Ready, Set, GO!

The school room was ready. Luke's desk is in his bedroom, so I parked his back to school goodies on Irina's desk. We're ready for her to fold in to our school routine, but the waiting continues. 

I put together an old table we had in the attic for Ethan to use. He's pretty excited about his new space. He can work standing up easily or perch on the tall stool. Remember, he doesn't like to sit down anyway. He has too much wiggling to do to stay still for long. ;) 

I relocated Aaron to the desk between the windows. He's been SO eager to get started on school. In fact, he cried when we didn't start last week. I'm grateful for his excitement!

Each kiddo got back to school goodies on their desk. It's not all that exciting, but they LOVE it. I put all of Irina's supplies in her desk. The boys picked out some purple, pink and turquoise supplies for her. Super fun! :)  

 The table was set with maps on how to find TRUE treasure. They were thrilled by this!

I got the idea HERE. 

 "Turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding; look for it as for silver and 

search for it as hidden treasure. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2

 Breakfast: cinnamon rolls, fresh peaches, hard boiled eggs and sausage. They had full bellies!

 Doing our morning jobs after breakfast, someone had a little accident while unloading the dishwasher. 5 bowls smashed to smithereens. Whoops! We like to keep things exciting over here!

 So glad to get back to our morning prayer walk... or shall I say pray while we scooter. Very pleased by sweet time of prayer together. They scooted very slowly. It was part of the deal. ;)

This tired school teacher needs to hit the sack. We had a great first day with a few bumps and wrinkles, but I'm glad to be back in the routine. And to be honest, I was NOT looking forward to it. Thankful that God graciously gave me energy to enjoy these precious gifts. 

Jumping in!

We're finally jumping in to our homeschool year! Ack! We were scheduled to start last week and after much deliberation, I decided to postpone our start for one week. I have to say, I felt so relieved by the decision and feel much better prepared this week.

Monday: School Orientation

Luke set out our "Smith Academy" t-shirts for everyone to wear, which was super sweet. Unfortunately, one of his brothers decided to surprise him during breakfast and tickle him. 

Of course, his bowl of cereal went flying and so did his milk - all over his shirt. Whoops!
That's how we roll over here. 

This was the first year I sat down and created a detailed mission statement, short term goals, long term goals and specific spiritual, developmental and character goals for each kid. I'm so glad I did! It was a great exercise for me. During orientation, we reviewed those goals. They were very receptive!

 I selected a family Bible verse with the help of our "principal." This is our theme for the year. 

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and

greatest commandment. And the second is like it:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

I taught them how to use our new Daily Notebook 

(more on that later) and they decorated the front page. 

Then we reviewed our school schedule, expectations and new curriculum. 

And we're off!

Irina Update

Oh my goodness, my head is spinning and I'm struggling to get my act together. I miss blogging, but for now other things are taking priority. I have so much I'd like to document on the blog, but it's just not a reality. (birthdays, anniversary, crazy boy stunts!)

In the meantime though, I've been asked a lot lately about our status with adopting Irina. You can read more about it on the adoption blog HERE.

Our homeschool year is gearing up to start very SOON! Just as soon as I can get planning done. Hopefully in the next week!! There are going to be a lot of late nights in my future because I just can't plan while the boys are awake. We need to get an early start on our school year because of the interruption we'll have traveling to Ukraine. All 5 of us we'll be there for about 3 weeks. I'm hoping to continue our math, grammar and phonics while we're there, but we'll need flexibility. After we return from Ukraine for the 10+ day waiting period, Darin and I will go back alone for 3-7 days to bring Irina home. I'm thankful that homeschooling will allow us to take this trip of a lifetime and not worry about getting too far behind with our studies.

I'd love your prayers as we wait for Irina and prepare for the changes in our family.
Thanks!!

Florida: Sea World and Mini Golf

We've been back from Florida for two weeks and phew, we've been busy! We finished our final week of school, had end of the year required testing, and much more!!!

I want to be sure to document the rest of our Florida trip before I forget. After Legoland, we went to Sea World for one day and then enjoyed a day playing mini golf and swimming in the hotel pool. We've had such a cool spring that it was awesome to enjoy the warm (but not too warm) sun!!

 Really enjoyed the sky writing! The boys were amazed. 

 The best part about Sea World were the shows. Especially the dolphin show. Amazing!

This mini golf course was a workout -- lots of steps, big hills, etc. It was also a workout of my patience muscles because you can imagine the boys were very interested in climbing all the rocks. This is an area I really need to grow in -- to know when to let them just be boys/kids and how to have appropriate expectations so I can enjoy them where they are and not be so uptight!! Oh my! Very thankful for a great last trip together as a family of five, but really longing for Irina to join us so we can be a family of SIX! We miss that sweet girl!!

Legoland, Florida!

We arrived in Florida on Sunday after two days of smooth driving. (boring scenery, lots of bugs hitting the windshield, but excellent passengers!) A delicious Mother's Day dinner out:

And yes, we were that dorky coordinating family. It got us way too much attention. 

Not sure if it will ever happen again. ;) 

On Monday at 9:30 we were ready for our day. (Well... the boys were ready at 6:20, 

but they needed to do a little school first and eat breakfast, of course!)

Riding the lego jousting horse and loving it!

Camel - made entirely of lego bricks! So cool!

Safari trek

This elephant and many other safari animals were made of lego bricks. Really amazing!

My ride buddy

Boating school - what a handsome crew!

Driving school - This was hilarious. The track was for 3-5 year olds and it was 

so cute to see these little squirts zipping around the track in lego cars. 

Driving school for ages 6-13. Complete with stop signs, yield signs, traffic lights and lanes. You better believe my little rule follower obeyed all the traffic rules. ;) Also crazy to see all these young kids buzzing around in cars. Almost gave me a heart attack to realize that in 7 short years, Luke will be driving!

Mesmerized by fun shows, tricks and stunts!

Our crew -- missing one sweet girl who was never far from our minds. 

Lego Miniland was stunning. This NY scene is made entirely of lego bricks. 

I was completely blown away by the detail in this section. 

All in all, a terrific day with fabulous weather! 

(and tired boys ready to crash once they were tucked in bed around 7:30. Hooray!)

Surprise Trip

Last Saturday, we surprised the boys with a unexpected trip. They had no idea we had packed their clothes and necessary belongings. It wasn't until we were ready to load the car on Saturday mid-day that we told the boys our plan. For as curious as they are, I am so surprised they didn't notice the packed luggage in our closet or their missing clothes. I'm telling you, this is the BEST way to go on a trip. Not sure if we could ever pull it off again, but it was awesome. No pre-trip stress, anxiousness or excitement.

We were determined to squeeze the trip in before all the kids get out of school and before we travel to Ukraine and our lives change forever. That coupled with a super homeschool deal at Legoland, Florida made us charge forward.

So here is their reaction to the news:

Luke was busy building birthday legos and still in his pj's. Ethan and Aaron were doing gymnastics and apparently hot and sweaty. ;) They are seriously jumping for JOY!

And then the happy dance!!

Nine!

Friday, May 10 we celebrated Luke's 9th birthday. 

We took the day off from school and enjoyed a day with a few friends and family. 

The week prior to Luke's birthday, Ethan was insistent that he wanted to buy a gift for Luke. He counted his money in his wallet ($7.65) and repeatedly asked to go shopping. Although, we've never done this before, we made it happen. I suggested several low price items that Ethan could buy so he wouldn't spend all his money. However, he was not swayed by my suggestions. He insisted on buying a lego set that cost $7.34 with tax. It was really such a sweet moment (that I NEEDED to see!) -- Ethan so delighted with giving his gift and Luke realizing what a sacrifice Ethan had made by spending all his money on him. I couldn't have planned it better. 

The week before, Darin and I had fun making a "Luke 9" sign out of legos. 

What a great surprise for our lego lover Luke!

Luke requested ice cream cake, so I kept it simple with a homemade strawberry/vanilla ice cream cake. No crafty creations for me this year. It was a bit of a relief!

Of course, wearing the traditional "9" shirt! I love this tradition!!!

 After lunch and cake, we relocated to mini golf with a few special friends. Our plan was to try out a new mini golf course. We had scoped it out, looked at pictures online and gotten really excited to try it. Unfortunately, this Mommy never considered calling since we had such a small group. Imagine the disappointment when we pulled up to find it was CLOSED for a company picnic!!! We had one sad 9 year old on our hands. I'm so thankful he bounced back and made the best of a change in location to a less exciting course. (Too bad his brother didn't change gears nearly as maturely! bummer!)

9 year old at the NINTH hole!

Golfing buddies and friends since 2004!

We finished up the day with gymnastics class and dinner out with all the grandparents. (So fun to have Grammy, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa join us for our traditional birthday dinner.)

Phew! What a marathon day. Boy, do I love this 9 year old and the fine young man he is becoming.