My Ballerina

Sorry it has been FOREVER--again--since my last post! I enjoy updating the latest happenings on my blog, but I struggle with finding the time. Here's a quick synopsis of the last few months--school, sports, dance, boyscouts, and church activites...plus now starting a new business.

School is going pretty well. Matthias has begun reading short vowel words--he is eager to learn to read. I think he will pick it up quicker than his three older brothers. Mackenzie is so funny--she sits nearby and repeats the letter sounds when Matthias is going over them. She also loves to color and work on her "big book". She thinks she's in school too. The others are coming along in their school well. We have our good days and bad, and they each have their best, and not so best subjects. We're all learning together on this journey of home schooling.

It has been an adjustment for Mickey in the World View Classes. He is so smart and capable, but is a minimalist for sure. He just wants to get his work done, so does as little as possible to get by with the assignments. Matthew and I are constantly encouraging him to work more diligantly and to do his best work, but it's an ongoing battle. Pray with us that he takes his work more seriously and realizes how important it is now that he start preparing for his future.

Not much to report in the sports area from this fall. None of the children's teams were very successful at winning, but they had a good time.

Now on to my little ballerina. Madeleine started ballet and jazz in the beginning of September. She is really enjoying it. The parents are not typically permitted to watch class, but this past Wednesday was observation day. The parents observe from an upper balcony, which wasn't the best scenerio for picture taking, but I did my best. Here a few of my favorites:

I'm hoping to get back to posting more frequently, but just in case I don't get another one in this week...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Matthias's Summer Achievement

Now it's officially Fall. Baseball, soccer, dance, boy scouts... have begun, but I'm still updating from summer. I only have two left and then I promise I'll move on to more current happenings. One day, far in the future (Lord willing), I'll actually catch up with life.

One accomplishment Matthias had this summer was learning to ride his bike without training wheels. One day (I wish I remembered the date exactly, but I don't), he kept asking me to take off his training wheels. Well, as many busy moms know, I couldn't do it right when he wanted me too. When I finally ventured outside to fill his request, he was working hard trying to take them off himself. We worked together and succeeded in removing the training wheels.

Then the lesson began. I helped him to balance and get going. He fell down a few times, but then he just took off. In less than a half hours time, he was jumping on his bike and riding like a pro (well a 5 year old pro). I couldn't believe how quick he took to riding a two wheeler.

He's in kindergarten this year, and I hope he learns to read as fast as he learned to ride his bike, but I suppose that's a post for another day.

More Of Our Summer

Soon after our visit to Pa's house, we headed down to visit VoVo and PaPa Jim. Most of the days are spent swimming. The great neighborhood pools at VoVo's is where the children get in most of their summer swim time. Miles worked sooo hard this summer to pass the required swim test so he could go off the diving board and slides in the deep end. Well, we actually headed down to VoVo's twice this summer; and, on our second visit, Miles finally made it all the way across the pool (required for the swim test), he then passed the tread water for 1 minute test (took him two tries)--with 5 minutes to spare before the next required adult swim break, just before we were heading back home to VoVo's house, and the final day of our visit. So with those 5 minutes left, he jumped off the board and slid down the slide two times each. He left happy and ready to conquer the swim test next year.

Mickey, Madeleine, and Max attempted many tricks and games off the diving board/slides. Max in particular tries all kinds of crazy twists and flips (they usually look pretty odd if you were to see him attempt one in person).

Matthias too is improving on his swimming, maybe next year he'll be ready for the deep end of the pool too. As you can see in one of the photos, he insisted on going to bed with his goggles on. Of course, I went in shortly after he fell asleep to remove them, but not without taking a photo first.

A walk on the "green belt" (great walking/biking trails throughout the neighborhood)--I just thought the lighting was cool in this tunnel:

A water lily--taken at Mercer park

Mackenzie "reading the paper":

Playing with PaPa Jim's glasses:

Mackenzie at Mercer. It was so hot! Sweat is dripping down her forehead.

Pool Pics:

This is Miles swimming:

Matthias asleep in his goggles:

Until next time...

Misty

Summer Fun

OK, It's been FOREVER since my last post. Every day I think to myself, "maybe today I can update my blog." But the day goes on, and I do not have the time (or energy) to get it done. I really hope to do better--to keep you (my family and friends) a part of our lives, especially those of you that do not live close to us or we don't see very often. I won't tell you what time it is now. Thanks to my hubby's wonderful surprise of a caramel frappe from McDonalds at 9pm at night, I'm up unable to sleep (the caffeine you know). I knew this would probably happen, but I just couldn't let it go to waste--that's the only coffee drink I like, and I like it a lot (Now don't spoil it by telling me how many calories are in it. I just pretend it's not loaded with extra calories I don't need.)

Now on to what's been up with us... Summer is officially over in the Colvard household, and school has begun (I'll update more on that later). I have approximately 60 pictures to share with you, and that's narrowing it down. I promise not to do it all at once, but hopefully will get through the summer before Thanksgiving, and on to the fall by Christmas. Just Kidding, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, though.

I'll start at the beginning and work our way through to the end--of summer, that is. After I recovered from pneumonia, we headed to Pa's house for a much overdo visit. The weather was GREAT! It was cloudy and rainy, which kept it cool so the children could spend more time running and playing outside. There was lizard catching to be done, playing and running in the rain, ping pong, swimming at Aunt Joel's house, and of course spending time with Pa and Granny Joyce.

We returned home just in time for the July 4th festivities in Duncanville. The older 5 children enjoyed the water slides--these were no baby slides either--the city had set up as part of their celebration. We then returned to Granny's house for food, firecrackers (thanks to Aunt Julie, Jr, Aunt Samantha and C for providing them for the kids) and to watch the annual July 4th fireworks display.

The pictures are backwards--because this uploader adds them to the top instead of the bottom and I forgot about that. In other words, I have to add them backwards to be in the correct order. I could fix it, but it's a pain moving the pictures all around, so I'm leaving it as is. So, start at the bottom if you want to see them in chronological order--either way, this is just the beginning of July. I'll put more on soon. Love you all.

He's so handsome.

Despite the look on his face, he

really loved it.

In case you don't see it, the lizard is on top of her head.

Just some favorites

I love taking pictures of my children!! Especially Mackenzie because she just doesn't care if I follow her around all day with the camera, and she's just so cute. She will definitely be my most photographed child. Here are some of my favorites.




I just love those sweet blue eyes!


SiStErS




Mackenzie's first pig tales. She wasn't very cooperative,
but I managed to get two little pig tales from that baby
fine hair.

More coming soon--I have some good pics from our visit with Pa
and Granny Joyce and the 4th of July. I just have to find the time
to get them posted.