Well so far this year seems to be going well.  My little guy Z is so happy to sit and do schoolwork with his older brother J.   We are doing lots of fun preschool stuff with Z and he really likes to do school.  We are also involved in lots of fun activities at our church each week.  The kids look forward to their times at church with their friends.   Since we have started school and began our church activities again  time has been flying by. 

This Friday and Sat. I am taking some time for myself and I will be traveling with 70 other women from my church to the Women of Faith conference in Denver.   It should be a blast!!  We will stay overnight and return late on Sat night.  My boys and husband have lots of fun things planned for when I am away and I am thankful my husband is so good with the kiddos and I can go.  

Tomorrow we start MOPS at my church.( Mothers of Preschoolers)  This is our first year doing it at our church and I am very excited to meet more ladies from my church.  This will be my last year to do it because my little one will be in K next year.  So I will enjoy the fellowship 4 hours a month!!  

I am enjoying the cool breeze blowing through my door right now .  I just love the Fall!    I am starting to make our thankful tree so it is ready to start in Oct.  I cut out a brown tree trunk with lots of branches and  glue it to a big piece of poster board and then I cut out lots and lots of  colored leaves from construction paper and put them in a basket.  Then the kids pick a leaf and write something they are thankful for and we tape it to the tree.  By Thanksgiving it is filled with leaves of things we are all thankful for.  It is a lot of fun and gets us thinking about all that God has given us.  I have one thing right now that I am thankful for:  We will be traveling to MI to spend thanksgiving with my Hubby's family!! I am very excited because it has been several years since we have been able to spend a holiday with family.   Yippee :)Well hope you have a wonderful day and I will post pictures soon.

I am still here but have been very bad about blogging!  I am ready now to get you caught up on what we have been doing.  Well, let's see.......  We stopped school on July 14 and went to CT for almost 3 weeks.  We had a wonderful time with family and friends and the boys loved playing with their cousins .  We arrived home on August 7 and began school on August 14th.  We decided that we would try a 4 day school week this year with 9 weeks off from school throughout the year :) My oldest is in 1st grade and my little guy is in preschool, ages 6 and 4.   This is our 5th week of school and  we are very much enjoying ourselves!!!  We are using FIAR and we love reading the classic books.  Even my little guy is doing  great.  My oldest is also doing 1st grade BJU math and Grammar made simple.  We also pick an animal a week to learn about and each boy has their appropriate Gotta Have God Devotion book.  I absolutely love the critical thinking company and have many of their books for both boys!!  It is great and really gets them thinking.   We went on a family camping trip the first week in Sept  and had a blast.  This is my favorite time of the year and I am feeling quite blessed to be able to homeschool my little guys.  We went apple/pumpkin picking this past weekend. The pumpkins were great but the apples not so good.  They were pretty much picked over but we got a few golden delicious.  Anyway it is good to be back with you all :)  I will get some photos up soon. Have a great week.

Allison

Summer has arrived here in CO.  (I know summer isn't officially get here until the end of June but we are loving this wonderful weather).  There has been lots of playing outside and I even got to rides bikes with my oldest this past weekend.  What fun that was.  It was the first time I had used my bike since my kids were born.  It gave me a taste of what life will be like in the next few years once my little one can ride a bike too!! Fun stuff.  Our school time has been very productive these last few weeks.  I was worried when I extended school into July that it would be hard to concentrate but the boys are doing well and working hard to get their schoolwork done.  There are lots of outside breaks but that really helps them get the work done.   We are going camping this weekend after Jakes last t-ball game.  We are very excited to go camping.  There is  a fire ban around here, so no campfires :(  I love sitting around the fire reading and just relaxing.  Oh well.  We need to protect our forests and it is soooooo dry here that fires are just starting all over.   Well school is almost done for the day :)  Time to play. Have a great one!

Well we have been enjoying the beautiful summer weather!!!  The days have been gorgeous and long . woohoo.  Summer is here!  Another sign of summer is the ice cream man that plays fun music as he drives around  the neighborhood selling ice cream to the kiddos!   We were outside playing tonight and heard the music.  The kids got so excited and asked if we coul buy some treats.  We did, and what fun we had.  We sat out on the front lawn and ate our icecream.  YUMMY!!  It reminded me of when I was a kid. 

Well we have finalized our homeschooling calendar for the end of this school year and the beginning of next school year.  Still new at all of this so we keep trying new things.  We will finish school on July 14.  On July 20 the boys and I will head home to CT to see all of my family for 18 days!!   We will be taking the midnight flight on the 20th arriving at 6:15am.  It will be quite and adventure but airfare began to go up and it was either that or drive 32 hours home and that wasn't too appealing!!!!  So after our Ct trip we will do lots of camping and we end the summer camping the first week in Sept.  Soooo we will begin school again the second week of Sept.  It is sure nice to have this all figured out.  We are just finishing up gathering our curriculum for next year and I am very excited. 

We will be using FIAR for both my 4 year old preschooler and 1st grader.I love the books from the critical thinking company so we will add some of those books also and a grammar book and of couse Bob Jones Math 1 for Jake.  I can't believe my oldest will be in 1st grade.  I have been quite emotional about him growing up so fast.  We just signed him up for summer nature camp at the nature center we go to.  He will go for 1 week  9- 12 every day.  It will be the last week of June.  The first week of June he will have Vacation Bible School at our church.   We are also checking out piano teachers for the Fall, as well as getting a piano . WOW.  I am so blessed to have such great boys and a wonderful hubby.  Our life is an adventure with both good and bad days but I look at how the boys have grown and matured over the past year.  My older son told me that his little brother was his very best friend and that he loved him so much.    It isn't always that way but it is getting to be more and more of the time.  

We became members of our church this past Sunday.  We really have grown to love our church and couldn't ask for a better children's program.  The kids enjoy their classes so much and it is great to see them connect with their teachers. 

Well I have rambled about many things tonight!   Hope you all have a great evening!

Allison

Well I am just finishing our lesson for Cinco de Mayo.    I have fun coloring sheets and we'll  make sombrero cookies in the morning and then we will have fajitas and tortillas and salsa and guacamole.  Yum, yum.   I have printed out some facts and will tell the kids about Cinco de mayo as we prepare all our fun food. 

This week went well.   The other day my youngest ( three)  was playing outside and came to the back door very excited.  He had found a ladybug.  He was holding it between his 2 fingers and he wanted to put it in his bug jar.  He has enjoyed watching it crawl around.  He wants to keep it forever!!!!!!!   

Well that is all for this evening.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

I was tagged awhile ago by both www.homeschoolblogger.com/msacademy  and www.homeschoolblogger.com/carrielouise , so here we go :)  I have to tell 6 random things about myself.

1. I would love to go to Culinary school.  I have a degree in Hotel / Restaurant management but would love to have a culinary degree!!

2. I would love to learn how to ballroom dance.

3. When I was in Jr. High and High School I went on 2 missions trips with my youth group.  We went to the Dominican Republic and fixed up a youth camp and we went to Guadelupe and built a house.  It was a life changing experience. 

4. I love learning about my family history.  I could sit for Hours and listen to my Gram talk about her life!

5. I would love to play the saxaphone.  I play the flute.

6. I love the snow!!!!!

ok that is it for me.   Whoever reads this is tagged too.!! ENJOY

We have had a busy few weeks and are glad to be back to normal.  We had to cancel our camping trip this weekend because of possible snow :(  Hope you all have a great weekend.

It has been quite some time since I have blogged and I have missed it.  The past month was full of sickness and 2 weeks of company.   It was wonderful to visit with family .  The boys sure enjoyed all of the attention and loved getting to know their older cousins.  My mom and dad were also out to visit and we enjoyed the time with them as well.  We also got to go away for 3 nights!!  woohoo.  It was wonderful to rest and relax at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast in the Mountians!  It is great to be back to normal though !!  We started school again yesterday and it went well.   We are planning our first camping trip this weekend if the weather cooperates!! I missed checking in on all of your blogs and will try to get caught up on everyones lives in the next few days :)   I will also try to post as few photos from the last few weeks.

Allison

Well our company is here and we are having a blast.   They arrived on Saturday night and the boys have been loving it.  We took them hiking yesterday.  It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed it very much.  The older kids in the photos are my niece Leanne, and my nephew Ryan.  Today they are skiing at Breckenridge.  We stayed home to let the boys rest after being so sick last week.  On Wed my SIL will watch the boys and I will be able to ski at Keystone with the rest of the family. Woohoo. I can't wait.  Well I must run for now.  Have a great week.

Allison

Well here are just a few random photos of the monkeys. Enjoy your day.

Well my little guy woke up this morning complaining of a sore ear.  I made an appointment for this afternoon to have the doc check it out.  As the morning progressed my liitle one began to sob and cry and scream because of the pain.  It seemed like an eternity until his appt. at 2.  Well the doc said he has an ear infection in both ears and the one is really bad!!!!!!!  My little guy has been crying for the last few hours and we finally got home and I put him in our room and he is out like a light.  He is exhausted from all of the crying.  It sure is nice to have total quiet in the house.  I dropped my older son off at work with my hubby before our appt.  He is having a ball with daddy.   He will stay there until my hubby comes home.  Well I must try to get some laundry done and the dishes- oh boy- I think there is a sink under all of those dishes.  Anyway 72 hours until company.  Ahhhh

I finally found medicine for my little one that helped with his cough and runny stuffy nose.  Last night he hardly coughed at all and he could breath very easily because his nose was clear.  He still has a fever this morning but being able to sleep comfortably should help his recovery.  When I woke up this morning my older son  was complaining of a sore throat and when I went to hug him he was hot ( fever)  So I will be taking care of 2 little sick guys today.  I keep saying it is only Tue and there is plenty of time for everyone to be better by Sat. ( family visits from Michigan)  I will try to get some cleaning and cooking done while the boys are quiet today.  Just say a little prayer that I don't get it.    Anyway school is on the backburner today and probably tomorrow.  Thank goodness we are ahead in our school work.  That is all for now.  Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Well we ended last week with Zach getting a fever and just feeling yucky.  Sickness is just never too far away for us.  He has been sick all weekend and last night started this horrible cough.  We have family coming in from out of town on Sat and lots to do to get ready for them.  I am praying that Zach's sickness goes away fast and that no one else gets it.  My head is feeling a bit stuffy and I am fighting very hard to stay well .  The boys have been playing very well together and I am so happy about that. Well that is all for now, must start working on my list of things.  Have a great day!

Here Zach is dipping yarn in glue to make our yarn eggs

Here are the eggs the boys decorated with beads and paint

Here are the yarn eggs drying.

We had fun last week working on crafts for Easter.

This picture was taken today.   We started this 10 days ago and it is time to get the lawn mower out :)  haha.  We have enjoyed watching the grass grow.  This was a very fun project to do.   Enjoy your Friday and weekend. 

We have a white dry erase board hung up in our school room.  The boys love when I teach a lesson using that.  Today we were working on grammar and taking a statement sentence and turning it into a question.  Our workbook had lots of sentences to work on but Jake was excited to do the sentences on the board.  He hopped up from his seat and wrote a statement sentence and then under it turned it into a question.    He did several and got his lesson done with lots of smiles instead of grumbles :)    It is fun to learn new ways to motivate the kids.  I guess that is what homeschooling is all about.  Thinking outside the box! Well the rest of the morning we spent painting plastic eggs and stringing the eggs with beads to hang up on our tree in the kitchen.    There have been some great ideas in www.familyfun.com .  Check out their site if you need some fun ideas!!  Well it is rest time for everyone (yippee) and then T-Ball practice tonight for Jake.  Have a wonderful day!

Allison

Well this week has been very relaxed.  We have been doing lots of fun Easter crafts and working on things to send the Grammy's and Pa for Easter.  We have been enjoying reading fun books from the library and getting some math work and writing done.  My little guy ( 3 1/2 ) is finally sleeping through the night!! woohoo (he went through a period of not wanting to sleep after he got up to potty in the middle of the night.) not fun!!!  My oldest has been eager to learn.  We went through a time when school work was a chore but now we have taken a new direction and he loves it.   I think there are many trying times when raising children but then God gives us a time of peace when everything goes right.  He renews our strength.  Thank goodness for that!!!! The past few days have been great.  I will enjoy it !!!!!!  Have a great evening!

Last Wednesday we started this project.  Look at the previous post for a link with the directions.  I wasn't sure how long it would take to begin to grow .... but.....

....by Friday this was happening......

...and this was taken this morning.  The kids think it is great!!  What fun.  This project really does work and is very easy!!!!  Try it.

Well I am looking out the window and there is lots of snow.  It is very windy and there is lots of blowing snow.  It looks beautiful but I am glad to be in my warm house.   Today will be a relaxed school day - some reading , some math and writing.  We will do some more fun crafts today to get ready for Easter!! 

Hope you all have a fun day.

Allison

Last week my five year old wanted to save a grape in a cup and watch it turn into a raisen    We put two in a cup and have left them on the counter.  The boys have enjoyed checking on the grapes daily to watch it dehydrate!    They think it is very cool.  They love grapes and raisens and they think it is cool to eat the same food 2 different ways! 

School has been good this week.  I let my oldest son pick out his own books from the library to read during school time.  He was very excited and has been reading them a few times a day.  When we went to the library last week it was during the dog reading program.  Jake was very excited to read a book to the dog manny.  All the kids got to take turns reading to him.  What a wonderful way to motivate the children to read.  Zach was sad that he couldn't read yet ( he's 3) but he showed the pictures to Manny :)  We have been enjoying the simple things in life and learning lots from it.   Today we are going to the store to pick up grass seed to start building a grass house.  I will post photos once we get started.   We will use sponges and build a house , then put grass seed all over the sponges and spray it with water daily until the grass begins to grow.  http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11421

Check out the end product!!  Well have a wonderful day.

The boys were very excited to check out the aquarium.  But they had to stop to sit with this guy for a bit!!

We got to see the many layers of teeth on this shark. Very coool.

Here the boys got to stick their heads in a bubble that made them look like they were in the tank.  It was neat for them to see everythin up close.  We also got to see Sea otters that did lots of fun tricks and Jelly fish which we studied about last month.  It is great to learn about things from books but when you can actually see these things alive and moving around it is so much better!!!!