First Day of School 2015-2016--- MFW 1st Grade and Creation to the Greeks

For right now our "school" has moved to Grandma and Grandpa's House, which luckily for us is  5 houses down the road. There a a few reasons we've relocated.

1. My father is home bound for the most part. He is alone a good part of each day while mother still works a traditional full time service job. Us being around gives him some social interaction and allows me to help with more of his daily needs.  Today school got done around home health visits from PT and OT

2. There is physically more space for the kids to not be in each others faces 24/7. Here we school at the kitchen table. While there is plenty of space for 3 kiddos and book, I really struggle last year with the olders not paying attention to their lessons when I was working with the youngest and vice versa. Our home is very open concept with kitchen, living,dining, and playroom being very open to each other. If little guy was playing the way boys do while the olders were finishing up the noise would just be too much.  Now we have 3 distinct spaces granted to us.

3. My mom is helping me when she's home. Y'all have no idea how huge this is! My mother has never not supported our choice to home school, but she's never really approved either. Now she's taking over lessons, and helping keep little guy busy. He's done more yard work in the past 2 weeks then in his whole life, but he loves it. One reason I think my mom is opening up to this idea is how many days last year got interrupted by my dad's doctor's appointments.  Some days the kids would be stuck with us for 6 hours in clinic. We always got school done, but no 9 and 6 years old want to do school at a nurses station..lol... So this week she took over a morning for me, while I took my Dad to an appointment. Having seen and heard what we were doing the days prior really made a difference for her comfort. Plus she has faced facts that its better for me to be the one transporting Dad. I am more comfortable driving downtown, and have an easier time helping Dad physically. While the kids won't get out of all the visits this year I think the will have significantly fewer messed up days. Especially since we purposely signed them up for full day co-op once a week, and I am trying to schedule as many appointments as possible on those days.

1 unintended side effect so far.... We've gotten dressed every day for school so far. Not quite as easy to just stay in the nightgown when I have to leave the house and answer to my mother!

Adventures in Vacation.....

 The 11 " Adventures" of our 2015 Tybee Island week.......

1. Somehow Yang's suitcase did not make it in the van. Her suit case was in another room from the other's and DH assumed the girls had packed together. We ended up not figuring this out until around 10pm as everyone is trying to get ready for bed. So, off we go to Walmart. Luckily other family was coming down on Wednesday, so we only had to buy for a few days. 3 outfits, a nightgown, 1 swimsuit, and undergarments later, we chilled in the one open check out lane. All I can say is: Thank you Lord for your provision that was not a disaster, but funny story to tell in years to come. We thought that was enough adventure for a vacation but no... we had no clue what the Lord had in store for us.....

2.  One day 2 of Vacation 6 adults and 2 kids get stuck in the condo elevator requiring the fire and police to come rescue us. Poor Hulk was left on the outside by his self for about 15 min. He's one cool kid. Ying had a panic attack during our ordeal, but the great guys from the Tybee Police and Fire Depts made it all better with a tour of the fire truck, and autographs from our heroes :)

3. Adventure 3---- No pictures of the Island Wide Blackout that occurred later that night. Apparently a branch fell on a line on Wilmington Island knocking out power to part of Wilmington Island and all of Whitmarsh and Tybee Islands. Oh how fragile is our modern life. The kids had a blast as we went for a walk and tons of people were out, a kind of island wide block party. Hey at least we weren;t in the elevator? right?????

4. Monsoon rains- The next night it rained so hard that some of the major streets were flooded to thigh high. Its not a rare occurrence on the island, but it sure impressed the kids. Especially when out cousins who had been trying to get off the island were turned around because the causeway was flooded and would take a few hours to recede between the tide and rain. We were snug and dry in our favorite restaurant.

5. Adventure - Wildlife Encounters- We found The Tybee Bunny just hanging out in the parking lot. Blue crab on the back river. Dolphins playing just off shore. Sea turtle nests along the beach.

6. After 5 wonderful calm surf days we got slammed with a red flag day. Kids couldn't go past ankles because the wide and tides were just too strong. The kids were very content to stay on shore and were kind of unsettled by people being in the water. I think it brought back memories from last years incident where they saw the life guards pull a man out and do CPR. The kids know the man did not make it, and this is the first rough day. But they handled it like champs.

7. We don't have a picture but the kids met a movie star. They had no idea who he was but my husband recognized him. We knew they were filming on the island that month so we figured we see something. Its not a very big island...lol

8. The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges for Ft. Pulaski. It was the only educational thing mom forced on them all week and they enjoyed it.

9. Getting 32 people together for pictures on the beach...lol... Our trips to Tybee are really family reunions. We average between 25-45 people each year ;) Some of use as 3rd cousins by marriage once removed but hey..... its all family...lol

Almost everyone...lol ( 4 generations)

the younger group ( parts of the 3rd and 4th generations represented)

10. On the way home we got caught up in the back up from a bad wreck on I-16. The kids got to see LifeFlight land on the road as we were diverted off the interstate. The kids thought the helicopter was cool and then said a prayer for those in the wreck and the medics & first responders.

11.... Last but not least... We arrived home to find the AC had broken while we were away...lol... So off to Grandma's house we went for a cool nights sleep. Luckily DH and BIL had it fixed by the next night....

And so goes the story of our vacation.Wonder what will happen next year?

July.....part 1

 Swim team wrapped up just before the 4th of July, and over all i think the girls enjoyed. They honestly liked practice more then the meets. They could have just done without. But they did each earn atleast one riboon of every color which they were proud of.

We road tripped the 4th of July litterally. I got off at 7am on the Morning of the 4th and we were on the beach by 3 that afternoon. We went to visit my brother and sister in law who recently moved from Conneticut to a small town on the panhandle of Florida. Huge change for my SIL who has never lived outside of very small area on the Northeast.

This was Uncle J's idea of babysitting...lol.. Hulk loved it.

The kids spent hours over the 2 days we were they catching these Hydra Jellyfish ( they don't sting) and looking for shells and sand dollars.