Evaluations and Bichons

In the state of Ohio home school families are required to show that their children are working at their grade level. I used to have the children tested every year, but last year I had the children evaluated b/c of the hard school year they had...with their daddy's death. Last year, they passed, but only b/c my friend, Angela, who evaluated them knew our circumstances and that we had worked hard on other areas besides the academics. At the beginning of this school year I told Angela, "We're going to work hard this year. I want to show you that we do do school and we do alot of learning." She laughed at me and told me that she knew we worked hard. Well, this week we had our evaluations for this past school year and she was very happy with what we accomplished this year. All three of the children passed--Caleb to 8th, Lydia to 6th and JoAnna to 2nd. She was particularly impressed with the things that Caleb has been able to learn up at the MMS hangar on Thursdays...thanks Dave!!!

In December we adopted (and lost our hearts to) a sweet little fur ball named Maia (My-uh). She is a Bichon Frise (Bee-shon Free-zay). In March we adopted Maia's half sister and named her Tessa. We have found that the puppies have helped us in the healing process.

One of our favorite things to do is take them to the baseball fields here in Warsaw. We close the gates and take off the leashes and let them run. What a blast to watch them race around after each other. We usually run around and have them chasing us. It's great exercise for all of us. I think I need to get the yard fenced in so that they can run whenever they want.

One day the girls took Maia and Tessa out to play and when they came in I laughed and had to have pictures. The girls claim that the puppies found the huge mud puddle in the front yard...I wonder how much help they needed to find the puddle?!?!?!?! The pictures show after the puddle and before the girls cleaned them up...it was also the time we spent laughing at how funny they looked all wet and muddy. The next picture is them getting their bath. The final picture is JoAnna holding a clean and dry Tessa.