A week without the girl

Ivy left for a week long mission trip in Chicago with some pretty stupendous people.

  She spent the week helping to fix houses, she specifically spent most of her time helping to build a fence.

Meanwhile little Liam had to spend all week without big sister.  I cannot express how much he missed her.  We daily went over how many days were in a week, how many days she had been gone and how many days until she got back.  Not that he spent the time twiddling his thumbs. 

We worked on school, we went lots of places including Grandma's house, the grocery, even Jungle Java, a fun indoor play area. He started summer speech, which he loves.  I got a box of curriculum books, thus a super fun box and paper to play with.  He even looked through the microscope, a totally self-directed activity.  He wanted to look at a dollar bill, then a flower petal, then a leaf, then he wanted to see what crayon on paper looked like under the scope.  Seriously, he spend more than an hour looking at all kinds of things.

Well Ivy finally came home.

We had a lovely reunion over spaghetti where she told us all about her time in Chicago.

Classical Conversations Parent Practicum and zoo trip

One of the really lovely things about Classical Conversations is the community.  This past week I got to experience that lovely community at the Parent Practicum.  These are free, three day events designed to equip, encourage and educate parents about classical education.  I had to travel a bit to get to one that had the particular training I needed as a new Challenge A directior. (So excited about doing this!)  We ended up in Columbus, Ohio, because I had family that I could stay with.  The Hubby and the kiddos came with me and we made a mini-vacation of it (sort of).

Zippy went to "camp" at the practicum. (She told me it was not real camp because there was not a tent or campfire.) She got a taste of the kind of writing she will be doing next year.  Day 2 she spent with the Little Dude and her Dad at the great Columbus Zoo and aquarium.

This year's theme for practicum was "Cultivating the Conversation, The Art of Rhetoric".  While I learned about the art of rhetoric and gained a greater understanding of that topic, practicum is just as much about the conversations that happen outside the auditorium.  Here are some of the great things I took away from this event.

Copiousness - we need to teach from a place of abundance

You can't pour anything out of an empty pot.

Teach from a place of rest. 

Not anxiety. 

We have to tackle the hard 

to get to the good 

And lastly the shared this YouTube video.  It really made me think, so I wanted to share it with you:

Now I'm really ready for spring

So yesterday we got a fabulous package in the mail.  

Now I am totally ready for the weather to warm and the snow to melt.  Do you know what we got free with our new tent?  A box!  The Little Dude used it as a bunker for his stuffed animals, tilted it up to use as a racetrack and even tried to climb inside - that didn't work so well because it is a long, narrow box. 

- Holly

A little under the weather

I feel like such a bad blogger, but man, oh, man have I been under the weather.  First I caught a bad cold, which morphed into laryngitis and bronchitis.  I've taken a round of antibiotics, which helped but did not completely clear up the ick, so now I am moving on to compulsive hand washing and mega doses of Vitamin C. 

While I have been involved with the ick life moved on - funny how it does that -.

I made Halloween easy. Little Dude went out in a hand me down Kangaroo costume and Zippy used some of our old re enacting clothes to dress up, I did not have to sew a single stitch this year.

The hubby and kids went trick-or-treating with the cousins (you may remember them from this summer).  They are incognito behind the Lego Men masks.  I took a few tries to get a good picture of all five kids: 

Here are a few close-ups...

 The scary face....

 And Mr. Cutie Pie...

Weekly Round Up - The Big Birthday and more

The Husband turned 40 this week past. That was just beginning of the week.  

He wanted to go to a certain amusement park to celebrate. 

He loves roller coasters.  I hate roller coasters.  It makes absolutely no sense for me to pay to not ride roller coasters.  So he took Zippy, the nephews {well 2 of them anyway} and his sister. They had fun.

 Mostly

The Little Dude and I stayed home and had adventures of our own.

We celebrated with some yummy cupcakes the next day. (Thanks Mom for the raspberries!)

I think I've mentioned before that the Little Dude really, really, really, really likes to blow out the candles.

We celebrated the nephew's birthday too.  He was due on the Hubs birthday, but showed up a few days early.  - I love this picture - 

Monday Zippy and I went to the Titanic exhibit at The Henry Ford.  It was interesting.  My only complaint was that there was absolutely no photos allowed.  I was bummed.  But I caught a pic of Zippy outside the exhibit with her "boarding pass" and ticket. 

At the Fair

Sheep

Zippy was too tall to go on some of the rides.

The Little Dude was just barely tall enough.

Cow

The hubs had an interesting conversation with a rooster. 

The Big Birthday Bonanza

Zippy had a birthday this year and we celebrated in fine fashion with nearly all her friends and family over a two week time frame, so it really was a birthday bonanza.  Well in the paraphrased words of one of my favorite authors "it isn't every day your young lady turns 12."

Here is the photographic proof:

The Little Dude learned how to blow out candles this year and loves, I mean loves to blow out any candle anywhere for any reason.  Zippy was trying to keep him from blowing out her candles here.  All in good fun.

Birthday bonanza #1 Zippy had two of her friends over for dinner and doughnut holes.  Afterward they had a wonderful time playing mini golf.  This is turning into quite the tradition for Zippy. 

Birthday bonanza #2 (of which I have no pictures).  My wonderful brother came up for a completely non-birthday related reason and we had cupcakes, with candles and pizza.

This is the last year Zippy qualifies for the "kids" birthday program.  My baby is growing up. 

Loves, I mean loves blowing out candles.

Birthday bonanza #3 Bennihana, presents and cake

Guernsey Farms has great ice cream!

Birthday Bonanza #4 The Fair/Circus and ice cream.  There is a movement in Michigan to reinstate our State Fair and I won tickets to the first Great Lakes State Fair VIP preview, which included a small circus on Zippy's birthday.  She said it was lots of fun!  When we got home another birthday gift was waiting on the doorstep. It was a great day.

Bonus but not birthday related:

We got to spend some time with our church family over the Labor Day weekend.  There was swimming in the lake, hot dogs roasted over an open fire, snow cones, scavenger hunt, and Zippy even got to hold the newest member of church for just a few minutes.