Guess who?

I'm alive, I swear! Regardless of what Google Accounts thinks, I exist and so does my email. Hmphhh. I'm going to be seriously annoyed if I have to reset my password every ten days or however long it is that Blogger will remember you. But anyway...

Long time no blog, huh? Let's see last week was pretty laid back. In fact, we only did formal schoolwork on Tuesday! So what did we do? Hmmm, let me go check the calendar. Oh I remember, we were all kind of getting over colds so we took it easy for the most part. Monday was gymnastics. Tuesday was nothing, hence getting the books out. Wednesday the kids went over to a friend's house while I went to go have "the big" ultrasound. Oh yeah, did I not mention that? It's a BOY!!!! And he looks perfectly healthy, so that's always good to know. Cassia cried, but she's over it now. ;) Thursday we were supposed to have Cooking Class for 4-H but DH made me cancel it so that I didn't push a small chest cold into a very large case of bronchitis. It was a good call. I don't think we did anything Thursday then except ballet. Did we watch movies? Hmmm, see I hate when I can't blog - it's like I lose pieces of my life. Yes I think we had an Indiana Jones marathon that day. No wait, on second thought, Cameron had a major LEGO building bonanza going on Wednesday evening, all day Thursday, and Friday morning. He had downloaded some bonus instructions from the LEGO site to build an A-wing out of his Star Destroyer kit. Wow, I have never seen such determination in him. He was focused and concentrated and, best yet, happy to clean up the debris at meal and bed times so that I would continue to let him work until he was done. That was why no school was done - there were much more important things going on!!

Friday was Science Class which was a very welcome thing since we had missed the previous week due to illness. Poor Cameron had been up throwing up all night. :( There the kids made circuit boards out of a paper plate, a AA battery, a popsicle stick, a zip tie, two paper clips, some aluminum foil, a couple wires, a small Christmas light, and lots of scotch tape. Very cool project. After that was the park which was a fabulously dirty time as always. We were there from about 1 until 6:30!! One of the moms was commenting that the really interesting games always start after we've all been there for three or four hours. By that time, everyone has already done all the stuff that they needed to do (dig in the sand, climb trees, chase each other with swords) and then a big group dynamic kicks in and they come up with the coolest games at that point. Really intricate fun games involving usually at least 10 kids. We were saying what a shame it is that most people miss out on that by only staying at the park for 30 minutes or an hour. I think that must be a real homeschooler attitude to just block off the entire day for the park and the wonders that lie there.

The weekend was really great. Cameron had a baseball game on Saturday while Greyson had gymnastics. After the gym, Grey and I went on a date to Starbucks. Nothing like a decaf latte and apple juice over coffee cake to start your day. Mmmmmmm. I think the rest of the day was just spent doing house stuff. Sunday we went out geocaching. Did I tell you about our geocaching? I think I told you about the first project meeting, but I didn't tell you about last weekend where we met everyone at the park and hunted some real ones. We didn't find all of the ones we were looking for but we ended up finding one on our own that the rest of the group looked for for a long time and couldn't find! Here's our conquest:

Anyway, we went out on our own on Sunday to look for some that are located around our house but we didn't have much success. It was really cold and windy too so that probably made it harder for us to stay focused. We did find one though and it was in a playground that I hadn't known about before - so that was a bonus!

Monday I tried to get us "back on track" but we still didn't manage to get around to doing schoolwork before it was time to go to gymnastics. But I was determined so I brought all of the books with us. Greyson was in a "mood" anyway so I didn't really want to deal with chasing his crazy butt all over the gym. I walked Cassia inside for her class and then the boys and I stayed in the car and did school. Greyson, as I predicted, fell asleep. It turns out that 45 minutes is just enough time to do phonics, grammar, and math with a little time to spare. That's good to know that it can all be done that fast (if you're locked in a car with no distractions, lol).

Tuesday we had a field trip! We went to the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco for one of their Concerts for Kids. The drive was beautiful and the kids really seemed to appreciate some of the old buildings, especially those that had survived the Great Earthquake. City Hall is gorgeous
(this picture doesn't do the dome justice) and is right across the street from the Performing Arts Center. We spent quite a bit of time with our eyes up to the sky and our jaws hanging open marveling at that one.

The symphony was great. Cameron really enjoyed it. Cassia was good through the first half (and it was only 45 minutes, lol) but then it was just too much. It was hard though because it was a real field trip thing - as in there were HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of school kids there. They were so not interested. You could tell that for most of them the only reason they were there was so that they weren't in school. They were all bored and jumpy. And that is a contagious feeling. How long could Cassia be expected to sit there and enjoy the music when everyone around her is bouncing in their seats, turning around, fiddling with their backpacks, and just generally not getting a single thing out of the experience?? Didn't they realize that they were seeing a phenomenal orchestra for the bargain price of $5 a seat?? Cameron knew that, lol. I made sure he knew how special it was for us to be able to go see the SF Symphony. He even wants to know when we can go back! They have some family music shows that I think I'm going to have to look into.

Another great part of the show was that we happened to be sitting right across the aisle from some of our 4-H friends! That was really amazing because it wasn't like our HS group had a block of seats. We were all just given individual general admission tickets and they squeezed us in where there was room between the school groups. After the show we braved the restroom - yikes, lol - and then all went out to lunch. It was a nice surprise ending to a nice afternoon out.

So there's your ketchup for the day (catch up, get it?). Like some fries with that? Oh I just crack myself up sometimes. ;)