First Day of School, 2011

We started school in the middle of September. Everyone was fairly excited, however Cole needed some extra coaxing. The series of photos of him below will always make me smile remembering how I had to say a bunch of 'potty humor' words to get him to crack. He had writing class a few minutes after I took these, and he was definitely stressing a little. He is doing great in Writing, and he even wakes up early on Fridays to go to Mrs. Bruggner's Gifted Class at Springwood on Fridays. ALL of the kids, including Whitney, are LOVING our Tuesday Co-op! I am constantly amazed by the quality of each of the Mom's that teach. We have already learned so much in history, science, and now art. I really enjoyed teaching P.E. and getting to know all of the students that I now have in History! I love it!

My one big Operation Fail of this year was all of the K12 Independent Course work. It was NOT what I thought. I was basically paying a monthly subscription for them to do my book keeping. Lily's language is very comprehensive (I kept that)...but it is 100% teacher based. After 2 weeks of HW every night after swimming and working all day Saturday, with nothing accomplished in the way of learning math, I sent back the crappy math for both Cole and Lily...and am about to start Teaching Textbooks which we all LOVE! So, we are in the flow of Language, Writing Class, Co-op, Math, History, Physical Science, Astronomy, Swimming, Jazz, Hip Hop, Friday Science and trying to squeeze in read a-louds. Sometimes I struggle with feeling so 'invalidated'...I ask myself if I could make it in the real world...could I get a job and support my family? Then I see all that I am doing and realize I am simply out of time for now. Seriously though, I LOVE my life and homeschooling! I have an amazing support system and I enjoy my kids. Just today we went on a field trip to the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab. So FUN! Back to the 1st day pics though:

This is Cole hiding from the books when they arrived:

                   I spent way to much time and money making these...sort of an obsession:

Catching Up (Again!)...September's Family Vacation...

Ok, so it is nearing November and I have not caught up since August. AHHHH...School has a way of doing that to me. I made a Shutterfly album of our trip to the Beach in September for Tim's 34th Birthday in October...so the photos are at least organized there. But, alas, I will post them here. It was a wonderful time and I will always remember that trip as a time of peace, refreshing and family :)

 We arrived a day later than originally planned due to a tropical disturbance. The day before we got there the seas were topping 10 feet!

 Lily and I made a bunch of these magnets:

 The first day and morning after was the first cool snap we had had! Glorious!

 Lily designed and made this T!

 Tim and I had a Date Day on Saturday Morning...we went to my favorite place...Watercolor's Gardens...ahhhhhh!

 On the way home we stopped off at an estate sale and I bought all of this fabric for $2.50!