Minor League Baseball

This summer we took the boys to their first minor league baseball game. 

The weather was perfect (80's, low humidity, sunny). 

We had seats between home plate and first base. 

 My little sports enthusiast was in heaven. Ali, when you gave us those old YMCA soccer shirts I bet you had no idea how often Aaron would wear them. He loves them! Thank you. ;)

Luke had seen a picture of his cousins enjoying cotton candy, so before the game he said, 

"Daddy, do you think I can taste cotton candy before I turn 20?" Darin made his dream come true at the ripe old age of 9. The boys were happy to share one cotton candy. Too bad Luke thought it was too sweet and sticky. Now he knows. 

I was pleasantly surprised by their patience and focus during the entire game. 

It happened to be a special kids day, so the Luke and Ethan got to run the bases and high five Nutsy the Flying Squirrel mascot. Aaron was too scared to go! What?! Oh well. 

A fun summer family memory!

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!

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!)