Go Shorty. It's my Birthday.

Actually, my birthday was the 9th. I turned 35.

I'm still filled with a feeling of wonder, that I can be so loved. Just a few of my goodies: Target gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, a new outfit, lots of beautiful cards and notes, dinners out, the first season of 30 Rock, ALSO Across the Universe.

What a gushy, love-y birthday...what more can a girl ask for?



Kewlest gift? A video Shelby made for me...see below. Pay special attention, Dan...also, anyone who knows Loryn, keep an eye out for her cameo.

On Sleepovers...

Did you know that girls (who are high on junk food, caffeine, and very little sleep) do crazy things to each other's hair?

Check it out:

Yeah, my kid did this...

and I'm in bewildered awe! At 13, I was still lip-synching in front of my mirror to Duran Duran. She's creating cool video slideshows of her friends and family.

What a neat kid I have.

White and Nerdy

All 12 NLSVers (Natural Learners of the Shenandoah Valley) who attended the Weird Al show (May 2, in Glen Allen, Va). None of us kewl Moms are in this pic, unfortunately.

Tori is to the far right (in white shirt), Ashlyn is grinning in the center (kind of), wearing a light blue jacket, and Shelby is to the left with her friend, with short hair and yellow hat.

We all had a great time. Weird Al rocks!

May Day happenings

Today was our last day of Homeschool PE, in Harrisonburg. I got sunburned while pushing Lolo on the swing, but I don't think she cared. That kid loves to be pushed in the swing. My girls were pretty quiet on the way home...I think they're gonna miss their Tuesday classes. Their teacher, (Miss Lauren) really is a sweet girl. I can tell that she really enjoys our little group. I meant to bring my camera to snap a few "Last Day" pics, but forgot it in the rush to get out the door...bad mama, huh?

Tomorrow! We just can't wait till tomorrow! A group of us from co-op are taking our kids to see "Weird Al" Yankovic in Richmond! I think I'm as excited as the girls are! Poor Dave, I think he'd really want to go, but he's gonna sit this one out (he probably doesn't want to be with a bunch of women and their kids, anyway)! :-) He'll stay home with Lolo, while I take Ashlyn, Tori, and Shelby, along with Adesa and her two boys, Connie and her son, Danette and her four kiddos, PLUS we're meeting a couple of boys from our homeschool group in Richmond (they're staying with relatives, so we'll meet them outside the arena).

I think it's gonna be a good time.

Here's a little blog-quizzy thing I found whilst blog-hopping. Personally, I think it's pretty accurate.

You Are an Indie Rocker!

You are in it for the love of the music... And you couldn't care less about being signed by a big label. You're all about loving and supporting music - not commercial success. You may not have the fame and glory, but you have complete control of your career.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

Happy May Day, everyone!

Chicken Wars!

My unschooled 13 year old (Shelby) and her friend Erin, wrote (?) and acted (??) in this little video.

No, they weren't on any medication. ;-)

It's hard to tell, but the things they're hitting each other with are inflatable chicken legs from KFC.

I don't know where they got the idea, or WHY they got this idea, but here it is, for all to see.

Maybe the girls will write an ongoing series, much like the Lolo dancing vids I've been posting as of late.

I'm so excited!

My first video uploaded to YouTube!

This is a clip my friend Dan shot of Loryn, dancing to the Bullshit theme song. Lolo loves this show (more for the theme song than any other reason, though this particular episode was about breast hysteria!). Anyway, she just started dancing to the theme song, so I played it again and Dan got out the camera.

That's me dancing on the couch. I was in PJs, hence the bouncing tits. :-)

NYC, here I come!

I'm off again, for a whirlwind 30 hour trip to New York City. My friend Danny and I are going back to the Big Apple, this time to see The Color Purple on Broadway.

This is my birthday gift from Dan. It's a gift from Dave, as well, as he is my wonderful support system who understands that Moms sometimes need to get away!

Yes, I'm a lucky bastard of a grrl. ;-)

We're leaving tonight and will come home tomorrow evening. This time, we've got a Nav system in the Element, so hopefully we'll have an even better trip.

Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have pics to post tomorrow night. Well, maybe I'll actually try to sleep...if that's the case, I'll be posting Monday!

TTFN,

Paige

Pics from Tuesday

Loryn in a pink t-shirt, on the slide.



Shelby (far left, tall chick with short hair) with friends, at PE.

Unschooling flicks?

Unschooling and movies just go together, dontcha agree?

We have been watching some great ones lately...Animaniacs (remember them?), Sherrybaby, An Evening with Kevin Smith, Fruits Basket (Japanese Anime), The Pillow Book, etc. I've been on a big documentary kick, lately. One of my recent faves was This Film is Not Yet Rated.

All of these great flicks courtesy of Netflix.com, which I'm lovin'. Do any of you Netflix users want to become one of my peeps? Check it out:

"Connect to me and we'll be able to see what each of us is watching, share suggestions, and leave notes on movies. There is a world of cool movie browsing using these Friends features. Let's do it!"

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P6cNPt3s6mFK0UZrPflB

And if you have any ideas for fave movies that show unschooling in ACTION, do pass them along. Don't worry...we've seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off already!

FUNschool Gamers

It seems like our little circle of fUNschool gamers is getting bigger every meeting.

And Tori (cutie grrl wearing glasses, and her jacket) is smack dab in the middle of this group, which is all boys, by the way.

I think it's pretty cool that she can hang with these boys (most of whom are 2-4 years older than she is), and just have fun. No silly crushes going on here...not much, anyway! Just kids, hanging out and playing games together...and learning, all the time.

Good Friends, Good Books

Our family is really lucky to have found a great group of home/unschooling families that we enjoy hanging with.

When we first began our homeschooling journey almost five years ago, I made the mistake of joining a large, local homeschooling support/co-op group. For many reasons that I won't go into now, let's just say it was NOT a good fit (and they very well may have thought the same thing, about us).

A couple of years into our now UNschooling journey, and we found a great all-inclusive, non-sectarian group of open-minded, considerate, compassionate souls. Most of the Moms in this group parent in much the same way as us (read: non-coercive, gentle parenting), and I'm lucky to call many of them friends. And the kids in the group? Oh, wow...what a neat bunch. All of them: funny, smart, and kind. Not that they're little shining angels who "Yes Ma'am" and "No Sir" and chew with their mouths closed and have perfect penmanship and whatever...but who likes those kinds of kids, anyway? ;-)

Anyway, we haven't seen our group of friends in a while. The co-op met once in December, for a holiday party, and we haven't been to any meetings since then, even though the group has met twice in January. No, the Parrs have been taking it easy since the holidays, what with Loryn's erratic sleep schedule (or lack of schedule, period) and all. But when we missed this past Friday, I felt a little guilty.

So, I decided that after we were all up and moving, I'd treat the girls to a shopping spree. I had a little extra spending money (from Christmas and such), and Shelby had LOTS of money to spend, so I thought we'd treat ourselves. And what does a shopping spree mean to the Parr family?

Why, Barnes & Noble, of course!

Here are some books we bought:

La Dolce Vegan: Vegan Livin' Made Easy

Duncan Cameron's Shipwreck Detective

Kana de Manga: A fun, easy way to learn the ABCs of Japanese

and

Chibi Vampire, Volume 1

Shelby bought a couple of Manga of her own (Vampire Knight being one of them), with her own money from Christmas. She's trying to save some of her money for her trip to Chicago this summer, but she just had to buy herself some pink and black-striped over-the-knee socks at Target. They're actually pretty cute, especially paired with a Jack Skellington t-shirt and some camouflage pants. Oh, rule of thumb: when your 13-going-on-20 daughter asks how she looks in a new outfit, the answer is not "Cute". I don't know what the answer is supposed to be, but just trust me...don't say "cute".

Shelby and Tori have already read their books, and have traded back and forth. They're pretty considerate of each other). Shelby is even allowing Tori to read her much-valued Harry Potter books (Tori's working her way through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , and is nearly finished). Ashlyn has been sharing facts from her Shipwreck Detective book with us, and is clearly understanding concepts of North/South and East/West. The book came with a compass, which she calls a comp-ASS, because it's funnier that way. :-)

When you think about it, there's nothing quite like a book, is there?