The right curriculum = happy days!

So I'm not even sure if anyone even reads this anymore, especially since I haven't posted anything in forever. But I'm going to post this for the soul purpose of having something to look back on and remember that good days do exist! :-) We started our school year two weeks ago and I was seriously freaking out. I feel like there is so much pressure on me to get Mason to where he needs to be and my heart aches for him when I see him struggling so much. On the flip side I literally get so excited and joyful when I see him finally get something or pick up a book to read. I know that you have to take the bad with the good though. It also kinda scares me that the twins learning to read is all on me and if I don't succeed then they don't succeed and that just scares the living daylights out of me. The fact that they are so eager to learn though makes me stay focused and determined. :-)

So on with the happy days part. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but we have FINALLY found the right curriculum!!!! YAY!!!! It makes for a much happier school day. :-) Mason has yet to fight me once this year, granted its only the 2nd week, but by this time last year we were both in tears and frustrated so this is a good thing. It helps that we have found something that works for him, thats always a good thing. lol We have had no fights, he understands everything so far, if he doesn't he asks and/or tells me he doesn't get it, he actually enjoys and asks to do his language program (which is done on the computer, how cool) and when taking breaks and coming back to his work he does it without me asking!! ALL GOOD THINGS!! I am absolutely in love with the books we have chosen this year!! Its a good variety of book work...which you can't avoid completely...and projects/hands on activities which he loves and learns so well with.

So at the end of week 2 all is well. He has aced his first Math test and is maintaining a A in language, which he has had no help from me with with the exception of how to run the program. :-) Science and Geography are all hands on with some reading, the hands on stuff he does well with but reading the chapters is another story. lol Okay so its not reading the chapters, its understanding what he read, but we're working on that. :-) If he can get his mouth to go as fast as his brain or the other way around we would be good...LOL. The joys of dyslexia! The twins are learning their vowels and know some letter sounds now. They have also learned their address and are working on handwriting! Overall...its been a good couple of weeks!

Week 2 Day 4 accomplished...only 27 weeks and 1 day to go!! But who's keeping count! Haha!! :-)

Spontaneous

I'm not even sure if I have any readers left, but I wanted to post about our adventures yesterdays. I LOVE to be spontaneous and with our current situation right now we have been stuck inside the house almost all summer with a few exceptions and we are all going stir crazy. So yesterday we decided to get in the truck and see where it took us and try to spend very little or no money at all. We packed a little lunch, ate in the car and hit the road. It took us FOREVER, and I mean 45 minutes, to get out of town. Not for being slow, but because of construction or something going on on north river road that turns into 43. By the time we actually got on the interstate the kids had already asked where we were going 20 times. All I could tell them was I had no idea and if they thought of something or saw something to tell us and we would stop. Wait, I did have one thing on my mind and that was Jamba Juice!!! Thanks to Renay I had a coupon and could get double for the price of one. :-) But other than that we had no other plans. We saw the signs for the dairy farm so the boys asked if we could stop. I explained that we couldn't afford to go into the barns but that we could stop and play on the trampoline thing and maybe get some ice cream to share....and thats what we did! It gave them some time to run some energy off and it was fun! Oh, and not to mention they have the BEST ice cream! The best part was there was NO WHINING or fighting!! YAY!! We then loaded back up in the truck and hit the road for some of my favorite drink...Jamba Juice!!! :-) If there's one thing that puts a smile on my face its Jamba Juice...I know it seems silly, but I love that stuff and its healthy too. We ran into a problem though once we got the Juice...we didn't know what to do next. Okay, so its not a problem, but we were stumped. We had obviously been in the house way too long. LOL. We saw a sign for a candy factory, but couldn't find it. Then we saw a sign for dunes and thought hmmm, why not, lets try to find them. So I looked up the best I could on my phone, seeing as I didn't have an address and found close enough directions and we hit the road again. After many stops, and turnarounds because of security checkpoints, haha, we finally found the Dunes only to find out that it cost to get in, duh, because its a state park. We knew that there were other beach fronts close by that were free so we opted to go to those instead. In the meantime we walked a trail that took us to a highway, saw a train pull up and stop and saw a conductor. Oh, and we got to stand under the electric wires and listen to the buzzing sound they make. YIKES! While the kids thought it was cool, I on the other hand couldn't get over how dangerous it was. It was quite the adventure! When we finally hit the beaches the kids were excited! Now remember that none of this was planned so we had NO beach toys or proper swimwear, but we made do with what was there, what we had and had a blast. The kids rolled up their shorts, got a little wet...ok Mason got a lot wet, and laughed a ton! There was one problem though, I didn't have camera and hadn't taken any pictures along the way. So I took out my phone and snapped a few shots and we called it a day.
You cant see it in this picture but you could see the Chicago Skyline from the beach! The kids kept going, "Its ChiCAgo!!" It was cute!Isaac with his eyes closed. :-) I'd have noticed had I had a real camera with me. lol
Mason is a fish out of water!! He loves the beach and says he wants to live there someday.
Speaking of a fish out of the water...Haha!The boys were collecting rocks on our walk. Weston had so many in his pockets that his pants were falling down. Hahaha! :-)It was a great end to a great day!!!

2009 4H Fair

Many of you probably already saw this on facebook, but I wanted to post it here mainly for my pleasure. :-) Yesterday was judging day for Masons rabbits. We were told it would start at 10am and so we figured we would get there about 9 so that Mason could get Dixie and Joe ready. What we weren't told, and failed to realize, was that he wouldn't be showing he breeds until later that day. We stood around waiting and waiting and waiting only to hear the judges are going to take a lunch break and then we'll resume back. We ended up not showing until way after lunch time! Don't get me wrong it was good for him to see what had to be done, ask tons of question (okay I was the one asking questions but still) and get prepared, or nervous. Haha. I never knew how much went into the judging. There are so many classes in each different breed that depending on how many are being shown in that breed it can take over an hour! Crazy I know! Then we had entered Dixie in the fur contest which meant she had to go back on the table after ALL the regular judging was done...boy was that chaotic! Then we were told because Joe took Best of Breed he had to back up for Best of 4 Class, what we failed to realize becasue the comment sheet was all messed up was that Dixie needed to be up there too. So you had tons of kids standing around holding several rabbits for about 20 minutes. It was quite entertaining! :-) I stood behind all of them holding Dixie for the judge so I was in the middle of all of it. It came down to Dixie and 2 others, but because we didn't realize that Dixie won Best of Breed and needed to be up there we didn't groom her. The judge told us, and everyone else for that matter, that it was such a hard one to judge and it came down to the nitty gritty, she was talking about Dixie. :-) It was so close that she had to find some flaw between them and because we didn't know Dixie was supposed to be up there we didn't groom her, so she got elimanted for her bottom being matted and wet. We were told though that there was nothing technicaly wrong with her and Mason had a great Holland Lop! So that made it all better. :-) Mason handled it extremely well when he didn't place for the fur class and the Best of 4 Class...I was completely shocked and underestimated him.
Not bad for his first year of 4H!!

I am so proud of you Mason!! You did a great job all day and all your hard work paid off!! WAY TO GO!!!

I see YELLOW!!

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I would brag on Mason a little bit. :-) Today Mason earned something that he has worked really hard for and I am SO VERY proud of him.
He earned his....
YELLOW BELT!!! :-)

This is one of the things that he had to do to earn it....



This is just part of what he had to know, but it goes to show that he is definitely a hands on child. I can't tell you how proud I am of him. It was amazing to see the smile on his face when he walked in with a yellow belt around him!! You couldn't wipe the grin off his face for hours...he is so proud of himself. We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Mike for taking the time to teach these boys!!!

Many of you know, or maybe don't know, that I LOVE the theatre!! I have a huge love for broadway! Seriously...HUGE! Well yesterday I got to share my love with the kids. For a couple years now the boys have listened to the OBCR of Wicked and watched every clip possible on YouTube. I even have video of Mason singing and acting some of it out, but I will save him the embarrasment...that is for now. ;-) Anyway...Wicked is in Indianapolis and will be in town for 3 weeks. The boys have been asking to see it for a couple years now, but the website said no one under the age of 5 was allowed and 8 was recommended. So I told the boys that when they turned 5 they could go. Now mind you every child is different and you really have to judge it based on your child, but I knew the boys would be fine since they knew almost ever word to the OBCR.

So on Thursday afternoon we headed up to Indy to try for lottery tickets. Which by the way is almost impossible to win for Wicked. I figured it wouldn't be crowded because it was a matinee in the middle of the week...wrong. It wasn't as crowded as the night before but still crowded for a middle of day performance in my opinion. I didn't figure that they would let the twins put their names in but I knew that at least we had 3 names in and that would hopefully be enough. To my surprise they said if they can write it then they can enter. WOO HOO!!!

...leave it to the kids to win!! Here they are sportin their buttons that say "I WON the Wicked Lottery!" Isaac was the first name to be drawn! YAY!! :-)

Needless to say we were really excited!! Then came a huge delima...we had 2 seats that were together on one side of the theatre, 2 seats on the complete other side and one in the back. Yikes!! We thought it would be the typical lottery seats that were front row, but it happened that they were partial view up the sides. :-( So after much deliberation we decided to put Mason and Isaac on the side where the seats were together and I set strict ground rules. Weston and I sat on the other side where he was in the row behind me but we both had seat 3 so I was right in front of him...and then we put William in the back so he could get to them (Mason and Isaac) for potty breaks during intermission. Sounds complicated doesn't it?? It was! But I am happy to report that it worked out extremely well!! The boys LOVED the show and are begging to go back and try lotto again. I think I've created monsters. :-) I didn't panic or have an anxiety attack with them being by themselves and we all enjoyed it so much.

They don't look excited or anything...I don't think they could have smiled any bigger!! Haha! And those are "real" smiles...not the fake cheesy ones kids always give you when you tell them to smile. I didn't even have to say those words.

So...my advice...GO SEE THE SHOW!!!! :-)

A week ago....

...this did NOT sound like Amazing Grace. He is so proud of himeslf and this is, by far he says, his favorite song he has had to learn. I will try to get an audio of it when he plays with his piano teacher. It sounds beautiful and he does a fantsatic job keeping his part. But for now this is what ya get. :-)

I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, but you guys get ther point. :-)

I am SO VERY proud of him!

Enjoy!

Not a whole lot here....

So there hasn't really been much going on around here. Nothings really changed job wise and we're just trying to hang in there. So I thought that I would post some pictures. Mason recently had a piano recital and he's really enjoying it. We've went from fighting and throwing books to him just sitting down and playing. :-)



We also took a mini-vacation up to the Dells thanks to last minute deals on travelzoo.com. We have really grown to love that place. We spent a couple days at the Kalahari Resort where the boys tried their hands at flowboarding, which is like body surfing, enjoyed all but 2 waterslides, floated on a lazy lazy river, rode a ferris wheel, drove go-karts, played mini-golf, walked up about 100 flights of stairs total (I lost count) and wore their parents out! It was very kid friendly as you can tell!
On the way home Weston finally got an up close and personal interaction with a red-eyed tree frog! :-)As Weston and Isaac continue to remind me of them turning 5 in a couple weeks, I am amazed at how fast they have grown up. I have something in the works for their big 5 birthday and can't wait to see their faces. Keep on the lookout for pictures! :-) Oh and I also made a trip to the city to hang out with a friend for a couple days. Happy to report I survived the plane ride, all 6 of them, and had the time of my life. I seriously LOVE that city! I spent several hours in Central Park on Saturday and captured some great pictures. So I'll leave you all with some pictures of a place thats so beautiful, relaxing and calm, such a contrast to the city that surrounds it. :-)

Yesterday my sister and I took off to spend the day in Chicago together. She just lost her job recently and doesn't really get out much and I wanted to go see a show one more time so I figured it would be some fun sister bonding time. We have an odd relationship. When she was 15 she came to live with me and I went from being her sister to her parent. When she moved out a couple years ago we kinda lost contact due to some family issues and just recently got back in touch about a year ago. We have done the girl thing and went to lunch and hung out but its been akward. Its very hard to go from being a sister to a parent and then back to being a sister again. So this time for us was greatly needed to kind of reestablish our sister bond and learn how to just be sisters and have fun. And we did! We had loads of fun!! I have been to Chicago before but never downtown and she had never been to Chicago at all. She had never even seen a toll booth before let alone downtown Chicago. So it was great to get to experience that with her. To see her get so excited over a toll booth made my day! :-) I can't express how much fun we had together. Of course we saw the show twice as most of you already know. Yes again! :-) While the show was what intiated this trip it was more than just seeing a show, it was a much needed bonding time between two sisters! And the show didn't disappoint either! They were on top of it at the night show, the emotions were flying and it was fantastic!! We also visited Millenium Park and got to be a little silly with The Bean and took pictures to prove it! :-)

The Bean

Yes we laid on the ground and it was so much fun! :-)

Us taking a picture of us taking a picture! LOL!

Looking up from under The Bean.

Me being silly!

We had so much fun taking pictures with this!

Ashley at her first broadway show...and my favorite show!

We had so much fun, wait...did I already say that! Haha! I have been informed that this will not be the last, that its just the beginning...I can't wait!! :-)

Announcing.....

the newest members of our family....

Dixie (aka Dixie-do, and yes she answers to that, its the cutest thing ever) who is a Holland Lop- Torte. She is extremely friendly and already has one leg under her (which in regular terms means she has already won Grand Champion once!)


Joe... is a Thrianta (which is a new and gorgeous breed). He came from a well known breeder and his mom was a champion, which apparently is a good thing! :-) He is still a little skittish when being held, but sits on the table extremely well. I just remembered that he was shown last week and won best of show!
This really isn't a great picture, but it was the one that showed off his red firey color the best!

So after much fretting and many hours of research we finally walked out of the barn with, in my opinion, the 2 best rabbits in the entire barn. But I'm a little biased! :-)

Mason is 9!!!

So for some reason this birthday year was hard for me. I know that it should be next year with him hitting the double digits and all, but it was this year. I think its because I know he's approaching it and see it in his maturity, conversations and such. The other day while watching tv (a commercial about the new Disney movie coming out) he made the comment "she's pretty". What?! Seriously! Where did that come from? I was in complete shock and was speechless. It would have been the perfect teachable moment and could have probably sparked some great conversations...would have been, had I known what to say and not gone all speechless and all. I am not ready for him to be so grown up, but on the other hand its nice to be able to carry on great conversations with him. If that makes any sense at all. Okay, well enough talk of him growing up. Lets get to the pictures!

The Sonic Cake!

Sonic Movie
Sonic Wii Game
Sonic T-Shirt (yes, another one!)...Do you notice a pattern here? :-)
And here was the big one! I'll explain first. Mason has been asking for this for some time. He brought it up again when asked if there was anything he wanted for his birthday. I kindly told him that they were just too expensive right now and he (surprisingly) said that's okay mom I'll just have something else. I was shocked by his reaction, he is really maturing. I was expecting a huge fit and that's not what happened at all. He would see them on tv and when we were out and just say I wish they weren't so expensive and that was it. No fit, not temper, no whining, nothing. Thats when I realized he was ready for it, to respect it and take care of it. So with the help Mama and Dave, because they are expensive, we were able to suprise him with it. :-)
The happiness was glowing on his face!
...as a little side note, it holds audiobooks too!! And we have the actual book of a couple so I will be using this to my advantage. ;-)
Here he is sporting some of his birthday gifts! The shirt was an awesome gift from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky! Thanks guys he loves it!
Now onto embarrassing the twins. I know that they are probably too old for bath pictures and pretty soon they'll be too old to take baths together, but I have to post these. They are hularious and I made sure that I kept it to just their bellys and up.
Weston..."I feel like a flower."

Very Random...

*We have been so busy, from finding things to do to get out of the house and not spend a fortune, to getting back on track with our schoolwork, to many trips to the eye doctor, etc...Its been seriously ridiculous!

*We made a trip to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum last week, I think it was last week. hahaha They have a new lego area and I must say even as a girl, I loved that area!! We spent so much time in there. Here are some of the creations the kids made.

*For some reason this week I was feeling extremely adventurous. Don't ask where it came from, I have no idea. We were all having major cabin fever (seriously..it is spring yet) so thanks to the handy internet this is what we did!

This was SOOO much fun!!! The boys had a blast and honestly..so did I! Yes I did climb, but I will not be posting pictures on here of that. :-) I'm sure you all don't care to see my butt. hahaha Weston (very surprisingly) is a little dare devil. That boy would do whatever he had to do to reach that next rock. He was a climbing machine! Most of those pictures are of him because I was in complete shock at what he would attempt. Isaac loved to free climb without the rope and Mason, well, climbed a lot more than I ever thought he would. This is good for him people, he's a weeny, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Its just he's not good with trying things new and all, but this was a hit with him.

*We made yet another trip to the eye doctor today, twice in fact! Once to pick up Westons glasses and another trip to have them tighten the nose piece a little more because they almost hit the floor when they fell off his face. For those of you counting...that makes 7 times in less than 2 weeks!!!! Needless to say they start cracking the jokes the minute we walk in. :-) And...we have to make another trip! LOL Masons lens were scratched so we are going to go ahead and replace them, they were covered under warranty and he made it a full year with those so I am extremely impressed.

Notice Isaac giving Weston bunny ears in the background! LOL "Did you get the ears in the picture Mom?" :)
For those of you that will still have trouble telling them apart now....Weston has the blue ones and Isaac is in the green ones! :) They look so handsome!

*I have been searching for new curriculum already for next year. I have decided to stay with the same math program, but would like to find something more stable for science, history and geography. I have found something I really love, but its rather expensive. I'm hoping to look at it at the convention coming up next month before I purchase it. I still can't find a good language program, but hope to soon. The twins have started some new books to supplement with until next year when we finish our Abeka program. I just want to review a little more and make sure they know their stuff before we move on. You can never review enough. :)

*Alright one more picture because I just can't resist! They really do love each other...I promise! :-)