New Adventures

This year, Gigi enters first grade. She is six now and it's time for her to become more socially involved with her peers.

With this in mind, we have signed her up for Karate classes through a local Homeschool co-op as well as Girl Scouts. i believe we will involve her in more activity, possibly a sport in the Spring (we're thinking t-ball or soccer). She has expressed tons of interest in voice lessons, but I have not been able to find an instructor that will take on a 6 year old - the ones I have contacted will only begin lessons at 7 years old.

Little man will be attending some classes of his own this year. Our local Family Resource Center provides some great group classes for little ones. We will be participating in Little Amigos (Spanish class), Music and More and Wonder Years (Skills for 2 and 3 year olds) on a rotating basis. I am also planning on signing him up for our local Tiny Tots program which is ran by the Parks department. Gigi was in this program for 2 years and loved it. It's a drop-off class, twice a week for 2 hours each time. This will not happen until January though as he needs to be 3 and his birthday is not until the end of October.

In addition to these outside activities, we are also keeping our annual family passes to Busch Gardens and we have added annual family passes to MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry).

As far as school is concerned, I recently posted about our goals for this year on our Homeschool blog. I have a separate blog for school because I need to show certain things at the end of the year to our evaluator and it just makes it easier. You can read about that through this link if you want.

Until next time, here are some random pictures of the kids:

The Sleeping Bear Awakens...

Okay, so I know it has been over a YEAR since I have posted anything new on this blog. I have not been totally under a rock though. For the past year I was running my other blog where I was providing lots of product reviews and giveaways. It was loads of fun, but then reality set in and I realized I was spending WAY too much time on the internet. So I decided for the sake of my family (and my eyes) to back off.

So why then am I back on the computer, blogging again just somewhere else? Well, I will tell you this...do not expect to see daily or even weekly updates on what's going on in our home. I will definitely not be posting very often - just trying to be real here.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing well and I do hope to get on here occasionally to update you on what we are doing.

So for a very quick, quick update here are just some of the things we have done over the past year:

We finally found, and bought, a new home. this house is literally double the square footage of our last home with two more bedrooms and one more bathroom than what we had. We also now have a pool and tons more storage space.

We are now in our second official year of homeschooling and I LOVE it!

Gigi is currently doing a basic Girl Scout mini camp over the Summer and we are hoping to get her into a troop in the Fall. She has had another birthday and is now six years old. Her last party was a mermaid/luau theme.

Gigi is scheduled to start Karate lessons (we are finally ready to give this a second chance) in August.

I am attempting to teach her some basics on the piano this year and she is still deciding if she wants to play soccer or t-ball this year for her outdoor sport.

She has finally learned to sleep all through the night in her own bed - seriously just about a month ago! So, as a reward we got her a "big girl" bed - a twin size!

behavior issues still arise on a daily basis, but we are much better at handling them now and can usually squash an outburst before it turns into a full on meltdown. She is still not medicated at all for her ADHD.

Gigi continues to need glasses and we are still patching her lazy eye. Her vision has greatly improved but we are still patching just to make sure she does not slip backward.

Little man celebrated his second birthday (an Elmo theme) last October. He has had a couple more seizures since I last wrote, but the neurologist says it is something he will eventually grow out of.

He continues to have some speech delays, but is getting better everyday. The comprehension is definitely there, so it is strictly an articulation delay. We have had his hearing tested extensively and the results were always great.

This year he will be participating more actively in our homeschool lessons where he will begin to learn his numbers, letters, shapes and colors.

He is very much a boy in many ways - loves to climb on everything, is quite rambunctious, and loves cars and trucks.

However he is also in touch with feminine side thanks to big sis. He has his own little boy baby doll that he cares for and he loves all the Disney Princesses.

Hubby and I are doing great. We are continually discovering ways to sneak in "grown-up time" and enjoy each others company. We are both happy that in our new home we each have our very own space separate from everything else in the house where we can pursue our own hobbies.

Hubby likes to paint and listen to his music in his man room as well as play with his various instruments. I have my own space in the guest room where I can sew, scrapbook and walk on my treadmill.

Well, that's a quick review of some of the important things going on.

As I said earlier, I will not be posting anything on a regular, scheduled basis, but I will be updating at least once a month.


I'm looking forward to sharing our homemade happenings with you again soon!

Elmo Love

Gigi's Fifth Birthday!

On May 27th Gigi turned FIVE!!!! I can not believe she is already five. I don't know why, but five seems like such a milestone birthday.

Anyhow, her birthday fell on a weekday this year so we had her party the Sunday before - on the 23rd. She wanted a "Hannah Montana" party and so that is what she got! I have been slowly collecting items for this party for about 6 months!!

Just for her party, I made a tutu in her party colors: pink purple and blue. I also embellished a shirt to with it. I appliqued the "Birthday Girl" to the front with Hannah Montana fabric. Of course little man had to be rocking out too - check out his "faux-hawk"!

Since we are not currently in our own home, I rented out the community clubhouse for the day to hold the party. I decorated using pink, purple and blue. With my trusty Cricut machine, I created centerpieces for the tables as well as some little confetti type cut-outs to throw on top of the tablecloths.

We had a pinata.

I set up a craft table where the kids decorated little cloth tote bags that they used to catch their pinata goodies. On one wall I hung a store bought mural where I took pictures of Gigi and all of her friends together.

For food we decided to make our lives easy and we just order some pizza pies from Pizza Hut.

I was not too happy with how the cake came out. I don't have any of my own kitchen stuff here - and definitely don't have any of my normal baking things. But it was Hannah Montana so it worked out.

In the end, all the kids had a blast and Gigi got tons of great gifts.

Pipa's Annual Visit!

Every year my father comes to visit us for a week. I love having this time with him and look forward to it every year. Unfortunately, this year he had to actually stay at my brother's house since we are not in our own home right now. Good thing he has an upstairs with three bedrooms and a bathroom that he never uses!!

Anyhow, we were still able to spend some quality time with each other and it's always great when the kids see him, since it's not all that often.

Here are some pictures from his visit:

We had a great week, but like all great things, it had to come to an end. I miss you already, Dad. can't wait to see you again.

Mother's Day

For Mother's day, hubby had the great idea of having a family picnic at a local park. Unfortunately, only hubby's side of the family was able to make it, but we still had a great time!

Anyhow, we rented out one of the park shelters for the day. We were able to get a great one that was a short walking distance to the playground and restrooms and also had it's own green space around for playing. Everyone chipped in and brought hot dogs with all the fixings, different salads, chips, drinks and watermelon. Actually, we ended up with FOUR large watermelons!!

The kids had lots of fun playing various games around the shelter with items supplied by my sister-in-law; baseball, horseshoes, catch, bubbles etc.

We walked over to the playground and had even more fun there. The food was great, as was the company and conversation.

While there we also did a combined mini birthday celebration for all the May birthdays we have in this family; five including mine. All the birthday girls had a cupcake with a candle in it and we all sang. Everyone opened their gifts and polished off their sweets.

It was very hot, but it was lots of fun!

Park Day

Hubby had his day off on Thursday. It was a bit overcast which meant the perfect weather to be out! We decided to go enjoy the day at the park.

We went the a McDonald's drive through (yeah, real healthy I know!) to pick up lunch first. Since it was tax day, they were having a special - Buy one Big Mac get a second for a penny. Plus, every Thursday they offer all Happy Meals for $2.00. So hubby and I got Big Macs and the kids each got their own chicken nugget Happy Meal.

We ate out lunch on a park picnic table and then spent a good two hours running around playing.

Good Times!

Charter School Here We Come!

Well, I got the call today...Gigi got into the charter school where we applied. I know I should be happy, but I actually have mixed feelings about this. I am glad that there is no chance now that she will attend the regular public school, but on the other hand, I'm a bit disappointed that I will not get the opportunity to Homeschool her.

I know everything will work out for the best in the end. Everything happens for a reason, right? Maybe God is telling me I need to focus completely on J now...and I can't do that if I am schooling Gigi.

I'm anxious....I'll keep you posted!

Snapshots of Sleep

Our Other Little Artist

Little man loves coloring these days!! Gigi is always coloring, so now brother just joins in the fun. He grabs a crayon and gets right to it. Of course, they are only little scribbles, but it's so cute! He often looks as though he is really concentrating on some masterpiece!

For Grandma

Park Fun

While at the beach yesterday, Gigi wanted to play on the playground. Since it was so late in the evening though, I told her it would have to wait until another day.

Well, today we had an appointment to go to that was not far from the park, so I made a slight detour to go play. Unfortunately, we could not stay long since it was just too darn hot to be out there. We only stayed for about a half hour total and we were all drenched in sweat as we packed back into the van.

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and I realized that I should have just packed a lunch and our bathing suits and made an afternoon of it. I'll have to make that a future plan I guess.

It was short lived, but Gigi still had fun!

What to do??

Since Gigi was just a toddler I have been playing around with the option of homeschooling her full time once she reached preschool and kindergarten age. I never once doubted my ability to teach her. In fact, I was always fairly confident that I could do a better job teaching her at home than the public schools could. This confidence was mainly due to the horror stories I have heard about our school system here (for example - the things that they expect a Kindergartner to know at the end of the year, my child already knew at the age of 2.) mixed with the fact that I know my child's learning style better than a teacher that has never met her, plus public school teachers have the challenge of dealing with 20+ students at once - all whom are probably on different levels.

I'm not trying to say anything negative about the teachers of the public school system - only about the system itself. Unfortunately the teachers are bound to the rules and "expectations" of the system leaving little to no time for individual needs of the students.

With homeschooling you can tailor everything to the needs and passion of your child. So, if Gigi is on a kindergarten level with math, but only a preschool level with reading - that's ok.

In most states, preschool is not thought of as the start of the school years. It's not a requirement, nor is it even offered - unless you want to pay a hefty price for a private prek. Basically, preschool is usually an overpriced, glorified daycare.

However, where we live preschool is offered to all 4 year olds, free of charge. It is a half day program that runs 3 hours aday, 5 days a week - following the public school schedule. It's called VPK - Voluntery Pre Kindergarten.

As her fourth birthday approached, we began discussing school. We came to the decision that Gigi would attend the local Montessori school that offered VPK, if she was accepted, and then I would homeschool for kindergarten and then have the public schools evaluate her for the 1st grade. We figured entering public school might be ok at first grade because we were told that there were things in place to help students as far as placement based on their individual abilities. However, there are no such programs or exceptions on the kindergarten level.

Well, since learning of Gigi's ADHD diagnosis, I have been having mixed feelings about everything. I feel this great tugging on my heart that tells me my child needs ME, not a school. On the other hand, I am afraid that if I don't get her into a school setting she will be ill prepared for school later. Without the ADHD diagnosis I had no reservations about keeping her home - now I am full of doubt.

Not doubt in myslef to actually teach her - but doubt that she will adapt later. Before I had no fear of her adjusting easily into the public school first grade after being homeschooled for prek and kindergarten. Now I am worried that without being in a school setting she will have trouble come first grade.

The problem is, I still feel that I could do a better job at meeting her needs and teaching her based on her individual abilities - I'm just worried that she will have problems adjusting later on - especially when compared with kids that will have gone through VPK and kindergarten in the school system.

I'm really not sure what to do at this point - however she IS now accepted and being held a spot for the Montessori school for VPK which begins August 25.

So, I have some time still to think and pray about it.

Learning to Sleep

Well, we think it may be time to begin teaching J to sleep on his own.

We figured we would do it just as we did with Gigi;

We put her in her crib and left, let her cry it out for one minute,went back in to check on her, left, let her cry it out for two minutes, left...and repeated until she was left alone for 5 minutes straight. Then we would check on her every 5 minutes until she fell asleep. Every five minutes we would go back into her room, rub her bed, whisper soft "Shhh" noises and then leave, never staying more than 30 seconds to one minute each time.

It was rough, but Gigi ended up falling asleep after 45 minutes and actually stayed asleep for the entire night!! We were so pleased!

It was a really transition for us. She obviously did not want to give in, she held on for as long as she could, but in the end, sleep won! She was 8 months old.

So, we were hoping for similar results with J, but ... no such luck.

We used the same method, but it took J nearly two hours to give in to sleep. And unfortunately, he stayed asleep for about 45 minutes.

Something tells me he's just not ready.

Alone with Mima

While hubby, my mother in law and I accompanied Gigi to her first dance recital, we thought it would be best for everyone if J stayed out of the theater.

Since my mom had already seen the performance the day before, which had been a full dress rehearsal, she volunteered to watch J for the day.

It was the first time I had ever left him! :(

When we picked him up, mom reported back to me everything they had done together while we were gone.

They played games like peek-a-boo.

He ate some food

and his toes, of course!

And even took a couple of naps.

I don't think he mind being away from mama as much as mama minded being away from him! :)