Happy Birthday Alex!

Our little man is 9 as of yesterday. How time flies! He spent his day going to pottery class, eating lunch at McDonalds, spending his birthday money at Toys R Us, and going to the video game store to get his gift from us, a Playstation 2. He was happy above happy and I think it was a great way to spend his day. Tomorrow we are going to ZapZone, a local lazer tag place to have fun with two of his friends and his brother. Good times! Here is a photo he had me take of him enjoying his "birthday burger" :)

Camping Horrors

We went camping on Wednesday, a day later than we had planned and boy howdy, was it cold! We went up to Hayes State park in Irish Hills, which is just beautiful by the way, and had a great drive up. We took some photos, saw some deer, went on a nature walk and started a fire. Then it rained. And rained. And rained some more. It started about 5:30, just are we were roasting our weenies and didn't end until about 11pm. That wouldn't have been bad, except the temperature plunged down into the low 40's high 30's overnight. Despite the huddling, the extra blankets and the jammies, we were all popsicles by the time dawn came. Did I mention that Carl was sniffling and fighting a sore throat this whole time? So we did what any sensible American would do. We went out to breakfast, warmed up and packed to go. We were home by noon and we regret nothing! Here are some of the shots we got during our short trip.

 These deer were only about 10 feet from us. So beautiful!

 You should be able to click on these to make them bigger. If you do, you may notice that these enormous birds are indeed vultures. They were rright above us in the abandoned twin towers as we shot our new blog family photo. They were enormous! You could hear them walking around on the railing 50 ft. over our heads. Added nicely to the creepiness of the building.
 This trail was behind our campsite. Made for a great nature walk!

 Some fungi growing on a log.

 Rain...

This was the little screened in space in front of our tent . By the time morning came, it was full of water.

Vacation Adventures!

Today we went to the Henry Ford Village as part one of our vacation. Carl is off work for the next 8 days so we are making the most of it by going and doing something each day. Especially since we helped his Aunt move yesterday, the first day of his vacation and we are helping again tomorrow. Today there was a classic car show. It was one of the neatest I have been to because all of the cars were pre-1940. There were wooden motorcycles, old bicycles and this cool car which was my personal favorite!

 Alex took that shot with his new camera, along with this one of a "huge" turtle that was in one of the ponds. He thought it was funny that he caught a picture of the turtle and a hot girl at the same time. A fabulous mix of the child he still is and the man he is trying to become!

Homeschooling 2011

Hooray for homeschooling! Both boys are staying home with us this year. (We have had Alex home since February) We are excited to start this new year with some new ideas and a bit of experience under out belt. We figured out what works, and what doesn't, but I am sure there will be many things we will be adding to that list as time goes on. At this moment, the boys are outside on a photo scavenger hunt. They each received a camera at the beginning of this year and are going to complete a few photo projects over the year. Today we decided to let them do some practicing by finding objects around our neighborhood they could photograph. Some things on their lists are two trees together, the left one shorter than the right, a bench, a purple flower and a mushroom. I am excited to see what their creative minds come up with. They may find a mushroom growing, or find one on a garden sign. Their possibilities are endless and that is what we love most about homeschooling our boys. There is a whole world for them to explore and we are excited to be part of the tour!

Some upcoming activities we will be posting about are the camping trip we leave for on Tuesday, projects from their upcoming pottery class and our trip down to Ohio next weekend. Also in the future, our Homeschooling Halloween Party we are hosting, A homeschool adventure at the Toledo zoo and once we find the right studio, martial art lessons.

Trip today!

Jacob and I start our 4 day long trip to the U.P. today! (Upper Peninsula for you non-Michiganders) He is super excited and so am I now that I am done packing and am pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything. I had my birthday party last night with Carl's family and I got pretty stocked up for today. Some new shirts, a new wallet, sunglasses, a hat and some spending cash to buy fudge in Mackinac. Yum! Tell y'all about it when we get back!

Talent Show!

Jacob is participating in his school's talent show again today. He is doing a violin duet with his violin teacher. We are super excited. I am going to take some video with his new camcorder, so when I get the video uploaded I will post it here. :) Show starts at 12:15 if anyone is looking to go to the most wonderful, awesome and humbling talent show ever known! Watching these kids get up and perform their hearts out with no fear or pride brings a tear to my eye every time. Getting me a little choked up right now to be honest! So, Burger School, Garden City, on Maplewood, East of Merriman, North of Ford. Be there or be square!

A general update

Things have never been so crazy at our house! We are homeschooling Alex, Carl has a really unpredictable schedule for half the week, Jacob is taking violin and soccer, Alex is taking guitar, all three men have scouts on Tuesdays. I am starting school soon, just started a new blog chronicling my efforts to lose weight, volunteering all this week setting up Jake's talent show at school, then the next week going on a four day trip around Michigan with him. Park days, field trips, shopping, teaching...Let's face it, these past two months have just been hectic! I don't really see an end to the craziness until school is out in June. Then we may get some peace, but not likely! Once, Carl's sister Mandy came over and said that there were only a few days on my calendar that were empty. She should see it now! So, I will try to be more vigilant about keeping this blog up to date, especially since I have not been on facebook more than a handful of times in the past two months. Wish me luck!