Spring Dance Pictures

I finally got around to organizing the photos on my computer and getting them through the editing process for several months back, backed up, and put into jpegs. These are ones that I made into scrapbook layouts using Studio J from Close to My Heart. Enjoy!

School Hike

For our adventure field trip last week we went on a hike in the mountains. We were trying to experience nature- it's sights, sounds, smells, and feel. We were also testing to see if it was a good place to just think. We brought along our notebooks and had fun exploring and learning together.

First two sentences

Lilly has been exploding in speech lately. In the last couple of weeks she's finally spoken her first sentences.

The first- "help me"- because of some pants that were falling off and she didn't like that.

The second- "me cookie"- because of some chocolate chip cookies that she would run around the house asking for.

I love to finally hear her voice. I think part of the reason she is getting her words is because she dislikes being forced to sign them. Talking is more important any way so I'm not complaining.

First Field Trip: Brigham City Temple Open House

For our first field trip of the year we went to the Brigham City Temple open house. My sisters were in town so we all headed up there together bright and early.

We couldn't take pictures in the temple, but we had fun taking pictures when we got out. Unlike last time when the boys favorite room was the elevator, this year I got a more thoughtful response. The boys liked the baptismal font and Katie liked the Celestial Room or the room with the big sparkly lamp as she called it.

 Afterwards we stopped at temple square on the way home and explored the church history museum. Currently they have a special exhibit on the Book of Mormon and Latin American countries. We all got to put on some Latin American skirts and follow the dancer on a tv screen to learn a couple of dances. It was very fun, even Lilly got into it.

 On the way back to the parking garage from temple square we went through the new gateway mall and played in the fountains. Katie declared herself the water queen and was doing dances in the water that were so cute and fun. She told me later that she was imagining herself dancing surrounded by glitter.

My little sis and nephew :)

What a fun day for everyone!

School opening day- Children of a king adventure

After spending the week doing all the last minute shopping, putting binders together, writing, cooking, and printing we finally made it to our first day of school!

This year we are doing an EPIC adventure that I wrote over the summer using the writing course they have on their website. I'm really excited about it, and that has been getting my children excited as they've seen the preparations being made for the year. The first secret revealed was that we were not going to have school in the school room until Monday (they were very disappointed about that since they haven't seen the school room yet). Instead, our adventure started with a door.

 The children woke up to this door and had to be patient and wait until after breakfast to find out what was on the other side of it.

 When it was time to start school, they ran outside to "Narnia" and saw two tents set up. We started school in the first tent where we gave them the key information for our first topic and revealed to them that they were prince and princesses on a journey this year to become kings and queens.

 The reason Katie is not smiling is not because she is upset, but rather she fell on her bike the night before and hurt her cheek really bad (it was a long night in the ER to get steri strips and leave). Smiling would make it bleed again so she was being careful.

 The children then made treasure boxes to collect "treasure" from their teaching this year. They made crowns where they can collect "character" jewels for each topic we learn about. They could color pictures and make a clay door or star to remember today for their journals.

 We finished the day with "Horse" races. Even Lilly participated. It was silly and fun.

Now the adventure is set up for the year and today we are going to delve into our projects and subjects and other fun. The kids are psyched!

Sewing Day

I like to sew in batches. I get a big amount of projects together and take a day and sew like crazy to get them all done. If a project takes longer then a day then it needs to be really important to get done and take no more then a week or I'll lose interest. Yesterday was sewing day so I think I'll be good for the next 4 months. I sewed a costume for each member of the family- 2 biblical style dresses and 3 biblical style coats for the boys and jammie pants for each boy. That's a total of 7 projects. Phew...

Back to School- homeschool style

Back to school shopping is pretty typical for a homeschooler along with a few fun twists. For example, this year the following typical supplies appeared on our list:

binders
crayons
colored pencils
pencils
glue
paper
notebooks
rulers, etc

but we also had:

balloons
jewels
treasure boxes
crowns
plastic circles
star cutouts
candles
footstep cutouts, etc

We are going to have so much fun learning this year! I also promise that all of these things are for worthy academic causes believe it or not.

Busy...

It's been a while since I've last posted. Mainly because I've been BUSY!!! Some of the highlights:

We bought and moved into a house at last. We love it and can't imagine going back to renting anytime soon.

We've had some fun summer activities with family. Fireworks, BBQ, and swimming at the lake among other things.

Mainly the reason I've been kept busy is getting ready for the next school year. I decided, after much thought, to write my curriculum this year. For anyone who may think that is overwhelming I should add that I had help. I invested in a curriculum writing program first that broke everything down into baby steps. I have to say that I am psyched for this school year! I know what we are doing, the writing is done, and the final detail steps are coming together so we should be ready to start next Saturday. That's right, Saturday- but it will be fun. More to come...

Exploding Penny Experiment

This week we learned how to think like a scientist. Katie took the lesson to heart more then her brothers and today decided to create an experiment and see how it would work out.

Aim: To try and make a penny explode (you'll see why I let her try as you read on)

Method: To mix a variety of items found around the kitchen with her penny and see if it will do the trick.

Materials: 1/4 c water, pinch of salt, tablespoon of flour, tablespoon of all purpose flour, tablespoon of salt, and a 1 teaspoon of wheat flour and 1 penny (because that's all she could find at the moment).

Results: Very watery and dirty flour that she says is turning cool colors because of her brilliant ingredients and mom says because the penny is dirty so don't eat.

I suppose she could bake it and put a new spin on the term "penny loaf". It decidedly did not explode (good news for mom, bad news for Katie). She says its because she used the wrong ingredients and thinks that using bread flour over all purpose next time might yield better results.  Never fear little girl, you now know one way a penny will not explode and have a set of endless possibilities before you :)

Happy Valentine's Day

The children made these valentine's day cards to give to their family and friends this year. They picked out the picture and what to have it say, the color and font.
Happy Valentine's Day!!!

New Favorite Picture

Last weekend I went and took some fun photos of this sweet family that lives across the street from me. I think this is my new favorite photo. 

Delayed Fall Fun Pictures

I have been getting caught up on photo editing lately and found these photos and couldn't believe I hadn't put them up here. Then I kept looking through the month of October and found that most of what happened that month didn't get put up here- probably because I wanted to edit them first. Which I kept procrastinating until now. I am not sure how many I'll post this last, but these were just so pretty. These were taken up in Logan Canyon while we were visiting up there back in the Fall. I swear the Fall the colors there are the best and I am glad we were able to see them again this year. Enjoy!

Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak at our family pictures we took for the Christmas card this year. Only one of them made it. Most of you should be seeing your cards in the next week. It was freezing cold outside when we took these so we weren't able to get a lot. These two are my favorites. Enjoy!

Katie's 1st Ballet Recital

Here are some pictures I took from Katie's first dance recital. They danced to "Silent Night" for Christmas and were dressed as angels. She had a wonderful time and told me that she wants to dance forever. I'm so glad that she's find something she loves so much. I enjoy watching her learn and dance out of every class with twirls and skips and smiles. Enjoy!

Lilly's Birthday

I finally finished editing these at last! Here is Lilly at 12 months. We had so much fun on her birthday. We took her out to pizza and she got a new dress and a new doll. Lilly continues to learn new tricks. Her newest ones are climbing and she is getting really good at climbing onto the coach, chairs, and other furniture and figuring out how to get things. Her only words so far are "mama" and "yeah" but she has been getting more talkative lately so we'll see what tricks she comes up with next.