Did I mention our Vacation?

After a LONG day driving to Pensacola last week, we have had an absolutely amazing time visiting with family and friends.  The week has gone too quickly.  I'm going to let the pictures speak a thousand words.

Dinner out with our friends is not complete without hunting some geocaches and krispy kreme donuts!

We finally got to see Dan's parent's new house.  They have a pool table the kids loved.  We didn't know Dan's dad had been a pool shark back in his day.

Grandmother enjoyed showing us her new dock.

In order to add a little "school" to our vacation, we visited the museum at Ft. Pickens before we hit the beach.

Dinner out with my parents and grandparents at our favorite place that we have missed since moving.

We had so much fun playing at the beach two different days.  The water was rough.  I had to really pay attention to the kids, but it was worth it for the bigger waves and awesome boogie boarding.

I bought a waterproof digital camera.  I loved being out in the water with the kids to capture precious memories.

Dan enjoyed hanging out under his umbrella.

There are more pictures to come as we have more adventures.  Stay tuned!

Words to Live By

Each new quilt is my favorite and this is no exception.  I think I like this one especially because, there was no pattern or plan when I started.  I had about 15 orphan blocks (blocks left over from another project) and tubs of scraps.

I like to make words so I made "Love" the same size as the other squares and it grew from there with friends pitching in to give me word ideas.  I've always made rectangular quilts, but this one said it wanted to be square.  It's 58x58 finished.  I pulled all my coordinating scraps to make the piano key border which really made it come alive.  There are little pieces of every quilt I've made in this quilt.  That makes it really special to me, getting to revisit all of those projects and the people that I love that they were made for.

This quilt also really spoke to me for the quilting.  I did my up and down wavy "finger" stitch on the outside border.  The inside border had a diamond pattern so I followed it with wavy lines.  For the inside, I did a fun curly loopy stitch.

This quilt is going to a charity auction for The Smallest Gifts which supports families through the grief of losing a baby.

And now I'm on to my next two quilts: a paper pieced string quilt for a special someone and a 1st year baby clothes quilt for a sweet friend.  After that, I have a Tshirt quilt to make for a friend's son's Christmas present and a Yoda quilt to make for the Cade-man.  And then...maybe I'll start on the quilt I have planned for my bed!  It's going to be a busy fall y'all!

Disney Bound

We are heading out on vacation soon. I want us to have matching shirts for Disney pictures, but I don't want to spend a fortune on them. I've had this idea pinned on Pinterest for a while now. I cut Mickey heads out of parchment paper and ironed them onto the front of $3 Joann's shirts. Them we splattered, sprayed, and dotted bleach all around them. I think they turned out pretty well. I also have another set of shirts to appliqué Mickey Mouse on with Jaelyn's machine.

Family Canidae - Read All about It

We just finished a unit on members of Family Canidae AKA dogs. Have I mentioned I love our science book this year? We did a fun science experiment to see just how much people rely on their eyes over other senses. I made a bowl of lemon jello and a bowl of lemon jello dyed red. Smell, sight, and taste, the kids all guessed wrong on the red bowl even though they both tasted the same.

Allie's Diorama Presentation

Jaelyn's Diorama Presentation

Caden's Diorama Presentation

I read the first two books in the Half Upon a Time series to the kids over the summer. They are so much fun. We read the third together as our first chapter book. This was a fun little project this week to wrap it up.

My Latest Project

I have a friend who's hosting an auction to raise money for her charity. This is my contribution. I started with orphan blocks and scraps. It took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to make. This quilt is one of the first ones that sort of told me what it wanted to be, if that makes any sense at all. I'm going to name it "Words to Live By." I can't wait to get it on my frame and quilt it.

Week Two Down

Wow, homeschooling 3 takes a lot more time than 1.  I am going to have to be on my toes to stay ahead in my planning and preparation.  I'm also learning my time after school is very limited for the things I want to do.  I've been working on a sewing project in the afternoons for two weeks now and I'm not that close to being done.  I need 8 hours in a row :).  And that's with Dan home helping out with meals and grocery runs.  He starts back to work on the 25th.

All of that said, I think we are already into a good rhythm with our schedule.  I'm adding the last subject next week, but already I can see us moving faster through the subjects.  I am going to have to make an adjustment to spelling for Caden.  Jaelyn thrived under Spelling Power last year, but it's very frustrating to him.  You call out words for 5 minutes each morning.  The kids only study the ones they miss and they are added to the list for the next day.  Caden must have more of my perfectionism than we thought.  It's sooo upsetting to him to miss them.  He needs a list on Monday to study and then test on Friday just like a traditional school.  Homeschooling is great because I can accommodate what he needs; while also giving Jaelyn and Allie a system that is working great for them.

I do find myself worrying that they aren't going to learn what they need compared to a structured school, but when I logically think about, they are probably getting more.  They are getting individualized teaching.  We are studying things they want to study, reading books they want to read.  Last year, I loved that Jaelyn took ownership of her learning.  I would like to add in an art period one day a week...maybe just using art books from the library and recreating a famous piece of art, and I also need to figure out music.  Music is not my thing.  Allie and Caden want to take guitar lessons.  I also haven't found active activities yet.  Well, we signed Caden up for his first year of baseball, but I haven't signed the girls up for anything. Jaelyn doesn't care about continuing gymnastics.  Allie says she'll take dance when I ask, but she doesn't seem too excited about it.  Once our co-op starts, they'll have 2 hours a week of sports through it.  I also need to get more active.  We should throw in a PE period a few times a week and get out and move!

I worry what will happen as the kids hit high school.  It's only two years away, and we'll be here in the same county one not so great high school.  Will we keep homeschooling and do the tougher subjects online?  Will they go to public high school?  Will they go to private school?  That's borrowing worry from tomorrow, but my brain just can't stop :).

In other news, our vacation planning is coming right along.  I can't wait to visit home (it's been 21 months for Dan and 15 for me and the kids).  My parents visited us twice in Woodbridge, but we haven't seen anyone else.  Then, we'll continue on to Disney.  The last time we went Caden was 3 and cried if we even mentioned taking him on anything.  Dan or I took turns sitting outside the rides with him.  This time will be totally different.  Jaelyn and I have been busy making shirts on her new machine...

First Week of School

We started school officially on Monday.  We did reading last week and I did some placement testing, but it wasn't really school.  I wasn't sure what to expect with three personalities and three ability levels on Monday, but the week actually went really well.  Don't get me wrong, Jaelyn was a snoot about reading, Caden cried over writing, and Allie did a whole lot of bouncing (did I mentioned their old doctor messed up her ADHD prescription?  We are short a month and can't get into our new doctor until the end of September), but it sort of worked.  We all read together first thing.  We are reading the last book in the Half Upon a Time series (so much fun if you haven't read it).  Then the kids did math, spelling, and journal writing pretty independently (love math lessons on the computer.  After lunch, we did science and history.  We are studying zoology for science. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  Right now, we are watching an American Revolution cartoon series called Liberty Kids.  When we are done with it, we are going to do World Geography.  Last year, I could wing it if I had to with Jaelyn, but with 3, I'm going to have to be much more organized.  I'm predicting a great school year!

Today's "try this" in science was about camouflage and natural selection.  It didn't quite work like the book said, but it was still fun and the M&Ms in our habitat are now extinct.

In Search of Water

For the first time since the kids were old enough to swim without swim diapers, we have no pool access.  I've heard about two swimming pools, but there's a hefty fee to join that I'm not willing to pay for a month.  Since we can't do that, we've been in search of other places to get wet.  This weekend, we drove through the Shenandoah National Forest to get the Shenandoah River State Park. It was a long windy drive, but it was pretty.  The campground are really nice and the kids had a ball for the 30 minutes we let them float in river.  There were tons of people tubing and kayaking.

Another day, we investigated a lake about 15 minutes from our house.  It advertises a "beach," but you have to use that term loosely.  Their beach was dirt, but I guess it's better than nothing.  The kids still had fun.  I think this was their first experience swimming in a lake.

I've trained them well.  These pictures were all them yelling at me to take their pictures.  They counted down and jumped for me.

I love this one!

Dan's Graduation

I thought I'd posted a picture, but apparently not.  Last Friday, Dan received his Masters of Science in Technology Intelligence from the National Intelligence University!  We are so proud of him.  

There were several dignitaries there.  The keynote speaker was the former director on the NSA.  It was really interesting to listen to them speak about the intelligence community in general and hear their thoughts on what's going on in the world.  It's a scary place right now.

Dan was the last person to receive his degree.  Since they were holding the applause till the end, it was all for him :).  The announcer messed up and called him Danielle before correcting it.  That catcalls and some hooting from his friends.

I am proud of Dan and the rest of us.  It has not been an easy year, but we survived.  Now he just needs to get his tail in gear and get his ILE stuff done ;).

Moving In - Again

These are just a few pictures off my big camera.  You've seen versions that I took with my cell phone.

Isn't that pink horrible???  I'm so glad it's gone.

Jaelyn and Allie did a great job with the numbers.  I didn't mark off a single one!

They loaded our stuff on a HUGE truck.  It was only about 1/3-1/2 full.

And our new house.  I sent out an email this morning with our new address.  If you want it, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you (and not publish your address).

Allie's 5th Grade Graduation and Last Day of School Pictures

Very late...I have no excuse other than I've been busy moving :p.

Westridge Elementary did a great job with their 5th Grade Graduation Ceremony.  Thayer in Missouri did nothing for Jaelyn's class.  This was a nice change.  It was a hard year for Allie with all the changes, but we survived!

Happy Birthday, Joany

I'm finally pulling pictures off my camera from the last 6 weeks.  Here are pictures of the quilt I made for Joan for her birthday.  It's a Disappearing Pinwheel.  I quilted 4 different stitches on this one.  I love it and so does Joan.  Right now, she has it laying out on her formal dining room table so she can walk by and admire it.  I keep teasing her about the table cloth I made her.  I hope she'll use it when it gets cooler :).

First Mini-Day of School

We are starting off slowly with school. Today's first day was only reading and spelling. We read the first two chapters of Once Upon The End, the third book in a series I've been reading to the kids. I also gave Allie and Caden placement tests for spelling. Allie tested at the end of sixth grade. Caden tested at third grade. He's an awesome reader, but we'll have to do some extra work on spelling.

This afternoon, we went to "the beach" at Chris Greene Lake. I use the term beach loosely. Hopefully our next assignment will put us closer to a coast because a lake and dirt shore just don't compare to our beloved Pensacola Beach.

It's Finished

Photo Dump

We've had another busy week. I finished painting (yea). All of the boxes on the main 2 floors have been opened and the contents shoved in closets if I didn't know what to do with them ;).

I've been looking for a primitive ladder to hang quilts from in the living room. Jae and I want antiquing on Saturday. I couldn't find a ladder, but Jaelyn found some old shutters and suggested we buy one and cut out some of the slats to mimic a ladder. The picture below is my work in progress. Ignore the mess around the shutter. I haven't touched the garage yet. I'm still working on getting rid of packing materials.

I staged my photo wall going up the stairs. I really love it. Zac likes to survey it from his perch on the halfway by the loft.

And my last picture...I'm back up and sewing (because a girl can only spend so many hours unpacking without going insane). Each new quilt is my favorite, and this one is no exception!

Happy 12th birthday, Jaelyn!!!

Her birthday got over shadowed by a move again, but all the grandparents chipped in with us to make it a good one anyway. We finally got to play with her present tonight.