Busy, Busy!

Our busy summer has somehow flowed directly to our busy fall!  Not sure how that keeps happening!  All good stuff, but lots of it.  My last post left off with getting you through June, so I will pick up from there and hopefully get you caught up to today.

In mid-June we all participated in St. Helena's VBS.  It was great fun, but definitely different than what we were used to.  I was with the rising kindergarten group while AJ and Megan were with the Pre-K and 4th grade groups respectively.  Maddie enjoyed being a part of the drama team and got to know a lot of the teens at the church as the teen involvement there is huge.  Great fun with a great message.

The very end of June and beginning of July saw Maddie attending her very first sleep-away camp at Camp Capers in Comfort, TX.  She had a blast, but it was super hard to drop her off and a long week of not hearing from her for Momma!  Camp Capers did post a few pictures, but they were all action shots so hard to tell if she was happy and comfortable and they were a few days behind.  The clearest pic of her showed her smiling, but in her ankle braces so this Momma was a nervous wreck until we got to hug her!  Turns out, they were doing a lot of running on uneven ground (go figure :-!) and they were just a little sore so she wore them as support vs. being in pain.  She made several friends and is looking forward to going back next year.

Maddie got a week off before a 3-day intense debate camp in preparation for the speech and debate club that we now belong to.  It was intense, but she thoroughly enjoyed it and was evenly matched with kiddos that were several years older than she is.

A whirlwind trip to Lafayette followed which was really nice.  It was great to see everyone and sooth our homesick hearts at least for a short bit.  Lafayette still feels more like home than Fair Oaks does, but that is slowly and gradually changing.  Matt is loving his job, even the myriad of challenges, so the move was definitely worth it.

The end of July and start of August saw the start of FamilyPaLooza 2014 where Rusty, Dena, & the girls spent 10 days with us.  Dena had a conference on the Riverwalk so she and the girls flew down the the girls stayed with us while she was at the conference.  Rusty joined us as well after he finished his work week.  Grammy and Gramps came for a visit as well, but elected to stay in a hotel for the nights - I wonder why? :-)  A great time was had by all as we did SeaWorld, Guadelupe State Park, Camp Wacky at St. Helena's, Sistercreek Winery tour, a cooking class, backyard fun with and without lightsticks, some barn fun, and assorted other fun and games.  All in all a grand time was had by all!  We are now eagerly planning and awaiting FamilyPaLooza 2015 which is a land and sea adventure at DisneyWorld.

Boutte Academy began its adventures on August 18th (though the yearbook for last year has yet to be completed - in truth it has barely been started).  Andrew is in kindergarten, Megan in 4th grade, and Maddie in 7th grade.  We still haven't found our groove, but we are getting through it.  Just kind of a bumpy road since we've changed so much and are still emotionally exhausted.  Very easy to procrastinate and find more enjoyable things to do.  Extra barn time, while enjoyable, has also been a source of problems simply because there isn't enough time in the day.  We are getting through it, but it is just really tough to get 5 full days of school work done in a week.  Our normal is 4 days if we really stay on it.  We are taking it one day at a time and tweaking as we can to try to ensure it is quality learning time versus just getting something done.  AJ is doing great on his schoolwork and is especially enjoying the fact that he is becoming a really good reader!  My hope is another few weeks and we'll figure things out and it will feel right and run smoothly.

September was a crazy busy month with Maddie starting to acolyte at St. Helena's and some other major additions to our schedule.  The girls began speech club and the group meets every other week.  No competitions this year in that arena, but they are both learning a lot and growing their confidence.  Like any worthwhile endeavor, some days are more challenging than others, but each week growth is evident.  AJ is technically too young to participate, but will likely be involved next year and is enjoying learning from afar.  September also was the start of AJ's foray into soccer.  He's really enjoying it and Matt is the coach for this season.  Some moments are hard, but for the most part, both "boys" are enjoying it.  AJ is now a dribbling machine and frequent scorer in the games.  Megan also started participating in a monthly book club that has been really fun.  We've only met twice now, but so far, so good.  Some EGRs in the group, but given that we are homeschooling, practice is needed in dealing with them, too so it is a worthwhile endeavor.  The books read so far are The Family Under the Bridge by N. Carson & G. Williams and The BFG by R. Dahl.  Next up is James and the Giant Peach.

The beginning of September was a fabulous visit with most of the Daly's.  Aiden spent the weekend in Houston with friends, so it was just Joseph, Angie, and Andrew, but we all had a blast hitting SeaWorld, the RiverWalk, and Alamo Plaza.  Great fun and great food!!!  All enjoyed it immensely especially the menfolk!

In mid-September, Maddie competed in a hunter show on Batman, an 11-year old mustang.  It was Batman's first show in a while, but both Maddie and Batman did great competing against made ponies and trainers.  It is definitely a different competition world here than Lafayette was.  Not really thrilled with how things ran, but she did earn some money in the add-back classes that she was in so she officially has earned her first prize money from a horse show.  Megan also schooled her little buddy, Lyric, which was nice even though she chose not to compete.  It was an opportunity for her to get some practice in so that now she feels ready for the next show opportunity.

Andrew also had a special day where he TURNED 5!!!  How in the world did that happen.  He had a blast learning how to ride his new bike without training wheels (a benefit of the balance bike he's had).  He's only a few weeks from being able to join us on walks/runs which will be great!

In the end of September, we all thoroughly enjoyed a vacation at Big Bend.  Despite it starting out with an urgent care visit and missed soccer game because of AJ's ear infection, it was a great vacation.  We rented a house with Mr. Dave and enjoyed many days of hiking, investigating rocks, and thoroughly enjoying the varied scenery of the Rio Grande River, canyons, basin, and desert wildlife.  The house was really neat except for the "wildlife" feel in the bathroom.  We hiked a total of 15 miles on 7 different hikes and it is a toss-up as to which was my favorite.  Mr. Dave's hiking boots fell apart on the first hike and mine fell apart on the last so that was a little extra adventure that we enjoyed getting several laughs from.  Lots of reading and relaxing as we enjoyed the quiet and remoteness that is the middle-of-nowhere.  The sunsets, stars, and sunrises were absolutely amazing.

October's favorite big item so far was a visit from the Comeaux's - Kenny, Nicole, Chloe, and Naomi.  It was absolutely wonderful to visit with friends from Lafayette even though it was just for a short weekend.  Some teeth drama for me also started this month (I'll spare you the details), but we hope that a second opinion next week will rectify that situation.  We also celebrated Megan's birthday with a slumber party.  So hard to believe she's 10 already!

November will kick off with a bang with a trip Pine Hill in Bellville for Maddie to see a horse trial and then school Batman in preparation for her first horse trial early next year.  We then immediately start a weeklong trip to Houston and Lafayette that is jampacked with fun including celebrating Grammy's 70th birthday, RenFest, and some hugs on Katy among other things.  Matt will be flying in and meeting us in Lafayette where we hope to see almost all of our friends and family there.

Phew!  I think that catches you up to today.  My hope is life slows down a bit, but I'm not counting on it as things just seem to pop up especially with the holidays coming up.  Time management is becoming more and more critical as we slowly learn that the pace of life won't be slowing down anytime soon.  The issue my inner child has with that is that there are many times in the day that all I want to do is escape which means stuff doesn't get done, kids aren't kept on task, and chaos creeps in.  At least the things we are doing is mostly all good stuff that are great learning experiences.  One of these days we'll enjoy that groove again!