Testing and Treats

As homeschoolers in the great state of Virginia, we have the pleasure of giving our children standardized tests each spring. Yahoo! (NOT) Actually there are a couple of other options we could pursue, but this seems to be the simplist for us. The test we give can be administered by the parent as long as the parent has a four year college degree. Since I do not have one, Neal takes two vacation days each year to give the kids their tests. So this years testing fell on Thursday and Friday of this week. The kids don't seem to mind taking the tests. I used to be a nervous wreck about it, but not any more. Every year they do fine, so I quit worrying. It didn't help them do any better anyway!

They finished with their testing around noon on Friday. While Neal did some things around the house, I took the kids ice skating. They each took a friend wiht them, and had a great time. Their Daddy told them that when they came back from ice skating that they were going to have a surprise. That drives them nuts! "What is it Mommy?" "Is it a good surprise or a bad surprise?" "Knowing Daddy it's probably work!" LOL

Neal was still working with the mulch when we got home, so they had a while to wait. They kept asking him about it and he finally told them that if they didn't stop asking that we wouldn't do anything for three weeks! That stopped them! :o) (I'm going to be doing a three week handwriting job starting on Monday and he knows there will not be much extra curricular stuff going on.)

So, about 6:30 we were finally ready to leave the house. First we stopped by Subway and got Beth a sub "to go." Then we drove on over to a Japanese restaurant and got supper for the rest of us. Hibachi Steak and Shrimp! Yumm!!! Ben likes the rice the best, so we get him a side order of fried rice and then he ate some of mine, as well. Oh, he also likes the fortune cookies. :o)

As we were leaving the restaurant we glanced down the road and saw fireworks. So we made a quick left and drove toward the baseball stadium to watch the show! We turned down a street nearby and parked the car and watched the beautiful display. It really was pretty. I guess it lasted about 10 minutes. The kids then thanked us for the great surprise! (like we planned that one!)

Who can top a fireworks display? We tried though by taking them bowling. They love to bowl, but it is so doggone expensive! It was $4.25 each plus the cost of shoes. We had a coupon so we each bowled one game free and then we bowled a second. After we had thrown a couple of balls they turned the lights out and it was glow in the dark bowling -- disco balls turning and throwing various colors over the lanes. Black lights shining on their glow in the dark paintings on the wall. It looked cool, and the kids loved it! Neal and I on the other hand, fuddy duddies that we are, were disappointed because we couldn't see to bowl. LOL It really did make it more difficult. We're bad enough as it is, we didn't need them to turn out the lights! My high game was 96. Pretty bad!

We had a blast though. It was fun to take the kids out and do something fun with them.

Speaking of fun, today was a fun day! BUT, I'll fill you in on that later. I'm worn out and must go to bed! We're going to the early service tomorrow and having company for Easter lunch. 6:00 is going to come mighty early!