New Age Education

When I went to school we didn't use email, or debit cards.

We knew our parents really probably had no clue what assignments were due when.
Or if we forgot to turn them in, at least until confrences.

They didn't know about how we decided to take a late lunch in Jr High and came in late, blaming it on our watch. Techincally not skipping but Tardy.

In some ways we had it easier than kids do now. We now have, in our new school district, a email system that lets us know before the kids get to lunch if they skipped first hour. They send out an email, which can be sent to me at work!

They have a website that allows us to view what assignments are due and when they are due.
In order to access the website you need a user name and password, so the kids can't get in it and mess it around.

You can use your debit card to pay for school lunches and see how much money the kids have left on their account for hot lunch.

You can view your kids schedule, online which is nice for making appointments. Not to mention the lack of paper you will lose or accidentally toss.

I am looking forward to school this year. It feels so different here. Maybe it is that I never went to school here, or maybe all the techincal improvements that I have seen there.

I am not sure, but I am definitely looking forward to them meeting new friends.
Reece's school even lets your kids write letters to fellow classmates and send them 'via a school post office'. How very cool is that!! His room number is 84, so his address is 84 Galloping Ghost Rd, for his class room. I would have loved to have something like that! Not to mention all the practice writing letters and envelopes!

Ducks Unlimited 2006

How Cute is he! I love this picture.
We spent the day at Ducks Unlimited. We brought Thunder (our Chocolate Lab in the picture). He had fun, but REALLY wanted the chance to fetch the dummie that they would throw off into the water. Duner got to play with his toy, and ATV. He has really wanted one for the cabin. Maybe sometime.

Reece got the chance to redeem himself. He was so mad the last few times he tried to climb the rock wall, he had gotten so scared and would drop. Well he made it further, but not quite to the top. Maybe next year...

Next Reece and Zeb Tackled the bike course. They make a little trail with little hills and turns to test out bikes. The kids love it. Here Zeb even got to try one out. Duner got to run next to him.


Brock and Reece were pretty excited to try archery. They both did pretty good. I missed geting a pic of Brock because they were not right next to each other and they both shot at the same time. They went to get their Bows fitted for them and Duner found out they are to weak for theirs. Brock had been lifting weights to beef up, but Reece doesn't like to.


Next we hopped on the Tram with Thunder and rode over to the dog area. There they had Kayak's and Canoe's. Duner, Brock and Zeb hopped in a Canoe and Reece went by himself in a Kayak. Reece is in the yellow kayak, Duner has the orange vest. Zeb had the yellow and Brock is in the Blue. It was hard to get a picture of Reece. He was either to far out or moving to fast. I had Thunder with me and he wanted to go out in the worst way. I am amazed these pictures actually turned out. Most of them were taken with my left hand, while the dog was yanking me with my right.
Next the kids got to go fishing for HUGE catfish in a pool. Each kid was allowed 7 minutes to fish. Reece caught one but tha was it.

We only had 30 minutes left before Duner had to get back in time to work so we just watched the dogs go after a object that was tossed in the water off a dock. We wanted to get Thunder in but we didn't think we had enough time. It was fun to watch, but Thunder wanted to do it in the worst way.

The Day at Slippery Rock

On Monday, we went to the coolest natural water park on Monday. We spent about 2 hrs there. Duner brought his new Cabela's catelog and I had my camera. The boys, with Reece's friend - J, had a blast. Here is Brock Flexing his muscles. What a man... at the bottom of the rock.








When Reece was not staring intently at the shells waiting for the snail to come out he would actually go down the rock. You can see J trying to walk up the rock. Quite the feat.







Here Reece is with J.




After all the work in the water, we decided to take the boys out on the boat and fish ON the water. Zeb got to cast out a few times, with Dad's help... He has got quite the whip. He forgets to push the button, but it was so fun to watch.

Boys, Boys, Boys

So Much to write, but I am very tired.
Tonight we went to a local golf course for supper. (???) I had no idea they had such food. Brock decided to have the frog legs (yuck). Brock kept talking about how they didn't taste like chicken. They were like a dull fish taste, he said. I was grossed out looking at it so I was glad that he was next to me so I didn't have to look at him next to me. Zeb was fearless about them. As soon as Brock left to use the boys room, Zeb hopped on his chair and played with the frog legs saying 'ribbit, ribbit' and 'oh no!' when they would break. I won't go into more detail, it just grosses me to think of it. blech...
We rented some movies one of which is call Benchwarmers. It is about a bunch of misfiit kids grown up that want to prove their worth in baseball. Truly a boys movie! Very funny. They loved it!
We are getting ready to go up to the cabin for a few days. Duner took off work on Monday so we will be staying til Tuesday. I have a meeting at work so I will need to come back by 11 am on Tuesday. Yuck! That means getting up early that day to make sure the cabin is cleaned and ready to go when we leave.
Well I am beat. I will try to sneak something in on Tuesday.

Getting Bigger

I took Brock in for registration at school the other day. It will be a new school for him so we both didn't know what to expect. Co-workers warned me they would be taking his picture so we 'studed' him up for the night. He looked so grown up in the picture. It really turned out well. I am so excited about it.
Reece and Zeb have registration later on in the month on the same night. I am hoping my husband will be off work so he can go with one of them. We were hoping Zeb would be in some form of pre K in our public schools but he misses the turning 4 rule by 17 days. We had him tested anyway and they had some concerns with his abilities to answer questions, colors and numbers. He is very stubborn and doesn't usually like to answer questions about colors and numbers when we try. If he does it is no more that 5 questions, before he is done. He actually was co operating with the teachers when they tested him but probably since other kids were answering the questions too.
We went to fireworks last night at my work. They blocked it off for employees only. What a bummer. There was some good fireworks but I probably would have enjoyed better from my backyard. I thought maybe the ground show would be better. It was cold too. The boys didn't want to were pants which they ended up regreting.
Today they woke up and tried to play there computer and it told Brock MASTER HARD DISK FAIL. Later Reece woke up and didn't believe Brock so he tried it himself. IT WORKED! Reece came up dancing and singing "The computer likes me, The computer likes me!". Brock was on the verge of tears so I said "So does the Vacuum, now clean up the toy room before anyone uses the computer."
Under the right circumstances you can get your kids to do quite a lot.
: ]

Not an expolsion... well the bad kind anyway...

This is not a photo from Lebannon or Iraq. This is a photo from our back yard toward the Pyrotechnic competition that is now going on all week long near our home. Various different groups of fireworks enthusiast's (a.k.a nuts) are competiting for braggin' rights that is all. I guess they have it set to music and at various points there is a ground show, but I saw quite a lot right from my house. It was hard to take a picture of them, but they were many higher than this on, but getting my trigger finger and the camera to work at the same time is a trick. Not to mention Zeb was on my lap continuously asking "Can I see it? Can I see?" and yanking my arm down. The two white lights off to the side are streetlights.

Another busy weekend...

Today we took the boys golfing for the first time. It was kept from them until we pulled in to the parking lot of the golf course. We woke them up bright and early since Duner had to work til 6 am.
We brought Zeb along with and he took turns hopping from one cart to the next. Brock drove me nuts asking if he can drive the cart. Reece did pretty good considering he is using right handed clubs and he is left handed. Brock managed to shoot his tee 5ft while the ball stayed on the green! That was pretty funny. Zeb got to be a monster on hole 6 he didn't want to stay in the carts anymore. At one hole we found over 10 golf balls in the tall grass and weeds that some of us managed to shoot into. It was fun. It is pretty rare that you find more balls than you lose.

Reece as made fun of this week by the neighbor kids since he can not do a 'wheelie'. He came home on Wednesday, upset and so Duner made a point to try and teach him how to do it. Grandpa even made a jump ramp for him. He found a friend that will be going into the same grade as him and will be riding the bus with him so he is getting better about school and the change. His friend asked if Brock and Reece could sleep over Thursday night but I think Brock likes his sister, I don't know how old she is but Reece's Friend 'D' has a older and youunger sister. He is in the middle too.

Brock will be getting his school picture next week. In this school they do pictures before school starts, at registration. We have to pay for school, a planner, a atlas??, swim pants, tech ed, art class, and pictures this week. Over $70.00 worth. Yeah. I have to go shopping for Brock for a nice shirt for pictures.

Well Reece has something to show me on the ramp...
later!