Contemporary Arts Unmuseum

I think activities are done for a bit. I am taking a break. The last of the girls' scout activities finally over. We headed downtown last night for Macy's free Mondays at the Contemporary Art Museum Unmuseum space. We checked out their optical illusion area, the elephant of drawers, and all the unmuseum exhibits. They we set out to make art of our own with the unlimited art supplies provided. All the kids want to go back again.

t

Cadette Christmas Party

Two troops collide again. Our troop of cadettes was invited to join the Northside troop for a Christmas partyish get-together. We have been involved in activities two or three other times with this great group of girls. We came to fold envelopes and attach labels for SCOOP, Inc. (a local save-the-cats outreach program). And mostly they chatted about things that 11-13 year old girls chat about, and ate a bunch of snacks. Good time. Glad to connect again.

Our Tradition Strong

Every year now I take each of my kids out for Christmas Shopping. We do lunch (or dinner) we shop the malls and Wally World, Target, Half Price Books, JoAnn Fabrics, Bass Pro Shop, JCP's, Kohls, wherever else our plans take us. We snack, indulge in things we don't usually get to do, see Santa, and just hang out together really. Is has become everyone's fav part of the holiday. And when Christmas comes everyone has something to give eachother. I am so blessed to have wonderful amazing children, all of whose time is so precious to me. Even more blessed that I realize now how precious their time with me is.

Special thanks to "Rich" from Norwood Cici's who made the breaking of my traditional end-of-year fast such an enjoyable time.

w

It is full up!!

Bret is down on our KY land hunting today. He phoned me a photo. He calls it the watering hole. I call it our lake. :-) All the rain we have had in the last week, seems to have drained down to KY. Our lake is full up. Yay! Some day we will be swimming in there and fishing. Then walking the path back up to our home. Just help me hold that image for now...

Christmas Bathroom

Don't know why I am so inspired to have a Christmas bathroom this year. But our wall pictures didn't match so we made new ones. Brenda's is the snowman holding a snowflake, Bret's is the two snowmen, Marley made the wreath, and I made the snowflakes. YAY! Big fun.

Christmas Sweet Christmas

For Christmas this year, Bret and Gaige headed over to KY to feed the deer and cut down a Christmas tree for the house. So sweet. They also brought home a bunch of little cedars for me to plant so I can have a little bit of our new-to-be home here while I wait. So sweet.

Great Fun

One minute the weather is freezing, the next minute is is 55 degrees. Snow then rain. Oh well, we are making lemonaid out of our lemons. :-)

Unschoolers Co Op

We have been meeting with a group of unschoolers once a week at a local park. With the weather and holidays passing we are meeting less and less. We have a meeting place starting in January. Indoors, three school rooms and a gym. All excited to start that up. I know the kids are missing our Thursday get-togethers. Now that I have a teen meet-up for and a bunch of kids Bret's age, it is time to find some kids for Lily. That has been my struggle this year.

Girl Scouts

Still forging ahead. Brenda and Bret both favor Girl Scouts to most other activities (maybe even over dance and tennis). Activities and meetings all month long.

The Change-Up

I am working on a camoflage afghan for Bret for Christmas, for him to bring with him on his hunting trips. My old afghan that I made years ago is his favorite blanket. This inspired Brenda to switch to crocheting too. She couldn't believe how much faster crochet is compared to knitting. She is hooked. I was given a bunch of circle hoop looms for crocheting. Those are definitely going under the tree.

Lily's six

Look who has turned 6. We headed to Chuckie Cheese with a friend for her birthday. We got her ears pierced. She didn't even flinch and she didn't even stop the lady from piercing the other ear, in spite of the pain! We shopped and bought a birthday outfit. A good day had for all. Brenda and Bret each gave her a LaLa Loopsy doll. They found them at a garage sale for $.25. So her day was as fab as she is.

Coop

Yes I said COOP. AKA Co Op (as in cooperative learning). We joined up with a co op this year and the girls were given choices of some classes they could take. Brenda took Photography, kick boxing, speech, and computer web design. Almost immediately she quit web design, and kick boxing was replaced with set design (for the play Willie Wonka they are putting on). Next to go was speech. After that she was settled with only photography and set design.
Bret chose art (with a little history sneaked in), drama (the Willie Wonka play she got the part of the snotty girl schoolmate named Matilda and an ooma loompa), taokwando (which she LOVES!!!) and I picked Botany for her. She and I have so much fun together with the botany. She was so ready to chuck it out because it was too schooly. Now even Brenda is in the class because it is so much fun!
Marley, Kindergarten doesn't get many choices. She has gym, arts n crafts, and lang arts (abc's). She is in the choir for the play. She was so excited when the choir went around Christmas caroling for all the classrooms. She is such a bundle of song anyway. I hear her singing the songs she learns there (most of them religious) all over the house. Sometimes I sneak over to where she is and start singing them too. lol.

Homecoming

Turns out Brenda has been more defensive of her home education (well more so her choice to unschool). Making her own decisions. Growing up. She and I had so much fun getting her ready for this dance. There were so many kids there, and she knew a lot of them. So much for the big how can homeschool kids get proper socialization. So sweet to watch her growing up. She came home from the dance and we stayed up for hours talking and laughing together.

So as you can see...

So as you can see, all this activity going on, PLUS our Mon COOP, Tue Tennis lessons (Brenda), Tu and Wed Dance classes (Bret Lily), Th and Fri Girl Scouts (All three girls), T Th Basket Ball (Gaige), Th Unschoolers Park Days. With our left over time, Bret and I hang out and work on our love for Botany, we knit, do puzzles, Lily and I work on our weekly letter (this week is J, we made a jelly roll yum) play math and lang arts games, and just mostly "live" happily. See you soon!

Camp Spookybrook

She is finally old enough! Brenda has been waiting for years to participate in the PA activities of Girl Scouts. Camp Spookybrook is put together by girls for girls. The older scouts work as tour guides, haunts in the haunted house, crafters, fun house leaders, camp firers to put together an amazing halloween treat for the younger scouts. THey spend the morning setting up the camp to be spooky and halloweenish. By one o'clock the troops begin to arrive.

Brenda and Miranda chose to be tour guides. They get one troop at a time to guide through the maze of halloween fun. They lead the girls in song, help them through the house, feed them snacks, etc. (Brenda was Mother Earth this day, and Miranda, a baby.)

This is the girls with the new Camp Director, Itchy. We have known Itchy since Bret and I went to Camp WhipPoorWill for Me and My Gal Camp, three years ago. She used to be a camp counciler there but has recently taken the job of director at Stonybrook. She is Bret's favorite camp counciler, and my most memorable one too.

And of course, it was an opportunity to make new friends, and connect with a bunch of girls their own ages while doing something good for the Girl Scout community at the same time.

I was supposed to stay, but turns out there was nothing for me to do, but go for a hike and hang out in the beloved Camp Stonybrook forest. SO win/win for everyone involved.

To Kentucky and back

We headed to KY for some fun before the weather turned.
Scott has a trailer out there about 10 minutes from the land so we stayed there, did some hunting, and made it a weekend.

The trailer park where we stay has a merry go round! The kids have never been on one before so this was big fun every day. Also they have those swings like the old days where the bars are high so the chains are long and you can swing real high on them. This park is such a blast from the past!

There is a lake right by the trailer. We scouted out cool rocks and took walks on the land.

When Lily was hunting with her dad, we sat on the bed for hours laughing, making jokes, taking photos of us with silly faces.

Brenda was there to work on her photography project so we took a hike on the land looking for natural frames. This is me posing for Brenda under one of Dad's blinds.

Hallowe-'en

We started our holiday by Trunk-or-treating at a local church. There was free chili (even amazing vegetarian chili for me!!!!) and hot dogs, a jump house, balloon animals, cotton candy and pop corn, and of course trunk-or-treats.

Next we headed over to Carie's Seventh Street Gifts in Newport for their amazing halloween festival they throw! There was food, fun, fire, friends, and more.

Brenda met "life" at this party. Life handed her a lemon. When she got home we made lemonaid. lol.

Let out the ghouls and goblins, we are heading back to Hebron. Bret was working overtime again and the girls wanted out of town for their Tricks and Treats. Paula was throwing a party so we headed to KY to visit old friends and collect some candy.

Bret was an 80's girl until too many people called her Belinda Carlisle, during Trunk-or-Treats. She turned into Belinda for Paula's house.

Here is Marley with Paula and her son. Marley was actually several things this year, Rapunzle, a witch, a vampire...

And Brenda, lots of people thought she was rain, but she was really a jellyfish. Her facebook has been Brenda Jellyfish for months now. lol.

So Much So Little

Updating my life is seeming to be an impossible feat. We are growing and expanding our lives this year so much. It seems like to give any extra attention to anything other than what we have going on already would be to take from what we have. The kids have been so amazing this year. They are all growing into these perfect creatures of lovliness. (Don't tell them I said this or they might puke.) :-)

We went to Niederman Farm Pumpkin Patch this year with a bunch of friends. Here is Bret and Sophie in the corn maze. We finally had to go in and get them! They were actually wandering around in the corn (not in the maze) having a fine time together! There was a jumping pillow, pig race, duck races, hay ride, pumpkin picking, two corn mazes. We all had such a good time!

We have a weekly gathering this year of unschoolers. We meet at a park and hang out together. When it is warmer there is a water park area, the park, a track, a skate park. Something for everyone. There are a bunch of teen kids showing up too which is great for Brenda. It has made a huge difference to have her around homeschool teens this fall and backing off from hanging out so much with the friends in the neighborhood. She is really coming into her own. Anyway here is Lily playing in the skate park. It is like an empty pool. The kids all go to the top and slide down on their butts. lol.

Here is Bret's girl scout troop making a spider web snack for their meeting. Her troop has really expanded into a great group of kids! I am really excited about what Tina, my co leader, is doing with the girls!