Homeschool seating assignment?
Johanna
Strong Museum 2019
We don’t get here as often as we did when the big kids were young.
But it’s nice that once a year RGH offers free admission in September.
Our busy schedule allowed for only three hours, but we had a blast.
I love that Tabitha will still play with them. She helps this tired older mom keep them supervised.
Christmas in September
The mercury says 80F, but the living room looked deceptively winter-esque as we celebrated Christmas early this year.
We borrowed Nigel’s tree and set it up.
Johanna and Marie made reindeer cupcakes.
And after dinner the girls dug into a scavenger hunt.
Clues pointed us along the way.
When you’re cold and you’re wet,
It is nice to get dry.
When you put this together
Then we can fly.
Their first clue led them to the dryer where they found a glider airplane.
It’s round and it’s orange,
And grows on a tree.
It came from the place
Where I want to be.
Next they located an orange in the pantry with another clue.
Night brings out what’s festive,
Now you can be, too.
We may even see friends
Who are special to you.
Then they found some glow wands and glow sticks nestled under Disney friends.
Clue four led them to Mickey bars in the garage fridge.
If you haven’t guessed it,
Please don’t have fears.
Open the box for your
New pair of ____________
Their last clue led them to sparkly Minnie Mouse ears.
Mama, Marie, Tabitha, Johanna, and Katriel will be heading to Florida this November for a Christmas-season peek at Walt Disney World. Nan and Nene will also be joining us. Stewart, Nigel and John will not be able to fit the trip into their schedules.
Last year Marie mentioned how she would love to see WDW decked out for Christmas. I realized this fall would be the last time she had a flexible schedule; she will most likely be enrolled at FLCC next year. Though nothing about Disney is cheap, we were able to get tickets through Traveling Homeschoolers, and I patiently stalked Southwest until I could get affordable airfare. We rented a lovely four bedroom house near Disney, and God answered my prayer for an affordable rental van.
This will be the first time Johanna and Katriel fly, and the first time Marie and Tab fly since 2007; they were 3 and 1 at that time.
Nigel was in on the secret. He played along as he opened HIS gift.
Raisins and spoons. (It is a LOOOOOONG time Butler joke.)
He and Daddy will likely have a blast having the house to themselves.
The Stew factor…
It was Katriel’s turn to set the table.
She wasn’t happy that Stewart’s seat was still empty.
So she made him a dinner of his own.
Meanwhile Stewart sent us a photo of he and his roommate Dustyn actually having dinner…
And this is how Johanna felt about having a phone conversation with him.
He’s been gone a week!
Movie Movie
Spidey for some,
Toy Story 4 for others.
Fun for all.
Sandbox fun
Why is owning a sandbox so hard for me? It’s been at least a decade since our family successfully owned a sandbox and it’s not because I’m one of those moms who think they are nasty-messy. For some reason, every attempt we have at establishing one gets thwarted… I just never dive in to fixing our sandbox-free yard.
So.
Embrace away girls!!! Nothing like a giant sandbox to bless your socks off.
Penguin Party
Butler kids like themed birthday parties, and Johanna is no exception. This party theme went through a few transitions over the last 12 months (oh yes – we start talking about our NEXT birthday within a few hours of the current one ending). We ended up with a Penguin theme…
So we started by making star shirts. Because making penguins would be difficult. And in 3-2-1 Penguins they fly in outer space and there are stars in outer space…
There was an obstacle course.
Arctic blue punch with ice berg chunks.
Pizza and “ice” chunks.
Penguin gift bags.
And sprinkler fun… That water was COLD. Also – very penguiny.
Frozen Jr.
Johanna had the opportunity to participate in a stage production of Frozen Jr.
Now, when I first saw the email in March with the big kids in the Finney show, FCWC on the horizon, and my responsibilities for standardized testing looming over me, my finger went directly into “Swipe that Email Away” mode and just as I started the swipe that would have eliminated One More Thing on my calendar, I hesitated, imagining how much Johanna would enjoy doing a show.
And here we are. It’s showtime.
The practices were just just once a week. It was a long 2.5 hours each Thursday up to Webster and back, but manageable as only a 11-week commitment.
She ended up with a handful of small roles that allowed her lots of songs and choreography and costumes.
Townsperson one
Townsperson boy
Summer chorus
Hidden folk
She owned every minute and we all rejoiced in seeing her on stage.
Johanna is NINE
As per our tradition, we woke Johanna with a birthday greeting.
Unlike any tradition, Daddy had gum,
he’d gone out for donuts!,
And we let her open one gift before the day started.
She’s wholly in the midst of tech week for Frozen 2 and her birthday included 3.5 hours of rehearsal. Her crew sang to her.
We enjoyed a late dinner and some gifts.
She picked chocolate lava cake.
It was a VERY full day.
Dayspring Disciples 