Happy Birthday Jared!

Jared approached us with an interesting request for his birthday this year.  He wanted to have a "Bowling Party".  So I did a little searching, found a family friendly spot and bowling we went; with a great group of friends in tow.  We had five lanes; two for Jared's friends, one of the littles, one of the old folks and one of the tweens.  Everyone had a blast! It was an awesome idea but that's no big surprise Jared is full of great ideas.

This has been quite a year for my precious boy, so many new experiences and growing experiences with baseball, SEEK, and daily live. Double digits look great on him.  He's my go-to guy when I need someone to help me out with a smile on his face.  Jared has such a great attitude about life, he can have fun doing anything; he inspires me.  He continues to be incredibly creative; be it with his Legos, Keva blocks, books he writes (Stuart Little 2), pictures he draws, music he composes or imaginary games he plays with his siblings and friends.  He is so intelligent and has a gift for public speaking.  I can't wait too see what God has in store for him in the coming year.

Jared here is your parents prayer for you:

May the Lord bless you and keep you always.

May you seek in him in all you do and think and

May you walk his path all the days of your life.

All Our love always!

Catawba Baseball

Technically, its the NCAA Division 2 College Championships but for the last two years the boys have been cheering on the local favorite, Catawba College.  This is becoming a bit of a tradition each year.  It corresponds nicely to the end of the kids baseball season and the start of Jared's birthday celebration.  The boys again attended the last two nights of the tournament and again had a marvelous time.  This year they befriended the ball boy on the team and scored themselves some official Catawba hats.  Here's hoping they are back in the championship again next year.



.

Grand Slam Season Ends

Lance had an awesome coach in Coach Wall this season, his breathe of knowledge and great attitude/leadership modeling.  He learned a lot made some nice friends and got to play more than just catcher (yet, still plenty of catcher).  

His coach said he wished he could clone him, which was quick a compliment.  

He had a descent hitting season as well.

Chris too enjoyed learning along side Coach Wall and making friends with the coaches.  The rest of us very much enjoyed the family atmosphere of the games.  It's a shame Lance ages out this season, that said we are so pleased he earned the opportunity to play this season.

Baby Birds

Over the winter we had build three bird houses, two wren and one bluebird.  I'm happy to report our Bluebird house successfully hatched five Tufted Titmice.  Yea, that wasn't quite what we were going for and were pretty sure they kicked the Bluebirds out but it's still pretty neat.

Here is them shortly after hatching.

Here they are a week later.

Here is one of fledglings on the railing today.

We've had more fledglings at our feeder than we hatched and we found the other nest in a hollow tree in our neighbors yard yesterday.

We are in our light period of school but this is the kind of science study that really sticks.

Footstep Field Day

This is our second year attending the Footsteps Field Day at Davis Park.  It's an afternoon of playing all the traditional field games; Ultimate Frisbee, wheel barrow races, water balloon toss, dizzy race, etc.  For the littles a lady brought a big set of bubbles.  For the mom's (slacking off and not running the event) there was the always welcome time for talking.

This event is the official end of our school year.  The kids will finish up a few loose ends and take their standardized tests this week, then we'll go down to minimum as I plan out our new year which will start June 29th.

Irish Dance

Jared tried out a really neat new sport this year.  As his teacher put it, Irish Dance is much more a sport than a dance discipline.  This was a unique opportunity to learn in a safe environment with other homeschoolers.  His teacher was passionate, talented, experienced and loving.  Jared had to work hard all semester.  

Tonight at his recital that all paid off, he performed absolutely wonderfully.  We were all very proud of our dancing boy.

Here's a link on youtube to the performance.

Block Party

Today was the annual neighborhood block party.  A cul-du-sac is closed down for the night and filled with tables of potluck.  It's always fun to meet new people in such a casual atmosphere of food and cheer.  This year we knew a lot of people before but still had fun talking with many more.  The kids made quick friends and ran wild playing, while we adults chose to sit talk and eat.  This year there was a special bonus, the police department coming by with an undercover Corvette.

Colonial Baseball

This Spring both Jared and Titus played baseball in the Colonial church league.  It had numerous advantages; Titus could play t-ball at same time Jared played machine pitch and the fields were close to West Raleigh fields Lance would be playing.  The later turned out to be the most advantageous since we only have one car and all three were playing.

Titus had fun playing his first season of baseball.  He played well at many positions but seemed to prefer first base.  He was quite the powerhouse hitting off the tee.

Jared had fun, as he always does; playing hard and cheering hard.  He had quite the season hitting two home runs, two more than his big brother.

SEEK - Spring 2015

I'm really glad I decided to teach an art class this semester.  Too often art is dropped off our to-do list during the week and now I was guaranteed to at least teach Jared art every week.  Along with teaching, I really enjoyed the two field trips we took; first to the Mozart concert and second to the NC Museum of Art.  The art museum field trip was really wonderful.  It was so rewarding to see the children so enthusiastically talking about the art pieces with each other and engaged in listening to the gentlemen who gave us a quick tour of the statue section of the museum.

Jared's other class was a Keva building class.  Being my most creative child he enjoyed this class aw well.  As a bonus, he received some of the blocks to take home at the end of the class.  The creations at home have already begun.

Lance took PE again and a neat course on computer programming called "Raspberry Pi" where he learned to program a number of basic games; like an aquarium. snow ball fight and a battleship game.

Titus took "Party Around the World" with his favorite teacher Mrs. Lewis and "Team Sport Fundamentals".

Amber enjoyed being in a class with her best friend this semester (their birthdays are so that they cannot be in the same class in the fall.)

Another fun semester, glad for the break but looking forward to the fall as well.

Rabbit Day Book Review - April

Read-Aloud Historical Fiction this month was Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal by Robert Reilly.  This is my boys favorite type of historical fiction; a story based on a real person and real events.  Red Hugh lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was considered a danger to her empire and treated accordingly.  It is a great story of growing up, perseverance and doing what is right even if the reward may no longer yours to receive.  Chris and the boys were enthralled with story and all the action/intrigue. 

Titus and Amber started us with another read aloud tradition this month. We were at the library and one of them put this book in our basket:  Cat in the City by Judy Salamon.  It's a cute looking book, cat on the cover about 6x6 square easy for young people to pick-up.  I wasn't expecting much, I've been so disappointed by all the books I've been pre-reading lately but this turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.  It's a story about a cat realizing his need to belong and finding his place with an odd group of dogs at the dog park and their families.  The book has some interesting twists and a few sad but not tragic moments.  I started reading it aloud to Jared and Titus while Lance was a baseball but once Lance and Chris got a taste for listening, we waited for nights when everyone was home.  Thus a new tradition developed before bed ("Night Time"), read-aloud chapter books.  Now we just have to find more.