Halloween Party

Handsome and Gorgeous were invited to a Halloween Party.  As I was still sick with Pneumonia, and really not having much energy at all, we used what we had on hand for the costumes.  Can you guess what they are?  Maybe the frying pan and the satchel give it away (Handsome is also holding a crown, but it's hard to see)?

Guessed it yet?

Gorgeous is Rapunzel and Handsome is Flynn Rider, the characters from the new Tangled movie.  I thought it would be fun for Daddy to dress in all white (white shirt and pants, which he does have) and claim he is Maximus, but he didn't go for it.  Now if only we had a chameleon outfit for Adorable. :)  And don't worry, Gorgeous told me I could be the wicked mother. ;)

Daddy took the two characters to the party as I enjoyed some time at home with Adorable.  They both came back from the party telling me all the exciting things they did and what fun they had.

Family Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

This year our family went to the Thomasson Farm once again.  I am really loving that place, and can see a great family tradition forming.

 Handsome actually got the cow on his own three times!

 This has to be Handsome's favorite thing, the water duck races.

 There was so much to do, it was a blast!

 And they even had a little store, where we bought this delicious apple.  A yummy dessert to celebrate with after dinner.  What a fun family memory!



Grandma Cooking Class

A new class was added to our homeschooling.  Cooking class.  And of course why not make it even better by inviting Grandma Carol to come and teach it.  It was a hit, and fun was had by all. 

I hope to have our "Grandma Cooking Class" once a month.  Thanks Grandma Carol!

This Just In.....

Adorable is now sporting not one, but two new teeth!  Yes, his first teeth and two at the same time.  So this explains the multiple wake up calls in the middle of the night.

Primary Program

Handsome did wonderful on his part in the Primary Program.  He actually had his part memorized months ago because it was July's theme and scripture.  His part was;

"The Temple is the House of God.  Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.  (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, paragraph 3)"

Our worry was that he would get scared at all the faces looking at him and freeze.  In both practices he didn't do it and let the lines be whispered to him.  But on Sunday we told him he would do great, that he knew it, and that all he had to do was look at Daddy and say his part.  And he did! 

Way to go Handsome!

Adorable's First Solids

So today was the day that Adorable got to try his first solids.  Yes, we started him on rice cereal.  I had waited a little longer to start Gorgeous and really gave her very few mashed foods, she went straight to Cheerios, etc.  But Adorable was starting to watch us eat and looked very interested, plus I thought it might help him sleep better through the night (cross fingers) so here we go!

I have discovered that it is so much fun to have older kids with a baby.  They thoroughly enjoy each step along with me.  Handsome wanted so badly to feed Adorable, so I let him.  I got the following set of pictures from it.

Adorable LOVES it! (see the I Love You sign he is making :)

So his morning meal was just a few bites and he was done.  Then lunch came and I had him try it again.  That time Adorable chowed down.  I ended up making 5 bowls (OK, so they were small bowls, but still 5 times!?!)  He loved the food. 

The other two really didn't eat much of the baby cereals, but Adorable is eating tons.  I am even lazy and don't bother to mix it with "mommy milk."  I just mix it with warm water.  As I started to compare, I realized that Adorable is much bigger than the other two were at this age, plus he is already crawling everywhere, when the other two were not.  So it seems he was ready for more food.  He ate 2 more bowls at dinner tonight.  Now let's just cross our fingers and hope it helps him sleep through the night!

Pneumonia + Asthma = ER visit + one tired Momma!

    The last few days have been crazy!  I never thought I would have to go to the ER for myself, and prided myself on no broken bones, etc. etc. basically, of not needing much medical attention (the year of 2006 was one medical year I do not want to ever repeat).  But that said, I did have to cave, and hurry to a local ER that I swore I would never go to, even if dying.  But when I couldn't breath, all I could think of was my children seeing me struggle and wanting to be ok for them.
    I am on the mend, tired as I am.  I have to say I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.  It is wonderful to have so much family nearby who at the drop of a hat will do anything they can to help.  Thanks to a wonderful Visiting Teacher who heard of my struggle and just stopped by with dinner.  And thanks to friends who call and offer to help, and really do mean it!

  I am so VERY BLESSED!

Homeschool: Myself

So for Social Studies I have planned to first learn about Self, then Family, then Community, along with any holidays that come along.  So one of the many activities we have done about "Myself" is the body outline.  I remember doing this so many years ago and had to do it with my kids.

I traced out their body, and had them color it in.  Both kids didn't believe that their outline was how big they really were.  They kept complaining that I drew them bigger than they are.

Then it was time to label their different body parts.  I let them choose what to label, but told Handsome it had to be at least 10 different things.  I also let him do his own spelling and didn't worry about it.  I got cute spelling of face as "fase" so close!  And hair as "har".  As well as eyes as "Ize".  And some he even got right like "tummy " and "finger".  He is learning fast, and we're having a blast.

Fall, Leaves, and Homeschool

It seems that I am always blogging about our science and social studies, because, well... it's the most fun and exciting.

We learned about Fall.  We went on a fall leave hunt, came home and ironed the leaves we collected between wax paper.  I hope to do a couple more leave hunts through the season to compare as the leaves change color.  We'll see how that goes.

We read lots of books, and learned all about deciduous trees, conifer trees, why leaves are green, and why they change colors in Autumn/Fall.  Then we took all the things we learned, and using our window in the home school/toy/library room, we wrote down all the new things we learned about Autumn and leaves. 

Gorgeous added pictures to help us out.

In the end it looked like this.  Leaves on top, words on the window, and our books to read and look at on the bottom.  We call it our Fall/Leaf center.

Soccer Time

It's Soccer Time!

We got Handsome into soccer.  He's been wanting to do it for oh so long.  And my answer was always, "When you're in Kindergarten."  So I had to keep good on my promise.  He's not playing on a team, but instead learning the skills in a class.  Handsome LOVES his soccer class.  And best thing, it counts towards his school hours, it's PE.

And his cheer section!  Even though it is not an actual soccer game, they play various games as they learn the soccer skills and it is fun to cheer for Handsome.  At the end they all kick a goal, it's been fun to yell and cheer as each kid kicks a goal. :)

Homeschool: Elasticity

Thanks to Sid the Science Kid, we did another cool science experiment.  This one was not in my lesson plans, but Handsome saw the episode of Sid the Science Kid and wanted to do it.  So of course we learned about Elasticity!  Elasticity is when force is applied to an object and then removed, how fast, if at all, will the object return to its original shape.  Since some things are very elastic but it is hard to see it with our eyes, we test it with bouncing it on the floor.  I got the experiment from here.  Handsome and Gorgeous picked out many of our balls and made predictions.  Then we dropped the balls from the same height in our kitchen and marked how high they bounced with painters tape on the cupboard doors.

We learned that the play dough ball had the least amount of elasticity, bounced the least, and the bouncy ball had the most, bounced the highest.  Then we documented our discoveries in our science journal.  I'm loving science!

Bi-Annual Hair Cut

Adorable is now 6 months and that means it is time for my 6 month hair cut.  Yes, every 6 months I get to cut my hair short.  Then it grows for 6 months until I cut it again.  I'm loving the short hair again. :)

Look Who Learned to Crawl!

It's offical.  This week Adorable has learned to crawl.  The floor is no longer a safe place! 

Happy Columbus Day!!

So today is the actual Columbus day to commemorate Columbus landing on San Salvador in the Bahamas, October 12, 1492.  We did do our activities on Monday and Tuesday, but I don't feel late at all posting all we did today since it is the REAL Columbus Day. :)

When I started Home school I was confident in reading, writing, and math.  I was worried about the Social Studies and Science.  But I have found that those areas are where we are having the most fun!

We spent the entire day on Monday learning about Christopher Columbus and his first voyage.  First we made "sailor hats" to start off the day.  I got my sailor hat directions from DLTK's Crafts for kids.

Next, we learned about the three ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  We learned that the Santa Maria was the flag ship that Columbus sailed on, as well as a lot of other cool things about the ships.  Then we painted egg carton cups to make the three ships.  I even glued two egg cartons together to make the Santa Maria, since it was the flag ship and bigger than the other two.

It was so cool making these ships.  Handsome did the painting, but I did make the sails, maybe next year he'll be old enough to do them.  Then he put a little play dough at the bottom, stuck in the sails, and there you go.  I got the idea from here.

Then we took a break from projects, we read and learned more stories about Christopher Columbus and his voyage.  Then we also read 1 Nephi 13:12.  We talked about how Nephi saw Columbus many years before he traveled to America.  And how Columbus was lead by the Spirit of God to the Lamanites.  How wonderful to be able to use the Scriptures in teaching.

We learned about Columbus's first voyage.  We learned that he sailed to the Canary Islands, then went out into the water, not seeing land for a long time, longer than anyone had done before, and the sailors threatened mutiny.  Columbus convinced them to go 2 or 3 more days and if there was not land they would turn around.  But of course they found The Bahamas, which Columbus thought was Asia.

We learned that the Santa Maria was destroyed on Christmas Day, while there in the New World.  So they sailed back with just the Nina and the Pinta.  But there was a storm and they were separated.  The Nina arrived at the Azores and waited 10 days, no sign of the Pinta.  Then they went to Lisbon and waited there for 10 days, still no sign of the Pinta.  They then went to the home port of Palos and within hours the Pinta also arrived safely.  What a cool story!

We painted the journey.  I got the idea from here.  I had so much fun I couldn't resist and had to do one myself, and of course Handsome did his, drawing the ships and labeling the lands as well. 

Then there was time to "play with all their new ideas!" and build their own boat to go sailing in and discover new lands.

And lastly everything got set out on our learning table.  I'm still playing with this.  I want a place to display all the cool things Handsome learns and makes.  This may be the place....we'll see.