I love the ocean!!!

Weekly Update - Taste of Summer

We are on "book break" this week and BOY OH BOY did we pick a good one. The weather has been incredible and we have fully been taking advantage of it. DN survived his first road trip with CJ and it seemed to be a good turning point and bonding experience for them. KM and I spent the week cleaning, yard-working, finishing projects, KM finished up Wuthering Heights and completed the work for her last Skype class which will be held next week, spent an afternoon at the beach, watched LOTS of shows on the ROKU and KM went to her first semi-formal!!! OH and our FROG EMBRYOS ARRIVED!!!!

Trimming the Tree and Jamming out -

In addition to tree trimming the day after Thanksgiving it has become a tradition in our home to have guitar hero jam sessions -

It is rather hysterical and everyone gets in the mix - luckily, I am the only one who thinks of grabbing the camera!!!! 

For more hysterical guitar hero moments be sure to check GCKstudents You Tube Channel - Bunniestar97

Herring Run Adventures

We had a fabulous picnic with some friends and the littles yesterday at the Herring Run! The day was gorgeous and the kids had a great time splashing and playing pooh sticks! 

Fabulous Concert - Greyson Chance and Miranda Cosgrove

Back from camping

and  boy do I need some sleep!!!

 They set up their tents...

and then went for a swim...

all the way across -

 the lake and most swam back again -

made their own breakfasts - 

had a glow parade -

and made lots of memories!!!

2 parents + 7 teenaged girls = epic adventure!

Almost forgot ---

The week was so hectic that I forgot I had taken some shots of KM before her anime/manga club cosplay party - 

Here is her inspiration - Raven from Vampire Kisses -

 Using what we had around the house I think she did a really good job!

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Party

KM attended a birthday party for a friend this weekend that had a great twist - a Murder Mystery! The friend is an avid all things Potter fan, so they used the services of Murder Mystery Maniacs to create this great themed event! Once you RSVPed you were sent a character description in the mail that had an access code to go on line and get some details for your costume and character profile, but the real fun began when you arrive and are handed a sealed envelope with details of the events and your role. Everyone must stay in character and attempt to discover WHO DUNNIT!!!

Well at this party the non-permanent murderer was none other than everyone's favorite Daily Prophet journalist ---

Rita Skeeter!!!!

KM has been making it clear to everyone that she did not MURDER Ron Weasley, but simply petrified him!
The kids all had a great time and KM was a superb actress - as ALWAYS!! - Only 3 of the guests figured out it was her!

Busy, Busy, Busy, but not too much to report!

Things have been going very smoothly around here lately. KM has been keeping up with her lessons and staying very busy with ice skating, theater, sketching and spending time with her friends. We are enjoying the flow of things lately and the occasional snowstorm to keep us in the house for the day is a wonderful winter bonus!

We have been starting our days off with household responsibilities, yoga and meditation. Then after lunch we work on lessons and this leaves the late afternoon and evenings free for her to spend however she likes. It seems to have worked out that Tuesday and Thursdays are VERY light lesson days, to accommodate for ice skating - and spending the rest of the afternoon with one of her very best friends - and theater. When CJ is home he has been taking her skating at a more local place on Wednesday afternoons. This leaves a lot of the main lesson times to Monday and Friday which seems to be giving a natural flow to our week.

She has chosen to do her research report for this session on owls - BIG SURPRISE to those who have seen her lately! We have decided that she will follow the outline form that the writing mentor used with her in the fall. This method focuses on researching, getting the info down, and then editing and cleaning up the content. As I have written what feels like hundreds of posts on our thoughts about writing and the writing process, I will not go into length about it again. I will say though that I have noticed a huge improvement in her open responses now that she has no writing "guidelines" and just has to present the information clearly.

Other than that, there is not much else to report as it is pretty much status quo around here - Just enjoying our family, home and learning - all together! Hope you can find some time to do the same!

She's 13!!!

Where, oh where did the time go? How is it possible that I have a 13 year old? We had a big bash over the weekend and lots of fun was had by all!

Busy Weekend Catch Up!!!

We had a wonderful snow storm last night and into today! It made for the perfect weekend and allowed me to prepare for tomorrow's Yule fest!

KM's best friend - AM - got here Friday to go to Edaville Railroad with us!

We had a great time, but of course we had to pick the night that it was literally 12 degrees out!!! KM doesn't remember when we went when she was little and AM had never been so it was great for them to do that together for the first time! The lights were beautiful and the cocoa was FANTASTIC - and helped to keep us warm!!!

CJ napped yesterday and prepared for the storm to come. He got called out to plow at 11:30p Saturday night and has only pulled in long enough to plow half the driveway, pick up some food and snacks and drive AM home, before heading back out again.

The girls were in and out of the snow all day! They are loving the snowball makers, they made little forts for themselves and were waging wars on each other....luckily no one came out with any injuries!

I have been keeping the fire going and baking up a storm. That is my bread rising in the warmest spot! The bread always seems to taste a bit better when it rises near the fire! I think it is more in the symbolism of it than anything!

I have no idea what our snow totals are or will be but it will be fun to see how it measures up to SC tomorrow! If you are also enjoying this wonderful winter welcoming storm be sure to keep safe and warm!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Well in case you couldn't tell Halloween is THE holiday around here...second only to Yule!

The Littles were here today - so we had some fun reading books and watching the It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

GC was in a very festive outfit and happy to act as our great pumpkin all day!

The purple hairspray did not go over the night before as well as we thought it would so KM and I got a little inventive for her fairy hair!

After more tweaking to the costume, KM headed out with a friend to go trick or treating this evening


----- and then back for a movie marathon!

1 Day to Halloween and

...we had to get ready for a party!

She tweaked the costume several times this week and I think it is JUST right!
Although I might be a bit partial to the wearer and the costume itself!

3 Days Til Halloween...

so went to see the MOS to see the Harry Potter: The Exhibition! We weren't allowed to take pics put you have to check this out if you are in the area or it comes to your area! It was FANTASTIC! We of course then came home and immediately started watching the movies to try to spot all the things we saw in the exhibit!

There is nothing like friends in the wild!

Especially if they are wild friends!

We went questing this past weekend and took one of KM's BFFs with us!

They always have such a great time together!I love that they can be silly and goofy,

wear witches hats and slide down rocks

without a care in the world!


To see more pics of these great hiking spots check our our nature blog -
GCK Homeschool Nature Photo Journal.