Traverse City-2011

For Christmas Steve received a weekend at a Kiteboarding Camp in Traverse City...it just so happened to land on the weekend of his birthday!! So...early Friday morning we packed up and headed up north for a weekend of fun and adventure. The weather was iffy, but we were confident that we could make the weekend fun regardless.

One of the blessing of traveling with three children fairly close in age (and stature) is that we can all still fit in one hotel room! Mommy & Daddy in one bed and all three kids in another!! Those benefits will soon be fading, but we'll take advantage of them for as long as we can!!

Gotta' love a chance to play in the hotel pool!

Jake & Connor strap up for a Zipline Ride!!

It's actually a lot higher than the picture makes it look...

Mission Accomplished!!

Aye, Matey!

Downtown Traverse City has a quaint old fashioned theater that was showing this movie for 25 cents!! Can't beat a family show for $1.25 (you can't even get a drink for that at the theater back home!)

We spent some time at a bookstore down town. Just looking and reading books.

I gotta' train up these kids to love a good book ...and a good bookstore!

Paigey took this picture of Daddy on the morning of his birthday.

We took him out to breakfast and gave him a couple fun gifts.

Best buddies!

Nothing like a good old fashion PILLOW FIGHT!!!!!!

These two are just too cute!

You can't go to TC without a visit to Pirates Cove...

Putt-Putt

Watch out for those hooks!! These are some mean Pirates!!

BEWARE! of the Princess Pirate!

Paigey and Con all ready to go on the ropes course.

Such a brave, daring little girl!!

(I see a lot of fun in our future together...plane jumping for her 18th birthday, maybe!!!)

Bumper Boats~

Jake squirting the ticket taker!! (Little Rascal!)

We hiked a couple miles through this forest to get to the water where Daddy was Kiteboarding. Paige never complained, but pushed her way through the trails with great determination and sense of adventure.

We made it to the beach the kids couldn't have been more entertained!

We watched the kiteboarders...

Collected shells...

and feathers!

Cheered on our Kiteboard Champion!

Waded in the water (getting VERY wet!)

Built sand castles...

Sun bathing...

Trekked back through the woods ...

and ended the GREAT trip with some yummy ice-cream!

Sprinkler Fun

It was a hot summer night. The kids had just gotten their pj's on and come out on the deck for some well-wishes off to bed. Steve had just finished mowing the lawn and was adjusting the sprinker heads, when the next thing I see is this:

Followed by lots of squeals and laughter.

While one (very wise) little buddy looks on in amazement and wonder,

but has zero desire to join in.

And then there is the last born, who had the time of her life!!

I'm thinking a dry set of pajama's are in their future!

Random Creativity

If there is one word that I could use to describe my kids, it would be creative! I'm guessing the following pictures will lead you to a similar conclusion.

You've heard of Purplicious? Well, Paigey got a purple bath foam and used it as moisturizer which left her, yep! Purplicious!

Connor & his buddy Josh, made graduation caps and diploma's as well as chocolate caps in honor of their Kindergarten Graduation!

Who does this?

Connor LOVES to cook. He got a "Cake Pops" recipe book and

here is his creation for Memorial Day

Paige took the seal from the milk container and made me this lovely ring, using marker, glue and a jewel that came off the chandelier in her room!

The kids got antsy with all the rain and decided to play outside in it one day!

The evening that the tornado sirens sounded they played "Storm Chasers"

everyone had a job in tracking the storm...

What can you do with a balloon, a ream of paper and some staples?

Why make a man, of course!

Paigey made this completely on her own! It's a Paigey original! :)

Here she turned one of her dress up gloves into a puppet!

Stay tuned there's no doubt there area more where these came from!!

Never Say Never

Every year about March as re-enrollment comes around Steve & I begin to pray again about what God's will is for our children's education the following year. We absolutely, love, love, love Oakland Christian school, but for whatever reason, be it the Holy Spirit, or other otherwise, we seem to always throw around the idea of homeschooling for a few weeks before putting to rest the idea and signing the papers to send them again to our great school.

This year was a little bit different, as the new year brought in some serious opposition amongst our school administration and many parents & teachers within the school. Satan had a hay day in the school and while we were very on top of things and confident that God was in control and would work through the struggles to bring about His will for OCS. Through that process, Steve & I found ourselves wondering what our other options would be if for some reason things did not iron out like we prayed they would. Once again, homeschooling was brought to the forefront of our thinking.

All the while there was a calm inside of me that things at school would be fine and I talked about it from time to time, but never really thinking it would be necessary. Then, the last weekend of March I attended a conference that Lisa Welchel spoke at. She had a table full of all her books for sale. I had already read many of her books, but one caught my eye: So You're Thinking About Homeschooling?"

The title intrigued me. Why yes, I was thinking about homeschooling. Maybe this would be the book that would set the idea to rest once and for all. Lisa interviewed 15 different families all with different reasons for choosing homeschooling and with different schooling styles. I bought the book.

As I drove nearly three hours home from the retreat with just my thoughts, my music and my God, I found myself filled with a nudge to really give this homeschooling idea a chance. I read the book in two days.

I'm not sure at what point it happened, but before I was even half way done with the book I was talking homeschooling with Steve in a way that I never had before. The completion of the book was also the beginning of our kids Spring Break from school. Time off of school with the kids is always special and this week was no different.

The desire to have this unrushed time with my children on a regular basis became more of a longing. To have more time to implement to them all the things of God I desire to share with them, to travel as a family to desired destinations without having to squeeze it into peek times, to deeply root life skills and to continue to solidify our family closeness, would all be a gift.

I always said I would never home school. And quite frankly, I've never seen a reason to because we live so close to such a fantastic Christian school. But, as I sit back and look across the room at my three little ones, I realize that their littleness is beginning to fade. My time of influence is lessening. There is so much I want to share. So many things we'd like to do. So...why NOT take a year off of traditional schooling and school at home...or on the road! I don't think I would ever regret trying it, but I might surely regret NOT trying it.

And so it stands...Posey's are homeschooling for the 2011-2012 school year. Follow our journey on our family blog.