My 100th post...

I suppose that there should be more to my 100th post, but with preparing for homeschooling I just haven't had too much leftover time to be creative with the blog.
I just wanted to drop a few little stories here before I forgot them. I can't believe I have been so lax in blogging about our camping trip.

Anyhow....
We finally made it back to church this past Sunday. Once we were in the car I asked the kids how their Sunday School was. Molly said it was good and then she talked about her little friend. When we got home I asked her about her bible story worksheet. She pointed at it and said,
"Jesus had 12 disciples. That's a lot of helpers!"
Love her!

Today Max and I were working on his phonics and Molly was nearby working on coloring by number. Max was going through his review pages....ran, tan, fan, Jan....He got to Jan and I said,
"That's Nana's name. Did you know that buddy?" Before he could answer Molly turns her body, puts her hands on her hips, and replies with,
"Momma, Nana calls her daddy Jim and I don't like it. She should call him Papa."
Oh when she is cute she is right on. It's when she isn't that I am concerned about my mental health!

Getting back on track....

Exhausted.
We traveled 5 out of 8 days that we were on vacation.
Friday...drove 7.5 hours north to MI.
Saturday...I wouldn't have counted this as a travel day until we got stuck in traffic for 3.5 hours. Yes, it took us 45 minutes to get to my in-laws. It took us 3.5 hours to get back to my sisters. We pulled into her driveway at one a.m. In between travel though, we had a great day. The kids LOVED fishing with their daddy, uncle and grandpa.
Sunday...we enjoyed some time with my family and a few friends we haven't seen in some time.
Monday....we were off to west Michigan. The 4 additional hours was worth it. Beautiful! I love Lake Michigan.
Thursday....4 more hours back to the other side of Michigan.
Friday....7.5 hours back to KY.
What a great vacation we had. My thoughts and memories to come soon.
We ended up leaving Thursday night b/c the rain and cold was heading in on Friday.
If you camp, especially tent camp, I do NOT recommend packing up camp in the rain. We did that a few years back. It wasn't pleasant. We got some great pics of Max & Joshua playing in the rain, but the rest of it was not fun.

Today, Molly and I spent most of the afternoon grocery shopping. We went to 5 different places and enjoyed a girls lunch at Subway. Today while we were down the frozen foods aisle a gentleman pushed his cart by us and smiled at Molly. A few seconds later (hopefully enough seconds later) Molly says to me,
"Momma, that guy doesn't have any hair on top of his head!"
Oh goodness.
He didn't turn. Or maybe I turned first so he didn't see my red face.
Out of the mouths of babes :)

Off to do a few more things before sleep takes over.

A bit of catching up....

This little girl had her 12 month check up yesterday.

She is doing great!

She is 31 inches and 19 pounds 6 ounces.

I really can't believe she is as big as she is. It seems like just yesterday and a million years ago that she was born.

Sniff.

The oldest two were sooooo well behaved during the appointment. I was very proud of them. I told them before we went in that momma was going to have to talk with the doctor and that while the doctor was checking over Maggie and I was talking with her that they were to just look at their books, color if they wanted, just no interrupting.

Again....so proud of them.

There was only one teeny tiny interruption and he said excuse me and whispered. His request was so funny that there was no way I was getting upset.

When the doctor went to check Maggie's ears, eyes, & throat I took the opportunity to throw away some get away cheerios. I crossed the room and threw them away. Max saw his chance.

"Momma, Momma, excuse me." He whispered. After that all I heard him whisper was something about video game and mario kart. All I was thinking was, "please don't start talking about all of mario kart you've been playing this summer with all of the rain (trying to justify it) in front of the pediatrician". I gave him a sweet smile and told him I'd take care of it.

The doctor finished up her exam and said her good-byes and see you next time. She was gone.

Max looks at me with that look of confusion of "why didn't my mom do what I told her to do?" He says in absolute seriousness, "Momma, you didn't tell Maggie's doctor about how she always goes after the video game when me and daddy are playing and what she's gonna do about it". I couldn't help but get a huge smile on my face. Always so concerned about his baby sisters.

The other day Maggie kept going after his game. No matter what he did, what toy or book he brought to her all she wanted was that game. He looked at me and said, "Momma, I don't want a baby anymore". Five minutes later he was laying next to her reading. Oh my boy.

We had a nice and relaxing week. Well, almost. Tuesday we got a ticket in the mail from a city in Tennessee. I won't go into detail because I think my head almost exploded on Tuesday when this all happened. Long and short of it....on Father's Day we went the scenic route down to Tennessee. We had a great weekend. We celebrated Maggie's birthday and Father's Day....see post below....fast forward 9 days....I go and get the mail. As a SAHM one of the highlights of my day is the mail. I see an envelope with the return address "Photo Enforcement blah blah blah". I know what it is right away but know that if it is I will be furious. Well, it was and I was. Just ask my sister. I'm sure I blew her eardrum with the way that I was venting to her about all of this. We got a ticket from a camera. Then they mailed it to us 9 days later. Please. I realize that we were probably speeding. However, what if we weren't? What stops them from tweeking their computers just a tad so that they can set up their camera, no human needed, to get more money? Oh...so furious. I hope that they enjoy their 50 bucks....it'll be the only 50 bucks that town ever sees from us. It was creepy getting a piece of mail where your license plate is zoomed in and then it lists the web address where you can actually watch it. Weird.

Honestly, I wouldn't have been upset one iota if a REAL cop had pulled us over in an ACTUAL cop car with lights and all...if in fact we were speeding. Ugh!!! See, I'm getting upset all over again. Gotta move on.

Moving on...it was an absolute gorgeous week. It was sunny, breezy, no humidity, pleasant, no rain. We spent some much needed time outside.

My other find the last week and a half or so was school desks. As soon as we decided to homeschool, I wanted to find desks for the kids. Craigslist had them listed of course so the emails began. I finally ended up scheduling a pick up of two desks and two chairs with a woman about an hour north of here for tonight. Today the kids and I went out with their 6 quarters in hand to search out garage sales. At the first one, Molly found a nice princess game. Max didn't find a thing so we went searching for garage sale #2. They ended up each picking out a desk and saving their momma 4 bucks and an hour long car ride (although I was looking a little forward to the long car ride with just my music turned up just a tad too loud :)

Max sat proudly in his and asked if school could begin now. I told him we could do a few things of course, but that we were going to go on vacation first. He agreed that was an okay idea. So we go their new desks in the car and we headed for home. They helped me clean their desks. Then Molly leaned a little too far on hers and it toppled. I figure the earlier they do that the sooner they'll learn not to lean on their desks. :)

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL & HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

Two bargin items & more importantly....Father's Day

We had a FANTASTIC weekend!

First, on Saturday we celebrated Maggie's first birthday. Again, something so hard to believe...another year gone by. I spent the morning getting some things for her birthday...mostly waiting for Walmart to finish her PETITE cake....they called me at 6:30 a.m. b/c the woman who took my order failed to put any details on the order sheet other than the price. This cake is all of about 4 inches high....over 6 hours later I got the cake. They told me at 11:20 a.m. that it wasn't quite finished yet. At 10 to noon they told me they were just starting it...I got it 12:35. I was no longer quite sure why they called me at 6:30 a.m. acting like they had to know that second what the cake entailed. Anyhooo.....while going around getting a few things for the day's celebration I spotted a 'sale' at a local church. I pulled in and the woman told me a buck fifty for this:

I was so excited. I also found a brand new, not even opened, dvd of Sleeping Beauty.

We spent the afternoon grilling & eating (inside....way too hot out lately for anything outdoors unless there is a pool involved) & swimming. We headed to the "duck pool" that is finally open after a few repairs. The kids had a blast.

Sunday, we headed to Pigeon Forge for some shopping & a Tennessee Smokies game. We took the scenic route down to TN.

It was gorgeous...we stopped off at a scenic point.

We did a little shopping and then headed to the ball game. We knew that there was a small chance that rain was coming. It was a beautiful drive down. Sun, no rain. As soon as we made the left hand turn into the parking lot to shop....downpour. Soaking wet just getting the kids out of the van. It poured and then it cleared up. Blue sky, pretty clouds. We thought it had passed.

Nope.

We got to the ball park around 3:30 or so.

Since it was Father's Day they were allowing kids and their dads down on the fields to play catch. Wonderful! So we get our tickets (love that Molly is still free in the eyes of the Tennessee Smokies), get in the ball park and find our way down to the field. As soon as we step foot in the outfield it starts sprinkling.

Max seems to mind a bit more than I thought he would. He usually loves playing in the rain. Not on Sunday.

Molly seemed to just enjoy playing catch with her dad and didn't mind the rain.

We were a little bummed though that after about 2 or 3 throws back and forth between Molly & her daddy the clouds decided to dump everything they had on top of this ball field.

We headed over to the cafe in park and had an early dinner. The skies cleared and it was a great night for a ball game. It started an hour late but the kids didn't mind. They kept busy with little games that they had set up for all of the little ones there.

It ended up being a great Father's Day Night!

How blessed we are to have Aaron in our family. God is SO good!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MAGGIE GRACE!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

We LOVE you!!!!

Quiet boxes...

I was sent this idea from my sister. She got this idea from here. They are bins that they use for quiet time. Max has not taken a nap for quite some time. When Molly was a baby and still taking a nap herself, Max would go in his room for quiet time. Then we moved & away went Molly's nap & Max's quiet time. Maggie came and with them all sharing one room and it being right next to ours her nap time took priority over everything. So the kids ended up staying downstairs and playing. Good-bye to quiet time.
Now I really want quiet time back. I think I am going to put the older two in our room for some quiet time with their new daily boxes.

Each one has crayons, paper, books, puzzles, and then a special activity to do.
Such as:
stamps/stamp pads
foam sticker pieces with foam bookmarks, visors, doorknob hangers, etc.
doll that you dress (shown above...has different clothing for her....all magnetic...love it!)
dominos
lacing pieces (ours are farm animals)
beads & pipe cleaners (making bracelets & necklaces....swords, for Max)
Noahs Ark game
small coloring pads
colored clothespins (for sorting, pattern making, counting)

Got most of this stuff at the Dollar Store of course.
Oh...and I put our puzzles in zip loc bags. I cut the picture of the puzzle and then dump it all in a baggie. It helps with fitting the puzzle in the bin, but I started doing it several years agao after Max would destroy the box in which the puzzle came.

Have fun!
If you think of anything else fun & exciting to put in the boxes please let me know.

Fantastic info & some updated kiddo info....

...or at least I think so.
Have come across some FABULOUS sites, info, ideas, etc. over the past several days. Now that I am finally getting around to posting some of it, well, blogger is about to shut down. We'll see how much I get done before that happens. Ok...here goes....in no particular order of fabulousness:

• www.shiningdawnbooks.com They have nature themed books. I bought two of them at a homeschool fair yesterday. I purchased Hard as a Rock & Animal Signs. Go to their site to learn all about it.
• www.ourlifestyleoflearning.com An on-line forum for homeschooling moms.

(Yes, I'm sure you're noticing a theme & yes, Aaron and I have discussed homeschooling the kids. And, yes, I believe that we are going to do it. Very excited, scared, mostly psyched!!! )

• http://thecurriculumchoice.com/ Haven't had enough time to really explore the site, but I am looking forward to the few minutes I may have tonight/this a.m. to check it out.
• www.keeperofthehome.org This one I got from my sister. Again, haven't had too much time to get to far into it, but my dear sis did send this post to me. The kids and I ventured out to the Dollar Store tonight and got the bins and a few things to put inside of them. Looking forward to them working!

I know that there is more, but I can't find my list at the moment. I'm sure I'll think of it as soon as I shut the computer down.

Maggie is growing so big! Where did the past 51 weeks go? Only 6 more days until she is a big one year old! We recently started rolling the ball back and forth where she was getting the concept. She will smile so big and try so hard to roll that ball back only to have her little baby arms bring it right back to her. Tonight we were doing a little rolling and the kids and I would clap for her. Oh her smile was so big. Around the 4th time or so the kids and I didn't clap fast enough. She looked at us, smiled big & then clapped for herself. Then when she rolled it back I said, "Momma caught the ball. What do you do?" Maggie immediately started clapping. Oh, my heart. I love how little ones clap too. The take their arms all the way back, bring their arms forward & then barely connect their hands. LOVE IT!

I can't wait to celebrate her 1st birthday this weekend!