait. He was my easiest baby and I was so thrilled when he hit the terrible twos and he wasn't so terrible after all. I remember thinking, "Wow, a 2-year-old who doesn't throw tantrums, how lucky is that?" Well....times are changing.

He has now hit the terrible threes and he is obstinate, head-strong, whiny, demanding, and so on. He had a melt-down at Staples today while I was waiting for things to be laminated (I must say the clerk took forever!). Tanner was tired of sitting in the cart and he desperately wanted to get out. I had already tried giving him freedom in the store but he wouldn't stay by me, he kept pulling things off the shelf, asking me to buy stuff, you know how it is. I put him back in the cart and would have strapped him in but the belt strap was broken. I was having a bit of a wrestling match with him trying to keep him in the seat as he was trying to climb out while screaming "I want to get out" and I was gritting my teeth and trying not to scream as I pushed him back in and said, "You need to stay in the cart." Everyone in the store was looking my way with disapproving eyes and all I could think was..."Please get those things laminated so I can get out of here!" The whole scene probably took less than 5 minutes but 5-minutes of meltdown behavior in public feels like 5 hours. We finally made it out without anyone getting hurt.

In the evening, I started my new calling as an Activity Days leader and I had to take Tanner along since Jason was working late. In the past, Tanner was the kind of child I could take along to things and he would sit quietly in the corner playing with his own stuff. Not tonight. He kept running across the room and trying to climb the stacked chairs while I was trying to have a discussion with the girls. I kept asking him to behave but he wouldn't. I thought "I'm never bringing him again, I'll get a babysitter next time, I've only got 15 more minutes to get through tonight.." As this thought was in my head, I saw him reaching for the fire alarm. "No!" I cried as I ran toward him. Too late. A REALLY LOUD alarm started filling the building, lights started flashing and people started evacuating. I couldn't believe it! What a perfect ending to Tanner's day of trouble-making!

This was a pull-my-hair-out kind of day with Tanner and yet, the day ended similar to the way every day ends in the book I'll Love You Forever. I love the way that book captures the essence of a mother's love for her child, regardless of that child's behavior. In the story, a growing boy drives his mom crazy throughout the day but she goes to his room every night to cuddle with him, sing to him, and tell him she'll love him forever. As I held my little Tanner in my arms at bedtime and sang to him, and hugged him, I thought about how much I love him. I couldn't blame him for not wanting to sit in a hard, uncomfortable cart for 45 minutes. I couldn't blame him for pulling that tempting, shiny, red handle at church. He didn't know the havoc it would cause. And so, to my little troublesome Tanner:

"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

Shakespeare for Spring Break

If laughter is the best medicine, I sure had some great medicine last week. It was Spring Break for the local kids so we took a week off of worksheets in our homeschool and read Shakespeare stories. We had been reading about Shakespeare for our history club and I got the brilliant idea (ha, ha) to put together a little Shakespeare play for our history club to perform. The kids did a condensed version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and it was SO fun to watch them act it out. All the kids laughed so hard as they first attempted to say their super mushy lines but they really pulled it together in the end. Some of them are born actors. We filmed them in action and we’re putting together a little movie. We did about a million re-takes so we’ll definitely have a blooper reel! I laughed more than I can remember laughing in a long time. Here are a few things I learned from this experience:

1. 8 and 9-year-olds can be just as much fun to hang out with as a group of friends my own age.
2. All children love to act but some children love it more than others.  I was impressed with the way some of the kids really got into it. 
3. Kids have more patience and determination than I sometimes give them credit for. The same kids who get restless after 5 minutes of listening to a lesson can go hours and hours making a movie. It helps tremendously if there is a playground nearby that they can play at while they wait for their turn.
4. It’s really important when filming to make sure you push the record button when you want to film. The scenes don’t turn out so well when you do the opposite and push the record button when you want to stop filming. I learned this the hard way.
5. It takes 5 hours of filming to make a 15-minute movie (This would have been really helpful to know before I allotted a one-hour time slot for filming.)
6. It takes many more hours of editing to turn the filmed part into an actual movie--thank you sweetie!
7. Some weeks are just wonderful, this was one of them.

Not such an excited botanist after all....

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how excited I was to learn and teach Botany. Well, today the excitement waned. It was my turn to teach, I spent hours preparing, and it just wasn't great. I was pretty excited to learn that testa is the the seed coat and hilum is the seed belly button but were the 6 to 8 year-olds excited to learn that? Not really. I couldn't find the perfect worksheet online (even though I spent a vast amount of time searching) so I created my own perfect worksheet that the kids ended up not really being able to read because the words were too hard. I think I forgot what age I was teaching.... It wasn't nearly as exciting to diagram a sprouting bean plant as I was hoping. On the positive side, the kids did like gathering nuts, leaves, and wild flowers in the woods and a few of them were excited to start their seed collection. I guess not every lesson can be a winner but it sure is deflating when things don't work out. I'm back to NOT being a science fan. History anyone?