Hunt School Festival

This past weekend, we went to my parent's to celebrate Granny's birthday.  While we were there we hit up the local community school's Halloween festival.  I remember attending when I was a little girl and my mom has always wanted to take us.
The girls were most excited about the parade aka as marching from the community park up the hill to the school.  There was one couple sitting in their car waving at children, the kids didn't seem to mind as LE told me it was a dream-come-true to march in a parade.
We met several of our friends from my hometown, including one of my oldest friends (i.e known him the longest) and his wife.  His little boy had the cutest costume in my opinion (top right photo).

homemade costumes

I love my kids' creativity.   For Halloween, Boo wanted to be a Halloween girl, LE wanted to be a spider and the boys did not have a choice, R2 was Carl Fredricksen from UP!  Boo imagined her costume herself and created it from items she had in her wardrobe already.  LE explained her ideas to us and between Mommy, Gigi and Mimi we were able to create a pretty cute spider costume, well as cute as a spider can be.
With the help of PawPaw and the local resale shop, R2's costume turned out really cute too.  He was chosen as a finalist in a local costume contest, but did not make the final cut b/c of his age.

shutterfly

The girls recently found a butterfly in the backyard.  They did not realize she was injured thus the reason she would not fly away and wanted to hang around for so long.
That evening, we were sitting downstairs and heard this awful wailing coming from the girls' room.  Both girls were sobbing on their beds.  Ben thought they must have collided and hit heads the way they were both carrying on.  It turns out the girls had released the butterfly in the backyard b/c I told them she would die if they kept her in the butterfly house for too long.  "We are going to miss her. She was so much fun.  She is going to die and have no one to take care of her eggs.  Sob, Sob, Sob."
When we went to the backyard, Shutterfly was right where Bella had left her, so we put her back in the butterfly house along with some flowers and grass.  Unfortunately, Shutterfly did not make it through the night, but for some reason the girls were ok with it when they found her.  I could not believe the drama.  What is life going to be like in five years?

another snaggle-tooth

The tooth fairy is working over time at our house this year.  And now, she has a second kiddo to collect teeth from.  Bella lost her first tooth recently.
Landry has now lost seven.  Landry lost a tooth one day, Bella lost hers the next.  No wonder the tooth fairy forgot to pick the tooth up one night and had to leave a note to apologize.

American Girl - Kaya

This month was our turn to lead our American Girl club.   We chose Kaya, a Nez Perce Native American girl growing up in the 1760's.  I am so glad Kirsten had already been picked b/c we learned so much about the Native Americans through our preparations and with the help of PawPaw.
The girls had a round table discussion about the book and we discovered only a few girls had actually read the book.  PawPaw aka "Mountain Moses" taught us a lot about the Native Americans.  He taught us how to start a fire, trap beaver and how to catch a rabbit with a knife and tomahawk.
For the art projects, we made story sticks and Mimi taught us how to sew a leather bag and use beads to decorate.  We snacked on popcorn, seeds, dried fruit, jerky and apple cider.  I have gotten tons of compliments from other moms and girls in the group.  PawPaw enjoyed receiving so many hugs, he said public school kids don't usually love on him at their ages.

wordless Wednesday

Cedar Creek Dinosaur Park

This past weekend, we cashed in another groupon find at the Cedar Creek Dinosaur Park.  There were several life-sized dinosaur exhibits and I had hoped there would be some dinosaur tracks or fossils, but they were also replicas.  I had heard about the park through homeschool field trip ideas and things to do around Austin.  I am glad we did not pay full price b/c it was only a nature walk with dinosaur facts and large replicas.  There was a scavenger hunt with 15 clues.  At the end of the trail there was a place to dig up dinosaur bones and a playscape.  It was a deal for the price we payed, but I think next time we will venture to Glen Rose to see the fossils.  If you have a dinosaur hunter in your family or are doing a study on dinosaurs it could be worth the full cost of admission.

silver sneakers day

The Y recently celebrated silver sneakers by offering classes to the public on a Friday afternoon.  Most of the regular members had already participated in the cardio class earlier that morning and did not stick around for another hour of exercise.  We offered all 3 formats yoga, cardio, and muscular strength in 20 minutes segments.  I had already committed to teaching the muscular strength class before I had to resign my position.  It was good b/c a couple who watches H for me were able to participate and they had never seen silver sneakers classes before.

Tiana's beignets

I am on a Cajun cooking kick lately.  I have made jambalaya, red beans and rice, gumbo and beignets. I used Tiana's recipe for beignets, but I am discovering she is a much better cook in the movies than I am.
On the topic of Tiana, I want to go back to Disneyworld.  I mean there are ads everywhere, my friend from the gym is there now checking in on facebook with her every move.  My friend Cari was rewarded with a trip and they are in their final countdown for departure.  Ben pretty much summed it up for me during my last whining session, "chances of going to DW right now, are right along with his chances of getting a new motorcycle".  Point Taken.

Bella dancerella

Boo is our little performer, whether it is singing, dancing, or putting on plays for the family.  Every day is a performance.

Recently, I found a living social deal for a month of dance lessons.  After one lesson, she is hooked.  I am on the lookout for something closer to the house and hopefully something with other homeschoolers b/c I don't like being out of the house another evening during the week.  I also don't like the gossipy Moms, are all dance moms this proud of their 4 and 5 year olds?  I have never heard so much brag in all of my life.  The pictures are taken through a one-way window which I had to lean over rubbermaid containers that was at my chin-height to see my kiddo, so my calves were on fire way before the hour and half class was over.  She had a blast, I am working on my attitude.

wordless wednesday - book worm

Keepers Kick Off

This past week was our first keepers meeting of the year.  I missed the info meeting b/c of R2's tubes surgery, so when I went to sign up only one month was left.  It was OK b/c I knew what I wanted to teach, it was just a matter of getting the supplies ready.  We worked on our stamping badges and I was able to use my mad stampin' up skills from past to teach the girls "proper technique".  Bella informed me she had fun, but I talked too much.  It looks like it is going to be a much bigger group this year and the moms already  more involved than last year.
I was also asked to lead the keepers club this year.  I am not sure what all it entails since each mom teaches each month and Miss Debbie already does a fantastic job teaching Bible.  We are learning the Lord's Prayer this year.  I am excited about the possibilities.  I am also excited about the new girls and moms we have met.  You may have noticed the little girl Boo has been sitting by.  We met her last month at AG club.  Her and Boo have a terrific bond, I cannot wait to see it blossom.

Science curriculum - apologia

I have finally found a science curricula that I am excited about.  I have seen it presented it at multiple curriculum shares and several friends have highly recommended it.  Our neighbor home schools also uses this curriculum.  Kirsty loaned me her science book and even gave us the links to her lapbook to preview.  At 100 pages (per child) in color, I figured it was cheaper to purchase the science journal than print out, assemble and create lapbooks for each girl.  Kirsty's girls taught the girls the first lesson in our science book.  It was so great, hoping they will want to come to do that again soon.  We sorted our family's shoes into kingdoms, phylums, classes, orders, families, genuses, and species.  It was a great object lesson and I am hoping the rest of the year keeps our attention as well as the introduction b/c we will be learning about botany for an entire school year.

sleepover and smores

Monet inspired artwork

This past week's artist was Claude Monet.  We studied Water Lilies - Morning.  We started by tearing strips of greens, blues, purples and turquoise tissue paper.  Then we glued them onto white cardstock.  We made lilies by cutting out circles in green and white tissue paper and then adding pink accents.

wordless wednesday

bedroom makeover

For some reason neither girl wants to sleep on the top bunk any more, and we keep finding both in the bottom bunk each night.  I have slept with both girls and I have no idea how any sleep is happening.

Daddy asked the girls if they would give up some floor space and toys to make room for two beds.  I told them I would not give any toys away, but some were going to the shed.  I cleaned out four bags of toys to the shed and one bag of trash.  After about an hour, I told the girls they were excused from "helping" and they could go watch a movie, so I could really purge.  Three hours later, we had the big reveal.  So far the girls have not noticed their puppet stage, Barbies, a dozen stuffed animals and a basket of my little ponies are put away.  The plan is if any of them are missed, something will have to go to the shed to get them back.  I also cleaned out the classroom and pantry this past week of four shelves of toys, puzzles and manipulatives that I was picking up on a daily basis.

a dance and a chili cook-off

This past weekend, we attended the Silver Sneakers Chili Cook-off and fall dance.  The girls participated in the cook-off by creating a pot of chili with their own secret ingredient (LOVE, nope can't make this stuff up).    Landry's favorite line is "this is the best night ever" and we heard that comment several times.  We danced a couple of line dances and had some great desserts.  The girl's pot of chili didn't place, but one of the winners gave the girls her gift card to Wal-Mart.  After the dinner one of my friends from class came over to play with the kids so we could go watch the games.  We enjoyed some good drinks at BJ's Brewhouse, we were to full from chili and dessert, but we did try the pesto stuffed mushrooms and they were excellent.

American Girl Club

We have joined the American Girl club in our home school group this year.  Each month we are to read about one of the historical girls and then take turns presenting (a time of crafts, games and snacks) from that time period.  As soon as I told the girls we were joining (back in May) Landry asked if we could teach about Kirsten.  But when we got the monthly sign-up sheet the only girl that had been picked was, you guessed it Kirsten.  We had to learn a lesson about making plans and things not going the way we want.  The girls talked it over (Bella didn't care) and decided on Kaya for our month.  We are presently reading and preparing for later this month when we will teach about the Nez Perce Indians.
For Kirsten's time period, 1854 we had cornbread and Danish cookies.  We played pick up sticks and made a spinning color wheel (I cannot remember the name and google isn't much help).

the new normal

This past Tuesday was my last official day at the Y.  I will continue to sub and attend socials and hopefully someday will be able to go back to teaching the silver sneakers classes.  In the meantime, we are trying to find a new normal.

This week, R2 has had two dr appts, one with his ENT and one with the ophthalmologist.  When he had his hearing test before the tubes, his hearing was at 40 (normal is between 0-20), at his follow up, he was between 15-20.  Since the surgery he has added a lot of words, mostly grunts, but our new fave word is Beba (Bella), it makes for a very proud sister.  At his ophthalmologist appt we found out he has strabismus.  Doctor said it was a mild case and recommended we have him tested again in six months to see if it has corrected itself.  He said we could do glasses, but good luck with keeping them on.
On Wednesday, was our first day in a long time to complete everything on our school checklists.  I was even able to go to the grocery store during the boy's nap time.  I felt very successful at the end of the day when I looked back and noticed what I had achieved; school work, bed made, 2 loads of laundry, grocery store, taught aqua at 24, my workout (CXworx) and a pot of Paula Deen's noodle soup in everyone's belly.  I am hoping this is a trend.