Christmas ornaments and homeschooling

We've been making ornaments. We made these out of bread. The kids had fun decorating them and putting them on the tree.

So by looking at this picture can you tell what Aussie is into these days?

I'll give you a hint...He wants to live there some day. Do you give up? He decorated all of his ornaments like the Germany flag. He has pictures of Germany that he has drawn, up on his wall. He asked for Germany books from the library. I tell you when this kid gets something in his head there is no stopping him. It's wonderful and exhausting at the same time.

Now onto "The Undecorator"... This is the culprit right here in the tree. She loves to bat at all the ornaments until they fall. She has already broken a few. Good thing I didn't put the good ornaments on the tree this year.

Everyone usually asks how school is going, so I'll tell you. It's going just fine. Honestly, it is tiring and sometimes like pulling teeth to get the kids to do their work. But I have found Ashley can really excel if she has complete silence (hard to get around here). I had to just stop and think about how well they are doing. I sometimes get so discouraged. But thinking that most kids their age (born in the summer of 2002) are waiting another year to start Kindergarten. Also my kids were preemies- which means they would have been born in September as a singleton. Then I am using Abeka, which is a grade level above other curriculums. I have to stop and see that they are doing quite well for their age. I don't want to push them through. I want them to enjoy school, which makes me have doubts about staying with Abeka. I'll finish out the year with it, but I have no idea what I will get next year.

Also Everyone asks: Do you like homeschooling? Well no not really. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It's important to me for them to get a good education and stay out of the public school system. I'm hoping with a different curriculum, that all of us will like it better.

So do any of you homeschoolers have any suggestions on curriculums for me to research? I'll tell you right now, I'm not a big reader, so I don't want to do Sonlight.

HO HO HO

Hello out there!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
We have our tree up with lights but no ornaments just yet. I've decided since we have a kitten this year that no glass ornaments, ribbons or "regular" ornaments will be going on the tree. I put the Christmas tree in the Family room this year in a corner, so if it falls it has 2 walls to lean up against. Putting it up was an adventure. Kiki was trying to eat it and climbing up in it. She would bat at my hands anytime I tried working on the tree. Greg took the kids to Home Depot with him so I could work on the tree. When he called home I told him, "Next year you can leave the kids and take the cat."

Anyway, we are making ornaments this year. I put the kids' favorite lights on the tree (colored). And I can see that this tree will be special already. I made my star to put on top of the tree with Scrapbooking paper. I wonder if this will become a tradition?

Speaking of TRADITIONS...
Many of you know that when the kids were 2 years old I wrote HO HO HO on their "sweet cheeks" and posed them for a picture. I had seen someone else do this with their triplets on a Christmas card and I just had to do it. So I knew I couldn't wait until the next year because they would be too old to do that. So I did it. It was precious.

Well the next year comes....And Ashley says, "Mommy are you going to hide lollypops in the tree and write letters on our buckys again?"

I can't believe she remembered that! We didn't!

The next year comes...Aussie says, "Are you going to write H-O-H-O-H-O on our heineys?"
Again I explain they are too old and We don't do it!

This year...Is this a 5 year old thing? They like to moon us! Where did they get this from? We don't do it! They ask this year if we can write ho ho ho on them. Since they were just teasing Daddy and NO pictures were to be taken and it was bath night, I grab a Crayola Washable marker and I do it. LOL! This is funny! NOT...It wasn't a Crayola Washable Marker! So they have faint ho's on their heineys.

I do think it is funny that every year they bring it up and we explained they were too old for that and they continue to bring it up. Greg said when they are in College we are going to get a picture of the 3 of them with H-A H-A H-A sent to us.

The moral of this story is that kids remember things even at TWO years old!

Well I must make dinner, I've played on the computer long enough.

Oh I meant to say 2 other things, I guess I'll have to get on later tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice dinner at a friends house. There was SO MUCH food. Usually I don't "over"eat on Thanksgiving because it typically isn't my favorite foods. But I sure did today. I overdid it! It was so delicious! And now it is only 8:00 and I am tired!

Actually- I got excited to watch a movie with my family. We have had the movie Cars for a year and I have never seen it. The kids have seen it, but I never have. So I was really getting into it and then the kids wanted to play and get in the way of the movie. So I turned it off for them to make their own movie.

So is anyone getting out in the hustle and bustle to go shopping tomorrow?

BUSTED!

Ashley talking to Daddy on the phone: Daddy, I'm hungry and I want to go to Pizza Hutt.

Daddy: Oh really? Where's your Mommy and what does she think about that?

Ashley: She's right here. She told me to call you and see what YOU think.

Native American Dance

On Monday we went to see a Native American dance. It was wonderful!!! Ashley and Austin drew pictures of them and gave them to them. It was so sweet. I wish I could have kept a couple of those to scan in. Anyway, Aussie drew a picture and gave it to the lady and she was so impressed. She really looked deep into. Everything has meaning to these people. She explained what she thought each thing he drew meant. She explained how the lightning is very significant in what they were doing and I think it meant life. (I didn't tell her that he probably drew stairs instead of lightning) She loved how she was the only one who had a face and the three other men did not. Anyway, it was cool seeing her get so excited over his drawing.

The man who is doing this dance is 54 years old. He is so strong. It was just amazing to watch him perform.

They use the word regalia instead of costume because a costume is something you where when you are dressing up to be something that you are not. The lady is her on seamstress so she made her own regalia. I was truly impressed and the kids enjoyed it too!

Craziness!

Sometimes (usually on Sundays) I dress all of us so we cooridinate in hopes to get a good family picture. The sun was in our eyes but we did get something.

Aussie is learning how to do the monkey bars all by himself. He is so proud!

The others tried but needed some help.

And here is a picture of Greg. He is trying to prove that he can still hold all 3 at once. So yes he can hold all three, but he doesn't think he could walk very far with all of them!

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Well when it rains it POURS! Lots of yucky stuff has been going on here. One has been our dishwasher broke. So on Sunday Greg tried to fix it. Unfortunately it still leaks a little bit. He says he thinks he knows how to fix it though. I hope so and I hope it doesn't take too long.

Also, on Saturday the kids were making tents from the pile of blankets that we keep in the corner of our Family Room. So at the bottom of the pile there was a WET pillow. The pillow had mold on it and the floor was wet and had mold on it. We could not figure out what would have caused this. It wasn't a leak from the ceiling or the top of the blankets would be wet. So Greg went under the house and found that indeed it was a leak and it was wet under the house. So WHAT do we do now? Well Greg talked to a few people and got up on top of the roof to check something by the chimney. There was at least a 5 inch gap up there. So Greg tried to calk it but ran out of calk. So he will have to finish up on his next day off Thursday or Friday.

In the meantime, Aussie decided to get on top of the roof too. The last few days I have been so worried he is going to break his leg. He has been SO WILD lately!

______________________

And here is Ashley. She picked all these leaves for the people she loves.

The other day we were driving in the car and we drove past a sewer smell. She said very loudly, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOeww It wasn't me!" LOL!

And here is another picture of the princess herself on the throne she built.

Rocket Shoes

On Thursday, my parents were coming back from Florida and stopped by to see us. They brought the kids Crocks (my way of saying imitation Crocs). Anyway the kids went NUTS over them.

Mason started calling them Rocket Shoes.

They just giggled and giggled and had a great time.

3...2...1 Lift Off!

Things I love today...

This was another assignment from Wrapped Emotions. This was fun and I did it the first day I saw the post.

I had to make it pretty dark so that you are able to see it. We are to express ourselves in our own handwriting, making a list or doodling but NOT typing on the computer of things that we love today. Well I love to doodle, so this assignment came very easy to me. We were supposed to include a wrapper of something I love today (Nov. 13th). But the only thing I had a wrapper of was a sticky plain old white wrapper of the the ice cream Chocolate Raspberry bar and I just didn't want to include it, so I didn't.

So here is a little bit about me of things that I loved on November 13.

Volcanoes

Can you guess what we are learning about?

Austin made the volcano

Ashley painted it.

And Mason got to pour the "hot lava".

Well you are part way right. We are actually learning about dinosaurs. I am so happy with the Curriculum that I got from Usborne! It is a 10 week curriculum that uses their books. It has a daily lesson and I'm just impressed with it. As we get more into it (We started yesterday), I'll let you know how it is. I also bought a curriculum for the Human Body, I'm looking forward to that too.

Well I have to run, I've got a million and one things to do.

Marriage according to Aussie

You know those emails that go around where questions are asked to young children and their answers are really cute. Well Mom suggested I take one of those emails and ask my kids. The only one who would give me answers was Aussie. So here it goes:

How do you decide who to marry?
I think its Caroline

How did you choose Caroline?
Because I don't remember the other girl's name

Is it Page?
I will marry Page IF she's not too big

What is the right age to get married?
5?
5?
I can't get married until I'm a grown up, but I really want to do it today.

How can a stranger tell if 2 people are married?
Because they live at the same house- but if they were a visitor there then I would know.

What would you do on a 1st date if it was yucky?
I would just go to another place or to another date. I want to have my 1st date when I'm 9.

When is it ok to kiss someone?
all the time

Is it better to be single or married?
Married- because Mom's and Dad's are important

How would the world be different if people didn't get married?
I think everyone would be mad if we couldn't get married.

I love my children and Happy Birthday to me!

Today I am 37!



So what does this picture look like to you?

Apparantly to 5 year olds this is a RECIPE to make the picture up in the left hand corner. (hey atleast they are reading left to right)


The kids wanted to make me birthday presents today since they didn't have any to give me. This time the cake wasn't quite as successful as last time. I went downstairs to find a bowl of flour with milk, a WHOLE apple, grapes, scoops of peanut butter, a slice of cheese, a scoop of shortening (for the pie), chocolate and who knows what other stuff all mixed together!


My reaction this time was more like "OH MY!"

Mason said, "It was Ashley's idea to add the candy bar." Then he brings me this peice of paper and said we followed this recipe. LOL!!!


I had to dump it, but how can you not smile at them trying to read a RECIPE?

Re-Create Your Face

This is an assignment from Wrapped Emotions:

We are going to get more comfortable with ourselves. We are going to get to know our own face, appreciate it, recognize it and love it.

Whoa, get back here! Don't run away from this prompt screaming "Nooooo!!!" I'm in it with you and my face has seen better years.Hold your camera at arm's length and shoot a photo of your face. Oh hush up, yes, get that close. Don't expect it to look good, unless you're twenty years old it will probably look horrible. But we're all here together.

This is the original picture I got.

Just face it, this is what everyone is looking at so breath deeply and take it.

Upload the photo to your computer and with whatever photo editing software you are using de-saturate it, convert it to black and white. Lighten the image if necessary, make sure the image isn't too dark.

Print a copy. Oh horrors! I know.Now take your pencil and trace over it...over and over and over. Every feature, every curve and line...trace over it. This is you.

After working with your printed image, talk about the emotions experienced while doing this.

Ok so this was fun. I knew I was going to use soft lines because I feel delicate. However when I did this I kept going over and over the same lines with my pencil so I could see them. I think the wrinkles I have show happiness. I was happy with what turned out. I think I look pretty. So why I had to go a step further I don't know. But I decided to try to trace the picture. Very difficult only using a lamp light and holding up the paper. So is this what I will look like in another 30 years? Maybe I should have left good alone, but curiousity got the best of me. I look old in this picture. I know one thing...when I'm much older my hair will not look like a 37 year old. It may be scary, but this was a fun exercise.

Beautiful Weather!

Today was such a beautiful day!

At school today, the kids learned about how people used to write with quills. They even got to try it. They dipped their feather into bright green ink and wrote their names and drew a little picture. Then at the end of class, Ms. Robin gave them each a feather pen.

After school- the kids played outside. They loved riding their bikes. Mason has really gotten the hang of riding his bike and is going really fast. Ashley just learned a few days ago and she is doing great! Aussie has been a pro for awhile. Once we get the tires fixed on their bikes, I bet we could take off the training wheels pretty soon.

Ashley helped me cut the flowers down. They were all dying due to the cold weather. Austin helped too. But he scared me so much with the shears that I didn't dare take his picture. Ashley HAD to do them all! I'm glad she likes gardening. It is not something I enjoy. But today the weather was just so wonderful I didn't mind being out there.

Tomorrow should be a fun day- I hope!

Advent Calendar

Well I finally did it! Last year my friends, Hollye and Jill made these adorable Advent Calendars. I wanted to make one, but just didn't get around to it last year. So I did it for this year. And guess what? I'm going to be teaching a class at Scrapn' Memories, Sunday, November 25th at 2:00PM on how to make your own Advent Calendar. I hope you will sign up and join me. I have not come up with a price yet. I still need to calculate how much I spent to make it.

Trick or Treat

I like this picture even though it is blurry!.




Trick or treating was fun. We went to our friend's neighborhood. Here the kids are with some of their friends. I loved watching them run from one house to the next. Ashley was in her little princess shoes. She told us later that they were hurting her feet. When we got home she had blisters all over her toes. Poor little girl!! Aussie was an indian again and Mason changed his costume to Chef Mason. The boys got tired rather quickly and told us they wanted to go home. The last 4 houses...Austin just said he was done and didn't want to go up to them. So Greg went back to get the car and came and picked us up.