Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Happy 7th birthday, little man! You add such excitement and energy to our family. We love watching your bicycle tricks, we love hearing the sounds that only you can make, and you crack us up with your hip-hop dancing. You have such a kind and sensitive heart, and are always watching out for your sisters. We love you and hope your special day is full of fun for you!



Happy Birthday, Little Nut!!!

Today is our little girl's 10th birthday! You are such a funny, talented and adorable little nut and we love you so much! Life would definitely be dull without you. Happy birthday, little nut. I hope your special day is lots of fun!



Happy 14th Birthday, Beanie!!!

Happy 14th birthday, little Beanie! Wow- where does the time go??? It is hard to believe you are already 14! There is so much to love about you. We love your smile, your cute little glances, your brilliant mind. You have such a kind and compassionate heart, and you are such a blessing to everyone around you. It is a joy to have you in our family. Happy birthday! We hope your special day is as special as you are...



Road Trip!!!

This fourth of July weekend, we took a nice little road trip to celebrate with family. It took us about 3 hours to get to our destination. This is what I saw while driving:

Finally we arrived- yippee! Then the fun began. We spent 3 days with 5 different families. The kids had a blast! We went to some springs and enjoyed snorkeling, boating, and swimming.

Back at the property we stayed at, our little guy really enjoyed being a farmer and riding around on the tractor.

Everyone really likes riding around on the quads- its great going over the jumps and getting "down and dirty".

My favorite part of the trip was when we went to the lake. We took 2 different boats out and had a really fun time cooking out and riding on the tubes.

It sure was exhausting having all this fun!

A great weekend spent with family- it doesn't get any better!

To Be Little Again...

Certain moments in my childhood stand out more than others. One memory I have is that of playing in the rain on a hot summer day. The rain splashing on my face, the wonderful puddles all around, just waiting to be jumped into...

It is so fantastic that now, my own children are creating those same memories. When their little faces look at me with wide eyes and giant smiles on their faces and ask "Mommy, can we PLEASE play out in the rain? It's not thundering or lightning!" What else can I say but yes???

We all know how quickly our children grow up. Our oldest child no longer delights in these rainy summer days and it makes me sad that she has other things on her mind now. Good things, more mature things. But I want to hold her and tell her to just run out there and be free! Run in the grass, jump in the puddles, dance in the rain just once more...

Mardi Gras Park Day

Today was our monthly H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool Group Park Day and the theme was Mardi Gras! Each family was given a special assignment: to create a Mardi Gras float using a wagon! Well, I was quite impressed with all the different designs and decorations.

The kids had a blast parading around with their floats and throwing beads and coins to all of us!

We had a delicious lunch of rice with chicken, "Mardi Gras sandwiches", fruit punch, and King Cake.

The kids always enjoy these park days and had a great time just playing with each other.

My tired little "king" after the parade.

Happy Dr. Seuss Day!!!

Happy Dr. Seuss Day! I just love all of Dr. Seuss' books and we have quite a collection of them. Many are books I received when I was a child, and so they are quite old. Our children have grown up hearing these stories over and over again, and I enjoy not only the style of Dr. Seuss' writing but also the messages he teaches us about how we should treat others.

We started our celebration by watching The Cat in the Hat Knows A lot About That on PBS Kids this morning. They were having a "Cat in the Hat Marathon" today.

Next, we all put on our socks and listened to Fox in Socks. After the story, my kids competed in a sock sorting relay race.

Each of them was timed to see how quickly they could sort the pile of socks. They enjoyed this activity and it was harder than it looked!

For the next activity, our little "nut" read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish to us all while we ate some yummy colored goldfish snacks.

Then it was time for a writing lesson. We discussed all the different books we have and the fact that they had many unusual characters and fabricated words. We talked about the rhyming of the stories as well. Each of the kids chose a book to pattern their own story after. Our oldest wrote a story called "A Mouse In Our House". She is still working on the illustrations.

Soon, it was time for lunch and so I read about the Sneetches as the kids colored and cut out stars to attach to their shirts, just like the star-bellied Sneetches. I really enjoy that book because it teaches such a great lesson about differences and how it doesn't matter what we look like or what "cool" clothes someone has on. We are all the same!

It is always so funny to see the differences in the way the kids do their art work.

For lunch, we had star shaped "Sneetch Snacks" (peanut butter & jelly sandwiches) as well as hotdogs, just like in the story!

After lunch, it was more great stories. Our oldest read The Foot Book and then we played a lively game of Twister.

After our crazy game, we sat down and listened to an excerpt from My Many Colored Days. I gave the kids all sorts of items such as felt, pom poms, construction paper, etc... and had them create colorful collages that described their own colored day.

 They worked for quite some time on their projects. Here is a sample of what they did:

Last but not least, we listened to a bit of Oh The Thinks You Can Think and then ate Schlopp for dessert! If you've read the story, then you know that Schlopp is an ice cream sundae.

This was a busy, fun day and we had a blast celebrating one of my favorite authors. And remember, "a person's a person, no matter how small..."

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whew!!! What a wonderful, busy Valentine's Day we had. We started out our day with a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made by Daddy. He is such an awesome cook. I then started my little guy on his Valentine's activities. First, he sorted some cute little erasers I found last year at Target.

Next, he did all sorts of great activities I found at http://thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com  There were so many great Valentine's printables, we didn't get to do all of them! Here are some below:

The postman arrived with some Valentine's addition cards for him to complete.

He also used some of the Valentine's word cards and magnet letters to spell the words with.

He especially enjoyed this activity. I placed a number card in the empty space at the top of the page, and he had to count out Hershey Kisses and give them to the bear. Several of them were missing from the bear's paw, lol.

All three of our children made these cute mailboxes for park day last week with our homeschool group, but they used them again today to exchange cards with each other.

We enjoyed several Valentine's stories today. These were my little girl's favorites, but my little man liked Froggy's First Kiss the best!

Another great activity from http://thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com  was this sight word sorting game. I gave my little guy a word from the pile and he had to see if the letters in the word were found in the word "Valentine". If they were, they went on the left side of the sheet, and if not, they went to the right side of the sheet. So much fun!

I forgot to mention I made some cute workbox number cards for Valentine's Day and placed them on my children's boxes this morning, before they awoke. My older daughter particularly likes changing out her workbox number cards, and so I have created quite a supply!

Later, we all participated in a fun game of "Fill My Heart". I rolled the dice and whatever number came up, the player had to place that many conversation hearts on their board. The one who filled their hearts first was the winner. Everyone was a winner in my book though, since the game pieces are edible!

Last but not least, my 2 girls enjoyed some Valentine's wordsearches, sudoku puzzles, and a great scavenger hunt I found at http://sarahssweeties.wordpress.com before heading over to their grandparent's house for some Valentine treats.  I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love. I know I sure did and it makes me always think of one of my favorite Bible verses: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4 This verse really says it all...