Pieces of Us

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah...

    The girls are safely ensconced at camp right now and I keep hearing this song in my head...

 

Although I am really missing my girls I am so happy that they are so comfortable leaving home for a week and meeting new friends. They were very excited to find, when we arrived at camp, that they they were assigned to Cabin Five. Cabin Five is the 'haunted' cabin. No, it's not really haunted, but it's the furthest from the center of camp and as such is the source of all the camp ghost stories. Maddy was thrilled.

 They were also very excited to find that Haleigh and Brooke are their cabinmates again this year. Haleigh only lives about 30 minutes from us and the girls recently went to a party at her house. I love that camp has given them a friend close by that can commiserate with Gabby about life with diabetes. Brooke, like Maddy, does not have diabetes but gets to attend camp because her dad is one of the camp doctors.

 The girls have changed so much from last year. Here they are on their way into bass Pro Shops for our traditional pre-camp lunch last year.

 

And here they are this year:

 

 Last year the girls counseor was from England. Her name was Anna.  They do not have her as a counselor this year but I do hope that she is there and they can see her again.

Last Year:

 

 And here they are in Cabin Four last year:

 

Here is Gabby THIS year in Cabin Five. I love the llok of joy and excitement on her face.  She LOVES camp.

  Here is Maddy.  The cabins have two bunkrooms with a bathroom in the middle.  The girls are each on a separate side.

 Who else thinks these girls need to stop growing up!   Here are both girls, looking happy and ready to start camp.

 

  And last but not least, reunited with their friends Brooke and Haleigh.

 

 

  I can't wait until Saturday when I get to see them again.  Until then I will be hanging out in their room where I have been the last two days.

Tea Party

    Today we had out annual tea party.  I did not wear a hat but Gabby did!  The kids all dressed up in their finery and so did I. It turned out to be perfect weather to be outside.  Here are some pictures from our morning.

All of our 'young' guests.

Some of our grown up guests.

My beautiful, youthful  MOM

Me and Jessica

Madeline having a sip of tea.

Gabriella looking gorgeous in her cloche.

Jillian enjoying a tasty dessert.

Just me!

Sipping

Us again!

Stop growing up Maddy! STOP IT!

AJ wanted to wear an old Cub Scout uniform and help serve the other guests.

Mmmmmmm!!!

Handsome Caleb

Counting Down

    It's almost here. The day we take the girls to Camp Conrad Chinnock.  I feel like I have put off helping them pack and plan until the last minute this year because I am really going to miss them. They are bothy full of excitment and have been making beaded bracelets for weeks to pass out to all of their friends new and old.  

    As much as I dread dropping them off at camp, I also look forward to it. It's a lot of fun as a mom to see their poise and maturity as I leave them and they head off to their cabin already talking excitedly with the cabinmates they have just met and bonding with their counselor. I wonder though if it's harder this year because they have matured so much in the past year. I am now fully convinced that the year between 12 and 13 is where the hugest maturation occurs in girls. They are both just so different this year from where they were last year.  Both physically and mentally.

    For us camp is not just about meeting friends and getting away for a vacation. This camp is important because it helps Gabby to be refreshed, to feel less alone and to learn new ways to cope with her diabetes. She comes home ready to take good care of herself.  Maddy learns so much too and for once gets to be the one who is different in the group. So, we will drop them off on Monday, we will say goodbye.  They will run off with their buddies and barely look back.  And I will watch them go knowing that they are well adjusted, happy young women who can get by without me for a week.  But I sure will miss them!

Paramount Ranch

    Paramount Ranch is located in Agoura and is the former set of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and many other movies and shows inclusing Carnivale.  It's open to the public and is a lot of fun to explore.  I honestly sat there and envisioned planning one of my kids weddings there.  Yes, I am weird that way.

    We went with a big group of friends, all piled into my van.

Can you spot some Munoz Kids?  A few Fairalls?  And a coupla Hattons?

Some of my youngins stayed home with Jessica because they had colds.  I was bummed that they had to miss out on a fun outing so we plan to go back.

Caleb was recruited to be the new sheriff in town.

We found this ol' cowpoke roaming around...

 

And another rascally fella.

 

And I think this is one of my favorite photos.  Keara makes an excellent cowgirl.

 

The kids put on a play up on the stage.

 

And another of this guy just cuz' he's cute.

I rustled up my gang for a group shot.  We sure missed the other two.

 

The Whole Gang

 

More pics to come!

Sanguine Me

    I love to read about personality types and why we act the way that we do.  It never ceases to amaze me how accurately my personality can be nailed down. The book I linked goes over the 4 basic temperaments.  Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic.  I have always known that I am predominatly a Sanguine personality.  If I wanted to pin it down more narrowly I would classify myself as a SanChlor with a stronger percentage on the Sanguine side.  Probably about 70/30.

Here are some things that struck me about the Sanguine personality type.

Sanguines are extremely extroverted, they make decisions based on feelings and are impulsive. Sanguines tend to enter a room mouth first and are fascinating storytellers. They have a lot of friends and feel the joys and sorrows of people they meet.  Sanguines can be unproductive, egocentirc and tend to exagerrate.  (What?  I never exagerrate!) 

   SanChlors tend to talk too much. (Ahem...), they are highly opinionated and express themselves loudly.

Sanguine people are very people oriented and make sure to connect with everyone. They never lose their childlike curiosity for the world around them.  They are optimisitc by nature, easily forgetting the past and not carrying grudges.  Sanguines have a caring and compassionate heart. 

    I found it amusing that personality can be determined in many everyday things like eating.  Sanguines are generally not picky and love food. They are erratic drivers who sometimes speed only to slow down suddeny and drive under the speed limit (this one is SO me), they want to look people in the face while talking and driving.  We are compulsive shoppers, have a hard time resisting a deal. We are drawn to the visual while shopping which I find so spot on since I am absolutely a visual person. Sanguines do not have good study habits.  We're smart, we just don't like to focus for too long.  

     Another revealing passage was about personality and discipline.  I found this section to be very accurate. Sanguines are loud in their instruction and correction.  They rarely carry out their threats (Jess...no comments from you!), Sanguines are not generally spankers because we get past the anger too quickly because of our tender and forgiving spirits. However this can lead to permissiveness  which is not so great for young children. Sanguines however love to play with their children and are quick to offer them love and support.

    So that is Sanguine me. I highly recommend reading up on personality types.  Be careful not to try and peg young children as they change dramatically as they age. I am already fairly certain that Maddy is a PhlegSan and Gabby is a MelChlor. But the future remains to be seen.

 

 

Summer Swim

    Genevieve is officially a deep-end swimmer now.  It was so much fun to see her get the courage (with a little push from me) to swim across the deep end but once she did she was swimming races with the big kids.

    Caleb is also becoming an independent swimmer. He still starts off with a floatie but he usually gets rid of it after a bit and swims quite well actually.  I can't wait for it to warm up a little more so I can start Jillian's lessons.  She is so ready and I am ready to have all my kids swimming on their own.

End of the School Year

    Well here we are at the end of the school year.  About this time I start looking back over what we've learned throughout the year and see what we've accomplished.  This year I have a lot to smile about.  It has certainly been the very best year we've had since we began homeschooling eight years ago.  All of the kids have come so far and I am confident in what they have learned.

• Genevieve learned her multiplication tables.
• AJ moved into fluency with his reading.
• Madeline got a silver medal for the National Mythology Exam
• Gabby excelled at piano.
• Ginny and AJ impressed me with their dedication to grammar this year, mastering sentence diagramming.
• The older girls started to gain a solid base in Latin.
• Writing improved a lot for all the kids.
• History was great this year thanks to out TOG curriculum.  We all learned so much about history this year and can't wait to move on to the next time period.
• The girls read a lot of excellent literature.
• We began Singapore Math with the elder girls and found it to be much mroe to our liking.
• Ginny started to show an aptitude for Math.

 

So much more happened this year but those were just the highlights.  I'm looking forward to plotting and planning next year and seeing where the year takes us.  One more year until we tackle high school. YIKES!