Bad, bad blogger.......yup!

I can hardly believe how long it's been since I've updated our blog. The reason? We have been so stinkin' BUSY! And finding a moment to sit at the computer to give an update has been hard to come by. *sigh* So I will do my best to share the Reader's Digest version of our last month.

The first week of May was a big celebration around here, as my birthday and Mother's Day fall within days of each other. We spent several days at the Beach Club at Disney, just relaxing and soaking up the sun and water. The kids built sand castles at the pool and had loads of fun. Madeline gave it her best shot.

We also went for a family bike ride along the Boardwalk. To say the kids enjoyed themselves would be an understatement. See for yourselves.






My sister, Andy, and Leah came to visit us while we were there. So the kids all had a blast. Deb and I also had facials done at the Grand Floridian, which was a treat because we've never had facials done TOGETHER. :) It was a nice, little birthday treat for us. We all had Mother's Day brunch with Andy's parents and brother. It was such a lovely time.

Baseball season wrapped up. Caleb finished up the season playing his best and wearing a smile all the while. When trophies were handed out, Coach Randy called Caleb the team captain. Well, you can imagine the tears filling my eyes at that moment. We are so proud of how far he has come....from spending practices watching from the dugout last fall to transfering his glove to free up his throwing arm....

...making so many outs

and hitting the ball to the fence

His transformation has been nothing short of amazing. He can't wait to play coach pitch ball in the fall. We are so excited that he wants to "move up."

We have managed to play catch in the yard, despite the warm temps here in Florida. Our pool was in desperate need of refinishing, as was the pool deck. Fortunately, those tasks are out of the way so we can spend our blazing hot afternoons swimming in the pool again. We just bought a little slide meant for the yard and put it at the shallow end of the pool. (We got this idea from our brillant neighbors.) The kids have had an absolute blast sliding down it and making big waves!

And in case you can't tell how happy I am to share videos in this post (because they're way easier than photos at the moment), here's another one of Madeline talking about her baby soup bathing suit.





Also this past month, we had the privledge of watching a dear friend of ours, Lisa Duhaime, participate in Dancing With Brevard.  This has become an annual event to raise money for the KLD Youth Foundation, a foundation to help "at risk" youth. We are so proud of both Lisa's dancing AND fundraising, and consequently, she finished in 3rd place for the competition. It was a night of great fun and entertainment. We are SO proud of her. She rocked it out!

This past weekend, Deb, Andy, and Leah came over to just chill out by the pool and relax. We ordered up BBQ from a great place in town....and then we did just that....RELAXED!

We are continuing to do "light" school. I am really enjoying the shortened days and am wondering how it might be possible to keep this schedule going all year. Caleb continues to amaze me with his mental math skills. He's known all his addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts for a few months now. But now he's multiplying a single digit by multidigit numbers mentally! He's amazing!!

I have said for quite some time that Caleb doesn't really need a spelling program because he does quite well for a 6yo. What I didn't realize was how multisensory my own approach to spelling was and how beneficial this has been for him. Now I finally realize why he's such a good speller. When we finished up our Phonics program in April, I wasn't thrilled with the next grade's Scope and Sequence. Consequently I decided to toss that option but wondered how we would go about "finishing" phonics instruction where we left off. A few weeks ago, my searching came to an end....with the Writing Road to Reading. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for- a program that would let Caleb go at his own pace in spelling and finish his phonics instruction. It uses 70 phonograms and a Spelling notebook....and that's it. It's no frills- love it. And it's almost what we were already doing. This is how I hope to do phonics and spelling with Madeline too, which will naturally lead to reading for her. She's already wanting to "drill" the phonogram flashcards and gets in a fuss when I tell her that's enough "school" for the moment. LOL.

We continue to do History and Science.  I'm like a kid in a candy store when the library calls to tell me all books that I've put on hold are in.  We are really enjoying the additional literature selections.

Well, I think that just about covers our "month in review".  I promise not to neglect the blog like this again.  And I will try to share a few more photos when I get around to editing them in the coming days.  A big thank you to those of you who continue to follow the blog despite the fact that I am a bad, bad blogger these days.