Thursday, October 31, 2013

Homeschool catch up

Boring title I know!!!! 

 I could not think of a clever one. 
I am so far behind in my post that I am going to have to begin a cramming session just to catch up.......especially with school activities. We have tried so many experiments and new activities that I wish I could write a post on each one. For now, I will just highlight the ones we liked the best!

Way back in August, we went on a field trip to the Hyundai plant. It was wonderful! The tour guy really knew how to make it interesting for the younger folk. We were not allowed to take pictures except at the end. I grabbed what I could.



These girls have been practicing driving on an ATV but are still NO WHERE NEAR READY to get behind the wheel!!!!
 

We attend a Co-Op every other Friday.

Ella takes a literature class(I help with this one) and PE.



Laney takes a class on gardening and Keepers of the Home(I help with this one).




Laney and I went to a dinner theater to see Les Miserables.


We also went to see Ray Parker, Jr. (He wrote the song Ghostbusters.) at the Davis Theater.



We have been visiting the local library quite frequently!



Laney loves anything Duck Dynasty right now. She was Happy Happy Happy when she found out they had Phil's book!



I tried to spice things up for Laney in language. She has been learning where commas go in sentences using sentence strips and macaroni noodles. 

She has also been learning how to diagram many types of sentences.

 

Well..... I must stop for now!
 I think  you are caught up on the first month of school.

I must get off of here!!!!!
It's Halloween!!!!
 Costume preparation is calling my name!!!!!!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

ACA Homecoming

A few weeks ago ACA had their homecoming game. Now just to give you a little history, this is the same school where my sisters, cousins and I graduated. Both my mom and aunt were teachers there for many years. I am excited to say I will have a son and nephew graduate from there this year! 

The festivities began in the early afternoon with a pep rally to get everyone fired up for the game. 




 This is my nephew that will be graduating this year.

My sister and her family came down for the weekend. It was like a walk down memory lane. We talked to a few of the teachers we had in school who are still there. We talked about the additions and changes made to the grounds over the years. We had to make a stop at this memory bench and Savor the Day.


My sister was good friends with Sara Walker who recently passed from cancer. She attended ACA and this bench was dedicated in her honor. If you have not read her story, you must!!!! She was truly an inspiring woman of God!

You can read her story here



A couple of hours later, we attended the homecoming reception. We chatted with a few friends we have not seen in a while. We also scored some free tickets to the game for my sister, ate supper and  won door prizes!

The last event for the night was the game.












Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Our last day

Our last day on the ship was spent at sea. This was the one day I actually got up early. I wanted to get in a run before we met for Sunday worship. Running on a ship that was bouncing up and down was quite different than on land!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed to a reserved room for our family to worship God. Not only was this our first time to worship on a ship but also.........


many of us were in our bathing suits (Yes...we had a cover up!).


The place that was reserved was in a bar.


We sat beside a statue of Buddha.
The room was called Passage to India.

God says the place of worship doesn't matter......RIGHT???????

As long as 2 or more are gathered......
Worship in truth and spirit.......
Include all the acts of worship.

After church, we spent the rest of the day enjoying the ship.




A good portion of our day was spent with the kids enjoying the water slide while some of us enjoyed some zzzzzzzzzzzz's!

Later that night, we enjoyed fine dining one last time.


The nightly entertainment......a show



which eventually led out into the main foyer. It was like a huge boat party!


Ella showing off her t shirt she made at kids camp. 

We decided before heading off to bed, we wanted to enjoy the ocean breeze one last time. We found a few relaxing chairs on the upper deck.

No my child is not enjoying an alcoholic drink. 
 

We headed back to our room to be greeted by this little guy.


our last towel animal.......an elephant.



We had a blast on our first family cruise!

My hubby, who gets motion sickness very easily, did quite well on this trip. 
Maybe there is a chance for a Disney cruise in our future!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Nassau

On Day 3, we sailed into Nassau quite early. Actually, we were still snoozing while the ship docked. Once we rolled ourselves out of bed, we got dressed for a day of shopping and the beach.

Here is a picture of a few of us that got off the ship.


Half of the group, including my son, went on a snorkeling excursion while the rest of us stayed close to the ship.




This was only my second time to be in the Bahamas. Last time, I was in high school when our family went on a 4 day cruise. The one thing that sticks out in my mind from that trip was how beautiful the water is there.  I guess you have to pay top dollar for the prettiest beaches. I was a little disappointed in the public beach.......trash was everywhere. We just sat in the shade close to the water and forgot about the scenery behind us. The water in front of us was too pretty not to enjoy!


Ahhhhhhhhhh! 

Sorry........I just slipped into a beach coma for a minute!

I took this picture from the beach.


I thought it was amazing how they can back these huge ships into the dock like we do a car!

After an enjoyable few hours on land, we decided to head back to the ship. The girls were itching to get back to the water slides on board.

We had another great night at dinner.



The picture below is really dark but I wanted to include it because............


we are now Thriller ready!

We took a class that taught step by step each move to Michael's Thriller dance.

Later that night, we went to the Hasbro Family Game Night show. I was selected to play Connect Four. Each team had to throw a basketball into a big Connect Four game piece. The team to get 4 basketballs in a row won. On my first 2 tries, I missed. Yes.....I played many years of basketball........with a net.... not a life size game piece. For my other turns, I nailed it! Of course, there are no pictures of me playing since I did not hand  the camera to someone and say, "Take pictures of me." It was close but we lost.

Ella was selected to play Simon Flash. She had to press a button once her team got into color order. Her team won. She won a gift card to Hasbro.com.



A few pictures from the rest of our night.


My mom and 2 of her sisters.

 Laney and I decided to bust out my prize from the Family Game Night show........a mini travel Connect 4 with teeny tiny game pieces. 


 A picture from one of our regular late night indulgences.........ice cream!


I know you thought I was going to forget but here is a picture of our towel animal for the night.


A rabbit