Picnic in the Den

Bill wasn't home for dinner last night so we decided it would be fun to have a picnic in the den. We all ate at the coffee table, except Amy who ate happily in her highchair, but also in the den. It was a lot of fun. To get in the spirit of Fall, we watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Gotta love the ol' classic!

Caught in the Act

Who keeps pulling the books off the bookshelf????

Ohhhh..... Finally the guilty party has been caught in the act!

More Pictures

Alex drew this picture this morning after we read The Airplane Alphabet Book during homeschool. First he drew the airplane and I asked him if it was a Zero like the one in the book and he said yes. Paw-Paw would be proud. Then he drew a house with a road and cars, a dinosaur (yes, don't you have those in your neighborhood?) and a very tall apple tree.

Alex drew this picture last night on his Magnadoodle. I just had to take a picture of it. We recently bought the Get to Know Joe! Blues Clues DVD and Alex just loves it! It's the only time you ever see Steve and Joe in the same episode. He actually hasn't watched it for a couple days, but I imagine that DVD is what influenced this picture of Joe, Steve (see the striped shirt) and side table drawer. I thought it was too cute!

Fun at the Fire Station

Our local fire station has an open house every year to allow those interested to come view the station and fire engines and EMS vehicles up close. We went last year and Alex and Nathan had a lot of fun climbing around the fire trucks. This year I stayed home with Amy while she napped and Bill took the boys to the open house. What fun they had! I was informed when they got home that not only did they get to look at the fire engine up close, but they also got to ride it - with the sirens going!!! I can't imagine how exciting that would be for a child. Actually, I think Bill got a big kick out of it, too. Then after that thrill they got to jump in a moonwalk and eat cookies. You can't beat that!

Here they are standing on the fire engine! Bill took this while they were riding on top of the fire engine.

Future Artists?

I just thought I'd post a few pictures the boys drew this morning.

Alex drew the first three pictures shown. The first one is a picture of a house and the moon at night. On the back of the same sheet he drew the house during the day when the sun is up.

I love this picture. Alex first drew the heart (he calls hearts "valentines") and then he drew me and himself. Isn't that sweet? On the front of his shirt he drew a space ship; his daddy recently bought him a new shirt displaying a space shuttle and ever since he got it he's been putting a "space ship" on any drawing of himself.

Nathan's art work... Not real sure what he drew, but he said the smaller circles are buttons. :)

Finally Finished!

I have been working on this quilt for such a long time now. It was my first big quilting project - I have since completed several smaller projects since beginning this one! I guess because I was a novice, I made mistake after mistake while piecing it and each time I'd make a mistake, I'd put it away for great lengths of time because I just didn't want to think about it anymore. Now that I've completed several smaller quilts, I felt comfortable enough to finish it, mistakes and all. And the funny thing is, in the end, all those imperfections seem miniscule now that the project is complete and it hangs on the beautiful quilt rack in my den... the quilt rack my husband so lovingly bought for me a couple years ago and hung it for me as a constant reminder that I needed to finish my quilt. It looks much better with something hanging on it. :)

New Toy

Isn't it funny how any new toy, even if it is a baby one, draws the interest of all the children in the house? Last night my husband Bill got down the little walking toy we used for both boys when they were babies learning to walk and it was an instant hit with Amy... and Alex and Nathan. It was all we could do to make them let her have a turn. Of course we let them have their turns at it, but after much fighting I banned them from playing with it for awhile. But I did give in and let Nathan play with it a little while ago, and now he says it's his and refuses to let Amy touch it. But as my mom reminded me, it will quickly get old to them and then Amy can use it with no interference.

First Day of School

Today we finally began our preschool lessons at home. Since we are already a third of the way into September, I decided I'd procrastinated long enough. I think my delay to start teaching was out of my fear for how Alex and especially Nathan would do during lessons with me teaching. I just didn't feel confident that they would sit and listen. But today my fears were washed away and my boys showed me that they can sit still long enough to be taught, and they even did it with enthusiasm!

We are following a Catholic preschool program called Little Saints that was recommended to me by one of my dearest friends. I ordered it a long time ago and it has sat on a shelf, awaiting the day I'd feel ready to homeschool. I recently took the time to thoroughly read it, and now I am so excited about working with my children as we go through this wonderful program together. I am really pleased with the curriculum and I think we'll all have a lot of fun with it.

Today we discussed how God loves us and we belong to Him. We talked about how God made each of us special. The kids had fun looking into a mirror to see how God made each of them special. We also played a few learning games, sang songs, read books and painted. The whole lesson only took a little over an hour to complete and the kids had so much fun. We are all looking forward to our next lesson!

2006 Family Reunion

Back in 1963, my grandmother and her siblings began having an annual reunion to keep in contact with one another. Over the years the attendance at the reunion has grown as each of their own families have grown. I can remember when I was little how much I enjoyed playing with my cousins each year. Now I look forward to seeing my children play with my cousins' children!

This past weekend we attended the 44th family reunion. It was smaller than usual due to both good and bad circumstances. It was also held at a new location (it's been at the same place for at least 9 years). The new place was not that far from the old one. This was good because it allowed us to stay at the familiar hotel where the kids always have a good time playing in the pool, and rearranging furniture...


The reunion took place in a very small town - population barely over 300. We rented a room out of the community center, which used to be a school. It had real hard wood floors and such country charm. Our reunion was catered, something we've only been doing for the last several years to make it easier on everyone. Each family does bring a dessert, however, so after a delicious meal of barbecued brisket, sausage, beans and potato salad, you have your choice of at least 10 fantastic desserts! It's really not necessary to eat for several days after the reunion.


All the children had so much fun! They played outside most of the day at the nearby park and baseball field. The picture shows the nicely shaded playset.

We were all very tired by the end of the day and still had a long drive home. But we had a good time and saying goodbye to all of our relatives is always hard. But we'll be back next year!

Introductions

I'm still learning how to post to my blog, and time doesn't allow me to experiment much with all the features. But I have a little time this evening and thought I'd give it a shot. Below are a few pictures to introduce my family.

Here are my two boys, Alex and Nathan. Alex is four and is really into superheroes. He's been a big fan of Buzz Lightyear for a long time now, but the current hero is Batman. Any guesses who he is going to be for Halloween? His favorite color is green and he loves to draw pictures of Buzz and Batman. Nathan is two (almost three). Nathan loves to explore - and get into EVERYTHING! He is quite the character and makes us laugh often (when he's not getting into trouble :) ). He loves sports and vacuum cleaners - yes, vacuum cleaners. His favorite show is Blues Clues and he loves to draw lunchboxes.

This is Amy. She just turned 10 months old this past weekend. Amy is learning to do so much. She's been pulling up for the last couple months, but in past weeks she has been standing up with no help; she'll get into a squat position in the middle of the room and will just stand up. She'll be walking in no time! Amy loves her brothers. She follows them everywhere and gets into everything they are playing with. She waves and even says what sounds like "hi" and "bye". She also loves attention. She expects complete strangers to talk to her and play with her and if they walk by without giving her the attention she wants, she frowns at them and gives them quite a stare. But would you believe she's actually shy? Keep your distance, or she'll greet you with a big pout and a whole lot of tears.

This is all of is. The picture is a little old (Easter), but it was the first one I came across that had me and my husband in it. As parents, we take all the pictures and are rarely in them. And that's fine by me! The only one not in the picture is our almost seven-year-old dog, Shelby. She is a beautiful tri-color Sheltie. I'll have to post her picture soon.

So now when you read my blog, you will know who makes up "my family zoo". :)