The Bug turned 3 years old on Thursday. We didn't do a full birthday party since I just didn't feel up to it. She got a couple of presents on the day and we had cupcakes with the triplets from next door the following day. Her "real" gift from us, the new Leapster2, doesn't release until July 1. Hopefully it'll get here before our road trip over 4th of July and she can have her own "Gameboy" like the older siblings.
June has been moderately busy, though I've found a lot of time for naps. Abigail went to CYT (Christian Youth Theater) day camp for a week and enjoyed it a great deal. They had a little show the evening of the last day and it was pretty good considering they'd only had a week to learn it all. The following week, Alex and Tartan went to boy scout camp and Kyrie went to girl scout camp. Alex really enjoyed the environmental science class and he ended up helping out a lot in teaching the Weather merit badge. He and Tartan also survived the Death March, a grueling evening hike. Tartan got roped into taking over the archery range- so much for his being able to just sit around and do nothing! Kyrie enjoyed her first week long camp away from home, though she admits to suffering some homesickness. She enjoyed swimming, archery and drama class.
The big activity for last week and this is swimming lessons at the Y for the middle three children. Today I took everyone and Kayleigh got to splash around in the kiddie pool which she seemed to enjoy immensely. Alex looked extremely bored, but that happens sometimes.
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Monday, 30 June 2008
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Got a heartbeat!
We have already told a few people, but now we want to make our big announcement. I'm eight weeks pregnant! I saw an ob today and the ultrasound showed one baby and a nice fast heartbeat. The baby's size is right on target for the number of weeks. This was the same ob who saw me during the miscarriage, so he was really pleased to be able to give me such good news this time.
I'm feeling green and a bit tired, but really excited. And, Tartan is too- well, excited not green or tired. I also got a prescription for some anti-nausea medication so I'm optimistic. The worst part of pregnancy for me is the nausea- not the increasing size or the tiredness or even delivery.
Now we're going to be thinking and praying about whether to continue with the ob, go with a birth center, or stick with home birth like we've done with the other five children.
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi
I'm feeling green and a bit tired, but really excited. And, Tartan is too- well, excited not green or tired. I also got a prescription for some anti-nausea medication so I'm optimistic. The worst part of pregnancy for me is the nausea- not the increasing size or the tiredness or even delivery.
Now we're going to be thinking and praying about whether to continue with the ob, go with a birth center, or stick with home birth like we've done with the other five children.
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
What about Bug?
In case anyone thinks we've forgotten all about Bug and she's been tucked away in a corner all month- here's a picture of our almost 3 year old. Her verbal skills continue to grow and she's pretty much potty trained. I don't know if she and Abi were just easier than the others to train or whether I've gotten better at the process. Likely it all has to do with the girls themselves. She still wears a pull-up at night though last night her sisters forgot to put her in one- and she managed to stay dry! This is a picture her dad took while she was watching her brothers dissect a frog.
Where did May go?
It was a busy month, I guess. I knew I'd gotten behind on blogging, but I hadn't realized how far! So, here's some of the things we've been doing....
Tartan was away in Europe for a week and a half at the beginning of the month, so I got to be single mom. Not really that hard since the kids are used to doing as much as possible on their own. I even have Kyrie get Bug ready for bed most evenings (and sometimes even Abigail does it!). We had a movie night (The Water Horse) and the girls had a couple of sleepovers with Mom.
The boys had their piano recital, which went very well. Family members had the opportunity to see their performances on Youtube. To Alex's great relief, I placed them on there privately so he doesn't feel like the whole world could tune-in. This was our first foray into posting on Youtube.
Alex, Kyrie, Aidan, and Abigail all got back into AWANA after Christmas break. Abigail got to finish her book that she started in Scotland, and Aidan and Kyrie made good progress in their new books. Kyrie made it through nearly 5 of the the 8 achievements in that short time! Alex's Trek group was more of a study group than the memorizing and doing activities for points that the younger ones do. He enjoyed it as well as volunteering with both the Sparks and the T&T boys. Next year, Kayleigh will be old enough to start Cubbies- so all the kids will be able to be involved with AWANA!
Aidan graduated from Bears to Webelos in Cub Scouts. It's hard to believe that he's so close to being done with Cubs. Webelos is a two year transition period that prepares him for becoming a Boy Scout. In the first picture he's got his new neckerchief on and is having his face painted as a symbol of his having completed one step and moving on to the next in Cubs.
What have the girls been doing? Well, they had ballet exams so they could move up to the next level in the fall. Abigail goes from Pre-Primary to Primary and Kyrie moves from Grade 2 to Grade 3. Below are pictures of the girls with their post-exam roses. A friend took Abigail's picture with her exam group and I took the picture of Kyrie at home right after her exam.
Kyrie also rejoined Girl Scouts this spring. We were bicycling home from church one Sunday and decided to go through Imperial Oaks park where Tartan spied a bunch of girls who looked about Kyrie's age pulling camping gear out of a car. He knew Kyrie missed scouts so they went over and found out they were a 5th grade troop who had just returned from an overnight trip. There were only a few meetings left in the year, but Kyrie attended almost all of them and also went on a weekend trip to Camp Agnes Arnold. This summer will be her first time to go to summer camp for a week and it'll be at Camp Agnes Arnold, so I'm glad she got a chance to experience it for a shorter period of time.
And, Kyrie managed another achievement through the homeschool PE class at the YMCA. She earned the Presidential Fitness Award which means she achieved at least the 85th percentile in 5 different physical activities.
Finally, the last week of May was really tiring. The girls had dress rehearsal for the Excelsior Ballet production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Tuesday. Kyrie was there at 4 and Abigail from 6 until 11pm. On Friday was the performance they were both in which lasted until nearly 11, and Kyrie had to perform again on Saturday night. I'm not sure we've fully caught back up on sleep yet, but the production was marvelous. Abigail's class portrayed the flowers of spring after the White Witch's power begins to wane. Kyrie's class were the mice who remove Aslan's ropes after his sacrifice.
And now it's June and we're pretty much finished with school. Alex has a few things to wrap up and Kyrie is not quite finished with her math book, but otherwise we're ready for a break.
Have a wonderful summer, everyone!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Tartan was away in Europe for a week and a half at the beginning of the month, so I got to be single mom. Not really that hard since the kids are used to doing as much as possible on their own. I even have Kyrie get Bug ready for bed most evenings (and sometimes even Abigail does it!). We had a movie night (The Water Horse) and the girls had a couple of sleepovers with Mom.
The boys had their piano recital, which went very well. Family members had the opportunity to see their performances on Youtube. To Alex's great relief, I placed them on there privately so he doesn't feel like the whole world could tune-in. This was our first foray into posting on Youtube.
Alex, Kyrie, Aidan, and Abigail all got back into AWANA after Christmas break. Abigail got to finish her book that she started in Scotland, and Aidan and Kyrie made good progress in their new books. Kyrie made it through nearly 5 of the the 8 achievements in that short time! Alex's Trek group was more of a study group than the memorizing and doing activities for points that the younger ones do. He enjoyed it as well as volunteering with both the Sparks and the T&T boys. Next year, Kayleigh will be old enough to start Cubbies- so all the kids will be able to be involved with AWANA!
Aidan graduated from Bears to Webelos in Cub Scouts. It's hard to believe that he's so close to being done with Cubs. Webelos is a two year transition period that prepares him for becoming a Boy Scout. In the first picture he's got his new neckerchief on and is having his face painted as a symbol of his having completed one step and moving on to the next in Cubs.
What have the girls been doing? Well, they had ballet exams so they could move up to the next level in the fall. Abigail goes from Pre-Primary to Primary and Kyrie moves from Grade 2 to Grade 3. Below are pictures of the girls with their post-exam roses. A friend took Abigail's picture with her exam group and I took the picture of Kyrie at home right after her exam.
Kyrie also rejoined Girl Scouts this spring. We were bicycling home from church one Sunday and decided to go through Imperial Oaks park where Tartan spied a bunch of girls who looked about Kyrie's age pulling camping gear out of a car. He knew Kyrie missed scouts so they went over and found out they were a 5th grade troop who had just returned from an overnight trip. There were only a few meetings left in the year, but Kyrie attended almost all of them and also went on a weekend trip to Camp Agnes Arnold. This summer will be her first time to go to summer camp for a week and it'll be at Camp Agnes Arnold, so I'm glad she got a chance to experience it for a shorter period of time.
And, Kyrie managed another achievement through the homeschool PE class at the YMCA. She earned the Presidential Fitness Award which means she achieved at least the 85th percentile in 5 different physical activities.
Finally, the last week of May was really tiring. The girls had dress rehearsal for the Excelsior Ballet production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Tuesday. Kyrie was there at 4 and Abigail from 6 until 11pm. On Friday was the performance they were both in which lasted until nearly 11, and Kyrie had to perform again on Saturday night. I'm not sure we've fully caught back up on sleep yet, but the production was marvelous. Abigail's class portrayed the flowers of spring after the White Witch's power begins to wane. Kyrie's class were the mice who remove Aslan's ropes after his sacrifice.
And now it's June and we're pretty much finished with school. Alex has a few things to wrap up and Kyrie is not quite finished with her math book, but otherwise we're ready for a break.
Have a wonderful summer, everyone!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Monday, 5 May 2008
Some fun school pics
PE in the rain. You don't normally get the chance to do that in school. I initially was just going to let them outside to enjoy watching the rain for a moment, but before long they were begging to go run in it. It didn't really take very long to dry off and get changed either.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I've been reading to Abigail from a book called Living Long Ago. The first section is about clothing, so you can bet she's been pretty interested. After we read about ancient Egyptian clothing, she used the suggestion for making an Egyptian style necklace to make one and put it on her sister. She's also made a medieval pouch (because they didn't have pockets) and an Elizabethan ruff. I don't have pictures of those yet.
It's a little hard to see, but that's a ladybug (ladybird) on the
butterfly enclosure. I decided we could watch ladybugs and butterflies go through their amazing changes this year. We've done the butterflies for a few years, but this is the first time we saw one newly out of the chrysalis. It's wings were still crumpled up. It was a really cool thing to watch. Sorry, didn't think to take pictures of that. Below are pics of the girls releasing butterflies into the garden. Aidan released one, too.
And, I just had to include this one, though I'm sorry if you're squeamish. Just think crawfish boil and maybe that'll help. At least I didn't include the earthworm! Alex and Tartan dissected a preserved crawfish and also took apart one Aidan brought home from the church crawfish boil. It was good that he did because some things were easier to identify on the cooked version.
Just a peek into our homeschool- the interesting bits. :)
Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
whew
In case anyone was wondering, we survived the Monday madness. We only missed one activity, which was band, but Kyrie made it to the concert rehearsal in the evening, so I don't feel too bad about it. The kids felt the testing went well, Tartan got to hear the boys play at their guild audition, and the day overall didn't feel too stressful. Praise God!
Tonight I went to the homeschool information night put on by a group I belong to. There were quite a number of organizations advertising their co-ops, academies, extracurricular activities, etc. I saw a few possibilities for our family for next year, but we'll have to think and pray about it because there's only so much of even good/great stuff that we can do without burning out. Well, without my burning out (have to be truthful here).
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi
PS One of these days I'm going to post more photos.
Tonight I went to the homeschool information night put on by a group I belong to. There were quite a number of organizations advertising their co-ops, academies, extracurricular activities, etc. I saw a few possibilities for our family for next year, but we'll have to think and pray about it because there's only so much of even good/great stuff that we can do without burning out. Well, without my burning out (have to be truthful here).
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi
PS One of these days I'm going to post more photos.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Getting ready for extra busyness
The girls have been having extra pre-exam classes for ballet for the last few Saturdays and will for two more. Next Monday, the oldest three are taking the Stanford Achievement Tests (part 1), Kyrie has band, the boys have Guild performances for piano, the girls have ballet, Alex has Scouts, and Kyrie has band concert rehearsal. Do you feel tired just reading that? I do. Fortunately, Tartan is taking time off to take the boys to Guild. This weekend the guys are on the AWANA campout. The last week of April is ballet exams. In May there's piano recital, band concert, ballet rehearsals for performances of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- and of the course the actual performances. And then, there's still school. On the other hand, PE and AWANA will soon come to an end. God willing it will all balance out.
I'm ready for summer. :)
We watched the Arsenal \ Man United game. It was quite the game. We did wish that the Gunners could have pulled a win, but at least it was a close contest. They played well, just not well enough.
>Naomi for the Colliers
I'm ready for summer. :)
We watched the Arsenal \ Man United game. It was quite the game. We did wish that the Gunners could have pulled a win, but at least it was a close contest. They played well, just not well enough.
>Naomi for the Colliers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)