One room schoolhouse

Stepping back in time... Recently, the girls experienced an old-fashioned day at school.

This is such a fun way to learn history and the kids all looked so cute!

What is really cool is that the historical society has a detailed diary of the school superintendent from that year, so they can do the exact lessons that were actually used!

Writing with a quill pen is a fun challenge.For the spelling bee, the kids were split into 3 groups - pre-spellers, 6th grade and up, and everyone else :). Keegan and Kelsey were the final spellers left in the everyone else group. I was so proud of them!

Kelsey is concentrating as she spells one of her words :-)Caitlyn's spelling group had a two-way tie as they ran out of time. Caitlyn was one of the winners and Keegan won for her group! They won their own quill pens (which Keegan is using in this picture and at home right now as I write.)

So proud of everyone :-).

My 3 old-fashioned cuties

Wordless Wednesday

What a difference inflection makes -

Me, "Ahhhhhh, a bath."

Keegan and Kelsey, "AAAAAAAAAAH! A bath!"

Kelsey's Joke Quote, Part 2

Kelsey: Will you remember me today?

Bill: Yes.

Kelsey: Will you remember me tomorrow?

Bill: Yes.

Kelsey: Will you remember next week?

Bill: Yes.

Kelsey: Will you remember me next year?

Bill: Yes.

Kelsey: Knock, knock.

Bill: Hi, Kelse.

Kelsey, sighing: Well, at least I got him this morning.

:-) She's got perseverance.

Rehearsal time

Practicing in the lobby And trying to watch the rest of rehearsal while waiting to practice in the lobby :D I made those snowflake sticks. Aren't they purty? Snowflakes :)

Little Topsy

Caitlyn at King and I with Izzie and Lizzie - try saying that 10 times fast!

Kelsey and Keegan Quote

Kelsey, with a sweater over her head, "I am the Monster of Cleveland."

Me, not sure I understood correctly, "You are the Monster of Cleveland?"

Kelsey, "I am the Monster of Cleveland with a strange nose."

Keegan, lifting the sweater, "Hello, there, Monster of Cleveland. You look a lot like my sister Kelsey."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later in the evening, "The Monster of Cleveland has retired for the day."

Strep throat, part 2

I despise strep throat and would be perfectly happy if we never dealt with it again. But, here are a couple of cute moments from our recuperation :).

Caitlyn caught up on her reading and knitting and the cats were pleased to have us at home.

Kelsey and Keegan made themsleves a nice bed by the stereo to listen to books on tape :).

Trying to look on the bright side, but definitely nice to be better! :)

Girls' weekend

Although Caitlyn had been sick, she, her friend Rayonna, Rayonna's mom, and I took a weekend trip to Nashville for the Tennessee Association of Dance's annual conference. I was concerned she would not feel well enough to enjoy it. She was a bit tired, but felt good, took all her classes, and had a great time!
She and I enjoyed having some time together, plus she enjoyed getting to go somewhere with her friend. Bill took great care of Keegan and Kelsey at home. Whenever I called to check in (which was pretty frequently :-) they were reading, playing games, cooking, or cleaning up from eating(!!!) I was surprised by how much I could miss them in only a couple of days.
Caitlyn enjoyed classes in ballet, pointe, pilates, floor barre, and improv. OK, she didn't really enjoy the improv, but she took it, anyway :-). She really liked the ballet and floor barre teachers and took 2 classes from each. She and Rayonna are going to teach the floor barre work at their studio this week. We all enjoyed the cafeteria ;-).
PLUS, there was a raffle, and Caitlyn won it! A t-shirt (in the picture,) tote bag, year's subscription to Dance magazine, AND free registration to next year's conference! WOOT!
AND, while Caitlyn was in class, I went Christmas shopping. Not often I hit a Toys R Us alone!

Wordless Wednesday -Keegan (again :-)

Keegan Quote

Playing cards, "I like to annoy you, Daddy."

:-)

More bedtime reading

There are definite advantages to being the youngest child of the family - people tend to think you're very cute, you get carried and snuggled a lot, you get to be involved in many activities at a younger age because your siblings are, and on and on - but there are also disadvantages.
For Kelsey, a big one has been not having a chapter book "of her own" to read at bedtime. Also never to be the first one reading a cool book because by the time she gets to it, it's old news to everybody else. Caitlyn is so much older, of course, we read separately with her. Since Keegan and Kelsey are close in age, we tend to choose books they would both enjoy and read them together. When Keegan turned 9, we started reading the Narnia series with her. This left poor Kelse feeling left out because she was the only one without her own special book going at any given time.

We have finally remedied that situation. As of last Sunday, Kelsey is the proud reader of _Teddy in Tree,_ which no one in our family has ever read. She is the only one reading it now - no one else gets to listen in :-). So, finally, my littlest girl can say, "Guess what happened in my book?" and no one knows the answer except her :-).

Soccer Satudays

Here are our 2 sweet soccer girls. It is the first season Keegan and Kelsey have both played, but have been on different teams. However, they are having a great time. Twice now they have played at exactly the same time, but we stood between the fields and cheered for both :-). They each have knowledgeable coaches and are learning a lot. Also, most of the teams in both leagues are fairly evenly matched, so there isn't one team losing every game while another team wins every time. I think it's a lot more fun that way. All in all, it's a very good season. If only we could get them to schedule soccer around our dance schedule, everything would be perfect :D.

Keegan Quote

At her first college football game..., "Did he get a first down?"

"No, he went abut 4 yards."

"They sure don't seem to be getting very far."

Har, har, har. I'm sure it felt like that to them, too!

Yucky Strep Throat :-(

Wordless Wednesday - Kelsey!

Kelsey Quote

"When I play Mario I like to jump on people and take their stars!"

And she looks so sweet, too!

Playing at the Park

We met with some co-op friends for a picnic in the park to enjoy this gorgeous weather! Naturally, the creek had as much appeal as the playground :-).
Love this Keegy expression :D You can't blame people for what they don't know, I realize that. And I understand that a lot of people really don't know and they should ask questions. However, I still find it slightly humorous when I run into people who believe that all home schooled children are lonely isolated things who have no contact with the outside world.

Our main difficulty is keeping our activities controlled enough that we have enough time at home to do all the things we need to do. We are blessed to be part of some great groups - an amazing dance studio, a wonderful theater group, a super co-op, and a very loving church, to name a few.

If you ever considered homeschooling, but worried that your kids would be isolated, don't let that hold you back. Obviously the socializing is different than in school, but there's plenty, if you want it :-). I'll get off my soapbox now, this busy day just brought it all to mind :).

So cute flashback!

SO cute. A friend posted this on Facebook from "Beauty and the Beast" last year. Keegy is on your left. Hmmmm, the two on the ends look an awful lot like snowflakes, too......

Restful reading, haha

Although the girls have all been able to read themselves for quite some time, we still enjoy reading together. Ordinarily the girls and I read some during the day. Occasionally we do it at night too (or instead :-). The other night, Kelsey asked if we could read in our bed. It was not especially restful, but was fun. We squeezed in both parents, 3 girls, and the cats, too :-)! Kelsey is the lump under the orange cat.

More rehearsal

The cute Kelsey and Bill watching rehearsal pictureThe unstaged Bill and Kelsey watching rehearsal picture. Doesn't Bill look thrilled? Hahaha.

Happy Keegan

Not only does Keegan love animals, she also LOVES babies. She adores and thinks about her baby cousin, Brooklin, even though we don't get to see her often. Keegan is now thrilled that some friends had a baby we get to see on a pretty regular basis. Here is Keegan, holding sweet baby Willow.

Wordless Wednesday - Keegan!

Kelsey Quote

Me - Kelsey, this is good weather for snuggling.
Kelsey - Yes, because you will share your body heat with me!

Lizzie, Maggie, Keegan, Kelsey

Four of the five "King and I" snowflakes. They're so cute :-).