Our little E.T. baby

Could she be any cuter??!!

and could he be any sweeter??!!

Tommy feeding his little baby

Lovely Day

 Today was a lovely day.
I sat around in my new pj's for part of the day.
I cuddled with Penny on the couch for as long as we both wanted, it was glorious.
I did some laundry and made our bed.
I ate a huge piece of Charlie's chocolate birthday cake.
I watched cartoons with Tommy and made chocolate milk for Charlie.
I emptied my closet of maternity clothes. Well, most of them anyways.
I took a shower in the middle of the day, alone, which is unheard of.
I gave all 3 kids baths and had them in bed by 7pm- GO ME!
I spent the evening missing my love and got some spiritual enlightenment.

Today, was a lovely day-because I was with them.

Grateful

A break

this picture has nothing to do with this entry, i just like it.

I have been out of sorts of late.  Not much of a suprise with all that has been happening around these parts.

  I have decided to give myself a break and stop beating myself up for not having a perfectly clean house, for not doing school downstairs in our school room but rather at the kitchen table or on the couch, for not putting some special design or even writing Happy Birthday on Charlie's chocolate home birthday cake, for having a pile of laundry that actually reaches up to my mid section...really,  for letting the kids watch way too much tv and play far more Mario Kart then I typically would allow, for letting our dog clean up the pieces of granola bar from the floor rather then to pull out the vacuum cleaner, and for typing this as the boys are playing with Charlie's new remote control police car which totally goes against my no blogging while children are awake rule. 

Yes, I think I will give myself a break today and just do whatever it is that my body and mind desire.  In fact I think I will start doing that on a regular basis and stop trying to do things based on the unrealistic expectations I normally have of myself.  You know the ones, the ones that are born from comparing myself to others...yeah, those.

Ahhh....much better :)

Happy Birthday Charlie

Our independent, outgoing brainchild who loves to laugh, cuddle up with his lovey and kitty, who will offer you a bite of his donut because he is generous like that.  Who thinks that anything about bottoms and stinky feet is hilarious. Who is obsessed with trains and LEGOS and prefers the color orange over any other.  Who adores his little sister and is partners in crime with his little brother.  Who stole our hearts and made us parents.  Who continues to amaze us each and every day at his vivid imagination and inventive skills.  Who can ride his bike (with training wheels), is learning to swim and can read.  Yes, that boy is turning 6 today.

Can you believe it?  We barely can!

Happy Birthday dearest Charlie.  May you always know that we love you completely and may you always feel God's love and grace!

School: Theme of the Mummy

The boys playing in the snow at the kitchen table

We are FINALLY back to our "normal" selves, thank God!!  And even though this week has been a bit rusty around the edges, we still managed to get a lot accomplished and have some fun in the midst of it all!

I have made some changes with regards to our schooling and plan to make more in the upcoming weeks.  I have been longing to do more unit studies with the boys that both of them can participate in and also find other sources for Charlie's LA.

The boys playing LEGOs together

  First change was with Charlie's Language Arts curriculum. I am not pleased with some of the content/activities that the K12 provides so I am picking and choosing what lessons we complete from them.  Instead we are going to be using The Magic Tree House series books which we can also use to do unit studies of different topics.  

We will read The Magic Tree House book and if there is a study guide book to accompany it then we will use that to do further research.  If not, then we will use other books from the library.  We will plan on studying one subject for a few weeks or until we are finished doing the projects/readings.

Using blocks for math

I also am starting to work on another curriculum for Tommy.  He is eager to do "school" with Charlie...sometimes.   I won't enforce school time with him until next September, but need to have some stuff ready when he does want to participate.


I bought the first four books from The Magic Tree House series and asked Charlie which one he wanted to ready/study first.  He choose Mummies in the Morning.   We read the book in about 3 days, during lunch and before bed.  I was surprised that it held the attention of  both the boys. Charlie was REALLY into the book and begged to finish it. Tommy was obsessed looking at the picture of the Mummy. Gotta love it!!

Charlie wrote his name in Hieroglyphics

To go along with our study of all things Mummy we made hieroglyph writings just like the ones that were in the tombs of the great pyramids.  Charlie did his name and the word train, of course :)  We also made a bookmark with hieroglyph writings on it to use with our Magic Tree House books.

This week we started reading from our daily devotional book for kids.  There is a short reading for each day and then activities you can do to go along with what you are studying.  So far we are all enjoying it.

Charlie continues to work very hard on his phonics and math.  This week he reviewed his sight words, reviewed the alphabet and made a letter train, identified vowel and consonant letters, built nonsense words and blended word parts.  

He also started a dictation notebook.  Every day he will be writing a few words in the notebook and we will keep track of any words/letters that he may need additional review on.  We both really like the phonics program that K12 provides.

Tommy on Starfall.com doing math

Both boys enjoyed the new Starfall.com website.  We signed up for the members only portion which has math components as well.  This is such a great learning tool and Tom enjoyed the numbers section.

We had a  pretty great week considering that we were just getting off a 2 week holiday break and then 1 week of sister and mom being gone in the hospital.  I love being able to teach our boys at home and feel so blessed to be able to do so.  The time I am spending with them is priceless!!

Snowman Soup and Christmas candy

This year the boys made some cute little packages of Snowman Soup for some of their friends and neighbors.  As part of our Christmas preparations we tried to focus more on giving and doing for others like Jesus did,  then the presents that they would receive on Christmas. 

After washing our hands :), we let the boys stuff their little bags full of marshmallows, a candy cane, a packet of hot chocolate and a few Hersey Kisses.  Tommy was MORE then generous with his bags!!   We wrapped them up, tied on a recipe for Snowman Soup, and delivered them through out the neighborhood or gave them to friends when we saw them. 

It was a fun project that the kids could have a lot of control in and a great family project of giving to others!  Something we will certainly do next year!

Trent also made some of our famous candy cane bark for his boss and co-workers.  He really went all out this year and experimented with different chocolates and what combination went well together etc.  I believe that he settled on a dark chocolate base, then white chocolate and crushed candy canes on top.  I have to say that I LOVE working in the kitchen with my husband and we seem to do a lot more of it during the holidays!!