Photo Post from Palm Sunday Weekend

Lucas and Caleb, Caleb said make a funny face. He looks pained in this picture but these boys were happy to see each other and definitely having fun. This was at Milano's Birthday party on Friday night. The girls and I went too. They got to bowl, play video games, play laser tag and also eat plenty of oizza and birthday cake. Lucas was happy to get a chance to hang out with his buddies from his SA united soccer team.

Emaleigh and Sadie

Addie and Rahlynn playing air hockey.

Lucas was playing opposite of Raylynn.

On the next morning, Saturday, we took the kids early to Morgan's Wonderland for their Easter Eggstravaganza event. The park is specially designed for special needs children with special assessinity and extra sensory stuff. There were several egg hunts divided by kids ages but we just hung out and played until the soccer games started at the fields just next door. Emaleighninsisted to dress up and therefore had to change to soccer clothes in a flash. The other two were dressed for work. Lucas was in his soccer clothes and Addie was dressed for the TCC fundraiser that we all participated in after soccer.

Emmy and Lucas's games were at the same time and I actually didn't get any pictures of their games on Saturday. Our friends, the Stacey's showed up to watch with us. 

We headed after the game for a quick lunch at Sonic and then to Wal Mart to sell goodies to raise funds for the TCC. The whole family dressed in their Storming Normandy Tshirts. I only got a photo of Lucas while we were there. They all did great. Addie and Lucas each got several $20 donations from passers by that thought they were cute, interesting or knowledgeable. Addie holds a sign that says "Ask me about D-Day"  When people ask she gives them a quick history lesson.  Many people are shocked that she actually knows her stuff here.  One of the first times she forgot what she was goingto say next and fell into tears.  This was another Saturday over a month ago.  The history teacher she was talking to was still impressed and dropped back by our table on the way out and handed Addie a $20 bill. Even though she started in tears, she was so encouraged by this interaction she has answered the question since then with much more confidnece.  Lucas just tells everyone that passes in a cowboys shirt or a soccer jersey that he likes his shirt and they usually head straight to the table to stock up on chocolate.

Saturday evening we got to host our Stacey girls for a sleepover so mom, dad and baby could have a date night.  It has been since the weekend that baby brother was born in December that we got to have them here so everyone was so excited.  They played hard until the sun went down then we ate some pizza, watched a movie with popcorn and then settled into bed for the night.  They are awesome fun girls to have for a sleepover.  We all went to church the next day and headed after to a picnic/ Easter Egg hunt. 

The Boys (minus Kevin)  Hudson likes to be held facing out and when you talk to whoever is holding him he looks into your eyes and nods ,like he is listening. Austin serves the US military in the army at San Antonio Military Medical Center.  He is a heart cath technician and had alot of knowledge and encouragement when mom was in the hospital with he heart bypass surgery.

Addie and Lucas took the opportunity after church to hop rides into the Stacey's truck.  All their girls wanted to ride with us in the van.  The also seized the opportunity to be super silly with Easter baskets on their heads.

Blarney Blast Soccer

Yesterday Lucas and his soccer team, the Jags, participated in a St. Patrick's day tournament in Bulverde. Bulverde is just north of San Antonio on the way out to Janma and Grandpa's house. Those grandparents were planning to cheer for the Jags at the tourney but Grandpa fell on Thursday and hurt his foot badly enough that he is on mandatory rest and take it easy for a few weeks. Jan is taking good care of him. What a strange opportunity for them at this stage in their life. They are both fiercely independent; this injury just may be a good opportunity for them to learn a new dependence. We sure missed them and the kids are missing them too. They were slated to be child care for the next three days while Kevin and I are out of town. That's an entirely different story. But it is worth saying that the injury took them out and another hero came immediately from New Orleans. Mima did get to see Lucas play two of his three games.
The tournament asked for them to enter a name contest so just for yesterday, the Jags were called the GreenGos. Get it, Get it...
So these tournaments are best of the best and so far our boys are winless in all of their tournaments. You should know that the entries in their age group are always very limited so in order for them to play their promised 3 games they have to play up in age. Most of the boys have been playing together for a few years and this year they are really clicking together. It really seems like years of practice and skills drills just started to be apparent in the game play. I can't wait now for the next game.
They did , btw, lose all games yesterday. They lost them better than they have in the past. Maybe next tourney they will get a win. Kevin said the first game was the closest but Lucas blocked several shots with his body so it could have been more of a blowout. Dad, you got to get to San Antonio and see him play before we have to start buying tickets for his games. OK, I am kidding about that but get here as soon as you can. It is time to see it.

A homeschool day of fun

I spent a bit of time already looking forward to Spring Break next week when I get to travel with a sister and 5 of our kids to see out moma in New Orleans.  I am excited about the trip itself but know that it might all be wasted without a plan.  Not that it would be terrible for us all to wake up in the same place for a few days and stare at each other until somebody came up with some way to make it not boring because even then, atleast we would all be in the same place.  But a plan to have tremendous fun would be even better than an endless staring contest.  I only have a few ideas.  One was to have a little treasure hunt.  I collected these things around my house and snapped a photo.  I suppose that while they are rising to shine, my sister and I can hide these things around the house and give them each a photo of all the things they are to find.  Kind of like an egg hunt, only no eggs.  Ofcoure there are variations on this you are probably already thinking of that could be even more fun.  I am new at cool moma so just assume that I am going to do all those cool things too.

So while I was sufficiently distracted trying to plan fun stuff for us to do NEXT week, homeschool still goes on, right.  Addie was having a bit of trouble focusing too!  But she is generally ahead of schedule and he basic distraction is a book she can't put down so I am OK with that.  I decided to let her try her hand at baking.  I let her find the recipe, collect and measure ingredients and put the pumpkin bread together almost completely by herself.  I poured the batter into the pan because it was too heavy for her.  That was almost all the help I gave her.  She was pretty pleased with herself. It came out very well.

BUT you can't let Addie do something fun, NO FAIR.  Lucas helped me prepare some colored rice to use somehow I am not sure but definitely to play with next week.  This was fun.  Look how pretty!

Lot of shake shake shaking to get all that dye evenly spread.

Yo Gabba Gabba, The Littlest Lyons turns 2!

When your papa is so cool that he rocks DJ Lance Rock's bright orange furry beanie for your 2nd birthday then you know life is good. Can you dig it? Can you dance?
Today was a busy day with a conference at Lucas's school, a little fundraising, a birthday party and a choir performance. Easily the highlight was the birthday party. This little girl is not to be overlooked. When she was only 14 months she preferred to be left alone in the swimming pool. Fiercely independent but purely her age in terms of fun potential. If there is fun to be had then she wants to be right in the middle of it. Don't tell her she's too little. Nothing is too big or too difficult for her. She's full of smiles and plenty polite. A favorite word of hers is, "thanks".
Fun party and awesome little girl. Can't wait to see what her next year brings. I am happy that we were invited to be a part of her celebration.
Yo Gabba Gabba style.

That's our Boy!

On Wednesday of this week I had a parent teacher conference with Lucas's first grade teacher. Lucas is a good smart kid and I did expect the conference to go well. Mrs. Perez started the meeting just that way, but there were surprises. She told me a lot of great things but I actually was surprised to hear that he is reading at a fourth grade level. She also told me that he is an assistant to her in the class and that he takes the responsibility seriously. She said that each time he finishes work early, he then starts to help teach his classmates that struggle to learn. She called him a leader, which is definitely one of the things we always encourage our kids to be. I was surprised and beaming with pride as I left this conference. Funny enough as we walked out we saw Lucas helping his classmates get ready to go into class. They were all sitting along the wall in am orderly way and Lucas was handing out their name tags.
We have these expectations for our kids and they continuously meet them and we we can't celebrate them enough. This time we decided it had to be special. Soooooo Kevin decided that Lucas had earned a day off from school to go with him to work. He got dressed up as he loves to do, packed some books and his iPod and headed out with his daddy. He was particularly excited to be able to go to a Toastmasters meeting at lunch. Toastmasters is a group that helps people develop comfort and eloquence in occasions where they have to speak to a crowd. Lucas must have been preparing his introduction for a while because he knocked their socks off. He stood up and said his name his age, how he earned the day off from school and with his daddy and that he loved soccer. He said he is a leader in his school which makes him just like his daddy except with plenty of gorgeous hair. What a ham!!! I wish I had been there or that we could have anticipated that so Kevin would have a video! Well, no video but just a cute photo!

My Kids Go To Work

Last Friday the kids and I did a little brainstorming exercise. I asked them to tell me what they thought their chores were. The kids who could write had five minutes to write their list. Then I let Emaleigh tell me what she thought her chores were. Next I asked them to tell me how they were compensated and if they got paid for all of those chores or just some of them.
I was surprised about how many things they put on their list. It was evident though that they didn't really know what their work was worth. It was time to be specific and a little more detailed about what exactly was expected of each of them, what chores qualified as extra work and what the pay was for expected chores and for extra work. So together we made a list of chores for each kid. Addie and Lucas get 7 chores each and Emmy has 6. These are the chores for which they will earn a weekly commission provided they are done to be paid on Sunday. Then we made a fourth list of chores that they can do for extra money. The extra chores are worth a quarter each.
Today I finally finished putting our outcomes together on a board that is now hanging in our school room. The kids love it and as if on cue they got into chores as soon as it was up. I am optimistic that the brainstorming exercise means they have bought in to my plan for world domination by having them do all the housework leaving my more time for royal schemes.
In other news, Emaleigh ran inside from the back yard excited to tell us about the little creature with a fuzzy back that she found in the yard. I hope this little creature
didn't have any friends.

Twofer Tuesdays

That is just how Tuesdays go during soccer season which started again today. Choir practice and soccer practice both start at 5 pm and we have the challenge to get three kids to two different places. Did you notice that I said three? Today is Emaleigh's very first practice for her very first year playing soccer. She is really thrilled. She is a natural at gymnastics but this opportunity will allow her to shine for her daddy. Daddy doesn't get to see her practice at gymnastics on Fridays at 11, but he took her to practice tonight and she rode over there on a cloud. Her first game is this Friday.
Addie's practices with the Texas Children's Choir are every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6:30 pm and once a month for a few hours on a Saturday. They have a performance this Saturday for a blue and gold ceremony. They are singing 5 songs AND dancing for one. Dancing is totally new for the choir since Addie has been with them. I can't wait to see how that goes.
So that's a typical Tuesday, rush to two places at once and then home to come together for dinner.
I need to say here, many days we would not have made it to our two places without the help of our great friends, the Huffs. D&D are almost like second parents to our three and I think we are for their three too! I guess somebody said it takes a village; for us life is definitely better with a couple of partners who love us and our kids as much as we do.
Actually we have a lot of helpers. We are so lucky.

Hey, Are You Still With Me?

Well, I have taken an almost two year break from publishing on this blog.  Honestly I thought it was longer.  I just looked at photos from my last blog post and Oh my goodness! my cute kiddos have grown so much since then.  We have lost teeth, learned to ride bikes, excelled in soccer, tried dance, started school a couple of times too among other things.  So there, that is kinda the last two years in a nutshell.  Well, my readership is very quaint, so I know you all know that so much more has transpired during that time, but let's talk about now. 

Raise your hand if you thought I was crazy when I said that Kevin and I had made the choice to homeschool our children.  OK, our choice was well thought out, deliberated and finally sort of encouraged by our oldes,t who was just having repeated heartbreak on a daily basis at school.  Her heartbreak wasn't the only factor, just the deciding one. 

I spent a bit of time during Spring and Summer reading about homeschooling, unschooling, rules and regulations. I went to the FEAST (Family Education alliance of South Texas) homeschool curriculum book fair in May and was flooded with information that made me feel underwater. Were we going to be traditional, classical, unit study or living books homeschoolers?  Which curriculum would we use?  Would we choose one company for all or spread it around?  Or use none of the above and totally wing it with what life threw at us. Well one thing for sure that I did know was that I always want learning to be a joy. And I want our homeschool to be so much more than public school at home. So I guess that is two things then...

The most fun thing I found at FEAST was SimplyFun. I started my little play as a SimplyFun playologist. SimplyFun's call is to build smarter kids and stronger families through play. I saw these games and knew I had to have them for our family. Who doesn't love some family play time that can also be educational?

  I was drawn to the game, Sumology, first because I love math (if you didn't know) and to Let's Drive second because I love road trips, but feel fairly deficient in geographic knowledge of the northern USA.  I signed up to start sharing these games with friends and family that I thought might like to play to learn like us. Now I am hosting parties for friends who get to earn free games and I am making new friends. The kids and I got to go to the SimplyFun convention for playologists in Las Vegas where the kids all got a Tibbar rabbit for playing so well while mommy learned more about new games and sharing. So that's new.
 
And here we are in the second week of actual planned and scheduled homeschool.  Ultimately we chose to start somewhat with a traditional textbook approach for math using the A Beka curriculum.  Addie is moving along swiftly in her math so far.  Many mornings she is up and at 'em by 6:30 cracking her math book and trying to work ahead.  She is moving through these lessons at almost double speed.  We chose A Beka for math pretty much because I knew it didn't suck and I found it for $5 at a book swap.  AND eventually a friend passed more A Beka along for language arts and then another for reading.  So we are doing some traditional homeschooling using A Beka.  We have not chosen a curriculum for science, but we are currently studying the ocean and specifically sea turtles.  We have many books by scholastic that we found at our friendly neighborhood thrift store to support this endeavor along with a great book from the library and a movie on netflix.  Addie and I drew sea turtles together yesterday.

That was SUCH a learning experience for both of us. Did you know that Addie is not perfect?  She sometimes forgets.  We got started by tracing a circle, but when the next step called for a free hand leaf shape for the body that was pretty much symmetrical, she lost it.  I mean she had a total meltdown and my patience was being challenged too.  This was supposed to be a fun artsy break for my artsy girl that also tied into what we had been studying. When she couldn't get that body perfect in her eyes, it was like the world was going to end.  We tried to keep moving forward, but it was as if she were possessed.  This joyful fun girl was being brought down by an imperfect leafy sketch. REALLY!!!

 

Eventually, she threw herself down on her bed in her room and mourned her shortcomings. Next she came back to get her paper and pencil and brought it back to her room as if I were the reason she couldn't draw a perfect turtle. And then like magic, 15 minutes later, she re-appeared and was smiling. She gave me a hug and told me she loved me and finished her turtle.  What a struggle!  This is going to continue to be a learning challenge I know.  We navigated it for the first time and I expect not the last, but ultimately she was pretty pleased and easy on herself when it didn't look exactly like the example we were following steps from.  I told her it was perfect and she is now proud because she did it all by herself.  She did identify things she wishes she did differently and wants to draw another one to send to her Grandma Prewitt.

 

Emaleigh is also homeschooling with us. She is working primarily on writing. We have write-on place mats for her to practice writing letters and numbers and she has also learned to write her name.

 She can spell the names of everyone in our family.  Her daddy was so impressed with her at bed time last night that she kept asking for more tasks to show him her brilliance.  At bed time...I was exhausted but she was so cute giggling as she ran out of the room to go do something to impress her daddy. 

 

The girls started gymnastics last Friday which I honestly think if you ask them, it is better than candy and probably the only thing we now have take away power with for Emaleigh :)

 

So what about Red? maybe you are asking yourself.  Well that lucky duck got a homeschool pass because he is at James Masters Elementary in first grade with the best teacher EVER, Mrs. Gallegos-Perez.  She is amazing and we love her.  She was Addie's teacher for both kinder and first grade.  We love her because she obviously has a heart for the job she is doing.  She loves her students but even when it was just Addie in her class she started a relationship with Lucas and Emaleigh and has always been encouraging to all of our kids.  She teaches the kids to their level and challenges them appropriately rather than choosing a class pace based on the weakest link.  I just always loved that if Addie could do what Mrs. Perez was asking, then she changed it to something a little more difficult.  For me, she actually promoted growth rather than "good enough"  So Lucas is still in public school.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Here they are on the first day of school.  I love how Addie wore the tie dye.  That would never go at her public school.

 

Well Kevin just got home about an hour ago and told the kids they needed to eat dinner and take a nap or there would be no circus this evening.  I just noticed that there are empty plates and all three kids and one dad are napping so I am going to go grab a moment of peace.  Maybe I will read a book I like.  Have a Happy weekend.

Spookout Soccer in Round Rock Texas