Ah… what a day!! We had about as good an overall day as you can ever have homeschooling and raising 4 kids!

Declan did a huge amount of work today.. i took out all his books and was not planning on him doing all of them..but he did! He is almost done with both MUS Primer and his Explode the Code book 1!!  He finished his Sight Words Book A! We started this long ago but only recently are doing it every other day instead of just whenever ( which could be weeks in between..not good)..

Here he is happily finishing it up!

He’s very proud of himself!

After Taejan went to bed and Noah was done with his book work we did our hands on science! I got this great Think Box kit for $3 on clearance .. the kids are loving it! It’s a way to get the 3 older ones into something together!

Next the mail came! Jadziah got a new Princess Streamie to match a Gymboree outfit..I’ll post a picture tomorrow. She also got this cool headband that I had asked Alison to make.. we can clip her bows,pony o’s on it so she can wear them with a headband..which she prefers to ponytails right now!

Here’s the Headband alone

Then goofy girl with it on with a Pony O!

After this Declan went with my MIL to dance and I took the other 3 to the Library where Noah signed up to volunteer every Wednesday! This was his idea and I am so proud! After that we trekked off to get Declan at Dance and we found out my MIL is letting Ziah start Tap!! She won’t be 4 until the end of October so we never asked if she could, but my MIL wants her to!! So she goes for her class right before Declan’s on Saturday’s!! I am so excited..and soo glad we don’t have to pay fr dance..LOL.. between the 2 kids and 5 classes..ouch,.. $137 every 5 weeks.. luckily it’s free if you have the right last name..LOL

So now I’ve added 2 more “things” to do during the week..plus we will be volunteering with a fellow HS’er one week a month at a nursing home.. I really need to keep this all straight in my head.. I think it’s time for a day planner!!!!

Wow this has the potential to be a big week for Declan. He will be finishing up one of his Sight Words books, he may finish his Explode the Code book and his Math U See ( all depends on how the week goes.we haven’t done seat work since Wednesday so who knows)..and he may be coming home from Karate a Yellow belt!! He was told last week he was this _ close to getting it!! I am very proud of course. He has been going since the first week of December and has never missed a week!!! Now I have to remember to bring my durn camera with me!!!

Well we have a relatively calm week this week!!

Today we have a birthday party to go to..I have no voice so this is going to be fun @@

Monday~ Our HS activity was canceled so all we have is Dance at 3:30

Tuesday~ Maybe getting together with Robin.. and Dance at 4:45

Wednesday~ if we didn’t see Robin/kids then today we will and Karate at 5:15

Thursday ~ Dance at 10:00

Friday ~ nothing

Saturday~ Dance at 10:45

Sunday ~ Cookout with Robin and Tom

I may be forgetting a thing or 2..but we have a nice calm week..yewppie!!

Well today we took the kids to The Big E. I haven’t been since Noah was like 3 or 4.. it was a blast! The weather was awesome.. in fact it could have been a little cooler..but I’ll take the nice warm day for almost fall! I want to go on record saying I normally hate entrance fee’s to “fairs”, or at least anything over say $10 for the whole family.. this is about the only one that $32 it took to get all 6 of us in was WELL worth it!!!

We did lots of things, saw an unreal amount of animals, ate a ton of awesome food.. experienced all the New England states and more. We walked for 6 hours and boy did my feet hurt.. I am glad we had the double jogger as Declan and Ziah took turns sitting with Taejan and resting.. which was good! I am so proud of them, they behaved so well, they “dealt” with the 2 rides only rule very well, and they managed to realize they really only had $5 to spend and once they spent it , it was gone! I am proud how especially Declan is learning to manage his money and learning that I will only provide a few things..extra’s he has to pay for with the $5 we give each of them for field trip money! ( Noah was taught this the same way from 4.5 on and is amazing with his money..wish someone had taught me from so early on).

On with the pictures..had to know I had a”few” of those!

We got there bright and early.. the crowd where thin and it was so nice.. first stop the Bear display.. Declan wouldn’t go in so Ziah and Noah and I did..being nocturnal we saw a bunch of sleeping bears! I don’t tempt fate though so no flash pictures near them..lol

There are 2 great petting zoo’s on the grounds…both free and the kids enjoyed seeing animals they’d never seen before and lots they had!

Next we say a miniature horse.. only 19 inches shoulder height ..Ziah wanted to bring him home!

Taejan loved this Big Band thing:

There is a neat Circus Museum with all these miniatures and working parts..the kid all enjoyed it!

There is just too much to do and see..next we saw the 7000 gallon shark encounter!

In one of the States building’s ( there is one for each New England State and there is just too much to see and do and EAT in each one..lol) the kids got to blow off some steam playing with lego’s!

We got some apple Crisp in another State building and went outside to eat it.. while there Declan spotted these bears he loved and had to take a picture!

Then Taejan spotted this JET..

On our way to the Midway we got to see a horse up close:

On to the rides.. I got $10 worth of credits on the midway card ( no tickets here.. a cool scanner card thing) and Declan and Ziah each got 2 rides and Noah took one.. Taejan wanted nothing to do with it!

We made our way to an inside building as it was HOT out on the asphalt! We were surprised to find they had just begun some Equestrian event and the kids ( and me ) were excited to see the horses. We sat and watched for a good 30 minutes.. Taejan was totally enthralled! Every time a horse jumped he would go “ooooooohhh” and clap.. sometime’s he even yelled “yawhooooo” ..it was a trip!! Now as I stated I don’t te,pt fate adn didn’t take any flash picture while they horse were competing.. but he’s a few shots as they ended their runs!

More buildings, more fun,more animals!!

The hatchery.. they will hatch some 2880 chicks in 17 days at the Big E..it was wild to actually watch them pop out of the eggs!! ( Robin.. you need chicks!!!)

As we headed out Noah decided he wanted to go on the slide and he had been really good with his money ( he had $15 he had earned) so he treated himself!

(he’s the middle kid)

Last but not least we got to go to the Mutual of Omaha Wildlife Experience! It was not open when we got there but it was as we were leaving!

We had a great day and I can’t wait to go back next year!! Oh we even had a special treat and saw Amy N and her kiddo’s before we left!! Funny to be with like 10-20k + people and find 5 ya know!!

After a rather insane crazy moody week I decided to let loose with the kids the other day..we all needed it!

This is what they spent an hour + doing.. running, jumping, doing tricks and seeing how many objects they could clear..

It was a fun afternoon and much needed silliness!