Back to School

Well, it's time for our family to join the others in the county and head back to school. Philip left this morning for his first day at Duke. I will miss him. It was nice to have him around during the summer. I will begin with some our schooling this morning and hopefully by next week we will be full throttle! My hope of having flow charts, chore charts and schedules ready for Day 1 are gone. We will begin with what we have!

I can't believe I have a first grader.

Back to school party

Today was out last official "day off" before school starts. We have thoroughly enjoyed Philip's decision to take Monday and Tuesdays off this summer. We have played, traveled,swam,read, gardened, and spent some great time together.
We took off early this morning for Little River State park. We took a nice hike and then spent some time on the play ground.This is Peter bravely conquering the monkey bars after he recovered from a good fall! I love the tongue-
We've been promising the kids we would take them roller skating before school started. Tuesday nights are family nights so we headed there tonight. I used my camera to take some quick videos.
I think Philip got a little carried away with the disco music! Here's a little ditty about Ryan. He was really have a blast in the rink. He stayed mostly in the center dancing, jumping and trying to do what his daddy was doing. He made a few laps around the rink. I was shocked at how well he did.

Birthday Money

Peter and Emma were very blessed in the birthday money category. We have some great friends who gave the children money. Peter hasn't had the opportunity to spend any of his money yet. Recently, they figured out that they could use their birthday money to buy none other than....
yes- SpaghettiOs and doughnuts. I wasn't very excited about this decision. However, I realized that in the big picture what's the big deal. So I finally took them to Walmart this morning to make their purchases. Peter also bought a calculator and a Ben Ten action figure. Emma also purchased a big stuffed pony.

Durham Bulls

We had a great time at the Bulls game this week. Some great friends gave us the tickets and the seats were awesome. Peter really got interested in keeping score of the game. He stayed occupied and involved with that almost the whole game!

Go Bulls!

Last Hooray

We took off after church on Sunday to see my parents and spend some time at the beach before school starts for Philip. We had a beautiful day at the beach! Emma is really starting to figure out what the key is to her father's heart!

random updates

I just found some pictures that I never got around to uploaded and thus not blogging about!
Peter had a great time at this soccer camp the Parks and Rec dept. put on this summer.For Peter's birthday and just for fun, we headed to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences (something like that). The grown-ups went through the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit while I took the kids through the museum. Afterwards, we headed to Applebee's for lunch!
Meet Moonbeam. Gram and Papa gave Peter a goldfish for his birthday. Peter is really loving having a pet. It's not uncommon for me to find him in his room "keeping Moonbeam company".

Highlighting

So last Sunday, the children's sermon was about the Bible. Ms. Jennifer brought her Bible to show the kids. She emphasized that she's had her Bible for 20 years; she writes in it; she highlights in it. It's like her best friend. Peter, being the sponge that he is, decided that he wanted to highlight in his Bible. He wanted to highlight in his Bible.

Happy Birthday

Today is Peter's birthday. He's fast asleep by now and I'm still reflecting on the past 6 years. I can't believe my first born is now 6. I can still remember the events leading up to the "big day" very clearly. The birth of each of my children will always be special but Peter's was first and there is so much anxiety, fear and anticipation with the first. He has grown and changed so much this year and it's happened all under my nose. I, again, am thankful that we have chosen the path of homeschooling because I have watched, studied, laughed, cried, played, hugged, disciplined, tickled, snuggled, and loved him more than any other person in his life. Admittedly, there are days when I wonder if it's too late to put him on the school bus that turns around in our churches parking lot. Thankfully, those are just fleeting thoughts and soon I return to being thankful for having him with me.These are the friends that Peter wanted to invite for his birthday supper. We had his favorite and requested Chicken and Pastry with a Chocolate cake and white icing.

Happy Birthday Peter! We love you.