Category Archives: trips

Music, Plays and Socialization….

Weekly Wrap-Up

Kei is around friends all the time.† Anyone who mentions anything about ‘socialization’ and homeschooling obviously knows nothing about ‘OUR’ homeschooling.† I never remember doing so much with my friends when I was young.

Kei had Camp Princess last week and loved it so much.† She learned a lot and had a blast.

Mark Sellers who is from Decatur and a ‘star’ of sorts came to talk to them.† He was a dancer in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and showed the kids the dance.† Kei was so THRILLED!

Thriller!

He also commented on Kei’s outfit and her boots.† She did look pretty darn cute.

Coolio Kei!

She got the only speaking line in their “Hard Knock Life”† and a little dance solo with 1 other girl and 2 other boys in the “Hairspray” number.† She was beyond excited.

Friday night was the ‘production’ and Daddy, Marlene, Suzette, Dave, Emily, Zachery, Esther, Matt, Jake, Chandler and Ben all came!!!† We were blown away that so many of our friends and family came to see Kei.† We have the best friends in the world.† We are so lucky to have found an extended family.

Picture by Esther Crawford

Afterward we went out to eat with all of our friends.† They had eaten so they all ate desert while Kei and I ate yummy calzones.

Livvy spent the night with Kei and as always they had a blast playing and talking into the night.

Kei and Livvy also put on a play.† Kei can’t spend more than a few hours with anyone without talking them into doing a play!

The Mandatory Play

Kei made an outfit for Nomad that was more like a straight jacket.† Poor Nomad suffers so many indignities for Kei.† Kei was laughing SO hard about it.

Get Me OUTTA Here!

We went to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and Spring Park Tuesday.† The Music Hall of Fame was kinda cool.† None of us knew very many of the artists but it was still interesting.† The girls recorded a song “Eye of the Bison” about the infamous Bison vs. Suzette Incident.† We had a blast but it was so very hot.

Kids at Music Hall of Fame
Girls at Recording Studio

They also sang “Sweet Home Alabama”.

After the Hall of Fame we went to Spring Park.† The kids all rode the roller coaster about 100 times, rode the train, rode the carousel and played and talked.† It was a great day but very hot!

Kei and Brit on Ride #47ish

All the girls decided to come home with us.† It was a blast having 4 girls.† They talked and giggled and laughed and played.† Good times.

Just relaxing...

I had to clean and refill the pool but they managed to find a way to stay cool anyway.

Staying cool...

So in the last week, we were with friends and family about 5 days.† And that wasn’t an unusual week.† Socialization is such a NON ISSUE.

Tomorrow is supposed to be freakishly hot so we plan on staying inside and playing games.† Stay cool everyone!
Happy rest of the week,


The idea of learning acceptable social skills in a school is as absurd to me as learning nutrition from a grocery store.
~ Lisa Russell

Canines, Cinema and Cooling Off….

Today is officially the first day of summer.† However it has been SUMMER for a while now. The days have been hot with summer showers popping up to make things even more muggy.

Nomad is growing like crazy.† Chewing up everything in site.† He jumps up on us with delight and we both have battle scars to show for it.† I got his nails clipped but at $8 a pop, I MUST learn to do it myself.

We bought him a pool.† He loves it.† At first he started picking up his water bowl and carrying it around, spilling everything in it.† We knew he needed water especially outside.† So we found a metal bucket that was too big for him to carry around now.† But he would try to get his paws in it.† So we found a larger container…same thing…he would try to get into it.† So we gave up and bought him a little swimming pool.† It is kinda gross because he gets into it all dirty and then drinks it but hey! we are talking about an animal that licks its butt!

Splashing...

He is officially [in our world, which is the only world that matters] the WORLD’S CUTEST DOG.† It must be announced in capital letters to show just how cute he is.† There are days I want to kill him [but there are days I want to kill Kei too] but we do adore this crazy pooch.

What???!!!????
Swimming is fun but tiring...

Friday the 18th was National Picnic Day.† We celebrated by going to the “River Park”.† Liv had spent the night and we loaded up Nomad and his ‘stuff’.† Seriously I feel like I have a baby in the house!† Fun was had by all.

Happy Picnic Day
Sliding is FUN ..really...it is....

For the first time Kei was able to get onto the swingie, rollie, thingie.† She was happy.

All in all a good day, albeit hotter than hot!

Kei, Ka and Krazy Nomad

Kei and Livvy washed the dog.† I helped…some…

Gotcha....
Come baby..this won't hurt a bit...

We ran to the Dollar Tree to spend about $30.† Has anyone ever gone into the Dollar store and spent only $1?????† Kei and Liv once again proved they are still little girls at heart.

Giddy Up...

We also went to see Kung Fu Panda this past week.† We love going to FREE movies!

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting...

Kei and I had a dryer meltdown and had to move the old dryer to the alley [we have a BIG yard] and get the new one out and around to hook up.† After much sweat, brainstorming, screaming, kicking, cussing talking sweetly to it, we got ‘er done.† We were very proud of ourselves!

This way..NO this way...

Sunday we met Daddy, Marlene and Eddie at Cracker Barrel for Father’s Day Breakfast.† After church Kei and I decided to go to Bridge Street.† I had to take my laptop back because the DVD wasn’t recognizing the ..well the DVD.† Then we went to see Toy Story 3.†† We had HORRIBLE seats but were excited about seeing it.† Kei has always loved Toy Story.† She was about 3 and I took her to Toys R Us and told her she could have 1 toy.† She wanted Buzz Lightyear.† She decided when we moved to still keep him.† The movie was so sad.† I mean I cried…CRIED, not just sniffled.† Kei just rolled her eyes at me like she does.

Then we went to Orange Tree Yogurt. That place lures you in with promises of 45¢ an ounce yumminess.† After putting peanut butter yogurt, a few little sprinkles and a little bit of caramel topping we had $4.79 worth of yumminess!

A wonderful end to a wonderful week

To Infinity and Beyond,

Camping, Bison and Ticks…

We finally got to go camping with our RoamSchool buddies!† We had a blast.† Below are various pictures from the trip.

The first one is Kei at home cutting up onions for my salsa.† The onions were burning her eyes!

Protective Measures

We left early and went to Cathy’s and then we were off!

We are off!

We met up in Athens and the girls all came with us.† They had a blast.

Girl Stuff

The trip went by very quickly and we were soon there.† We set up camp and then went exploring.

Playing

Nomad's 1st Slide

Cathy had made Lasagna so we got the kids plates.† They were all starving from the busy day.

Yummy

The sunset was incredible.

Magnificent

Smores!!!

We all ran into town to the grocery store where Kei found a dog that looked just like Nomad on the Cottonelle!

It's Nomad!!

We also went to the Bison and Elk Prairie.† We saw around 40 bison and 22 elk.† We were all so excited.

Bison
Elk

We also went to a Nature Center and saw some amazing animals.† My favorite were the Barn Owls.

Barn Owls

We also saw eagles, chipmunks, hedgehogs, a white deer, and many more animals.

Snakes!
Good Times

We ate Tacos that night but I was too busy eating to take pictures!† They were so yummy!† I want more right now!

The next day we had to leave because Cathy had to get back to work.† Even though everyone offered for us to stay with them, it was time to get our little family home.† Before we left we stopped by the Plantaterium which was really cool.† They also had some other exhibits.

Big Antlers!!
Land Between the Lakes
Some of my favorite Kids in the World!

Then we went to an 1850 working farm.† We loved that.† Kei asked tons of questions and tried to convince me that she could work there for the summer if I would go with her.† Ummm…NO thanks sweetie.

Tobacco in the Barn


Everybody loved Nomad!
Scream Scarecrow Woman!
A girl and her Dog
My BF's!

It seemed like it took forever to get home.† The GPS took us some crazy way and it rained and stormed the entire way home.† Nomad was exhausted!

Nomad Zzzzzzzing

Animals seen:† <borrowed without permission from Esther’s site ;)>

spiders
mosquitoes
ticks
beetles
caterpillars
flies
bees
wasps
hummingbirds
indigo bunting
squirrel
bobcat
groundhog
osprey
eagle
wolf
coyote
bison
elk
deer
turkey
ladybug
beaver
dragonflies
great horned owl
barred owl
barn owl
screech owl
blackbird
centipede
frog
Fowler’s toad
rat snake
garter snake
box turtle
red eared slider
skunk
fish
tadpoles
water strider
goldfinch
heron

All in all a wonderful trip.† When we got home and got unpacked Kei took a long bubble bath and found a tick!!† I kinda freaked out and had to Google it to see how to remove it.† It came out really easily and we checked each other for more of the bloodsucking things!† No more were found but we did find one on Nomad!† It took forever to get that sucker out and poor Nomad was crying and Kei was crying but we finally got it out.† Ticks suck!

Tomorrow is Soulstock and we are both so excited!

Happy weekend,



Fishing is the Word..

Daddy took Kei fishing today.† She has never been fishing before.† When I was her age, I had fished hundreds of times.† Daddy had a catfish pond in Moulton and we fished all the time.

She was so excited last night when he called.† She immediately pulled out her Visual Dictionary and started looking things up.† First she told me she needed waders.† I assured her that they wouldn’t be fly fishing so those were not neccessary.† Then she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to “wind up the thingie” if she caught a fish.† I told her they would probably go cane pole fishing.

When I woke her up this morning, early, she said, “The early Kei catches the fish”.† LOL

They left about 8:00.† She had the best time.† First they stopped and got crickets.† She took a picture and it looked pretty disgusting to me.† She said the lady assured them “They have just eaten and will be all big and full.”† She refused to bait the hook, not because of the ‘ick’ factor, but because she wouldn’t kill anything, even a cricket.

How Yucky!
How Yucky!

She caught 3 fish and was over the moon.† She was bubbling when she got home and told me all about her adventures.

Kei's 1st Fish
Kei's 1st Fish

This is another reason I love Homeschooling.† Random, wonderful field trips/learning experiences.

Day of Surprises..

We were bored.† We decided to go to TN to see a giant chicken.† We have a really great book on tape and just driving around here, to the grocery store, to the library; never gave us a chance to really listen.† So off we went.

We noticed on the way down I 565 there had been a wreck headed North.† Traffic was at a standstill!† We got to the chicken and took pictures and then went inside for a drink.† The lady there told us that traffic was backed up for an hour!† We didn’t want to sit in traffic for an hour so we got N.I.A [our GPS] and tried to find somewhere to go.† I have always wanted to take Kei to Lynchburg TN to see Jack Daniel’s Distillery.† I remember it being such a cool little town.† We looked on NIA and it said it was only 32 miles so off we went.

Kei and the chicken
Kei and the chicken
Me and da Chick
Me and da Chick

We had a fantastic day.† The tour is free so that cost us nothing but the gas.† We learned that Jack Daniels bought the whiskey making business from Rev. Call [yes he was a preacher] when Jack was 12 years old!! 12!! There is over 400 people who live in Lynchburg and over 400 who work at Jack Daniels.† Lynchburg is, and will probably always be, a dry county.† Our guide explained that you must have 2500 registered voters before you can even vote on the WET/DRY issue!† Isn’t that hilarious?

You can purchase an actual barrel full of whiskey for a mere $11,000!† Kei hated the smell of it and it was a bit strong.† But it was so interesting!† Jack Daniels had a safe in his office and one morning he couldn’t get the combination to work so he kicked it and got his toe very infected.† Which eventually killed him!† Moral of the story… TEMPER, TEMPER!

kei-jd

kei-jack-daniels

kei-jd-car

Afterwards we walked around the square which was so cool.

kei-jd-statue

kei-jd3

All in all a great day.† And none of it planned.† With NIA I have wings! It is so funny because I freak out with directions, I mean I am horrible.† With NIA I still don’t know where in the world I am, but I know SHE knows!

Happy 4th!

K