Birch Bay Konos Beginners Bash Photos!!

Sarah Rose jumping!



Noah's beautiful smile!!!



Ben say's WOW now that's a slide!!



Okay, boys..... how are we going to do this??



Mmmmmm, roasted hotdog!!



Getting the grub!



Charity Ann and Brittney, I think :)



Roasting!!



Loading up our plates :)



Happy Boys :)

Our Grass is Growing!

Yeah, it's finally getting bigger!! These past few weeks of sunshine have been great and the recent application of fertilizer didn't hurt either! I can't wait for us to begin building our swing set!! I know that the kids are really excited as well. I keep trying to talk Jason into building our own, though, versus the Costco one. But either way, it will be so much fun getting the supplies and then actually putting it together and lastly, taking a big swing for a ride!!!

I am also getting excited about the upcoming school year! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the break we are having right now. But I also am looking forward to the experience that the kids and I are going to have this coming year as full out home schoolers!! I think that they are getting excited as well. we've gotten a few replies to our advertisement about our Konos Ko-op and we are excited to meet people. One family that has 3 boys is in Surry B.C., Canada which is just across the boarder. It would be great having a contact there to help with setting up field trips and stuff up there. It's all pretty foreign to me :) The other Mom is right here in Birch Bay and she has 2 girls and a boy. So, if it all works out, we'll have my 4+Kristy's 2+Julie's 3+Loriann's 3+Michele's 2??=14 kids!! a few of which are tag-a-long toddlers but it's going to be a blast!!

I have started the plans for our Kick-off in August and am just waiting for Kristy to tell me which weekend works best for her family!! Hint Hint!!

I also have something else in the works, but can't talk to much about it...... it's around my Birthday, though ;)

If you happen to read this and want to check out our Konos Ko-op here in Birch Bay, WA here's the link: Birch Bay Konos Krusaders. Other wise check my sidebar for a link to join!

Beach Party

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. So here's the Wrap-up :)

I got my Konos last Friday!! Yipee!! It has been so much fun browsing through all of it. It's hundreds of pages of reading materials and I LOVE to read!! There are thousands of fun and interesting project ideas throughout and it's been really enlightening to look through it!

I have been working on my Garden Art this last few weeks trying to get up a nice selection of things to take down to the Farmers Market this Saturday. I feel like Chickening out for one more week, though, cause Kristy found out she couldn't make it again this weekend! I've added a small assortment of decorated glass bottles that turned out really cute, and I got some really pretty seashells and have started a nice selection of Sea Shell Wands as well. I also made 2 more of my "Staff" wands, they are over 5 1/2' tall and are almost 2 feet wide :) So, I am getting closer to feeling like I have a nice amount to display. I also made 3 things for the kids to give to their teachers for their last day of school. Noah wanted me to make a glass beaded mobile with the stages of Butterfly development displayed on it, it turned out really cute! And Charity Ann picked out a Seashell wand to give to one of her teachers and the tealight cup with a flower wrapped around it for her other teacher. So. I'll put a picture of my favorite of the seashell wands at the beginning of the message. Still getting up the nerve to go down and try to sell them. Nothing like hanging yourself out there to be hosed! Everyone keeps telling me that they are so beautiful, though, but it's hard thinking that people will like them enough to actually give me money for them :) Here's a link, though I haven't posted new pics. of the newest arrivals.

We have a Beach Party with Kris-te-te's family scheduled for today. It's going to be lots of fun. We are having a Hot dog roast at the beach and smores and potato salad, chips and dip, yum yum!! I want to take down the staple Bubble Supply. I am the Bubble Mamma after all! Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, I feel like that aquarium character from Finding Nemo! So, here's to a great day!!

Glorious Sunshine

I think that you can tell that everyone in my neck of the woods is sunshine deprived! We all arrive at church wearing Capri's and skirts with bright colors just hoping that the sunshine will come out! The thing is, Lynden is always breezy or sometimes just downright windy compared to our house! So I got all dressed, grabbed a small jacket and proclaimed as I climbed into the truck "If its windy at church, I'm gonna freeze!!" Silly me, it's always windy over there! And being only in the mid 50's to begin, and adding in a Frasier Valley fed breeze, the wind chill was prolly around the upper 30's to low 40's! I was a Tif-cicle! Anyways. When we left our house the weather was looking like it might turn out pretty nice, but when we were coming home it looked a little less so, some grey clouds were looming in the background out over the bay.... But we pushed onward. Feeding the kids lunch and packing up a few beach afternoon things like the ferrets, we were being optimistic. And we always knew that even if it turned out being pretty cold and gray, were only 5 minutes away from home, so we can always come back and pop the kids and ourselves into warm showers and then watch a movie together :) Out we headed, and as we drove along the sun started peeking out, and the clouds started getting less gray. When we pulled up at the State Park Beach the sunshine was out full blast and the clouds were receding. It was still a little cool when I stepped out in the warming air, that's why I never leave for the beach before July without a jacket! (or after Mid August). To make a long story shorter, I kept my jacket on the whole afternoon, the kids roller bladed along the bike path and out around the bathrooms and back, and we collected shells and crabs and hermit crabs and driftwood. They kids even took over an abandoned camp fire towards the end and proceeded to roast seaweed on it for us grown-ups for dinner!! Kristy and her two girls came about an hour and a half after we got there, and then her hubby met us another hour or so after that... We stayed a lot longer than we had hoped to be able to stay, and everyone had a blast! We are planning an early Fathers Day Weenie Roast for Friday, so hopefully the day will be just as beautiful. So far, Friday looks like the best day out of the next week and a half, so here's hoping!

I also got my KONOS finally!! It came late Friday afternoon, after I had already started pouting cause UPS usually comes in the morning :) So, I got to read read read, I am having too much fun with all this!

And the driftwood I collected this weekend, I am hoping to turn into some cute garden Wands to sell at the farmers market in a week or so. Please wish me luck!! And pray!! He he!! :)

Finally there is an End!

Cayleb just finished the last assessment he has for the year!! Yeah! Now he's just finishing up his Science Project presentation so that he can present it to Dad, and we still have some spelling words :) But the pressure is off! And NO my Konos isn't here YET!! All I can think is that they didn't get it out in Monday's mail and that means that 3 Day Priority will have it here tomorrow. And I think that 3 Day has some lee-way regarding actual delivery times etc. so 3 day may actually mean 3-5 days.... so Hopefully Friday or Saturday, but this totally Stinks! I did go pick up a few FREE bookcases from a really nice Home School Mom this morning. I think that hers are all about to fly the coop, and she's downsizing :) Free is good, I can do free, unless it's across the state or something, these were only about 10 minutes up the road and back :) So they went in the boys room and I designated one for each of them and we have organized all the kids books into categories and Cayleb picked out which books he wanted on his Shelf, and I picked out some that I know Noah would want on his. Then Cayleb filled the rest of his shelf up with treasures :) I also adorned Noah's shelf with some treasures too, so that when he gets home he can be surprised. Sarah Rose has been a little pickle this morning, getting into all kinds of stuff while Mom was trying to Organize!! She definitely knows when Mom is not paying attention like she should be! Hehe!! Nothing to painful, though, so we survived.

Yeah! I see an end!!

I am so happy! This week has been going fairly well considering it has been Assessment week. Cayleb has been working, mostly, very hard on getting his Semester Assessments done for school, and after that we are done!! The only subject that we will be working on after tomorrow is Spelling because there is really no way to work ahead in that one, he really needs 4-5 days to work on each set of words (usually between 23-25 words.) He took his Science Assessment a while ago so that we could work on his Science experiment on Geotropism which he is still finishing up. He finished his Language Skills Assessments (2 parts) yesterday, finished the Literature assessment today and we have the review and assessment for Math tomorrow. History he Finished a while ago as well, as his presentation on Tall Ships of the World was considered his assessment. And Art has been incorperated into our Science lately because he is doing lots of decorating on his Science presentation. He has been having lots of fun with that lately. I decided to have him "Note Book" his results so he's doing a different page for each day that he had an entry, as well as a few other pages describing what his project was about etc.

I am also happy this week because I finally went to see a Chiropractor. First time I have ever seen a Chiropractor, just as a note. It went well, and I am hoping that we will be able to resolve my problems regarding that over the next few weeks. I'm going back on Saturday, and then she wants me to come in twice next week as well. My symptoms, you may be wondering, are waking up to my arm feeling like it is ON FIRE and FROZEN IN A BLOCK OF ICE at the same time. Yeah, your telling me, what a strange feeling that is. My guess was that it is a pinched nerve of some kind, and it's been going on off and on for about 5-6 years. It never really got bad enough for long enough to make me want to go in and see someone about it.... I consider myself to have a pretty high threshold for pain, so I think that some people would have gone in long ago about it, but I hate Dr. Appt.'s! Last night was better, but not good. So, I am telling myself that nothing can happen instantly, and it's been getting worse for 6 years, I can't expect it to get better in one trip to a chiropractor! So, I'll keep going. At least this way is a natural way to deal with the problem, I am not being "treated" with a prescription for Ibprofin or something, it's actually going to deal with the cause, the root persay, instead of trying to mask something. Anyway, I am too young to feel this dang old! Hehe.... yes, the Garth Brooks Song is now rolling through my head! Won't my friend April be proud of me!

Ahh my Konos is supposed to be here tomorrow!! I can't wait!! I created a database with my Konos Schedule for next year and put in on our Yahoo group. Birch Bay Konos Krusaders
Yeah, I know, I am a nut because I've already created a "schedule" for a Curriculum that I don't even have yet for the next 2 years!!

Tuesday :)

Cayleb and I are working our tails off so that we can be done with School by Friday. He is finishing up Semester Assessments, which he HATES with a vengeance!! But I keep telling him it's almost over!!! Then we will never have to log in our assessment scores ever again! Not that we won't do testing or anything, but it will be for our info only, you know :)

I called about my missing Curriculum yesterday and talked to a very nice man and he apologised profusely that I hadn't received an e-mail telling me that part of my stuff was on back order and wouldn't actually be sent the day that they quoted me.... He said that the missing item had come in that morning and that I was a the top of the list. He guaranteed that my things would be sent off that morning, and that he was upgrading my postage to 3 Day Priority, saying that I should get them no later than Thursday :)!! So, I am trying to get all my house chores done and keep up with them so that when it comes I can just enjoy enjoy enjoy!!!

Today is rainy, Well not right this sec. but it looks like it could at any moment :) It's good for the garden and grass but I do hope that the Sunshines come back soon.

Jason has told me to try taking my wands down to the Farmers Market on a Saturday (it was supposed to be this Sat, but if it's really cloudy out then I'll wait for better weather) He just wants me to try it. And it's free to set up a table and it's almost close enough to walk to (would be if i didn't have stuff to carry down there.) So, pray for me, I need support here, I am not a very extroverted person, so I will be stepping outside of my comfort zone by a long measurement here!

Konos Co-op

Hello- I wanted to post this to let anyone know who may be close enough to my area to allow them to be part of the new Konos Co-op that I started recently! We are in the general area of Bellingham Washington, a little North actually. And would LOVE to have a few more families to throw bashes with next year! I believe that we are all going to be working together on our Units and would like to throw a Birch Bay Konos Beginners Bash in Mid to late August. We will be working primarily out of Volume 1 next year, and if you've looked at my tentatively tentative Konos schedule for next Fall, I think that a few things have changed. But not much :) I haven't decided for sure, but I'd like to have it here, and that may require us to acquire a BBQ of some sort before then, as you can't have an outdoorsy Bash without some BBQ'd something. Of course, however, the kids can roast all the weenies they want and that would be fine with me, but the grown-ups aren't always fond of hot dogs, and may like a little more substantial fare. I can't wait to start planning it. We have a Yahoo group started called the Birch Bay Konos Krusaders. Please visit and join!! Though I don't think that I have sent out an invitation to the other two families that are going to be involved so far! Hehe!! Need to do that soon! Anyhoo, Hopefully we will find another family or two, and if we don't we're going to have a blast anyways!!

Nope, not yet!

Ugh, I hate waiting and this is driving me nuts!! I was told that the "average" shipping time is 5-7 working days.... 7 would have been Wednesday..... I need to get a tracking # so that I can figure out where my packages are to make sure that they haven't been delivered to the wrong house (has happened before several times) Mmmmm... So, I am hoping that it will all show up today. Perhaps it hasn't come yet because God knows I am such a scatter brain sometimes and He knew that if I got the stuff earlier this week I'd have gone totally nuts looking through it and would have gotten NOTHING done!! He he!! So anyways....
Last night we went down to the local nursery (whole sale for stores in our area, but they have a really nice garden center.) I picked out a few plants ....

3 -6 pk's of various Tom's
1 -6 pk's of Cuc.'s
and they had their small herbs 4/$1.00 so I picked out a sage, 2 chives and a thyme :) Yummy!!
I also got a "Dark Dancer" which looks like a fancy clover plant but it has 4 and 5 leaf clovers all over it!!!
And I got a lavender plant cause it was on sale as well :)!!
And a whole bunch of seeds, cabbage, multi colored carrots, sunflowers, bell peppers [which I later found a 6 pack at out farmer's market when we stopped by for some lettuce, (and some blue corn chips, several large avacados and tomatoes just fell into my basket!! Hey the avacados were on sale for $1.00/each cause they needed to be used NOW!!!) He He!!! ] Anyways.... seeds, so I also got some Scarlet Runner beans (which I have re-named Velcro Beans cause they have fuzz that sticks to your tounge when you eat them raw or otherwise!!) and Heirloom Rainbow Blend of Tomatoes which was too pretty to pass up, Spinach, and some Walla-Walla sweet onions :) So, I should be a HAPPY GARDENER this weekend!!! I just hope that my late start doesn't end up being a little too late :(!! That's all for now.

Camping!

So we haven't been camping for 5 1/2 years and have decided to go with some friends of ours for the holiday weekend. It should be lots of fun. One problem I am having is we had transitioned from a Tent Family to a Camp Trailer Family and now since the trailer is filled with heaps of who knows what stuff, we can't use it and have to tent it once again. Hmmm, pretty hard since I had thus gotten rid of the storage containers ie: tubs and crates and stuff for all the camping stuff. So now that question hasn't been what do I need to bring, it's where in the heck am I supposed to put all this stuff??

Tomorrow we also have our Beach Exploration Day that I set up with Cayleb's home school group. I am supposed to be putting together a scavenger hunt for the kids to do as teams. I need to put that together still.... We have also a lot of shopping to do yet, Jason has so wonderfully volunteered to go do that for me in the morning.

I haven't gotten my Konos in yet, hoping it will come either tomorrow, or wait until Tuesday and not come while we are away. I also got the Kids enrolled in a few classes at the Blaine Home Connection for next year. So far I signed them up for "Farming with Friends" for all three, and Noah and Charity Ann are going to take a "Hands on Math" class, and Cayleb is going to take an "Origami Math" class. I also would like to sign Noah up for Piano lessons, as we can use our stipend funds to pay for that because it is considered a "Private Lesson."

Well, I need to go for now, I have to get moving or we aren't going to be ready to go by tomorrow night.....

Teriffic Tuesday

Today has been good. I have been dong TONS of laundry, making up for not working on it during the weekend...... We have our beach outing with our WAVA group scheduled for Friday so hopefully the weather holds up. We are also trying to plan a camping trip for this weekend. This will be our first time camping since we moved up here almost 5 1/2 years ago! We also got our grass planted yesterday, Yeah!! I don't know when I'll get my Konos stuff, I did get a confirmation for my order saying that it shipped on Monday and it will take 5-7 days to get here, yipee! So that pretty much brings me up to date on the happenings around here.

Cayleb is doing a science experiment on Geotropism and I decided that we should try out the "note booking" style of keeping his records. It' s sort of like scrap booking, so it can be a lot of fun. He seems to be enjoying the more creative approach of logging his data rather than the usual boring just-jot-it-down-on-a-piece-of-paper approach. We are really excited to see how his experiment goes! I am also i the process of starting a Virtual Co-Op Yahoo group for the families that we find who want to do Konos Unit's with us. so far we have 2 other families besides ourselves. And we haven't even started it yet! I am trying to figure out how to organize my art/craft type projects into a data base sorted into types of some sort that would make it easy to come up with ideas for our units. Hmmm..... Lots to think about and I totally over think things sometimes.....

Well, that's all for now, I think :)

Today

So Today hasn't been amazing in the sense of an amazing day. But it was great for a Monday, now I think that this is two great Monday's in a row. I think that I am feeling very much relieved at the sight of "End of School" written on my Calendar. I have been in organizing mode the last week or so, tackling a portion of my closet at a time. It's been so fun, I LOVE organizing, but I can tell that the rest of my house has been ignored. But that's okay, I keep telling myself that I will get to it, and that I just need to get the closet done, it's been driving me CRAZY!! I can't wait to get our curriculum for next year! I have a place for it reserved in the closet, I know, I am a nut..... Kristy and I are going to get together and plan our year after we have both had a chance to take a look and see what is drawing each of our eyes. I am using primarily the first Volume for next year, with a few supplements from the Second volume for Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter.... Or perhaps we will just stick with the first Volume and take a week off and do our own crafty stuff for the holiday's :) Either way, it will be fun.

I also want to get out and start my garden. I feel it nagging at me, I usually have it in before now, but it's not too late. I just need to try and set aside an afternoon to work on it. I want to plant Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans, Lettuce, Carrots, Cabbage, some Cucumbers, Bell Peppers, Squash, and some Corn. I'll do some tomatoes in pots. That's what my picture is about today. I like Photo Blogging :) Hehehe!! I always loved the "Peter Rabbit" books.

I also wanted to mention that I have sold 4 of my wands!

We got in!!

I just got a call from Mr. Sanborn and he said that we got into the Blaine Program for next year!! There is a waiting list, but he said that we made it in!!! Yipee!!! I am so happy, one less thing to worry about. Now I just need to save up for my Konos curriculum so that we will be all set!!! I can get our Math books through the Blaine Home Connection for next year, as there is a stipend for each child enrolled. You can get whatever you want pretty much as long as it's not religious curriculum, hence, the necessity of me purchasing the Konos. Anyways. I just wanted to write about this cause it makes me really happy, and help confirm to me that I am on the right path. And Thank you to my friend Sarah for her hugs XOXOXOX!!! I Love you!!!