School has started!

Today was our official first day of school! It went really well, except that I couldn't figure out the program for the grades. (Grrrr!) But I did finally get it figured out.

We started out the day with pictures, we always do pictures the first day of school! Morgan and Christopher both asked me if we could not do pictures, I said we had to, it's tradition! Morgan wanted to break with tradition. As you will see, we stayed with tradition. ;)


These photos were so much fun! I told the kids to have a good time, and boy did they!





He can still touch the tip of his nose with his tongue! Such talent!


Ben starting fourth grade. What a big guy!


"Aren't I adorable?"


Can you tell he was cold?


Such a lady!


Tori being cute!


Christopher is so happy to not be on the bottom rung of Bel Canto anymore!


Christopher loves the rock he found!

Love this pose!

Morgan stylin'

I'm so thankful I am able to homeschool my kids, to see them work through the learning process, to see them grow, laugh, and learn!

Choir camp is almost over!

I'm sitting in First Baptist Church waiting on my Bel Canto choir students to get out of their last day of choir camp for the 2009-2010 school year. This has been such a tremendously busy week, but a good one. The kids absolutely LOVE their new choir teacher, Mrs. Cheshire. She is so energetic and patient in dealing with so many students! I'm thankful Mrs. Cheshire was chosen as the new teacher! In the few weeks Morgan has gone to her for voice lessons, and seeing how she interacts with the kids, I've been really pleased with her!

We are getting the finishing touches on preparing for school, as school officially starts Monday. I cannot believe I now have two high schoolers! Then you turn around, Christopher is taller than Morgan and Jeffery both, Tori is in middle school now, and Ben is already in 4th grade. My how the time just seems to fly by, and it goes faster and faster each year. With tomorrow being our last day of summer vacation, we are going to the St. Louis Zoo for the day! I have been wanting to get there all summer, and I'm so excited we get to go tomorrow! We're supposed to meet Jeff in St. Louis at 9, so tomorrow will be another up and at 'em early day! Praying I sleep better tonight than I did last night, and get up earlier.

Doing the happy dance! (And saying a prayer!)

Yesterday we had Ben's neurologist appointment. The short of it is this: we are going to wean him off his trileptal (the seizure medicine). It's been almost three years since he's had a seizure, and the type of epilepsy he has he is supposed to grow out of it. Combine that with how much he has grown in the last year, and Dr. Callahan says it's a good time to see if he's done. (If we take an EEG, it won't tell us if he will REALLY have a seizure, it will just tell us if he has the electrical activity going on that will allow him to have a seizure. The only we can find out is to take him off the medication and see if he has one.) We will spend the next six weeks slowly weaning him, and see what happens. If he has no seizures, no problem, if he does, he goes back on the tripleptal.

Also, we talked to him about Ben's migraines. He is taking 9 maxalt in a span of 4-6 weeks, so Dr. Callahan thinks he does need a preventative. We are going to try an all natural one first, Butterbur. Have him take that for a month or two, see how he does. If he still has them often, switch him to Migravent. If that doesn't work, we will go to a prescription of Nortriptyline. Praying the Butterbur works! It has no side effects, if he does have a migraine, he can still take the maxalt. The Migravent can cause stomach issues, diarrhea, nauseousness type stuff, although it is made up of butterbur, CoQ10, B2, and magnesium.

First Field Trip of 2009-2010

We had our first field trip of the school year today. Thanks to our friend Cheryl, we were able to tour the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. It was incredible! The pics are actually in reverse order of the museum, but I don't know how to switch them around, so we are going to go backwards.

I've heard of the trip for years, Jeff went with his twin brothers when he was a teenager and climbed all over the trains. After taking pictures of their day of adventure, they were told on the way out they couldn't get on the trains. Jeff has told the kids this story I don't know how many times over the years, so today they were all excited to see where Daddy's train stories happened!


This man was our tour guide going through the train President Truman was on. He was a funny man and a real joy to be around!


This is Jeffery's friend, Amelia. She is actually inside the coal tender of one of the engines. I could not believe she went in!


The group that went: Jeffery II, Amelia, Tori, Jeff, Mason, Ben, Cheryl, Morgan, Christopher, and I. (Why, oh why do I always end up in front????)

Jeffery and Amelia hanging out after the tour.

Morgan on the other side of the kitchen in the train we had the tour through.

Morgan and I peeking at Jeff.
This giant wheel thing is a snow plow for the tracks. It's pushed by 3 engines!! Ben and Mason thought that was pretty cool!
After this pic was taken, these guys were using that blade as a slide. A man came by and said to stop. Jeffery made a comment about them getting hurt. He said, "They're kids, they're tough. I don't want them to scratch the paint."

Jeff playing conductor!

Benjamin
Christopher

Morgan talking to Andrew while we were waiting on the tour.




Jeffery and Amelia by the really neat old luggage. I would like one of those steamer trunks for my coffee table!



I like this pic. We were all inside this HUGE engine. (The wheels to this engine were taller than I am!) This one also had a bell that the kids got to ring.

Cheryl walking on the tracks. After we had been doing this for about five minutes we were told you aren't supposed to walk on the tracks. Oops!

Tori and I. While we were taking this pic Mason and Ben kept trying to move this orange thing. I wouldn't see them, so when they would start I would jump. Looking back, it was really funny.

Ben, Mason, and Tori having a good time!






Right before Jeffery took this pic he banged his head on the edge of the ceiling above me. I felt so bad, and he's going "Just take the picture, just take the picture!"




For the record, Christopher hung upside down first. haha
The kids had to be like their Dad and climb on places they weren't supposed to go.
It was fun!


This is a three layer car carrier. They don't use these anymore because they were open, and people would vandalize the cars. Now the car carriers are closed.

They are so cool! What you may not be able to see is the sign on the ladder that says not to climb. Following Daddy...





Morgan is looking longingly at this car. It was very nice!



First, this one we were allowed to climb on. This tug boat is by the entrance.
Ben and Mason by the World War II airplane. Standing next to this was amazing!

There was sooo much there, I'm already looking forward to the next time we go!

After we got done, we all went to McAllister's Deli, my favorite place to eat. It was a wonderful day of playing together!