First Week Back

B, L, and cousin E at Dutch Village May 2009

So our first week of school is going fairly well. Getting back on schedule is never easy and throw in a birthday party, Dr.'s appointments, and a sick husband it is darn near impossible. But I am very happy that we have done it! I am very proud of us especially since we've been on "sick schedule". Whenever we have any sickness go through our house, which isn't very often, everyone gets to sleep in and we don't have a set time of getting up. It's amazing what that extra sleep can do for your immune system. It normally keeps it contained to just one person and so far J has been the only one sick. The rest of us have been a little run down but that's it. Praying that is how it stays!

I feel so blessed that I can homeschool my children. L is loving Kindergarten and it is going fairly smoothly. She is my child who gets in there and gets it done so she can then do something fun. Then there is B. B is my thinker and daydreamer. It usually takes him awhile to get his work done because he's always thinking about something. It's usually some deep spiritual question that I have to research the answer for. I love B's deep thinking but at times it wears on my patience. I think I say, "Just DO IT!" about a hundred times a day. It's so funny that I have the two most opposite children possible living in my house. B is very in tune with Spiritual matters while L isn't and I worry on a daily basis if she's getting "it". L is such a "never give up" person while B sometimes needs some extra coaxing to get him to try anything he didn't get the first time. B also has a hard time with the fact that 3rd grade work is just going to take longer than Kindergarten work.

Then there is little H. H is the cutest thing ever. She wants to do everything the big kids do which has been a challenge since they don't make school books for 17 month olds. I've taken the best pictures of her this last week and I can't wait to post them. I am trying to gather ideas for things she can do while the older ones are doing school. I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks she will fall into our school schedule a little better. I thought she would just have fun playing with toys but she wants to be sitting with us doing something. I have a feeling that kid will be reading by age 3. More homeschooling posts and pics. to come. I now have to go try to get some cleaning done. That is one thing that always falls behind once school starts back up. And throw in the fact I was behind on cleaning when school started......yeah, not a good thing.

Responsibility Should be Taught Young

I truly believe that responsibility should be taught young. Over the summer things have been way too relaxed but that's about to change back with the new school year. One more week of summer schedule and then it's back to school schedule. I'm really excited and dreading it all at the same time. We already have a TON of fun things planned for the first months of school so I know this is going to be a great year. So H is no exception to the responsibility rule. Here she is getting ready to take Mosheh for a walk.

Can you tell that H is not Mosheh's favorite person in the house? I'm not sure why. Don't dogs like being poked, pulled, and climbed on?

Adventurous Beach Day 2009

So it has become a new tradition to have at least one adventurous Beach Day. We have Family Beach Night every Tuesday and it normally is made up of laying out, relaxing, kids swimming, and piles of sand in the van afterwards. But on Adventure Beach Day there isn't much resting going on. We hadn't planned on going on an adventure but just like it happened last year it was chosen for us. I guess a planned adventure isn't as much fun anyway. Last year we had promised the kids a trip down the creek to find the clay and all the way there B was asking to do it. Once we got there and saw it was a red flag day and the waves were crazy I had no choice.

J wanted to do it as much as B did.

This looks like a great big brother helping his little sister when in reality it was a fearless little sister helping her big brother who was unsure about walking through the stream that you couldn't see the bottom of. Mommy wasn't all that thrilled about this part either. It's shallow here but it got up to B's waist.

H wasn't quite sure why we were MAKING ourselves dirty on purpose.

The fierce O females.

OK I said fierce. That looks more like sweet and angelic.

Much better!!!

There is that fierce H look.

OK I have no idea what kind of look this is.

B wanted Star Wars written on his back.

I would like to point out that J was the one who was all about Adventure Beach Day but did he decorate himself in clay? I'm not sure if I would call the quarter size circle on his arm decorated.

After we made it back to the beach we let the kids run away from the waves. They were huge! I think we may start doing more Adventure Beach Days. They are always our favorites.

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

The kids and I went on a field trip to see the Nina and the Pinta with some Co-op friends. We had read books about Columbus and his ships the day before and the kids were excited to see them up close.

Here L is contemplating on what it must have been like to live on these ships for so many months.......or maybe she's just tired.

It was a great time and I always love to see that my children love to learn about new things. Our group was complimented on how well our kids payed attention. The tour guide said he had never seen kids their age so interested and attentive for the whole tour. It's all about instilling a curiosity to learn!

Water, Water Everywhere and isn't it Amazing!

On Monday I decided to take the kids to a splashpad since it was finally hot out. Yes I know it is the middle of August and please don't remind me. B decided which one but when we arrived geese had decided to use the splashpad as their own personal restroom. Yuck! So we piled back in the van and set out for another one. The water wasn't running so I had B jump out and see if it would turn on. Nada. We were then told that it wouldn't come on until noon. I really didn't want to wait around for an hour so we headed home to inflate all the water toys instead.

B was in charge of the hose.

We have two rules about the sandbox and here the girls are breaking both of them.

#1: Keep the sand in the sandbox.

#2: DON'T THROW SAND!!!

The kids had a lot of fun using the pool slide.

H enjoyed her private pool with .5" in it. It was basically a playpen with a cupful of water in it. But she felt like a big kid which keeps her occupied.

Then it was a picnic lunch. H wanted so bad to sit with the big kids and she was using every muscle to be able to sit and eat without falling backwards. The older two played in the pools for 8 hours! Definitely worth the time of blowing them up!

Now the day was pretty much perfect but is it not amazing how fast things can go from perfect to chaos when dealing with kids!!!

While the kids played in the pools I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give the dog a bath. Mosheh isn't real fond of baths but like with everything else he's not fond of (a.k.a a baby who loves to pull his tail, ears, feet, etc) he tolerates it and then sulks for the next few hours. So things were going great until I asked L to give me the hose back so I could rinse the soap off the dog. H accidentally got sprayed in the face which led to instant screaming. As I reached for her Mosheh saw this as his perfect opportunity to get away and shake. So there I was covered in doggie soap suds trying to console H while using all my strength to get Mosheh back within hose shot distance. Our perfect moment turned into a three ring circus in about 30 seconds. I'm sure our neighbor was laughing uncontrollably. But then 15 minutes later I had one clean dog sulking on the deck and three kids happily eating their lunch. Ahhh the perfect moment returned.......until H decided she wanted B's food and not her own.