Christmas 2015

 Christmas Eve we painted ornaments and the kids opened their new pjs!  

We were supposed to be getting ready to go camping but the weather wasn't cooperating, 8 people jammed into a camper in 90 degree weather and 80 percent humidity is not ideal, so for the third year in a row we cancelled!  

That meant we could do Christmas on Christmas day!  

Celia's 2nd Christmas but first time actually opening presents.

She got a towel and a pillow pet. 

She has no idea what it is but she loves it! 

 Then she decided to teeth on Isla's new Christoff doll.  Silly girl.

This Frozen fan had a great Christmas!! 

 We got the kids two group gifts, a trampoline and a zipline!  Our backyard is kind of epic! 

 I wanted to get Jed a kayak for Christmas but it's sort of hard to fit one in the back of our van, especially with 6 kids!  So my plan was to buy him an inflatable one, have him open it and then take it back and get a real one with his truck.  

Then this happened. 

Our pond is thankfully gator free!! He decided he wanted to keep it to use on our pond and get a real one later. He's not allowed to take it out on any other bodies of water south of North Carolina. 

Celebrating 11 Years!

It had been a few years since we had been to Sea World so when they had a BOGO sale on their passes we jumped on it! We kept it a secret from the kids so we could surprise them!  

We got up on Evan's birthday and told the kids to get ready to go out.  We loaded everyone in the van and drove.  It worked out really well that we had moved since our last time going to Sea World because the kids didn't know the drive.  

Cece Climbs For Cookies

Kindergarten: Ford

At the beginning of the year I considered putting off Kindergarten for Ford for another year.  He wasn't showing readiness in letter recognition but his excitement for math was overwhelming so we pushed on with a focus on numbers.  As the weeks went by he made slow progress in phonics and then one day we opened his phonics book it clicked!  Yay! Since then he's blown through his first book and even went back to finish things that had been to difficult

Unwanted Math Tutoring

Evan: Seth, I'm learning about Roman Numerals in math right now! Did you know that the letter M means 1000, C means 100 and L means 50?!!  

Seth: Ok.

Evan: Can you guess what X means?

Seth: I don't know... 5?

Evan: No, 10! 5 is V and I is 1! 

Seth: Cool.

Evan: So if you see XII what number do you think that is?

Seth: I don't know.

Evan: Come on try.

Seth: How should I know, I haven't learned this math yet.  

Evan: I'm trying to help you so when you're doing it next year you'll know.

Seth: Well, maybe I want it to be a surprise!