A Week (or two) in Pictures

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks...in no particular order. The highlights...

I have been wanting to make these patchwork acorn crafts.  I thought they would be pretty decorations for the fall. The kids had painted card stock with fall colors, but we kept putting it off. In the end Kristen and I were the only ones who wanted to do it. I guess that's what happens when you procrastinate. 

The kids decorated pumpkins with Memaw. I love them, especially Lauren's. In case you can't guess which one is hers...it's the one with all the foam pieces stacked on top of each other. And that's how she rolls folks!

The girls baked pies with Meme. Lauren baked a delicious apple pie and Kristen baked a scrumptiously tart lemon meringue. They did a wonderful job and were so proud of their finished product.

A couple weeks ago our bible lesson was on Abraham, so the kids made and decorated some stars. 

We also made rock pets, which didn't turn out as well as I had envisioned. It is just too hard to find that perfect rock and rocks are never semetrical enough for my OCD self.

We celebrated Meme's birthday with a dinner and cake. 

We've been getting our first green eggs. We think Kristen's chicken, Cuddles, is the green egg layer...but we can't be certain. They are so pretty. Some have speckles. We are getting about five eggs a day. We have about nine chickens that aren't laying yet. We will have eggs galore.

This picture is blurry, but Kristen really does love reading to her siblings. I am so proud of all the progress she has made. I put our verse up for next week and she read it all by herself. There were a couple big words too. 

And oh this boy. It makes my heart happy when I am making dinner and he comes in with the stool and says, "I wanna help you Mommy." He mostly just wants to be with me and sit on the counter watching. He doesn't really care if he's helping or not. 

My silly kids...my heart overflows with love for them. I am so very blessed.

Tears and Sniffles

Lauren is officially over school! And there were times this past week that I was right there with her. 

Most mornings I was met with a reluctance that always led to tears. But we pushed through. Only because we had no other option. 

We are currently at a stand still with her reading. Not going forward...not going back. Just chillin like we don't have two whole books to learn this year. Will she get it...yes. Is it frustrating...most definitely. But even in my frustration I realize how truely blessed I am. We weren't even supposed to be sitting here teaching her to read, but she's doing it...even if it is a slow process. 

Writing is proving to be a challenge...for both of us. We switch from a big pencil to a small pencil...from her left hand to her right hand. In my opinion she does better writing with a small pencil using her right hand. She seems to have more control and a lot of her letters are clearer and not written backwards...BUT...she prefers to use her left. UGH! See the frustration. Could she be ambidextrous? That could come in handy later on in life, but right now it is just confusing. 

Kristen read her first real book of the year. She has been reading over the summer and reads at night before bed, but this week she read her first "official" school book. Hooked on Phonics doesn't mess around and their books are much harder than the number 3 books she is reading from the library. She read this book with very little help from me. I think we might have to get her at least one harder book to conquer during the week. 

Our week wasn't just filled with tears...Kristen and Dallas also battled some sort of allergy/cold thingy, so there were runny noses too. Welcome Fall! Although you wouldn't be able to tell it was officially fall by the weather. 

We did learn about Noah's ark this week...more specifically...how God punishes sin for the older ones. 

We made some rainbows out of fruit loops. 

We also played a Noah's ark game that I thought would never end. Getting two animal matches takes forever...especially when you are down to one match left. I might have cheated a little to speed things up.

We made Noah's Ark out of pretzel sticks for a snack.

We also painted some ducks in socks since we read the story "Ducks Don't Wear Socks". 

On Wednesday we actually took a day off of school. I still had to clean, but Lauren thought we were going to the library so she got herself dressed. I think she looked cute. Oh, to be six...

Dallas is in to lining things up in rows. Everything gets lined up. Sometimes his toys stretch from one side of the room to the other. 

And Kristen is officially a Girl Scout Brownie and had her first Brownie meeting this past week. Here is a picture of her in her new uniform.

Big Boy Beds and More

Our week started off with Dallas moving on up into a big boy bed. 

I was all excited until bedtime rolled around. That's when I was sure I had lost my mind. Then I wondered how mad Paul would be if we had to pull the crib and mattress out of the attic and put it back up. All of this was followed by a quick prayer of "Please God....let him be ready!"  

The first night was great. He didn't get out of his bed at all, even when he woke up that morning. But the nights are hit and miss. Some nights we see this...

At least a couple of times, but most nights he stays in his bed looking at a book or playing with his trucks. I was more worried about nap time, because he doesn't want to take a nap anymore, but he has done awesome with his naps. Never gets up and goes right to sleep. I guess this means he was ready to transition to a big boy bed. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

We had a good week of school. I was a little discouraged with Lauren's progress. Not that she isn't making progress, because she is doing so much more than she was able to do a year ago...even six months ago. She is just behind for what is considered to be "normal" for her age. We are working so hard to try to get her caught up, but most things you can't rush because she is just not able to do them yet. But it will come in time. 

So, after much prayer about the situation I had an AHA moment. Why it took this long...I have no idea. Lauren is a mover and I am absolutely positive she has ADD. I imagine her brain constantly jumping from one thing to another, so it is very hard to keep her attention for longer than a few minutes. While she understands the reading concept better than Kristen did at this age, it is very hard to keep her attention long enough to focus on reading. So, we created a sensory bin for her to use. We start with our ending and I hide the beginning letters in the rice and she has to find them then tell me what the word is. 

I didn't realize how much she would enjoy this! Who knew some rice, with a few sprinkles added in could make a difference. We will use it for other subjects and add other bins in over the year.

She is definitely a one on one learner. Her mind wanders the most during subects we all do together, with the exception of writing. I printed off pictures of our bible lesson and let her look at them while we read from the bible and she learned so much more. Having lots of activites and hands on is what she learns best from. And I am learning so much from her. 

Kristen is chugging right along and is a human sponge. She loves learning new things and is a very quick learner.

We learned about linking verbs this week and she picked it right up. Language arts is one of her favorite subjects. 

We also made a bird feeder for science. 

We haven't seen any birds, but I am pretty sure a squirrel is enjoying the seeds. I bought a cheap bag and was surprised to see whole almonds and cashews in it. We also made suet.

Well, actually I made suet. Kristen hates the smell and taste of peanut butter, so I made it while she did her math with a close pin on her nose. It's still in my freezer. We have yet to put it out for the birds. I am sure the squirrels and other critters will just eat it anyway. I think all of the birds have already gone south for the winter.

We also talked about sin this week. It's one thing to be able to say that sin is anything you think, say or do that does not please God...but I wanted them to understand how sin affects our life and separates us from God (just like Adam and Eve in our bible lesson). So, thanks to the wonderful worldwide web, I found two object lessons about sin. 

First we started with a clear glass of water. This represented them when they were born.

Then they told a lie, disobeyed Mom and Dad, was mean to their sibling....etc....and it didn't matter how many times they sinned or how little the sin was, it still affected the whole glass of water (their whole life) and our water was no longer clear.

But, when we ask Jesus to come into our life and ask for forgiveness from our sins, he makes us clean again. 

As you can see Lauren loved this demonstration. I think she now thinks I have a little magic up my sleeve. 

They also drew a picture of Adam and Eve on one side of a piece of paper and a heart (which represented God) on the other side. We folded it in half, then added some water (sin) to the crease. Before sin we couldn't tear the paper in half by pulling on it, but after sin it separated very easily. This is because sin separates us from God. 

Some great illustrations!

We also made some snakes...

Made some scary faces, because we read the story, Can you make a scary face? And painted some bugs.

And made a cow mask to wear while we read the book, Who Moo. 

And if you have a two year old boy and you hear hysterical laughing coming from a closed bathroom door, be prepared to see this.

Yes, that is the potty insert. He was all smiles until he did it again tonight, but decided to wear it around his neck and it wouldn't come off. I had to hold his ears down while Paul pulled it off. His ears were still red at bedtime. I would say he won't do it again...but he probably will.

Sandy Shores

This past week we spent a few days on the sandy shores of North Carolina. My parents and sister were generous enough to invite us to join them again and the kids counted down the days.

It rained every day except for Wednesday when we left to come home. We were still able to go to the beach despite the dreary day and the rain held off. 

Last year there were a ton of little dead fish being washed ashore. This year it was horseshoe crabs.

Kristen wasn't scared though.

Kristen loved playing in the sand.  Her and Uncle Earl even built a sand castle and decorated it with some horseshoe crabs. 

Lauren was a water girl and wave jumper, as you can see in the background of the above picture.

Dallas enjoyed playing in the sand for about five minutes. I did capture one picture with my camera. He went in the water once too. 

He is not a fan of the beach and pretty much spent the rest of the day on someone's lap. 

We also celebrated my dad's birthday. He's one lucky guy. He gets to spend his birthdays at the beach. 

On our way back home we stopped at some shops and ate some lunch in Nags Head. We also played a little putt-putt. Kristen did great. She's plays as good as me. I always seem to get the highest number of putts or drives or whatever the proper putt putt lingo is. 

Lauren just couldn't figure out how to work her club, no matter how many times we showed her.  She thought she was playing polo, just without the horse.

And Dallas thought you were supposed to throw the balls in the hole. 

I actually might get a better score if I started playing like this. 

Until next time...

A Nice Little Break

"I'm glad we get a break. I really needed one." This coming from the second grader who only went to school for five days. Really?

We went out with a bang and ended our first week of school at a Flying Squirrels game. The last time I went to a game they were the Richmond Braves and Chipper Jones and Javier Lopez played for them. That was only about twenty some years ago. Hmm...I feel old. Anyways, it was the kids first game and we were able to meet up with some friends we hadn't seen in forever. 

I think the girls had fun, but only because there were friends there to talk to and eat cotton candy with. Dallas was tired, so he sat on Paul's lap mostly in a daze...pretty much like in this picture. The kids did get to run the bases at the end. I think that was the highlight...well, that and the cotton candy and the free happy meal card. Fun times. 

Paul and I both talked about how much we all enjoyed our weekend. It was a nice little break and we just enjoyed our time together. We took advantage of the river and went there for a few hours on Monday.

We also went to a Labor Day cookout and enjoyed time spent with family. Dallas and Kristen did some fishing and all the kids enjoyed the paddle boat. Of course they weren't the ones paddling. 

Dallas also did a little levitating, as seen in this picture. He is quite talented.

We intended to start back to school on Tuesday like everyone else, but we were invited to a "We're not going back to school" party, so we ended up taking Tuesday off too. They enjoyed a day of playing, eating cupcakes and watermelon and just enjoying being kids.

Needless to say, when our school week started, my kids were exhausted and I was happy to have a laid back Wednesday.

While we had a short school week, we had a couple pretty long days. Wednesday everyone's focus was off and we didn't finish school until 4:00. We went on a nature scavenger hunt, which made Wednesday a little longer than usual. 

Kristen is terrified of seeing a snake and Lauren is terrified of any bug or flying bug, so they walked around paranoid. Kristen was actually telling Dallas not to go that way because there were snakes, of course he wasn't scared. 

While our school week was short, we still got a lot done.

The girls had to draw a picture of their favorite animal, for bible and writing, and Kristen had to write a sentence about her picture. Lauren still has a hard time writing and especially drawing. She likes to scribble and not really take her time. This day she had to actually draw something that resembled a bunny...with NO scribbling. I was very very proud of the picture she drew. Other than a flower and a smiley face, this is the only other picture she has really tried her hardest to draw.

And like I said....it was a very exhausting week!