Legoland

We went to Legoland yesterday. Bonnie organized a Home School group visit that got us in for a pretty good deal. We had about 25 kids and their families. The older kids liked the roller coasters and even Andrew overcame his fears and by the end of the day was wishing he could ride them over and over again. The Legoland park is where the old Cypress Gardens park used to be and they did a good job of maintaining much of what the old theme park included. Cypress Gardens was the first theme park in Florida built in the 30s. The new park still has the beautiful botanical gardens including an impressive Banyan tree. They also kept the live waterskiing shows, but with a Lego Pirates theme. It was a long day and we were all very worn out but all had a good time.

What we've been up to lately

I have spent most of this weekend sick in bed. It's not the flu and it's not pneumonia, but it's certainly managed to knock me out for the last few days. Now that I am feeling well enough to sit up and eat a little bit (but not do much of anything else) I've been looking through the pictures that Kevin has taken over the last few months and I thought I'd share them (I've taken one or two of the pictures here, but it's become painfully obvious to me that all of my pictures turn out blurry or have a random person walking in front of the camera or have children missing heads or limbs).

In February we went camping. It was ideal camping weather and lots of fun.

 

March started off with an Odyssey of the Mind competition. Andrew's (non-competitive) Primary team got lots of praise from the judges with their pirate ship skit.

 

Matthew and Maggie's team placed 7th out of 10 teams. We were satisfied with that, as we had two coaches (including yours truly) and 6 out of 7 team members who had never  been to an Odyssey competition before. Here they are right after their skit. Their background fell down behind them while we took pictures. It was truly a miracle that it made it through the whole skit before collapsing.

 

 Finally, last month we went to the zoo. It has a new dinosaur exhibit and zipline courses. The older kids had a lot of fun on the "Chutes and Ladders" zipline course for kids.

 

 

Board Breaks

Maggie and Matthew earned their yellow belts tonight.  Here they are breaking some boards.

 

Merry Christmas!

This year was a busy year (apparently too busy for writing blog posts).  Our family did lots of things that I wanted to blog about, but I never got around to posting.  To make up for the lack of updates, I thought I'd write the highlights of our year here.

We started our year in Tucson, where we had been visiting my dad for the holidays.  While we were there, our kids got to see snow for the first time.  We went up into the mountains so they could play in the snow a little. Their impression of the snow? It was cold.  Even bundled up as they were, they were ready to come in and warm up after 20 minutes.

 

 

In March, we drove up to South Carolina for a Homeschool Convention.  Grandma and Grandpa graciously agreed to babysit for two days so that we could attend various lectures and workshops.  There was also a huge vendor hall where I spent lots of time looking at (and buying) new curricula. While I was shopping, Kevin was also able to squeeze in some time for doing homework. It was a lot of fun.

At the end of June, we made another trip to South Carolina.  Kevin took the scouts from our ward up to the Appalachian trail for a hike and a day of whitewater rafting, and I spent the week at Grandma's house with the kids.  The day after we got back from South Carolina was Sunday, and Kevin was set apart as the Bishop of the ward.  (We still get to see him sometimes.)

 

In September, we got to make another trip out to Tucson--this time for my dad's wedding.  We all adore his new wife, and it was a beautiful wedding.

And finally, we took one more trip up to South Carolina--this time for the wedding of Kevin's brother.  The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins while the adults were busy with wedding preparations. Even Katy still talks about the little 2-year-old cousin that she played with all week.

So the end of this year finds us all well, if a little bit worn out.

 Maggie is now ten years old, and in 5th grade.  She spends her spare time reading and making up elaborate games to play with her brothers.  She loves to play with words, and she can often be heard making up puns or filling in Mad Libs stories. She is still playing piano and taking dance classes.  She also started Tae Kwon Do this summer, along with her brothers. She and Matthew will both test for their yellow belts next week.

 Matthew is the jokester in our family. He always has a trick up his sleeve.  He loves to employ his talents in entertaining his baby sister, and he's always happy to take her for a piggy back ride, read a book to her, or play a game of hide-and-seek.  He turned eight this fall, which is a big deal for the kids in our church.  He was able to be baptized by his dad (and Grandma and Grandpa made a quick visit for that weekend). He also got to start attending Cub Scouts, which he loves. He's also going to Tae Kwo Do, and taking piano lessons (which he maybe doesn't love quite as much).

Andrew is our happy little morning lark. He cheerfully wakes up each morning to bounce off the walls and generally annoy all the non-morning people in the family (that is, everyone else). He is now six years old, in first grade, and he has learned to read this year. He has been racing through all the easy readers on our bookshelf. He is also participating in the Little Dragons class at Tae Kwon Do, and it's so much fun to watch him kick and jump with a big old grin on his face.

Katy is...well Katy is now two years old. I think that says it all.  She's currently hitting me over the head with a book, trying to turn off the computer, and making half a dozen other demands of me. But it's also a joy to watch her learn new things.  She sits through four to six Tae Kwon Do classes a week, so she's picked up on all the warm-up moves, and even counts to ten in Korean with the other kids. Her favorite activities are being read to and playing dress-up with her princess dresses.


Kevin is keeping very busy with his church responsibilities. He enjoys being Bishop and working closely with the ward members, but being a Bishop is like having a second part-time job.  December has been particularly grueling as he meets with each family in our ward (congregation). He took this Fall semester off from classes (he was working on a PhD in Optics at UCF), and it looks doubtful if he will take classes this spring as well.  There just isn't time for him to do it all. We are all looking forward to having him home for this week between Christmas and New Year's.

I spend my time homeschooling the older kids, researching curriculum and educational philosophies, shuttling children to their activities, and wrestling toddlers. Occasionally I take the time to read a good book or to take the kids to a park day so that I can talk to other moms. I am using my Christmas week to lounge around reading books and maybe I will make a trip to Ikea for some more bookshelves.

Merry Christmas!