***I apologize for the late hour of this post.  If any of you were thinking of joining in, you have probably by now gone on to blog about bigger and better things.  I got up this morning at 5:30am to post this, only to discover that our internet service was down...again.  I've decided that I really hate Charter.***

Tomorrow is Annaleigh's 12th birthday.  12th?!  Now, c'mon, this is getting ridiculous.  How did that happen?

How does this cute, chubby little infant who is about to chew on my table leg....

...morph, seemingly overnight, into this cute, tall, slender pre-teen who is about to chew on some chicken fingers and fries that she made herself?

Please, someone, help.  If you know the formula for putting time in a bottle and slowing everything down, I need to know....f-a-s-t!  I will pay top-dollar!

I know we're basically half-way through Friday at this point (curses on you, Charter!!!), but if you still have a flashback post lingering around, please post a link below.... 

I also wanted to let you know that I will no longer be posting my Flashbacks every Friday.  I'm not sure if there will be any rhyme or reason to when I actually post them....I guess when the inspiration hits.  I will try to let you know through the week before I post one, so that you can plan to join in if you'd like.

It is that time again!  To see more Show and Tells go to Canadagirl.  This week  I am going to show what my wonderful husband built for the children.  He spent last weekend building them a tree house.  The kids have wanted a tree house for a long time.  We have a huge Southern Magnolia tree in our front yard that the kids love to climb.  It provides such wonderful shade that the kiddos do not need sunscreen in the summer if they play under it. 

My dh mostly used left over wood from the basement! Yeah!! This was a win-win situation. I got the basement a bit more cleaned out, my dh got to work with his hands after a long week of paperwork, and the kids got a new secret world to make up a hundred stories in.  The tree house is a platform 63 inches off the ground with railings and homemade ladder.  All 4 kids can play up in it at the same time.

Tom Sawyer is in heaven up there!

Two man duck duck goose in the tree house.

The view when on your back looking up in the tree house.

Blessings,

Dawn

This morning I am resisting running off to the state fair.  It is "free" today for students.  As with many things, "free" is not really free.  I, alas, am not a student and would have to pay my entry fee.  Also, I suspect that my kids would be disappointed with not being allowed to go on the rides because those cost extra. Oh and the 30 miles worth of gas to get us there and back. Then there is the question of cotton candy!  You see, during the July 4th celebration downtown we discovered that some of our dear children had never had cotton candy.  Can you imagine? LOL!  We stood in a very long line to get them some cotton candy, and it sold out right before we got to the counter.   So how would I pass up the rows of cotton candy just sitting there for some outrageous fee if we went to the fair? 

One of the important things to me about doing this project is getting back to basic simple pleasures.  So instead of running off and spending money, we are going to enjoy the simple pleasures in life today.  The kids are going to enjoy the view from their new tree house, and I am going to enjoy the $12 to $15 I saved in my bank account by staying home. (Hubby built the kids a new tree house for the grand total of $18 dollars the weekend before Not Buying Month.)

Here is the view while laying on one's back in the new tree house (Southern Magnolia) ~

Blessings,

Dawn

My oldest was in her first ever public performance a few weeks ago. As a former theatre major, I am so proud!

Sorry for the poor quality video - the lighting was terrible in the old theater. I tried to keep her in the center of the picture, so see if you can pick her out!

While in Branson we visited the "Wild Woody", which is a go cart with an elevated wooden track. Follow this link to see Geoffrey having a blast as his daddy takes him for a ride... (you can also get glimpse of Cuyler and I waving from behind them) Definately the best go cart track we have ever driven on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq3ondKbbM0 *woozy warning* this is filmed from the driver seat of the go-cart so it is a bit wobbly - but Geoffrey's comment at the end is worth the ride he is screaming the whole ride and then.... ! (if you have a weak stomach, let it download and fast forward to the last 30 seconds to hear Geoffrey's comment)

And be sure to notice his beanie cap - Preston brought it to him from Ghana in June and he has worn it every day since - no matter that it is sweltering hot and his hair is soaked from sweat! He even takes it to bed , tis a very cool cap!

Hurricane Gustav gave us all a scare, esp Post Katrina. We did evacuate, all the way to Branson,MO. We picked Branson because we found a hotel there that (with a timeshare presentation) was $20 for 3 nights including breakfast and 2 tickets to IMAX. What a steal! My generous father in law (we love that guy, for so many reasons) let us use his company's cargo van instead of our van (which has nearly 300k miles!) we put a mattress in the back of the van, packed the suitcases and comuters and food around the kiddos and took off. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Branson and it is beautiful, we love the mountains and this was our first visit to the Ozarks. Breathtaking. And we discovered again just how amazing our God is. You see, about a month ago, my very best friend from Junior High found me online. We had not talked in over 10 years. It was nice to chat online with her and catch up on our lives. Turns out she lives very close to Branson (didn't know that when we booked - just excited about the 20 bucks!) We were able to spend some time with her family and catch up in person. It was such a blessing. This is the girl whose family took me to church as a young teen and really lived the Christian life, I was an unsaved kid from a messed up home, and they loved me anyhow and made me feel like family. It was wonderful to visit with them, Rae and Shawn - thanks again for dinner - next time we will play host to you!

While in Branson there is soo much to do, we will have to go back again. I really had no idea this town was such a great place. The first day we took the kids to see Table Rock Dam, they understood how a dam works from watching a special on the Hoover Dam a few months back, it was awesome to see one in real life! Under the dam, Missouri has a fish hatchery where they breed Rainbow and Brown Trout to stock the rivers and lakes. The kids did not even realize they were having 'school' the hatchery was very interesting, and they loved feeding the fish. Geoffrey was on the hunt for spiders (there were several webs outside by the fish), his awe struck face admiring the spider web just choked me up. He is so.darn.cute! We spent the afternoon at the Branson Mall - I had never seen a mall with Wal-Mart inside - what a strange thing! At the mall there is a free music show featuring local talent. We stayed and watched the cutest little girls sing. There was a most adorable redhead about 7 yrs old, she tapdanced to the 'Hampster Dance' ~ the highlight of the show!

The next morning we had to do the timeshare presentation. We arrived promptly at 9:30am (no small feat for our family of late sleepers!) After filling out some paperwork, we were told that we were in the wrong place and had to go back to the hotel. OOOKKK, so we did, and of course they had no clue... turns out the timeshare people saw us piling out of the refugee van and decided we were not a 'good prospect'. We did tell the lady selling us the deal we were not interested in buying a timeshare, we were honest with our situation, she knew we were fleeing the storm.... anyhow, the company we booked through ended up honoring their end with the room (not the tickets -big whoop - we just really wanted a safe place to sleep away from Gustav!) and we avoided sitting through the speel. However, at the mall, we booked another timeshare deal in exchange for tickets to the "Acrobats of China" show. The timeshare dude kept us there for THREE HOURS!!! Ugh, but the show was AMAZING! What those people can do with their bodies was incredible. It was very similar to the Circue de Soleil acrobats, but to see it live was wonderful. And we had great seats, right in the center, just a few rows back. There was also a really talented magician, we love to watch magic shows and always try to figure out the trick, but live is just so different. It was captivating.

After the show, we went back to the room and cleaned up - by then Gustav had made his way north and we were beginning to feel the rain and wind. We checked out at midnight and started toward home. We did take a detour through Keller, TX (near Dallas) to visit dear friends who moved away after Katrina. Andre' got some much needed rest and I got some much needed "Katie time!" They treated us to dinner and some laughs, almost convinced us to move in down the street from them! It was difficult to leave...our next evacuation vacation will be to their home! The kids loved being together again, and it was pure joy to hold Nathalie again! Thank you my friend - I am tearing up just remembering yesterday - I miss you already!

We pulled into our driveway at 7am Thursday. We are exausted, but filled with joy to see our home and city spared - except for spotty areas that are still without power. We do have power, and have no damage except a fence board down and a messy yard! Today we clean up and tomorrow it is back to reality! Thankfully, because we began school in July we did not lose much by taking this 'Evacuation Vacation' and we will get back to school in the morning. My local friends and family, who fled to areas near for saftey and those who stayed, I am glad to hear all is well, and challenge you - next time - go far enough away where you can enjoy your time and where the weather is nice!

In other news, we have a new school name. We began our homeschool adventures as "The L**** Institute for Advanced Learning" (guess who came up with that doozy  and Preston was only in first grade!) we changed our name along the way to "Joy Learning Center" we wanted our school filled with JOY and teach our kids to focus on J - Jesus, O - others then Y- yourself. so it was fitting. But now we are nearing graduation for our oldest and Joy Learning Center engraved on his class ring and his diploma just did not sound right! We held an election. The names nominated were "The Academy", "Things Go Better with God School", "Candy School", "M********* Street School", "Life Academy", "PCCCG Academy", "Academy of Joyful Learning", and "L.I.F.E."

Drum roll please.....

We are officially announcing the new name for our school: L.I.F.E. (L**** Institute For Education) it is a fitting acronym and encapsulates what we teach here... "LIFE".