Georgia!!

So, it took a little longer than we expected.  14 hours to be exact, but we had a great trip visiting family down in Georgia.  The kids kept busy in the car listening to books on tape, reading, playing, and counting license plates.......and, oh, the DVD player we bought right before the trip didn't hurt either. :) 

What made this trip particularly fun was that in school the kids had learned about U.S. geography.  They would get so excited to identify landmarks they had learned about.....the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cumberland Mountains, Chesapeake and Ohio canal.  It's made traveling so much more fun.

Here are some pics from our time together....



Eliza, Rosie and Kaya at the Root House Museum in Marietta, GA





Tour of the historic Root House





Hosanna and Sophia playing peek-a-boo around the well.  So cute!!!





Our attempt at a group shot.  Where's Jackson??  Oh, he's refusing to get in the picture despite our coaxing.





There he is, well, the back of him at least.  But now Sophia has had enough.  Good thing she's cute. :)





Learning about spinning wool.





Headed to a park for lunch after our morning outing. 





Kaya and Rosie were inseparable all weekend.





Birthday Breakfast to celebrate Charles and Dan.





There's my sweet Jackson.



Watching the donuts get made.

Such a fun thing for the kids to get to do!!!

Saturday night we packed up a container of [delicious] pulled pork and some rolls and had a picnic in the park.  Rebecca's dad sings in a do-wop group that happened to be performing that night.



The kids had a blast dancing to the music.  I believe the exact quote was, "That was the most fun ever!'





Kaya, in her element.



The kids were in their glory all weekend playing in what they referred to as "the swamp."  Really it was just the creek that runs through their yard, but it certainly impressed the kids.  And yes, that is my son wearing a polo and khakis.  Don't judge. :)

1-2-3 JUMP!!!!



The Swamp People.....Kaya, Jackson, Ezra, Joseph and Rosie.

So there you have it.  A weekend of fun, family-time.  Hope yours was a great one too!!!!






Kirsten

Hello again!!

It's been awhile....and quite frankly, I've been enjoying the break.  :)

Since my last post, life has just been, well,  really busy.  Here are a couple of the highlights though....

Last year, in the beginning of September, Kaya had decided that she wanted to go for something called, "Memory Masters".  It is a really big honor within Classical Conversations (the homeschool group that we are apart of).  MM is completely optional.  It is an oral exam in which the student must recall from memory EVERYTHING they have learned this year.  This includes: skip counting through the 15's (plus the squares and cubes), geometric formulas and equations, listing all 44 presidents of the United States in order of their terms, recalling a 160 point timeline beginning at Creation and going all the way to the Obama presidency, the periodic table of the elements, human anatomy, 24 history sentences, with dates, of major historical significance, conjugating irregular verb tenses, locating all 50 states and their capitals on a map, locating major geographical U.S. landmarks (rivers, mountain ranges, prominent features such as the Grand Canyon, etc....), memorizing John 1 in Latin and then translating to English, and many other terms to be defined.  All together, the facts that the student needs to recall total over 500.  In order to get MM, students need to be able to answer EVERY question correctly.  No room for error, people!

Well, on Monday morning she went for it.....And......SHE GOT IT.

It was a fun, but stressful morning for all the moms and kids involved.  8 students total from our campus went for it.  There were tears of happiness, anxiety, lots of hugs, shouts of joy and nerves on end.  Each student tests individually with their tutor, with testing taking a little over an hour per child.  But in the end, ALL 8 students achieved Memory Master.  What a celebration we had after!!!  So, SO proud of each and every one of these kiddos.  Sitting in and testing with these kids really gave me an appreciation of our Creator and this amazing brain He has gifted us with for learning.  Truly a miraculous organ!!

Here are Kaya and I last night celebrating her accomplishment on a Mommy-Daddy-Kaya date at the Melting Pot. :)


                           

She's beautiful, isn't she?? :)

In other news, today is my hubby's birthday.  We are celebrating by heading down to Georgia to spend the week with family.  WE.  CAN'T.  WAIT.  Tonight is birthday dinner and packing the car up.  Then, tomorrow, bright and early, we head out.  12 hours. 7 states.  4 kids.  It will be quite the adventure, I'm sure. :)    Either I'm very naive, or incredibly confident in my children's car-riding abilities.  Haha!  Not sure which (probably naive!), but I do love long car rides and am really excited.  We'll be staying with Charles' brother, Dan (who coincidentally, happens to have the same b-day as Charles, just 5 years apart), his wife, Rebecca, and their 7 children.  It's going to be a BLAST!

Lastly, we have adoption numbers for you from last month.  We moved down another three to.....

#73

Seriously, are we cruising or what??!?  ;)

Thanks for all your continued prayers!!  We have been really blessed by each of you along this journey.





Kirsten 

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Well, this has been quite the 6 months for our family!  We made the decision to adopt and began the process back in March.  Since then, we have been busy with paperwork, doctor's appointments, fingerprint appointments, passports, criminal records, home studies, and the like.  On top of all that, we also decided around the same time, to start up a new homeschool community in our area and have had a bunch of responsibility concerning that.  A location to be found, hiring tutors, attending practicums, etc...

As you can imagine, by the end of the summer, as everything came swelling up towards the grand finale, I was mentally and physically exhausted.  Even the THOUGHT of starting school again with my own four kids come September was a daunting task.  The curriculum was ordered and the lesson plans drawn up, yet I couldn't muster up the desire to even WANT to get started (despite my kids telling me everyday, for at least the last two weeks of summer, that they were bored and wanted to start school!!). 

Then....enter glorious vacation.  We started off by driving down to Maryland and spending a couple days on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay with my parents.  The kids swam in the pool and played baseball all day.  They spent HOURS riding their little John Deere tractor all over the property, picking up debris from last weeks storm, and running down to the dock to check the crab traps.  We celebrated Kaya's birthday (again!) and made a bonfire.  I even started a book and actually finished it later that week!!

On Sunday morning, we filled up little bellies with breakfast, and then headed the rest of the way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  It was a week-long family reunion with Charles' whole family - 8 adults and 16 grandkids.  Despite hurricanes swirling all around us, we had BEAUTIFUL weather all week, a definite answer to prayer.  VERY conducive for a week spent sitting in a beach chair looking out at the Atlantic or parked next to the pool.  I was one happy lady. :)  We visited the Wright Brothers Museum in Kill Devil Hills, the huge sand dunes in Kitty Hawk, and went horseback riding in Corolla.  We ate disgustingly AWESOME food (disgusting because I gained 5 lbs., but none-the-less, AWESOME!) all week and had lots of laughs.  The kids were occupied with plenty of playmates and were off and playing the entire time we were there.

And somewhere in the midst of it all - it happened.  The stress released, and a week later when it was time to return home - across the bridge connecting us to the mainland....over and under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel......back to a week of dreary skies and record rainfall - we were ready.  A little lighter, a little more carefree.  I think vacation will do that to you. :) 

We got back last Sunday, and started school that Monday, with a fresh perspective and an attitude of thankfulness.  Was our first week home perfect?  By all means NO!!  We came home a to broken washing machine and loads of stinky laundry.  We lived amongst half-unpacked suitcases for a few days (OK, more than a few days. :), and I've come to the conclusion that my counter-space is NOT big enough for all the science experiments we have going on (currently: mummifying apples, an edible cell and 3 large salt-dough landform maps of the United States).  Did I mention I have fruit flies?  I can't imagine why. :)

But regardless, we were refreshed and ready to tackle any new adventures thrown our way.  And just that little change of attitude....that much-needed week of rest....allowed for us to have a GREAT first week back.  I will be posting some pictures of our first week of homeschool in the near future.  Currently I have: a third-grader, a first-grader, a preschooler, and an adorable, yet feisty, little 21-month-old.  Life is full, but we have much to be thankful for. :)



Kirsten  

Vacation Pics

Well, it's been pretty quiet here in blog world this week because we've been on VACATION!!!  24 people....8 adults and 16 grandkids, all under the age of 12, all under ONE roof!!  So, so, so, so fun!  Here are some of our pics from the week.



Duck, North Carolina
2011





16 grandkids in birth order. :)




Proud grandparents




Visiting the Wright Brothers Museum.  Sophie was less than thrilled to be strapped in her seat. :)




Jacker-Crackers



Wright Brothers Monument



Jack wasn't feeling the family photo.




Beach!





The kids spent hours working on this sand castle.




LOVE this!




Back at the house...




The Peterson's - Charles' sister and her family.  Six kids with one on the way. :)




Not really sure why this photo downloaded all stretched out.  Definitely wasn't like that originally!!
Charles' brother and his family from Slovakia.  Six kids, expecting #7 in 6 weeks!



So, that was our vacay.  Feeling very thankful.  We had a great time and got back just in time to start school yesterday.  More on that later....

Ok, off to bed now. Thanks for sharing life with us.  :)



Kirsten



Down by the bay....

So, today in the mail, we received our ENORMOUS dossier packet.  It.Was.Overwhelming.  Right now, I'm in need of something a little light-hearted.  So here goes.... :)


My kids had a BLAST this weekend down in Maryland visiting my parent's Bayhouse.  We are so incredibly blessed to have a place like this for our children to grow up visiting.  It is our home away from home.

I love my little stepping stones.



Kaya was in her glory working in the garden with Cessa (my mom).  She LOVES bossing those boys around and telling them what to do. :)

Of course, they love to have a little fun with her too. :)

Joseph loves working out in the yard also.  He helped Charles take down some tree branches and haul them away to the fire pit.  They're in the process of planning out the construction of a playhouse in the woods.  I can't wait to post pics of that once it's finished!!!

I just love this kid.  He infuriates me and cracks me up all at the same time!!  Come on, isn't he just adorable??!!?

This is where my boys spent most of their day.  They were even kind enough to give occasional rides to their little sister. :)

And, of course, my little So-bean was not to be outdone by her older brothers and sister!!  She was hard at work as well!!!  Love me some Sophia!



So there you have it!!  A fun-filled weekend with family enjoying the (almost!!!) spring-like weather.   Can't wait till this summer when our visits to the Bayhouse become more frequent. :)  

Kirsten