First Week of School

School year 2007-2008 is under way! We have survived the first week of school and, thankfully, everyone seems to be enjoying it. (It was a little hit-and-miss the first day or two.) It is always a little difficult to get back into the routine after taking a break, especially since the break was a little longer than planned due to mommy coming down with mono a few months back. Oh well - everyone enjoyed a nice long "summer vacation."

We have made it a tradition to attend opening chapel at ACU and make that our kick-off to the school year. This year we got the added treat of watching Aunt Cherisse (my sister-in-law) walk as part of the faculty. The kids enjoyed seeing her in her hat. For those of you who don't know, ACU has a parade of flags at the beginning of opening chapel. A flag for every country and state that is represented in the student body is carried around the coliseum. The Texas flag is always saved for last which brings a big roar from the crowd. At the end of chapel a selection is read from the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble and then a huge American flag is unrolled from the ceiling. It is a lot of pomp and circumstance, but the kids like it and it seems like a fitting way to begin the new school year. Grammy Sue, Papa Paul and Mama got to join us at chapel. We also saw several other homeschooling families there.

Aunt Cherisse and the kids after chapel

Aunt Cherisse walking in with the faculty

Here is the end of the parade of flags. Just to the left of the drums you can see the Texas flag entering. Many of the students carrying flags are dressed in their native costumes and the guy from Texas was no exception! He was decked out in boots, jeans, chaps, and cowboy hat.

This is the large American flag that is unfurled at the end of chapel. It really gives you a great patriotic feeling and you get to sing the national anthem (which I have not successfully taught my children yet - something to work on this year).

Troy is going to have a great time as a 2nd grader. It is amazing how much he can already do on his own. Once you can read, so many things are possible to do by yourself! He grabs a book and curls up with it on the couch any chance he gets. Trent, my kindergartner, is also reading and loves it. Big brother Troy taught Trent a lot of what he learned in kindergarten and 1st grade, so my reading lessons with Trent are a bit different than the ones I had with Troy. Trent is loving being in kindergarten and is always ready to move on to something new. In fact, it can be difficult to have enough to keep Trent busy. Paige and Reese enjoy their preschool status and I am enjoying the fact that they are old enough now to join in on a lot of our activities. They might not get a whole bunch out of them, but it sure is easier than scheduling around naps and quiet time! We have had several fun activities already this week. Among other things, we are learning a bit about our family tree, we've picked out some animals to study in science, and we've had an "archaeological dig." That last one was a big hit. I buried some items in their sand box and let them "dig" them up. Then they "learned" about our society based on the items they found. They had a blast and, of course, had to don the appropriate costumes for the event. I totally forgot to take pictures so you'll just have to use your imaginations.

All in all, it has been a good first week of school. I'll try and put a school post on here every month or so to keep everyone up-to-date with MacDonald ISD.

A New School Year

Today I had some excited children tumble out of their beds. Everyone was ready to get the new school year started. This year Troy is a big 2nd grader and Trent is a kindergartner. Paige is excited about her last "preschool" year and Reese is quite happy about being dubbed a preschooler. Here are some quick shots of them on their first official day of the new school year.

Troy - 2nd grade

Trent - Kindergarten

Paige - preschool

Reese - preschool

I'll post later this week and give an update about our first week of school.

Fun with Friends

Thank the Lord for good friends! As many of you know, our good friends the Gumms and our family take turns having each other's children over to spend the night. About every six weeks either the Gumm kids are here or our crew is over there. We started doing this about a year and a half ago so that each couple could have a night and morning where they didn't have to worry about babysitters or getting home in time to put the kids down, etc. Basically, every so often we get a really long, nice date night. It has been a GOOD thing. I highly recommend it! Find a family that is a similar size (so one doesn't feel guilty bringing all those kids) and that has similar parenting styles (I guess this one is not a must, but it definitely helps when you have lots of kiddoes running around!), and set it up! We started doing it soon after our youngest turned one, and it has only gotten easier as the kids have gotten older.

Here are some pics from the latest in the "MacGumm" adventures. After the Gumms' arrival at our place, we played at our house for a while, then walked down to my in-laws house in order to use their trampoline. Thanks Grammy Sue and Papa Paul!

Emily really loved jumping on the trampoline!

We played a rousing game of "crack the egg." Trent, Lauren, and Troy were the three finalists. Lauren was the eventual winner. Actually, I never did crack her since all the others kept rolling into the way. :) Trent would like it known that he would have given Lauren a run for her money if it had not been for the unfortunate landing of his forehead on an acorn on one of his bounces. It drew blood which caused a momentary stoppage in play.Here is the crew at the end of the trampoline jumping time. I think Reese had had enough. She loves jumping, but was getting a little tired. As you can see in the pic, we had an extra with us at this point. Paige's good buddy, Jane Anne, joined the MacGumms for the trampoline outing. All of the kids here have had great fun on Papa Paul and Grammy Sue's "jumpy thing." How smart of them to get it thrown in with their house deal!

After the trampoline adventure, we dropped off Jane Anne at her house and then walked back to ours for dinner. After eating (tostadoes were a big hit!) I sent them to our backyard pool. Can you tell that we try and burn lots of energy during sleepover night? Can't imagine why!

Paige was watching an airplane fly overhead when I snapped this shot. I really just love the picture.

Here's another picture that I like. Reese has really taken to the water lately. Once she figured out that she can touch the bottom of the pool she has wanted to be in it all the time.

And here is my favorite picture of John Paul from the sleepover adventure. He wanted to use Troy's goggles, but alas - they were a little big. Of course, the water streaming in them didn't really matter. He was happy just to use them.

After a fair amount of time in the pool, we all trooped back in and got ready for bed. I put the youngest two down while the other five had a chance to talk before bedtime. The older five have really done a good job the last several times of settling down and going to sleep. Reese and Emily - not so much. I finally had to separate those two. After that everyone conked out quick and I didn't hear a peep until the next morning. After all of the activity, everyone was tuckered out!

This MacGumm adventure was a success! The kids had fun, Eric and Sherry enjoyed a night to themselves, and I had a lot of laughs. Maybe next time I'll convince Emily and Reese that 6 am is not a good time to wake up on a Saturday morning. :)

Tour de Gap

The Tour de Gap for 2007 has come and gone. For those of you who don't know about it, it is a bicycle ride that is held in Buffalo Gap every July to benefit the local food bank. BikeTown helps sponsor it and Jim is involved with the planning and execution of it. For the past several years I have ridden in it. This year I got to add something new to the experience. Since the boys are no longer using training wheels, I finally got to take one of my children with me! Troy and I rode the 10 mile route together. (There are 10, 25, 48 and 70 mile routes.) He did awesome! Other than stopping to try and help someone whose chain had slipped off, we never stopped - even on the hill climbs. He just kept plugging away and rode the whole way. He was excited and I was so glad that I got to share that time with him. Next year I look forward to having Trent join in the ride.

I want to brag on Sherry and Lauren who also came out and rode the Tour de Gap. This was their first bike ride like this and they were amazing! Lauren - you can come ride with us anytime! (You too, Sherry.) :)

The Tour de Gap always coincides with the Tour de France which our household watches daily during that 3 week period in July. (I know - we're weird!) This year's Tour brought up some interesting conversations in our home. Among other problems, the leader of the Tour was fired by his team two-thirds of the way through the race because he had lied to his team about where he was during a scheduled drug test in training season. It was assumed that he was doping in order to perform better in the upcoming race. The kids didn't understand why he wasn't in the race anymore especially since he was winning it, so we told them about what happened. Troy asked, "But why would an adult lie?" That led to a very interesting talk about lieing and cheating! It's amazing where life lessons can take place.