MIchaelgiving

Since we had illness in the house the month of September, we were unable to have our annual Michaelmas Party at the normally scheduled time.  However, the children were not to be denied and so we rescheduled Michaelmas to yesterday.  

We had 8 adults and 14 children, requiring the largest turkey I have ever cooked, a huge 20lb turkey; the oven shelf actual sagged a little under the weight.  Chris was hoping that with his special restricted diet this would be the first Thanksgiving/Michaelmas where he actually lost weight, but that was not to be. Our kind friends went out of their way to make an assortment of goodies for him and the rest of us to enjoy, from quinoa broccoli casserole, to sweet potato mint brownies.  As for activities, I really can't tell you much of what the children did during the day; I know they were laughing upstairs and running around a lot outside but since they stayed conveniently out of the way and got along so well I didn't really pay much attention.  Therefore, the adults were free to enjoy each others company and conversation; that touched on a huge variety of subjects.  Sometimes the men and women talked among themselves other times we merged for many entertaining stories.  The sun sets early this time of year so the party wrapped up around 6:30pm with 22 stuffed and smiling people of all ages. 

On a side note, earlier this week the kids helped an elderly neighbor with some yard work, that led to uncovering and eliminating a yellow jacket nest, which led to a gift of the dead queen hornet to present to Aaron our entomologist friend at Michaelmas.

Also, Amber lost her first tooth at Michaelmas and sadly its the only picture I took.

Oh and this strange one of Chomper today LOL.

Salt Shakers

Today was the last of three performances, of "A Christmas Carol", for Jared's new theater group Salt Shakers; where Jared played "Old Scrooge".  He rehearsed a lot around the house, with his dad modeling how to be an old man (too much Mary Tylor Moore more Chris as a kid).

Jared is truly enjoying this great group of kids and teachers.  There first performance was three weeks ago at the church as a sort of dress rehearsal/family event.  Our friends came by to cheer Jared on as Old Scrooge in their wonderful original adaptation.   Click the video below to see his performance:

The second performance was at a retirement home, where Jared also played piano during set-up and Lance came along for manual labor.  Some good friends also came to watch this performance and my friend encouraged the kids to go mingle with the residents.  Lance ended up in a nice long conversation with a couple there; the residents were truly appreciative of this kids coming to perform.

The final performance was for a YMCA after school program at a local elementary school. It was interesting to see the students response to the play, both the invitation to sing and the gospel message intertwined.  

The cast party was held at the home of one of the students families, where we had a nice time of food, fellowship and play.

Can't wait to see how the Spring Semester unfolds.

Fall Field Trips and Projects

In September, we managed one trip out of the house with a new homeschool group, affectionately called GAH.  We went to one of our favorite parks, Yates Mill Pond for an interactive class on pond ecology.  In addition to touring the pond, the children were able to take samples from the pond and bring them back to the classroom to chronicle all the different types of life they had found.

In October, we finally made it to the Mordecai House in downtown Raleigh.  This is the second home in a series of founder home tours.  We had visited his fathers home last year, The Joel Lane House.  The group we went with was so big they had to break in two groups; one taking the trolley tour first and the second (ours) touring the buildings first.  Our guide was very engaging, we learned a lot about the family and their involvement with some of our founding fathers.  The trolley tour after was fun too, getting a quick glimpse and history of many of the other historic homes in the downtown area.

Early November, was our families annual trip to a Corn Maze.  This year we incorporated it with a birthday celebration for Lance's friend Matthew, since Lance had missed his party.  We decided to return to Naylor Farm this year.  Naylor was the farm we first visited when we moved here.  The kids like it best because of the complete lack of rules and oversight, i.e. freedom to do what they want.  This year they had added a neat nerf ball battle fortress, in addition to the maze, duck races, hay ride and corn pit.  We broke into three teams for the maze race and this year Jared and I were the clear winners,  Matthew and Lance second and Team Otto coming in a close third.  On the hay ride, we were all able to pick one pumpkin.  Amber picked one too big to carry but she rolled it to the trailer and got the driver to put it in for her.  The rest of us did pretty good too as you can see.  Our chickens are in for a big pumpkin season.  Especially after the 3 huge pumpkins Titus and I had so much fun picking up on a road side stand last week.  After the hay ride Chris and I took up resident on a picnic table and let the kids run and explore; we joined in from time to time on the bounce pillow and the air fight of course.  We'll definitely be back again next year. 

The second field trip of November, was to "Historic Oak View Park" an old pecan and cotton plantation in the middle of Raleigh.  We went with a large group of homeschoolers to tour the plantation.  Ironically, our guide was the same as the field trip we took the to Mordecai House and she remembered us as well.  Titus and Amber were full of answers to her questions and offers of help to run the Cotton Gin.  Before the tour we gathered a nice bag full of pecans (Titus is quite the pecan finder) and visited our friends the Nubian Goats.  All in all we had another great visit to the park.  

As Chris was leaving to take the boys to a travel ball tournament in Fayetteville, the brakes went out on the Beast.  Thankfully, by God's grace Chris was only a mile from home and going really slow so he only tapped the car in front of him.  The break system replacement let to us finally getting around to replacing the broken radio.  To save money Chris did this repair with his three helpers; Titus, Amber and Hunter.  I was very impressed they all managed a successful replacement and we can all enjoy our favorite music in the Beast again.

SEEK Fall 2017

Today, was the final day of SEEK for the semester and the big Family Night Presentations, what a great night!

I am teaching a two semester High School Chemistry class called "Friendly Chemistry" again this year.  I'm really enjoying teaching the class. I like working with the high schoolers.  My Socratic approach to teaching took a few by surprise at first but based on the thoughtful thank you notes I got this year, I'd say its growing on them in a good way.

Lance took Study Hall first hour, which he used to take his weekly Greek Vocabulary tests and socialize a bit.  Then second hour he ran around with his friends in a PE Course.

Jared had the semester of his life!  First hour was a wonderful Drama Class.  He ended up being the spokes person for the class presenting his wax museum presentation of Louis Bleriot (first man to cross the English Channel by plane) to the whole assembly to encourage everyone to attend family night.  At family night he was one of the most visited statues and his friend Nathan had to protect him from too many people pressing his button :-)  Here's the link to the video of the assembly presentation:

Then, as if that wasn't enough, the whole class put on an incredible lip-sync presentation of the "Newsies" broadway play.  They that had the whole house in an uproar of applause afterward:  Here is a picture of the cast, followed by a link to the whole incredible stage show:

Then for second hour, he had an equally engaging class about Architecture, taught in part by my good friend Carey and therefore including his best friend in the mix.  He became a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright by the end of the class (kid has good taste) and gained a real interest and appreciation for architecture.  During the class they did a lot of hands-on modeling and even had an Architect for a guest speaker.

Titus showed how smart he was by taking an Apologia Anatomy and Physiology Class, designed for 5th graders (he's only a 2nd grader).  His teacher took me aside one day and said "Don't ever let him fool you, he's super smart.  He remembers everything.", point noted.  For his other class his took a fun and active PE Class to get all the wiggles out before Anatomy.

This was Amber's first semester taking structured classes at SEEK.  I admit to being a little worried how'd she do but my worries were completely unfounded.  Here first class was "Adventures in Etiquette". I figured why not, it was worth a try and I think she did come out a bit more polished.  However, note that in the Family Night Presentation picture above that she went on stage without shoes, Chris joked he wanted his money back.  People said nobody noticed with her beautiful dress.  

Her second class was a literature and crafts class that she really enjoyed.  It was taught by a mom she knew so I wasn't as worried about his class.  She brought home a bunch of adorable projects.

Fall Baseball

Today, was the season end bowling party for Lance's Mustang, travel ball team.  It worked out nicely that the best friends of our other three children lived less than a mile away so we dropped them off and were able to just hang out and talk with the other adults.

This season Lance received the "Sportsmanship of the Season Award" for....

"Lance battled through illness this season, yet continued to catch behind the plate in very hot, humid, uncomfortable conditions.  Lance never complained and continued to support the Mustangs through the season"

Lance played the first tournament of the season too soon after not completely getting over an illness and that threw him into the worst illness of his life for the next three weeks.  Worst of all Coach Keith injured his back, so the two tournaments Lance couldn't play, Chris had to go and be head coach anyway.  It was a rough month physically and mentally for our family.  I remember Lance saying "I'm glad Anthony got to play on the old Durham Bulls stadium".  Such a good sport but I could see it was a big loss for him none the less (Anthony was his friend who filled in as guest catcher during his illness).  Lance did get to finish out the last three tournaments of the season, which included a huge come from behind third place finish in the Rocky Mount World Series, beating the number one seed (where Lance caught the fall tip for the win).  It's Coach Keith's intent to keep this team together through high school and get all the kids scholarships to college.  That's a high order but we're game to give it a try.

This fall Titus aged up to Kid Pitch baseball; from modified coach pitch.  He now plays on a bigger field and the other players, not the coaches, are pitching.  His first coach in West Raleigh picked him up again for this season with the Padres.  He played a lot of Right Field and made a couple really great plays, getting kids out in the infield.  The Mighty Titus has quite an arm.  

Peter and the Wolf

I really like getting a great deal and boy did we get a great deal buying these tickets as a group with our friends and for the whole season; essentially we got three concerts for the price of one.  The fact that the deal involved going the symphony made it absolutely perfect.  I adore classical music, in fact the classical channel is the only radio channel I listen to at home or in the car, my kids are very cultured :-D

Today, was the first in the series, Peter and the Wolf, a family favorite.  Before the concert the kids had fun trying out different instrument at the instrument petting zoo.  Then they had a parade across the stage for all the kids that wanted to show off the costumes they had worn.  Amber of course was happy to show off her Princess outfit.  We were all very excited as you can tell.

The symphony was acted out on stage by some members of the North Carolina Ballet.  Amber had her picture taken with the ALL the performers (by request) but she said the duck was her favorite.  I think this was the best symphony, based on quality of sound, that we have ever attended.  We were all very impressed.

After, we had a picnic dinner to eat on the lawn, the parents enjoyed some lively conversations and the kids some fun running around on the lawn.  Great friends, great music, great weather, a truly wonderful evening.

Amber Turns Six

I say this every year, but its true, they all grow up too fast.  My beautiful baby is turning into a beautiful little girl.  

For her birthday this year, she really wanted a bowling party with friends and thankfully we were able to comply and even do it on her birthday.

But before the party we needed to complete our traditional birthday activities.  The boys did a great job of decorating the downstairs to begin the day of celebration.

She really wanted to wear this new hoop skirt to the bowling alley but we convinced her to go for non-hoop version of the princess gown.


All three of her closest friends and their families came to celebrate with us today and she was extremely excited.

The older kids had their own lanes but they stepped in to help their younger siblings when needed.  After bowling we did cake and then used the free tokens we had to play the carnival games.  The boys were ball sharks at the skeetball game getting a couple thousands tickets, that they kindly told their sister they would use to get her a toy the next time we came.

Amber was very pleased with her special day and we were all pleased to make it special for her.  She is such a wonderful individual, with deep emotions and strong love, that is returned both by her parents and her doting brothers.

The Big Reveal

Nearly two years in the waiting, today Lance got his braces off.  Needless to say he was thrilled.  Check out the big change (1) Before Braces, (2) With Braces, (3) Without Braces.

Eclipse

We were really excited about the eclipse today.  We assumed at 93% coverage we were close enough, so we just stayed home for the event and attended an Eclipse block party in front yard instead.  It was truly a science day, each family seemed to have a different way to try to watch the eclipse; cereal boxes with a hole, telescopes with eyepiece projected onto a piece of paper, special glasses and my personal favorite a simple large dark bucket of water.  As the eclipse reached it's maximum we let the chickens out hoping they would act strange, as we heard animals do, but I guess our chickens missed that memo.  One of the neatest parts of the day was how all the shadows turned into eclipses.  It was wonderful having a science laboratory right outside our door.  The 7% apparently is a big difference, it only got dim not dark, so next time we might make a trip to see the total effect but we had fun at home none the less.

Summer Swim Team

This was our second year participating in the Dutchman Downs Swim Team.  In addition, to Titus swimming this year, Amber joined the team as well.  

Its no surprise that Amber won the "Most Improved Swimmer" award at tonight Swim Award Party.  At the beginning of the season she couldn't swim, wouldn't jump in the pool unless someone was there to catch her and the first few tournaments needed someone in the water walking beside her to swim 15 yards.  By the end of the season she competed in the City Wide Meet, swimming across a 25 meter pool all my herself and jumping in off the blocks.

We are always reminding our children that how they do things, their character is what matters most.  Therefore, we couldn't have been more proud today when they announced that Titus was given the "Sportsmanship Award" by his coaches.  In addition to this great honor, he swam really well throughout the season, winning quite a few point heats. I think we may have a real swimmer on our hands. 

We are very thankful we found this pool, the young people that run the team are all so kind and encouraging.  Can't wait for next summer.