Growing WarriorsJust your typical family…

I do. I just want what is best for my children. I know that it is hard to understand why I want to homeschool. I know that sometimes anything out of the ordinary, or the way it has always been, can seem risky and scary. Believe me, I do not want to do ANYTHING that would put my children at a disadvantage. I love them so much and I want to give them every opportunity in the world. Anyway, just wanted to share this link: http://www.parentcenter.com/essay/7024.html

And the following quote from that article:

“The phenomenal success that home-schooled high schoolers are having getting into great colleges suggests that many admissions officials are looking for different “right stuff” these days. Home-schoolers are getting into top universities, say officials such as Stanford’s Jon Reider, because they tend to be more emotionally mature (they hang out with more adults) and are inclined to be independent learners who “take responsibility for their education.” This year at Stanford, home-schoolers were accepted at twice the rate of schoolers.”

Eric and Allison went fishing this evening at a nearby lake. Allison had a blast catching fish and playing with the worms. Eric reports that she is not freaked out at all by touching slimey and/or scaly things. She gets that from him.

Anyway, I have pictures at the other site or you can click on the thumbnails to the left of your screen.

On a side note, I am happy to report that I made Chicken and Dumplins for the very first time this evening and got no complaints….not even from Allison..who would live on peanut butter and cereal if given the opportunity.

Allison wanted a garden. I wanted a garden. I wanted a garden like my friend has. A big raised bed garden with CROPS. I didn’t get my act together on that one, and June may be a bit late to start, but we did get a small whiskey barrel for Allison to plant some strawberries in…and guess what? We have green berries!! Very exciting. Allison is beyond thrilled. I was worried because two weeks ago, we got about 8 inches of unexpected snow, and I was worried about the strawberry plants surviving. We did loose a few, but most were fine!

I may still plant something small…maybe a big garden next year. I don’t have a green thumb. Maybe starting small is a better idea anyway.

A big moment in Meredith’s life as well. Today I said, “One” and from across the room, Meredith said, “Two Three”

Ok, what was I doing saying “One?”…good question.. I was about to sing the counting song I wrote….it goes “1 2 3…4 5 6 7…8 9 10….11 12…1 2 3 4 5 6 7…8 9 10 11 12″ all to the tune of, “I am slowly going crazy” by Lois and Braum. Anyone remember them?? Where are they now?

I keep forgetting to tell you guys about a major developmental leap that Allison took a couple of weeks before her birthday. She learned to wink AND to whistle!

I have been so busy just updating the blog that I haven’t updated any news… We had an amazing day on Sunday and I wanted to write about it before I forget it.

Eric’s parents were in town much of last week, and we had a lovely time with them! Allison and Meredith LOVED having their grandparents here, and Allison reports that she misses them. We did some fun stuff while they were here, including an exciting trip to Costco, two glorious days spent garage-sale shopping, forcing Eric’s Dad to move heavy appliances, engage in electrical work, along with wood work (he got the door back on the kid’s fridge, LOL), a rowdy late night game of trivial pursuit, and a lovely dinner out on the town at Hops brewery. BUT the grand finale was Sunday (in my opinion).

Sunday we went to Heritage Square in Golden, and it was SO COOL! I had been there once before with Jess’s girlscout troop..I was 8+ months pregnant with Allison and it was still basically winter, and the place was empty. Not that great. But this time, they have Fish and Farm open along with the Alpine Slide…and all the shops. This place is really neat. It is based on a Colorado town in the 1800s and has several little shops and restaurants. Fish N Farm is a little amusement park within Heritage Square, and they have a few little rides, go karts, mini golf, bumper boats, paddle boats and fishing! I think that we all had a great time. We rode a small train around the park, We all rode some rides (although we couldn’t get Eric’s folks on any rides – I thought maybe we would get his dad on the Alpine slide, but he was a no-go – He was ok with the slide….the ski-lift didn’t thrill him), Allison even rode some pretty fast rides! Meredith only liked the boats, but thats ok..she still had a great time. She’s always been my little water baby…born in water and everything! Eric and Jess did the go karts, and then Allison joined as a passenger the second time around. Also Eric, Jess and Allison went down the Alpine Slide. Basically you go up the mountain on a ski lift, with a big plastic sled thing attached to your lift seat, and then you slide down the mountain in the sled, down a LONG track…kinda like a bobsled track . They all LOVED this! And I thought that Allison would be scared. As she was going up in the ski lift, she shouted down, “I’m flying!!” I thought I was going to cry..that child of mine has always wanted to fly, and she finally did it. There is a very rare day that passes where Allison doesn’t talk about what she needs to fly and what she doesn’t have (i.e. wings, feathers, etc.).

It was just a great day and I would say that Heritage Square truly offers something for everyone in the family! I have tons of pictures, and I will try to post them in the next day or so. Stay tuned.

I am so excited! Look at my blog now! Just look at it…step away from your computer so that you can really admire it! Isn’t it amazing??? You can admit it….it is utterly amazing.

I’ve been busy with it the past two days! I created a new style with the three columns instead of two, I dinked around with the appearance some….modifying the colors by HAND, (Alan, please don’t let on that this wasn’t a big deal, kay? I’m trying to impress people here)..I created some coding (by copying some guys advice) that will enable me to put thumbnails of my photo site right here on my main site…so you can click on them and go directly to that picture on the other site. I really wrestled with this one! And then I created a lovely banner (don’t you think it is lovely?), and after wrestling with it for about 12 hours straight, my genius cousin swooped in and saved the day…putting it right in place for me. Isn’t he great? And he did all that with a brand new baby in arms (I am convinced that Tobey helped)…the cutest baby on the planet (at this moment in time, cause mine were pretty durn cute when they were babies – now they are the cutest teen, the cutest preschooler and the cutest toddler on the planet). Thank you Alan, from the bottom of my computer chair, and the big seat that fills it, thank you!!!

It isn’t totally done yet, but done enough for me to share. The banner needs some attention on the archive pages, and I plan to copy the style over to the photo album page to create a more uniform appearance between the two sites, but that will come in time…but enough is done that you can get the idea and offer any suggestions or comments before I commit to anything.

Let me know what you think NOW!