Saturday, August 13, 2011

Post Much?

I know, I know! It has been WAY too long since my last post. I have thought about it many times over the summer but then think of all the time pressing tasks at hand and put it off (again).

Well get ready for this... a SUPER Summer Update! (Mono-Blog!)

May 28th - (the date of my last post) Was Noah's 11th birthday. We went on a date to celebrate!

The first week of June was filled with field days and school recognition ceremonies. We spent the weekend with family at my nephew's baptism!
The second week we had Noah's moving on (to middle school) ceremony. And watched him perform in the 5th Grade Talent Show!


I will post the video here soon!

(Ryan on guitar, Noah on drums and Andy singing the song he wrote!)


We spent the 20th - 24th of June at Cub Scout Day Camp with over 200 boys ages 6 to 11. I was the program director, Garrett volunteered at the BB range, Evan worked with the kids in the Me Too (siblings) camp, Noah and Eli participated as campers. My dad even helped out all week as a Quarter Master. He kept the coolers full of ice water, transported equipment, plunged toilets... you name it, he did it and with a smile to boot! I love my dad!

July brought an addition to our family with my baby sister's wedding to Dustin Marshall.
We all worked tirelessly to put together a reception for her and it turned out great! The days following the reception the rest of us Woodward kids and our families spent at a beautiful house on Lake Wylie. I love my family and am so grateful for each and everyone of them. My siblings taught (tried to teach) Garrett how to dive. Erin and I bravely performed back dives! I hadn't done a back dive since I was a teenager at girl's camp! We had cannon ball contests and the kids fished off the dock. Monday evening my parents stopped by on their way home from dropping the newlyweds off at the airport. Not having their swim suits with them, my dad borrowed some trunk and my mom just jumped in fully dressed! I can't say that I blame her. We were having a lot of fun and she was missing out.

After my family left (boo hoo) we spent a week gearing up for home school. Yes, you heard correctly. We decided early last year that we would home school the boys this year.

On August 1st Garrett and Evan headed for a week at Scout Camp and Noah and Eli and I started our first day of home school. Currently we school Monday thru Thursday. We aim to start at 8am everyday but letting go of the summer schedule has been difficult for some of us, including me!
We are learning Spanish, Math, Science, and for Literature the older boys are currently reading The Giver by Lois Lowry and the younger boys are reading The Secret School by Avi.
So far it is going well, not without some hiccups, but well.
I am staying busy with the planning and "teaching". I hope that once we get into a groove, my planning will be easier/less time consuming.

Well that is all we did this summer! It went by way too fast.

How was yours?

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Nine Days

There are only nine days left of school for CMS. The kids have taken their EOG's (End of Grade Tests) and are now finishing up the missing work and preparing for Field Day, the 5th grade moving on (not graduation) ceremony and talent show.

Noah has been upset because his teacher (couldn't ask for a better one) said while the other classes are watching movies he wants to give them his all so they'll be working until the end.
Imagine doing school work at school!?

Eli and Garrett are just ready to be done. Garrett's exams start this week.

Evan has had some pretty easy days in the last month as I have been swamped with meetings for PTA and Day Camp.

Nine days isn't a long time. I have a lot of items on my list of things to do. I'd better stop blogging and get to work.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Conference Weekend

I've been ready for General Conference for a couple of weeks. As quickly as daily life passes (can you believe it is APRIL!?) the six months between Conferences seems to have taken a long time to get here. My spiritual bucket is in need of a refill.

We still have a few things yet to do before conference starts at noon. Normal Saturday things like mowing the lawn, buying snake food, laundry, bathrooms, and cleaning bedrooms, but when Conference starts the rest of the world stops. We graze all day and eat yummy snacks. Lots of tailgate party foods. When we wake up tomorrow we get to do it all over again! :D

What will you be doing this weekend?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Happy Happy Birthday!

My baby boy turned 9 today. We celebrated by inviting a couple of his friends to the movies and coming home for some cake and ice cream.



Happy Birthday Elijah!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Atlanta

Over President's Day weekend we decided to get out and go somewhere.

We went to Atlanta and spent the weekend seeing some of the amazing things the city has to offer.
The Coco-Cola Polar Bear (and some random dude)

One of the coolest dudes I know!

We went to the World of Coca Cola where we tasted sodas from around the world.
Best Soda... each member of the family liked something different.
Worst Soda... something we all agreed on, Beverly from Italy (VERY Bitter Achk!)

We toured the Georgia Aquarium and saw some amazing fish.


We saw Peter Pan... The show was FANTASTIC and an added plus...
after the show we got a backstage tour! Too Cool.


Garrett with the Crocodile backstage


Bryant feeding birds in the Parakeet House

We became members of the Atlanta Zoo and saw some pretty funny things.



The best part was feeding time at the Gorilla House. Those Gorillas sure like their citrus fruits!


We are going back to Atlanta in a few weeks for the Atlanta Temple Open House

Monday, January 17, 2011

Past Blast Wax Museum

Today my 5th grader became a historical figure for a few hours.

The 5th graders at McAlpine Elementary were all assigned a historical figure to learn about and become at the Wax Museum they held today. My Noah was assigned Nelson Mandela and he was AWESOME! Did you know that Nelson Mandela's middle name, Rolihlahla, means "stirring up trouble" in Xhosa (his tribal language).

(The resemblance in uncanny!)

Here is a link of the local news station's coverage... yup, we made the morning news!

http://www.foxcharlotte.com/rising/History-Comes-Alive-at-McAlpine-Elementary-113871289.html

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I posted... sorry about that. I have been a little busy.

There was Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and right after that there was New Year's Eve.

And between the BIG things I filled my time with laundry, homework, reading, PTA, dishes, cooking, watching Cam, shopping, church responsibilities (like Cub Scouts, and Stake Primary), attending Eli's Holiday concert, cleaning, decorating for Christmas, wrapping, planning, and sleeping (a little).

We had a great time over the Holidays. The boys were out of school for only a week and a half but we filled it with family. Christmas morning we had brunch with my 4 NC siblings their spouses (3) and kids (3), my parents (2), my grandmother (1), and missionaries (4) for a grand total of 23 people.

It snowed Christmas night and we woke up to about 4 inches. It was perfect!

THEN my sister and her family (6) came from Alabama, and my Uncle and his family (4) came from NYC and we played games (Scrabble, Spaids, Kings Corner, Laser Tag, Scattergories, Kick Ball, Qwelf) and went to dinner (party of 12), had a family photo shoot, had sleepovers, went to lunch at 5 Guys (thanks Mom and Dad!), and then had 30 people for dinner on New Year's Eve.

Just part of the crew waiting for lunch.
As we all walked in the guy in the background (brown coat) asked "Where's the bus?".

Number of times people confused me for my sister's mother... at least 7!
Number of fights between the cousins... maybe 4. (surprisingly few!)
Number of hugs, kisses, laughs and all around good times... countless.

What a great way to transition from one year to the next. I can't wait to do it all again next year!
(although it is nice to have my house back!)