Friday, July 22, 2011

Our New Learning Center

This is something I've been working on for awhile
and it's still not finished but I will probably keep adding/changing it for awhile
So I thought I should just post it.

I am not the kind of person to homeschool my children.
Anyone who does is amazing and I applaud you and your awesomeness.
So my children will go to public school.
But I do feel that there is a pretty big gap between what is taught at school and what the kids need to know.
So my solution is to send them to school and make up that gap at home.
And I'm hoping this little area will help make that easier and more fun.

So here's the big reveal.
The buckets have the chalk and eraser in them and they are up high enough that Mason can't reach them :)
I still need to put up trim around the chalkboard and bulletin board
and I need more buckets for the pegboard
but I'm pretty happy with it and the kids spend tons of time playing with everything.

In the next post I'll show you how I organize all the craft stuff we have.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Crayon Melting Experiment

If you decide to be a crazy person and walk outside your air conditioned house
you will notice it is HOTT
Not single T hot
Double T HOTT
So as the kids and I were talking about how hot it is and what would happen if it were 485 degrees
we wondered if it was hot enough to melt a crayon.
So we made our hypothesis.
 Braeden said No
Ava said Yes
I said Yes
Reed said Yes
And because Braeden didn't want to be the only one saying no he claims to have heard Mason say No

We put some of our old crayons outside and this was the result
Isn't it beautiful!
I can see a melted crayon art project coming soon.
It is hot enough to melt a crayon and probably fry an egg!
And of course the kids couldn't have all that ooey goodness and not touch it.
But at least they used sticks!
As a little side note I noticed that the washable crayons melted faster than the regular ones.
It would be interesting to try it with different brands and see what happens.
If anyone tries it let me know how it goes!

Monday, July 18, 2011

My Obsession (well one of them)

I have a few obsessions.
If I weren't so cheap I would probably have a few more.
Around this time of year I get so excited about the amazing sales on school supplies.
I'm not really sure why I get all warm and fuzzy when I open a box of new crayons
but I do and have since I was little.
As much as I hated going back to school I loved buying my supplies.
I think maybe it's because it's one time you get to start fresh.
It's not very often that you get to go into something with new everything.
I'm not even going to school but I'm still just as excited to get my kids stuff and refresh their craft supplies.
So out with the old
And in with the new.
So what's one of your obsessions??

The Rest of our Crazy Saturday

Saturday was some serious craziness.
But it was crazy fun so it was worth it.
In the morning we had Braeden's last baseball game.
I love watching him play and seeing how much he truly enjoys learning about the game.
He's so happy when he's playing and he clings to every little detail his coach tells him.
I'm so happy I have at least one little athlete.








 They got the cutest little bobble head trophies this year.

I'm so proud of how much he's improved 
and I can't wait till next year when Ava's on his team.

After the excited ball game we went home, got cleaned up and headed to Reed's company picnic at Paige's Crossing.
It was really nice having an afternoon of fun that I didn't have to pay for!





We had a blast going on ride after ride after ride.
I'm really glad they added the fun rides because I despise putt putt.
I'm not a patient person and I'm not good at putting.
Doesn't really go well together.
We all had a blast together and I can't wait to do it again!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Baby shower for baby Daisy


Yesterday I hosted a baby shower for my cousin and her soon to arrive bundle of joy.
I hope she enjoyed the party as much as I enjoyed planning it.
I have to apologize to my cousin and sister-n-law because their showers were before I decided I could be crafty and creative.
Sorry :(
Anyway I just wanted to show you a few pictures of how cute it turned out.
I decided to go with a cookie bar for dessert because I really have a sweet tooth.
And when you have cookies you have to have milk.
So cookies and milk it was!
I am in LOVE with these straws!  
Seriously so stinkin' cute!
I bought them from So&such etsy shop.
 Of course I had to have daisies because that is going to be the babies name.
As a side note they are also my favorite flower.
"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?"
Why yes I do.
Anyway...


 For one of our activities I put all the letters of the alphabet on pieces of paper and everyone had to draw something that went with that letter. Then I put them all in an album for Daisies first Alphabet Book.
I must say we had some pretty impressive artists in the group
and for people who draw like me we had some stickers :)
The last game we played was pretty entertaining but you have to have a brave bunch of ladies to get participation.
Lucky for me we had a few.
It's Bobbing for Binkies!
Just like bobbing for apples but with binkies.


Overall I think it everyone had a good time.
Tomorrow I'll post about the rest of our crazy Saturday 
because hosting a shower wasn't enough for me.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Sunday Outing

On most Sundays we come home from church, eat some lunch,
take turns taking naps, then go for a little walk.
This Sunday we decided to take our walk to the Forks of the Wabash trail
and I'm so glad we mixed it up bit.

If you don't already know I am trying to get started with photography
so I take my camera with me everywhere.
The quality of these photos show you that I have learned absolutely nothing!
But you can definitely see how much fun we had together
and that's beautiful no matter what the quality is.

This is my little model. She loves having her picture taken and knows how to strike a pose like nobody's business.

She was being such a stink about getting in the water. She wanted to but it hurt her feet so she wouldn't walk. But Braeden was moving around and she wanted to be by him. When she finally stopped with the drama she had a blast and didn't want to stop playing.




Braeden of course is solid boy.  Jumped right in the water 
and started splashing around and looking at bugs.
He loves to be out exploring in nature and I love that about him.

Mason mostly hung out in his stroller but the second I put him down things started going straight in his mouth.
Rocks, sand, sticks whatever he could find.
 I had Reed take a couple pictures of me with the 
because I am always behind the camera and not in the pictures which I 
am pretty ok with but I want them to know that they did have a mother and I was around lol.
 Ava was done being photogenic by this point lol
And of course Reed was with us.  I think he was a little frustrated with all of my picture taking because he was holding the chunky monkey.  Nothing light about that kid.
I saved my favorites for last.
I can't even describe how much I love watching Braeden and Ava playing together.
They love each other so much and get along so well most of the time.
As much as I was so not ready to have another baby 18 months after Braeden was born
I am equally glad I did.
It reminds me of my brother and all the fun we had/trouble we caused growing up together. (Love ya Scotty!)


I hope your Sunday was as wonderful as ours!


Friday, July 8, 2011

Crazy Little Whiner

Ava has become the pickiest little eater.
She is also slightly extremely dramatic.
I decided the other night that I am tired of cooking around her
and everything she says she doesn't like.
Last night we made little pizzas using zucchini instead of crust
(really yummy by the way)
Braeden ate 4 bites then asked for something else
which I'm fine with.
Ava wouldn't try it.
She just wanted to eat the cheese off the top.
So she ended up crying and whining for about 3 hours 
then went to bed without dinner.
So I'm wondering how everyone else handles there picky eaters
and if your children are so stubborn they will go to bed hungry 
rather than try a tiny bite of something.
I need some support/ideas because I can not handle all of this girls drama.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

4th of July Fun

I had an amazing holiday weekend and I thought I would post a few pictures
of the exciting things we did.














Hope you all had an exciting weekend and are recuperating better than I am.