Week of the Cousins

The kids had been counting down the days until the cousins were to come and stay with us for a whole week.
Our house was a tad louder than usual.
Dinner time was a tad crazier and messier than normal.

But more fun was had than usual!!!!
Preschool science experiments took over the kitchen.
Does it sink or does it float?
Trying to make a run for it. It rained every day so the kids were wanting to go play outside soooo bad.
Much coloring happened. Cuddlebug loved having some other kids join in her school activities.

The Wanderer.

Everyone had a great time and we can't wait to have them come back for the holidays!

Preschool Training

"Mommy, can I help?" is heard in my kitchen pretty much every day. It is always followed by, "Can you please get my stool?". Cuddlebug absolutely loves to help in the kitchen. I've learned after many years of homeschooling that the kitchen is the best classroom for this age. Yes it gets messy at times. There have been many eggs dropped on the floor, much flour thrown around, and many spills but in the end it's always worth it. Cuddlebug's favorite is to make cookies. This kid is just like her daddy and LOVES to eat the cookie dough left in the mixing bowl. She has asked many times to make cookie dough and not bake it just so she could have some dough. All the other kids enjoy eating the dough as well and we now have a "rotation" of who gets to lick the beaters and who has to settle for a spoonful. It's a unanimous vote in our house that it always tastes better straight off a beater.

Here Cuddlebug is watching the rhubarb cobbler bake. Another favorite in our house. Everyone loves it....except for me. Those are my favorite desserts to make because I know that I won't have to spend extra time on the elliptical afterward!

Everyone Has a Job

So in our house everyone has to pitch in. After our Canada unit study we decided to make Nanaimo bars. Cuddlebug got the job of smashing the graham crackers. This literally kept her occupied for 30 minutes!

Goals: January Update

So it's been one month since I laid out my old/new goals and to keep accountable I'm reporting on my progress. I am overall happy with how I did in the month of January. I didn't focus on all ten this month so some I was more successful at than others.

1. Make teaching my kids first priority.....everyday. We did excellent at getting ALL of our schoolwork done this month. We are in a good schedule now of morning school and afternoon school. We passed the 100 day mark which is always a great feeling!!!
2. Focus on having fun. Some of the fun things we did this month were making a volcano, making a 3D drawing, and doing some fun chemistry experiments. When Prince Charming was away on business we also had late movie nights, banana splits, and s'mores. We have had to postpone a museum trip with friends a few times because of weather but I'm hoping to accomplish this in the near future.
3. Bible Study. I did fairly well with this one but there is no excuse why I can't be doing the study like I want every day. I will definitely work harder towards this goal in February.
4. Reading. I read one book in January!!!! Now granted I finished at 11:58pm on January 31 but I did it. It kind of felt like cramming for a test. I read "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family". It was a great book and I took away a few new ideas. Now I technically don't consider our family an all out large family.....yet. But I do like reading books written by homeschooling moms with multiple children for the mere fact that they have many different age levels. This is where the challenge comes in for me. If I had all my kids working on the same curriculum things would be easy! But juggling two elementary students, one active toddler, and nursing a baby in the middle of it all.....that's my challenge.
5. Craft Day. I did not accomplish this goal.
6. Hospitality. We did have some friends from co-op come over for a sledding date. This months weather was so awful that I didn't want to make people get out of their houses! I did do a fairly good job at keeping the house at that "1 hour" rule though.
7. Exercise. O.K. but needs improvement. I think I exercised about twice a week and my goal is four times.
8. Start new ministry. Still more to come on this later.
9. Date nights. We went out once this month. Again, the weather kind of kept us in.
10. Blogging. While my January blogging was light I feel like I caught up quickly and actually am on top of things. That's a HUGE improvement!

So all in all I considered it a pretty successful month as far as goals are concerned.

Singing their Hearts Out

B and L did fantastic again in their choir concert with the SB Children's Choir. Despite the awful roads to get there the night was wonderful. Daddy made sure he ran out to get L her rose for after the show even in the snowy weather.
H sat quietly for the entire concert. Ahhh...that training in sitting still is paying off!
S was also wonderful and cuddled mommy in her soft blanket while listening to the glorious music.

Toddler Friendship

Best of Friends
Playing house together so nicely.
But at snack time we need to set up our separate corners and guard our cheerios like they're our last meal.

Playmate

So a couple of weeks ago when cute little O came to spend some days with us it was clear that all H needs is a playmate. School went so smooth those couple of days since H was distracted and not constantly trying to steal the kids books away so she could have a turn. The schoolroom was officially moved this weekend and things are now going much better. More on that along with pics. later.

H and O playing so nicely together.

The one day when we went on that insane field trip I had many people thinking they were twins. I could not understand this since they are 8 months apart, have different color hair, eyes, etc.. When I took this pic though I could see why people might think that. They are close in size! H still has an inch on her though.

However, when H decided she was going to pick on one of the older ones and steal their books she now had her own little sidekick.