corn maze

Here are some pics from the Dixie Classic Fair last week.

Happy Birthday Esther Hope Mullis

On Friday Esther had her 7th birthday. We were in western NC visiting with Greg's mom and dad at their new cabin. We were able to go on a train ride and eat at a really cool restaurant right on the river. Esther was sang to 8 times with family calling her and people who found out it was her Bday! She loved that. Here are a few photos of her day!

I made a friend!

When we moved to Kernersville, I immediatly began to look at homeschool activities that the kids could get involved in so that they make some new friends. One of the ones I chose was homeschool PE at the YMCA. I thought that a 7 week course would be just right once a week for them to make some new NC friends.

We are on our 3rd week and the kids have made some good buddies that they are anxious every Tuesday to get up and go see....But, God threw in an extra special blessing for me...He sent me a friend too. I met a girl name Jodi ( my sister's name) on the first day of class. She had a brand new baby girl I just had to admire and we started talking.
It turns out she was born in NC, but lived most of her growing up years in Lakeland, FL! Her husband is also in full time ministry as a youth pastor. We are they same age and she told me she graduated from Liberty. Come to find out, we were at LU at the same time. We may have even lived in the same dorm that semester!

We decided last week to go swimming after PE today and so we let the kids swim for an hour and then we went and got cheeseburgers and hot dogs and ice cream at Bill and Leah's .We had such a good time and made plans to picnic at the park next week.
It was just a sweet gift from the Lord to unexpectedly make a friend!

And School Begins...

We finished up our first week back at school and had a great week! We switched math curriculum's from Abeka to Math U See. We love it! All 3 kids had a great first week of math and made 100% on the end of the week test.
For History I am going to use Story of the World and Galloping the Globe. We did a little G the G this week and worked on Asia. I am also doing Five in a Row vol. 4 for History....just not this month!

The science book (The Scientist Apprentice) I decided I didn't need or want, I decided the night before school started I did in fact want to use, so I ordered it and it is on the way! The first topic is Astronomy, and we will study that for 8 weeks!

Language, Reading and Spelling are still Abeka (If it ain't broke don't fix it!)

I have a really cool book called Draw then Write by Evan-Moor. The kids will learn to draw an object and then write a story about it. Hopefully, I will be sneaking in writing as fun!

We are going to do a Fall nature Study by Jane Claire Lambert (who wrote Five in a Row) in October and the Winter Study in February.

We are using the Marble Jar incentive this year. I have a larger than a mason jar that the kids put marbles in, when it is full, we are going to go do something fun. They can each earn 2 marbles a day by doing school work without complaining and chores without complaining. If I catch them doing something good, they earn an extra marble. I can take marbles away for griping, complaining or fighting. It is working really really well....I hope it continues to!

We also went to Homeschool PE at the YMCA where there was a total of 38 homeschoolers...wow! The girls also went to an American Girl book club tea and that was a lot of fun too!

I will post some pictures soon of the school room and the tea!

First Day of School 08/09

Abby in 5th grade
Nathan in 3rd grade

Esther in 1st grade

Moved!

We are thankfully all moved in to our new house. We love it here in North Carolina. The church has been so kind to us and we are excited to begin this ministry here with them. I almost have my house unpacked and decorated and I am so glad, because we will begin school on Monday!
We will be doing Abeka for reading, language and phonics, Math U See for math, Konos and Five in a Row for Science, History and Language and Bible and writing.

Some of the extras we will be doing are:
Homeschool PE at the YMCA
LEGO club
Basketball
American Girl book club (for the girls)
Guitar lessons (for Nathan)
Church Christmas program

We also have some birthdays this fall! Abby will be 11 in November and Esther will be 7 in September!
I will post some pictures on Monday for the first day of school!

Camping at Disney

I really really am not a planaholic, but we are going to Disney World next week and one of the things that drive me crazy is when we spend soooo much time trying to decide where we should eat, what park to go into, what to do next. It reminds me of the buzzards on Jungle Book, "What do you want to do today? ..., I don't know what do you want to do today?" over and over! So here is my plan of attack for the week. I actually had the thing laminated with cute Mickey Mouse clip art on it. The lady at Staples couldn't decide if I was superwoman or crazy when I took it in. She actually ask me if it was for real.:)

The Mullis Family Disney Trip

Tuesday August 19th ~
Check in at 3:00, set up, swim
Supper : Grill Hamburgers, chips and smores
Evening Activities: Campfire Sing a long

Wednesday, August 20th ~
7:00am Breakfast : Pancakes on a stick
9:00 Hollywood Studios opens
Lunch: Hot dogs and chips
Afternoon: Swim
Supper: Grill Chicken and corn
Evening Activities: Animal Kingdom open until 10PM

Thursday, August 21st ~
6:30am Breakfast: Cereal
8:00am Magic Kingdom Opens
Lunch: Trails end buffet
Afternoon: Swim and Nap
Supper: Chicken and white pasta
Evening Activities: Downtown Disney or Magic Kingdom open until 1AM

Friday August 22nd ~
7:00 Breakfast: poptarts
9:00 Epcot opens
Lunch: Sloppy Joes
Afternoon: Swim and Nap
Supper: At Epcot
Evening: Epcot open until 12AM

Saturday August 23rd~
9:00 Breakfast at Trails End Buffet
11:00 Pack up and Check out


I will be sure to take lots of pictures and post a slideshow when we get back.

Our Olympic Weekend

We had chinese food, made an Olympic Cake and watched tv this weekend.

I found this poem on a homeschooling website and loved it!

If I had my child to raise all over again, I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less, and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites. I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I'd build self-esteem first, and the new house later.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd teach less about the love of power, and more about the power of love.
~~Diane Loomans

Random blogging

The Countdown has begun...13 days until Disney! 18 days until we move! 25 days until we start school! Until then, here is some random thoughts, opinions and updates:

*I have been reading this series of books by Stephenie Meyer called Twilight. The last book came out Saturday and has been criticized so much. I, for one ,just want to say I thought it was a good book. So many people said they didn't like it because the ending wasn't "real" enough. Seriously, the books are about a girl who falls in love with a vampire! How real can the be??

* If you ever need to move, the best place to get boxes are Bed Bath and Beyond. They have awesome boxes and they smell good! Just a warning, if you go more than 5 times, the stock boys might start asking you if you are married or if you have plans for the evening....not that I would know or anything!

*I am addicted to Panera Bread's Asian sesame chicken salad and baked potato soup. Every Wednesday this summer the kids have went to my Mother in Laws to play and I have had a day to myself. I go to Panera and take my teacher's planner and work on the coming school years plans. It has been so relaxing and productive to go there.

*We are going camping at Disney World for 4 nights. I toss back and forth from being excited to terrified. Camping? In August? It will either be a blast or a disaster...I'll keep ya posted.

*I really love my ipod touch that Greg gave me for Mother's Day. I am getting more and more comfortable with it and rarely leave the house without it. The only problem is it is making me into a bit of a tech junkie. I am looking at electronic websites and dreaming of computers, video cameras and cool cell phones...weird

* Never underestimate the power of a $20 pedicure. It really can lift your spirits and make you feel pretty.

Third Days new cd Revelation is awesome! It is so good I cannot even pick a favorite song. Mac just keeps getting better.

Hope everyone has a really good end of summer. 45 days until fall. Yippee Skippee