Any K12-vers out there???

I'm happy to report that we survived a year in public school, but both Jackson and Lilly are both begging to be home schooled.  Of course, that could have to do more with staying home and playing.  ;)
 Have any of you tried K12?  I would love to know the good, bad, and ugly.  Otherwise, please leave in the comments the curriculum that you tried and love.
Thanks so much!!
Elise

Homeschool Craft Day...

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hosting our homeschool group for brunch and Christmas crafting. It was so much fun!!
Fisher discovered a little carrier and had a ball playing in it when a sweet baby girl wasn't occupying it!!

My pictures are so blurry...The kids are painting paper mache Christmas balls here-inspired by these. They also colored bookmarkers and other ornaments.

More painting...

The Moms made signs. I love Julie's signs and since I've had a Cricut, they have been so much fun to make!!

This SNOW sign is my favorite so far.

Here are some of the other signs that were made. I love how one lady did her last name. I am so gonna make one of those for myself!!

Have y'all been crafting for Christmas lately??

Busy living life...

Seems I've been MIA lately...I will say it was great!! I was able to catch up on laundry-I haven't been caught up since we moved in in November. It feels awesome!! Cleared the dining room table off. You can see the before in this post. Scary, but now nice. Enjoying the children. That is my favorite!! I don't want their memories to consist of Mommy sitting on the computer saying, "wait a minute". I don't want to miss what is going on in the here and now with them. I know that one day I will turn around and they will be grown. I know{at least I've been told} that one day I will miss this time of them being small.
Just sharing a few pics from the week...in random order...

Baby jail. {Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the making of this photo.}

The kids thought it would be funny to put this hat on Fisher. Amazingly enough, he kept it on for a long time.

The boy is walking. Circles around the house. This day they were marching around and around. See our trash bag?? White trash...Hahaha!!

Homeschool year end pool party.

Tea parties, movie times{where I fall asleep}, hmmm...sounds like movie time!!

Father's Day. I made Chess Cake for Cory. Lilly wanted him to have a candle so while shopping at Publix, I got a number 6 candle for all the years he has been a Dad. He is an awesome one, too!!

What?? You want the recipe for Chess Cake?? Here it is...

Chess Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

1 stick butter, melted

1 egg{stirred well}

*Put mix in lightly greased pan and press

Topping

1 box powdered sugar

2 eggs

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

*Mix together and pour over base. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Alpaca...

A few weeks ago, when my nieces were up visiting, we went to an alpaca farm. It was interesting. The alpacas are so gentle. Crazy looking, too.
This one just layed down and posed for pictures. Fisher enjoyed petting her.


Here is Lilly feeding one a carrot. Alpacas love carrots. They are like candy to them.

Another shot of Fisher. I was surprised at how well the animals did.

Somebody needs to pull their shirt up!! I couldn't resist getting in a picture myself. This was before I put Fisher down. Of course, these pictures are in random order...

My two "big kids" with the alpaca. I think her name was Samantha. Aren't the funny looking?? They had just been sheared in April, I think. They are quite furry normally.

Jackson did well feeding one also.

I took this picture when we first got to the farm. These are two male alpacas fighting. They fight to see who is going to be the babies' daddy. Really, they do. Kind of a macho male thing, I suppose. This was a fun little field trip. I would really encourage y'all to google search an alpaca farm near you. We learned a lot and had fun!!

Fall Fun

Wow, I have so much to share!! No news about the house yet. We should know something by the end of the week, hopefully. If I had posted yesterday it likely would have been titled, "I'm not bi-polar, I'm just tired." I cannot burn the midnight oil anymore. It makes for an evil version of myself.
We took a fieldtrip with our homeschool group to the apple orchard. Then this past weekend the family and I went to another apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Sunday, my best friend from high school and I made applesauce. This year's batch didn't turn out as good as last year's. I think it will be edible though.
Between all the apple fun-ness, I received my Fall Swap package from Michelle and a giveaway I won from Carol. Gotta love fun mail!! I will post pictures of all that tomorrow when the sun is shining. Hopefully it will shine.
Anyhow, today we have photos from the first trip to the apple orchard. Above is Buttercup, the cow. Isn't she cute??

Jackson milking Buttercup. He and I got our hair cut right before the trip. Jackson's hair was way past cute little skater boy and mine had several inches of split ends. I know y'all were so interested in that little tidbit!!

Lilly's sticker..."I milked Buttercup". We even coordinated the shirt to fit the occasion. Too bad nothing else matched...

Jackson watching the pigs race. So jealous of his eyelashes. I wish I was half as gorgeous as he is.

Look at the piggies go!! Run Hamgelina!! Go Arnold Swhartzenhogger!! Go get 'em Tammy Swinenet!! The piggies had the cutest names!!

The kids got to feed baby goats, have a hayride, and play. We had a picnic lunch after all the fun.
See what I mean about the matching being optional?!?!

This goat was amazing!! She would pull the rope and up came her food.

Ah yeah, that's the stuff!!

The best Fall breakfast ever!! According to Jackson...
The little store at the orchard sold all kinds of apples-my favorite being Honey Crisp. We got the cider donuts from there also. Enjoyed with apple cider and hot chocolate-yum!!
Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip!! How have y'all enjoyed this Fall??

Bunnies, gaudy gold frames, and school

Hey Y'all!! I love me some bunnies and was so excited to find this at my home away from home, Goodwill. I am trying to decide whether to paint the frame an antique white, black, or leave it gold. Originally I liked the gaudy gold frame and thought I might just go over it with a more antique gold craft paint. What do you think? What would you do?

Oh, and we started school yesterday!! I have decided to go with Five In A Row. I somehow ended up with it last year. It seems to be going well so far. We are currently reading Lentil, because the library was out of the Ping book. Lentil is a very cute book about a little boy who couldn't whistle or sing so he took up the harmonica. I am very excited to take my children to a nearby town to look at memorial statues like the one in the book and I will also share all the scarecrows the town is making. They are trying to beat the current town in the Guinness Book for the most scarecrows. Its very interesting and funny. More later!!

One, two, three, plie', Lilly's now taking Ballet

"I'm not so sure about this."

"Well, maybe I'll let you take my picture."

"Are we ever going in?"

This precious little girl of mine was so excited to take ballet. Especially, since the teacher has watched Lilly in nursery at our church. We got to the church(not our church) and it was a slightly different story. Lilly decided to get a little shy and not let me take her picture. Of course, good mom that I am, I took them anyway!! By the time the girls went into the room and started doing anything exciting, my batteries died. Hmmmp!!

All of the mom's homeschool, which I thought was cool. There was another little boy in the room where we all waited. He was a day and a year older than Jackson. I was excited that he would have a friend there, too. All was great until the kid started asking Jackson if he believed in Santa, which we do. They don't. We still do. Other than that, I think it will be fun.

In other news, we put in an offer on a house last week. Not sure what went down with that, but its taking a while and we should know something by tomorrow at noon. Hopefully...I would like to get our schoolroom in order and am waiting to see if we get this house or not. If not, then hopefully over the weekend we can accomplish organizing and rearranging and I will have something to share with y'all.

Hope you all have a great Friday!!

Homeschool question

Hello again!! No camera today-bah!! My Best Buy did not actually have it in stock. I do plan to go to a neighboring town to get the camera in the morning, though, and will for sure(if I can figure out how) post those photos I have been promising.
I do have a question for the homeschooling mamas out there. What do you use curriculum wise? We are looking at Sonlight($$) and My Father's World. Have any of y'all used either of those? I would love to just throw something together myself but am learning that I really need some amount of structure or my children may learn nothing at all. I would love to hear pro's and con's of each one. I like the Charlotte Mason approach, but I think I would actually have to make my own lesson plans and that would be seriously scarey. I am a bit of a free spirit and while that is not a bad thing it is not so great the disorganization that comes with it. For me.
I look forward to the feedback for this.
Thanks!!
Elise