Three Week Wrap-Up/Giveaway Reminder

In Our Lives

Sis and I had a night out to ourselves. We went shopping! It was so much fun because we rarely ever go shopping, especially not just the two of us. We bought a few lovely things at Anthropologie, Justice, and The Children's Place. We also stopped by Whole Foods because she wasn't ready for the night to end.

By the time we arrived back home...

Three weekends ago, we had a nice time attending the birthday party of one of Dash's buddies.

What We're Playing

They've been playing a lot with this empty canvas tote that Dash's feet are on and a upside-down plastic tub they are sitting on. They take it to wherever they are playing, and it becomes their desk or office or whatever. And in this case, it was their lunch spot.

They've been big on eating outside or any place that is not the table or counter. This is where they decided to eat their breakfast the other day.

And I don't know what to say about these other than my kids are very fun and very silly.

In Our Extracurricular 

Around the World Night at AWANA

I didn't get a photo of my senor guapo before his costume came off.

What's New With the Baby

Baby has been going through a yelling phase this week. Not upset yelling. Just talking-yelling, like he's trying out his voice. He'll deliver a whole string of something that he wants to tell us. Then he smiles.

His biggest news is that on Sunday, we noticed his first toothie starting to poke through!

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing

The weekend before last was spent in Illinois with Ryan's family. This is a lot (but not all) of his mother's side of the family.

A fall party was held at Ryan's grandparents' house. My 7 year old son is down there on the dock with some of the boys. The kids enjoyed pairing up with their second cousins of similar ages.

painting pumpkins and games

And remember this little guy?

Look what he has become.

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The kids and I spent a really nice day in historic Washington, Arkansas. I will do a separate post about it another time. We gifted Daddy (who works so hard and has been traveling for his job a lot lately) with a weekend of quiet solitude.

From there, we went on to Dallas for a couple of days. One of our activities was attending the Texas State Veggie Fair, where the kids got to play and eat vegan versions of fair food like ice cream, pizza, and these fried cinnamon rolls.

In Our Homeschool

I haven't had a chance to take many pictures of our schoolwork this week. Some of the things we've been learning about: contractions, verbs, Jamestown, spiders, and money.

 Sis and I worked on numbers and matching during her break at one of our homeschool co-ops.

One of the boys' lessons lately in their Dangerous Book for Boys class was on sound and soundwaves, etc. One of the dads has recording equipment he brought in, and the boys were ALL IN IT. They soaked 

it up.

Today we joined some of our homeschool co-op friends for a very chilly field trip at the Jewel Moore Nature Reserve on the edge of the University of Central Arkansas campus.

I've driven by here hundreds of times, and I have never paid much attention to it. It includes 15 acres of prairie and woodlands, all that remains from the original 2,500 acres of prairie that existed in Conway. It was a nice little place! I can see me taking the kids back here anytime for a little walking and exploration. 

Our tour guide, a graduate student who is one of the keepers of the reserve, was very knowledgeable and charming. They are continually working on preserving and restoring the land (which had never been converted to farmland or anything) to the original ecosystem. We enjoyed it.

What We're Listening To 

After The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they have finished Prince Caspian and are in the middle of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

A Link to Share

Please visit my giveaway post: 

handmade dresses for little girls!

And you can enter to win Little House 

on the Prairie books here!

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Pinnacle Mountain State Park

I've said it before: I have a really bad habit of starting posts, then never finishing them. (Exchange "starting posts" with many phrases in life, and this will describe a lot about me.) I mostly blog in 5 minute increments here and there. It's ridiculous the amount of drafts I have saved in blogger. I'm going do a little housecleaning in my blogger account. Better late than never, yes?


This was a field trip we took last...late winter, early 2011? It was the first time I had taken the kids into the Pinnacle Mountain State Park Visitor's Center. It is not very large, but there is enough to look at and explore. And the people working inside that day were so, so nice and helpful. Pinnacle Mountain is one of the best places to go in central Arkansas to enjoy the beauty of our state.


Perhaps you saw the 19 Kids and Counting episode when they visited? I feel like I say that a lot about places we go. We're obviously going to visit a lot of the same places since we and the Duggars are both homeschoolers in Arkansas. And because we adore them. We didn't sample dried bugs, though, like some of them did on their visit.

It was chilly but really nice hiking weather. 

I don't usually take the kids hiking without Ryan because...I'm scared of the boogeyman, I guess. So this was a rare, fun outing for just the four of us.


Usually when we visit Pinnacle Mountain, we park on the other side of the mountain where the playground and other trails are located. This was a new trail for us to explore.

Guess what animal he is imitating?

If you guessed sloth above, then you are correct! This outing took place when I was still a mother to only three. We had reached the end of the trail with the Arkansas River overlook.


So...we had gotten a bit of a late start. We were hoping we'd make the mile loop before it got dark. I was a little panicked because it was getting pretty dark on the trail, and I only had my flashlight app on my phone to guide us.


However, we reached the car just as it got completely black out. Celebrations ensued!




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Check out my giveaway for girls'  handmade dresses (3T-5T) made in Africa!

Handmade Dresses Giveaway!

I was really excited when one of my hometown best friends told me about a sewing initiative that she is working on. It is called Gingham Trundle, and it is helping to provide jobs for women in Africa.

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Taken from Gingham Trundle's website:

Who we are: We started as a mother and daughter making clothes together. When a good friend (www.leastofthese.net) of the daughter donated sewing machines to a sewing collective in Africa, we all got an idea. Now, we bring Gingham Trundle to you. 

Fair trade: We employ fair trade principles in all of our purchasing. We pay above-market wages agreed upon by the women; we give no time frames (so no undue pressure); we put a portion of our profits back into the community through healthcare and economic programs; and we ensure safe working conditions and no child labor. We are too small to afford the free trade certification process, but we are working toward that goal.

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I am offering this giveaway to help spread the word about this project. Right now, they are seeking to improve the development process (creating products that are high enough quality to sell - and verifying fabric content, etc. so they can be sold in the U.S.), and as they do this, they are offering free dresses in the hopes of building customers and gaining feedback. There are imperfections in this round of dresses. The women are selling the dresses in their communities. The end goal is to create sustainable, long-term jobs for these women. Great, right?

My 5 year old daughter helped me out by modeling the dresses. They are sized anywhere from 3T-5T, but this will kind of show you that they will fit a range. (I mean, my daughter still has 2T dresses in her closet that she wears as shirts. It's really hard for me - and her - to part with them, if you know what I mean.)

I wanted to show you the cute pocket on the back.

Tiny Flowers

I believe this one is sized 4T. There are some faded spots on the material, but it fits very cute. (Read more about this and the dresses in general here.) My daughter has one like this that she is going to wear as a shirt. I think any girl from age 2 to a small 6 would fit.

Red, Red

The equivalent of a "little black dress," this one would go with so much and could be dressy or casual. I love it.

Grandma's Quilt

This one is sized 4T. It's very sweet. I would say it's a true 4T size, as she could wear it - but it's starting to get a little snug under the arms. I love the short-sleeved dress designs.

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I will pick a winner for the 4 dresses on November 4, at 9 pm. Please just leave a comment telling me which dress you like the best. If you do not have a blog, comment as "Anonymous." Just make sure you leave an email address or way that I can get a hold of you. 

If you would please share a link to this giveaway, I'll give you 2 extra entries. (Feel free to leave it all in one comment, however, to make it easier for you.) I am going to list this giveaway on my food blog and combine the entries.

Please check out Gingham Trundle's website to see more designs like this one above. Check out the reversible coats which are so cute and include a hidden doll in the pocket. You can request a FREE DRESS on their site, but you will just need to pay for shipping (flat rate $5.15).

Thanks for taking a look, and consider supporting Gingham Trundle in the future!

Math Box #1: Place Value

A bit of fun math lately:

 

We read this book, and they also listened to the audiobook version a few times. They enjoy it and get great pleasure from reciting facts such as how long it would take to count to a billion, etc.

I got this game from a Creative Teaching Press literature math book (but you could make something similar). My kids LOVED this game. (Well, they loved it after they learned to get past the losing aspect. Such sore losers they can be. It IS a little stressful as you draw cards, like when you're waiting with one spot left before yelling, "Bingo!")

You put the number cards face down and take turns drawing one and choosing where you want it to go on your game card. If you draw a 9, for example, of course you want to put it in the millions spot. If it's an 7 or 8, you have to take a risk, not knowing whether you or your opponent will ever draw a 9.

Whoever has the highest number at the end of the game, wins. Each has to say their number, which they still can't quite do on their own. But this game definitely helped them with that and helped them have an overall better understanding of place value.

They also were thrilled with this Marshmallow Math activity. Well, mostly they were just thrilled that they were going to be eating marshmallows. (Since we don't eat gelatin marshmallows, they are a special treat around here. We used this kind.)

I used this printable and idea from Babbling Abby.  I did it a little different. Instead of calling out a number, I just told them to put pieces of O's cereal on each toothpick (or on only 1 or 2 toothpicks, and you could obviously change this up for different age groups).

They replicated what they had done with their drawing. Then, they wrote the number in the box. Eat the cereal off the toothpick. Repeat. Toward the end

Dash got a little extra practice with counting/numeral recognition with Sissy's astronaut-rocket match from our Astronaut Unit.

printed from Sparkle Box