I Love Fridays!

The girls and I ran a few errands today and what a sight we had while we were out. With the weather warming up it was a beautiful day. We now mostly take Friday’s off of our homeschooling. We use this day for our spelling and math tests, doing an art project, exploring the outdoors and the nature that surrounds us and definitely a time to hang out with friends. I love this schedule and so do the girls.

Back to where I was originally heading….. so we stopped at a local market and on the way we see several marathon runners enjoying this sunny day. Bless them for the training they did to be able to do that. We head over the hill down towards our historical square which is the hang out for the town. And as usual people are out walking the square and about half of them have dogs and some on bikes, some resting on park benches and others who clearly are from out of town have their cameras out taking pictures of the court house. It was very quiet and I was noticing our surroundings. One store front said “Auctions every weekend,” a realty business said “realtors wanted,” a restaurant said, “great specials.” And a couple store fronts were noticeably vacant showing a sign of our week economy. But I loved what I saw! People out mingling about, talking to each other even if they were strangers to each other (that is how our town is). No one had anything new looking on or even a new bike. Most people here really don’t care about being the top of the crop. That is one thing I just love about this town.

I drive up Whiskey Row surrounded by these old, old and I mean old buildings with old huge trees that are bare awaiting their buds. I just smile and look in my rearview mirror as my kids too are looking out their windows taking it all in. The scenery kind of reminded me of one of the American Girl stories that Kayla and I read together during the time of the revolutionary war.

We stop at the local library which we just LOVE and the girls always stop to check out the progress of the mural that is a work in progress. Shae, the artist herself says, “look at the sleeping dragon, he is so cute.” We run into another one of my homeschool lady friends and her two children and catch up while the kids examine the rows of books and carefully choose their next read. Were done now and head out and how cool to drive down the historical street Mt. Vernon with yet another tree lined street with beautifully old now restored Victorian historical homes with the humbling white picket fences that surround them. We stop by another friends house real quick and then when we got home another friend of ours stopped by and picked my brain a little as she is considering homeschooling her children starting next year. What a great day we had. It is now bed time for the girls and as I read them their bed time story I walk past the puzzles that Shae loves to put together on the floor and just smile. It may be a weak economy but a strong and happy family. Good night!

Exciting Week for Kayla!

Old news for most as these Heely's have been out for awhile but new for Kayla! She had been saving her money for a pair and I wasn't sure she would even pick it up and the $60 would be a waste. So, I told her that I found some on Ebay and they were practically new. So as the clock counted down Kayla sat with me and we bid on them and YEEHAW!!! We got them for $12. She was sooooooooooo excited! She is the kind of girl that NEVER says they have to be new or won't wear used things. She lives in used clothing from my dear friend and sister that I never had .... Janey in California. Thanks to her we have a wardrobe for more than a year at any given time. I of course hand them down to others when Shae is done with them.
Practicing hard and she got it pretty good on day 2. But .............. with super sore thigh muscles and required heating packs. tee,hee,hee!

Today, Kayla got a surprise from her guitar teacher Ms. Patty from the Volante Academy of the Arts. Ms. Patty usually has her 12 string with her but today she brought her shiny and sweet electric guitar. She even let Kayla play it. Boy did it sound nice!!

This was Kayla's last day of guitar lessons until after the High School Musical Show. I don't want her overwhelmed so we will start up again in 13 weeks. We will continue to keep up our chords and playing until then.

UPDATE.... still waiting

"What is it?" you ask. Well these are our pupas that we are awaiting to emerge. They are still in this pupa stage and has been for 5 months. And yes we still have them. We have them outside in a safe place where they are exposed to the natural elements of weather.

On the above picture you will see the 2 large brown hairy things and a smaller white smooth thing on top of the one brown hairy thing which are the different pupas (3). The white pupa is a different kind of caterpillar that Shae caught and it began spinning its web around itself immediately after she put it in her bucket. They other 2 have an amazing story and are 2 of North American's Largest Cecropia Moths.

Click here if you missed the original post of how these came about and what they looked like when we caught them and amazing pictures of them inside their cozy homes while waiting for Spring.

"Give me that test"

So, during our studies thoughout the week we always do spelling. Kayla isn't the greatest speller but then again ... who is in second grade? And thank goodness for spell check when they get older! ha,ha!
I started out the year following the spelling curriculum with having Kayla do the pages in the book along with writing them and us doing some spelling exercises. Then she started asking me if she can just have the test instead of doing all that work.
I thought that was a odd request. So, I thought about it and told her that is she gets 100% then she doesn't have to do the work. After all, how dumb to have to do all that work if you already know the words.

She was doing great and we did this for a couple of weeks. Then I decided to at the beginning of the week go thru and just give her a pre-test of several lessons and see which words she didn't know. This week we went thru lessons 16-20 and out of 75 words she didn't know 15 of them.
So, that became her new spelling list for the week. The only thing is that I had to make up and pick from all the lessons to create the work sheets that go along with those words. Which I don't mind ........... as I am the "Teacher" and can do that. :> )
She also writes in a journal a couple of times a week and I will look back in that and pull the misspelled words to add to her list.
The girls and I have learned so much and I myself have learned what they know and what to work on. Instead of "just moving on" to another topic and them not getting it.... we stay on it till they get it. It is the best and most through way for them to learn!

Winter Storm Last Night

We went to bed with snowing falling and it had been for a couple of hours.

Good night little tree! Your branches will be heavier in the morning. I will help you shake it off!

I told you so!

Ready to go to the grocery store. NOT!

Where is the plower?

I see some have made it down our icy street. No way! Not me! I am such a Phoenician!

High School Musical Review

Stayed tuned as Kayla will be part of the High School Musical Review cast that will be showing May 1-2, 2009 at Yavapai Community College in Prescott.

Kayla is so excited to be a part of this production. The production is put on by Young Star Musical Theatre. She will be rehearsing for 2 hours a week this month then she will be rehearsing for 6 hours a week till show dates.

She has 10 dances and songs to learn along with the rest of the cast all in 10 weeks!

Life can be so busy as there are so many neat and fun things to do. We had to drop 2 other activities to be able to do this. But this is what she wanted .... after all ... HSM is her favorite movie!

We will be selling (presale) tickets for $10 starting next week so put your order in. I'll be calling ya!

Thanks ahead of time for your support!

Let It Snow~

Finally, our first big snow this year. It had been snowing like a blizzard all day long. I mean sideways snow!! Nothing stuck until about 3pm. And it is about 6pm now and it is still snowing and we have a least 6 inches of this beautiful stuff.

So, early in the day today this dog came up to our lot and scared the poo out of the girls. They were out rolling snow balls and the boxer ran up barking. Kind of scary. It actually chased the girls to the back door. Here is Tom trying to get it and see who it belonged to. This dog wanted nothing of him!

In the end the girls had a blast and I had to pay them to come inside! :>)

Getcha Head In The Game!

Kayla has been asking why she hasn't got a basket yet in the game. I told her that she may not get a basket and that is okay. Not every team player gets one (but really... everyone had so far except her). :)

Today, she got her first basket and not only that ... she got 2 baskets. She immediately looked at me and smiled and gave us the double thumbs up.

They had a tough game and were up against what seemed to be giants. Tom was wanting to check birth certificates. lol