Play-by-play of this crazy day

I loaded up the three oldest kids this morning around 8:20 to take them over to Grapevine for their end-of-year testing. By 9:00, I had gotten them all dropped off at the testing location and signed into their classrooms, at which point I headed over to Southlake to look for birthday party supplies and a replacement pair of travel shoes. At 11:30, I headed back to the house (in Flower Mound) to pick up Jeff and Clay, who had been working on some math lessons and playing at two different playgrounds while I was away. They were waiting for me when I pulled into the driveway and immediately hopped in the car so we could go pick up the other kids at the testing location. The last test ended around 1:30, and we headed over to Carrollton to celebrate Jeff's half-birthday at Gen Korean BBQ House, a fun Asian eatery where you can cook a variety of interesting meats and veggies at your table. We finished up our party around 4:00. Then, Jeff dropped Ruth and I off at a mall in Lewisville to do a little shopping for fancy dresses for our upcoming cruise, while he took the boys to various sports practices (in Flower Mound). Jeff picked us up around 6:30, and off we went to pick up Weston from football practice by 7:00. After that, we stopped by the house for five minutes, so Weston could shower, before making our way to the baseball field for Max's 7:45 game. We left the field at 9:30 and rushed home to get everyone to bed, because we were all completely exhausted. We put about 112 miles on the car today, without ever getting more than 20 miles from our house. I guess we could consider this a warm-up for our upcoming road trip!

Half-birthday party at Gen Korean BBQ House

Giant ice cream-filled macarons for dessert

Even ninja turtles can get tired on a day like today

Explore Hong Kong Winner

You haven't been hearing much from me, because there truly hasn't been much to report. We spent the last few days lounging around the pool at the resort, and yesterday and today the oldest three kids were taking their annual grade-level SAT tests, while Jeff and I assisted with the administration of tests for other grades. My kids were just as thrilled as you might imagine to have to take standardized tests while we are visiting Hawaii. But there was just no way around it, since we couldn't find a place to have them tested overseas, and the testing season will be completely over by the time we get back to Texas. They were doubly thrilled because we have not been doing school on a regular basis for a while now. But, they survived and lived to see another Hawaiian sunset, this time on Oahu's North Shore.

But enough about what we've been up to. I have a book winner to announce.

Congratulations, Jhenisa!!

You are the winner of my lastest Geography Explorer book, Explore Hong Kong. Thank you so much for commenting and for following our travels! I will be mailing the book to you soon.

For the rest of you, you can find the book on Amazon, if you are interested, and you can get there quicker if you click on the picture of the book in the sidebar. Also, keep an eye out for Explore Thailand, which will be published soon.

Aloha!

Big Day

Mimi and Grandpa arrived just before noon, bearing gifts to make grandkids smile: powdered doughnuts, venison summer sausage, books, and string for making bows. It's a happy, happy day!

Long overdue snuggles with Mimi

A bow is a smile turned on it's side

Today was also the day that Ruth got the results for her SAT test. She scored 1970 (out of 2400), a score that more than qualified her for a special summer camp sponsored by Johns Hopkins at one of several locations, along with a few other perks. She hasn't decided which camp she wants to attend yet, but she is so excited about this opportunity. And, we are so very proud of her! She worked hard for this, and her hard work paid off.  

Business and Pleasure

For two months, Ruth has been working hard, preparing for the SAT test. And, today she finally had the opportunity to show her stuff. This is *THE* SAT test, not the grade level test she always takes at the end of the school year; the same SAT test that high school juniors and seniors are taking in order to apply to colleges and universities. We aren't planning to ship our girl off to college just yet, but she is hoping to qualify for a special program for 8th graders through Johns Hopkins. We are so proud of her for her hard work and for taking on this challenge.

While she was taking the test, Jeff and I were working on our school schedule for next year. Seeing the schedule in writing is one of the things that always helps me feel like we can do this homeschooling thing for another year. And, it's always exciting to start thinking about all the things we are all going to learn.

When all our business was taken care of, we took the boys to a playground near the testing site to play while we waited for Ruth to finish up. After her test, we walked over to a nearby shopping mall for lunch and a puppet show. The day was a nice mix of business and pleasure.

Duck burger, anyone?
(To be honest, I was a little disappointed we didn't have lunch here.)

The race is on!

Sliding down the fireman's pole 

Teeter-Totter

Puppet Show

These Texas boys were excited to find
 toys that looked like prickly pears in the mall. 

Happenings

There hasn't really been any one day since my last post that seemed worthy of its own post, but added together, the last few days have been pretty noteworthy. (Our Internet became pretty sketchy later in the week, and it just wasn't worth messing with, even if there had been a day deserving of its own post.) In case you're curious, there follows a list of things that have happened since my last post. Fair warning, I will be bragging on my amazing kids here, so if you aren't into that, feel free to skip the first half.

• Weston finished his 5th grade Math book, answered all the test questions out of the next book, and will be starting Pre-Algebra tomorrow. 
• Max finished his 2nd grade Grammar book, and we have started reading through Grammar-Land, which he (and all the kids) love and is a great way to reinforce some of the skills he learned in this last book, before we move on to the 3rd grade book.
• Weston finished reading the last of the Harry Potter books.
• Max finished reading the 5th book in the Narnia series and started the 6th (out of 7).
• The boys and I finished The Story of the Word: Volume 1, completed our studies of the countries we will visit on our RTW trip, and started The Story of the World: Volume 2.
• Ruth has been working her tail off studying for the SAT (the real-deal SAT, not the grade-level test she takes at the end of every school year), which she will take on Dec. 5, in France, to see if she qualifies for a special program Johns Hopkins offers for Jr. High students. We have been very impressed with her dedication and with her performance on the practice tests. 
• Clay learned the vowels and a few new word sounds and spent some time reading some new-to-him words.
• We had our landlords over for a visit. Like many of the owners of rentals we've stayed in on this trip, they are well-traveled and had some fascinating stories to tell of their adventures.
• My sister's house was hit by a tornado and destroyed, but, thankfully, she and her two kids, who were inside at the time, made it out safely! 
• I had an initial consultation appointment with the dentist in Dublin who will install the permanent crown for my missing front tooth. I don't believe I've ever been so excited about a dental procedure!
• We watched the ridiculous first half of the Aggie game, and then our Internet gave out. It was good to see some positive things happening on offense, for a change. If we could just get the offense and defense to both show up in the same games, it would be fantastic. We were relieved to learn that the Ags managed to pull out the victory in the end! 
• My hubby had (actually, is having) his birthday. We took him out to lunch at a fun little tavern called The Strand and then went for a walk on the beach.
• We made up limericks as we drove away from Limerick. It was pretty awesome! Not to mention VERY silly!
• We relocated. We are now in the south of Ireland, in a tiny beach town called Duncannon. Our lovely townhouse is perched just above the beach, and the view is amazing! We will be here for 27 days, making this the longest stop of our entire trip. 

Our Duncannon home

The view from the front of the house

The kids were enamored with this rainbow sculpture near the beach.

Birthday lunch at The Strand

The birthday boy chose the berry crumble for dessert.

But, I opted for a latte and the sticky toffee pudding

Clay insisted on a picture with the ice cream "statue."

This will be the boys' playground for the month. They (and I) couldn't be happier!

San Antonio

Because we just really needed something else academic (not to mention all the non-academic stuff!) on our plates between Weston's Memory Master testing and Ruth's finals next week, we scheduled the two older kids' annual SAT tests for today and tomorrow in San Antonio. :) But it's not all work. The kids and I are managing to squeeze in a little fun, too!

Max and Clay have had lots of playground time!

This. Over and over, for as long as someone will catch him.

Yay for hotels with pools!

The absolute best big sister.

This one is getting to be quite a fish!
He is even starting to venture into the deep end.

Another little fishy!

Clay showing me his "very boy"

You know when the Watts come to San Antonio,
there's going to be Mexican food involved!
We loved trying a new place (Guajillo's)
and were especially crazy for their guacamole.
(Though, truthfully, everything was delicious!)

Our message to Dad to tell him we wished he were with us--
and maybe to taunt him a bit about the Mexican food.
(And, I'll just say that a selfie with five people,
all looking at the right place at the right time
is something of a smart phone miracle!)

Big, big fun!

We have driven by these big boots several times,
and finally, after dinner, the kids said,
"Can we just stop and touch them?!"

Winding down at the end of a very fun day

Testing. Testing.

Today was the first day of our yearly SAT-10 (grade-level) testing. It was Weston's first time to participate and my first time to proctor. The kids were totally calm, but I was a nervous wreck. Thankfully, the day went well and the kids felt good about their tests. Weston's comment was "it was a really long, but really fun day." I guess he'll be glad to know we get to do it again tomorrow!

After a fun morning of testing, Ruth spent the afternoon...testing. She is trying for a CC honor called Memory Masters, in which the students memorize the entire school year's worth of material and then prove their knowledge through four "proofs:" 2 parent proofs (or 1 parent and another adult, if one parent is also a tutor or director), 1 tutor proof and 1 director proof. For the first three proofs the student must go through every piece of material, which takes about an hour and a half to complete. The fourth proof is simply a spot check and takes about 20 minutes to complete. A few mistakes are allowed in the first proof, fewer in the second and none in the third and fourth. A child who completes all these steps is considered a "Memory Master" and is recognized and rewarded on the local CC campus at the End-of-Year celebration. This was Ruth's second proof, and she made it through without a single mistake! This year's memory work includes 161 events and people in a chronological timeline; the 44 U.S. presidents; 24 History sentences detailing events from Ancient History; 120 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe and the "Old World;" 24 Science facts, including the classifications of living things and each continent's highest mountain; 5 Latin noun endings and their singular and plural declensions; English grammar facts, including 53 prepositions, 23 helping verbs and 12 linking verbs; Multiplication facts up to 15 x 15, common squares and cubes, and basic geometry formulas and unit conversions. That's over 400 pieces of memorized information! Her last two proofs will be within the next two weeks, and we feel fairly confident she will reach her goal of becoming a Memory Master. 

Regardless of the final outcome, we are so proud of both Ruth and Weston for all the hard work they have put in this year at home/school and at CC!