Back to School 2015

We started our new homeschool year on Monday, August 31st with a fun Back to School Breakfast! I ran over to Michael's on Sunday evening, did a quick Pinterest search, and found a few goodies to decorate the school/dining room late that night. Then I got up early and made a big breakfast of all our favorites (lots of BACON!). Steven was able to stay home a bit later than usual to join us. The kids were pretty surprised, and it helped get our first day off to a great start!

I printed out a bible verse to meditate on this year, and I plan to paint it on a canvas and put it in a prominent space in the house. It has always been one of my favorite verses:

Finally, brethren,

whatever is true, 

whatever is honorable, 

whatever is just, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is gracious, 

if there is any excellence, 

if there is anything worthy of praise, 

think about these things. 

     Philippians 4:8

From left to right we have Thomas (K), Ellie (5th), Mary Clare (7th) holding Katie, and Steven (2nd). The girls enjoyed their first week of online classes, and we did a decent job of staying on track this week. The girls are now doing their online courses on a laptop in their rooms, which makes things a little easier. I'm hopeful that each week will get a little bit smoother as we get into the swing of things. We had a bit of a rough time as the week went by, I can't even remember the details at this point, but we topped it off with a great Friday with our homeschool group!

We had a Back to School Mass, and then a Park Day to celebrate the Blessed Mother's Birthday. We had a great showing, including lots of new families. We took this photo before we started our rosary decade, and I realized that at this point in the party I didn't even know a lot of the kids! I'm one of the moderators of the group, and quite social if you haven't realized yet, so usually I know everyone! By the end, most of the "regulars" were there, and there were probably double this number of children, but it was nice to have a mix of old and new friends to meet. We're so blessed to have this amazing community of homeschoolers in our area! We're looking forward to a great year, especially as we set up school in a new house in just a few weeks!