Santa

Last year I explained to the kids about Santa. Part of me wished we had never started "Santa" but it was too late to do over. So, I explained the concept and answered several questions from each child. They seemed to understand. I also explained to them that it wasn't their job to tell their friends about our conversation - that it was up to the parents to tell their children when they felt it was the right time. At the end of the conversation, Daisy looked me in the eye and said, "I don't believe you." She walked away and went back to playing.

About a week ago, Daisy asked me if she could talk to Santa. I asked her if she remembered about our talk last year and said she did. She also said she was sorry for snatching the candy cane from him when she was little (who knew she would remember this from 3 years ago?? we haven't talked about it....)

Tonight we took the kids to see Santa. The other three humored Daisy by talking to Santa, also.






Daisy



Rosie



Tate (my favorite picture of the day!)



Lake



All

six

The littlest turns six today!





Can I just say that I love this little girl?!



We had a party earlier but I haven't taken the time to sort through the photos yet.



She loves her new bike. On the agenda for today: remove the training wheels and learn to ride without them.

cheerleaders and football players

carving pumpkins

This is the first year we have let the kids carve their own pumpkin - we usually only do one as a family. Daisy didn't hesitate with hers.



Rosie had gag reflex issues.



Tate was just having fun.



I'm not sure what was up with Lake?



The pumpkins: from left to right, oldest to youngest

eleven

my oldest turned 11 on Sunday

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He requested a simple party at home with his family and a few friends.



We played a few games but the favorite was the game of eating crackers and then trying to be the first one to blow a bubble with bubble gum. (does that game even have a name??)

Annie

I have to say she loves the new house, too.

homeschool cooking class

One of my favorite things about having my kids at home are days like today. On Monday we made cupcakes - actually, I did most of the work while asking the kids questions about what was happening. Today, I put the necessary ingredients out on the counter and announced to the gang that they were going to make cupcakes today.

The only way for me to keep my hands off the project was to hide behind the camera:





Lake took over the role of leader. No big surprise, right?

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Rosie supervised Tate as he cracked his egg. Really, the egg cracking is the favorite task for the foursome. However, lots of recipes only call for 2 or 3 eggs. This one today called for 3 but they handled it well.



The one that didn't get to crack an egg (Daisy) was the first to get to use the mixer. The kids came up with this system - the only direction I gave them was when they were placing the cupcakes into the oven: "Careful, don't get burned" slipped out. That's just the mother in me, I suppose.



All in all, a very good day.

soccer 2009

oh, my

After school

Since Daisy is in kindergarten, she finishes her school work much earlier than the others. She still does history and science with the others but her math and reading are very short sessions. She is very good to play quietly while the others are working. She knows that the television cannot be turned on until everyone is finished. The other day she had been quietly playing in her room for quite some time. I came through the living room headed towards the hall and this is what greeted me. The pose was too much. I had to beg and plead with her, though, to get this picture.

First day of dance 2009

18 days

We've had 18 days of school at our home. I've witnessed some interesting things about the kids already. Some things I already knew about them, others are new to me.

Lake is very diligent in his work. He's a perfectionist when he isn't tired. If he's tired, the best thing to do is convince him to walk away from the work or project for a bit.

Tate is a sponge. He absorbs everything I say. When I quiz them on their history or science lessons he knows every answer, every time. It's quite amazing.

Rosie is easily overwhelmed. If I spring something new on her, she has a meltdown. Literally. If I gradually lead her bit by bit she's quite fine. For example: yesterday I gave her a math assignment and by the time she finished it, it was soaked with tears. Last night I let her look at today's assignment and we had no problems today. Very interesting.

Daisy is eager to learn. We've started on a list of 1st grade sight words and she is quickly learning them. She often giggles while we go through the flash cards I made. She can't believe that she can read them. It's really precious to watch her.

So, that's it in a nutshell. I haven't pulled much of my hair out yet and the kids are still eager for our class day to start each morning. I can't ask for much more, can I?

We're moving!

We are buying another house and hope to be moving by October 1st! The kids are so excited.... well, the parents are equally excited!




We are going from a very small house (less than 1000 square feet) to over 3000 square feet.



We are going from 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The kids still want to share rooms. We will use the other two rooms for a guest room and a class/craft room.




My favorite room would have to be the kitchen.

Our first day of school at home

Our city schools started today so we decided to start, too. The kids LOVED it. They were so excited to be having school. At home. With me. They even asked for more school work when we finished. I know THAT won't last for long! It looks like most days we should finish our work in around 4 hours






We started with 'morning work' which was a word search and a beach scene to color.



The boys still like to color. What am I saying? I still like to color!



After morning work, Daisy was our 'holder of the flag' for our pledge. Why Daisy? Well, today was her first day of kindergarten. She loved it.



We didn't even take our full thirty minutes for lunch. As soon as the kids finished eating, they were back to their work. I know. I know. Probably won't last.



The subjects we covered today include a Bible study, language (Lake wrote a lovely essay on his summer), history and math. Tomorrow we will add science and then next week we will add spelling and vocabulary. Each is responsible for their own independent reading and journaling and that will officially start tomorrow,too.
Art and music will be a weekly event - probably on Fridays.

It's only been 8 months...

I didn't mean to take such a long break but it seems the longer I took off from writing here, the less of a priority it became. So, I recently was trying to remember why I started this in the first place. My number one reason years ago was to have a place for my friends and family to come and see what was happening with our lives. My second reason was so that I could document the big (and the little) events of every day.

We are having some big changes happening and I wanted to share them. First - we are finally looking for another house. We all know that we outgrew our present house a few years ago. We are getting in a position where selling this house and buying a larger one is becoming a reality. We've found one that we all love. It's a colonial style home with 5 large bedrooms, lots of wood floors and a nice back yard. It's in a neighborhood with lots of children. I could go on and on...

And then the other big news, well not really news since we decided over six months ago but something I really want to document is this: We are going to home school our kids. When I type those words now I don't have the panic attack I had a few months ago. Now when I type them, I smile. I'm very excited to be doing this. They are very excited about it, too. For the last six months I've been looking at curriculum and talking to everyone that will talk to me about it. I've made tentative schedules - I know they will have to be tweaked once we actually get started. I've picked curriculum and also have a few back up choices if the first ones aren't right for us. I've been stashing school supplies for months.

The plan is to start in mid August.

Right after I go on a cruise!!

Yes, I'm going on a short cruise (3 nights) with my girl, T-Bird. We decided a few years ago that we would celebrate our 40th birthdays BIG and this is what we came up with. She had her birthday last week (mine isn't until April) and we leave in a little over a week.

I'm being rushed off the computer by the littlest - she has some important work apparently.

I'll leave you with a few recent pictures from our (very) short trip to Pensacola.