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.

giving up my cape

Superwoman, I am not.  And I have learned over the past few weeks I have to give up on trying to be Super Mom too.  The girl's schoolwork is becoming more demanding, R2 is needing me more (sharing his Mommy-time does not come easy), and Harrison doesn't want to nap, unless it is on me.  There are good days, but if anything comes up during the day that is out of the ordinary; dentist/doctor appointments, staff meetings, and there seems to be one of those every week lately.  So, I had to make a gut-wrenching decision in giving up my classes at the local Y.  You have to understand, my members in my seniors' classes are some of my favorite people on the planet.  I have become great friends with them and a few of them have become our support system over the past few months.  I hope it is just for a season because I really love being with them.  I think lately it has been the only thing I feel successful with.

Wordless Wednesday - story time

Granny and Grandma

bowling adventure

We recently went to a cousin's bowling birthday.  The girls had never been bowling before.  They are expert bowlers on the Wii and they assumed their mad skills would transfer over.  Not really.
There were a few tears, but finally they knocked over some pins.  Bella has decided she wants a bowling party for her birthday, thinking we are going to have to practice before then.