Making Forts

The kids have been making lots of forts lately.  I have been so amused by some of their designs.  I need to take more pictures--but I did manage to get these of Jake's fort the other day.

 We recently bunked the boys' beds.  We always used the beds as twin beds but they needed a little more space on the floor so we decided to bunk them.  They love them!  Jake is forever making cozy hideaways.  This was the latest.  They have a crib sized mattress that they keep under their bed and that is one of the 'walls' of his fort.

And for about 10 days, he had this hammock design going on.  He slept in it every night.  Don't ask me how he managed to get comfortable since it was way too small for him.

Ahhhh....the joys of childhood.  These kids crack me up!

Easter Egg Hunt

 Checking out their Easter baskets.  The little kids got buckets as 'baskets' this year.

Then it was outside for the egg hunt!  Most of them wanted to change clothes, so I'm thankful I was able to get a photo of my treasures before they changed into jeans and sweatshirts.  There was much drama this morning before church as we realized that one dress was too small, the two pairs of lacy socks I had purchased were missing, as were all the matching hair bows, and one purchased dress was not as appealing at home as it had been at the store.

Argh.

Oh...and several girls had shoes that weren't fitting either.

The boys were much easier to dress, that's for sure!

 Ready!  Set!  GO!!!!

 It was only around 60 degrees, but the kids think it's time to break out all their summer clothes.

 Checking the eggs!

 Deciding what to keep and what to trade...

 Everyone puts the loot in a baggie with their name on it so we can keep it all straight.

 "Any chance I'm getting any treats today?"

" P-u-leese?!"

"Yeah, didn't think so.  But while you were at church, I got into the teen's chocolate stash and ate a chocolate candy bar.  So....I'm thinkin' I'll be leaving you a little present when my body rejects it later on tonight."

He Is Risen!

 The Garden Tomb...believed to have been the place where Jesus briefly lay.

Inside of the tomb's door.

Our Redeemer Lives!!

Adventures in Home Schooling

What has been happening in our home schooling adventure?

Well...

Instead of finding this little guy asleep with toys in his bed, now I find books.

Our seeds have started growing.
And growing.
And now we have had to transplant them into bigger pots.
The teenager scoffs at our amatuerish attempts and gives advice (but no useful labor). 
For those of you who are experts, feel free to chime in with advice.

We know these need to be thinned but not exactly sure how much.

Last week, I scored a fabulous, $3.99 purchase at TJ Ma*x.
Ta-da!
Tiddledy Winks!
I thought the kids might get a kick out of them for 'recess' time. 
You were already judging me, weren't you?  Wondering how they had any educational value? 
Ha!
I guess you could say it improves hand-eye coordination.

I was not prepared for what a huge hit this game was!  They LOVED it! 
Who knew?
I kind of love it, too. 

Farmer in the Dell

No idea what Farmer in the Dell means...
And I won't do a commercial for Dell computers because I don't like any that I've ever bought.
But I couldn't think of a title.
So shoot me.
Hee!

The kids and I are hankering for spring in a big way.
What says spring better than seeing seed packets at the store?
Since we are homeschooling, we thought it would be fun to try to grow something.
The kids are extremely excited about it.
Let's see if they are this enthusiastic if/when our plants grow outside and the sun and mosquitoes make harvesting difficult.
That always cooled my excitement...to say the least.

Getting instructions on how to put their seeds into the dirt.

Let's hope these peas make it to our dinner table.

Love seeing little fingers poking seeds into soil.

Taking turns.

"Look at my fingers, Mom!"

Zoey was very intent on getting her seeds pushed to the correct depth.

Jake had some trouble with the whole concept of waiting his turn and everyone was mad at him by this point.

The kids were very excited today to see that there are already a few green shoots coming up!  I have a feeling we planted them a bit too early.
Oops.
Amatuers.

Birthday Boy

Jordan had a birthday this week.
He was so excited to have a special day and get some presents.
He chose the same dinner that he chooses every year...spaghetti and meatballs.

Jillian made him a cake.
Jordan has said for about a year that he hopes to be a pastor/doctor/missionary when he grows up.
Jillian decided to make a cake to reflect that, so she included a Bible, and some medical equipment on his cake.  So cute!

Such a handsome boy!

Jordan "sandwich"

 SaraGrace is currently on a photography kick and has been documenting everyone's activities this week.  (Mostly her own...ha)

A double barreled Nerf blaster.  Su-weeet!

"I wonder if I am going to get anything."

"It's not looking very promising."

"Meh.  I don't understand all the hoopla about a few crummy pieces of plastic.  There wasn't a bone in sight."

It's Puzzling...

We have a recent obsession.
Puzzles.

It all started with our last snowstorm.  You know...the one where we got 22 inches of snow.
We knew we would be snowed in for days.
Right?
Wrong.  The stinkin' snow plow guys worked overtime and got us out in 24 hours.
But we had dug out our puzzles and started putting one together.

And then another.
And another.

I must confess that they were only 300 piece puzzles.
But we were ninja at them.
And we had so much fun together.

So I got the brilliant idea to try a 1000 piece.
After all...we were knocking out our 300 piece puzzles in two hours or so.
How bad could 1000 pieces be?

Bad.
Really bad.
Especially when you get them out of the closet thinking they have all the pieces.
I should know better.

After several maddening hours of trying to find a piece that wasn't there, we did eventually get our puzzle together.  It was missing 9....count them, NINE, pieces.
Argh.

So we went to Target to buy a new 1000 piece.
Because we were not going to be beaten by a crummy puzzle.
Jillian chose one and I chose another.
I am more experienced than she is, so I chose one that had lots of detail because they are far easier to put together.
She chose a beautiful one that had a gazillion shades of the same color.

When we got home, she wanted to do hers first.
I started putting all the pieces out on the table and quickly became overwhelmed at the dizzying display of multiple shades of lavender.
I starting complaining.
And maybe did a bit of whining.
She got the hint and said, "Maybe we should do your puzzle."

Gleefully, I shoveled hers back into the box.  Pieces were falling on the floor but I was sure I got them all picked up.

Later that evening, one of the kids picked up two mangled, slobbered on pieces of paper.
To our horror, we realized they were puzzle pieces.
Our stinkin' dog had chewed them!
What in the world?
So now we have a brand new puzzle with two missing pieces.
Nice.


The little kids wanted in on the fun so we got out some easier puzzles for them to try.  Jake thinks he is so clever 'helping me' with my puzzle by taking an already attached piece out and then putting it back in as if he had found it himself.

The puzzle on the far right was our 1000 piece with the 9 missing pieces....which I guess makes it a 991 piece.

Chloe and Jordan took their two puzzles into a different room.  Sadly, they got quite frustrated.  Here is why.

This was the finished product.  Yep...that is all the pieces that were left of the United States puzzle.  Sad.

And then, in another location, poor Zoey put the finishing touches on this one.  Sigh.  In its defense, I think it was Ryan's when he was in grade school and had endured several moves.  It went in the trash.

We are still putting the second 1000 piece puzzle together and our obsession is starting wane significantly.  It's pretty much down to...."Well...we have 600 pieces done, I guess we should finish the last 400."

Music Class

The kids came up with a new way to play today after school was done. Music class!  

We don't need no stinkin' teacher.

Ha.

Kate breaks out a highly sophisticated drum set

Then she switched to lead singer with a pencil/drumstick that doubled as a microphone

They sang at a decibal previously unheard in the New England region

"Jake, you're killin' me here."

They were having so much fun that I decided to ask if they were interested in piano lessons.  I had never seriously considered teaching them myself because I assumed that they wouldn't cooperate when it came time to practice.

Well, shame on me!

They were very eager, so three of them had a lesson today and one was very sad to have missed it.  So....we'll see how it goes. 

Homeschool Update

It's been a little over a month since we started homeschooling.
I am now an expert.
Ha.

We have had good days and bad days but overall, I think it's unanimous.
We love it.
(Please excuse the iPhone pictures)

Where else can you do school on the floor?

Or in your pajamas?  (I did have a picture of that but have been forbidden from posting it.)

Or on your mom and dad's bed?

The kids have been pretty good about not fussing about their lessons, although I did have to institute a reward system for good behavior.  Everyone who does their school work without stalling, fussing, or making mama cry, gets a Dove chocolate at the end of the day.  They also get a star for each day of good behavior and after 10 days they get to pick a prize from the prize box--full of fun stuff from the $1 section at Target.  So far it's working.

The other day the boys were studying Davy Crocket.  So we broke out our hat.
You know....the hat that Davy is famous for.
Jake put it on because being in character helps you retain more knowledge.  Right?

 Until....
Jordan brought me his workbook and pointed to the hat that Davy actually wore.
Gasp.
It had no similarities whatsoever to a coonskin.
And it went on to say that he wore a completely different style.
Well...burst my bubble.
We thought we had been so clever digging out the coon....