COLORS!

We tie-dyed today! I love to do this, it is so much fun! I did 6 shirts for Titus, 1 shirt for Brie, and 1 shirt for Zeke! Then I did a whole bunch of diapers which are for Titus!
This is the second time I've done this and each time I start the kids have to have a "paint shirt" too. Today they got to help me!

I had a good time, hope you enjoy the pictures! Don't mind the mess in the back ground, I promise it doesn't always look this bad!

Lentil

The book we are reading this week for school is Lentil! It's a great book about a small town boy who can't sing or whistle. He saves up his money and buys a harmonica. He practices and practices til he can play. I decided that learning to play a song on the harmonica could be one of our fun projects to do, well let's just say that so far it has not been that fun! After working for about an hour she has decided it's too hard, but I've been trying to encourage her to keep working on it. This was how we started our school this morning, so after reading the story I pointed out that Lentil practiced whenever and wherever he could. I'm not sure if it will help or not, but I hope when we are done with our book she will be able to play a song. I should mention that the song she's trying to learn is Popeye the Sailor Man! Her choice, not mine!

School

I homeschool, and for the most part I love it! I have days when I wonder why I'm doing it, what I'm thinking, and of course am I ruining my kids? I do think it's the right choice for our family at this point in time though. We officially have 1 week under our belts. I thought it felt great until Brie informed me today she didn't like school! She had been begging me for weeks to start school back up. I said to her you're the one who wanted to start back up so bad, she said I want to do last year's school. I guess I have to get on the ball and work harder. Last year we did My Fathers World, it's a unit study curriculum. It had crafts, things she got to read, some writing, and we learned about a new subject every week. This year for our main core we are using Five in a Row. We read a story every day for a week, after we read we talk about different elements of the story. It does have some crafts, but not many. I'm going to have to come up with something! The girl reads very well, and enjoys doing so. So maybe having her read some read alouds would help. For math we are using Right Start. So far it has been review, I think as it gets going she will enjoy it. For phonics we are using Spell to Write and Read. I haven't gotten that started yet! I hope to start it very soon! Zeke listens to some of what we do, but other than the math he isn't very interested.

Cartwheel!

I love to do cartwheels! It's such a rush to be upside down, there is that split second where your whole body is suspended in the air. Nothing keeping you from crashing down except gravity! Zeke always says that he can do "real cartwheels", last night I said I can do cartwheels too. Brie and Zeke both thought I was making it up so I took them outside and showed them that I in fact could still do a cartwheel.( a pretty darn good one if I don't mind saying so) When we were working on the salsa Brie came running upstairs and told me she could do a cartwheel, and asked me to come watch her do one, I of course went down and watched in anticipation. I'll be honest I didn't expect her to be able to do one, since she had been working on them for a while and she had a ways to go. I was shocked at what I saw, now it's not perfect but I think it is great, I'm so proud of her! And Zeke... well he is 3, after all!

More cousin pictures!

Jeff was nice enough to share some pictures with me! I think they turned out great! It looks like a lot of fun to me!

Cousin Fun!

Mark's cousin Jeff, his wife Carolyn and their sons Evan and Seth were in town this weekend. It was so nice to see them, I really enjoyed our visit, I wish it could have been longer though! It felt good to catch up with them a little bit and hear what's going on with them! It was amazing to see how well the kids got along! Brie had met Even and Seth 2 years back and they picked up where they had left off. I'm not sure if they remembered each other or not, but they got along great!

Construction is coming along!

This is my In-laws house! It's just around the corner, I'm really excited that they will be so close. Right now they are 3.5 hours away, so being 5 minutes away will be great! It will also be nice for all the grandkids to be able to spend more time with them! I can't wait!

Tomatoes

We have canned a few weeks in a row now! It feels so good to have produce put up, but it is so much work. My mom, grandma, and sister have been helping, that makes it go so much faster. We ended up getting 43 Quart of juice out of 2 bushel of tomatoes. We also got 19 Quart out of 1 bushel of peaches. The next week we made salsa, and we got 17 pints and 24 jelly jars, and 13 pints of diced tomatoes! Mark and I put up 5 pint of pickles, 14 quarts of green beans(so far) and with a little help from brie and my mom 13 quart of corn. My mother-in-law and I will still be doing applesauce. I think we are ready for a bad winter, which means we won't have one! Stiil it feels good to be stocked up!

How many Quarts?

Sunday after church I was trying to figure out how many quarts of tomatoes I could get out of a bushel. I yelled for Mark and told him I needed his brain. Zeke was standing there watching me and I said to him maybe you can tell me, he said yeah. So I said ok, if a bushel weighs 50 pounds and it takes 3.25 pounds to make 1 quart of juice, and how many quarts can I get out of a bushel? He thought for a few seconds and then said 16. Well I scrolled down the page and it said 15-18 quart so he guessed right! We thought this was so funny! Zeke is 3 and VERY smart but I don't think he is that smart!

Deer Forest

I grew up hearing Deer Forest commercials on T.V. always wanting to go there. When I heard we were going there on vacation I was so excited! Who wouldn't want to (as their theme song goes) "Feed a deer, ride a pony, feed a deer, ride the train, feed the deer, grab a hot dog, feed the deer, ride again, feed a llama, ride a camel, talk to folks from nursery rhymes, feed the deer ride and picnic, feed the deer, a day of fun"! I was born in '80, and the park probably looked the same then as now! You could tell that everything was fairly outdated, but it was still so much fun. They have a ferris wheel, small roller coaster, and then helicopter, bugs, horses, boats which go in circles. I made Zeke go on the helicopter ride with me and Shad. After Zeke went on the helicopter he went on several more. Brie did great! I think it helped her to have all her cousins there with her! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more me or the kids!

Here are all the cousins except Titus.

Swimming Lessons

Our summer seemed so busy that it felt like we didn't even have a summer. Brie was able to take swimming lessons. A lady in our subdivsion let us use her pool, and someone found an instructor. Zeke could've but decided that it looked to scary! Brie did a great job, you could tell she was nervous, but she still did a great job! We went on vacation right after lessons and we were able to practice more. I think that helped a lot, I'm sure with a little more practice she will be swimming!