Adventure is out there! Highlights from our trip to Disney!

We are HUGE Disney fans!

For us it truly is the happiest place on earth.

We love it.

One of the reasons I love it so much is the way Maddie lights up.  

A few years ago, when we were struggling so much with sensory processing issues, it's like something magical happened when we were at Disney. 

She was more her true self there; happy, complacent, engaged.

She spent a lot of her every day life in her own head and there were days I felt like I just couldn't reach her.

But then we would go to Disney and she would come alive and there was connection and joy and happiness.  

She's been doing so much better this last year, but Disney will always hold a special place in my heart for that time.  

We've been back a couple of weeks now and I've had a chance to sort through some of my favorite photos.  I only took a little over 4,000 this trip!

Our first night we went to Disney Springs for dinner.

One of the things Maddie was most excited about were the dance parties.

As soon as she heard the music, she hopped out of the stroller and started dancing!

She's got some moves, I'm telling ya!

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside.  

I loved this resort.  

One of the things I was most excited about was the resort day we had planned.  They have cane pole fishing, surrey bikes, two different swimming pools, carriage rides, so much!

Unfortunately, on our resort day, Maddie had caught some sort of stomach virus and was so sick! 

Poor thing, she never gets sick, and this was the sickest I've ever seen her. 

Luckily, it was just a 24 hour thing.

She woke up the next morning and declared, "I'm all better!" 

The thing about Disney vacationing is you never feel like you get to do it all, hence the need to come back again!

It's tradition for us to always visit Magic Kingdom the first day of our trip.  

We got up super early to see the Welcome show.

Maddie dressed up as Minnie this day.

Maddie's first request was to ride the teacups!  

She LOVES thrill rides.

This trip she was finally tall enough to ride some of the bigger rides like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Mount Everest at Animal Kingdom.

Her favorite was Splash Mountain!

We rode it three times!

Magic Kingdom is my favorite park.  It's so beautiful!

We found an awesome spot to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade!

Our next day was at Animal Kingdom.

Maddie dressed up as a Wilderness Explorer like Russell in the movie Up.

She met Mickey and the gang at character breakfast, which thrilled her to no end.

It's hard to pinpoint a favorite memory, but this ranks high up on the list!

She was so excited to see Russell and Dug.

They gushed over her, and we definitely felt the love.

It was awesome.

Maddie's communication skills have improved exponentially in the last year, and she was able to interact on her own with several cast members.

She really touched a lot of hearts!

This is Yee Haw Bob, and he is also a contender for one of my favorite memories!

He plays at the River Roost 3 nights a week at Port Orleans Riverside and he was SO MUCH FUN!

Before he began, he came to each table and met everyone. 

He got down on Maddie's level and said, "I'm going to sing and play music and have lots of fun, and I love you!"

I don't know how he does it, but he has this special way of taking a song like B-I-N-G-O and making it extraordinarily fun!

The next day was Mother's Day and for a special treat we had brunch at the California Grill in the Contemporary Resort.

It exceeded all of my expectations and was super special!

Maddie dressed up as Mary Poppins this day.

(Can you tell how much she loves to play dress up?!)

I love this picture!

We were at Epcot in the Japanese store.  

She loves the movie My Neighbor Totoro, and we found this book. 

She sat right down and looked through every page!

Of course, it had to come home with us.

Later that evening at dinner, she was so tired she nearly fell asleep resting on the ledge.

The next day we were back at Epcot again and first on the to-do list was meet Joy and Sadness from the movie Inside Out!

This was so cool!  

They spent a lot of time with Maddie and Joy took Maddie over and personally showed her the memory balls.  

The best part of going to Disney this time of year is the Flower and Garden festival at Epcot. 

It's so breathtaking, I love it.

Maddie wanted to get her face painted.

She specifically asked for Donald Duck, and the painter was so talented it was no problem!

Aw, one of my favorite photos!

Our last day was back at Magic Kingdom.

Maddie dressed up like Jessie this day and we met her first thing!

Later that day, she got to dance with her during the Move It! Shake It! Dance party!

So cool!

As much as she loves the thrill rides, she can never get enough of the classics like Dumbo!

Every year we get a silhouette.

To me, this is by far the best souvenir you can come home with.

These guys are super talented!

 We left Magic Kingdom and headed to Fort Wilderness Campgrounds for dinner.

While we were waiting, Maddie took her first-ever pony ride!

His name was Nemo.

It just so happened Magic Kingdom was open until 1:00 AM so after dinner we headed back to park hoping to stay as long as we could!

This was Maddie at 1:30 AM, still going strong!

It was a great way to end an incredible vacation.

I'm sad to be back home, but so grateful for such amazing memories! 

Easter 2016

This year was the first year we did not go to my parents for Easter.  

Instead, we went to my sister's near Quartz Mountain.

 It's really beautiful there.  

My family has discovered gaga ball.

It's similar to dodgeball, except you can only hit legs/feet, and you cannot catch the ball.

Plus, you are also enclosed in a cage.

I'm terrible at it, but it's SO FUN!

 Kyle had some moves!

 But we're not as young as we once were!

 It was such a gorgeous weekend.  

The weather was perfect, the food was amazing, and spending time with my family is always rejuvenating!

I snuck a few pictures of my beautiful Mom against her wishes!

She is amazing. 

Her love is pure, true, an unconditional!

I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

And this happens a lot around my mom...lots of laughter and fun.

We did a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt this year!

Lots of fun, I highly recommend it.

(See how here)

 I loved her Easter dress this year!  

You can't see it very well here, but it's Minnie Mouse!

She loved it.

 Easter baskets were a joy, and served double duty as hats.  

We did one more, traditional Easter egg hunt.

So fun, at any age!

Yay!  

Homeschool Haven

 

I have to admit, I was really hesitant to begin homeschooling back in September.

I'm not the most structured person, and for some reason I have this crazy desire to sabotage routines no matter how beneficial they may be.

I figured this would not fit in well with the homeschool world. 

But, the wonderful thing about homeschooling is it can be a bit unstructured, and nobody says you have to do the same things every day!  

I am SO glad Maddie and I have taken on this adventure together.  

We are both better for it, and (thanks to Maddie) I have even seen the beauty of routines.

I did hit a few rough patches along the way though.

Trying to find our rhythm and our curriculum has been challenging.

I invested in a few different options only to be extremely disappointed when they haven't really worked for us.

A few weeks ago my sister and I drove to Fort Worth, TX for the Homeschool Convention.

I didn't want to make the same mistake and invest in more curriculum that wouldn't work for us, so I wrote out goals for Maddie that I wanted her to learn.
I wrote several goals for her in the areas of Language, Math, Character, Personal Care, Bible, Science, Fine Motor, and Gross Motor.
I prayed over all of these and set out to find curriculum that would fit these categories and Maddie's specific goals.
I was getting discouraged until I came upon the Homegrown Preschooler's booth (http://www.thehomegrownpreschooler.com/.)
I was drawn to it right away, but actually dismissed it because it seemed "too good to be true."

I went back and visited with the authors (Kathy Lee and Lesli Richards) and they seemed like good friends!
But when I read through the curriculum, I noticed one of the activities was teaching them to brush their teeth independently.
This was one of Maddie's specific goals I had written down!
As I looked through, it was as if they had taken Maddie's learning style and had handwritten it just for us.

I purchased the curriculum, and we did our first activity today, which was preparing a spot for Maddie's very own garden!
Now come on, doesn't that sound like too much fun to be homeschool?
We dug in the dirt and found a grub.
She learned a new vocabulary word and I talked to her about how some things like to live underground.
Then we found a worm.
She wasn't at all impressed,
until she began finding all kinds of "treasures" (sticks, rocks, snail shells, etc.)
We got an empty egg carton to contain the treasures.

She was so proud of her treasures!
As she would sift through the dirt, she would say, "I found something!"

As part of the curriculum, they make these homemade, sewn books.
We got out our first book to remember all of our wonderful treasures.

Aren't these the cutest things ever?!

Maddie got to work documenting everything.
We've covered nature/science, language, and now handwriting.
She happened to collect three snail shells, so we counted them and worked in some math.

 She's awfully proud of herself. :)

She's making it her own!
Call me crazy, but doesn't it look like she's trying to write "leaf?"

I love seeing her so engrossed and concentrating so hard.
Really, I could guess all the things she was learning through this simple, playful activity but there's no way to know all that was happening in that brain of hers.
All I know is, this is what learning looks like!

She struggled with the scotch tape (our method for attaching all of her treasures in her book), but she wanted to give it another go.

And the thing with tape,

is it's just so darn sticky...

and frustrating!

But, finally, she got it!

I am so excited to have found what seems like the perfect curriculum for us.
I had already decided to do school year-round throughout the summer, and now I can hardly wait!

Beautiful Moments

Every once in a great while, we may discover ourselves in the midst of a beautiful moment.

These rare, precious realizations are what make life worth living. 

Yesterday, life honored me with such a moment.

I was getting dinner ready in the kitchen, and I looked over at Maddie sitting at the table with her coloring book.  

The late afternoon/early evening light was gentle and soft.  

I was struck by how peaceful she looked, so content.

My heart warmed and I stood still, soaking it all in.  

And then of course I grabbed my camera.

I've been playing around with what photography industry calls "documentary family photojournalism."

It's a storytelling style that reflects the ethical codes of true photojournalists that do not interfere with the moment, they simply capture it.  

In portrait photography, all of those things in the foreground are considered distractions that interfere with the main subject.

In family photojournalism, they simply add to the telling of the story.  

What some call clutter, others call details! ;)

Documentary photography is extremely challenging, but I think I prefer it to portrait work.  

I like that one photo can tell a story.  

In this story, she has her green smoothie, nearly finished sitting beside her.  

It's not unusual for her to drink 3 per day, and she usually finishes them in 2 minutes flat.

In front of her green smoothie is her crayon roll. 

I made that for her 7th birthday party and I love that she loves it.

Next, she's not coloring.

When she gets her coloring books out, she flips through every page one at a time like a book before she ever picks up a crayon.

I also like how small she looks in the adult size dining room chair.

There was just enough separation from her hair and the chair with the highlights hitting her hair.

That makes for a more pleasing image.

She finally picks up her crayon and starts to color.

The detail I love in this photo is the bubbles sitting to her left.  

Earlier in the day we had gone outside to blow bubbles.  

Maddie has some success blowing bubbles, but she will often get frustrated because her mouth muscles are not always strong enough to form the "O" shape to blow.

I was trying to teach her but at this particular moment she was really defeated and ready to give up.

Me: "I'm not going to let you give up, you can do this."

Maddie: "I can't do it"

Me: "Never say can't.  It takes lots of practice and you have to open your mind to learn, but you can do it."

Maddie: (slowly opens door and creeps back inside, an inch at a time!) HA.HA.

That was her subtle way of telling me the lesson was over!

I especially love this image!

The story here is we have been working on pencil grasp for well over a year now.

She will show signs of progress one week, but the next she will revert back a palm grasp (as opposed to a tripod grasp.)

Just like her mouth muscles are not always strong enough, she also struggles with her fine motor muscles.

But this is perfect!

She's got a great grasp and she is able to control the movement while coloring the bow!!

That's amazing progress considering a week ago we were back to the palm grasp once again.

In homeschooling her I've learned her learning style is very fluid.  

Give and take.

We learn, revert, learn again, revert, learn again.

But with each time we learn again I know: 

1) She learned it once, she can learn it again

2) each new experience builds on the last and one day it will stick forever

Maybe this is the day the tripod pencil grasp sticks forever!

Even if it's not, I have a beautiful image that captures a beautiful moment that I will always cherish.

I wish for you to find yourselves in the midst of beautiful moments as well.

They really are what make life worth living!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no fickleness, neither shadow of turning.