Bo is 6 years old!!

I can't believe Bo is SIX years old!! We have been counting down the days until his birthday for a long while now, so he was pretty excited. :)

On Friday, the day before his birthday, we celebrated with a pizza lunch (his choice). He was just a *little* excited. 

Four kids at a busy restaurant on Friday at lunch....whew!

Arabelle helped me pick out this Hot Wheels set for him. He was pumped! Here's Bo opening his gift.

Silly Mae. This was after she licked the top of the parmesan cheese shaker.

Bo wanted a plain white cake so he could decorate it with Hot Wheels. :)

I love how excited everyone gets for a family member's birthday.

Here's a bonus video of Mae and Zeke just being cute and eating cake.

Bo loved all the cards he received in the mail!

Here he is going to bed as a 5 year old for the last time!!

Yes, he sleeps in clothes instead of PJs (Mae does sometimes too). It's a battle I don't fight and I don't have to make him get dressed in the mornings, so it works out. Ha! 

I guess he was SO excited about his birthday that he couldn't sleep. He came down to our room at 4:30 am to say he couldn't sleep. He laid with us a few minutes and went back up stairs. At 5:00, I heard him over the baby monitor talking to Zeke and Zeke was squealing back. Ughhhhh!!! I went up and he had his closet light on and the closet door open and was giving Zeke toys. I sent Bo down to my bed and tried to get Zeke back to sleep, but wasn't successful. I'll be honest....I was MAD!! I gave up at 5:45 and took Zeke down and we started making the birthday pancakes. 

I always make the birthday kid a pancake in the shape of their birthday number. He was excited to get a "6" pancake. 

We left the house at 7:30 to meet Mamaw so she could take Zeke and the rest of us went to Wild Adventures! Mae has never been to a theme park and the big kids haven't been since last August, so everyone was excited!! I spent the ride trying to not be a tired grump and getting myself into a better mood. :-p

Bo always with the silly faces.....

The first ride! It was a little one that Arabelle was too tall to ride and Bo was BORED. Ha! Mae was unsure, but then LOVED all the little rides so much. She rode this one at least 5 times. Here's the video. 

My ride buddy. I loved it!

We all rode a small roller coaster and Mae DID NOT like it at all! Arabelle and Bo loved it and rode it several more times that day.

Mae and I went down the big pink slide together, then Arabelle and Bo went together. They were supposed to wait for a thumbs up to slide, then race down, but Bo went first. Arabelle wasn't happy. Ha! Here's their video. 
Queen of the train! She rode it a lot too. Here is a video of Mae on the train.

Bumper cars for the big kids and daddy! Here is a video of the ride.

Free ice cream sandwich!!

This ride was so funny to watch. I remembered riding it with Bo the summer he turned 2 and he didn't like it AT ALL. He LOVED it this time! Here is a video of the ride.  He rode it three times in a row!

Back in August 2012! 

He was so excited all day!! We split up some and Jared took the big kids on roller coasters and I took Mae to the little climbing play area and on some of her smaller rides, so I don't have any pictures of them on the BIG rides.

This was after Arabelle rode the biggest ride they have and nearly got sick. Oops!

Big roller coaster with Daddy!

After the rides, we went to water slides. It was pretty crowded, but the kids had a blast! We spent a couple hours on water slides, the lazy river, and the wave pool, then had some ice cream and rode a few more rides before heading out to the car.

Mae got some cool new sunglasses, which she ALWAYS wears upside down.

We go home at 6:30 and were wiped out!!

Mamaw and Papaw brought Zeke home a little later and we were all asleep by 9:00.

One of the first times holding Bo and now:

We loved celebrating our newly SIX year old Bo! 

First Day of School, 2016-2017

School has officially started around here! Mae had her first day of preschool on Friday, August 5th. She will be going three mornings a week from 8-12. She was really excited, as you can see. She has one new teacher and one is her teacher from last year. There is only one child from last year's class in her class this year, but she doesn't seem to mind. She will play with anyone! 

We started our 2016-2017 homeschool year on Monday, August 8th! I intended to start slow this week, but the kids kind of picked right back up where we left off, so we got a lot more accomplished than I thought we would.

For Arabelle we are continuing All About Reading and All About Spelling. We are just over half way through level 3 and 2 in each from last year. She's starting on Singapore Math, level 3A. We are adding in cursive this year and using A Reason for Handwriting C (Thanks Jill!!).

Bo is continuing where we left off in level 1 of All About Reading and beginning Singapore Math 1A. He is also starting A Reason for Handwriting A. We will add All About Spelling in later this year.

Together we are continuing to work through the Story of the World, a fun little My Body workbook, and starting the Scott Foreseman Grammar and Writing Handbook. I am keeping them together on that grammar and writing, even though it's a first grade level. Arabelle hasn't done it yet and it's just easier to keep them together. 

Of course we are also doing read alouds daily. We did a Beverly Cleary series over the summer (Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, and Ralph S. Mouse) and we have started The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Carlson this week.

I have gone back and forth on what we are going to do for Bible and I think I've found a good one, but haven't settled 100%.

I've got two teacher's pets. ;)

And Zeke....he will be the wild card this year. I hoped to send him to preschool 2 or 3 mornings a week, but they changed the format for the 1 year old class and only offer a 5 day option, so that was a little disappointing! So far he has mastered climbing on the school table and eating crayons and it's only week 1. :p

Can't get over how big the big kids are getting!

I'm sure this year will be one to remember considering there are 2 toddlers in the house, but also praying it will be a successful year with lots of learning and fun! 

Bo's Kindergarten Graduation

Bo is a kindergarten graduate! I'm so proud of the progress he made this year. I should have taken some pictures of his writing from August and now, but who's got time for that? Ha!

He completed the All About Reading Pre-Reading curriculum and made it about 3/4 through the All About Reading Level 1 program. He also completed the Singapore Math Kindergarten books. Everything else was done together with Arabelle....science, geography, history, etc. We had a great year!

Bo and his best buddy, Jotham.

I was taking Bo's picture and Mae hopped right up beside him for a few. :)

 The whole gang!

I'm so glad one of my friends snapped some pictures of Bo during the ceremony! Bo seemed a little nervous walking in. 

We had four kindergarten graduates this year....all boys!

Receiving his diploma from Daddy.

After the kindergarten ceremony, we had our Family Night Ceremony where each family introduces their children and the kids have the option to sing, play an instrument, recite a Bible verse, etc.

Thankfully, the kids had enough grandparents there to keep them happy through the ceremony. :)

Our family:

Arabelle and Bo learned the books of the Bible this year. Mae knows a lot of them, so she wanted to join in also. They all did such a great job! Here's the video of their performance.

 Bo was so excited to have so many family members there for his graduation. I didn't get ANY pictures except of him with Aunt Jane and Mrs. Tammie. I'm blaming "Mom brain".

We had supper afterwards and Mae certainly enjoyed the cake and sang nearly the entire meal.

The kids with our amazing babysitter, Lysa. She is a graduating this year, so we will be sad to see her go off to college in August, but I know great things lay ahead for her. :)

 Papaw and Mamaw took the littles out at some point during the program and snapped a few pictures.

Thanks again to all of you who were able to come support Bo as he graduated Kindergarten!