People's Republic of Zollner

So the world DOES in fact revolve around Madeline Jane and Karis Anne Zollner!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Baby on the Way!

I've been a terrible blogger lately because of my addiction to Facebook, but for those of you who aren't keeping up with me there (and really, seriously, where have you been?? get on facebook now!).... we have a new baby on the way! The littlest Zollner will arrive at the end of August, very close to, but hopefully not ON, Maddy's 5th birthday....we're planning to find out the baby's gender at the halfway ultrasound in a few months, so stay tuned to see if we are keeping pink and purple or switching gears and going big blue!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry KissKiss











Christmas at Jason's parents house.... with the cousins Abigail (5) and Suzy (3)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Catching some Z's....
















Karis woke up from her nap and needed more snuggle time with me. She fell back asleep in the big chair in the front room and Maddy left her alone for about ten minutes and then couldn't stand it any longer....she was enticed by the delicousness that is Karis and had to kiss and snuggle her until she would wake up and
play. Awwww.... I'm so glad I happened to have my camera in my pocket, score!!! and then a random shot of Maddy doing art just because I love to watch her work. :) Enjoy!

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Hungry?


Halloween 2009
















Little Ballerina
















drinking half and half straight from the carton... ballerinas need calcium you know!




















Maddy started a five week dance class this morning. She gets to pirouette and twirl and be the epitome of girly giggliness for 30 minutes on Saturday mornings and she was in heaven. This was my trial class at the parks and rec before I signed her up for ongoing classes and invested in the gear it requires. A hit so far for sure! There are videos on facebook if you are on there. Oh my little sweetie was just *so* adorable.....

Friday, October 16, 2009

My Birthday In Philomath
















For the big 31 we travelled down to see my parents. We went to a community garden fundraising harvest party and the girls saw a OSU beaver caterpillar. Good times! I also went to an OSU beaver football game with my Dad but don't have any pictures of that. We won and it felt nice to be rowdy and make a lot of noise! :) And the girls got to watch their fill of recorded Mr. Rogers episodes. I belive the above picture captured their breakfast of champions. :)

Monday, October 05, 2009

First Day of School




The girls and I are part of a homeschooling co-op. We go to "school" on Fridays, here is a shot of them on their first morning two weeks ago.....

Punkins











We had our first trip to the pumpkin patch today.... the first of many of the season, I'm sure!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Homeschooling Wishlist

#18 is my very favorite. Enjoy!

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
by Deborah Markus, from Secular Homeschooling, Issue #1, Fall 2007
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!