May Madness and Summer

Wow--May is crazy, just like December but without Christmas. Kind of like how Narnia is always winter but never Christmas. We are trying to wrap up our school year, only about 2 and a half more weeks. Thankfully we are done with a lot so what we do need to do doesn't take too long. This is good because almost every day this week and half of next week we have to fit school in around some other much more fun activities. We finally have a home day today, the first in 2 weeks I think. The kids have their last show of this season next week, they will be performing "Camp Rock 2." I spent a good bit of time yesterday soliciting donations for our drawing at intermission. Next week I will be baking a bazillion lemon bars and chocolate chip cookie bars. We are taking the summer off of theatre and I know we'll miss it but I'm looking forward to lots of free time. I'm going to really work on enjoying the freedom of summer. I actually prefer the routine of "normal" life and struggle some with the lazy days. I have a hard time getting motivated to do much of anything. I am one of those people who thrive in a busy schedule and I glory in being productive. However, with that said, I'm turning over a new leaf. I will enjoy the summer and I will embrace the freedom. Ollie will be home so I can go to the gym whenever I want, I can read as much as I want, I can get caught up on photo books, I can play games with the kids and go to the pool, I can watch movies even in the middle of the day. If you find me not embracing the slower pace of summer feel free to call me on it. I may even try to like the beach, sand up my butt and all. :0)
Well, it's time to get off the computer and start my day--this is not a day of freedom or laziness. I have a long to-do list...after all, it's still May.

A Parade, A Festival, a Train, and a Ballgame

Saturday morning we went to a parade for the local town celebration. We took some time to take some family pics.






This tractor was pretty amazing--it was super tall and even had a bench seat on the back. I guess that's for farm families who like to work together.
Brayden had a blast at the parade, he was excited over everything that was thrown, marched with the band, and held his little fingers out and said, "tickle, tickle" to all of the beauty queens.
My brother, Ryan, and his son, Sam were in the parade with the Cub Scouts--this was the first time in all his 33 years that my brother walked in a parade.
After the parade we went to a park for the festival--there we ate a funnel cake and homemade donuts freshly fried right there. We walked around for a little while and then headed home for a short rest.

After our rest we headed out again to a different park where they were celebrating the opening on this model train set up thingy. The kids made necklaces and then ate free hotdogs, chips, sweet tea, and ice cream sandwiches. I had myself an ice cream sandwich as well.


This park has beautiful flowers and we took some more pics.

After leaving the park we stopped at Starbucks and took advantage of the half price Frappucinos. I had a Venti Caramel Frap and then we went to Harrison's (my sister's son) baseball game--it was very exciting and fun to watch. They won but it was close.
Grace got to ride home with Pop in the Corvette. Mom and I went to the grocery store on the way home where I had another iced coffee. Let's re-cap all the things I ate--pig in a blanket, tater tots at the parade, funnel cake, doughnuts, sandwich, some chips, ice cream sandwiches, and two coffees. My tum-tum is so not used to that and I spent the rest of the night sick to my stomach. It was awful. Today I am eating very light and never drinking coffee again.

Relay for Life

We have been very busy here in GA...I will dedicate this post to our fun at Relay for Life last night. The Relay for Life here is huge, supposedly the biggest in the world. One of the upscale salons does haircuts for "free" with a $20 donation to the American Cancer Society. Grammy, Hannah, and Grace took this opportunity to get their hair cut. Hannah has been wanting to cut her hair short and I finally said yes. It turned out very cute and she loves it!




It actually took two ladies to cut Hannah's hair--apparently they were short on scissors and the main stylist was left handed and only had right handed scissors so the main stylist directed the scissors of the other girl.
I think she loves it!


The various displays were all so unique and fun. Of course we had to stop at this one. I think that bottom picture of the bus is a riot.


We had a good evening--we ate Chick-fil-a sandwiches, I had an adjustment from a chiropractor, girls got hair cuts, the kids ate waffle, italian ice, ice cream, and we all shared a fried candy bar from "FrigNBarbecue."' Only in the south...




This is my Momma and my Mamaw, Mamaw is a 6 year breast cancer survivor. We had a great night and donated lots of our dolloars to Relay for Life.

Just Stuff...With Pictures

The kids had Camp Rock dress rehearsal today. I love Grace's costume and hair--she's a super cute Camp Rocker doncha' think??

The kids (mostly Joe) have been playing real live "Civilization" outside. In case you aren't familiar with it--"Civilization" is a video game that involves building cities, finding resources, importing, exporting, etc., etc. Ollie tried to teach me a while back and I never could get it but Joe gets it and loves it. Last night he started creating his own Civilization in the backyard. He is China and has discovered a plant that is like silk that is his silk resource. He also has wood, rock, and other stuff. Above he is writing with a piece of wood dipped in ink made from blackberries. The girls have gotten into the game too and Hannah has created many "remedies." Grace said they were going to have a Crusade and I had to remind her that there were no Crusades in China. The good thing is that today we read about what was happening in China during the Crusades in the Middle East. China was being attacked and taken over by the Mongols lead by Genghis Kahn and later his son, Kublai Kahn. So, maybe they'll add that to their story line. History coming alive right in the backyard!

This picture above is completely out of order but oh well, it's a card Joe made me for Teacher Appreciation Day. :0) By the way, that 2nd equation is correct even though the 8 looks a lot like a 6.
Ollie helped Joe make a bow out of some bamboo.


Hannah is displaying a spear that she and Gracie worked together to carve using Grace's pocketknife. Now Hannah wants a pocketknife too.

The Family!

Thank you to Amy from Snapshots of Grace for such a beautiful picture--Joe's tie dye really makes the picture doesn't it? For the record, I dressed him in a different shirt earlier but he changed before coming to the park for the picture. Oh well! I still love it.

This Would Be Fun!

I love this!

Sunday Evening Post...Daybook Style

Outside my window...it's dark and there is a cool breeze wafting through the windows thanks to the two fans we have pulling that cool air into the house. It's supposed to be hot again tomorrow so I'll enjoy the cool night while I can.
On my mind...not much, just anticipating a new week. I love Mondays and the start of a new week. Tomorrow starts bright and early when I meet Julie at the gym at 6:30 am. We are now meeting at the gym two mornings a week and even have a routine--10 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the weight machines, and 20 more minutes on the elliptical. Going in the morning is so nice because I get the exercise over with and don't have to figure out how to fit it into my day. I've made it to the gym 4x each week for the last two weeks. Woohoo....that's a record!
On my nose...a nose ring!! This dumb little piece of metal has made me so super happy but I will say that I'm looking forward to the day that it's no longer new and something to talk about with everyone. Everyone has something to say but that's okay, I expected that. It's a little crazy for a middle-aged homeschool momma to go and do something like that.
What I'm reading...I stayed up until almost 1 am this morning finishing the book, Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. I really enjoyed it, I've read about 5 of her books and enjoyed all of them. Not sure what I'll read next, I have an interesting assortment of choices on my nightstand--a Dave Barry book, a Karen Kingsbury book, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, and some other book that looked interesting. I'll have to see what I'm in the mood for at bedtime.
Where I'm going...to GA on Thursday! I'm driving up for a whirlwind weekend--a play that my sister is directing, Relay for Life, a parade and festival, and Mother's Day. Then we'll come home on Monday.
From the homeschool room...we are going at a steady pace right now that I'm happy with. I think we'll wrap up our school year at the end of this month but continue math all summer. We did the first IEW lesson in writing last week and it went really well. I'm hoping to get through Lesson 5 before we stop for the summer. This week will be a short week and we'll just focus on the basics.
From the kitchen...I made an indian meal tonight for Ollie's early birthday dinner. We had spicy lentils, rice, a new vegetable dish that had 9 veggies in it and took forever to make, and naan. Tomorrow night is leftovers and I think I will be making more indian food on Tuesday. I had wanted to make paneer (cheese) tonight and didn't have time so I think I'll make Saag Paneer (a spinach dish with fried cheese) and may even try my hand at Samosas.
In other news...the kids are just a few weeks away from their performance of "Camp Rock, The Musical," I think it's going to be a fun show to watch, the songs are really catchy and the dances are great. After this show we will take a 2 1/2 month break from theatre which in some ways will be nice but we'll also really miss it. I guess that's the only other news I have because I've completely drawn a blank.
Peace out my friends!