Faaaancy

Last night the kids begged to eat at Pizza Hut with daddy. Showing that I can be a softie, I succumbed and out we went. Little S looked super cute sitting in a restaurant high chair like a big girl, but I digress. While we were making family chit-chat, A6 came up with a great idea. She said, "When we eat at fancy restaurants like this......"

Making Salamander Habitats

After painting the clay salamanders, the kids made natural habitats for them. They gathered grass, leaves, sticks, moss, and rocks just like in the book. We conveniently forgot to collect bugs, birds, and frogs. It was a fun activity, but what do I do with the shoeboxes now?

Making Salamanders

As part of our Salamander Room unit, we used homemade clay to make salamanders. The kids loved painting them - even E2 got in on the action. I'm always amazed at how much mess 5-10 minutes of painting makes. Paint is definitely a Friday afternoon activity.

Carving Pumpkins

A fun evening courtesy of the Dad!

By the way, if you have small children and pumpkins, you can use washable markers to draw faces, erase, and repeat. The pumpkins are kinda like a blank white board. Much fun!

This Sweet Thing is 6 Months Old!

She loves playing with her siblings and standing up. Actually, I should say that she is obsessed with standing up but is more than willing to be entertained by the siblings.

And, yes, your eyes do not deceive you. She has blond hair and blue eyes. Yikes! Three blondies for us. Who would have guessed?

Doesn't she almost make you want another one?

What would you hear if you were a fly on our wall?

Last night as I'm reading through next week's religion lessons and A6 is memorizing the American Girl catalog: A6: Why are these dolls so expensive? Mom: I don't know. (trying to ignore her) A6: I wish they were cheap. Mom: I know. (still trying to ignore her) A6: (silently pondering) Mom: (thinking maybe she'll leave me alone now) A6: I KNOW!!! I'll ask Santa for an American Girl doll. Then we won't have to pay for it! That's a great idea! I can ask him for everything I want. This morning at 5:30 a.m. a cute little blonde boy silently tip-toed into my room, creeped into my bed, leaned over me and whispered into my ear, "Mom, when are we going to make blueberry pies again?" Then, at 6:30 a.m. I turned on the heat for the first time this season, and I set off the fire detectors. Guess the rest of the kids aren't sleeping in after all.

School Days

We've had three great days in a row, and I thought I would post some pics. I learned today that if your child is staring into space in the middle of her math lesson, she's thinking and NOT goofing off. A6 was staring into space for the longest time trying to solve her math problem in her head without any manipulatives. She didn't get it right, but she was very, very close. I can't believe she's so close to adding two four-digit-numbers in her head. Amazing! Here's a cute conversation from today: A6: When did you start sitting in the front of the car when you were a kid? Me: I don't remember how old I was. Things were different then. I never had a car seat. A6: (audible gasp) You didn't? Did you ride in a wagon like Laura and Mary? I must look all of my newly turned 35 years! And, E2 finally has a name for himself! Here's his family list: Daddy = Daddy (pretty original) Mom = Mom (even more original) A6 = Ann J4 = Cho Little S = Baby E2 = I (cute, huh?) We had a great day - Four loads of laundry, three loads of dishes, and three baths for both boys. The boys were out in the mud all day.

This girl is simply amazing

Little S had a big day Friday. She cut her first tooth and pulled herself into a standing position twice. I wasn't ready for the standing thing - she's only 5 1/2 months old! Mark reminded me that A6 was on a similar timeline, so I guess I should have been more prepared. Needless to say, Little S is now a very dangerous baby. She crawls everywhere (thankfully very slowly), picks up everything off our not-so-clean floors, and precariously stands up. E2 decided to feed Little S scrambled eggs yesterday. He even put them in her mouth for her. Yep, it's a dangerous world out there.

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday card masterpiece. We have a huge roll of paper that gets used for pretty much everything, and here it is at its finest. The kids made a wonderful birthday card for me. I LOVE it! I was very surprised that J4 drew a picture of me teaching him at his preschool class. I assume that he thinks of the class as a special time for us, which is what I was hoping! I'm certainly not teaching the class because it's fun for me. :) We are going out for dinner next weekend (with Little S, of course). One of the most surprising blessings of our homeschool group is that the group has so many teenagers who want to babysit. It's just amazing. Next weekend we have twin 13yos coming to entertain the kids. One girl usually hangs with A6 and the other with the boys.

Fieldtrip

The highlight of our week was our fieldtrip to the corn maize/pumpkin patch with our homeschool group. A6 spent nearly the entire morning with a big group of girls her age. The others stuck with me. This picture is of A6 jumping with her friends on a huge pillow thing they call the Corn Popper. E2 loved feeding the goats and J4 enjoyed wandering in the corn field. We had lunch with our group and ended the day with a hayride to pick out pumpkins.

Dad's Home

Dad is home and we are glad! The kids made welcome home signs. A6's is a picture of houses, and J4's is a family of snakes. Our literature unit this week was Little Nino's Pizza, and our planned art lesson was to make a pizza restaurant sign with watercolors. The kids morphed the lesson into watercolor welcome home signs.

Milestones....5 1/2 Months

Little S is 5 1/2 months old, and she finally tried cereal. She liked the attention but isn't loving the oatmeal. The others all crawled at this age, so we expected the same from Little S. I don't know that she is officially crawling, but she certainly has her own crawl-like motion. She moves her legs and one arm forward and then lunges onto her belly. She gets up and does the same again and again. So, she certainly gets around in her unconventional crawl. In other news....A6 scored her first soccer goal this weekend. Way to go big girl!!!

Crazy Kids

This is the scene in our living room before church a few Sundays ago. At about 7:00 a.m., A6 and J4 are showing their moves and singing with gusto. This is what happens every time they put on their vacation bible school music. This picture makes my heart smile.

Starting Out Young!

Studying nature is strongly emphasized in our homeschool, and I found S already studying grass! How did she know? She fits in just perfectly. :)

Boys and Mud

So, we can tell that summer is almost over. The laundry pile has exploded again! When the temps fall, the kids flee to the outdoors. The boys have taken to playing with trucks and dinosaurs in their homemade mud puddles. I love to see them outside, even if it means constant hose downs. In the last few weeks, the boys have really started playing well together. They have enjoyed it, but A6 is having some struggles now that she has competition for J4's play time.

As usual, I am amazed by J4's building ideas. I would not be surprised if he is an engineer someday. He built this contraption with an old board, hose, and water table. He wanted to make a waterfall and waterslide for the dinosaurs, and I think it turned out just as he envisioned.