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2016 Memories
As I’m updating my blog and getting it a bit more streamlined, I’m combining all of my memories posts for the year into a post for the year, so here is my 2016 Memories for the year.
Yep, it’s that specific.
And, as I copy posts over there are probably affiliate links in here.
January
Or that’s what it’s felt like. The first week Jeff was off of work, so we were continuing our games marathon. The two we’ve played so far, Shadows of Brimstone*, and Favor of The Pharaoh* both got played a couple of more times.
But, before Superman fell sick with his epic sickness of pneumonia, we got the kids a little more moved in to their new room, and it’s looking a quite a bit neater, if cluttered. We’re still working on the getting rid of stuff and organizing, but that has been thrown off by the pneumonia.
And for everyone who’s asked, Superman is feeling better-ish, but everyone I talked to says pneumonia is a slow recovery process with lots of setbacks, and that’s what we saw this week. He was listless on Sunday, had energy enough on Monday to go to Trail Life, but was wiped out on Tuesday so he just listened to lessons… It’s been a very up and down week.
In between cuddling a sick boy, I sewed a ball gown for the “Old South” ball I’m going to tomorrow. I made a swiss waist (which is what a visible corset is called), a chemise, and a skirt for the ball. I also learned how to make a Civil War era hair pieces. As of when I’m typing this, I haven’t quite finished the skirt. I’m figuring out how to make a chevron panel for the last panel because I was a bit short on fabric and don’t want to skimp on the fullness with the hoop skirt. If you’re following me on instagram, then you’ve seen a few shots of it in progress from time to time.
But did we accomplish much with school?
Not really. We spent a lot of time at doctor’s offices this month. Superman had 3 appointments in 2 weeks. Batman had 3 specialists appointments (physical therapy and dermatologist to remove a planter’s wart), Princess had a tooth removed (her grown up tooth was growing in where her baby tooth still was), and I suddenly broke out in hives and had to get that taken care of. For our family that usually only goes to the doctor for well check visits, it’s been difficult. I have a whole new level of respect for those of you homeschooling with sick kiddos or chronic illness.
February
I almost forgot to give an update of our general life. February was a month of busy weekends, we had one weekend free, and ended up using that weekend to help a friend move (that’s two of the pictures up there). Another weekend was the father/daughter dance and Princess quite happily posed with Jeff for pictures. We also spent one morning helping the camp the kids have gone to several times, they were caught in the Bastrop fires last fall, and so we helped repair cabins that hadn’t been caught in the fire. They’re going to have to find completely new land for the camp until the land grows back.
And for a bit of fun, here’s the games we played this month:
- Kings of Israel– and here’s my Kings of Israel review if you’re curious
- Shadows of Brimstone– my boys are ridiculously obsessed with this
- Geopuzzle– the kids have been randomly putting them together when bored
- Favor of Pharaoh– I love the combination of Dominion game and Yahtzee
- Smash Up– my boys play this a lot with their friends, Smash Up review
March
Let’s see….. This month, the boys turned 11, and I was in a bit of shock they are now this old. We went on a couple of field trips this month, but an especially memorable field trip was to a rescue horse farm and the kids were all allowed to ride as much as they wanted and pet the various animals in their petting zoo. Princess was in heaven.
Speaking of Princess, she was supposed to have a campout with AHG, but the weather rebelled, and so we went for the day (the picture of her on the bridge) and had a Mommy/daughter campout in the backyard a day or so later when it had dried out. That was considered sufficient for now.
And since bluebonnets are out in force and all the rain from this fall has ensured a great crop of them, I’ve been grabbing random bluebonnet pictures as I’ve been able to. Once I’ve got them editted I’m sure I’ll be putting up my 2016 bluebonnet pictures to go with all of the past years.
I don’t know why I thought I was going to be able to get this out on Wednesday with guests here, but for some reason I thought that was going to happen. Boy was I insane.
April
Part of why life got so busy and distracted, is we had the boys’ birthday party a week or so ago, and I insisted the house be clean.
That same day we had a big huge field trip to Lysts on the Lake and got to see real jousting, which the kids all enjoyed, and they found lots of wild onions, which we just cooked into a meal last night. These were rather small wild onions, so a lot of them did not give much food, but they sure had a strong pleasant smell.
Oh and my dog found an opossum during the boys party and was quite upset I didn’t let him get into an all out brawl with the furiously hissing creature.
And then the Monday right after was our homeschool group’s demonstration day, and the kids each had a report they wrote for that, so we took an entire week to work on their writing, and how to research online, and put together a presentation. It was a stressful if rewarding week.
May
Jeff took me out to see Captain America: Civil War, and then we took the boys to go see it and had a great discussion with them afterwards about responsibility, government oversight, and all sorts of other things. Then a week or so later we took my Mom to go see it for Mother’s Day. Yes that was three times to see it.
Princess leveled up in AHG, and is now officially an Explorer, which I’m rather excited about. She also earned the Gold Presidential Service Award for earning over 75 hours of service. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself.
The boys also got their level awards for Traillife, but being boys didn’t pose quite so well. They probably would have been eligible for the Bronze Presidential Service Award, because I believe they had 50 hours of community service, but I don’t know the process for submitting the paperwork.
Princess also had her ballet recital, and did a spectacular job. She’s been going out with me on Friday nights and writing. We both bring our laptops to Barnes and Noble and drink tea. It’s a rather fun Mommy/daughter time. She writes “Peckie stories” about a duck she made up as part of a writing assignment Jeff gave the kids when I was sick. Ever since then she’s written all sorts of adventures for Peckie, there’s an entire world related to this duck.
The boys have discovered the joys of pretending to be each other, so I’ve got a few shots of them trying to mimic each other’s facial expressions, it’s really quite hilarious.
Oh, and as part of our summer fun-schooling the kids all have daily chores they’re randomly pulling. But, there’s a few special surprises in amongst the lists, so one day we got frozen yogurt instead of doing a chore.
June
This week would be why I felt so all out of sorts, it was Rock the Rock! And it was Xtreme Adventure for my boys, and we took the kids up for a week with their grandparents on Saturday. So add all of those things up together, I don’t really have a clear idea of order of events. Stuff happened somewhere this month, I’m lucky to remember anything.
But as to the pictures. We’ve got Princess helping me set up the pre-k area for Rock the Rock, and serving as a human paper weight to make sure the tarps don’t fly away while we set it up.
The semi-regular post Rock the Rock Sonic drink. After being out in the sun for a good 4 hours running around, setting up the club, tearing it down, and all of that, we are thirsty. There’s also a great shot of my boys being super silly at Whattaburger.
Our learning adventures pretty much consisted of our making a leatherworking kit, continuing our attempts at dyeing with natural dyes (we got three different dyes attempted, maybe four. I want to try at least one more dye before we stop this adventure).
July
Well, first off Princess was in the 4th of July parade with her AHG troop, so she had fun walking with the other girls, as we roasted sitting out in the sun. Thankfully everyone had lots of fun. We then went on to blow up stuff after a family barbecue, because what is 4th of July without lots of fireworks?
We also headed off to see As You Like It at an ampitheater with friends, which made the kids quite happy.
August
Princess threw quite a fit about sharing her chair with the Bouncy Bands, at one point she had about 6 post-it notes on her chair.
We practiced real life math as one of the boys measured the leftover cake to figure out exactly how much each kid got.
That is what the boys think they need to watch a movie, and on a completely unrelated note, we found the dog hiding under a table one day during school.
I walked upstairs to get school started and was ambushed by the kids.
I like frogs. I don’t know why, but when I go for a walk at night and find these random little guys I almost always chase them down, and talk to them for a minute, before letting them go.
I learned not to tell the kids “Go make volcanoes with plaster and clay while I sew.” What I thought would happen is they would go outside mix up some plaster, and make cool volcanoes. What actually happened is about 30 minutes later Princess came in nearly crying because her volcano wasn’t turning out right. Batman said “I’ve nearly got all of the plaster off the cabinets,” and Superman came upstairs saying “How can I get the plaster off the floor?” I came downstairs to Batman attempting to scrape the whole mess into the disposal. Needless to say I learned my lesson. Don’t do that.
September
Over the course of a week we went to every single trade skill, and interviewed the tradesmen. We were recruited for the militia and trained to be soldiers. We went on a ghost walk, and heard some fairly awesome ghost stories from the time period (one told by a Scotsman who has a collection of over 50 traditional Scottish ghost stories, not all scary).
While there was quite a lot of learning going on, what we really gained were fun memories. Like Superman happily helping the brickmakers and declaring that to be the best place ever (I mean what kid doesn’t want to play in the mud?). Batman having a lengthy conversation with one of the people there (I cannot remember the figure’s name, but he was the teacher of Hamilton and Burr, which amused me) about what it’s like to be in the army. And Princess getting her cast signed by Lafayette. I shared that picture on Instagram and tagged Colonial Williamsburg, and then it got regrammed by them and it was wildly popular. I’m not surprised, it was the cutest thing ever.
In non-historical bits, we did have fun learning about their animal breeding program. We played several rounds of miniature gold because our hotel had a course. And I went absolutely crazy looking at an exhibit called “Behind the drawers,” where you got to see several of the extant pieces in their collection, and I got to drool over it all, while Princess was quite bored.
October
The kids and I have been on lots of field trips in our pajamas. I’m reviewing a group called Field Trip Zoom, and because of it, we’ve “gone” to Alaska, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia all from the comfort of our home. This week they’ve got a great series on the Civil War, I can’t wait to see all of them. I’ve got a coupon code for them if you’re interested (the review is pretty much going to be a glowing review, because I have loved every single field trip we’ve gone on. The Hermitage field trip on the Election of 1824 was fascinating).
We had a blast for Halloween. The kids all wore their outfits from Williamsburg because I threatened them with dire consequences if they didn’t wear them again. We also had a day of funschooling, and the kids quite enjoyed the Halloween themed activities I found. We actually didn’t get to finish all of them. Because I spent part of the morning visiting with a friend whose Dad had died.
In other random bits of life we made a fairy house for our front yard inspired by The Usual Mayhem’s pumpkin houses. The kids took the idea and ran wit it (as per usual). Princess seems to of picked up my tea habit, and I caught this picture of her happily drinking a cup of tea while reading her Nook. The middle picture is one of hte boys, I think Superman working on our Picasso art lessons. Art lessons are a bit of a fight in our house. The kids love making projects and mucking about with art supplies. They hate with a passion anything that resembles an assigned project. Listening to them scream about having to make something other than their perfect vision is sometimes amusing.
Other times it’s frustrating as all get out.
Next to that is Superman ambushing me as I came out of hte bathroom with his new musket. Then the boys playing hockey with Jeff’s golf clubs. That was quickly stopped.
And finally Princess sweeping with one crutch, and hobbling around on her cast. This is right before she got it off, and this picture greatly amuses me.
We celebrated Jeff’s birthday with lots of board games. In particular Shadows of Brimstone, all the boys’ in my family’s favorite game. Jeff and I are super excited because Flying Frog Productions has launched a Kickstarter for a brand new expansion. The two of us are regularly checking how the Kickstarter is doing, and what things have unlocked.
Games played this month (according to my Instagram feed): Lemming Mafia, Commissioned* (I back this one on Kickstarter), Transamerica, Fresco, Shadows of Brimstone, Fool’s Gold, Ocean Raiders, and Say Cheese* (review coming on Wednesday)
Oh, and one last amusing one. My Mom watched the kids for the weekend while Jeff and I went down to San Antonio for a wedding. They conned her into taking them to Barton Creek Mall, a rather long drive on the other side of town from us so they could all go build dragons at Build A Bear. Now they did all pay for their own dragons (actually Batman paid for most of it, that’s another story), but they still convinced her to drive almost two hours round trip for them to get dragons.
November
My brother came down from Colorado for a surprise visit for Thanksgiving. That meant lots of time with family that week, and my grand plan of getting videos of some chemistry experiments fell apart. Also, having 11 year olds film stuff means sometimes the video is sideways for “visual interest”. Needless to say, that did not go well, and that camera man has been fired.
You can see all the cousins together in the top right picture. The various houses were rather noisy when the cousins got together. I got a great shot of my brother Sean picking up one of the bigger boy cousins and using him like a baseball bat to hit another boy cousin as part of a grand wrestling spree among the Uncles and cousins. Everyone thought that was awesome. Meanwhile all of the aunts and the grandma were downstairs making bets how long until someone came down hurt.
No one ever did.
That night.
Superman did sprain his knee playing tag outside in the dark.
Princess turned 10.
All of my kids are now double digits, and it feels weird to be solidly in the older kids camp with no younger kids. I’m not ready for this revelation.
As per usual we played lots of games, if I have a review of the game I linked to that (Amazon links are affiliate):
- Falling
- Castle Panic
- Quest for Arete (we are going to be playing this again later today for a chemistry lesson, and review is coming next week)
- King of Tokyo
- Smash Up
- Shadows of Brimstone (I just got the next year or so worth of presents for Jeff with the new Kickstarter expansion for them)
December
Visiting friends and family. We have three Christmases we celebrate (hey that is how you make that word plural), so it’s a lot of traveling about. I also got to see a friend of mine from high school. We live in the same city, but aren’t in any of the same functions, so it’s always a bit of an arrangement to get together, but that makes it extra special.
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