WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Great American Landmark in Marietta, GA

Kung Fu Showdown!

One of the perks of moving out West and living in the same city as Papa Peep works in, is that he gets to do cool stuff for himself. He pretty much lived in an airport or airplane before our move. Because he loves his family so much, he never really did things for himself when he was home. He just wanted to spend as much time with his family as he could while he could. Things like playing basketball, taking guitar lessons or learning kung fu were put on the back burner so he could attend swim meets, baseball games, soccer games, and chess tournaments.

Well, no more!

He recently began taking Kung Fu lessons. He is very excoted to be learning this skill. He comes home eager to show us what he has been taught. Below you see him and the boy peeps hashing out his latest learned form. (I am sure there is a name for it but he is XBoxing right now and I don't want to go all the way downstairs to ask.)

(We had just had dinner and the kitchen is a mess so don't look too closely.)

Since he enjoys it so much, he spends as much time as he can practicing and perfecting his forms. This past weekend his school attended the first tournament in this area for this particular martial arts. Papa Peep entered 2 competitions. One was a forms competition and the other was a weapons competition. Today we will address the forms competition.

Here he is at the very beginning of the routine. He has presented himself to the judges and asked permission to perform his routine. (SHHH...he was very nervous and did not know what to expect.)

Intense! He is centering his qi....

The lighting was terrible in this place and I did not want to use my flash in case I distracted him. Can I say here that about 80 or so white, yellow, and orange belts competed in forms.....80 people!

Look at those lightning fast hands!

So he was the 20 something person to perform a routine that quite a few people performed. I must say, he was intense. He was focused. He was powerful. And unbiasly speaking, he was perfect!!!!

They chose 4 people to move to the finals and Papa Peep was the 1st person they called out!!!

We were so happy and excited. The kids were his biggest cheerleaders. They nearly tackled him when the announcement was over. It was wonderful to watch them get so excited for their daddy.

While performing in the finals he lost his balance and stumbled just the slightest bit. The competition was fierce. He ended the morning with a 4th Place trophy. We are very proud of him!!!!

To be continued.........The weapons portion........

Gipsy Kings!!!!!!!!

For my birthday, Papa Peep surprised me with concert tickets to see the Gipsy Kings. To be totally honest, I was not too happy. I really need a new pocket camera. I really wanted a new pocket camera. I got concert tickets. But what was really upsetting was that it was at an outdoor venue. Since moving here, I have been cold. I can count on one finger the times I have been warm since our move. Once that sun goes down, it gets really chilly. I sleep with socks on and undercovers. How could I enjoy an outdoor concert when I am going to be cold and possibly wet because after all I live in a wet city. I tried to think positively as I am generally a positive person. Well I was dreading it. I gave Papa Peep a hard time. I begged him to return the tickets and he tried albeit not hard enough but he did tried.

The concert was tonight and althought I was cold (but at least not wet) we had a good time. I can't say great. We had wonderful seats. He got tickets for a roped off section right in front stage with chairs. We were right in the center in the 4th row, but after 4 or so songs people starting coming up from the back and standing in front of our front row seats. OMG!!!! I was so angry. I couldn't see anything and even if I stood I could not see. So I did what any 4'10" girl would do. I pouted and thought about leaving but then I just stood on my chair and I was still shorter than the guy in the second row. But that is ok because now I could see the stage and the fingers of one of the kings playing one of my favorite tunes. Thank you papa peep for insisting we go. 

BUT I STILL WANT MY CAMERA!!!!!!

SHHHH!!!! This was taken with Papas cell phone. No cameras were allowed.

It is ok as Photoshop (Thanks to M) was able to clean it up a bit.

The GK facing us was my favorite. His fingers magically played the tunes perfectly!

2nd Grade Langugae Arts Schedule

Here we have Baby Peep's Language Arts Schedule. I have included his read alouds, grammar (FLL), and WWE copywork and narration exercises all in one quick glance page for me.  I thought about spelling but that got too complicated and I already had finished my version of the WWE workbook when I thought about it. We are using All About Spelling so I don't think it will be necessary. The FLL lessons start at 72 because we are not done with !st grade FLL just yet. The form is one off of Donna Young's website. This is the direct link to the form.

I hand wrote these and the scanning is terrible but photoshop helped me darken them up a bit. I hope they are helpful to someone in some way.

Wordless Wednesday

  

It's a girl!!!!!!!!!

Quick Garden Update 3

This weekend was HOT!!!!!!    And for a garden a hot sun is wonderful!

Pumpkins!!!!

 More pumpkins!

There is an actual carrot under there!!! The harvest date is August 30th according to our count.

CUCUMBERS!!!!

BIG BOYS!!!!!

We can not wait to harvest and start the fall garden! So far my plan from earlier in the summer still stands.

Great Worm Migration of 2008

Since moving out to the PNW we have met some of the nicest people on the whole planet! Our new homeschool group has been so wonderful to us. One of the dad's was having a birthday and they needed a sitter. We of course accepted the mission and it turned into a sleepover. The peeps had a blst with their new friends. When I awoke the next morning I heard one of them yell down from the top of the stairs, "I'm up here!" When I asked what they were up to, he reponded, "I don't know. Oldest Peep said to come upstairs in our sleeping bags for the Worm Migration."

  WHAT?????

Below you can witness the migration!

The great thing is they are just as crazy as my peeps so they get along marvelously!

Garden Update!

I have really enjoyed caring for my garden. This was more of a test garden since I did not start it until June 12th and I really did not know what I was doing. My last garden was in 2002. I did a lot of research for the Georgia soil. I did none for this garden. I walked into a store, bought some seeds the kids picked out, and threw them into the ground. At some point I bought some fertilizer. The tomatoes never came up so I bought some plants. I saw strawberry plants and added those in. Most things are just starting to grow now that it has finally warmed up.

Oldest Peep wanted the tomatoes. We have two varieties.

Cherry Tomatoes

Big Boys

The Big Boys have not grown well. About a week ago I was ready to pull them up and start a fall garden. We are just finally getting some fruit. At one point I was definitely now watering enough and then I was watering too much. These last few days I think I am back to not watering enough. The leaves look a little parched.   

The pumpkins were the first to start growing and they have essentially taken over that part of the garden. I had no idea they got that big. I have been reading this site to learn as much as I can quickly. Each peephas his own plant and is suppose to care for it. I have mosly tended them.

The 6 sunflowers are mine. They are tall enough to be recognized as sunflowers. It is fun to see how they change position throughout the day. In our yard the sun comes up on the left and travels across to the right. The sunflowers start the day facing to the left and end the day facing the right. It is a lot of fun to watch.

Carrots are Middle Peep's

Unfortunately, we planted 10 but only one has grown. It is doing well and by last count we should be able to pull it up around the end of August. Middle Peep is looking forward to eating his one carrot. We will grow more for the fall. I have a plan all set.

The cucumbers are Baby Peeps.

I was for sure pulling these up this weekend but on Thursday we woke up to find flowers and vines. How could I yank them now? So they stayed and they are (I use this word alot) FINALLY growing.

Last but not least.......the strawberries. I know nothing about growing these. I saw them at the store and got them. I planted them in a fairly sunny spot and crossed my fingers. I hear the first year they don't produce much fruit. So far that has held true as we have gotten about 5 strawberries between the two plants. This week I noticed that they are growing some vine looking things....runners perhaps? There is so much to learn. I really need to google this.

One Room Schoolhouse

Recently we went to a one room schoolhouse. It was so cute and reminded me of the many episodes of Little House on the Praire I watched growing up.

Here are some of the books used when this was a functioning school house.

It was cool to see an original McGuffey Ecletic Reader. Baby Peep found it especially tortureous endearing.

The boy peeps tried their hand at writing on real slate. Middle Peep did not care for it at all.

Both boy peeps liked this spelling device. Papa Peep spelled out where he wanted to go.

GAME STOP

 My response.......... 

Did she have to teach to the test!?! I think not!!