World Geography Curriculum Giveaway!

I LOVE Confessions of a Homeschooler! I just purchased her USA Geography curriculum and she is now giving away one copy of her Expedition Earth curriculum.
Go here to see all of the ways that you can enter to win!!!
I am still deciding whether we are going to travel the nation or the globe next year!

Garden Challenge!!!! Is it spring yet???

I recently found The Homeschool Village through Homeschool Creations.

I thought that The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge was the perfect way to get back into my blogging that I so often put on the back burner.

This is where we'll be digging in as soon as the weather decides to warm up here in Michigan.

 This is our flower garden. I may try planting some blueberries here, too. We'll see how that turns out.

Every year I have grand plans for our flower garden space. I spend time during the winter months ripping pages from various magazines whenever I come across them. They never seem to come to complete fruition, though. My mom is probably my biggest help. We usually spend at least a few Saturdays a summer at the local farmers market picking out just the right flowers to be planted. We have a patch of Black-Eye Susans, beautiful roses (that were planted way before we moved in here 7 years ago), a bunch of other periennels that pop up every year...I have no idea of the names.  I love gerbera daisies! I tend to scatter them all over the flower bed. Something about how bright they are...just LOVE that God made them so colorful.

Along with everything that is there, plus other things that my mom suggests, we'll be planting lots of wildflowers and having some fun with NaturExplorer's Wonderful Wildflowers and Butterflies Flutter By
In the sunny/shady corner of our flower garden we'll be putting as many pink flowers as we can possibly fit. My best friend passed away almost a year ago and to say that she LOVED the color pink would be an understatement. Right now it's a dreary little corner and I couldn't bare to post that photo. Can't wait to fill in all of that space with PINK!
  

Last year was our first year with a vegetable garden. I loved it when the kids would come in with a handful of cucumbers and tomatoes.

We planted beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, corn (I got a little over-zealous with that one), zucchini & squash. The corn toppled and over-shadowed our peppers, squash, and beans. We did get LOTS of tomatoes and cukes, though. This year, we hope to extend the garden a bit to make room for a bit more.

These three kiddos will also be having some fun with the Garden Preschool Pack over at Homeschool Creations.  The kids really enjoy her packs. I know your kids will too!!! If you link up over at The Homeschool Village with your own Garden Challenge post, you'll get an additional 15 page bonus pack for your Garden Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.

See you back here at the end of April!



A New Year...

How can it be 2011 already?
I feel as if I have a theme building on this blog...I don't blog, I do blog, I don't blog, I promise to blog....and then it's another year gone by.
How could our 4th of July trip already be 6 months behind us???
When did time stop creeping by and when did it start flying and fleeting right before my very eyes???
Apparently, I have some cleaning up & editing to do on this blog. It'll have to wait though.
I promised myself that I was going to start having my hind end in bed by 10 pm. I can read when I'm there, but I have to be in bed.
It is currently a quarter to midnight and I am sitting at my kitchen table on this thing.
When will I learn?
Probably the same time that I learn to blog more than a few times every 6 months!
Happy 2011 All!!!

4th of July 2010

This 4th of July was probably my most favorite in almost 32 years. 

We spent the 4th Up North in the U.P. It’s our favorite place in the world.  I haven’t been too many places…Aaron, more than me…but I can safely say that we could go anywhere in the world and the shores of Lake Superior would still be our favorite. 

It’s the first trip we went on together as a couple.

Aaron was the first person to drive me over the Mackinac Bridge. 

He was the first person I went to Mackinac Island with.

The very first time I went blueberry picking up north, I was with Aaron.

That same trip he asked me to marry him.

I love Northern Michigan.

We left around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and we were enjoying Burger King breakfast at the bridge by 8:15 a.m. 

We arrived at the falls around 10:30 and took a canoe ride over to the little island.  The water was higher and a little more rough than the last time we played here so the kids weren’t able to do as much, but I loved it just the same.  It’s the first time Maggie has been to the Falls. Max first visited the Falls when he was just 4 weeks old. Molly was around 4 months.  It warmed my heart to have all of my kids here.

We finally got to Grandma & Grandpa Jarvie’s house around noon….just in time for some lunch, but no one wanted to eat.  They ran straight for the beach.

   

Max had Uncle Andy digging for gold for quite some time.

We finally made it inside for a snack. Aaron left with Ben & Chaz to do some golfing.  Maggie made her successful escape attempt when everyone else was distracted with Uncle J.J. & Uncle Steve’s arrival.  She didn’t put her on bathing suit before heading back down to the beach.

None of them did.

 

Max spent a little time burying Molly, but would NOT let anyone bury him.

Always such a helping big brother.

After getting cleaned up yet again and enjoying another snack we headed out to Uncle Tom’s place. From there we headed out to our first of 2 fireworks.  They found some suckers in Uncle Tom’s truck. 

(I think Molly looks like such a Jarvie in this photo.)

This is one of my favorite photos from the weekend. I love imagining what they could be discussing. Boys, politics, how are fireworks made, where do unicorns live…Love it…almost brings tears to my eyes when I look at it.

Max & cousin David horsing around before the fireworks began.

Maggie was a trooper.  This photo was taken around 11:30 p.m. She hung in through the day until zonking out on her sister’s shoulder.

Sunday morning, Aaron and I went for a walk on the beach and then I went for a run. I think I could honestly say that I would run almost every morning if I woke up to the beach right outside my window every morning.

We spent the day decorating bikes for the parade, riding/walking in the parade, cooling down from the parade (the weather reports we kept seeing were mid-70’s with a chance of storms….it was in the 90’s), playing in the water and on the beach, grilling out with family, cupcake party for the kids with Grandma & Grandpa while Aaron and I headed to the fireworks. Max’s cousin found this bottle…he kept putting water in and drinking…it was only lake water…nothing like what it looks like :)

Max & Molly were supposed to be inside getting ready for bed. Well, they got their pjs on and then headed back outside…why did I pack bathing suits???

Monday, Aaron and I slept until 9. I can’t remember the last time we both slept that late.

We spent the day at the Point, the Pier (where Aaron & Ben thought it would be fun to jump off into the freezing water below), snacking, taking pictures with family, & picking a few blueberries.

  

Max did NOT want to leave. We all thought it a good idea that he have an overnight at Grandma & Grandpa’s closer to home before he tries it 5 hours away for the first time. 

We can’t wait for our next trip up there. 

Thank you, Lord, for bringing us home and closer to our favorite place on Your Earth.