Field Trip Fun!

We went on an awesome field trip with our homeschool field trip group.


We took a drive down to San Antonio and visited their newly renovated Japanese Tea Garden. It was beautiful. While all of the adults were enjoying the incredible peaceful scenery such as this . . .

. . . and this . . .

. . . and this . . .

. . . and this . . .

All the boys were enjoying themselves in an entirely different way, such as this . . .

. . . and this . . .

After that, we went to this museum and saw this exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci. The machines and biographical movie were awesome. Of course, the boys found yet another way to goof off, but this goofing off was all about geometry and physics, so we let them run wild!




After that we had a lovely meal at this great Mexican (My favorite!) restaurant, and then we made the long drive home.


We were exhausted, but well educated, entertained and socialized, and that's really what matters most!



Until next time . . .

Bathtime For Baby!

Our grand daughter spent the night with us again last night. I got to give her a bath for the very first time! Baby Boy took a couple of pictures and I was so excited, that I just thought I'd share.

Getting started!

Oh . . . so . . . relaxed.

Isn't she precious! Thanks for dropping by.



Until next time . . .

The Late Weekly Wrap-Up . . . And Other Stuff Too!

We had a very exciting week last week.


We are getting closer and closer to being finished with our Geometry. Baby Boy is still working hard and putting in very good effort. We're sure to be done in the next week or two. He's also working hard at doing well on the new Ultimate Frisbee team he just joined. Of course he's also sharpening up his tae kwon do skills as he will be phase testing this weekend.


My quest to get photos of those moments has been lackluster at best, but I'll try to get some posted next week.


We finished up the last art project in this particular art curriculum, but we do hope to do additional art in the future. We are taking a break from doing art right now. We are not, however, taking a break from learning about art. As a matter of fact we are going to a beautiful art museum later this week to see a special exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci. We're both excited to see it, so wish us luck. We have to drive a little bit to get to it, but I'm sure it will be worth it. We're going with our new home school field trip group.


Here's our final project. It's a lesson on composition, or how the items you draw are actually sitting on the paper. I love the way Baby Boy's came out. The fruit seems to be jumping off the paper. It makes me want to take a bite. Mine, of course, is neatly colored, but lacks passion. I guess you can't win them all.


Anyway . . . Art Composition . . .

By Baby Boy

and


By Mom #1

And in case that isn't enough, our six week old grand baby spent a day and a night with us last week! It's been so long since we had a little baby in the house! We had a wonderful time, although admitedly, a little sleep deprived. LOL

Oh . . . one more thing . . . The Denim Jumper seems to be back up and running. So let's all get over there and post a bunch of stuff so they'll know how much we missed them!



OK . . . That's all!

Until next time . . .

Happy Juneteenth!

Today we're celebrating a hot summertime holiday known as Juneteenth. It's a big deal here in Texas. If you aren't familiar with the history of Juneteenth, Baby Boy has written a few words (he's a young man of very few words) to get you caught up on the subject.


What is today? Today is June 19th, casually known as Juneteenth, formally known as Emancipation Day.

Why do we celebrate this day? This day is a huge deal, especially for African Americans. This is the day in history that they were freed from slavery. It is usually celebrated with parades, special ceremonies, and cook-outs.

When did the original event that led to this day take place? Though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862 and legally went into effect on January 1, 1863, it wasn't actually enforced until June 19, 1865, two and a half years later. It was commemorated when Major General Gordon Granger with 2000 federal troops in tow arrived in Galveston, Texas to take possession of the struggle to emancipate the slaves. It is strongly believed that the reason the Texans had not heard news of the Emancipation Proclamation before was because slave masters willfully withheld the information in order to maintain free labor on their plantations, although that has been disputed.



And that's your American History lesson for today . . .

Because Even In The Land of Cement Suburban Sprawl . . .

. . . Mother Nature finds a way :-)






Aren't they beautiful?


And loud!

Not too much to talk about today. We're all living and loving well.


Baby Boy went to his first Ultimate Frisbee practice yesterday and learned what it's like to really be tired. He came straight home, showered, and went to bed. I could hear him snoring clear across the house! It's always so gratifying to see your child commit fully to something that is both good for them and fun.


I hope you all are having a wonderful week!


Until next time . . .

Happy Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I hope you spent it with the father of your choice, talking to the father of your choice, or at least just thinking of the father you wish yours was, LOL.


As usual, my home was the location for the Father's Day celebration in my family. After cleaning like a mad woman, we had a wonderful time.

My Dad as well as Mom #2 received lots of fun gifts. In our home, Mom #2 gets to celebrate Father's Day because I'm not interested in sharing my Mother's Day glory with anyone, LOL. She got to lounge around the house in her pajamas comfortable clothes and eat junk food while I slaved pampered her and showered her with affection. Baby Boy spent the whole day keeping my Dad, his gramps, company. They went tubing down the river all day and played video games all night. I think a great time was had by all.

I usually have a very tentative relationship with my Dad for many many many reasons, but we did put all bitterness aside and let the joy of the day fill us. That was nice.


Anyway, I know I'm a bit late. Monday mornings are not great for blogging, speaking, reading, moving or much of anything, in my opinion.

I hope your Father's Day weekend was wonderful and all are geared up for a great week!

Until next time . . .

That's My Son!

Yes, we're still doing Geometry. It's going fine, A's all around, but I'm tired of talking about that.


Right now it's a million degrees outside, so we walk Baby Doggy as early in the morning as possible and then we hide in the house all the live long day until the sun goes down.


If we are so inclined, we hop in the car and go to any of Baby Boy's miscellaneous extra curricular activities. We've kind of slacked off a little bit due to the extreme price of gas lately, but that's a whole different post.


Today we braved tae kwon do class. Right now Baby Boy is training for his next belt (I think it may be red, but I could be wrong). Today sparring was on the agenda.

I just want to know why does my skinny kid always get paired up with the guy built like a brick wall? Anyway, I can say one thing for sure about my son, he is NOT afraid to take a punch.

Just thought I'd share. He's getting pretty good, right?


Until next time . . .

*SIGH* Nostalgia . . .

With all the talk of grandbabies going on around here, I've been thinking about when Baby Boy was really a baby boy.


This used to be his very favorite song in the whole wide world.

I still like it.

Where does the time go?

Until next time . . .

Getting Back In The Saddle . . . With A Potpourri Of Topics

Thanks for all the nice emails while I've been taking a break from blogging.


It lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Turns out, although I thought I was the queen of multi-tasking, sometimes more things get done in real life if you just take a real live cold turkey computer break. Of course, those who know me from some of the home-schooling boards know that I didn't totally go cold turkey, but I did trim it down significantly and I have a lot to show for my time off . . .


We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. If you liked the first three, this one will be lots of fun for you. It holds true to the series. If you are looking for a real action movie judged only by today's standards, well, not so much. Baby Boy has a full movie review. I'll have to get him to type it up this weekend and post it later. I really enjoyed it, but frankly, it doesn't take too much to impress me. It also doesn't help that I'm totally infatuated with Shai LaBeouf. He's like an adorable little Ken doll that I want to bring home in my purse and put on a shelf. It's amazing to me that he's the little Brady Bunch Afro-wearing boy from Holes. I'm not sure why, but, well, I've been known to have strange ways.


I went to see my niece's "Self Expression" exhibit at her fancy private school. She made a very cute self portrait. I think it turned out really well.




Speaking of self portraits. Baby Boy and I finally finished the six or eight or however many art lessons on how to draw the parts of the face. Today we did portraits of ourselves in charcoal. Don't laugh, remember, we are not trained artists. Just a mom and son trying to express ourselves a little bit, LOL.

Self Portrait


By Baby Boy

and


By Mom #1

In case you are wondering, YES I did intentionally make my face a lot slimmer in my portrait than it is in real life. I mean, that's the way I see myself, young and thin. I'm not letting reality get in the way of a good fantasy! One thing we couldn't figure out was how to make ourselves black (I mean African American) without making ourselves, you know, black (like the color), so we just left ourselves white (you know, the color, not the race). As you can see, this discussion could go into the wrong direction, so just look and love the art for what it is. HA HA HA!


Actually that is the kind of drawing I like to do. We've pretty much finished all of our subjects but seem to still be hobbling along at geometry. Unfortunately, that means the kind of drawing that I have been doing the most of lately looks like this . . .

. . . and poor Baby Boy has been spending his mornings looking like this . . .

But all of that hard work is really paying off. Recently we experienced something of a miracle around here. In five years of home schooling, we have never - until this week - witnessed this extremely rare phenomenon . . .




A perfect 100% on a math test! Yah! As you can see, stickers are a great currency around here.


In honor of all that hard work, and because we really really felt like we needed a break. We took a little mini vacation to our local water park. We had great big fun, although I am deathly afraid of the water and cannot swim at all. They provide lots of shade, fun slushy drinks, and chairs directly beside all the rides so lazy scary moms can watch their wild and crazy kids. That's where I was at.




So. As you can see, we're all doing fine. Busy, as life always is, but fine. I've enjoyed spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm going to try to find better balance in my life that allows for the real life closeness and the online fun. If anyone has the recipe for that secret formula, please forward it to me. I'm in desperate need! ;-)


Just for kicks, I'm going to round out this post with pictures of our new grand baby. She's still so new and beautiful and perfect in a way only grandmas can appreciate. She's a smidgen over three weeks old. These pictures were taken about a week or so ago when she was about 2 weeks old. She's already making lots of noise and funny faces, so we know she'll fit right in with the rest of our family.




Until next time . . .