growing up milestone

He has been asking to do it since he was in 1st grade. We live about a mile from the school - a pretty good distance to cover when you're tired at the end of a school day. But he did it...I never doubted him. His independence and confidence have always been catalysts in his life to take on new life experiences with ease. Way to go, Kade!




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Is anyone even still out there?

So...I took Bryn on a super fun field trip (Thank you, Tiffany!) to the Blue Baker this morning. Kelly Hobbs (yes, I'm calling you out :)) took this opportunity to rib me about my lack of blogging, but she also had a solution for me...a wonderful app called Blogpress. So, here is my first attempt at blogging on-the-go...


















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10 free ebooks from Scholastic

Check out this link on Deal Seeking Mom Blog

My friend, Kendall, sent me this link a couple of days ago.  It is good thru the 20th, so you better get on it, because it takes awhile to look thru all the available ebooks.  It really works - I paid nothing and now have 10 ebooks waiting to be printed :-)

learning about horses

Our sweet friends, Mike and Nikki, invited us over last week to teach the kids some basics about horses.  We met Jewel and Blues, two of their horses.  

 

First item of business...to learn about horse hooves.

 

Second, Nikki taught them a couple of horse walking tricks.  They walk when you walk.  They stop when you pull the rope back.  Don't ever get behind a horse.  Basic stuff, but they loved it!

Then, Nikki showed them how she grooms Jewels.  I think there were five different brushes and a couple of sprays that the kids got to use to help clean her up.

 

Finally, the part Kade had been hoping for the whole time - they got to ride on Jewels!  Kade loved it, but the other three just stayed on long enough for me to snap their picture :-)

 

Thanks, Mike and Nikki, for the field trip fun!  The kids are still talking about it :-)

 

i treasure these days

I don't know how long God will lead us to homeschool, but I can tell you that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now besides teaching these boys (and Bryn - when she chooses to sit in on the lesson).

I'm not even going to lie - it is HARD for me to stay focused and to not talk on the phone or answer e-mails during our school day. I feel like I have to die to my wants a little too often and can wallow in pity for myself occasionally. But, wow, God is growing me and bonding our family in a way that I am so thankful for. I took this a couple of mornings ago to capture our patio time when I read to them while they swing. We are almost finished with Charlotte's Web and I am fighting a strong urge to pick up and take them to the State Fair of Texas sometime in October. The perk that does come with homeschooling is that I'm the only teacher, so I get to make all the field trip decisions - and this teacher thinks that the State Fair is an excellent teaching opportunity ;-) I wonder what Principal Ferguson will have to say...

labeling the cranium

So, this turned out to be a big win - thanks, Tomi!  We joined with the O's for some science fun last Friday.  One of the learning experiences involved labeling where certain bones of the body were located.
This is what I imagined to be going thru their head as they were listening to instructions:
"Permission to write all over ourselves?! Oh, baby, this is the coolest day ever!"

It's been awhile

Summer was so fun...but I'm glad it's officially over! By the end, I am always tired and desperate for a routine. We are into our third week of school (homeschooling again this year), and I'm finding our rhythm again - and love it!

So, here's a couple of pics I've taken recently that I just enjoy looking at over and over. They always make me smile and capture our "life" at the moment.

This pic was taken yesterday and Brynlee was walking in for her first day of pre-school. Isn't she supposed to look and act a little bit more nervous than she obviously is? And, for those of you who have known us for awhile - take note of Kiki. That dog has been everywhere with our family for the past six years! I feel like it's another child :-) Brynlee stole Kiki from Kamden last year and won't go anywhere without that dog.

Does she look grown-up or what?! I chuckle at this one because of her fierce independence. She didn't want me carrying her backpack or holding her hand. But, she did at least hug me tight before I left her classroom.

Kamden and Brynlee don't even know I captured this sweet shot. I was trying to get first day of school pics of the boys and walked out the door to find them holding hands and he had his arm around her. Yes, it made me teary.


I love Kam's grandpa glasses in this pic and that all of their smiles are real and not the "say cheese" smile that I so often get.
Happy blogging again. At least for today :-)

july happenings

We are still swimming all the time - even the dog is hot enough to get in on the action nowadays...we are all so ready to not sweat the instant we walk out our door! I love that I got a pic of Roxy drying off on the towel after she got out of the pool. She's a crazy dog, but she is pretty smart.

We are still rocking the Rock the Rock songs at our house and in the car...I think I love them as much as the kids ;-) We enjoyed the 4th with some of our neighbors and we captured all the kids doing their RtR moves - love it!
Since we're enjoying the indoors more often to hide from the 100+ degree heat, we've been playing more games and putting puzzles together. Thanks, Cunningham family, for the Chutes and Ladders game for Bryn's birthday - it made for a great family night!

I am starting to get on the "eat local foods as much as possible" kick. We have two farmers' markets within 10 minutes of our home that visit weekly, so it's really just a matter of re-prioritizing our budget to reflect more money for food and less for stuff that will just end up breaking soon and/or our eating out money. This past week, I bought 4 dozen eggs (which, I learned can sit out on your counter top for up to 4 weeks because they don't wash them before bringing them to the market - wild!) and 2 lbs of grass-fed beef + some veggies and random Indian food that I love. I took Kale and Brynlee and they seemed to enjoy the fact that everything they were seeing had come straight from the farm to the market.

All in all, it's been a great start to July. The only downer was Brynlee being sick last week. Her ENT scheduled to have her 2nd set of tubes put in on the 22nd along with removing her adenoids. As you mamas know, it's no fun thinking of your kids having to have any kind of surgery, even when it's minor. But, I'm happy for her that she won't have to endure more double ear infections like she had last week. We would covet your prayers for the surgery to go off without a hitch and that she'll be ear infection-free from here on out!