weekly wrap up 6-24-16 Loss of a Family Member :(

It is with sad heart that we announce we have lost our pet Hedge Hog Sonic recently.  We had him for about 2 and a half years and he was about 4-5 years old when he passed which is the average life span of a hedge hog.   I grew really attached to this little  creature whom we rescued unexpectedly a few years ago.  So today I am posting some of my favorite pictures of Sonic.

trying a horn worm as a treat---he preferred super worms and crickets

doesn't he look like he is smiling he was probably waiting for  a super worm treat 

In his cuddle sack on my lap and sometimes he like to climb out and look at me

He loved to explore in his exercise ball.  

Sometimes he was antisocial and didn't want to be bothered :)

My favorite picture of him--getting ready to snack on a super worm

HE enjoyed being outside

He had so many funny expressions

Bath time was not his favorite acitivy

My husband dug a hole under our deck where we laid our sweet pet to rest and said our goodbyes

My sweet husband bought a little outdoor statue to place on his grave.  Originally we thought of putting it out back but have now decided to place it in our front garden so I can see it every time I come and go.:)

We will miss our little ball of grump.  While I love this little creature we won't be getting another one any time soon as they do require a lot of work and attention.  However when I do think of hedge hogs I will always remember my little Sonic.

weekly wrap up 6/17/16--Another Birthday

This has been a very busy week but still no school work has been done but that is about to change very soon:)!

MarioFan has been attending summer camp all week from 9-3.  He comes home very excited and loves telling us everything he has done and learned.

I finally found a college art student to provide Firedrake with art lessons and they met up for the first time this week and decided on some goals to work on.  Firedrake has also been working on writing her novel.  She is spending so much time in her bedroom working on her own individual projects I hardly see her anymore:(.  We are very much in the throes of teen age isolation here.

I have reached a major milestone I turned 50 years old this week!  Yikes half a century has passed.  My wonderful husband took me out to brunch where we sipped on Mimosas.

The lovely waitress bought out a candle and a slice of cake.  She was kind to predict my age at only 32:)

We had a very small cake (since MarioFan insisted on so many last week--I was caked out, lol:) and a lovely dinner at home

My daughter and I went out and had mani's and pedi's done.  

I can the count the number times I have done this on one hand!!!

Firedrake presented me with a lovely digital art piece she has been working on for several weeks.  I love it.  Firedrake is self taught on digital art 

Weekly Wrap UP 6-10-16 A Birthday celebration

Look who is turing 12!!!  Sigh, they grow up so fast.  This child is as tall as me now and he is still growing.  MarioFan has had a whole week of celebrating his 12h birthday with various activities plus 2 cakes, lucky boy!

family picture from my daughters 8th grade graduation

We had to celebrate his birthday early last weekend as Dad had to go out of town on business and my daughter was going to be visiting her grandparents for a week.  Before my husband and daughter left home we had MarioFans favorite dinner --Homemade pizza with Cake for dessert.  As a family we went to the large local swimming pool for the day as his birthday activity.  We don't do birthday parties only family activities.

While my husband and daughter were out of town my son and I  have been doing lots of Mother and son activities.  We went to the Angry Bird movie.

We have been to the pool several times this week

ON his actual birthday I took him to one of his favorite restaurants--a Japanese steak house  where they sang happy birthday to him in Japanese

I also took him to a store where he picked out another Birthday gift and also spent some of his own birthday money on buying a video game

We invited one of his friends to join us as we spent the day at a local fun park where the boys spent four hours playing on the three mini golf courses... 

bumper boats...

go kart racing... 

bumper cars and arcade activities...

and trying their hand at the batting cages

Tonight rounds out the last of MarioFan's week of fun activities by hosting his first ever sleep over at our house with a friend.  He has the evening all planned out.  He assures me that they don't plan to sleep as they will be up all night long talking and playing video games!

I am off to the store to buy the required junk food for tonight, with MarioFan angling for yet another Birthday cake, silly boy!   Wish me luck:)

Weekly Wrap Up 6-3-16 family and field trips

We took the kids to the Pokemon symphony concert as a birthday treat for Mariofan and both kids were so happy to see the live show.

We saw tons of people dressed up in various costumes

the Pokemon car was outside on displayed 

The kids were very excited about the list of songs that were to be played.  

While the symphony played the music they showed video of various pokemon games from the oldest to the newest generation.  I will be honest here I found that distracting so I closed my eyes to just concentrate on the music.

My Mom was in town when the concert played so she joined us.  She bought the kids each a t-shirt and even took a picture with the Pokemon car.

While my parents were in town my husband and I had a date night and went to a local casino to see a show.  We don't gamble so it was very interesting to see the casino hall and the people there.  It was eye opening to say the least, lol 

We went to see Bruce Hornsby and the Noise makers.

He has a new album coming out of dulcimer music.  But he also played some old favorites as well.

The kids and I also attend an opera of MacBeth with a local homeschool group.

Kids aren't opera fans and found it very hard to follow the show even though they both knew the shakespeare play:(  

Whenever my parents come to town or we visit them we have a small tradition of ordering a cake and celebrating all the missed birthdays, anniversaries etc...that we didn't spend together. 

We took my parents to the Botanical gardens where they were holding a Chinese festival but I was not impressed:(  Usually our gardens hold superb festivals but apparently all the good things showcasing were shown on Saturday and we didn't visit the gardens on Sunday. 

Kids got to practice some Chinese writing

and try some Chinese games

We were also able to get a family photo while at the gardens.

So that was our week in a nutshell.  Not a whole lot of formal schooling going on, but plenty of learning happening just living life:)