Whale watching

Fun day. All the kids had fun. Though 3 of 4 felt a bit sick, everybody recovered and is excited to go again - especially if I give them some motion sickness medicine. (I thought I'd try our first time without it to see how they'd do.)

And we may go again soon because we saw no whales and were given "whale checks" to come back again for free.

We did see some sea lions and had one following our boat all the way back to the dock.

Attempting to blog with mobile posting

We'll see how this goes. Maybe I can blog again.

workboxes

in an attempt to better organize our schooling and build greater independence into our kids' work ethics, we have implemented the workbox system. it has not magically transformed us, BUT the kids are enjoying the system and getting better at it everyday.
our goal is for our kids to be able to work independently through a variety of tasks with a checklist that they make for themselves. that's really 3 goals: 1. work independently, 2. work through a checklist, 3. make a useful checklist
our kids can work independently on SOME things and need to build that skill into a few more parts of their education
most of our kids have a hard time working through a checklist, so this step (using workboxes), is designed to make the checklist more tangible/visible and motivate them to finish their "list"
the most basic description of what we're doing is putting our "checklist" of independent studies in drawers/"boxes" for them to work through each day.
so they start with the top drawer and move to the bottom, through all 10 drawers. when they finish, they can have free time (until I call them to our afternoon all-together readings).
I thought this would motivate anyone prone to laziness to keep up with everyone else. and this is working as my lazy child is also my most competitive child. however, my usually diligent child finishes last because he is also my know-it-all child and spends all his time helping the other kids instead of accomplishing his own work. :( hmmm...

a productive day
the makings of a productive tomorrow

boys can bake

This morning I woke up to a loud clatter. Someone had opened the slide out drawer of pans that we DO NOT ever open - because cookie sheets slide down the back and make loud noise. (No harm done, just loud.)

Well this morning, Kik was the offender and Jo quickly helped him clean up and because I heard them working together, I didn't say anything (or get out of bed). :)
When I did get out of bed, the boys had prepared biscuits following (and doubling) the recipe on the bisquick box. They did a fantastic job and the biscuits were delicious. I was pleasantly surprised by their initiative and skill. I have only made this recipe a couple times, so it's not something they're familiar with and they accurately doubled the recipe. Also, I'm lazy, so the couple times I used the recipe, I made the "drop biscuits". The boys used cookie cutters to make fun shapes after flouring the counter and rolling out the dough! And they cleaned up!
Love these kids. I am blessed.

lots of baking

monday we made french baguettes - yum!

today we made cinnamon rolls - yummy!

sick kids :(

wow! i've done things this week that i NEVER thought i'd EVER do in my life (unless i became a nurse.) that's all i can say.

family fun night

on saturday (after the garage sale when i was super tired) the kids planned a family fun night! and tonight, it was almost fully executed .
here was the plan they presented:
* go to disneyland (translation: downtown disney)

* eat at rainforest cafe (free kids meal coupons were paperclipped to the plan!)

* go on "all the rides" (me:what rides?, them: ummm... i guess there's just the monorail, me: you have to pay to get into disneyland for that, them: oh yea. $600 for our family. nevermind.)
* legoland (translation: the lego store), where we can each spend the $10 we "earned" from the garage sale (they did give up quite a few of their possessions - so basically i'm trading a toybox worth of junk per kid for a tiny box of legos per kids - works for me!) back to the fun night...
* ride the tram (we usually watch the fireworks from the parking garage)
* donuts from Compass Cafe for dessert (we bought krispy kremes there one time) i convinced the kids they would have more to spend on legos if we drove by a regular donut shop on the way home.
execution: rainforest cafe, lego store, 8pm:realize that tomorrow is our first day "back to school" - aka: wake up early!, tram, donut shop (it was part of the plan), home (with sugared kids who need to get to bed ASAP and will probably be grumpy in the morning - sorry mrs. winn & mrs. clark & my whole class! Thankfully, i'd finished most of my prep work ahead of time!)
Super fun for everyone! Great planning grubb kids!

Garage Sale!

we had our 1st real garage sale.

(i had attempted one before, but when you wake up Satuday and see your neighbors stuff on their driveways and put your junk out too, that doesn't really count.)

this time, we planned ahead! it was THURSDAY when we decided we'd really do it. so Friday we gathered our stuff to sell in the garage and put an ad on craigslist and printed 8 signs to put out. i also went to the bank (last minute thought at 5:45pm) to get some change. (I asked for the "standard garage sale change package", but they didn't have one. However, the guy was nice enough to let me know that they would be open Saturday so I could just bring everything over to change back to the larger bills when we were done. while i am not fond of BofA the establishment, my BofA sure has kind and helpful tellers.)

Saturday, Scott & I got up at 5am to move the stuff out of the garage to the driveway. I put up our little signs and posted an "open for business" ad on craigslist and we were crazy-busy with "customers" from 7-11am. By noon, we'd packed up most of what was left in Scott's car to go to the goodwill. He picked up subway on his way home and picked us up from the bank (where i rechanged my proceeds) to go watch some soccer.

(then i went to joann and spent about half our profits on "furniture"! (more later) didn't we have this sale preparing for a move?!?)

Ice Skating with friends

We enjoyed ice skating today with the DiPeppino family. Amazingly, though their girls had never been on the ice, they had little trouble staying on their feet (thanks to rollerblading). I was impressed and our family was blessed by fellowship with friends.

Goodbye Uncle Gary

My dear uncle Gary passed away on 12/26/11. Today we attended his memorial service. My kids remember Uncle Gary as he was for all the years of their lives - physical body failing and living in the VA hospital, but fun-loving and giving. He had carried on my grandmother's tradition of gifting crisp cash at Christmas and enjoyed the smiles of the kids and returned their smiles readily.

The family was able to gather today to celebrate his move to a new life, where he will never worry about physical ailments or the concerns of this life.

His funeral, held at Riverside National Cemetary, was very interesting because it was a military service. The funeral director had also served in the Navy and wanted to honor his fellow Navyman, and helped arrange a more elaborate service. An honor guard team did a rifle volley and played taps. Then, the flag from the casket was folded and given to my cousin (his "next of kin") and many honoring words were shared.

The kids will not soon forget their great uncle, though their times with him were few, and because they received one of the shell casings from his memorial, he is more firmly etched in their memories.

Goodbye Uncle Gary.

Happy New Year!

For the first time, we made it all the way to midnight with everyone awake. Gone are the days of celebrating at 9pm. We didn't actually leave our friends/neighbors' home until after 1:30am! Even the Grubb kids know how to party! :)