Easter!

Easter was really neat this year...we kept it simple. We read the Easter Story and talked about Jesus and what Easter means. Then we talked about the fun game of the Easter Bunny, a pretend friend who hides candy for us! This was Abbey's first candy hunt...she would find a piece, sit down, open it and eat it...stand up, find a piece, sit down and eat it, then repeat, lol! She gathers lots of candy for her and Jamie and Dakota had to search for the harder to find pieces quickly before the sun melted them! They also had some small Easter buckets with sunglass, sand toys, and Abbey had princess shoes! The rest of the day she walked around in a diaper, her high heels and flashy glasses! That was a sight!!! Kaylee enjoyed Easter at her mom's house...I've enclosed lots of pictures, they truly tell the story!

Seeds of Change Gala

We attended the 4th annual Seeds of Change Gala this year. It was fantastic! It is a gala to raise funds to build a domestic violence shelter in Maricopa. The shelter should break ground in 2009 which is very exciting! My mother is a survivor of domestic violence and Tim works with it all the time. It was a wonderful benefit with a silent and live auction and dancing. We did win an item at the silent auction, which was fun. This was the first time I ever saw Tim in a tux since we got married in Hawaii on the beach! The first pic is myself and Tim, the second is Yaiya and Opa, and the last is me and my mom (she looks like my sister though, doesn't she?)

Pueblo Grande

We wanted to continue to learn about the first native Arizonans, the Hohokam Culture, so we visited Pueblo Grande. What an amazing place. You are actually able to walk through a protected dwelling from the time period. It is huge and has many rooms along with a museum showing artifacts found. Dakota really enjoyed this. Here are some pictures of dwellings built based on what we know of the Hohokam time and of Yaiya and Opa with Dakota!

Visit to the Botanical Gardens

Since Dakota has been studying life cycles and flowers we had to make sure to visit the Botanical Gardens! Boy was it beautiful! Yaiya (Grandmother) and Opa (Grandfather) joined us. We did a Desert Detectives study and found all kinds of different plants. There were also displays about the Hohokam people, native to Arizona and their dwellings and lifestyles. In addition, there was an amazing display of glass art. Finally, the butterfly pavilion was in full swing. That was definitely Abigail's favorite part! We have so many beautiful pics to chose from. Here are a few.

Special Kids Day

We went to Special Kids Day in Scottsdale and it was fabulous! It is just for kids with special needs and their families. Justin especially enjoyed the train ride and carousel. Jamie's favorite was the pony ride. Abbey and Dakota just enjoyed everything! It was a beautiful, perfect day in every way.

Jamie's adoption!

Jamie was officially adopted on 1/26/09. It took about 2 1/2 years from start to finish, but it is finally official! We gave her a special necklace for the occassion. It has a large heart that represents her birth family and two intertwined smaller hearts with diamonds that represent her and her adoptive family, us!

Time4Learning State Representative

I'm so excited! I have been chosen to be Time4Learning's Homeschooling Representative for our state! The kids have been using Time4Learning all year and I highly recommend that if you homeschool or just want some extra academic time for your kiddo's you check it out.

The web site is www.time4learning.com

You can check out my homepage at: http://www.time4learning.com/homeschool/homeschooling_in_arizona.shtml

What this means is that I will moderate the online forum for homeschoolers in our state and have the state homepage with my information and all our state information. Homeschooling laws vary from state to state significantly! I'll get to help homeschoolers in our state get going with Time4Learning.

I'd love to add great tips from other homeschoolers...so send me your best tips and I will post!