Recruiting Trail

Khloe 8 years old Cowley Junior College recruiting with Daddy 

An advantage of home schooling when your a coaches kid, is being able to sleep in after you've been on the road recruiting with your Dad until 11pm!  She hit the trail last night with Daddy at 4:30pm, hit up Quick Trip for a bag of Doritos and a Kit-Kat (wouldn't have been my choice, but I wasn't invited), and hit the road.  It was an hour and 40 min drive to Kansas-cross another state off the list.  They watched a two hour Junior college basketball game.  Met the kids her Daddy is recruiting, jumped in the car and headed home.

Nothing exciting to most, but to an 8 year old girl that has to share just about everything all the time, having one-on-one alone time with Daddy doing anything, is just about the coolest thing she could be doing.  I know my husband has waited until the day she was old enough to take along without having to stop for potty breaks, melt downs and behavior checks.  The day has come for him!  The day will also most likely come when he asks her to go and she already has plans with friends, or the idea of sitting in a car with Dad for four hours isn't quite as appealing as today.  However, today and right now this is the story.  She jumps right in... SHOTGUN, and can't wait to hit the trail with Daddy!

Homeschool Check-In

  

The Work Space

A labeled paper Khloe wrote, about Hans Christian Andersen. 

8 years old

IEW Essentials A sentence labeling and grammar exercise 

(this is my cheat sheet)

IEW Task Sheet. This can be a bit daunting, but motivating at the same time. 

Week 13, half way through!

A few of the amazing books we have read aloud together.

A little bit of Cursive, Science, Art, World History and a lot of MATH...

All in all I would say we are doing well at staying on schedule.  Two weeks off for croup and a three week Christmas break haven't set us back to terribly far.  We have some great books coming up this semester that I am excited about, and finishing math with success and understanding is always more important than finishing the entire book.  I would say every year of homeschooling as gotten easier and easier.

*We use Living Books Curriculum (Charlotte Mason) and Classical Method of Home Education 

resource books for more information "A Well Trained Mind" and "The Gentle Art of Learning"

You Can Shake the Sand from your Towel, but Never from your Heart!

It's official! The Devlins (Stoners, Elands, Browns) are heading to OCNJ for TWO WEEKS this summer!

Sandy toes and salty kisses, boardwalk and bikes, ferris wheels and Wonderland, icecream and carmel corn, Mack n Manco by the slice, cousins, crabs, t-shirt shops. Taffy, Khors bros, seagulls, salty fries, sandpipers, jetties, sand buckets, and castles, boogie boarding, beach walks that beloved bridge and round about, that take me to that little town past the track and down Corinthian, surrey rentals wink at me, you can catch me by the sea!

Greetings from Ocean City New JERSEEYYYYYY!!!

Sunshine & Gloves

The day I snapped this picture me plus three had gone shopping for new hats, gloves and some cold weather extras for our trip to Alaska for Thanksgiving!  As my kids tend to do when they get anything new they want to wear or use it RiGHT away!  In the mid-west where we reside, the north-wind doesn't begin to howl until after Thanksgiving, sometimes even holding off until mid December.  The amigos, however could not wait, and took to the trampoline with their new digs to jump, bounce and fly! Notice they aren't wearing coats, but they ARE wearing gloves and mittens :)  

The sun was shining just perfectly over our fence, and over the tops of their sandy blonde heads.  I heard the squeals of excitement, and I cringed to think that they may "ruin" the "clubs" (as Pia calls them) before we even got to go on the BIG ADVENTURE north, by digging in the dirt, using their teeth to bite and take them off, or rip a whole by climbing the tree or the fence.  Something then suddenly came over me like it normally does when I have a MOM MOMENT...let them be little...

Let them wear their "clubs" when it's 75 degrees, let them get dirty that's what the wash is for.  Tell them not to use their teeth to take them off. Be a guide, but don't be a party pooper. Soak in the sun with them.  Take a couple jumps on the trampoline. Smile. Tell them that you hope they LOVE their new "clubs", and always, always take a picture!

Lets Be Adventures

Oh the places we'll go...

Woolaroc

Redbud Valley

Oklahoma City Adventures- Pinkitzel, Lego Store, Penn Square Mall

Pops

Shepard's Cross

Eskimo Joe's Stillwater, OK

Find local Digs and Dives

Ocean City New Jersey 

Family/friend visits 

I like a realistic list, but places to be added as we see fit

Khloe Tennis Drills and Form

This is a video of Khloe working on forehand and backhand FORM with her tennis Coach.

Her coach says she sees "amazing potential" in Khloe, and that with every lesson she gets better and better.

This week coming up Khloe will start playing with another little girl her age. It will challenge her skill level.  I am praying that this is an opportunity for iron to sharpen iron in these two little ladies, and for new friendships and common bonds form!

Khloe 8 years old

Excuse her French

Pia recently woke up from a nap to take her pull-up off.  I was busy doing something right at the moment and time got away from me.  She came up to me and said something so cute and so funny. I then grabbed my phone and tried to get her to say it again.  Here is that video...

                                        "Momma I need my panties, because my butts cold."

CJ plays 3C BASKETBALL

 


Caleb is playing on his first EVER Basketball team!!  He is playing for team THUNDER, a team of 10, 5 year old boys.  In his first game Caleb scored two goals for a total of four points, only two counted however because his first basket was on the WRONG GOAL ;) None-the-less we were very proud and it was nothing but net!! Here are some pictures of jersey night.

                                Caleb James 5 years old Arrow Heights 3C Basketball

                     
                          Driving to basketball is a trek, the traffic is a nightmare but it is worth it,
                          because this little guy LOVES the game ALMOST as much as his Daddy!

Thanksgiving in Alaska

Being a "Basketball Wife" has it's ins and outs as I have shared before.  Many more positives than negatives though, especially when your husband works for someone who is kind :) that HELPS!

Basketball has taken my husband ALL over the country and my family all over the mid-west, this time we got to travel together far and wide and go with him to The Great Alaskan Shoot Out!  The tournament was hosted in Anchorage over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My lucky duck children and I got to tag along.  I can't tell you what a wonderful time we had other than our team ended up only winning one game while there :( BIG BOO!

It started out with me and the three littles boarding a plane from Tulsa to Dallas, yes just me plus three!
Then a layover then a plane from Dallas to Seattle then another LAYOVER and this one was looonggg six hours I think.  Then our final flight from Seattle to Anchorage.  The kids did great other than one fit thrown by little Pia on the second leg.  How dare I wake her up to get off the plane?!

Looking at a map from OK to AK it looked as though we flew around the world, luckily it didn't feel like it!  The Mister was there at the airport ready to help with the kids and luggage and boy were we glad to see him.

Our hotel was amazing with an amazing view of the Ocean!  I am sad that my pictures are SO POOR they really do no justice to the view we had for about 7 seven hours a day before it got dark again.  The kids jumped right in the pool, I think we ate everything on the menu in the hotel restaurant, and I went without ESPRESSO for almost a whole week!  We played a total of three games only winning our first coming close the other two but just not getting it done.

The kids and I ate Thanksgiving lunch with the other wives and their families at a great restaurant with another amazing view!  We walked about 6 blocks and nearly FROZE!  The husbands were working so we met up with them a little later.

One outing that was particularly special was the day bus trip up the highway in Anchorage to a glacier area covered with snow a beautiful ocean view along the entire highway as we drove.  We even saw a Dahl Sheep high on the rocks.  It was the team the coaches their families and others we traveled with.
We also got to go to an animal conservation and see all sorts of AK animals.  Musk Ox, Links, Moose, Elk etc... it was SO fun even time to grab a few icicles and have a snowball fight!

Me +3 ready to travel bright and early

*SUPERSTARS* looking a lil tired 

"Lemme see Caleb!"

Hard core game of rock-paper-scissor at the airport in wait

How she traveled

I have GREAT children that made traveling a breeze

Pia's feelings captured on camera from the flight from Dallas to Seattle

Our party boarding the last plane!

WE LANDED IN AK!!!!!

                                         My constant helper!

The AK pilots were so friendly!  They let the two littles hang in the front and gave them official "AK airline Flight wings"

Table for two 

View form our room

Me and the Mister

Swimming!!

All bundled up for a glacier tour.

My family 

Baby it was COLD outside

 

                                         The KIDS big and small Of ORU

More of the bus tour

and more

playing in the SNOW!!!

Loving the snow

"Daddy hold me I'm coooold!!!!"

Two CUTIES!

CJ and Damen one of our players

"Look what I have, an ice SWORD!"

Daddy walking to see some AK animals

Khlo

Me and my Mister

Look ELK

Look MOOSE

Running to dinner to beat the cold!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sunsetting at 4:30pm... breathtaking

Kids table

L&K

Playing games in a fort

GAMETIME

oops... someone fell asleep at dinner

Handsome Hubs working hard, while we play

Ladies of ORU

"Cool Chicks Wear Blue" GO ORU! 

Coach and his kid

The kids of ORU

My guy doing his thing!

Part of our team, Gametime

My day date with the older two

"I love holding your hand."

The Crew minus Caleb

He was tired and we lost :(

How they sleep, close is just not close enough.

Cot at the hotel 

He spent a lot of time getting up!

Bundled up for a shopping trip

Spiderman or Caleb?

BYE ALASKA 

thank you for the memories!

How I sit during games.  Last baby, cherish!

Ivebeenholdingbabiesduringgamesforeightyears

lovingeveryminute

How she travels

I ended up having an extra day where Kyan took Pia when she was napping, so he could still get work done and I took the older two kids iceskating, and to the movies, we saw Rise of the Guardians.  That was a really fun day.  We played our third and final game, then it was time to load up for the red eye flight home.  Like I said with a few more wins this trip would have been just perfect!  It is surely one we will always remember!