A Visit With Great Grandpa

Growing up, I got to see my Grandpa almost every day. Now that we live around three hours away from him, we do not get to see him as often as I'd like. We, along with my sister and niece, visited him one day last week. It was raining most of the visit, which made it difficult to keep them calm and proper indoors. We got to spend a little bit of time outside, though. Every time we visit, their favorite things to play with are the brushes and buckets sitting on the well house. Sissy enjoyed one of the local orchard's apples.

Just Because I Needed A Post...and She's Cute, Too

It has come to my attention that I am sorely behind on posting. I've been feeling generally lazy the past few weeks. Plus, the internal memory and memory card on my camera are full, and I haven't had a chance to do anything about that. Here is the last picture taken on my camera - about a week ago. Sissy loves to put on other people's clothes. She turned 20 months old yesterday, and she loves dressing up. She especially loves shoes. Googie took her to a shoe store recently, and she was very adamant about what she liked or didn't. There weren't many leather-free options, and she shook her head "no" at the plain white Keds. She nodded "yes" to the pink and purple shiny ones, which were out of our price range. I hope that isn't a sign of what's to come.
The boys love dressing up, too - mostly in my clothes or Daddy's or Sissy's. I have great pictures of them in Sissy's clothes, which I would post, but Daddy might not approve.

Just Another School Day

The boys spent Friday morning painting on the easel. Dash started out here with pretty impressive drawings of Mommy and Daddy, but then he went abstract. Tornado is very carefully adding Papaw's lawn mower to his painting. Tornado worked on a few worksheets before heading off for his Friday afternoon activities. We are trying to get him to do better about completing a few things by himself everyday. It has not been easy, but he's getting better. The boys were my cooking helpers all day long. Tornado made his own breakfast, noodles with broccoli and baby corn, with my guidance. For some reason, breakfast has always been a struggle with him. He'll eat cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, etc. later for a snack, but he never wants them first thing in the morning. Dash pulled up the stool and helped me make bread pizza for lunch. I surprised them by renting "The Incredibles," for their tucked-into-bed flick that night. I was pregnant with Dash when the movie was at the theater, and Ryan had taken Tornado to see it a couple of times. That is how he chose "Dash" for his little brother's middle name. Although Dash was familiar with the characters because we have a few Incredibles books, he had yet to see the movie (unless he saw it as a baby). When I told him we were going to watch it, his eyes lit up with a very excited, "OH!"

You Can Take The Boy Out Of Illinois, But...

Ryan dressed the kids before they went out for another day with Daddy. What you can't see is the Illini shirt he is wearing, as well. I guess it's time to prepare myself for another basketball season...
They spent another day at the zoo since we had went ahead and gotten a membership. Then they went to see the 3-D movie, "Fly Me to the Moon," which they enjoyed viewing with their 3-D glasses.

Lord of the Flies

Friday night, I knew the boys were playing outside. I went to check on them, and this is exactly how I found them. They had removed their shoes and clothes. They had removed the bunches of moss that Ryan was storing in the baby pool until he could plant them. This is the remaining dirt mixed with the recent rain water. They had been so loud all day long, running around indoors - I guess they had become crazy animals by the time they got outside. I hosed them off outside, but that didn't even work - there was still a film of dirt that required the bath. The bathing process was long - they had dirt in their ears, eyes, and up their noses. Fortunately, Ryan was bringing home food from P.F. Chang's because we were still cleaning up by the time he got home.

One Of Our Favorite Places

Thursday, we went to the library and Whole Foods to get our mandatory supply of books, videos, and food. Tornado and I have to have our refill of new books regularly. Dash likes to be read new books, but he is at the age that he could hear the same book read, seriously, four or five times in a row or every night for a week. I can't even tell you how many times I've read Dream Hop the past few weeks; fortunately, it's a very cute book. They got to crawl around and play in the bear cave, used to celebrate Teddy Bear Month. We picked out a few extra bear books in honor of it.

Daddy Day Out

Daddy took the three kids on a little outing today to give Mommy time to clean house and prepare lessons for the week. I actually love to clean house, weird as that may sound, when I'm all alone, and I can turn up the music and go from room to room as I feel like it. I got a lot done, which allows me to relax during the week and take things as they come.

Apparently, the kiddos had a great time, too. Daddy took them to Whole Foods to get lunch. They dined outside on the picnic tables with Tofurky deli slices, papaya strips, Funky Monkey (freeze-dried banana with cinnamon), and Simply Booty. Their next stop was Pinnacle Mountain State Park where they enjoyed the playground, took a walk, played tag, and watched the kites flying above. They were disappointed they weren't going to be able to climb the mountain. The little ones fell asleep on the way home, a testament to a fun, active day created by Dad. Tornado talked Dad into stopping by the smoothie drive-thru on the way home, and they enjoyed quality, big-boy conversation. When they pulled into the drive, and Dash woke up, he asked, "Where we going next?"

Book Review/Cute Quote

I read these interactive devotions (that I purchased from Target) to the kids most mornings at breakfast (and sometimes later in the day, if we are in a hurry to get somewhere). They are written by Pamela and Douglas Kennedy, and we really enjoy them, including the sweet watercolor illustrations by Amy Wummer. Each story "tells about a different animal and its outstanding trait." For example, rams often get angry and fight, comparing it to people fighting and how God wants us to stop our anger and talk about our problems. Scripture and discussion questions are provided with each devotion. There are even questions like "How many baby gorillas can you find in the picture?" Therefore, there is a Bible and science lesson in each devotion, as well as math and social studies hidden throughout. Recently, we were reading about rattlesnakes and how God gives us warnings in the Bible on how to stay away from danger. I asked Dash a question, something along the lines of, "What are some of the things God wants us to stay away from?" (as in lying, stealing, and being mean to others, the examples I had just read about) Dash answered very sincerely, "To not pick scabs."

Off To Church We Go...

For some reason, Tornado likes to wear mismatched socks. He might get this from his aunt Tracy, I don't know. I think he just has this genuinely pure, creative side, and he truly doesn't care what people think. Obviously, it's our job as parents to guide him in appropriate ways, but he was so sincere about wearing these socks to church recently...we couldn't say "no." We told him that some people might think he's silly for wearing different socks, and was he okay with that? He thinks it's boring and silly to wear socks that are the same. Who are we to argue with that?

Three Little Monkeys

I didn't feel like staying at home today so we took off for the zoo. We met Daddy at the park outside the zoo, to eat and to play. Sissy walked around without the stroller almost the entire time, never even tiring with all the hills and the heat. She was always a few steps behind her brothers, but she gave it her best shot to keep up. In the words of Tornado, "This is a fun day!"

We Love Labor Day Weekend

This was a weekend of many accomplishments as we caught up on many neglected chores and projects. Ryan sped through his honey-do list, making me proud. The kids got to spend a lot of time outside with Daddy, overseeing the outdoor jobs. Daddy took Sissy to the grocery store tonight, then put her to bed, which gave me lots of time with the boys to do "school." We finished our Cow "week," which actually stretched to 2 1/2 weeks since we added a lot to it, went out of town, and I was a little under the weather for a few days. They used squares (our shape of the week) of all sizes to create cows. They took off on this activity on their own by adding food (stickers) for their cows to eat and dressing their cows with shoes/sunglasses, etc. stickers. We reviewed and completed our activities on the number 1, the letter A, and our sight words and math problems. Our Bible lesson had to do with God creating us as unique individuals.

Dash got interested in reading an animal encyclopedia book, and he was so excited about all the different pictures he was looking at, we joined him in looking through it. I don't know how he knew this, but he announced, "Armadillos can roll up like roly-poly bugs." (I think armadillos were on Diego once; maybe that's where he heard it.) They were just full of animal trivia tonight - when we were looking at the zebras, Tornado reminded us, "Lions can't see just one zebra when they all stick together, and they can't eat them." They laughed so much the rest of the night about seeing the "naked mole rat." (Dash says "nekkid ro nat.")

Tornado read aloud Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss, and I only had to help him with a few words. They ate their nighttime snack while we listened to Tacky the Penguin on tape. Tomorrow we will begin our Jungle week. I have the books and activities sitting out on the school table, and when they wake up in the morning, they will find out what our next theme will be.

Cute Quote

My three year old has such a sweet, little voice, and he says the funniest things. I get sad when I think about not having that sweet little voice in my life - when he gets older, and it gets deeper...Recently, we had this conversation about one of Tornado's new teachers (he has for his lessons).

"Who was that?" He asked.

"That's Tornado's new teacher, Chris."

"Oh. I never heard of Chris. He's a guy?"

"Yeah, he's a big guy - like tall and big muscles."

"Oh. He has muscles?"

"Yeah."

After a moment of thinking about it, he asked very sweetly, "He has bones, too?"

More Than You Wanted To Know About Our School

I haven't been posting everything we've been doing lately because we've been out of town a lot, had out of town company, and I got a little obsessed in a facebook competition with my friend. Hopefully, now I'll get back into the swing of things...well, maybe next week as we have a pretty busy week going on right now. This is the kind of life that drives my hubby crazy. He is in much need of a little down time.

Our home school does not follow the school year, and we pretty much have school all year round. We're actually more along the lines of "unschoolers," if you've heard that term, although I have too much elementary teacher inside me to shed ourselves of all typical schooling. I have an addiction to curriculum and books. I could spend all day in Mardel or any other teacher store. Plus, the boys love workbooks and all things "lessons." They are constantly asking to do "lessons," which couldn't be a bad thing. I've been in a bit of a slump since we had our third child. Everything is so much harder now, but I've been really trying lately to get back on top of my game.

It also helps that Sissy is 18 months old now and a little less clingy. It's still not easy to work at the table with her - or to play games or put together puzzles - all of it she pretty much wreaks havoc upon. I went to the toy store the other day and bought some gimmicky, noise-making toys in the hopes that would occupy her while we do our thing. They really haven't helped like I was hoping they would. We also try to do a lot of our activities while Dad is at home, at night or on the weekends.

I have really tried lately to get us on a schedule. It is so far away from my nature to have a schedule. I can't seem to remember to stay on schedule. We never had to have a schedule with the two boys, and it seemed to work out just great. I thought maybe it would help to pull together some semblance of a schedule since we have three now to manage. Wish me luck.

One of the things we are using right now is the free online curriculum at http://www.letteroftheweek.com/. There are different sections for babies and preschoolers, as well as ideas for older kids, which will work for Tornado. We have started with the preparatory curriculum. It has a weekly theme with suggested book list and related poems, a letter and number, and a color or shape. It includes a gross motor and fine motor activity. It also has a suggested nursery rhyme.

We will use that along with A Rhyme A Week activities found at http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm and ideas from the nursery rhyme unit I did with Tornado a few years ago.It seems to be working out well for us so far because I can use it for both of the boys to do at the same time. While Dash is practicing recognizing and writing a "1," Tornado can practice that, along with spelling the word "one," and reviewing his 1 addition facts. While Dash practices recognizing and writing an "A," Tornado can also practice it, along with writing additional "A" words. When Dash drew a square, Tornado practiced a 3-D square. We put our own touch on things, as well. For example, we watched a Michael Rosen "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," video on youtube, which they both LOVED, then we turned it into our own "We're Going on a Square Hunt" as we pointed out squares around the house. Tornado also worked on the "ow" sound like in "cow." Next week, we will switch over to the "sound of the week" section.

To begin our Cow week, we went to the free summer movies to see Barnyard. It was a really cute movie, even if the male cows did have udders (I have no idea). Above, the boys worked on gluing (huh, I always thought it was "glueing") their cow pieces together.

The No-Occasion Pinata

Who needs a "reason" to have fun with a pinata? Not us! Aunt Cary came to visit and promised the kids she would get them a pinata to hit after our taco meal at Googie and Papaw's house. Dash, in his completely sweet three year old voice, called it a "pie-yata" all night. Sissy whacked it over and over again as hard as anyone. We've had a great time playing with Aunt Cary and my niece all weekend. Our favorite activity is making my four month old niece smile and squeal. It never gets old.

Let's Party

My family on my dad's side got together Sunday for my Grandpa's 88th birthday. This is the only time we all get together every year, and it was particularly special this year because every single person was there - his three kids and their three spouses, his seven grandchildren and their four spouses and one fiancee, and his eight great-grandchildren. Even little Puddy.