While we were on our day trip for EK's birthday, we finished reading/listening to The Secret Garden. We were so excited to watch the movie, so that's what our Monday was all about: math and Movies! Even LL watched parts of it with us. The discussion throughout and afterwards was so wonderful with them comparing the book and movie~ Then, about 3 p.m., we headed out for the solar eclipse. Although it was only an 85% partial eclipse, it was still SO cool! Everyone comparted to the full we had a few years ago. The photographers grabbed their cameras for the event. Definitely a fun family memory ..read more

How in the world is EK 19? Wasn't it just yesterday when we stepped off a plane in LA on her 1st birthday to become a US citizen?? She was a beauty then and oh, even more now. We invited our family for dinner and cake on Saturday evening. We ate and sang and ate again and opened gifts~ Surrounded with so much love and missing some of our favorite people as well~ It was so warm, that we spilled onto the porch for the rest of the day even to evening~ These photos from Shutterfly came to my phone and brought back all the feelings from her first birthday learning just what being in a family ..read more

Spring is always the time when we are outside more; our school is focused more on science, and we are mostly nature-minded. I saw this trend when getting editing photos for this week. We were happy to have LL back on Monday, and she was happy to see CA~ It was spring break for Scottie and Lennox, and I loved the photos Mimi sent on their first day. Don't you just LOVE the Santa dress?? You're a wonderful mama, Mimi~ For poetry and watercolor day, I read Beatrix Potter. There are certain biographies we seem to read every year, and this is one of the best. I found a poem by her to copy for t ..read more

I really can't believe it's the week of Easter, but here we are. LL was here Monday, but there are no pictures to prove it. Here she is on Tuesday, right in the middle of whatever we were doing. I made her an in-and-out box to play with. She was very focused! Everyone copied a poem to go with our watercolors~ We copied Easter Lilies, sketched a lily, and watercolored it while we listened to our read-alouds for the morning~ We have loved this new novel, Force of Nature, and paired it with a picture book we already owned. I took a photo of the HS this week... Scott and I met with the princip ..read more

Our week started out with a little school, complete with The Secret Garden and a St Patrick's Day read. I didn't snap any photos of little LL but here she is once she got home~ We read Cynthia Rylant's Chanticleer and the Fox, copied a poem, and watercolored a rooster all on their own. Turned pretty beautiful~ It's that time of year when we are shopping for Easter dresses and spring outfits. I love this romper for CA~ The girls had a practice afternoon with Madeline for the youth worship band~ More home pics of LL and her sweet dog, Maverick~ Nan sent pics of the boys at their school ..read more

Our garden is coming along, and we are SO excited about it. We are going to plant just as many flowers as we will other things and have a few sprouting already. Monday evening we added a flagstone path through the middle so we can walk through it when picking. We have used every piece of stone left over from our house~ Tuesday is always poetry and watercolor day. I chose a garden poem from RAR for us to copy, and then we painted daffodils because of the ones we planted from my grandmother. LL was all in~ This was the perfect book for the lesson~ Such beautiful work~ The boys and I trim ..read more

We had many appts for the first week back. Tuesday, the three below go their invisilines and SJ took CA for a little sister outing~ When we got home, my dad was sick, and my sister was here to help. We were SO thankful we weren't sick this time so we could spend time with her~ It's funny that we have a cabinet full of toys for the babies to play with but LL would rather have a real object like a candle to carry around. She picked it up and said, "Mell good". Love her~ Love is everywhere~ We have really enjoyed the Coaxing Poems with Amy Ludwig Vanderwater lessons, and here are our Frid ..read more

I couldn't believe my ears when Scott said we should take a little vacation to Key West in February. Remember the spring fever from the last post? Well, it just got a lot stronger! I didn't think we could do it... leave the kids... for 4 days... but he did, and we made the plans! Savannah helped us SO much. When we stopped to think about it, February was the perfect time to go; especially to a sunny island in Florida!  We got up at about 4 a.m. because our flight was at 8:30 in Atlanta, two hours away. We planned to sneak away and let everyone sleep, but CA was awake, and we got to hug he ..read more

 Every year, Scott and I pick a new spot to make a new flower garden or spot for vegetables. This year, it is going to be a combination of both! I am so excited!!! We chose a spot on our driveway next to our address sign. Our neighbor is making a garden, too, so we shared the rent for a tiller and got it tilled up. Then we all worked to move stones left over from our house and created a border~ It is a perfect place, and we can't wait to plant it with flowers AND vegetables~ It's going to be a transformational addition to the drive down to our house~ Later in the week, CA and I adde ..read more

On Friday, WP went to the doctor with an earache, strep, and the flu, which threw us into a tailspin, and I knew we were probably in for a long week or two. I was right, and we carried on as best we could. One of the best things about home-schooling is scaling back to rest, carrying on if feeling better, and most of all... NO makeup work! Everyone worked on the things they enjoyed while others slept, and every single kid got it, which sums up the missed week~ Meanwhile, we didn't get to keep Leilei, which was quite sad, OR see Scottie and Lennox, but Scottie was so lucky to see the Gymdawgs ..read more