Swim Lessons 2010….

Always the highlight of our summer! Fun!

Spring Blossom is officially a swimmer!! HOORAY!!! Her teacher was awesome!

Spring Blossom does school in her swim suit…sure…why not?! :D

One of the many blessings of homeschooling is that we can ‘go’ to school is WHATEVER we want! Sometimes we are in jammies, sometimes swimsuits complete with goggles, sometimes Halloween costumes, and even winter sprout has on occasion decided that his underpants were enough. Boys….lol…

But whatever we wear, we are together and this is the blessing in the Journey…

Spring Blossom learning to count by 5′s.

Spring Blossom doing her phonics. Silly Girl!

Clogging Exhibition :)

Summer Rose is getting better and better.

Even sister and brother got to join in on a little dancing! They can not wait until they are old enough to join!

VBS Fun!

This was our second year participating in VBS with this great church! They have theirs at night which fits better with our busy schedule and hot days.

They use the Answers in Genesis programs and the kids learn so much! This year was “The Egypt File”. )

I think our projects were a hoot. From A LOT of brown sugar as sand to red food coloring mixed with corn syrup for blood (the Biblical plagues of Egypt), we had a very MESSY kitchen!

I have not downloaded the images of Summer Rose’s “Plagues of Egypt” project, but you can imagine a giant book with lots of red sticky corn syrup.

Operation Snowball – Part 5 – The Floors

The past couple months we spent pulling up the entire house worth of carpet. Whew…. I ended up developing Asthmatic Bronchitis during the process, which really knocked me down. I still have some lingering effects of it.

As a replacement flooring, we decided to paint/seal the concrete. This was a multi step process which included some hefty chemicals (Paint Stripper, Acid Etcher, Primer, Paint 2x coats, and 3x coats of Sealer) and quite a bit of time. Honestly, the hardest part was moving ALL the furniture to the garage. It was not hard to do and the cost was only a fraction of what it would be to get any other type of flooring put in. We are very grateful to have the carpet outta here.

With all of us asthmatic, it needed to be done.

And the results are just WONDERFUL!!!!

The pile of carpet is currently out on the front lawn waiting for ‘Bulk Pickup’. It is about 6ft tall. That is a lot of carpet! I am so glad to be done!!!!!!!!

Operation Snowball – Part 4 (Closets – Almost Complete)

All of our school supplies and toys needed a new home. This was a tough task.

The new classroom has a good sized closet, but it needed to be organized carefully to fit everything. I may have to tweak a few things, but it is all in there!

The art supplies:

The science supplies:

The other school supplies are there, too. Just in various spots in the closet.

However, there was no room for toys, so they were put in the linen closet. The linens will be disbursed into other areas (i.e.- under bathroom counters, in the master closet, etc). The toys are a bit hard to get to, but they are easy to see (which was a problem previously). We ‘took out’ many of the larger toys to the yard for outside play. This is my secret plan of getting rid of those toys, but the kids don’t know that. But for the ones we will end up keeping, I need to figure out the best way to store toys outside. But that is ‘Part 6 of Operation Snowball’.

(Don’t mind the 2yr old Thanksgiving poster on the door! :blush:)

And lastly, the new game storage. We were blessed with a lot of games from my inlaw’s former private school. However, they did not give us space to store them. So, we came up with a much more condensed system. These 1gal sized bags fit the individual game’s pieces and the boards are simply stacked on a shelf. The bags are stored in drawers in a file cabinet.

We still have the master closet and the 2nd upper half of the kids new bedroom closet to tackle, but we are on our way!

Operation Snowball (Part 3 – The Schoolroom!)

WHEW! After giving my all to pull this together (after being sick with some stomach bug), we were able to complete the transformation before the new school week! Woot!

We have a schoolroom for the first time in our ~7yrs of homeschooling! I have more odds and ends to finish, but you can get the idea.

Just as a note, I do not see the need of a schoolroom for the benefit of having a structured setting, but rather a place to spread out and make a mess w/o that spilling over into dinner. So, I am very excited at the new possibilities that have opened up! Hooray!!

Before: A cute good sized bedroom.

After: A schoolroom! A place to live, love, and learn and still have room to eat dinner.

Operation Snowball (Part 2 – Kid’s room)

This project has earned a name! What was supposed to be a simple running of wires via the attic across the house, has turned into a crazy moving around of spaces.

Well,

*Part 1* has been done for a few weeks. This was running the wires.

*Part 2* is now complete. The tiny 3rd bedroom was changed from ‘toy room’ to the ‘kid’s bedroom’. It is very small, and I hope they do well in there. They are very excited to be in there. We do have yet to move the clothes into that room, but the main stuff is done.

Here are some pics:

Before: It was a very cute space. but only on its best day, right after I cleaned it and set it up. However, dc could not keep the place clean. We went on for a year with daily arguments. Time for a change.

After: Now, they sleep here. In what they call the ‘pretty room’. Ds likes it too, even though it is a bit more girly than his tastes.

Next in the plan is turning their old bedroom (larger than their new one), into the new ‘toy room/classroom’. This also means we’ll be moving the ‘classroom’ from the kitchen table. Another good move.

A Bunny….

In short, we are crazy.

But I’ll save the story and just share that our sweet Spring Blossom got a bunny for her birthday! She is a sweet little thing and is super cuddly. Spring Blossom named her Daisy.

Our other pets are cool with it.

Mac doesn’t care as long as he gets fed.

The pup does not mind as long as he does not have to give her rides.

And of course the rats don’t mind as long as they get their daily treats and training sessions with Summer Rose.

(Dora running the maze Summer Rose made for the Science Fair)

(Smile! Say Cheese!)

The fish had no comment.

We are having fun learning more about our new bunny girl. We consider her our eco-friendly lawn mower. LOL. Although, we do primarily keep her indoors, she has a nice and safe run outside to get some exercise.

Our 2010 Countdown! Clock Bags!

I got this idea from some of the gals over on the FIAR boards. It is so much fun!

This year we had a bag for every hour from noon to midnight. Every bag had a riddle stapled to it and the children had to figure out what the activity was. They had a blast, and the day flew by! I would definitely love to do this again next New Year’s Eve.

These were my cheesy riddles (I made them up all by myself! Very last minute! *And it appears Word has issues copying and pasting, sorry for any weird spacing, it is not visible on my editing screen*) :

It is noon and only 12 hours to go!

Then it will be 2010 you know!

I am sure we are not home, because we have an appointment you see,

but when we get home it will be fun and you’ll be filled with glee!

Until then, enjoy thinking of the things to come!

When we play fun things and fill our tummies with somethings yum!

However, while you wait, enjoy some funnies to put your mind at ease,

of the orange cat who who is always sure to please!

Answer: New Garfield comics!

Wow! An hour gone by and how fast it went!

It is now 1pm and time’s well spent!

Can we forget what this day is? I do not think so.

But just in case, lets make something with little round things on a string before we go!

Answer: Make New Year’s beaded bracelets

It is 2 o’clock already? The day is more than half done!

I think we should do something that will sweetly fill the house,

and reminds us of a book about a quirky little mouse!

If you can not remember, let me help you think,

This little guy loves one with a cup of milk to drink!

Answer: Bake cookies!

It is now 3 o’clock and we are all sure busy!

I think it is time for drawing that is not done by you or me,

but perhaps by something like the t.v.!

This game we have not tried, but I am sure it is great,

because when mommy and daddy were kids we had to finish drawing before it was too late!

Answer: Play Disney Pictionary!

4 o’clock and time is sure chugging along!

Let’s not doze off in a dream!

How about Wii try something a little more Extreme?!

A little climbing and biking, a little surfing and jumping,

I am sure this fun game will get our blood pumping!

Answer: Play Extreme Challenge

Now we are really feelin’ alive! And my goodness it is already 5!

A new year ahead and so much to think about,

I am sure we’ve so much things to figure out!

What’s on your mind?

Any dreams in your heart?

Think about it, now is the time to start!

Anything in this coming new year you’d like to do?

Let’s write a little something to read when 2010 is thru.

Answer: Write a letter of goals, ideas, dreams, and other things on our mind for the coming new year!

The time is now 6 o’clock and I am thinking our

tummies are rumbling for some tomato basil soup and french bread to devour.

Answer: Eat dinner )

Whew! 7 already?! My, time is surely passing fast!

I am thinking it is time for a game where you must not finish last!

Whether by car, bike, or skates, you’ll want to be going fast!

Answer: Play The Great Race

8pm and isn’t it great! We are getting there and it is not quite that late!

I am thinking we should sit back and enjoy a movie of course!

It is based on a book we are loving, because he is a monster of sorts,

but you must always remember our friend Crusoe is no ordinary horse!

Answer: Watch the Water Horse

9 o’clock and I don’t think we have quite finished the plot!

How about a treat that is not very hot.

It is a little frozen that we’ve always seem to got,

Vanilla in a glass, topped with something that bubbles a lot!

Answer: Have root beer floats!

10pm and I am thinking we’re getting a bit sleepy.

How about we play a mystery game that is not all that creepy!

Was it the dog who took the ball? Or the fish who took the bear?

Let’s find the who and the what, we already know the where!

Answer: Play Clue Jr.

11 o’clock and only an hour to go!

What are we gonna do next, I bet you’d like to know!

It is time to just let the rhythm flow!

Get that bass, get that guitar,

bring out the drums, and now we are real rockstars!

Famous Five are who we are

only made of Lego and we are stars!

Answer: Play Lego Rock Band

Midnight and you see,

We all made it to 2010, YIPEE!!

Lets make some noise no longer inside but out,

and ring in the new year with some poppers and shouts!

Happy 2010 Everyone! May it be a year full of His grace and blessings!