The Zen Life

Elijah LOVES to get into the laundry baskets when we are doing laundry. Often we will give him "rides" with the clothes as we are taking them upstairs.











On this particular night, Elijah thought the basket looked like a great place to catch a nap!













Meredith took some notes from her brother!











In the playroom, we have a basket of "her" toys. I think she was trying to tip it over to get to the toys and just decided it would be less work for her to get in!

Oh boy.

So, Elijah--ever the little industrious boy--decided Meredith was hungry. She was napping at the time . . .





I had thought Elijah had gone upstairs to get his blanket, until he came down with this (empty) in his hand announcing "He has had ENOUGH!" (Elijah is not so sure about pronouns--so everybody is a "he"--especially Meredith).













I said: "Elijah, did you give those to Meredith?"
Elijah: "Yeah, he was Hungry!"










Me: "I think she was tired; she was napping."













Elijah: "Nope, she was hungry; but she's had ENOUGH!"













Meredith is actually pretty tickled about the breakfast in bed.











Elijah decided to join her!











Ah, well. No harm, no foul!

We decided to turn our back family room into a game room. The kids got XBox 360 and RockBand2 for Chanukah--so we got them a new HDTV to hook it up to (the front family room's TV is hooked up to the Wii). We brought in our full size Air Hockey table from the garage, and brought up this game table from the basement (it has interchangable tops for Knock Hockey, Billiards, Ping Pong, and foosball). Elijah fell in LOVE with Pool!
It is a bit small for the older boys--although they still love to play it --but they are trying to convince us to get a full size Pool table! (We did find a full size pool table/ping pong table for a really great price--so stay tuned!!).

We rang in the New Year--and Garrett's birthday--with an Awesome sleepover party complete with Mimosa's (non-alcoholic for the kiddos), chips, candy and Hot Fudge Pound Cake Sundaes (Garrett's own creation)--YUM!!




Happy Happy Birthday!
















Garrett is our X-Games, Skateboarding Dude--he was thrilled at this gift Jonah picked out for him: a skateboarding computer game that uses a mini-skateboard as the mouse (WAY COOL!)












Party Time!
















HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!--Ryan celebrating 2009--check out the streamers in mid fall! We all had a blast with the poppers!

















iTunes to go with Garrett's new iPod Nano (which he, by the way, had eloquently engraved with "School Sucks!" on the back!)!!











Mike with the *real* Mimosa! Happy New Year!!



















Jonah continuing the Celebration into the wee hours of the night (we didn't go to be until about 3:30 am!)!

















Our champagne flute from our wedding--used often and well (Did I mention how much we LOVE Mimosas?)!

We have two Shiny Birthdays in November! Jonah turned 9 and Elijah turned 3:

For Jonah's birthday, he chose a Star Wars the Clone Wars themed sleepover (very Awesome indeed!).


Our table ready for the party (you can't see the 6 bottles of soda and huge bowl of potato chips!)






Jonah's cake (a Lego Clone Trooper from Star Wars: The Clone Wars). We LOVE "Ace of Cakes" here--the boys are always challenging me to create cakes that are Duff-Worthy!

Combine that with Jonah's love of Legos (especially the Lego Star Wars video games) and this is what you get!





We light it up! We had about 10 tween boys here that night! What a loud, rollicking, Joyful night that was! We set up a Star Wars marathon--Most of the boys fell alseep by 1am. Our Jonah and Garrett were up until 3am!!! They Love that Claim to Fame!







Jonah gets a Sims game for his DS from Ryan! Garrett got him Tony Hawk for the DS, and Elijah got him MySims for the DS. Are we sensing a theme here?







Grandma and Grandpa Sirotkin got Jonah this model of the solar system complete with a listing of the exact location of all of the planets for each month through 2010. Jonah actually recognized that Venus and Jupiter were going to be visable in the night sky before it was announced in the news!




Elijah's Birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year! What fun! Turkey and Pumpkin Pie AND Cake!!



When asked what kind of cake he wanted Elijah was very kind: "I want a Triangle Cake!" Later he decided it should be yellow and it should have a "1" on it (because, as he explained "I'm number 1!!")






When it was finished (or almost finished) he realized it needed some tweaking! So he made it perfect!







Elijah LOVES to blow out the candles!! (ANY candles!). In this case, they were Shabbat candles! We couldn't find the birthday candles I bought!!!!




In our home, if you are up when it turns midnight on your birthday--you get to open your presents then!! Of course--the kids always stay up!! This year Elijah got a Dora House (Dora is Elijah's FAVORITE!!! Here he spends the midnight hour decorating it!




Love,
Karen

I love this video!! I want to carry it around with me in my pocket and hand it out to anyone who asks me why I homeschool or how can I be sure my unschooled children with learn "the basics". Just Click on one of the Players in the window--Be sure to pause the purple music player (scroll down--it's on the right!)

Okay--so it has been awhile! Admittedly, I have some catching up to do! My goal is to get it all caught up before November ends! Let's see how I do!!






In October, we took a LOVELY camping trip with some other Homeschooling families in the Syracuse area. We had such a great time!!!





I think the whole experience can be summed up by Ryan, who told Mike: "I REALLY Like playing with the other homeschooled kids. They don't pick on my like the kids in school do."






That was a bittersweet moment for us as a family. Ryan and Garrett's mom still refuses to trust in the boys, and honor their wishes to be homeschooled. The frustrations that they feel from their "teachers" and the other kids grow from being in a system that cannot (or will not) honor Who They Are. ::sigh::




We still continue to honor Them when they are with us. And listen to them and their frustrations. Our biggest hope now is that the damage that is done by being in school and by having a parent who doesn't listen to and trust in Who They Are can be mitigated by what we provide for them while they are with us.






So, back to the camping trip! The boys Love Love Love to camp! It was Mid-October when we went, and the boys found a Monarch!!! We were a little concerned that he was a bit to far North for the Migratory pattern. But as Unschoolers--we do not judge Any Being taking It's own time!






On this trip we also discovered Letterboxing! The Joy in Discovery was endless! (This is our stamp!)






The boys loved this personal kind of "treasure hunt". We have continued this since returning home (Blog on Letterboxing to come shortly!).






The first night there we had a pot-luck dinner. The boys had pork-fried rice made by a couple of teen girls in the group, meatball subs, pasta dishes, chili, chips--and of course SMORES!!!







We also put together a Halloween party for the kids!




















Oh the Joy of dressing up and eating Candy and Cupcakes!



And--we can't forget about the Silliness!









The Wonderful, Glorious, Joyful, Silliness that comes so naturally when everyOne is allowed to Be Who They Are!







Love,
Karen