Jordan only asked to have a few friends over for cake during Family Camp for his birthday this year.  So we drove into town and bought a cake.  It rained and rained that day.  I had a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Ian along with The Phillips Family and two other friends at Family Camp (actually two of Kaitlyn's friends, Amanda and Arrij.) Anyway, in the video you can barely hear us singing b/c of the sound of the rain pounding on the canvas of the screen room above our picnic table.  However, the cake was delicious and Jordan was thrilled!

We even bought yellow candles... Jordan's favorite color!

I can't even believe he is FOURTEEN!

 

Twelve years ago, God gave Steve and me the most wonderful gift--a healthy baby boy. 

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Here are a couple of horrifying pictures of how huge I was at the end of my pregnancy:

Getting ready to meet Eli

Here's Daddy with his baby boy

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And here's Eli's first official portrait--Look at that face!

This next picture is Eli in his "going home" outfit.  A friend had given us this adorable outfit, thinking that we'd have a normal sized baby.  Well, Eli came out at a whopping 10 lbs. 1 oz., and I practically had to shoehorn him into these clothes!  Getting the picture was tough--the hat kept popping off of him because it was too small!

Here are a couple of shots of one tired mama & her precious boy (note: these are pictures of a pre-Lasik me!)

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Here is the birth announcement that we sent out.  I'm including it here because I bought those announcements BEFORE we knew if Eli was a healthy baby (you can read the story of our daughter, Abigail, who passed away in 1995 here).  It was a real "Peter stepping out of the boat" moment of faith for me, since we didn't know if Eli was okay or not.

Here he was at 3 months old---how my current skinny boy came from this little chunk of love, I'll never know!

Happy 12th birthday, Eli!  We love you so much!

Every year, my friend, Amy, hosts a fantastic Harvest Party at her home.  Okay, so it's a glorified playdate, but we usually have fabulous weather, the moms get to visit, and the kids have a wonderful time.

We had to run to the bank and Wal-Mart (okay, we drove) before the party, so we arrived around noontime.  It's always such a fun time of reconnecting with moms & friends that we haven't seen in a while.  This is at least our 4th year attending, and it's so fun to see how big the kids are getting.

Amy's daughter, Avanell, has chickens--they're always a big hit with the kids.  Only one child fell into the pond, and for once, it wasn't one of mine!  Our friend, Lisa, made up a great scavenger hunt for the kids (e.g., find someone who likes lemons, find someone who has been to Texas), so they were all running around getting to know one another!

We finally left around 4pm.  I stopped at home, and then ran to the new grocery store that just opened today. They gave Maddie a balloon flower, and gave me a (clearly inferior, non-Pampered Chef) spatula.  I picked up ice cream and the ingredients for shepherd's pie, which the birthday boy has requested for lunch tomorrow.

Once home, we ran around cleaning like nuts, since I had a team member coming over after dinner.  Thank God he didn't stay long.  I'm just too tired to entertain anyone.  The kids are going to bed in 15 minutes.  Steve leaves for work in just under 2 hours.  I can't wait to get into jammies.  I need to make Eli's birthday cake--this year we're trying a new recipe, a "Snickerdoodle Cake".  And a new episode of "Life" on NBC is on at 10pm--I hope I can stay awake!

I can't believe that tomorrow Eli will be 12.  Today he said to me, "Tonight I'll give you your last 11 year old hug!", and I almost started crying.  What a precious gift from God he is.

Do devotions with the kids

Go to the bank--deposit check, take out $ to pay the babysitter for the last two nights

Run to Wal-Mart--we need milk, candles for Eli's birthday cake, and a snack to take to the Harvest Party (no time to bake this morning!)

Harvest Party!  Starts at 11am--we'll probably be home around 4:30pm

Make dinner

Meeting @ 6:30pm with Pampered Chef team member to help them get going with their business again.

Do laundry, dishes & clean house for Eli's birthday party.

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I've already made my bed, tidied up my room & vacuumed it, exercised, showered, dressed and paid bills.  Another long day at the Towne House has begun!

Here's the rundown of our 6th week of homeschool:

Noah:   This week he continued to do a lesson a day in math and is progressing nicely.  We actually are still working on his 2nd grade curriculum, this relates back to 1st grade when we switched curriculums mid-year and had to start from scratch.  It's put us a few months behind, but next week WILL be the last of the 2nd grade math.  Noah is quite excited for that.  He did okay in cursive, reading it was just more well, reading!  Plus worksheets of course.  Language was week six, he did great on that, some of the new concepts were pluralization and recognizing all puncuation marks and naming their functions.  In History, we learned about the Canaanites and the Hebrews.  Noah was excited to learn about the Hebrews, since that is the Old Testament and old covenant, part of our spiritual heritage; not to mention the only ancient civilization we've learned about that had a monotheistic worldview.  He's had a lot of tough questions regarding the old covenant and salvation before Jesus came, so I ordered a new Bible study for him called Discovering Jesus in Genesis and Discovering Jesus in Exodus.  These are very in depth and I know he'll enjoy them a lot.    Since Noah has been sitting in with us for Five In A Row, I thought it would be fun to add in his own FIAR studies.  I was going to do Beyond Five In a Row, but decided that we should wait for next year for that. So, I decided to start Volume 4 of FIAR with him, these units are designed for children ages 7-8 and are more in depth than volumes 1,2, and 3, each unit will take about 2-4 weeks to complete.  Each unit is available digitally for download, so I bought The Pumpkin Runner unit and had it printed at Kinkos.  Of course, than I find out from Kinkos that it's copyrighted and technically I'm not allowed to transmit it through email for them to print, so that's interesting.  I'm trying to obtain permission from the publisher to be able to do this since it's for personal use.  I just heard back from the publisher and author of FIAR!  He said that my questions caused him to make several phone calls, their intent in making the units digital was so that we could have them printed either at home or at a place, he said they are working on a permission that any printer will accept.  I'm eagerly anticipating that as I don't want to break copyright laws!

Abby:   This week we "rowed" All Those Secrets of The World.  This was a very sweet book about a Dad going off to war (WW II) and I teared up a little each time I read it.  Topics we covered included:  Chesapeake Bay,  times of war (soldiers' sacrifices, patriotism, loyalty to country, etc), use of contrasting words and rhyming words in poetic form, vocab words, and the horizon and old sea myths.  In math she continued with addition and did extremely well!  She moved on from using manipulatives to do her addition, to learning the concept behind it and doing it without help.  I'm so proud of her!!  She's doing pretty well with reading, she seems to have hit a roadblock the past two days, so I can't decide if that means it's time for a short break or not. 

We finished our read aloud "An Owl in the House".  The kids really, really enjoyed this one.  Abby tells everyone about the owl named Bubo and repeats all the stories in the book, it's really cute.   I'm still planning to do the home economics for homeschoolers series with them.  I was looking through it and I just can't believe how ill-equipped my own kitchen is LOL, I have so many basic things to aquire that I never even thought of,  a vegatable peeler for instance, a garnish tool would be another!!!   So, I think I'm going to wait to add that in until after the holidays when we'll have a little more time for it.   

That's all for now.  Have a great  weekend and God Bless!!

Tomorrow is day 36 of our school year.  I am exhausted.    We had another crazy week.  Monday was a regular school day, but my mom stopped by for a visit, so that broke the day up a bit.  I had a chiropractor appointment.  We also saw some of our hs friends at the park near our home, always a nice surprise.

Tuesday we walked with Sue & the kids, Eli had an orthodontist appointment (he's doing great with his braces & doesn't need to use the elastics at all anymore), we ran some errands, and went to another friends' home to plan for the weekly co-op meeting.  Eli failed his spelling test, and we have yet to re-study the words and take the test again.  Sigh.

My friend Jessica is in town, and I was able to go to her sister's house to visit them both, but I didn't get home until after 11pm!

Wednesday was a morning at home, and then we went to homeschool bowling in Johnston.  It was a free "check out the program day"--the league will start next week.  I think the kids are really going to enjoy it.  The program will only run through the 3rd week of December.  I bowled with them yesterday, and OH MY GOSH, am I sore.  I'm a half-way decent bowler (it was duckpin), and I told Steve that the employee helping with the kids told me that I should be on a league.  Steve said that she probably tells that to everyone in an attempt to drum up business.

Patience was kind of frustrated, because she wasn't instantly a bowling pro.  I told her that she would only improve with practice.  Unfortunately, she doesn't really live up to her name, and was pretty put out at her low score, until she finally knocked down some pins.  Now she's okay with going every week.

Here's Maddie, taking her turn.

Wednesday night I went to a Stampin' Up party.  Fun, but some of the ladies started discussing politics, and that just always makes me feel uncomfortable.  Oh well, tis the season.  Again, I wasn't home until after 11pm.

Today was co-op, and then TA-DA, Eli got a hair cut.  Here are the before & after shots:

Before

AFTER

The girl did a great job.  I've got one handsome kid here.

After the haircut, we ran to AC Moore, to use my 55% off coupon.  I got a knitting book for the  girls, and a tool that rounds the corners of pictures for scrapbooking (I have no idea what it is called!).

Then we stopped at Barnes & Noble--I told the kids that for every 10 Paces they finish for school, they could have $6 to spend at B&N.  Patience did an excellent job cleaning out the car  & living room yesterday, so I gave her an extra $4.  So we had to stop in so that she could get her American Girl Card Making kit.

Here's an issue for you all to solve.  When you have different expectations for your children (one finds school work much easier than their sibling, so while I expect them to work hard and to the best of their ability, I don't expect the child who struggles more to accomplish as much, capice?), how do you handle how to reward them?  Child A can easily accomplish the goal of finishing 10 books & earning $ at B&N.  Child B is struggling, and way behind on trying to reach this goal.  I feel that I should adjust the goal, to make it more fair.  But Child B threw a fit, because it "wasn't fair" that Child A has already earned this reward.  I don't want to reward the fit, but due to such a big gap in their respective abilities, it would be fair to lower the amount of books that Child B has to do in order to earn the reward.  What would you do?

We stopped at home, and Patience got ready for gymnastics.  I let Eli & Maddie stay home--we're all tired from this crazy week.  While Patience was in gymnastics, I filled the car with gas ($3.22/gal), went to Michael's craft store with a 40% off coupon--I got Maddie some Crayola Model Magic for Christmas--SHHH!  I also picked up a Christmas ornament with Maddie's name on it, but after I left Michael's, I couldn't find it?  So then I stopped at Jo Ann's with my other 40% off coupon, and found  a Gooseberry Patch recipe organizer that I've been eyeing.  I was so excited to get it at a discount.

After I left Jo Ann's, I found the ornament IN MY POCKET.  Yes, I am a hardened criminal who inadvertently shoplifts.  BACK I went to Michael's, to pay for the ornament.  Which, in the long run, worked to my advantage, because for every transaction, Michael's is giving out 50% off coupons to use next week!  So I got two!  Sweet!

Then is was back to the Y to pick up Patience, then we picked up the babysitter, raced home, and I was out the door by 5:55pm to go to my show.  I was home by 9:30, but yes, here I am, still wasting time online. 

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, and we have a Harvest Party to attend--should be wicked fun.  (Yes, I'm from RI, and "wicked" means "really, really, really".)

Then Saturday is the big day--ELI'S BIRTHDAY!  If I have time, I'm going to try to scan some of his baby pictures.  In the mean time, enjoy these pics of him as a toddler--possibly the cutest little boy ever.

Reading the sports section with Dad:

Christmas when he was 14 months old (with my sister, Christine)

With the ever-present Pooh (notice the bassinet in the background?  Maddie was on her way!)

And since I just mentioned Maddie--here's a pic of me, 8 months pregnant

 I'm making him a snickerdoodle cake, and the grands are coming by for cake & ice cream.  Sunday there's church, and we're having dinner with friends, and then Awana (which the kids haven't studied for), and Monday we're going to the Scituate Art Festival with my dad.  And then the week starts all over again.  All things I'm looking forward to, but I'm really needing a few days just to be home.  Not sure when that will happen, because it sure ain't happening next week.  We're booked every day for something!