Birthday Fun

Last night, we celebrated Miss Jazmin Ament's 8th birthday. This was a very special birthday party as it was at CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! What an incredibly FUN--no, make that SUPER FUN time for all the kids lucky enough to be invited! I know every single one of my kids (even the adult kids) enjoyed the evening immensely! Of course, I forgot my camera, but my cell phone always works in a pinch. (What did we do without cell phones back in the day?) (This picture shows up again later. I tried to delete one, but couldn't figure out how to do that...)We are singing Happy Birthday to Jazmin with Chuck E. Cheese! What a beautiful cake (more information on that to follow...).

I can't believe I got such a good picture of her blowing out her candles! ON MY PHONE, no less! What a great blessing!!! Nichole made that cake for her. It turned out great! She bought a 1/4 sheet cake just in case this was too small. Wise move. . . about 2/3 of the sheet cake got eaten up in addition to this cake. Of course, the Nichole cake was by far superior to any made in a store!

Jazmin got lots of gifts for her birthday. Over the weekend, her mom and dad took her to the mall to build her very own bear. She chose a puppy (of course) and had them insert a barking sound. It was stuffed with the traditional teddy bear (or should I say puppy) stuffing, then finished off the ensemble with a pair of ballerina shoes and a pretty pink dress. In the picture above, she is standing by the present we got her. . . ZU ZU PET! These are so cute!!! She already has several, and the girls love playing with them. We got her the hedgehog, a ZU ZU pet carrier, and a blankie bed thing. I think she loved it! I suspect my girls will be wanting their own for Christmas.

Chuck E. Cheese is not just for little kids. . . well, maybe it is. At least the little ones at heart.

Of course Cynthia would come to her sister's big party! Who is the guy? Her new boyfriend, Devon. So far, we are all agreed. . . he is an incredibly nice young man. He opens the door for her AND her mom, he writes songs for her then sings them, he even pulled out her chair at dinner! Pretty impressive for a 17 year old!

Chuck E. Cheese was a new concept for Esther and Cerena. They didn't know what to make of him. Esther was the first to warm up to him. Cerena. . . not so much. She enjoyed the special sippy cup though!

Jazmin. . . Very happy to be celebrating her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Love the blow up birthday crown. . . complete with extra tokens to be spent on various games and activities.

Jazmin and her birthday guests. Cerena was not about to get anywhere near the giant rodent!

Jazmin and her Daddy and Mr. Cheese.

Jazmin and her beautiful Mommy enjoying the company of that most famous critter. . . CHUCK E. CHEESE!!!

Below, Jazmin is all ready to hop into the Ticket Blaster Machine Thingy! She stood in the midst of tickets being blown all around. Her mission: grab as many as she can in 30 seconds flat! Notice the safety glasses. . .

She got the golden ticket!!! Actually, she got several golden tickets which were worth 100 redeemable tickets each! Esther and Cerena were so kind. . . they each gave all their tickets to Jazmin so that the Birthday Girl could redeem them for a better prize!

I had to include at least one picture of Selena and Mike working out the details with this spetacular party hostes. I secretly enjoyed calling her the 'servant girl', she was so incredibly helpful. The kids responded to her very well. Over all, the evening was great fun, and a complete success!

Homework CAN be fun!

Well, I finally remembered that we have a family blog! And I am just about on speaking terms with the computer (which dumped all my pictures from the whole summer! WILL I ever learn?). So, time to start over!

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Homework? Well, it is universally well known that this has been a year of many changes for our family. Tim serving a mission, moving to horse farm, adding Esther and Cerena to our family, moving off the horse farm, Jessica getting married, Marissa graduating from High School, Jessica and Mick inviting a son to join their family (due to arrive pretty much exactly 9 months from honeymoon!), Selena and her little family moving just down the road a bit, etc. What may not be universally known is the HUGE change in our methods of educating the children in our family.

A bit of an explanation may be in order here. For years, the Hunt children have received their education primarily at home or through alternative sources. Many have questioned and even disapproved our educational decisions. Rob and I are very serious about education and refused to base this decision solely on the opinions of others. We considered all available options. We fasted and prayed. Ultimately, we determined that alternative schooling was the right decision for our family.

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However, times change and decisions made sometimes need to be reevaluated. When we made our move from South Dakota to Washington, a serious reevaluation was made. So many new options were available to us. Homelink, online school (WAVA is still my favorite), Skills Center, Running Start. The Hunt children all benefited from such programs.

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Shortly after making our last move, both Rob and I began to feel prompted to reevaluate our educational decisions again. I actually resisted those promptings for a while because I enjoy being with my children so much. Before long, those feelings were too strong to ignore. So we prayed and sought answers at the temple. We prayed some more. We went to the temple again, and again (it is wonderful to be so close to a temple!). We fasted. No doubt about it. The time had come to place our children's education into the hands of the public schools. Although our educational goals remain the same, our original reasons for homeschooling no longer exist. This is the right choice for our family at this time.

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Happily, we are surrounded by schools with excellent reputations. My research has proven that they are some of the best in the area.

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Cerena is enjoying kindergarten immensely! She is learning to write her name (legibly ;) ). Esther has proven herself to be a very quick learner, and I suspect the teachers might have their hands full keeping her motivated. Jamie is adapting to 8th grade quite well, and really enjoys her art and choir classes. Rachelle? She LOVES high school! She is running cross country, and has made vast improvements in her abilities this season. I wouldn't be surprised to see her run for college (which she has every intention of attending). Marissa is trying to figure out just WHAT she wants to do now that she has successfully completed high school. And Nichole has decided that college is where she wants to be. She begins her first quarter in January. All in all, I would say that my children are very successful educationally!