First Day of School 2021

After a lot of discussion and prayer, we decided to continue homeschooling the kids for one more year.  Our main deciding factors were flexibility on some travel we want to do this year, concern that the schools still aren't "back to normal" and the focus would be on catching up kids from COVID with a lack of attention on our kids who are still on track, and we also discovered several benefits of homeschooling from last year that we didn't want to give up (extra free time, more creativity, stronger sibling relationships, individualized learning and enrichment). We are looking forward to another great year of learning and growing and mom not going too crazy 😜

We had a bit of a soft start to our homeschool this year, but we had our official "first day of school" on Monday, August 23, fresh off of our beach vacation.

Mondays are a busy day for us, so we fit in school around our activities- Katherine's first day of dance (10:00-11:00), and Samuel and Elisabeth's gymnastics (12:00-1:00)

We took some first day of school pics outside before heading to Katherine's dance. 

Elisabeth's first day of first grade!

Katherine's first day of being the adorable three year old little sister :)

Nathan's first day of fifth grade!

Samuel's first day of third grade!

These kids really are best friends, and amidst all the fighting do genuinely enjoying playing and being together. I attribute a lot of that to COVID/homeschool and all the togetherness they've had over the past couple of years. 

Elisabeth came with me to Katherine's dance and we did some one on one school while the boys stayed at home and worked. 

Our first day of school traditions include freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for an after school snack and burgers, hot dogs and root beer floats for dinner. 

The kids completed their annual back to school surveys too. 

Nathan

How old are you?

10

What is your favorite color?

Orange

What is your favorite food?

Tacos

What is your favorite TV show/computer game?

Roblox

What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Go to Texas Roadhouse

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Play Video Games

What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?

Build Hot Wheels

What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?

Play Roblox

What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?

Build Duplos

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Lego League

What are your most nervous about this year in school?

Language Arts

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Imagineer

What is your favorite movie?

Lego Batman

What is your favorite toy?

Legos

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Champion clothes

Who are your best friends?

Daniel, Wyatt, Liam, Caden, Levi, and Caleb

Samuel

How old are you?

8

What is your favorite color?

Cerulean Blue

What is your favorite food?

Pizza

What is your favorite TV show?

Power Rangers Ninja Steel

What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Eat at a restaurant

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Go to Urban Air

What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?

Teach her school things

What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?

Play Roblox

What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?

Read to her

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Co-op

What are your most nervous about this year in school?

I don’t know

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Imagineer

What is your favorite movie?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

What is your favorite toy?

Nintendo Switch

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Champion Basketball Shirt

Who are your best friends?

Asher, Bennett, Daniel, and Leon

Elisabeth

How old are you?

7

What is your favorite color?

Teal

What is your favorite food?

Spaghetti

What is your favorite TV show/computer game?

Roblox

What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Get Pedicures

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Play Games

What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?

Make crafts

What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?

Play Roblox

What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?

Play princess

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Learning to read

What are your most nervous about this year in school?

My math

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Gymnastics coach

What is your favorite movie?

Polar Express

What is your favorite toy?

 Kindle

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Blue soft shirt

Who are your best friends?

Sarah, Elise, Ainsley, Makinley, Ilona, Kaydence, Addisyn, Audrey N. and Audrey R.

Katherine

How old are you?

3

What is your favorite color?

Teal, yellow, and green and blue

What is your favorite food?

Cupcakes

What is your favorite TV show/computer game?

Tic Tac Toy

What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Play games

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Play

What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?

Watch him build Legos

What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?

Go around the block

What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?

Play hot wheels

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Going to the playroom at Co-op

What are your most nervous about this year in school?

Leaving mommy

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Gymnastics girl

What is your favorite movie?

Paw Patrol the Movie

What is your favorite toy?

Baby dolls and Calico Critters

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Dresses

Who are your best friends?

Laura, Makinley, Ainsley, and Amelia

 

2021 Beach Pictures

 Our 2021 family beach pictures turned out great! Our kids have grown up visiting the beach regularly, and I love that we capture the memories each trip (even the stressful chaos of it all).

I found a sweet white sundress for the girls and decided to go with a white/navy color scheme this year. 

These kiddos right here are my greatest treasures. 

This silly pose is my absolute favorite. I can't get over how it captured everyone's hint of crazy in our personalities so perfectly. 

This one is going on the wall for sure. 

I had to save these outtakes. Matt and I could not stop laughing at Katherine's crazy pose in these pictures. I mean, I have zero idea what was going on in her head at the time. I giggle every time I look at them. 

The kids keep getting taller and the beach memories keep getting sweeter. Until next beach trip...

Six Flags Over Georgia

 We woke the kids up at 3:30am on Saturday morning to head out. They were just a little tired, ha!

They thought we were headed home, but Matt and I had talked before hand about taking a detour to Six Flags Over Georgia. We thought it would be fun to surprise them (and we weren't 100% sure we'd feel like going after a week at the beach), so we didn't tell them. They did happen to spot our souvenir cups and popcorn bucket in the back of the van, and heard Matt's phone say "starting route to Atlanta" when we were leaving that morning, but I still think they were happily surprised. 

I was a little leery about visiting Six Flags Over Georgia because I had read a few reviews about the park and they were horrible. People said that it was dirty, the staff was rude, all the attractions were closed, the lines were three hours long and on and on discouraging people from going. But we had an absolutely wonderful day! Low crowds, great weather and some thrill loving little people in our family made for a perfect day at Six Flags.

There were some ride closures early on, but almost all the rides had opened by the afternoon/evening. We got to the park right at opening, and were happy to see an almost empty parking lot. We immediately started riding roller coasters. Our first ride was a stand up roller coaster called the Georgia Scorcher. It was our first standing coaster and was really fun. Then we walked over to the Gotham City area, and Nathan got to ride the Batman coaster for the first time. He's finally hit the 54 inch mark and can ride all the roller coasters now. Samuel and Elisabeth rode Cat Woman whip a few times while he was riding Batman. That's one of Elisabeth's favorite Six Flags rides. 

We also rode Dare Devil Dive that has a beyond vertical drop. It was a very smooth coaster and super fun! One of everyone's favorites!

 

We spent some time in the kids area for our littlest thrill seeker. She loved the swings and the kiddie rides.

When we visited Six Flags over Texas last March, these little trucks were Katherine's favorite ride. She was happy to ride them again, but I think she's starting to graduate to the bigger rides, because she was content just riding them one time. 

I had packed a lunch in the van, so we took a quick lunch break in the parking lot and then were back riding more rides for the rest of the day. We split up so Matt could take Nathan to ride the coasters with height requirements Samuel and Elisabeth didn't meet. And then we swapped places, so I could ride with Nathan. We rode Superman which was another first of ours- a laying down coaster. It was fun to ride once, but definitely wasn't a favorite of mine. 

Of course, we had to ride the carousel. Katherine always takes her time choosing the perfect horse, names it, and kisses it goodbye when the ride it over. Precious!

She had to pose for a picture with it. 

We rode ALLL the rides that day. It was a huge park with so many great coasters and other rides. Another first was a coaster with three loops. Lots of firsts for us that day! Nathan remembers them all and tells everyone about all the different roller coasters he rode. 

Our favorite coaster of the day was Twisted Cyclone (fitting after our experience with Tropical Storm Fred, ha!). This one had the feel (although to a lesser degree) of Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point. It was super fun!

Back in March Nathan and Matt waited in line almost three hours to ride Riddler's Revenge. They had the same ride at Six Flags over Georgia called Pandemonium, and Samuel was tall enough to ride it. Nathan, Samuel and I were able to walk right on the ride, and it was really, really fun. There's no way it was worth a three hour wait, but I'm so glad we all got to ride it together. That was one of my favorite parts of the day. 

We met back up with the girls and shut the park down back at the Gotham City area. Nathan and Matt rode Batman again. Everyone but me and Katherine rode Cat Woman Whip, and Katherine rode Poison Ivy three times in a row. I rode it with her, and then Matt, and then she begged to ride it again. Matt and my stomachs couldn't handle any more spinning, so we sent her with Nathan which was against the rules. Nathan explained how his parents couldn't handle riding with her again, and the worker was nice enough to let her stay on with Nathan since it was the last ride of the night. I'm so glad I didn't ride it with her, because the worker was also nice enough to let the kids ride it for a solid 15 minutes straight. He kept restarting it again and again and called it party time. The kids thought it was the best thing in the world. I don't know how their little tummies can handle so much, ha!

I couldn't believe we stayed at the park from open to close (11 Hours!). I mean I should believe it, because my kids have superhero stamina at theme parks. We were sweaty, tired, and hot but so happy for such a fun, bonus day of vacation.

Our hotel for the night was only about a five minute drive from the park, but Katherine crashed hard in that five minutes. 

I'm thankful I ignored the negative reviews and went along with Matt's spontaneous detour because it was a great last day of vacation!