Beebers in Texas

Happy Kids Academy, that is! And I am so excited to have found this free software called 'Homeschool Tracker" that allows me to lesson plan days in advance, reschedule the assignments we didn't get to, track reading lists (and dates completed!) give grades, etc. I finally feel like I have a handle on this thing, that I can make sure we cover everything we need to and have a record of all our work! It's the little things that make me happy . . .we also joined a homeschool group that meets for park days once a week, so the kids can socialize with other kids on this same journey. :O) Had fun at the last one - there must have been 40 or 50 kids there! Within minutes, Ryan was running with a gang of boys between the sprinklers and the sandbox, and Bekah had paired up with another 9 year old girl ("She has an annoying 6 year old brother, too!")and by the end of the afternoon they had exchanged phone numbers and promised to meet at the next park day. I know I don't really have to worry about my kids being socialized - seems like they are with other kids almost every week - but it's still reassuring to see how easily they make friends. I'm still not committed to homeschooling them all they way to college, just taking one year at a time.

So between work, homeschooling and church activities, we are staying quite busy! I'm now in the rotation to assist with Sunday School, I'm on a hiring committee for a new Christian Education leader, and I'm on the transcription team (typing up transcriptions of sermons for the website.) Tonight however, we are all taking a break. Rodney's at his weekly poker game, the kids are allowed to play the Wii until bedtime, and I can just be. Ahhhh . . . I love Wednesdays.

The pictures are of the kids playing outside over the Labor Day weekend. It was finally cool enough to be outside for a little while! The high tomorrow is supposed to only be 90 - I can't tell you what a relief that is!

What a whirwind week! Starting last Friday until today, we have had visitors and things to do every day - what a wonderful way to pass these scorching hot days. We started with a drive out to Burnet, TX to visit Longhorn Caverns which is apparently the largest cave in Texas. It was refreshing to descend into the cool dark (68 degrees!) and our guide regaled us with tales of the speakeasy and church that once coexisted down there. They still use the cave for concerts and weddings - imagine taking your vows 150 feet underground! Ryan is already counting the days until he is 11 and therefore old enough to take the "wild" cave tour. apparently this involves squeezing through tight spaces -you can count me out. I prefer the nice wide paths. But our guide was also the park manager AND a high school biology teacher, so he piqued the kids imaginations with stories of albino fish down in the dark pools. maybe we'll see you in a couple of years, Brad . . .

Spent Friday evening in our neighbor's backyard, sipping wine and watching the kids splash in the wading pool. They caught cicadas and moths in jars and added fruit to see what the bugs liked or didn't . . .got home late and then up early for the parade in downtown Round Rock. I always feel most patriotic on this day, with everyone wearing their red, white & blue. The parade consisted of the usual scouts, baseball teams, and local businesses, tossing candy out to the kids as they drove by. The Democratic state senator was there, along with a cardboard Barack Obama (hilarious) but apparently the Republican had something better to do . . .which is surprising in this very conservative county.

Later that afternoon, after being joined by Denise who braved the traffic from Dallas to be with us, we headed over to the Millers to see their new house and have a barbecue lunch (yum). Then we all loaded into their Armada and headed to the park (at the last possible second, to avoid melting in the heat) to see the fireworks! We actually got a double show, as the park is right next to the Dell Diamond who had their fireworks display at the exact same time! I was able to take some pretty good pics with my camera and the kids were hollering remarks after each explosion "that one looks like Christmas!" "That one sounded like somebody whining!"

We left Bekah to spend the night with her adored friend Tayci and hauled ourselves home. Sunday we slept in then went to Ikea with Denise to look for bookshelves and lunched at Rosie's Pho. The pad thai wasn't as good as their location in Cedar Park but the service was great- two sweet teenage girls that were probably the daughters of the owner. The Millers brought Bekah home just in time for her cousins to arrive from Arkansas! We got a pizza and spent the evening talking and talking, just catching up. So good to see my beautiful nieces, Mackenzie and Kaitlyn. Lucky us, even though we only see them a few times a year, they are never shy with us and we always just pick up again as though Aunt Tracy and Uncle Rodney were around all the time.

We had a kid-oriented week - took them to Main Event on Monday, where we played Glow golf (mini golf under black lights) and played video games, air hockey and skee ball. Tuesday we spent the day picnicking and cooling off at our awesome public pool where, despite 3 applications of SPF 50, Bekah still burned as red as a lobster (and so did Tonya and I). Ryan, Kenzie and Kaitlyn just browned nicely. That evening we celebrated all the kids birthdays (actually in April, July and October, but we're never together then) with a cake and one candle for each kid to blow out!

Wednesday, due in part to the sunburns, we spent the day indoors bowling at our favorite alley, Dart Bowl. The kids did great, especially Mackenzie who outscored me on both games with only one working bumper! We ate at the cafe there and then thought it would be fun to go over to Central Market and let the kids play on the playscape. After watching them walk slowly around the playscape at about the pace of slugs, we decided it was just too hot and came home to play guitar hero and Wii fitness. We relaxed the rules on video games quite a bit this week because, let's face it, it's just too hot to send them outside. When it's consistently over 100 for days on end, you have to just adjust to indoor entertainments for a while. Thank goodness for Netflix. :O)

Thursday the guys went to play golf (well, pitch and putt) so Tonya and I took the kids shopping. She got Bekah a cute denim cropped jacket that Beks just HAD to have (i got her the capris to match, and with her new hat she looks so grown up) and I got Kaitlyn a scarf that she had hours of fun with. ("look, I can wear it as a skirt/around my neck/as a blouse/ etc."). she is such a fashionista for age 7! Paul is in so much trouble. ;o) We parted briefly Thursday evening as Tonya took the girls to visit other relatives who live in Round Rock (what luck!) and Paul came back to spend the night with us. I went back to work Friday morning just to "check in" - fortunately my boss was not in and I was able to catch my desk up and slide out of there in time to have lunch with my brother before they had to leave. We spent the rest of the evening in that mild state of letdown that always comes after loved ones visit and have to depart, but consoled ourselves with movies and popcorn. That brings us up to date - Ryan got me up this morning, as he always does on the weekend, so we can have some mother -son time before the rest of the house gets up . . . we made pancakes, cleaned the kitchen and did a load of laundry, and then took a break - him to play Risk with Dad, and me to blog. Bekah is on Webkinz, which is all she wants to do lately (I should probably monitor this more). For the first time in a week, we have no plans today other than to return movies and library books, and stay under the air conditioning as much as possible.