Camping and Raft School

James took went to raft guide school in April. He had a great time, learned a lot and now he can guide us down the river. We went out at the end of the week and camped with some friends (their Dad was in the school too). We hiked the Appalachian Trail for a little while, watched the Dad's go down the river - James is the guide in the back, he loved it! It was a fun weekend and now we have our own raft and love to go white water rafting as a family. We have only gone on the Nantahala River so far since it is a good river for little kids, but we plan to tackle the Ocoee some time this summer, that will be for the big kids and adults.

Happy Birthday Emily and Sarah (better later than never)

With all the tornado hubbub and then summer business I did not realize I never posted pictures from Emily and Sarah's birthdays in April. I am having a hard time believing that it is June, practically July as I write this, but there it is.

Emily turned 7 on April 8. Emily is a sweet girl with a very funny rough house side. She is in charge of collecting eggs everyday, a job that she takes seriously and does very well. With her move up to eggs, it left an opening for feeding the dog. Samantha has taken over that responsibility and feels very grown up to be doing Emily's old job. Emily does really well in school, she likes to read, ride her bike, and anything horse related. For Emily's party we invited a couple of families over for an ice cream party. She wanted a volcano cake and we did our best.

Sarah turned 9 on April 22. Sarah has grown up a lot this year. She has taken on more responsibility in the barn and has really risen to the level of 'big kid' over the past several months. Sarah loves babies, anything wedding and love related, riding her bike and anything in the water. For Sarah's birthday weekend we went to Atlanta for the Temple Open House. It was wonderful. We did not take any pictures of the temple because - hot day, lots of people, parked WAY in the back, too tired I guess - but James took a picture of all of us on the Temple grounds. Visiting the temple open house is something that I think the kids will remember for a really long time. It was very nice. Sarah wanted a motorcycle cake. James, Jacob and Kathryn all pitched in to make it super cool. It has whoops, jumps and flying motorcycles, they did a good job.

Just because I can not believe these two little girls are growing up so fast, here is a picture of them when Emily was a baby, Sarah was 2. Happy (belated) Birthday cute girls!

I don't stink after all! WHEW!!!

So normally my posts are all about the cute children I adore and our fun activities, but this one is all about me. :) We have been home schooling our kids for the last 3 years. Since making this decision I live with the daily fear that they will end up uneducated and it will be all my fault. For various reasons we have missed any standardized testing for the last 2 years so this year the oldest two were tested. It is not required by Alabama to test your home schooled children (scary huh?!), but I really wanted to know if I was doing them justice or failing them. The results came in the mail today. Drum roll please.......Jacob and Kathryn both scored in the 90th percentile range over all! Kathryn scored in the 99th percentile in math problem solving and data interpretation and Jacob scored in the 99th percentile in social studies. YIPPEEE, I do not stink as a home school Mom, what a relief!!! I always knew they were smart, I am just glad I am not ruining them. I will sleep well tonight! Tomorrow I start planning the curriculum for each child for next year. I think I will have a dish of ice cream to celebrate. Oh yeah, I may share with the two scholars as well.