The Last Few Days

I have had a lot of fun these past couple of days.  On Thursday night I met some girlfriends from church and we went out for a birthday celebration.  Me and 5 other ladies all have birthdays this month.    It was great being able to hang out and relax...and eat, of course.

 

Super cool ladies, Lanae, Anna, Yvonne, and Julie.

 

On Friday, my little ones wanted to play the violin.  Lessons will be coming in the near future.  Oh boy, I get to pay for lessons for FIVE children. 

 



 

 

After the violin was put away, we headed over to the park.  I am so sad, because our very best homeschool friends, the Lindsey's, are moving back to Texas at the end of this month.  Boo hoo.  But we still had fun doing bottle rockets.

 

 

 

 

When Julia's bottle landed, Eli had the audacity to pick it up for her.  She fell apart and cried, cried, cried.  Her life was OVER!  Eli gave her the bottle and offered a few words of comfort.

 

 

Eli and Harry especially loved this bottle rocket activity.  They kept filling their bottles up with water and shouting with glee when the thing went flying into the sky.  It was some good times.

 

I decided to go ahead and run my 18-miler last night, since Rinar had to run his and the boys had a football game in Fernley today.  Somehow we had to get it all in.  And boy, have I ever told you that running that far totally sucks?  Phooey.  I was in pain.  The pain really started to wash over me like an acid bath, after I was finished.  But at least I didn't have to run today, right?

 

And I am never running a marathon again!  Have I said that before?

 

Then today (Saturday) was my birthday.  Oh boy! The kids were mostly so good today.  When they woke up this morning they were fairly pleasant.  That was a nice change of pace.

 

We then headed over to Fernley, which is about 1 hour west of Reno, for the boys football game.  It was a rough one.  The Fernley team was really good. It was a close game in the first half, but not so much in the second. We lost 19-0.  Raef really had a rough time. He came out in the 3rd quarter because he was sick.  I am pretty sure it was dehydration.  He threw up several times on the way home and is still not feeling that great. Poor kid.  For next week's game, they will be drinking lots of water, starting Friday!

 

When we got home, Rinar took me out for some birthday fun.  But not before I got a few presents.  The best was this card signed by all my kids.  The long message is from Zach.  He loves me so much even if I think I am mean.  Harry did the lovely squiggles to the left and Julia did the delicate circles on the bottom left.  Eli signed his name as well and even drew a heart.  Raef drew lots of hearts.  Aaahhhh! So sweet.  I also got another guitar and a new electric toothbrush.

 

 

But the best part was the serenade from Julia.  She sang happy birthday to me a million times. It was so adorable.

 

Rinar took me to Johnny's Ristorante.  It was truly fantastic. I highly recommend it.  Then we went to the Reno Ace's game.  We were in the box seats right behind the dugout.  Rinar had a major hook-up.  And then in the second inning, my name appeared on the scoreboard, wishing me happy birthday.  That was super cute. Oh, my kooky husband.

 

 

 
It was a fun day and now I can just march right on to 40. It will be here before I know it, I guess. I have four years to wrap my head around that.

 

 

O'Callaghan Park Friday and the Runaway Wagon

 We had a great day today. I was so productive and I am even posting these pictures from our visit to the park today. I take the kids to the park every Friday to be a part of a homeschool playgroup. You know, got to get those kids socialized and everything.  Apparently, all homeschoolers are terribly awkward and unable to be a part of society, so I have to schedule in the socializing so that they can learn how to do it.

Therefore, we go to park day with all the other "weird" homeschoolers.

I actually participate in two homeschool support groups. We meet on Tuesdays and Fridays and this is my Friday SEEK group.  SEEK is a homeschool co-op. We get together on Mondays and do school together at a private school that is closed on Mondays. It is great. We have met the last two Fridays to discuss some restructuring we plan to do with our group. I am excited for the new program and how it will be implemented. It is going to be awesome and it will set a strong framework for my entire homeschooling week. It is based on the classical model. We will do history, with a hands-on project each week, science (with experiment) class, Latin (I get to teach this one), art and music appreciation, with an art project and then some elective classes in the afternoon like musical theater and an additional art class or choir.  All of the morning classes will coordinate with each other and the kids will put things into their timeline book so that there is an order to everything.  The timeline book will be used over the years and we will also use it at home. I went ahead and made mine and we have already started. It is going to be great.

While I was meeting with Ann Marie about the history portion of the program, I had Zach take the babies on a walk in the wagon. It was his turn to pull them around and they needed a change of scenery.  He pulled them up the hill and was playing with them and went to the bathroom, etc.  Everything seemed to be going great. Then I see the wagon coming toward me at full speed and Zach running behind the wagon, chasing it.  It didn't dawn on  me at first what was happening and then I realized that my babies were in a runaway wagon!!! Holy CRAP!  Luckily, I was in the right place and I caught the wagon as it was gaining momentum quickly.

Harry was all smiles. He thought it was lots of fun.  Julia didn't think so...and neither did I!!!

What do I say about Zach? I really have no words.  Actual I have a lot of words but I will just keep them right here in my little noggin.  {{SIGH...}}

He was being so cute. I tried to catch him with his big toothy grin, but alas, the light turned green.

Progress

It is the last day of September. March and September always seem to disappear for me. Zoom.... gone. I can't believe how many entries I made in my blog this month. I thought I would round it out with an even nineteen, the most ever.

The kids must have had a hard day yesterday, because all three of them slept longer than usual today. I was surprised, but definitely not disappointed. We did several subjects today for school. I actually did a history unit today: the Assyrians. It was interesting. We talked about Gilgamesh and they really like that story. It is the oldest known myth in existence and has interesting twists and turns in it. I had checked out some books at the library last week and we read the stories with pictures and everything. So, when I read it today they kept chiming in, while they were coloring, saying that they remembered this or that. It was great.

Raef is now officially done with his McGuffey's Primer and now gets to move on to the first book. Hallelujiah! Progress. It is great. We also played a math game from Family Math. It involved colored marshmallows and adding. Doesn't that sound like fun? It took them a few tries to get the hang of it, but it really started to click. I made them build all of their numbers with their Math-U-See blocks and it really helped them to see why the numbers were what they were. Hence, there was a lot of practice carrying the sums. It was great.

We wrapped up a little early, once Eli woke up from his nap, and headed to the park. This week we went to Discovery Park and they had so much fun. There is a wonderful group of kids they play with, heavily-laden with boys. All of the kids are under 10. The group leader Kristina always brings cookies she makes and drinks. She is very generous and a wonderful host. It is fun to visit and meet new women. I just love it.

When we got home from the park, Raef started throwing up. He did it on and off until he went to bed. He had no other symptoms like a fever, lethargy, nothing. His stomach hurt and he kept having to vomit. This has been happening a lot. I would say a little less than once a month. It lasts about 12 hours and then he is fine. I am wondering if he is allergic to something. I don't have a darn clue what is going on and I don't know if I should be worried.

Therefore, Raef stayed home with the Marriotti's while I took Zach to group violin. Rinar picked him up about an hour later and we both got home about the same time. I had hoped Rinar would be able to start something for dinner. But he just ran out of time and it was 7pm when we both got in, so I decided to just go out somewhere.

We ate pizza. It was great and Eli really likes bread.