Weekend Wrap-Up

Last week was busy!

The older kids were at Camp In The City every day from 9 to 4. Then the little girls had VBS from 6:30 to 8 every day except Friday. All the kids loved their camps and VBS! We went a little crazy going to so many Vacation Bible Schools this summer. It was fun but I'm glad it's over!

The little girls finished up with a program at VBS Thursday evening. Each class sang a song on stage. The girls were adorable, of course!! (Videos on Instagram). S was in the first grade class with one of her bestfriends. They were sooo cute to watch together!! 



Wednesday morning we met some friends at a movie theater to watch Happy Feet! Several theaters around here offer free or $1 movies throughout the summer. The kids loved the movie!

I worked out four days in a row last week. The older kids and I took a long walk with our sweet puppy Wednesday evening. 

Friday morning I went through Starbucks drive-thru after dropping off the older kids at camp. The little girls begged for a frappucino of their own so we compromised by asking the barista to give them sample sizes instead. They loved it!! Afterwards we had to make an unexpected stop at Walgreens. They walked in barefoot, in their jammies, drinking their mini frappucinos. I wish I had taken a pic.. they looked so cute! 

Friday afternoon Camp In The City wrapped up with a little program. The college kids who came in to work as counselors had SO much energy... even after a week of camp they were jumping around and looking all energetic ha! I wish I had half their energy! 

Friday evening we had another Sip N' Dip at the community pool! They served pizza for dinner. We got there a little late but in plenty of time to enjoy dinner and swim for a while then the older kids helped us fold up chairs and tables and clean up afterwards. I love how they pitch in and work hard at community events.. just wish I could get them to always work that hard at home too!

They actually DO pitch in pretty well at home.. when they want to. Saturday C helped me mow the lawn, weed the flower bed, trim trees and bushes and haul everything to the curb. S helped a lot too!! I sweated so much working outside yesterday I thought I was going to faint. I probably overdid it a bit but I'm really happy to have the lawn mowed, front flower bed weeded and most of the side flower bed weeded as well. I wish I had taken some before pics. We've lived here over a year now and I think this is the first time I've touched the flower bed. I've definitely got to do better! I actually love yard work but just never got around to dealing with this stuff until yesterday. I'm looking forward to planting a few more plants and some flowers. I want monkey grass or something low maintenance out by our mailbox too. 

After a busy work day Saturday I just stayed home and relaxed all day yesterday. J took the kids to church and I stayed home, relaxed and puttered around. I ended up having cramps and feeling migrainey so it was nice to stay inside, watch Hulu and not have to sweat. We didn't have life group yesterday afternoon either so it was a nice, long lazy day. 

Today the kids and I stayed home most of the day. This is the last week before school starts and we plan to enjoy sleeping in while we can! I accidently forgot all about the two older girls eye appointments this morning.. we all slept right through it ha! 

The three older kids all got their teacher assignments today! They're so excited! And C found out he is on the same baseball team with one of his good friends from school so that was great news too! 

Going back to public school!

via Google

A year ago I was so excited about starting our homeschool journey but I found out along the way that it left me feeling constantly behind and overwhelmed.

JG slipped further and further behind. I am NOT a person who understands math and I understand English (conjunctions, etc) even less. Trying to teach stuff I could hardly grasp proved to be really difficult. 


JG did okay. She is actually a very motivated learner but I know I held her back by not being as organized as I could be and not be able to teach the way she needed. I know I let her have way too much down time, not enough structure, she wasn't challenged nearly enough and I feel like she missed out on making friends and learning from a teacher who could have helped her understand and grasp things that I couldn't. 



We didn't buy a curriculum when we started homeschooling last year and that may have been my first mistake. We wanted to save money so I pieced some stuff together here and there but felt like we still had a lot of gaps. 



I knew we needed to do something different this year. I really didn't want to send JG back to public but after weighing various options we decided public or K12 (public online) would be best for 5th grade. We have JG on the waitlist for K12 but there's no guarantee when she'll be accepted so we went ahead and enrolled her in public and feel great about our decision! 

Image via Google

She'll be in 5th grade at the same elementary school S will be going to. Since it's out of district she had to be approved by the district office. We were anxiously awaiting her letter (we saw on that app that it was coming Saturday) and she was SOOO excited to see that she was approved!! :) If she went to the intermediate she's zoned for I'd be driving to three different schools every day so I'm really glad she'll be at the same location as S! 

via Google 

And JG is SOOO excited to be going back to school! She got a new backpack and school supplies at the Back 2 School Bash Saturday morning then got her letter of approval Saturday afternoon. She was so excited she immediately went and started packing up her backpack lol! I imagine she'll have an outfit picked out for the first day soon too. :) 

As much as I love the idea of homeschool I think she really needs teachers who can patiently teach her rather than a stressed out mom. We're not sure what we'll do after 5th but we're hoping she'll be approved for K12 by 6th grade so she'll be home again then. And I'm not opposed to trying traditional homeschool again sometime down the road. 



J and I both feel like JG and I need this year as a break from homeschooling. JG fell behind a last year but just finished her end of the year homeschool test yesterday and scored pretty well.. so she isn't as far behind as we feared. She was always top of her class in public school and we feel like she'll catch up again quickly! 



I feel like the poor girl is such a guinea pig being the oldest. Counting homeschool this will be her FIFTH school since kindergarten. A few of those were due to moves but still. I feel really bad about that but she has a great attitude and has made great friends at every public school she's gone to! C, on the other hand, will be at the same school for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. And I really hope to keep S in her current school long term and plan for L to go to the same school long term too. 



It's such a great feeling to have 4th grade wrapped up, the big test finished and have JG registered and enrolled in public for 5th!! Now I just need to close out our homeschool in the next day or two. Praying all our kids have a great year!! 

Weekend Wrap-Up

I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by! The kids go back to school on August 6th and August 8th! 





Dressed up for Cow Appreciation Day last Tuesday. We ran into friends as we were getting there and they shared their masks with us.

We ran into more friends inside. One of them told the kids they could trade in unopened kids' meal toys for a free icecream. Well my kids had already opened their kid meal toys but that didn't stop L and S for asking for free icecream anyway ha! S turned over her opened, already played with toy and got two free icecreams in return. I always tell them it never hurts to ask! Who could resist such sweet, tiny little girls going up to the counter and asking nicely for icecream anyway? After that I bought cones for the older two. 

Last week was busy with more camps for the older three. JG was in Girls In The Run camp every morning from 8 to 12. And C and S went to a Music & Art camp every morning from 9-12. The camps were across town from each other and I tried to rotate who I picked up late. The teachers knew my dilemma and were awesome about keeping the kids a little later when I was running late. 

JG had so much fun! These are a few pics her teacher took. You can tell by her face she was having a great time!! 

Friday morning L and I went to pick up several little horses, stable and farm toys... all for just $5! And all the kids have been playing with them for days. L loves horses and I had been looking for a deal like this for her for awhile. After we picked up the toys we stopped at Starbucks. She was so excited to get chocolate milk! You would think having just 1 kid for a few hours every morning would be easier than having 4 but that wasn't the case. She wanted to be entertained constantly and would not give me a minutes rest ha! She's used playing with her siblings and doesn't like being on her own. Kind of a prelude to what next school year is going to be like when she's the only one at home with me every day.

C and S had a lot of fun at their camp too! Friday night they had a little performance with instruments and songs they learned followed by an icecream social! (Videos on Instagram)

Saturday morning we went to the big Back 2 School Bash! So much fun! The older three each got a free pair of tennis shoes, backpacks and some school supplies! They also got to pick out some clothes. They served free lunches (hotdog or pizza), had bouncy houses, snowcones, popcorn and cotton candy. There was a little petting zoo, face painting, animal balloons and few other booths we didn't get to. JG and I definitely want to volunteer (indoors!) next year! 



S was super excited to get her first bit of school supplies! She's getting more and more excited about starting kindergarten! 

L finally got to pet a real little pony! She was so excited! 

 And twin baby goats! So cute! 

S got to pet a turtle! Turtles are her favorites! 



They also got to pet a sheep, donkey, cow, baby goats, a llama, rabbits. There were the cutest baby piglets, birds and guinea pigs too. 

The older three kids loved this obstacle course bouncy house! It looked like a lot of fun! (Video on Instagram.) 



We wrapped up the busy weekend with life group at our house yesterday afternoon. 



J is off work this week and the kids have zero activities on the schedule (thank goodness!) We're planning to stay home, sleep in and spent lots of time at the neighborhood pool this week! Next week will be crazy again so we'll be using this week to relax and decompress before we hit the ground running again next week. 

I'm linking up with Hello Monday today. 

4th Of July Fun!

The Sunday before July 4th. This was the most patriotic-ish looking pic I got of all of them together this year.

We joined half our town the evening of July 3rd and set up along a main road to watch fireworks from the YMCA. This year we were right down the street from Bruster's Ice Cream and got cones before the fireworks started! 

We were planning to go to a parade the morning of July 4th but we all slept in instead. The kids weren't too disappointed. We headed the mall later that morning. My mother-in-law was in town for the week and wanted to look for a few sovernirs. We almost never go to the mall and the kids love to go so they had fun! L's face cracks me up here. She's getting a little too big for those toddler rocking animals but she still loves them ha! 

I saw this mug at Books-A-Million. Describes me to a tee lol! 

 All the girls had fun looking around Claire's! 

The three younger kids had pizza for lunch while JG and I split Chinese food and my MIL and J  got chicken from Popeyes. That's the beauty of a mall food court.. everyone gets what they want.

The kids with J and my mother-in-law. L is sooo attached to her. It's adorable! My MIL speaks almost no English and L speaks toddler English but they manage to understand each other and get along great. :D 

We stopped by the Bass Pro Shop to see the aquarium before we left. The kids love it and the waterfall sounds so peaceful! 

Our life group friends had a cook-out the evening of July 4th! It rained a little but not too bad. The kids had fun with sparklers and running around the backyard! Their neighbor's set off several fireworks in street so the kids all enjoyed watching that too. 

The kids with kids from life group. They all have a TON of energy!

Sweet sisters in their red, white and blue!



Back at home our neighborhood was full of fireworks going off until late at night. We sat outside and watched for a little while before going to bed. 



We had a busy, fun day! Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!! 

Hello Monday

Lots of catching up to do! I started this post last week and got sidetracked ha!

A couple Friday mornings ago the girls and I went up to a kids' consignment sale for their 50% off day. The sale is held in an old warehouse once or twice a year. This was our first time there since moving out here and I had to get some pics of the interior. The brick walls are amazing! I could totally see this place being a redone as a Magnolia Market type store. #loveit

I gave the little girls a dollar each and L wanted to take her little purse to keep her money in. Then she wanted to hang it up when she went potty. Ha! So cute!

The trees outside were gorgeous too!

The girls' dance rehearsal was a couple Friday evenings ago followed by a pizza dinner. And their big dance recital was Saturday, March 30. They all did great! The recital wrapped up dance for the spring semester.

Last Tuesday evening C's Trail Life group went to Climb On! Then G went with her American Heritage Girls group this past Friday. They both loved it! J took C and I dropped G off with her group. I wish I could've stayed to watch but it wasn't practical since I had all the other kids with me.



Last Wednesday C's school had a Fun Run! He did great!! He ran 35 laps and raised money for his school.

C's first baseball game of the season was last Thursday evening! They're playing again this evening. 

The little girls started soccer this past Saturday. I was so proud of L.. she finally got out on the field without me and practiced a bit with her team. I couldn't get her to go out during the actual "game" but maybe next week? I was so busy with L that I didn't get to really watch S's team on the other side of the field. I love watching her play.. hopefully I can get over there next week for a few minutes.

The weather has been beautiful lately. But on April 2nd we had random snow flurries in the morning. It was so weird! I hope we don't see that again for several months. We're loving the spring weather and have been spending a lot of time outside!