LOST party

This week was the season finale of LOST. We are thrilled to have found some other couples who can't get enough of that show. Bennett and Jen decided that we needed to have a LOST party for the finale. What an awesome idea. Bennett had even prepared a trivia game about the show. Brian and I completely bombed the trivia......oh well. It was a great finale even though it left us quite bewildered. At midnight we had to get Austin and Reece out of the bonus room (Lindsey was at a sleepover that night) and there you see Brian, in the 3rd picture, carrying down a very tired Reece who just didn't get what on earth was going on. Here we take the boys to this cool house, stick them in a fun Bonus room full of toys and then tell them to go right to bed. :) Thanks for a fun LOST party Bennett and Jen!

Is this genetic?

The other night I went in to check on Lindsey and found her sleeping like this. It might be hard to tell, in the picture, but she has her head on one pillow and she has two pillows over her head like a tent. She loves pillows and more pillows on her bed. I wonder if she gets this from me. I sleep with at least three pillows and I would sleep with more, but then Brian would fall out of bed. I guess he has even tried to slide a pillow from me and I have sat right up in bed, grabbed it from him, turned over and gone right back to sleep. Like mother - like daughter.

A end of the year family party for Girl Scouts

Even though it was cold and rainy here today, the kids and I were able to enjoy a swimming party at a local aquatic center. The Girl Scout Brownies decided to spend their "due" money on a swimming party with our families. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. We are still trying to decide, as a brownie troop, whether or not we'd like to go to Build a Bear or Bullwinkles with the "cookie money" the girls have earned. Brian has asked, "Isn't Girl Scouts over for the summer?" Well, technically it is but we sure like to keep the parties coming!

More pictures from this weekend

As I had blogged earlier, the kids did many fun things with their grandparents. The kids really enjoyed card games with Grandmom. This is a picture of Reece and Lindsey playing a Bible memory game with Grandmom. They also took every opportunity to "picnic" on our deck.

The last few days

The past few days have been filled with lots of fun for the kids (with their grandparents) and lots of learning for Brian and I. Brian and I had the priviledge of attending the North Carolina Homeschool Convention. We chose to go to every seminar we could and pretty much wore ourselves out with so much information. We especially enjoyed talking with the various authors of the curriculums. We made one major switch with our Math curriculum. As we know, in America and Canada, counting is considered the basis of arithmetic. Janpanese (also children in China and Singapore) children are actually discouraged from counting. I won't bore people with the research here since most of us already know that these other countries far surpass us educationally. Watching Brian's eyes as he was talking to a Math curriculum author, I knew we would be making a 'Math switch'. I may put this all on Brian, for the switch, but I am also excited for my kids to have a better understanding of mathmatical concepts.

The greatest thing we came home with was a huge conviction that the Lord needs to be the center of our child's education. That seems like an obvious thought all along our parenting journey, but I honestly started homeschooling for the educational benefits. Now I see that Christ really needs to be the center of everything from their English to their Math and every other facet of their lives.

This weekend we also had the priviledge of celebrating Lewis's 9th birthday with his family. We've so enjoyed getting to know Darin, Crystal and their two boys. Happy Birthday Lewis!

Memorial Day was the first day we felt it was warm enough to enjoy the neighborhood pool. This is a picture of GrandDad and Lindsey along with Brian and Austin. The kids enjoyed doing miniature golf, biking, walking, the park, tennis, a ton of card/board games, and swimming with the grandparents. The kids and the grandparents are currently recovering from the weekend.

Also on Memorial day, we went to a picnic at Lindsey's soccer coach's house. Yes, soccer is done but the parties haven't ended yet. Lindsey had the best coach ever and it was great getting to know all of these girls and their families. I think the Dads have forgiven us moms for being the "enthusiastic, yelling soccer moms" that we were at all the games.

A Craig's List Bargain

After Jumping Beans, playdate at our house, and then hosting the 'End of the Year Girlscout potluck' (and being on my feet those 4 hours. We get a call, at 9:30p.m., from a guy selling bunk bed furniture. We had inquired over this furniture, but someone had already 'claimed it". Well.....those people didn't show up. As tired as we were, we KNEW this was a steal. So Brian calls up a good friend to borrow his truck, drives 30 min. to get this furniture, takes a significant time to strap it onto the truck. Sets the GPS for back roads and gets home at 1 a.m. I barely remember Brian standing over me and asking me to help unload all of it. I can remember saying: "This day just won't end." The owners wanted to keep this bedroom set, but their new house wouldn't fit it. We paid the guy only 1/4 of what he paid for it.

As you can see, the boys have already settled right into their 'new' bedroom. Austin loves that he has his own "office" and Reece loves the shelves to put all of his stuffed animals on. I love all of the extra drawers and mirror with peg boards. And we all love Craig's List!

Girl Scouts Bridging Ceremony

This past Friday night Lindsey ended another great year of Girl Scouts. This is one of the largest troops in Raleigh consisting of home school girls. This year I was a co-leader to Lindsey's Brownie group and it was a priviledge to just come in and help out with some incredible home school Moms. From Sept. to May the brownies earned 15 Try-Its, 6 Earned Patches, 3 Community Service Projects, 5 Celebration Parties, and 14 Field Trips and Special Events. Whew!!!
In these pictures there is Lindsey, sound asleep, right before the last ceremony as she had just spent that morning at Jumping Beans. I would have taken a picture of Lindsey receiving her brownie pin, but I was the one handing out the awards to everyone. Oh well. That very night, after the brownies hosted this event and potluck for 150 people, I get an e-mail - from the brownie leader - sharing ideas for next year. My goodness! These Mom's are amazing and I am in awe of them! It's also such a blessing that we can meet during the day so it doesn't take up evening family time.

Jumping Beans

Last Thursday night, Lindsey had her friend - Elliana - at our house for a sleep over. That next morning my friend, Heather, told me about "Jumping Beans" so we "jumped" at the chance of checking it out with Heather and her kids. What a fun place! Someone should have videoed Heather and I in the "jumping playground" trying to stay on our feet and get pictures at the same time. Most of these pictures are of Lindsey, Elliana and Cailey. Cailey's sister is in the 2nd picture trying to do what big sister does. I love their matching outfits. I can't believe these kids jumped and climbed and went down the slide for over 2 hours. Too much fun!!!

Ant Fun

I never thought I would be ordering 'live' ants to come to our house via 'priority mail'. But here I sit, with three little kids, that were just thrilled to receive such a thing from the mail man. I also have to admit that I find myself wandering in the boys room just to see what the ants are up to. Every time we wake up, they have dug a new tunnel. It has been fun and fascinating. It has also provided us with the way to show the kids why God would want us to be like the ants. That scripture has now clicked, with especially Austin, in how we should be dilligent in our work at all times. And here we thought we'd have to get the kids a puppy!

Soccer finishes up for the year

Last Friday we drove home from Hilton Head, unpacked, and then headed out for Lindsey's last soccer practice. After her practice the parents played soccer against the kids and then we had a pizza party. It has just been the best experience for Lindsey. She's had the most enthusiastic coach around and all the girls were great along with the parents. At practices they had devotions and prayer before and after each practice and game. Lindsey's favorite two things were kicking the ball and the snacks after each game. The moms usually all stood together yelling, as loud as we could, for the girls. The Dads pretty much acted like they didn't know who we crazy women were. In two weeks we are having a cook out at the coach's house and more soccer for the parents and the kids. What a fun spring this has been for our whole family.

Reece Tries Miniature Golf

Other Highlights of our Vacation

After spending a few hours at the beach, the kids apparently didn't get enough "water fun" because they would come home to the house and jump into the pool for a couple more hours. We also enjoyed the bike trails there and especially seeing our little 4 year old on his own bike pumping his pedals the best he could. I'm sure he felt like such a "big boy". I still put him in a "caboose" behind my bike on our longer bike trips.

Our First Family Miniature Golf Experience

While we were at Hilton Head, we decided to do some miniature golfing. We are finally out of that 'baby' stage and it's been great to do some "older kid things" as a family. We had a blast! The kids really got into the game. It took us an entire 2 hours to finish, but it was sure worth the fun. Alot of the time taken was the fact that Reece really wanted his hands and feet to be in just the right position every single shot. It also took time in that Daddy and Mommy kept hitting their golf balls in the water. Lindsey was just exhausted at the end because we had already gone on a long bike ride and spent several hours at the beach. Towards the end, Lindsey would haphazzardly hit her ball in the hole and find the next bench to lay on.