This is only week 2?

It was not what we expected.  Week One must have took more out of some of us than expected! If you are on Facebook, you know we had a child in the ER for 12 hours. Dehydration. Hallucinations from the dehydration and eventually passing out.

She was a little better and had 'come to' by the time they transported to a pediatric ER for further evaluation. She thought her ambulance ride was "epic". She's doing much better but we're still watching her closely as she's not 100% just yet.

Our second week of gymnastics was much better for Lily this week. No tears. All smiles.

The kids floated foil boats around the Nile River and we eventually turned the buckets of water into the Red Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and found a paper plate to represent Babylon.

Our tutor academy, CC, is going extremely well. This week I captured a picture of some of their geography work. The Hebrew Empire.

Our week ended much better than it began. The girls had another set of sisters over for some play time, cupcake decorating and an American Girl movie. 

Such a busy week, sure leads to a very tired weekend though. 

Today I am learning to shop online at Sam's with their new Click N Pull, so we can simply pick up our items at the store Monday night without actually walking the isles, sort of like reserving a library book. 

Kya and I made breakfast for the family this morning while Dale and Aaron were at soccer. I sure hated to miss his game but what a week!

~ Be Blessed ~ 

Week 1 of the 2012_13 School Year

Week ONE....rocked! 

We were tired. Exhausted. 

Had headaches. Never finished all our work each day. The house was a mess. At 7pm were still doing schoolwork. At 9pm, still grading papers.

Does NOT sound great, does it? But when Thursday night rolled in and we prepped to go to CC for Friday morning, we all realized how much we learned, how excited we were to be going back to CC and how we couldn't wait to learn again next week...then suddenly....all the pain of the hard work, was so very worth it.

~ Here's a few snapshots of our week. ~

The girls began Gymnastics

(And Aaron began soccer)

 Some of our memory work for the week. 

We use our sliders as our white-board.

 Dale ditched us for the Blues Brothers in Vegas.

(He was really there for work.)

Daily break time. This day they built box city.

These are a few of our favorite things. 

The Dead Fish Science Exp at CC.

The All-Girls (not on purpose) class at CC.

Here I was sneaking a peek through the window 

at Aaron giving a presentation on dogs.

Thankful!

(and, still tired)

A new school year has begun! 2012-13

I have FIVE, yes 5, school aged children now. I am yet to see how a full blown day goes with all my little ones because we are easing back into our studies. But the year, none the less, has begun.

We had to say goodbye to our former Co-Op of three years because we needed something a bit different for right now. We joined a Tutor Academy that is nationwide called Classical Conversations. They provide a tutor that tutors our children once a week in all subjects and then we come home and work on what was introduced and we add on-level extra math and language arts for each child.

Here are my sweeties, all of them, starting their first day

 at their new Classical Conversations Tutor Academy. 

~ My (three!) 3rd Graders and (two) Kindergartners ~

Waiting for School to Open

(because we were actually early)

Kindergarten class checking out their beans in science

Lunch with friends is always fun. 

And, finally, Joy is a Girl Scout! And All American Girl Scout. 

She's very happy about it....

(but very confused in this pic as to what mom is asking her to do for her "pose")

THE FUN HAS JUST BEGUN.

Summer with Friends & Family

We were able to make it to Florida at the end of summer to see our friends and family. 

We had a fantastic two weeks!

While there....

We celebrated my sister Hope's 10th birthday with a bowling party. This was Lily, Aaron & Joy's first time bowling. They all loved it. Unfortunately, all the pics of them actually bowling turned out blurry.

The girls helped Meema bake Hope's Birthday Cake(s!)

 The girls also spent some time with Pop-Pop fishing in his backyard

We made it to Tampa to visit our friends over at Miracles and Blessings who just welcomed home their two newest daughters from China. 

When we first met our families only had 1 child living at home (their daughter, Tiff, in the striped shirt). Now together we have 10 children living at home! So fun! Such God moments we've all had together! 

And, it's always bitter sweet to see Dale's adult sons. We miss them so much. 

It's still hard to not be part of their daily lives.

We were also able to spend at week at the beach (and see more friends there). 

But I am gonna have to save that post for another day.