Aug. 27, 2009 - Water Balloon Fight

After the balloons were gone, the hose came out.  Building memories is so important.  I don't remember all the toys and gadgets I had as a kid, but I do remember the people that poured love into my life. 

My prayer is that my girls will remember that we got dirty, we got wet, we dropped things in order to spend time with them, we made sacrifices, we loved them.

Mar. 22, 2009 - Nature Day

Friday we spent the afternoon with friends at Salato in Frankfort.  We love going to Salato.  They have fishing ponds, picnic selters, an indoor nature center, animals native to Kentucky, and hiking trails.  Did I mention that it is FREE!  We love free!

Lulu and Monkey doubled up on their work throughout the week.  All they had to do on Friday morning was Bible, spelling, math, and phonics.  Then we packed our lunch, grabbed our nature bag, and loaded in the van.  Our friends are fairly new to our area so they had never been to Salato before.  We had a great afternoon.

Lil and her buddy, MD!

And we finally were able to get some nature study in!  The kids caught some bugs and observed them.  They did leaf rubbings.  They drew pictures of the bugs.  It was lots of fun.

Lulu, Monkey, and friend E

Now that's cool!

Lil drawing a centipede.  She did a great job.  It really looks like a centipede!

S and MD looking at the fish.

Another great day spent at Salato!

Mar. 7, 2009 - Trip to Indy

We went to the children's museum in Indianapolis a few weeks ago.  It was a great trip away.  The night before we had loads of fun at an indoor waterpark.  The girls really enjoyed the museum.  They have a great exhibit on Ancient Egypt.  This would have been a wonderful addition to our study a couple of years ago.

There are five levels to this museum.  It sounds like a lot, but there was only two or three exhibits on each level.  Right now they have a big Lego exhibit.  It is a knight theme.  The girls enjoyed playing in there for awhile.  James was exciting in the comic book exhibit because they had one of the batmobiles that was actually used in the movie.  He was very tempted to go back right before closing and go under the rope to touch it.  He was good, though, and self-control won out. 

Another really cool thing was the dinosaur world.  Of course, since this is a state museum, they tote the millions of years garbage.  But the displays were wonderful.  They even had a section on dragons.  One of the models of a dragon's head is what James and I envisioning Leviathon looking like.  The girls sat at drawing boards and tried to draw the head.  Lil's was pretty good. 

It was so nice to get away for a couple of days.  We were glad to get back home though.

Mar. 4, 2009 - Geocaching Once Again

Several years ago when Monkey was a baby we stumbled upon a really cool activity called Geocaching. 

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache.

Last night we reintroduced Geocaching.  Lulu remembered most of the other caches we had found.  Monkey was too little to remember any of it.  It was Lil's fist time.  We all had a great time, even though it was a little cold by the time we finished.  We found two caches and were planning to come back home.  Lulu and Monkey begged to find some more.  We ended up finding five caches. 

Geocaching is a great family activity.  The only cost involved is your GPS.  You can find them pretty cheap now.  You don't need a fancy one.  Once you have a GPS, go to the website and create your free account.  Get your coordinates and start hunting.   You will find some really neat places in your area that you did not know were there.  Take a picnic lunch and make a day of it.  We are looking forward to the warmer weather so that we can camp and geocache!

The Groundspeak Geocaching Logo is a registered trademark of Groundspeak, Inc. Used with permission." Please make the "Groundspeak, Inc.

Nov. 26, 2008 - Fun Times

We have had a lot of fun the last month.  First up was our Family Fun Night at our church last month.  We had a chili/pie baking contest.  The kids can dress up if the want to.  Of course....most kids want to!  Lulu made two chocolate sundae pies.  They were yummy, yummy.  She won a prize they were so good!  It was a great evening of fellowshipping with our church family.

Lulu went as Princess Leonore from the Medieval Dinner Show.

Monkey went as Padmae when she married Annikan.

Lil went as SuperGirl!

Three very beautiful little girls if I do say so!!!

Next up on our fun list was a night out bowling.  We had never taken all three girls bowling before.  This was Lil's first time ever.  They all had so much fun.  Their Papaw is a big bowler and James used to be as well.  So needless to say they liked it.  They told their Papaw last weekend when James and I were away for the evening that they wanted to go bowling with him.

Last week we had our annual Thanksgiving Feast Day at co-op.  We love our co-op.  God has blessed our group with a terrific leader and with wonderful Christian families.  It is a strength to me to know that I have women at my fingertips that I can go to with questions and for support.  Anyway back to Feast Day... this year's theme was prairie days.  Since my girls love all things Little House on the Prairie this was perfect for them.  I managed to come up with dresses, aprons, and bonnets for all three.  (Not the best aprons and bonnets, but I tried)  We have several stations set up for the kids to travel to and learn about different aspects of living during that time period. 

Lil was practicing a leaf rubbing.  They also did potato prints.

At this station the kids learned about living without electricity and all the luxuries we live with today.  They listened to a story.  How sweet that Lil is in Lulu's lap!

Here is Monkey at my station.  We talked about how hard it was to get food.  The kids got to crack corn, grind applesauce, and crack nuts.  Thanks to James, some of the boys even got to try their had at using flint and steel.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving.  I know that I will.  I am already extremely blessed. 

Sep. 5, 2008 - We Won!!!!!!

Aug. 12, 2008 - Three Girls and a Boy

Last week my niece, B, went home and her brother, Junior (as my husband lovingly called him all week),  came to visit.  The girls hated to see B go home.  Lulu told her she could just live with us and be her big sister.  It was sweet.  But as much as they hated her leaving, they were equally excited for Junior to be here.

The first thing they did to the poor boy was do his hair.  I was very proud of him.  Not many 13 year old boys would let three little girls put hair bows in his hair.  Junior just sat there with the occasional "Ouch".  To protect his coolness I won't post any pictures of the outcome...although I do have the pictures for the future if necessary!

We were able to take the kids to the Louisville Science Center.  When we got there we were happy to find out that the Car Art Festival was going on right outside the science center.  There were some pretty crazy looking cars there.  My favorite one was the red telephone.  It was really cool on the inside too.

When we left we saw this great mirror wall.  It was concave in shape with lots of mirrors attached.  The results were some neat echoes and really cool pictures.

Jul. 27, 2008 - Four girls in tow

The past week and a half my niece has been visiting with us.  B is twelve years old.  The girls have really enjoyed having her here with us.  It is funny to see reactions and the tone when people ask if they are all mine.  People usually mistake my age to be younger than I am.  B is almost as tall as I am.  There has often been a little relief on their faces when they find out only the three youngest ones are mine. 

We went to the local children's museum yesterday.  The girls had a good time.  They had a couple new exhibits.  Afterwards we walked across to the civic center to visit the chocolate store.  Always a favorite for my girls...

Jun. 22, 2008 - Planning, Planning, Planning

(I just typed this entry, closed the wrong tab. and lost it)

Summer is blowing by us.  I cannot believe it is the end of June already.  We have been out of school for a little over a month now.  I have been planning for next year as well as a summer schedule.  We are starting our summer schedule tomorrow.  I have decided to follow Ambleside Online this year.  Lulu and Monkey are going to be doing year 2 together.  I will be reading most of the books to them.  I went back and forth over which level to begin with and whether to put them in the same level or different ones.  By doing year 2 we will be repeating the Middle Ages in history.   I figure since they will be reading different books this year than last it will be okay.  Lulu can read several of the additional books on her own.  I have nature readers for Monkey to read to me.  Once Lil starts "formal" schooling the girls will all be in the same time period in history.

I am excited to see the difference next year.  We have already started reading Peter Pan together.  The girls are really enjoying it so I think they will love all of the literature this year.  Tomorrow when we begin our lite summer schedule.  We will be doing a lot of the readings from year 1.

As far as our summer activities go...we were able to go camping again a few weekends ago.  It was very hot but we had fun anyway.  We hiked in the mornings and went to the pool after lunch.  The girls loved both of those.  We put up a small pool for them this year.  They are loving it, except for the swimmer's ear!  All three of them are doing so much better swimming.  And so far I have only had to rescue Lil twice from a pool.  She has no fear and will bob up and down off the bottom until someone grabs her.  While we were camping the girls were able to observe lots of little creatures.  We had a blue tail lizard that hung around camp for a long time, lots of cicaidas, butterflies, a corn snake, and a chipmunk.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera.

James has been able to camp alot this month.  He led a group of men from church on a backpacking trip this past Friday.  They had a great time and are planning to do it again in the fall.  He will also be camping with his boys in his Royal Rangers class at their annual Pow-Wow.  As for the family campouts...probably not again until fall.  Tent camping has many benefits....but in 90+ degree weather I'd much rather stay in a hotel.  We are hoping to do some day hikes though.

The girls just finished a few days of Ministry Camp at church.  They learned how to use different skills and activities to minister to others.  All three of them participated.  They learned crafts, cake decorating, caring for pets, encouraging, planting flowers, musical instruments, and painting.  James helped some of the kids with constucting bird houses and I helped with the flowers.  It was a good time for the kids.  I still prefer a good 'ole Vacation Bible School though.  Maybe next year...

Jun. 5, 2008 - More About Vacation

Notice the big "CAUTION MAY BITE" sign.  No fear for this Daddy and Lil.  Several times she had her hand all the way through the fences to either feed or touch the animals.  So far she has never gotten bit.  Except for the neighbor's dog!

We went to Barefoot Landing one day.  They have a store called Teddy Bear Circus (I think).  It is like Build-A-Bear.  The girls had to jump in order to stuff their animals.  Lil would not do it so Monkey jumped for her.

Lulu adopted a zebra named "Lulu".  Monkey adopted a giraffe named "Ginger".  Lil adopted an elephant named "Dave". 

We also went to Alligator Adventure at Barefoot Landing.  We all really enjoyed this place.  There were over 1,000 alligators and crocodiles.  Kind of creepy at times....  Everywhere you walked you were surrounded by them.  Monkey even got to pet one during one of the demonstration shows!

After that we went to see them feed the alligators.  Two girls walked out a little bridge and began tapping on the side.  The alligators began swarming that area.  They feed them chicken.  They would jump up out of the water to snap the chicken.  It was really cool to watch.

I have some pictures from the Medieval Dinner Show we went to but they are on my other camera.  I have not loaded them yet.  When I get to it I will post those photos as well.

After this weekend I am sure I will have some more fun family photos too...