Homeschool Convention 2012

I spent the last 2 days at our state's homeschool convention!! I've gone for several years now, but this year was different, this year Sassy and MiniMe came with me! The last several years they've listened to some of the seminar CDs I've gotten (there are WAY too many seminars to go to them all, so I buy the CD or mp3 for the ones I want to hear but can't get to), so they had a good feel for what they were getting into as far as sitting in seminars. They generally have enjoy listening to the seminars even if they're not geared for kids specifically. So, they liked the idea of hearing some of the seminars in person, and they were intrigued by the idea of a huge vendor hall full of homeschool stuff. So, this spring they asked to go with me. When we started talking about it, and they found out that "Uncle Rick" from The Learning Parent was one of the speakers they for sure wanted to come. All three girls fall asleep at night to Uncle Rick Reading the Bible, and we've included several audiobooks, read by Uncle Rick, in our history as well.

So, the three of us headed out EARLY Friday morning. They had so much fun! We went to a mixture of seminars for me, and seminars for them. There was an animal guy there who did a seminar each day which the girls loved! And I have to admit, while I probably wouldn't have taken time to go to the one on Friday, for sure, if the girls hadn't been with me, he WAS really good!! And it was nice to just sit and enjoy seeing and hearing about animals instead of taking notes and stuff like I do in most of the seminars. And Jim Weiss had some seminars that were basically just him telling stories and he's AWESOME at telling stories!! So those were lots of fun too.

The girls also had money burning a hole in their pocket to spend in the vendor hall, so we spent quite abit of time there. Being my girls, they of course, spent their money on . .. books!! As we were walking through the vendor hall, Sassy said "that's Uncle Rick!!" She said she thought it might be him when she saw him, but then when she heard his voice, she knew for sure. He was soo nice! Took time to tell the girls all about how he trains bloodhounds. They were thrilled! As you can tell from the picture I took of them with him above.

We met my friend Monica, and her 8 year old son, M there. The kids had never met each other, so were shy at first, but before very long they'd warmed up and were chattering away, and seemed to hit it of well. Monica had generously offered to let us stay in their hotel room with them Fri night, so we had a nice evening visiting together, and with some of Monica's friends, who had come just for Friday, but came and ate supper with us before heading back.

I also got a chance to meet a couple people who have been on the TOS Crew with me, in person, so that was fun!

As always, the convention was nowhere near long enough, and also, as always, one of my main expenses was purchasing the CDs of all the wonderful sounding seminars that I didn't have time to attend. That means we have lots of great car-listening material to keep us busy for awhile :)

The girls did great! It was a good weekend all around.

Meanwhile at home, Daddy and Little Bit had 2 days together, just them! In preparation, we went shopping and I had Little Bit help me buy cheerios for her to "share with Daddy", and at her request, we also bought "daddy candy" (sweettarts), for him to share with her LOL. When we got home from the store, she put both boxes in her playhouse and, when Daddy got home, she told him about them and said "I'll have to get them for us tomorrow, because I'm little" (her playhouse is a felt house over a card table, so kid-size, not daddy-size).

On Friday Daddy took Little Bit to Chuck-E-Cheese and out for ice cream. All was going well until bedtime. BUT it wasn't me, she missed at bedtime, it was "Sissies"! Rodney said she had a HUGE meltdown over the fact that Sissies weren't here for her to sleep with. He finally ended up laying down with her in their room until she fell asleep. I had figured she wouldn't want to sleep in there alone, but had assumed she'd be fine with sleeping in our bed with Rodney. No such luck. Needless to say, big sisters were pretty proud of the fact that THEY were who Little Bit had missed LOL.

So that was our Homeschool Convention fun for this year!