For the past several years, I've been taking the several kids trick or treating in Princeton the night before Halloween (which is part of the town's 'official' trick or treating times). Apparently, this is a tradition no one else in the area has ever heard of! I guess P'ton people just like candy, LOL! Anyway, this year, we took Gracie & Julia and got a great deal on a hotel. The kids had fun swimming and the next day, Heather, Mary, & Sophia joined us for a morning swim before checkout.
This afternoon, Darla, Diana, & I met at the creek near our church to let the kids play and hunt crawdads. Fortunately, I took the old van because by the time we left, Rachael was drenched!
Yesterday, Diana & I took the kids to the Chinese restaurant for lunch. With us having been on the run for the past few weeks, it seemed like we haven't had much time to talk. After lunch and a few errands, I invited Thomas, Ross, Gracie, Josh, & Julia over to the house. I hid out upstairs while I finished folding the laundry that has been sitting in our room for several weeks. After about an hour, I heard the fire alarm go off. As I ran to the stairs, Rachael yelled that it was just the oven, and that nothing was on fire. (Our oven is notorious for setting off the alarm.) When I came downstairs, she showed me what she had made. It seems the kids wanted to have a tea party, and wanted some dessert to go with their tea. I guess Rachael's hours of watching Food Network have paid off!
Since it was on our way home, we planned to take Thomas, Gracie, & Julia with us to the Vincennes Rendezvous on Saturday. It had been ages since we'd seen Heather and family, so we made arrangements to meet them there. We all watched the battle reenactments and fife & drum performances, then the kids were free to browse the encampment in search of souvenirs while Heather & I tried to find a shady spot to catch up. I was really proud of how well the kids all stayed together and showed a great deal of responsibility. As soon as I called Rachael's cell phone, they promptly answered and responded to everything that I requested of them.
After we left, we all went to a local steak house for dinner. The food was reasonably priced and delicious!
As I dropped each child off at their respective home, the kids were so gracious in expressing their appreciation of the trip. They all had such a good time...what a tiring, but wonderful trip!
Since Jeff was working again yesterday, Rachael, Nick, & I got up bright & early (well, early for us, anyway!) and headed out to several yard sales with Darla & Gracie. After lunch at King Gyros, Darla had to run to Josh's baseball game, so I picked up Thomas & took all the kids to see the Hannah Montana movie. It was actually better than I thought it would be. When we pulled up to the theater, there were several fire trucks in the parking lot and all of the patrons were standing in the parking lot. After several minutes, they let us in. I never did find out what caused all of the commotion...
At Gracie's 11th birthday party, Darla snapped this picture of the girls displaying their decorated mini cakes. The photo also highlights the fact that my daughter is a GIANT!!!!
After we finished school yesterday afternoon, we met a group of our homeschool friends for a picnic at McCormick's Creek. The kids ate lunch, played kickball and enjoyed the beautiful day. After lunch, the older kids hiked down to Wolf Cave while the younger ones took a shorter walk through the woods and then played on the playground equipment (photos to follow). We took Alex along. He's never had so much exercise in one day! He went on the long hike and then on several walks around the park. Thomas, Ross, & Gracie came home with us. We also stopped by the vet to get Alex's 3rd set of shots (and got chewed out for having him neutered too early...oops!) After we got home, the older kids worked on a routine that they're creating for our co-op talent show coming up in May. After Jeff got home, we took all of the kids out to the Chinese buffet for supper, then Diana picked them up around 10:00pm. It was a fun, but exhausting day!
Rachael, Gracie, & I are taking a Wilton's cake decorating class. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera available to take pictures of the finished product, but here is Gracie & Darla getting the cake iced and ready for class.
We're the only family in our co-op that is not involved in basketball this year. Nick is too young and Rachael has no desire. (Not a bad thing since she inherited my [lack of] grace!) We do, however, go to some of the games to cheer on our friends.
We ventured to Bloomington today to sign our lease. After which, we went out to breakfast with Darla, Gracie, & Josh. Once we got home, I took our (possessed) van up to the dealership to be serviced. For some reason, the lights (both interior & exterior) flash for no apparent reason - even when the key is not in the switch!
For dinner, we met my sister at a local Mexican restaurant. We then went to see the movie "Bolt" where we met up with Heather & Mary. The movie was actually better than I had expected.
These photos are from the Christmas display downtown. I took the pictures hoping for a Christmas card photo, but wasn't thrilled with the outcome...
In co-op, we studied Massachusetts in US Geography and the Electoral College in the Election class. After co-op, we brought Thomas & Gracie home with us to go trick or treating and spend the night. Since we live two hours away from their homes, I wasn't sure how it would go. So far, so good!
We also met up with Heather and family at the local nursing home, so that was pretty cool! After filling our candy bags, we picked up a frozen pizza & a pomegranate at Wal-Mart and headed home. (yes, I realize that's a strange combination, but knowing how much candy they would be consuming, I didn't want to turn down a request for healthy food!) While the pizza was baking, the kids got down to the important business of sorting and trading candy. It looked like a pinata had exploded in the middle of my living room floor!
As promised, here are more animal pictures from yesterday's trip to the zoo.
On a different note, Jeff took Rachael to Darla's house to spend the weekend. There is a concert tomorrow at our old church up in Bloomington. The church has asked our homeschool co-op to provide food for the concert volunteers and bands (pureNRG & Mission Six). The adults will be cooking the food on Saturday, and the kids will help serve it before the concert. Rachael has been looking forward to meeting the bands for weeks! I would have taken her, but I'm meeting a cousin tomorrow who will be stopping by on his way home to Virginia from a conference in Chicago...
Name: Amy Home: Indiana, United States About Me: I am a Homeschool Mom of 2 awesome children. This is my attempt at Project 365 - to chronicle our world through daily photos... See my complete profile
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