Riggle U is out for SUMMER!

Last Friday we closed out the books on the second year of this crazy-fun-exhausting-patience building-education redeeming-dirty-exciting homeschooling journey.

We have learned SO MUCH!

We have grown SO MUCH!

We are excited for another year....after a 6 or so week break that we all desperately need.

These boys worked hard all year and I "kind" of tested them last week on their history.  We studied US history this year and they both conquered a great deal of information.  I would say 90% of the 24 history points we worked through were fully attached in their little brains.  Seriously, I could not have told you what year the 14th Amendment was signed or list the Bill of Rights to you in order BUT now we all can!  It is unbelievably cool to me that they can and will have such a leg up when they have such a strong grasp on the where and when of history so that they can draw connections between events as they grow.


A few snaps from our highlight reel over the school year....

FINALLY.....new family pics!

So, it has been quite some time, like 2010 since we had family pictures made....and these kids have grown quite a bit...as seen below:

So.....here are the new pictures displaying the much more aged Riggles.....we blinked...........

Skins and Skulls

This homeschooling life, while crazy some days, affords us many opportunities for learning outside the box.  We went on a field trip to the Madison County Extension Office yesterday and got to learn all about local animals and explore their SKINS and their SKULLS.  We all learned something, did you know when opossums are well, playing possum it is called SULLING?  Us neither.  We also learned that the eye placement is different for carnivores and herbivores.  Super interesting stuff and these boys of mine had an ABSOLUTE blast.  Did I mention it was free??

Matthew channeling his inner Davy Crockett

Kimber was super intrigued by the beaver skin

A bobcat skull

2014 Miles = 194.68

A fairly slow running year, this crazy life doesn't leave a lot of time for running, but it's better than no miles, right?

Our Annual Galaxy of Lights Excursion

Our 6th journey through the Christmas Light Display at the botanical gardens was as fun as usual.  The weather was crazy nice, the lights were just as Merry and our sweet little crew of friends continue to grow. 

I am still baffled by how quickly we went from this...

 to this....

While the speed with which these kids are growing up blows me away,
I love seeing them become little people, with friends and ideas all their own.

WHAT????

May, it has been since May that I posted.  Summer went fast, as it always does.

Working on some posts to play a tiny bit of catch-up.

Matthew is 7!

7 years old, that is hard for this mama to believe.  I remember this sweet baby at a year old....

and now he is a big 7-year old.

He is the sweetest kid I have ever met.  He loves baseball, riding his bike, star wars and legos.  He loves to help and will do most anything if you just ask him.  He has incredible patience with me and little brother but not so much with himself.  He recently discovered crunchy peanut butter and cannot get enough.

We celebrated his birthday with a special outing that consisted of 7 things for him.  He started off unwrapping a new pair of boots, we then headed off to Krispy Kreme for breakfast followed by mountain biking and fishing at Hays Nature Preserve.  After that we hit up Toys R Us and let him pick out a new Nerf gun.  After a shower and a short break we went to the new trampoline park in town and capped off his special night with a dinner with friends at Mellow Mushroom.