Gabriel's 2nd year is done!

Second grade for Gabriel was a stepping stone into reading chapter books (Diary of a Wimpy Kid was his favorite), doing 2 and 3-digit multiplication and division and delving into deeper history and science lessons like Roman and Egyptian Empires. Here he is with most of his school workbooks that he knocked out this year. He still likes doing Khan Academy online.

Gabriel's Swing

We always joke about Gabriel one day buying us a summer home when he wins his first big pro golf tournament. One day Jimmy was saying his game is going downhill because he never gets to practice and play anymore due to spending his time helping Gabriel with his game. Gabriel retorted, "Daddy, do you want to be good or do you want a summer home?" Of course, Jim said, "both!"

We're looking forward to him playing in some tournaments for the first time come this summer. Our goal is for him to make new friendships with similar interest and continued motivation to play this incredible game. Here he is playing at Heritage for the first time. He hit some incredible shots - and some not so great ones too.

New job - new hair

After six wonderful years at a small marketing agency with 12 people or less, I've moved into a typical large European owned digital marketing agency with over 2,000 around the world. It's been a huge adjustment and one I'm still navigating - but I'm learning a lot in the meantime. I figured I've been growing my hair out for a while now - and now that I've gotten a new job - it's time for a new haircut. It was an easy decision to donate it to Locks of Love. Here is what that process looked like:

 We wanted Gabriel to stay cool during the summer months so time to cut off his locks too. Giselle said "Ok, my turn" when he was done so I allowed the stylist to trim her hair for her first haircut.

19 Years!

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life - Jimmy - it's been an interesting and wonderful 19 years. I love you!!

Zellie Bellie turns Three!

We are so blessed and excited to have this beautiful little girl of ours - Giselle Helena Pett - turn three years old! She seems to be excited about the idea too and keeps holding up three fingers saying she's three. We got to celebrate it with family and friends in Tampa and then again with friends for a painting party.

Shawna Blow your Horn

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Half-way mark

We're half-way through our home school year and while we didn't accomplish any of the three lofty goals I set out for us, I'm quite pleased at where we are and what we're learning. I guess having goals like learning how to type, how to write in cursive and learning a foreign language are nice to have ... and perhaps will come in time. Until then, I'm happy that Gabriel is devouring books with any spare moment he has, has grasped multiplication, division and fractions quite nicely, and that he loves learning science. He's been telling me all about matter (solid, gas or liquid) and telling all about viscosity, evaporation and condensation.

Giselle has learned her numbers, letters, shapes and colors and is wanting to learn how to write letters. She enjoys sorting, building, painting, playing Uno and pretend play. Here are a couple of pics of them in action:

Closing of 2011

So far turning seven has been an exciting age with something interesting lurking around every corner; from teeth falling out of his head, learning how to ride his bike and reading 220 page books in four hours for the first time to spontaneously making breakfast for everyone. Gabriel has found the ever so popular "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books so funny that he breezes through them and can't wait for the next one. He's learning to be a considerate and thoughtful young man and continues to make us laugh and think. He asked me if the star on top of the Christmas tree was representative of the star that followed Jesus when he was born? I hesitantly said, "sure, why, yes." Honestly I had never really thought about it, but it made sense. Then he said, "Yep, I know my ornamathology." He also seems to be outgrowing his eczema and sensory issues with seeing his first movie in a theater in years. And he had his first sleep over at a friends house – not surprisingly said he didn't sleep a wink. He's always wanting to do something fun and says constantly, "So, what'cha wanna do now?" I believe he thinks I am his endless entertainment for monopoly, bowling or mini-golf partner.

Giselle is about potty trained with scaling the toilet on her own. Adios Pampers! She's been happier lately and finally understanding the meaning of the word "no". Don't get me wrong, she still has her mob boss two-year old mentality but I can see light at the end of the "twos" tunnel as we enter the "threes" – and it looks beautiful. She does have her sweet moments. One day when I was sick, she said "Mommy, you tired?" and put a blanket over me. And she sweetly follows her big brother around like a baby duckling. It's so adorable.

The ending of 2011 hasn't been without it's interesting twists and turns too. We are trying to think fiscally creative and have made the decision to refinance our home. Then we learned Jim's dad, Ed Pett, passed away on December 7th. He was exactly two months away of making it to 94 years. Followed by all of us enduring a horrific stomach flu the week after. We felt better in time to enjoy Christmas with exception of Shawna. The kids and I enjoyed our traditional making cookies and drinking hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and then making Christmas pancakes after opening presents Christmas morn. Giselle got a kitchen set and made me pretend hot chocolate for hours on end and Gabriel played with his new Hot Wheels tracks all day. He actually cried when he opened his last gift, Mario Kart cartridge for his Nintendo DS. We had a secret santa drop off some gifts for the kids which was incredibly sweet. It ended up being a relaxing fun day. The last day of the year, New Years Eve, was incredibly fun too as we spent it with friends at their home playing Guesstures and drinking margaritas. We're ready for whatever exciting new adventures 2012 will bring.

Gabriel's First Piano Recital

Gabriel had his first piano recital today with his homeschool group, Dunwoody Homeschool Hive. All the kids were so cute and he did a great job. He played Mary had a little lamb, Men From Mars and Ode to Joy. The middle C key didn't play so I had to tell him to start at a higher C.

Halloween 2011

We had a great turn out of creative kids this year for Halloween. Giselle was Strawberry Shortcake and Gabriel was Toad from Mario Bros. Jim said the costume award goes to Kamu for his portrayal of Mr. T. and best family costume goes to the Lurie's for their interpretation of Tron.

Gabriel learning to ride his bike

Gabriel learning to ride his bike at 7 years old in our front yard without his training wheels. So far turning seven has been a big deal with losing his first tooth a couple weeks ago.

Hitting some major milestones this week

Urine Big Girl Pants Now

Giselle has taken it upon herself that it's time to go pee pee in the big girl potty. She went three times by herself on 10/4, four times on 10/5 and five times yesterday, 10/6. She's very independent that precious little girl of ours. Sometimes we'll give her a chocolate M&M as a reward, but half the time she doesn't ask. I love seeing the proud expression on her face knowing it is pleasing to mommy & daddy.

Gabriel finally lost his first!

I came home last night and he bounded out the front door to hug me and said, "Mommy, my bottom tooth is very loose now!" I felt it and he was absolutely right. This morning he came into our room with a forced grin and said it must have fallen out while he was sleeping. Jim chimed in remarking he hoped he hadn't swallowed it. I had him look for it in his bed but he couldn't find it. For some reason he just can't find things ... like his shoes or a certain book when asked. So I went and looked and found the shiny, white, tiny marrow on his sheets. We placed it in a container and took a photo to commemorate the occasion. Look how proud he is in this photo marking this rite of passage.

We are opting not to do the Tooth Fairy in our moral stance to not lie to our children, but I got him a Susan B. Anthony coin as a keepsake and we'll do something else fun to mark the occasion.

Giselle is going to be an artist!

If I had to gauge Gabriel in the sporty vs. artistic category at 2.5, I'd place him in the former....as for Giselle, I'd place her in the latter based on how much she likes to sing, dance, play the piano and draw. Here she is at 2.5 yrs singing "I'm a tree" song.

Back to School - Gabriel is a seven year-old, second grader!

Each year, we officially begin school after Gabriel's birthday. First day August 29th with more excitement coming from me, I think. Here he is as a seven year-old, second grader.

We went to our new homeschool group's first activity: Dunwoody Hive Homeschool's "Not Back-to-School" Cookout Picnic at Lake Lanier. It was a lot of fun to meet other families who chose to uniquely educate their children.

Gabriel at Seven

Here are some of Gabriel's stats at seven years old:

Height -- 46-1/2" tall (3' 8")
Weight -- 47-1/2 lbs
Shoe size -- 12
Pant size -- 6 or 7
Shirt size -- 7 or Medium

Favorite book -- "Cat in the Hat Comes Back" and the "Berenstain Bears Science"
Favorite food -- Spaghetti
Favorite treat -- Popsicles and Popcorn
Favorite word -- Actually and he says "suverize" is a favorite word (it's completely made-up)
Favorite saying -- "Super Mario" with an Italian accent while pointing finger into the air
Favorite school subject(s) -- Reading and Science
Favorite movie(s) -- Flushed Away and Charlotte's Web
Favorite thing to do -- Playing with his friends while playing video games on his Nintendo DS (Mario vs. Donkey Kong)
Favorite toys -- An Angry Birds stuffed animal he named Bombs
Activities -- Video games, golf, singing, dancing and making weird, funny noises!
Interests -- Video games, making people laugh, cooking shows, the weather, MythBusters Jamie and Adam and learning science, playing with his sister, Rory McIlroy and much more...

There is a recurring theme here of video games ... he mentioned it 3x!

My kids are growing up

Now that Gabriel is nearing seven years old, we can expect him to have more responsibilities around the home. He has had his morning and bedtime routines to maintain for years now and some things we ask him to do as part of the family, but have created a chore chart for him to conduct above and beyond these things in order to earn some allowance money.

Giselle seemed to go from grunting and pointing to talking in phrases practically overnight. Now she speaks in full sentences such as "Mommy, I eat now."

She loves singing her ABC's and can point out many letters....she even read the word Zebra last night, but she might be associating the letter Z with the name Zebra.

Here she is singing them at the piano. I love the "Elmo" P and the "Double X" parts and how soulful she gets towards the end.

Learning through play

Recently inspired by another blog site with a handful of moms who contribute fun ideas to do with your kids as a way of learning through play, we created these squishy bags. Instead of gel, I used corn syrup and instead of neon glitter we used food sprinkles. They mixed nicely together. Realized we didn't need that much syrup so created more bags. Next time I'll use larger bags as it may be easier to draw letters and more shapes. But these were fun.

What's in a name?

They say a name carries with it distinct meaning and importance. Which is why when it came to naming our first born son, I prayed to be led to select just the right one. "His name will be Gabriel" came to me very peacefully and clearly. We absolutely love it. It's beautiful, it means, "man of God" and doesn't reflect a person, but an angel of God. Yet, I still wish I had a sweet, endearing pet name for my son to call him on occasion. The only one we've used other than "baby" is "The Tornado" which to my dismay backfired when he started "acting" out this nickname on purpose. I know these things are supposed to come naturally, but it's been almost seven years and nothing yet.

Not the same for my daughter. We too love her name of Giselle Helena. Which of course we'll use the full name when she is being naughty – that's easy. And the nicknames all came easily too...
Gisellie - given by Gabriel
Gisellie Belly Boo Boo - given by Shawna
Gisellie Bean - given by her daddy
Jelly Bean
Lovebug
Ladybug
Zell Bell
Zellie

Gabe is the obvious one that some folks call him. I don't correct them, but it's not on my radar for him. Do I need to pray in a nickname too? (just kidding) Should I not worry about it knowing Gabriel is a beautiful name? Any suggestions?

What's up with the Petts?

What's up with the 2 year old?
My darling daughter has made me so happy and proud two nights in a row. Last night, allow me to mark the date July 13, 2011 (28 months old) she decided it was time. Time to go potty like a big girl that is. I tried potty training her before and gave up thinking she wasn't ready so we backed way off and prayed that God would have her train herself since she was already introduced to the idea. What a special treat when God answers prayer. We heard some noise in the bathroom so I went to check on her. She moved the stool in front of the toilet and placed the seat ring and sat down. We all heard the tinkle and I got to see how her face changed from one of curiosity to delight when we all praised her. The night before, after reading some bedtime stories and snuggling while putting her to bed. I laid down with her and she said, "Mama, me happy." I'm still melting over how sweet that is. We don't get many affirmations as parents, but that certainly was one, if any, that we must be doing something right. She's turned a corner with talking as well – speaks more phrases and more clearly. It's so cute how she calls Gabriel "brother". She'll say, "Mama, what is brother doing?" She probably wants to know so she can be doing it, too...whatever it is. She copies everything he does. She's getting a little more hair, but still won't allow me to put a bow or make a ponytail just yet. She loves to dance, in fact, we all have been enjoying watching the T.V. show, "So You Think You Can Dance?" I wonder if a preschool ballet class is in our future or if I will teach her? She is one tough cookie, just like her dad. She can crash and instead of crying (or screaming like "brother") she just kind of whines and says "Mama, boo boo." I still need to get her left earring fixed. She's pulled it out and I've been waiting for it to completely heal and will just get it pierced again. For now, we'll just call her "Pirate Zellie".

Here she is wearing daddy's flip-flops, using his cell phone while cheesing it up for the camera.

What's up with the 6 year old?
Gabriel just finished golf camp for the summer. We're trying to decide which activity he'll be doing come fall. Whether it be tennis, soccer, swimming or more golf. We can only afford one right now. Decided to take it to prayer since I can't decide. I'm sure it will be fine whatever we choose. I'm realizing I worry way too much about things. And, we still need to find a piano teacher. Gabriel is a happy kid who likes to be active so he'll be happy no matter what. He's still cracking me up. The other day at Chick-fil-A, we saw a person dressed as a cow and he remarks, "Holy Cow!" And, he understands the pun. My dad passed away ten years ago on July 11th so I stated "Today is the anniversary of my dad's death." Gabriel exclaims, "Can we have a party?" That kid is so social - anything to get together with friends and celebrate. He had been begging to come to work with me. He says so he can be with me but also so he can visit my work friends. I see more and more of me in him and am seeing more of Jimmy in Giselle.

Here's Gabriel with his friend Lydia for "Cow Appreciation Day"

The Daddy?
Jimmy still seems to be in constant pain due to his intestines. Because of it, he can be short and generally grumpier than I'd prefer, but we all make the best of it. I feel really sorry for him making all these wonderful meals for the kids and me and he can't partake most of the time. He's just finished working on the porch, building new hand rails and it looks marvelous! I'm worried about his dad and aunt who are both 93 years old and nearing the end of their life here on earth. We're trying to plan a trip to Detroit to see them in the very near future.

Working on our new porch railings

And the Mommy?
I'm making unsuccessful attempts at working out and losing weight, but at least I'm trying. I got to catch up with an old high school girlfriend over lunch which was incredibly fun. For splinters of a moment, I felt like a teenager again. Other than that, I work full-time, homeschool Gabriel at night along with my every other Friday's off from work. As long as I'm planning the next big thing, I'm happy. Right now, it's a trip to Detroit followed by Gabriel's 7 year old birthday party. Somewhere in there, I want to get the house organized. Otherwise, I may as well sign us up for one of these ever so popular reality T.V. shows about home makeovers or hoarders.

My high school friend Janice and me

Drama, Art and Music Camp

Gabriel enjoyed his Drama, Art and Music camp this week. It was help at Redeemer OPC off Chamblee-Tucker by Miss Jennifer Taylor. The theme was "Children's Literature" and they studied Winnie the Pooh.

Here he is on the very first day - you can see the aura of excitement... :)


He met a friend named Gabriel there and came home excited every day.


Jim and I were a little surprised when our very expressive, loud, non-stop singing child seemed to be very motion-less, quiet and not singing in the final performance.

May have been a case of stage fright or didn't know the words, but he tells me he was singing. When I asked the teacher afterward she said she didn't notice, but wanted to tell me that he was one of the most well behaved kids out of the entire group during the week. I was very happy to hear this so we took Gabriel out for dinner and allowed him to pick his own dessert as a special treat.

Our Staycation

We had such a great staycation - a whole week off from work to spend some quality time with the kids doing fun things around Atlanta while Jimmy works on our front porch railings. I'm determined to have Gabriel learn to swim by the end of summer so we hit the pool as often as we could.

Gabriel's last day of school was Friday, May 27th and I had him do some CRCT tests. The next day we took him to the Decatur Arts Festival because he wanted to go to Zucca pizza for his celebratory meal and then we went to Assia's pool and the next day too with Jimmy. Giselle was timid of the water and Gabriel is trying really hard with his freestyle front stroke, but just looks like a spaz in the water and doesn't actually do anywhere. For Memorial Day, we went to Thrasher Park with the Morrey's and Crofford's and then did a cookout at our place with tons of food. It was so hot and we let the kids play in the sprinkler afterward. We went to Mountain Park Aquatic Center as a family the next day. I took Gabriel to the World of Coca-Cola where he enjoyed the history of how the company came together, how they bottle their product and tasting 60 different flavors from around the world. He's been wanting to do putt-putt and they happened to have one outside the museum. It's been so hot - around 95° – so we got some ice cream to cool off.


The following day we went strawberry picking with our friends at Southern Belle farm in McDonough. Later, I took Gabriel to Bethesda indoor pool for more fun and practice.

Friday we went to Krsipy Kreme for National doughnut day and then we made jam out of our strawberries. Saturday Gabriel participated in Home Depot's "Kids Workshop", then we went to PDK's air show and then the pool again. This time Gabriel was swimming a little better, but Giselle has made huge leaps with jumping into my arms from the side of the pool over and over again. They both had a blast. We ended our vacation by pretending to be Van Gogh with some afternoon art and hot dogs with friends at a new coney island place Jim found.


Giselle really started talking this week. She repeats almost anything. While putting her in her car seat she'll say "I do it!" Followed by her clicking and "Mama, I did it!" So cute!!!

We kept busy and cool in the pool, but some of my favorite moments was when we weren't doing anything but cuddling on the couch, laughing and playing. My kids are getting big at 6 and 2 – just trying to soak in all these wonderful moments because everyone tells me it goes by so fast.

My sweet little girl and thoughtful young boy

My children make me so happy – insane some days – but so incredibly happy. I'm on vacation right now and getting to spend some much needed quality time with them. I've enjoyed singing ABC's and The Wheels on the Bus, playing nosies, peek-a-boo and exchanging sweet, slobbery kisses and hugs with Giselle. We've gone to the pool twice so far, the playground once and have run here and there including The World of Coca-Cola and strawberry picking, but the greatest times are the simplest where we're on the couch snuggling, laughing and playing.

Giselle is still very independent and climbs up the tallest slides and without fear, joyfully slides down them. She talking more now and says as we try to get her buckled into her car seat, "Mama, I do it" followed by a click and raised hands singing, "Mama, I did it!" You can have real conversations with her now. Granted, it's mostly asking her something and her telling you "no" but she understands and she is able to communicate more. The other day Jimmy was doing something goofy to make them laugh and she says pointing at him, "Mama, Daddy funny."

Gabriel made me so proud at the playground when a bossy little boy was blocking the slide telling kids they couldn't slide down. When Giselle approached, Gabriel stood up to him and said "No, that's my baby sister, she's allowed to come down." He said it with such authority that the kid replied, "oh, okay". We've been talking to him about being considerate of others, and this was proof that those talks must have landed on fertile ears.

Gabriel is still hyperactive and chatters non-stop, Giselle is demanding and whiny when she doesn't get what she wants at the very second she wants it. No, they aren't perfect, and neither are we as parents, but we have such beautiful blessings from God and have so much to be thankful for. We just can't imagine loving them anymore than we do.

Gabriel's End-of-Year Homeschool Report: 1st Grade

Year-End Academic Evaluation

For Gabriel Pett

First Grade
May 20, 2011

OVERVIEW:
Our focus this year hasn’t changed with the three R's (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and sprinkled in science, social studies, music, art, and sports. We’ve enjoyed our involvement with NEACH homeschool group to do fun activities, projects, field trips, park days, spending time with friends and experiencing children of all ages.

MATH:
He continues to excel in math and is working above grade level. He has most of his multiplication tables memorized and either recites or writes tables of them daily. We haven’t entered into division yet, but when asked, “what is 2 x __ =22” He has no problem saying the answer of “11”. Earlier in the year (January) I asked him how many steps we had on our stairs. He counted 14. I said, “what if we had two sets of stairs side-by-side, how many stairs would we have?” He said “hat's easy just add 14+14.” I said yes, or you could just do 14x2. He says, oh yea, and without hesitating he said 28.

We intersperse reviewing his basic drills such as double and triple addition and subtraction lest he forget everything he learned last year. We identified Mondays as “Monday Math Review” days.

We ended up returning the “RightStart” math curriculum because it was too teacher restrictive. Classes are offered to learn how to teach this curriculum along with the Spell to Write and Read curriculum and determined that it was too intensive for us along with liking to be a little more “free” in our approach. We’ve grown to really like the Harcourt Learning workbooks we get through the Homeschooling section of Barnes & Noble and may stick with those for a while.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
(According to the American National Council of Teachers of English, the five strands of the Language arts are reading, composition writing, speaking, listening, and viewing (visual literacy).

Reading and Comprehension: Gabriel is a fluent reader now and is reading on a second grade level. We’ve finished two reading workbooks (McGraw-Hill and Harcourt Learning) with comprehension questions this year and he is eager to buy the next level. His retention is high and when asked can dictate to you the main “take-away” from the story along with most details. He can respond with complete sentences if asked, otherwise will provide fragments as answers which makes it difficult to understand him. He still only likes to read 2-3 pages and his attempt to read a real chapter book from the library was an unsuccessful one. He read 1 chapter a day and didn’t complete it. He is beginning to understand prefixes and suffixes and will attempt to sound out any word he doesn’t know without hesitation. He also participated in the Discovery Channel / Six Flags over Georgia reading program and earned two tickets to Six Flags this year. We continue to frequent the library for story time and to check out new and exciting literature.

Creative Writing and Handwriting: His penmanship for print is clear when asked to write neatly. We have begun the early stages of cursive and hope that it will make it easier to write for him. Our big accomplishment this year is his “O’s” are now drawn in the correct direction. He occasionally makes mistakes like reversing his “b’s” and “d’s” and “p’s” and “q’s” as well as sometimes “s’s” and “2’s”. He catches his own mistakes and corrects them. As for composing sentences and writing them, he has extreme difficulty. This is the one area that he may be on or behind grade level. We have changed curriculums from the Flashkids Harcourt workbook to “Writing with Ease” to see if we can have a breakthrough in this area. Only a few weeks underway, but there is real promise with this new program.

Spelling, Phonics and Vocabulary: Gabriel enjoyed a Spelling Bee competition this year. We are using Harcourt Spelling workbook and he does the work without any problems and is on grade level. I give him periodic spelling quizzes which he likes and he does very well. We haven’t given him a set of vocabulary words to memorize or learn yet. He's not shy about asking what a certain word means that he's never heard before. We bought him a new dictionary and showed him how to look up words by himself. We finished Explode the Code workbook for our phonics work and breaking down words. He enjoys this.

Grammar: He understands nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns, as well as synonyms, antonyms and homophones. He also understands to capitalize letters of proper nouns like names and places. He is gradually learning sentence structure, but again writing sentences is daunting.

Listening and Speaking: One of the other concentrated efforts in working with Gabriel is getting him to listen better. Sometimes he seems to be inside his own head and world and doesn’t listen well. He is a happy boy and doesn’t do it out of defiance. We’ve pointed out times when he doesn’t listen and is making incessant noises. He said he didn’t realize he was even doing this until we pointed it out. Now we make him recite a times tables and place his hands in his lap so he can exert some self-control. There are a lot of times when Gabriel speaks he begins with fragments and in the middle of the story. We’re explaining to him that he needs a beginning, middle and an end to clearly communicate. He gets excited and does not communicate well although he is confident speaking in groups or for presentations.

SCIENCE:
Gabriel loves science and is a fan of Jamie and Adam and the entire MythBusters crew. He works in his Science workbook, but mostly we read science, nature, human body, and physics books to him. He has an interest in the weather and talks about seasons, etc. And will occasionally teach me a thing or two about something he has learned (i.e., a marble will stay in a funnel even if you try to blow it out).

SOCIAL STUDIES/GEOGRAPHY:
We celebrate various holidays to study traditions and he enthusiastically marks off the days of the week on the calendar. He completes map snaps online http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-series-geography-map-snaps.html. Last year he studied continents, and this year was focused on countries such as USA, Europe, and Asia.

PHYSICAL FITNESS:
Jim works with him on golf, soccer, tumbling and tennis while I work with him on dance. He just finished swimming lessons and we’ll continue through the summer so he can be a strong swimmer by summers end. He is finally growing and becoming faster than he was last year with the additional height. He has exceptional hand/eye coordination skills when conducting activities such as golf, catching balls, etc., but is average with large motor skills such as swimming, running, etc..

OTHER:
Drama/Music/Art: He loves to play charades, monopoly or any other computer or video game. We have fun doing crafts, but is not gifted in the arts in terms of drawing. He can color inside the lines, but struggles to come up with other creative ideas on his own. We were given a piano and plan on finding a piano teacher for next year.

FIELD TRIPS/EVENTS:
We hope to do more field trips next year now that our youngest is two years old.

· Horizon Theatre’s production of “Madeline’s Christmas.”

· “Barn Dance” with NEACH group.

· Scripps Spelling Bee with LEAD homeschool group.

· Exploration of Nature at “Big Trees Forest Preserve” with Dunwoody Hive group.

SUMMARY:
In our opinion, Gabriel is working above grade-level in certain areas such as math, on average-to-above grade level in reading and below level in writing and communication skills. He is bright and has an easier time remembering ideas he’s learned through subjects he’s interested in and a harder time on subjects he is not. He has a hard time focusing on what he is supposed to be doing with staring out the window and dropping pencils, unless it's the television or computer screen. We are concentrating on trying to help him focus and listen better. We conducted first grade CRCT sample tests on our final day of schooling for reading, language arts and math. He scored 100% on math and 92% on L.A. and reading, respectively. He said, "They were easy, and actually a lot of fun!" Overall, he has a love of learning and doing new things, is quite social and tremendously enjoys his friends, telling jokes and having fun.

His first grade curriculum. Mostly Harcourt Learning Series.

April 2011

We had a fun April by celebrating two new baby girls on the block, Eleanor and Callista. We had the kids do an Easter egg hunt and play fun games. I'm probably one of the luckiest women around to have such loving friends in her life.

I love my kids – and they love each other

After the rush of vacation, I've been taking a breather and really just enjoying my kids. We don't do much, and certainly nothing expensive to have fun, we just enjoy each other. Whether Gabriel is making forts out of the sofa cushions or a new Lego creation or Giselle running around in my high heel shoes talking about babies with a pretend phone in one hand and a doll in the other, there is never a dull moment with these two. They keep Jim and me on our toes for sure with spilling drinks or selective hearing, but they also keep us laughing.

I love how loving they are towards us and others, but am relieved and blessed to see how much they love each other too. Here are a few moments I've caught them enjoying each other.

Gabriel reading Giselle a bedtime story...


Her turn now, reading a story to him...
Holding hands and giving kisses ...

18 year anniversary and birthday trip to Tampa

Our celebration trip down to Tampa turned out to be a good one, but hard when the kids fell ill.

We arrived Saturday afternoon which allowed us to settle in, do a private birthday celebration for Giselle with just Grandma and Uncle Troy and then all of us go and get some Cuban food.

Sunday was buying and preparing for Mason and Giselle's two year old birthday party. We were keeping an eye on the weather. It eventually didn't rain but was quite windy to the point we didn't hang up any signs at the park and didn't stay longer than an hour or so. The kids had a good time playing on the playground with their cousins and friends and we had the cutest cupcake cake ever so all was good.

Monday was our 18 year wedding anniversary so we had mom watch the kids while we went to Ybor City to dine at Columbia restaurant for lunch. The food was phenomenal and the sangria really made me giggly while sipping on an empty stomach. We felt like tourists taking photos of the block long picturesque building which was established in 1905 and then headed home to pick up the kids to take them to the beach. The wind was still kicking so we only stayed out there for an hour and we headed back Gabriel said he wasn't feeling well. We were going to go out that night, but Gabriel asked us to stay. I knew right then that he really wasn't feeling well because he's never asked that before. We put them down for the night and then we heard someone vomit. Checked in and it was Giselle to our surprise. My mom helped clean the sheets, put new ones down and I laid down with Giselle for a little bit face-to-face and she seemed happy. Once she drifted I went to my own bed and did the same to only wake up to the same vomit sound. She had thrown up again! Repeat the clean up process and back to sleep only to wake up again to say "She's thrown up again!" Repeat one last time. Then, Gabriel began vomiting at 2 am and didn't stop until 10 am the next morning. We kept my mom's washer and dryer going all through the night. Those poor kids! Gabriel didn't move from one spot on my mom's couch the entire day.

Wednesday they seemed like they were getting their energy back and it was looking hopeful to go to Disney. I had secretly planned on taking the kids (I hadn't told them just in case it didn't work out, I didn't want them to be disappointed).

Thursday we packed up the car with the intent to drive back home when Gabriel was having some diarrhea. We got him some absorbent underwear and about 45 minutes into the drive decided we would give Disney a try. I called my friends who could get us into the park for free which really made the trip worth the effort. We got ourselves a hotel on Hotwire.com for only $54, met up with my friend Beth at Hollywood Studios to get our tickets and saw a great parade with Buzz Lightyear, Rattatouille and Shrek, left there since Gabriel doesn't do theaters well (his ears are super sensitive) and we wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom anyway. We fed them well at a restaurant and got into the park by 6:00 pm. We went to Tomorrowland first and rode the People Mover and did the Buzz Lightyear ride. We all loved it! We had some good daylight time and some beautiful nighttime with all the lights. We enjoyed the Electrical Parade and the Fireworks, but Gabriel did NOT like the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster -- I did!

We came home Friday morning after a big IHOP breakfast with Giselle having diarrhea! We had to stop every hour or so at rest areas because it was so explosive. We were so happy to see friends and family and get to do what we were able to do, but it was so hard traveling with the kids being sick. Very hard!