Cole and Ilia Massie

…in San Francisco…with our wonderful friends, the Hargetts!!  Please go here to see the photos of our fabulous trip.   Also, Armand has done a beautiful slide show of our time together and as soon as I figure out how to get it off my hard drive and up into Youtube, you’ll see it too!!  In the meantime, enjoy!!

A few weeks ago we were very privileged to have the amazing Renaissance historian Holly Hall come to our homeschool group’s park day…in full costume!  She was fascinating to listen to and Cole was enraptured…he spent an extra hour peppering her with questions and she knew every detail! 

Well, she was delighted to have such an eager student, so she invited us to be her special guests at the Renaissance Faire this Sunday!  (At the faire, Holly plays a different character than the one she was at the park…much fancier!)  As Mistress Mary Carter, she “recruited” Cole into the Children’s Militia and appointed him ensign…with the Extremely Important Job of flying the flag for the troops’ charge!

Cole got another lesson in Renaissance military history and trained valiantly with his swordsmen group. Finally, banner waving and sword drawn, he (with a little help from Eddie) led the charge at the pre-joust pageant!  Her Majesty was well pleased!

Afterward, Holly and her character husband (who is also her real husband, Mark) walked us back through the faire, pointing out loads of interesting things and telling us all about both Renaissance and Faire history (did you know that in 1570 dictionaries had not been created yet?  Me, either.)

Then Cole tried his hand at fencing, the crossbow and archery. 

When I wrote to Holly to thank her and Mark profusely for the splendid day and ask permission to use their photographs, she replied with this:

We did ourselves revel in your good company and delighted in all that passed that day with you at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.  We are delighted that you all were educated as well as entertained.  That is how it is supposed to be enjoyed and is why we have taken part all these many merry years.

You are most welcome to post what dost please you on your wondrous website.   It would be an honor to be included in such an auspicious display.

My goodly husband and I hope that we shall be able to reunite at some soon future date.  Until then, we wish you happiness and carefree times.

Your humble servants,
Master Jacob Carter and his Lady Wife, Mistress Mary Carter

I ask ye, are they not delightful??   Cheers, Mistress and Master Carter!!!

Be sure to check out the photos here!

What a week-end!!!!!

I AM AN ORANGE BELT!!!  It took me a year and a half, but I FINALLY got it!!  I had to do the Ni Ju No Kata - it’s 20 steps!  Since I can’t do the spinning kick parts, I did all the arm movements.  Then I  had go through it a second time and recite it all out loud…and I DID IT!!  Shibucho tested me a lot on vocabulary, too.  I put my old yellow/white belt on my rack in my room and I can’t wait to wear my new belt to class!

On Saturday, me, my mom & dad and Eddie participated in Big Sunday.  It’s a huge, nationwide organization that puts together volunteers to do all kinds of things to help kids’ charities.  We chose to do a lemonade stand at Shane’s Inspiration…and all the proceeds go them!  It was a cold, windy day so we didn’t do as well as I’d hoped, but we did empty seven whole 68 ounce bottles!

And finally, I SURFED!!!  Jonathan took me to an event sponsored by Life Rolls On.  Dudes, I am STOKED!!   I was on the blue team with Jonathan and Cory.  I was REEEEEALLY scared, but Corey started me out on the sand and moved me farther and farther out until I was (as my mom said) a dot on the horizon.   And I SHREDDED!  I rode two REALLY HUGE sets!  It was so fun to ride them in!  I can’t wait to do it again!  And I got to meet Jesse Billauer,  who was in the movie Step Into Liquid.  He was AWESOME!  He and some other really cool people started Life Rolls On so that people who have spinal cord injuries can go back to doing the sports they love.  Check ‘em out!

Ilia had a blast, too…he mostly ran around in huge circles because he was SOOOOO excited! 

Follow the links to see pix!

We hope to be posting video soon.

Hang loose!!

Loads ‘o love,

Cole and Ilia

I must tell you that the prospect of teaching Cole (with all of his various and sundry learning disabilities) had all of the appeal of hanging from the lip of the Grand Canyon by one fingernail.  But with the help of our stalwart education therapists, Olivia and Jonathan Dunker, we are sailing smoothly over the homeschooling seas!   I cannot say enough about these two; they are so amazingly brilliant and full of imaginative ideas to help Cole learn.  They have truly been the greatest!

The best news is that Cole is crazy about the two of them, which makes learning so much easier. And the adventures!  Wow!  So far we’ve done two outdoor classroom sessions in Franklin Canyon where we identified plants from a guidebook, saw three different kinds of ducks, spotted a pile of slider turtles, toured a Native American shelter and made a depth gauge from a pine cone and a palm frond (which in turn sparked a conversation on non-standard measurement.) We also talked about the WPA cement structures that were all over the park and what FDR’s program meant to the country then and how it relates to what Obama is doing to try to stimulate the economy now.

We’ve gone on Cole’s first fishing trip and Jonathan is planning to take him surfing for his first time May 3.  A camping trip is scheduled for later in May where they will make bows and arrows and identify edible plants and do all sorts of boy stuff.   (Just found out:  more big fun coming up!  They’re doing a summer camp for just 8 kids, which runs from June 22-July 31.)

We’ve gone up to Griffith Observatory to learn how to make a comet and will be returning in June to look through telescopes at a public star party.

On Earth Day, we visited my friend’s brand new self-sustaining front yard farm.  Cole wrote a great report on it and you can see the pictures here.

In short, leaving behind the public school system (going there every day was about as fun as swimming with hungry sharks after taking a dip in a chum bucket) has been the greatest decision we ever made as a family.   We are exceedingly busy but really enjoying it all!  And no getting up at 6:15 a.m.!  Woo-hoo!

Enjoy the pictures!
Michelle, Nick, Cole and Ilia

AT LONG LAST!  IT’S HERE!!!!

This van is AMAZING!!  We drove down to Orange County yesterday (terrible traffic both ways…yikes!) and now it’s finally here!

Here’s how it works:  When you push the button, the door slides open, the ramp slides out and the WHOLE VAN kneels down to one side!  Crazy!  We were a little worried at first though, because when the van kneels the ramp comes out and the sensor sees the curb.  The van thinks there’s an obstacle in the way, so ZIP!  It sucks it back in (that keeps it from banging into something and get tweaked.)  Well, we park at the curb every day so we thought, “Oh, no!  Now we can’t use the ramp at home!”  But we called Jose the nice lift guy and he told us about a secret button on the dashboard that turns the kneeling off!  My mom tried it and it works perfectly!  It is AWESOME!

Check out the pix here!