A Family Update

It’s time for a family update! I had a crazy month last month with way more reviews and giveaways than I’ve ever done before. It was fun, but meant that I didn’t have as much time just to write about what’s going on with us. So, I hope you’ll enjoy this update today!

My First Teenager:

Yes, it’s official I finally have a teenager in the house–the first of many! 🙂

Football:

We had an interesting brand-new experience with tackle football this year. My oldest son LOVES football and has been begging us for years to get involved. We finally relented, and it was all he dreamed of. But it wasn’t so great for the rest of us. When you play football here where we live, it rules your life! He did get a mild concussion in one of the games, which didn’t make me very happy. He was out for two weeks because of that. But the season ended well for them, and I’m glad he had the opportunity to do what he loves.

Spotlight:

We had 4 kids audition for the next musical for Spotlight Youth Theater. Three kids made the show, and the other was auditioning just for experience. Their audition songs were “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie, “Save the People,” from Godspell, “When Will My Life Begin” from Tangled, and “You Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story. The show is Shrek the Musical and it’s the first time it’s ever been done by a children’s theater! Our director and her team has spent numerous hours working on the script to make it family-friendly. (We still haven’t seen Shrek the animated movies or the musical that just came out on DVD because they aren’t family-friendly.) The kids are SOOOO talented–100 of them! But because it’s a new show, we have to start from scratch with the costumes. And, of course, I’m on the costume committee! So, you may see me sewing up some fairy tale creature costumes in the next month or two!

And it’s not too soon to get tickets. One show is already sold out! Get your tickets here–and please choose Mayo for the referral student. (We need all the help we can get for this expensive enrichment activity!)

I’m also teaching a Spotlight class now. (Each student who auditions for a show must also be taking a theater/dance/or singing class.) I have 8 adorable 5-7 year-olds. It’s fun!

Lego Robot Competition:

My two oldest boys are joining 3 other boys for a Lego Robot Competition this next Saturday. They have been getting together for a couple of months to work on their “missions.” They’ve never done anything like this before, so we’ll see how it turns out! They have a “uniform” including duct tape hats. 🙂

Band Concert:

This Thursday is our local Christian school’s band/choir concert. They allow homeschoolers to be in the band, and we have really enjoyed participating there. My oldest plays alto saxophone in the concert band (highest band), and my 2nd son plays percussion in intermediate band. He’ll be able to join the concert band next semester. We also just bought him a drum set (Craig’s list!) and he’ll start lessons on that in January.

Basketball and Gymnastics:

Upward basketball starts tonight. It will be the sixth year for my 2nd son. It’s a little odd for us because he’s the only one playing this time. My oldest wanted to play for Onward (the junior high version), but it didn’t fit into the Shrek schedule. The next 5 kids are doing gymnastics. It’s been years since we done that. Gymnastics ends in January and then we’ll start swim lessons again in March.

The Cousins at Thanksgiving:

Yes–all at my house!

Queen E:

My kids sure do enjoy having a real live “doll” to play with! Here they have dressed her up like a queen!

Homeschool:

Oh, yeah. We homeschool, too! 🙂 I’ve made a few changes to our homeschool curriculum list, so I need to get that updated soon. We are in a co-op at our church each Friday. The older kids learn writing, It All Begins With Genesis, and science. The middle kids take geography, geography crafts, and science. And I teach the preschool class! In the afternoons they have archery. It’s nice that we’ve taken off for December, though, because there are so many other things going on.

Here are a couple of the homeschool books we’re using that I love right now–
Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics (Young Explorer Series)

Pages of History Volume 1: Secrets of the Ancients