Why is it called HOMEschooling?

I just realized... we are not HOME alot! We have been on the go lately!

The kids are playing baseball and are "LOVING" it!! They have had several games already and it is amazing to see the difference from last season to this season! Alyssa's team is called the "Diamond Girls" and Stephen is on the "Hurricane's". Alyssa is playing FIRST BASE this year and Stephen playing SECOND BASE! Their games are generally Tuesday and Friday nights, so that leaves Wed, Thur, and Sat. for practices!! Ugh!! They don't have practice every wed, Thur, and sat.... but, normally Stephen will have a practice during the week and Alyssa's practices are on Saturday!! I feel like I am NEVER HOME!! The key for parents is to try and stay out of the sun... and at night - bring bug spray!!

We have been enjoying lots of field trips so far this year!! The latest ones have been Rock Springs

St. Augustine

Charlotte's Web - the play

The Orlando Science Center

I like that we are staying busy. Detto is away at Fort Jackson, SC - Army Boot camp and so me and the kids are ALL ALONE! It is so strange to not have him around. It kinda feels like he is at work and will be home any minute. I still wake up and forget he is not here! It has definitely been an adjustment for us! It really makes me realize how much he does for me on a daily basis!! He will be back in 8 weeks!! We went with him to Tampa to see him swear in...

We also got to go with him to the airport to say goodbye :(

We had a few hours to kill before his plane left so we played around in the stores!!

Lisa and Kyle came for a visit from NV. Yippy!! They will be here for 3 weeks!! The sad part is that we have to share them with Lisa's family!! :(

We went to the Orlando Philharmonic together on Wednesday!! The kids loved it!!

We also got to visit a couple of quilt shops on the way home from Orlando!! :) These are my Christmas cottage blocks that I made for a block swap. Also, I made a baby quilt for my sister... And, I am working on a Pumpkin table runner. It's not finished yet... I will post pictures when I finish it!!

Quilting Stuff & Field Trips!!

I am getting back into my sewing! This has been a slower process than I would have liked! It has been hard to sew with Detto home all day every day!! I find myself trying to hide the fact that I'm sewing. I know he doesn't care, but I don't want him to think ALL I do is homeschool and sew! (Even though that's all I really do!) Even as I am writing this I realize how silly it seems! I am making new cushions for my swing! It has been quite a learning process. I don't have a pattern and so I am learning as I go or as I SEW!! I have finished with one and all I have left is one more, but this has been a frustrating project so far. I am not used to working with such heavy material and a #16 needle (that's a jean needle)!! Well here is a picture of my progress!!

Also, my friend Lisa sent me a link for a Jelly Roll Sale and giveaway you should check it out here!!

I have never used a Jelly Roll, but for this sale price.... I think I might! I always see these things for $30 and up!! I never could bring myself to spend that much on one item, when I could buy ALOT of fabric for that price!! Well $14.95 is low enough that it seems worth it!!

Also.... We went to the Florida Aquarium Yesterday for Homeschool Day!! It was a ton of fun!!

The kids loved showing Detto around. This is the 3rd or 4th time we have gone. This is the first time for him. He really liked it. I liked watching the kids show him everything. We love going every year on homeschool day. It was so much less packed this year!! Here are a few pictures!!
There is an owl on the branch behind them. Alyssa spotted an otter!

Stephen and Alyssa touching the sting rays! Hammerhead shark in the new shark exhibit!

All of us in front of the Salt water & Coral Reef exhibit! Alyssa and Stephen Watching the otter!

Detto is wanting to go to Disney before he leaves for the Army!! I need to figure that out!!

We only have 11 more days till he's gone!!

Our Cruise and More Updates!

We had a GREAT vacation last week!! Detto and I went on a 6 day/5 Night Cruise!! We went on the Carnival Inspiration, it was a LOT of fun!! The scariest part was no contact with the kids for 6 whole days.... My brain was doing flips.. What if Stephen has an Asthma attack, what if Alyssa falls and breaks a bone, What if, What if, What if.....
I Do Not like being away from my kids!! I guess it is part of the whole "homeschool thing", but I don't like it! I know they were safe and of course nothing happened!!

Anyways... The Cruise was so much fun! We went to Grand Cayman, Bahamas & Cozumel, Mexico!! Wow, was that trippy! Mexico was hilarious - No Rules!! No Problem!! We went outside of the "touristy" area and Wow did the scenery change!! Trash everywhere, poverty, huts, etc. They shop owners were VERY aggressive not only to get us to buy, but also yelling at the other shop owners... Everyone sat outside of the shop and yelled for you to come in and buy from them! One guys said to Detto, "Come let me rip you off!" His accent was so thick that Detto asked him, "Did you just say 'Come let me RIP YOU OFF'?"... He said, "Yes, I know someone here will, why not let it be me?" We were crackin' up!! (We didn't go in his shop)
The town was crazy... Our cab driver hit the car behind us when he was backing out of the parking space.... he acted as if it was no big deal. He sideswiped other cars while driving down the road and almost rear ended a truck in front of us!! It was scary! But, we had a great time. The food was great and so was the ocean! We went back to the boat after only 4 or 5 hours in Mexico.

The Bahamas were not nearly as crazy... They drove on the "wrong" side of the street and they were on "Island time", but other than that it was not nearly as adventurous as Mexico.
We went diving in Grand Cayman and saw the most amazing fish and corals ever. We got to swim over a sunken ship and a HUGE coral reef! I would love to take my kids to see that. It was awesome!! We walked around the town and found a beautiful church. (We found a really neat church in Mexico also, but there were so many people praying that I didn't feel right about taking pictures inside.)

Overall we had a great time. I cant wait to go on my next cruise!! It was definitely something I would recommend for couples!! I loved the little towel animals!!

I got home and we started school back up. We are only on week two!! The kids are doing great in school. The also started baseball!! Tonight was their first practices. Stephen is playing on what looks to be a REALLY good team. Stephen hit very good tonight and he even caught a very high ball. I was nervous, because that's how he got hit in the eye last time... but no problems this time!! He caught the ball and then immediately threw to first base. If there had been a runner going to second, Stephen would have gotten him out!!! The kids are excited about their new teams. We are playing in Mount Dora this year!! They were nervous at first, but then they realized Alyssa coach lives two house down from us and Stephens coach lives in the next neighborhood. They already know some of the kids on their teams from swimming in the community pool. It was two really good practices!!

I think it will be good to have the kids involved in baseball while Detto is away for 5 months. It will help make the time go by faster. We will be at the ball field 3 nights out of the week and we will be at church on Wednesdays. That should keep us pretty busy!! I am not looking forward to him leaving, but.... Oh well!! For those of you who don't know yet... Detto is going into the Army Reserves! He will be gone for Basic and AIT!! Ugh!! I wish there was a faster way to do this!! He is really excited about it!!

I need to get caught up on some of my quilting... My sister's Baby shower is in two weeks and I haven't even started her baby quilt. I need to finish my BOM and catch up on my Quilt-A-Long!! I did finish my Round Robin project. I haven't gotten "MINE" back yet!! But I am sure the person who is STILL working on it must being doing a GREAT JOB!! hahaha (Lisa has it in NV)

I really enjoyed doing this project and I have posted the other quilts as I worked on them.

I am also working on making new cushions for the swing. Detto isnt thrilled with the fabric that I picked, but it is paisley and so I had to buy it!! This is hard fabric that is VERY hard to work with. I bought outdoor fabric. It is beautiful, but very stiff!! I will post pictures when I get a little further on the project!!

Starting School

Friday was our first day of school!! It is hard getting back into the routine! We are in a new town, new house, new curriculum, new planning tools, new everything... Things went good though!! We had a few bumps, but nothing serious. The new planner we are using was a little difficult to figure out at first, but now it is soooo easy to use! It is easy for both me and the kids to see what we have completed and what we still need to work on. It has a button for the kids to click when they have completed an assignment and another button for me to click once it has been graded!! It makes report cards, tracks progress, and so much more!! It took me several days to watch all of the instructional videos and read the manual, but now I have got it up and running. I love that I can reschedule anything with just a click of a mouse!! Yippy!!

We are excited about our school year and all of the fun field trips we are going to go on this year!

Monday we are going to the Orlando Science Center. I thought the field trip was on Friday, but then I checked the website and the kids were bummed that I mixed up the days!! Oh Well!! We went swimming as our field trip for the first day of school!! I have a feeling that swimming will be a regular "Field Trip" for us!! It was fun though!!

I have share a great discovery that I just made.... the kids will do ANYTHING for computer time. Even chores!! I made a new rule that they only get 30 minutes per day on the computer, well let's just say that went over like a load of bricks!! They kept asking how they can get more time... then it hit me....

CHORES!! For every chore they do "with out being asked" they get an extra 10 minutes on the computer!! My house is spotless!! They cleaned the bathrooms (and since we have 4 bathrooms now that was a blessing), they vacuumed downstairs, upstairs, and THE Stairs, they did laundry & dishes. It was AMAZING!! It was like "cleaning Elves" moved into my house!! I would turn around and they were cleaning something else. Stephen even vacuumed the sliding glass door track!! He was on his hands and knees vacuuming under the table, baseboards (which gets them bonus minutes!!) I was amazed!

I picked the jobs I hate to do, like dusting and baseboards, and gave them double bonus minutes for doing those jobs!! At this rate I wont ever have to dust my house again!! This was definitely shown to me by God himself!! I am so thankful!!

It has been great!! Things have been going really good in the new digs!! We love the neighborhood. The kids have made lots of new friends. There are TONS of kids on our street and there are even several "homeschool" families in the subdivision!! We met a really nice homeschool family with 4 kids... the boys are Stephens age and they play baseball!! Not only do they play, their dad is a coach, and Stephen is going to be on his team. We signed up for baseball and softball yesterday and found out that Stephen was on his team!! Isn't that great?

The kids are siked about playing ball!! The ball field is about 5 minutes from our house. This will be really good for me since I will probably be at the ball field several nights a week, with both of the kids playing this fall! I am not looking forward to Detto missing the ENTIRE season, but I will take lots of pictures and video for him!!

End of Summer

Well... its time to start school back up, but... We aren't ready yet! We are getting settled in the new house, but I'm not ready to start school. My kids are ready, they have asked if we can start school on Monday like Public School kids, but .... UGH!!

I haven't found all of their curriculum yet! I am thinking about starting some subjects just to make them happy. We'll see!! I still need to get Stephen's math from a friend of mine. Then I think we'll be ready!

My sister-in-law just had a baby on Monday. He is soooo cute!! We went to the hospital to visit him, but we weren't able to hold him. He was in an oxygen tent thingy for a few days, but now they are home and all is well!! I just got my computer set back up today... I had 409 new email messages. Wow!! I cant believe it!! I wasn't able to download picture onto my hubby's computer so I didn't bother posting till now!!

I love our new home and our new community. The community has a beautiful pool and playground. Today I took the kids swimming and guess what.... We me another homeschool family that lives here!! Yippy! There are 2 boys and 2 girls! The boys are 11yrs old and 9 yrs old. We are really excited about having other homeschoolers in our community!!

The kids are going to start baseball & tennis soon!! We are going to play for the city of Mount Dora this year. The field is aprox. 5 minutes from our house!! That make practices much easier for me!! I cant wait to get everything rolling!!

My Round Robin Blocks!!

I have been working on a round robin with CafeMom!!

It is so much fun. 4 different women make 4 different center blocks and then you send them to each other to add borders. I have really enjoyed this. I wonder what mine will turn out to look like?!?

Here are two of the one's I have worked on so far... I can't find the pic's for the other one!

I'm so excited!! This is a picture that Alyssa took of me while we were bowling!! She told me make the "excited face"!! Did I do that?

Alyssa's Birthday Parties!

Alyssa had a great birthday! She was so cute.

We had a party at our house, Nana's, and Noni & Popi's! 3 Parties!! WOW!!

It was loads of fun. Check out all of the fun picks!!

After she got her guitar she made Stephen sit down and teach her some chords right away. It was so cute to watch my kids sit and play guitars together!! She also had Detto print out chord charts and worked with her for awhile!! She is like a sponge!!

She loved all of the princess stuff that she got at Noni's and one of her favorite gifts is a card making set that she got from Uncle John and Aunt Samantha!! And... her crystal carriage!!

Her big birthday plans included: eating cake, hanging out with the family, opening presents, and PLAYING BADMINTON!!! She loves to play badminton, it is her favorite game!! It was a lot of fun!!

Alyssa's Birthday Pancakes!

Well, Today is Alyssa's 9th Birthday.

Wow, They grow up so fast! She is the "BABY" and she's already 9! Wow!

Well, this morning she announced that she wanted "Birthday Strawberry Pancakes"! I was not ready for this! We are in the process of moving still and EVERYTHING is packed!! I didn't have any strawberries either!! I was very nervous. Then I remembered the Freezer... I had some strawberries stored from the last time we went picking!! So I whipped up some pancakes and added strawberries. They turned out better than I thought they would. She loves banana's so I topped her stack with banana's and added the syrup and TA DA!!

She made a Really LONG Wish and then gobbled them up!!

It was really quite cute watching her!

My secret is adding 1 1/2 cups of cut up strawberries to a pancake mix!! What a difference!