Well, today we were diligent students until about 12:30. We had a picnic lunch again -- sandwiches, pretzels, fruit & veggies. The kids enjoyed smoothie-popsicles while I read a story from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. They LOVE those stories and her ingenious solutions to every-day, real-life kid problems! Today was about table manners. :) I think I have forgotten to insist upon some of the manners, so they found it quite amusing as well as informative. (i.e. Jared didn't realize he should wipe off his milk-moustache every time he took a sip of milk!)

This afternoon Emily & I read more of The Hobbit. She keeps begging for another chapter, but I had to get the car washed this afternoon. While washing up the old Herbie, I noticed two old tires. I was moving one of them and it took off down the hillside very quickly. It rolled across the road & all the way down to Jones Creek. The kids thought that was incredible. After we dried Herbie Sr., we all hiked down the hill to find it. Marci found it first, but Emily brought it back up to the garage. She's buttering me up for a couple books that are in the surprise box. A ten-minute task for two books. Hmmmm. Not quite enough work in my book. So, now she's making me dinner (chicken quesadillas!)

Briella is noticing signs of spring for her Math Meeting book. We are amazed at the transformation as the leaves pop out! Titus is showing me the surprise from K12 for guessing a riddle in an e-mail or something like that. Jared is telling me about a picture in his latest Nature Friend magazine. The rest is self-explanatory & my dinner is ready!!!

Just more photos of stocking the trout.

Fun spring days here -- with daffodils all blooming. It's really, really hard to make the kids stay inside and do much school. We've been taking our books to the deck, but I confess that I've been a slack teacher. I know these 70-degree days of warm sunshine just won't last ... and then we'll buckle down again! In the meantime, the forts in the woods have had a lot of action. Grandpa Verlin will be pleased to know the hammock is rarely empty as well.

Today we met some friends at Snake Creek (just down the mountain) and helped stock the creek with buckets of trout. Fun, fun! It was a gorgeous day -- and who cares about Spanish class when you can touch fish & slip into the creek?!? This evening we had dance lessons, so the younger kids and I played at the park while the big girls danced. I had fun reading a couple chapters of a book, walking the path & helping little people go potty. The last part really wasn't fun, but it's part of it. I called Jenny & she had to take little people potty right when they got to B's soccer game. Goes with the territory of motherhood I guess!

Goodnight -- and don't forget to remind them to go potty BEFORE leaving the house! (although, sometimes it doesn't matter). And, goodnight!

E & I are reading The Hobbit -- one of the perks of homeschooling -- a justified excuse to sit in the sun & savor a good book! :)

We saw a really cool woodpecker on our mailbox as we drove out to the library program this afternoon. I talked to him and he pecked the mailbox back to me! Too bad the zoom is so poor! He was awesome!

The bee program was really cool too. The beekeepers shared that only God could have designed such an incredibly efficient animal (when considering the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb). How cool is that?!?? Marci got to be the queen bee. Jared & Briella were baby bees. I'm just glad Jared wasn't one of the drones! Jonah was a drone -- he didn't quite understand and piped up loudly, "I'm a Jonah Bee!" He was too adorable.

All for now!