Mr. Elephant and Moose's birthday

I've had a few really hard days. So as a reward, Greg is letting me get out the entire weekend to scrapbook. I don't have any plans yet. Does anyone need a scrapbooking partner this weekend?

This was really cute. Yesterday I came downstairs and was surprised by every single chair in the house in my living room with stuffed animals on each one. I had no idea it was Mr. Elephant and Moose's birthday. I went to get my camera, but they had moved on to the pony rides and were not still in their seats.

One really good thing about homeschooling is that you don't have to do it at 8:00 AM everyday. When everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, then you can just postpone it until later in the day. And that is what we did yesterday. The kids made chinese lanterns. I could tell Aussie was getting tired, he was not cutting straight and he was getting very frustrated. We hung them up in their rooms. And Aussie wants to make 7 more tomorrow.

Today, I heard some really bad news about a friend of mine. She is dying of cancer. I had a hard time focusing on anything else. She is very young, possibly 26. She has 2 young children. The doctors say they can not do anything more to help her. She is very private and is not giving out many details. And she is in so much pain that she absolutely does not want visitors. They are praying for a miracle. Would you pray for her and her family?

Also today, I was greeted by Queen Esther:

So I have been calling her Queen Esther today b/c she usually gets mad if I don't. Then I said, "Queen Esther may I take your picture?" And she said, "I'm not Queen Esther." So I said, "Well who are you?" She lifted her glasses down and acted like I was crazy and said, "It's ME Ashley."

Now on to this picture:

Um....Should I be worried?

One thing that I think is cute is the hair. I remember putting blankets and towels on my head and saying, look at my long hair. I never did that with my kids and I think it is cute that he came up with it on his own.

Good night! I must get some sleep!

Just another day at the Greene's

Wow cool! I just noticed they added a little icon on here to attach a video. Now all I need is a video to attach.

Ah...our "BIG" event for the day. I had been told how cool it is to make a geyser out of diet soda and a tube of mentos. The way it was explained to me was you better get out of the way that thing will be flying. So I take a picture of the before --->

I pull the toothpick out and run away from it turning around to watch the little geyser run out. It wasn't any big deal at all. I don't know maybe I need REAL diet Coke to get a better effect. I still have Mentos, so I guess I'll need to try it again. I guess I'll splurge and buy $1.40 Diet coke instead of the 69c cheapo version. And maybe I'll be able to snap a picture of it next time.

This week we have been learning more about China. I was reading how China invented paper and that many years ago they did block printing. So we did "potato printing". Mason wanted his name on his potato, so I did his name and then told the other two I was not doing that again and they had to pick something easier. Austin picked his favorite Chinese character, which he calls "Shung". That was really easy to do. Then Ashley picked a heart (which I thought would be a lot easier than it was). Ashley didn't like it because it didn't print evenly. I worked and worked on that potato- even sanding it to try to get it to be more even.

I wanted to get a picture of them using them, but my camera was acting up. I put brand new batteries in it and it said that the batteries were low. UGH! CHEAP batteries!!! So I planned to take the pictures later...but Greg threw them away. He said they were looking brown and gross. OH well. I did get the artwork that we stamped with them though. I'll have to take pictures or scan them in so you can see.

This is a picture of Mason playing his Spanish games. He really loves it. I wish the computer worked better for him though.

So what is the moral of the story today? It sounds like it is buy brand names because they are simply better.

Thank you.

Secret Sister-

I got the recipe book in the mail today! How awesome! I know it's a good book, I have the entertaining version.

Thank you so much- I'm going to put it to good use!

Boy Unit Studies

I need some ideas.

In a couple of weeks, Ashley will be starting Ballet. It's a short class 35-45 minutes long. I want to do some type of Unit study with the boys during that time. But everything I can think of, Ashley would like or benefit too from it.

And Mason and Austin are opposites. I would teach Spanish because Mason would love to learn it, but Austin really does not want to learn it and vice versa with Chinese (plus I can't pronounce it.)

Mason likes dinosaurs- Austin couldn't care less.
Austin likes Planets- Mason could possibly get into it but it's not his thing.
Can't be trains- Austin would flip out if he had to study some that didn't have little faces on them.
I want to do a study on the human body, but want Ashley involved in that one.

I want to think of something that neither one has thought about. I thought possibly Knights, but I'm not sure. (Sounds kind of boring to me)

Do you have any suggestions?

Today's happenings!

Ashley is reading words! YAY! Aussie is reading like a "Kindergarten" pro. Mason still puts different endings on the words... C-A-P CAT! He is getting better though. I'm just so excited Ashley has caught up.

The lesson book was telling me to read some 3 letter words and have them tell me the vowel. We've been doing this for the last 4 or more days. So today I just handed them the card and had them read it to me. I'm still combining 2-4 lessons in each subject a day. I am finding little things that they don't know, so I'm glad we are going through it, but this stuff is way easy for them. It's a good review. What is hard for them is the writing. And we do this everyday.

Today we talked about the Aborigians and we made our own Aborigian Dot Paintings. I had an extra Kangaroo, so I did one too. :) It was fun. However, Mason really didn't want to do "just" dots and Ashley kept telling him to do it the right way.

In the picture it is Ashley's, Mine, Mason's and Austin's.

We got most everything done in the morning and then we went to get my haircut. So I finished up our lesson tonight. We talked about the Great Barrier Reef. And I read to them about Coral reefs. Mason wanted to read the entire Encyclopedia of Oceans and Seas. It is neat to find out that he is passionate about it.

On our way home we stopped at Target to get $1 popcorn and drink. Aussie was extremely happy since he got to buy a toy with his money. Unfortunately, the other 2 were not so happy. Ashley understood she spent all her money, but Mason didn't quite get it. I was so tired and frustrated by the end of our shopping trip that while I was looking all over the store for the main thing I needed to get, I almost yelled out Where Are the DAGGUM TAMPONS?. But just as it was about to come out of my mouth, I saw them in the very last aisle. (People would understand wouldn't they?)

Has anyone seen the movie Real Genius? The part near the beginning where one of the geniuses gets burned out and goes crazy? That is how I felt and I just relived that scene over and over in my head on the way home.

Mom open my toy, Mom I want to watch this show, Mom I want to look this up, Can you plug in the DVD player?,Mom- Mom- Mom-Mom, Mom I'm thirsty, Mom I need........As I scream JUST LET ME GO TO THE BATHROOM! Good golly! Mom where are you? Mom will you open these jump ropes (that they found that were supposed to be for gifts later on). Mom can I have scissors?, Can I go outside? Mom ,I want some DAGGUM rice?........What?....Can I have some daggum rice?.....Don't say that.........Why not?

(And some people wonder why I stay up so late to blog)

Thank you SS

Thank you Secret Sister, I got your card today. I too have not been able to get to the post office and I have been feeling guilty about that myself. I finally got there today though. No worries! You have spoiled me a lot already!

As for homeschooling...I have had my ups and downs. All weekend long the kids were asking when they were going to Mommy's school again, then by Monday they didn't want to have anything to do with it. Today, I had a lot of attitude problems from them, but we did manage to get through all of the lessons.

My daughter fell apart today. I saw her look on her brother's paper and circle the same thing he did (which was wrong). And I told her that that was called cheating. She just broke down and cried and cried and cried. And she erased almost the entire page. I said, Ashley just erase this one. And she said but I looked on Mason's paper on these too. I had a hard time consoling her! I wasn't even mad- this is all brand new to them. Poor thing!

Early bedtime

It's 8:21PM. Believe it or not I'm going to bed.

ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Angelina Ballerina

Ahhhh...Mommy had a 20% coupon that expired today. If she hadn't let me use it then I would have had to wait 2 more weeks. I just LOVE my Angelina Ballerina! ~Ashley

Friends' Birthday Party

We went to a fabulous birthday party today. It was for some boy/girl twins who were in utero at the same time as my kids. I had first met their Mom at a support group for infirtility. And we were reaquainted at the Marvelous Multiples Birthing Class. Our class has stayed pretty close together thoughout the years.

Back to the party it was incredible. They had live ponies, a bouncy house, a trampoline, big playset, and Whitts Barbecue. It was lots of fun!!! Here are my kiddos riding the ponies:

Here is Ashley and Mason with the birthday girl.

-------------Ashley HAD to wear her pretty dress. I thought I had already told this story on here but apparantly I did not.

Ashley just LOVES this dress!!! She told me that she is going to wear this dress in her wedding.

I said, "Well you will be bigger when you get married and this dress won't fit you then."

She said, " Oh yah, I guess I'll grow breasts and then I'll look STUPID!"

I said, "Do you think I look stupid?" She hesitated and said, "noooo"

I said, "Well you will probably look like me when you grow up."

She said, "I will look like you?"

I said, "probably, but you'll look even prettier"

POOR child I think I've scared her for life!

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So while we were at their house I saw this and just cracked up:

Does anyone else think this is funny?

I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking.

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I just love these pictures of Mason.

chores

I can stay up late on Friday right? Oh man. I remember not too long ago when 1AM was the norm to go to bed. I had a very short nap today, so I think that has enabled me to stay up til 10:30PM- but I'm fading fast.

Ashley was such a big helper today! She really wants to earn money for an Angelina Ballerina doll, so she is doing extra chores around the house. She talks about the doll everyday. This picture is similar to what she wants. I think maybe I'll borrow some of the Angelina Ballerina books from the library. I think she would like that.

And while the girls work...

the boys will play!

Disclaimer: It's usually far from that in our house. My husband helps out a great deal! And a little while after I took this picture, the boys started helping too.

Colorful Birds

Well our little friend is taking a nap and by a wonderful default means my children MUST be quiet. Can you believe it, 2 posts in one day?

We did our craft. We are studying Brazil. And every year before Lent they have a Brazillian carnival. At the carnivals they wear bright feathered costumes. Since the kids made masks last Friday, I decided to have them paint parrots. Brazil is the home of many colorful beautiful birds. So here are their paintings. As you can see some are better at following directions than others. Of course I have one very stubborn one who wanted to make doors instead of the bird (I wonder who that could be?) But he started out doing great then got mad that I wouldn't let him paint a door on there. ( The poor bird looks like it was shot and feathers were going everywhere.)

Then I had one who, hmmmm, not quite sure WHAT he was doing. It once looked like a bird, but unfortunately he decided to make the bird bleed ALOT.

Our friend did a great job.

And I absolutely love Ashley's. She did such a great job. She really followed directions. I only helped her with the beak.

Well it looks like my time is up.

Catch ya later.

School can be fun!

I got a good night's sleep last night! YAY!

On Tuesday the kids told me school was boring. (I can understand they know most of this stuff.) But we still need to practice writing. So I

ran upstairs and got Greg's shaving cream. I gave them each a cookie sheet and put shaving cream on it. Then I had them write letters in it. They thought this was fun, especially Aussie. Mason thought it was too messy and he's the one who needs the most help in this area.

Then we were studying Brazil and Sugar Loaf mountain that is there. And each of them made their own Sugar Loaf mountain out of sugar cubes. Unfortunately, the more glue they used caused it to melt. But they had a great time doing this. Here are the pictures to prove it.

What was really funny is that we went to Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday night. The balloon man was asking the kids what they had been doing. Austin was telling him how they were going to school at home and I was his teacher. The balloon man had made him a hat and put it on his head. Austin's hair was sticking up from the static. So the man said, "Are you learning about static electricity?" And Aussie replied very seriously, "No, we are not big enough to learn about static electricity, we only learned about Sugar Loaf Mountain in Brazil and how it has a cable car that is way up high that you can ride in."

CRACKED ME UP!!!!! The balloon man couldn't hear all of that though.

Today we started school early. We have a guest here today, so I am including him in our schooling. After, during and before everything we did he kept asking when we were going to be done so he could play with the Thomas trains. We actually finished up the main stuff quite early and I am now letting them play. We will have lunch and then I will do a craft with them.

Well I'm off to make lunch...hopefully I can take pictures of the craft they do. It should be cool!

Homeschooling and Exausted

Wow this homeschooling is kicking my butt!

Actually it is going well, but I am absolutely exausted by the time Greg gets home.

If it continues to be like this- then I probably won't be blogging until the weekends.

Our first day of K at home.

Oh my am I tired!

Today started off with the kids whining and crying ALOT! I didn't know how in the world I was going to start teaching today. Ashley cried throughout the Bible lesson, but amazingly Austin still was able to answer the questions after the story. Well I kept on going and it got MUCH better.

We went across the street to our neighbors house who puts out their U.S. flag everyday and said the Pledge of Allegience. Even though we will say it everyday, I thought it would be fun to go to their house once a week.

I was really proud of my kids for getting ready today. They made their beds, got dressed, brushed their teeth, washed their faces and brushed their hair all before we did school. Austin asked why we had to get dressed when we were staying at home.

The lessons were super easy so I did 3 of them today. I will probably do 3 tomorrow too.
My favorite part of the day is when we did their homework from Friday. They had to draw a picture and if they could write a few words about what they learned in her class. Each of them are so different and I just got the biggest kick out of what they did.
Mason drew a very simple stick figure and wrote Brazil Boy.

Ashley drew a girl and dictated what she wanted me to write. I had her write the word Brazil. But her story said, This is a girl from Brazil. She has no clothes on because it is hot. Their school is broken and their homes are old.

Aussie drew a VERY detailed picture of a rainforest with 3 people. One of the persons was slipping on the water. And he wrote Brazil rainforest.

Then they were to color a picture of the Brazil children. Mason did not want to do it. He scribbled on one of them, because he was mad that we were doing it. Then I told him he could go get the mail if he would color it nicely. So he told me not to look and he colored the other one nice. And then was proud of himself.
Then Ashley said, "we are supposed to color them with BRIGHT colors" So she colored hers nicely and asked me which colors were bright.
Austin again made me laugh. He colored his with much detail. And then he colored the skin brown and told me why. He said he colored them brown because it is so hot that their skin wouldn't burn if it was brown.

Mason just whizzed through the math. And he wanted to be the teacher's helper. So I had him help me some with asking the other two questions.

I have to say I was very proud of the kids and how it turned out in the end.

By the way while I'm homeschooling I turn the ringer off on my phones.

ARG! What an awesome party!

We had such a good time today! We celebrated the kids' birthday with their friends. It turned out great! But I couldn't have done it without my friends. They all pitched in and helped one way or another. We had 16 kids participating in the games. I don't know how many people were actually there.

While I was still setting up and waiting for everyone to get there, I let the kids use pirate stamps and make pictures. And my friend Stephanie helped put pirate tattoos on all the kids.Then when everyone was there, we had an egg race. I found this game at Target on sale for $1 something. It is colorful wooden spoons and eggs that are 2 pieces that fit together. Inside each egg is a bean bag egg. The kids ran across the lawn trying not to drop their egg. Many of the kids were not very successful (including all of mine). Ashley was quite upset about it.

There was a clear winner the 2nd time around and he got a prize.

Then I had the adults do it. Unfortunately there are no pictures because we were all playing.

Then we went inside to get a drink of water and wait for the Pirate Captain to come out. The pirate Captain took a bit long so I had to figure out some things to do while we waited. So I had the kids tell me what pirates say, ARG. And we stretched and sang, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. And then I played Simon Says with them. (which they were pitiful but still very cute.) Then I had them follow me around the room, playing follow the leader and march and fly and everything else I could think of. Then HE finally came out. (WELL WORTH the wait!)

The kids all went out to the playground to find the treasures!

Greg had a SUPER poem that he wrote to guide them along the playground to pick up the treasures along the way.

Here is the poem:

Every pirate who wants to have fun

Must find a way to keep his eyes out of the sun.

Pirates live on ships that float-

So go look on the top of the big, old boat.

(so they go on top ot ark and find pirate hats)

Pirates need to scan the sea

To watch for whales or the Queen's Navy!

To find the next treasure, take a ride...

To the bottom of the yellow slide.

(When they go down the slide they find a telescope.)

A pirate needs something to hold up his pants-

But not suspenders, 'cause they itch like ants.

Let's see what happens when fate conspires-

Instead of the planks, you'll be walking the tires!

(At the end of the tires they get sashes to wrap around them)

A pirate must protect himself

From a hugry shark or an angry elf.

If you look hard, you'll find just the thing,

Over yonder by the swing.

(And this is where they find their swords.)

A pirate looks fearsome, there's no doubting that,

With his sword and his sash and his beat-up hat.

But there's one thing we're missin', and there's no denial-

So climb to the toop of the red, red spiral.

(Everyone ran to the spiral and they found eye patches)

There's one thing pirates love most, I think-

More than their food, and more than their drink.

To find the prize that'll make him gloat,

Look in the belly of the big, old boat.

(And this is where they found a pirate chest full of gold coins)

Then we went inside. We sang Happy Birthday to the kids and had them blow out the candles.

While the adults cut the cake and passed it out, Greg read the kids a pirate story (Usborne of course).

Then they had cake and delicious Blue Bell ice cream. Then while my kids opened presents, I had the other kids paint their treasure boxes. (BTW someone left theirs---let me know if it's yours.)

Even though I asked people not to spend much money...the kids got LOTS and LOTS. They were ecstatic!!! We let them stay up late tonight to play with all their toys. Now I need to run and go cuddle with them.

It was so Kewl!!!