And Another Thing...

Wordless Wednesday: The Sisters

The attack of the humongous rabbit

Do you remember Ruth a few months ago?

Well, here she is now!  We cannot believe how big she has gotten in just 7 months.  She's not done growing yet either.  We expect her to end up somewhere around 20 pounds when it's all said and done.  They don't call them Flemish Giants for nothing.

Word games

Olivia was bored of workbooks the other day (who wouldn't be?) so I made up this game to help her with reading and spelling.

Needed materials:  Letter tiles, counting manipulatives, pencil, paper

We spread out the letter tiles face up and then I chose a word for Olivia to spell.  She sounded out each letter and then spelled her word (I helped if she needed it).  After she spelled it correctly, she added up the numbers on the letter tiles for her score.  Then she chose a word for me to spell and we repeated the process.  She actually spelled out my letters too, but I don't think she realized it.  She also added up my score as well. 

I cannot believe how much fun she had with this, she spent the entire time giggling!  I was also amazed that she spelled "queen" correctly.  I loved that she practiced her phonics, spelling and addition skills all in one shot.  I think we will be playing this game quite a bit in the future.

Wordless Wednesday: Hijacked camera

The weight of learning

Our good friend, John, gave us this fabulous scale last week and we have weighed just about everything in our house now.  When I say everything, I do mean it...

We start out with harmless weights...

Quickly move on to pantry items...

Then progress to snack foods...

And then they weighed the cat. 

Cattie was not appreciative of this and we were not able to get an accurate weight.  We were able to practice first aid after she scratched Olivia in her attempt to get away.  Hey, science is science people.

What learning looks like right now...

Yep, that's right.  We're doing a whole lot of sitting and writing right now with some fun activities thrown in.  This is Olivia's first grade year and she is really into "school" right now, so we have a curriculum plan and we're going to town on it.  She loves math right now and is having a great time with history.

Benny and Braidon wanted to learn about the ancient Romans this year, so I found a book that is acting like a guide and we're having fun with that too.  This week we start learning about the 7 kings of ancient Rome.  I also found a nice science curriculum for them to follow.  Luckily, that is heavy on experiments, so it's not all book-work.

I have several posts this week about the other things that we're doing in our quest for learning.  We've been making Etruscan arches, weighing things, starting a business creating new games and so many more things!

Signs of the season

The trees are celebrating the season with a glorious display of color in our neighborhood.  It is such a joy to see the changes that happens daily.

The pumpkins are sitting patiently on the front porch, waiting to find out what they will turn into.

The burning bushes are all ablaze right now!  I love how bright and vibrant they get this time of year, as if they are trying go out with a bang.

Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!

Oliver has been playing soccer on Thursday nights on a team that his company sponsors.  A few weeks ago, he scored this goal and someone happened to catch it on film.  Take a look at that poor goalie who just got his patoot kicked!

More fun at the pumpkin patch

 We decided to take our out-of-town- guests to the local haymaze/pumpkin patch last Sunday to spend the afternoon.  The place was crazy busy, but we had so much fun that the kids had to be dragged to the car!

Saragh found a new puppy friend.  We've seen this dog being walked and the first time, we thought it was a calf!  It is a huge dog, but quietly obliged all of Saragh's cuddling and hugging.        I love this action shot of Olivia! 

   Of course, Saragh had to spend some quality time with the horses.  When she saw all the little ponies and huge Percherons, she was literally shaking with excitement!  I thought we were going to have to stand there loving that horse all afternoon.

Olivia and Noah had a great time together all weekend.  We were very happy that they clicked so well.

We had a very hard time deciding which pumpkin we wanted and we ended up going home with three.

FO: Francis Revisted

 

I whipped this little beauty up a couple of weeks ago and I love it so much!  It's knit in Malabrigo worsted which is like knitting with butter.  It's so soft and warm and cuddly.  I could easily sleep in this sweater, it's so comfortable.  I raveled it here, if you want the whole review.

Wordless Wednesday: Wild Thing

 

Natural History

Olivia has been studying prehistory this fall and is now getting read to move on to ancient history.  To celebrate, we took a trip to the Natural History museum at U of M.

  

 

 

 

The museum was too dark to get very good pictures.  There was so much to see and do that we are planning several more trips in the near future.  It's great to have such a neat resource so close and free to boot!

Ditch the Disposables Challenge: Reusable cloth snack bags

As part of the Ditch the Disposables Challenge, I decided to make some reusable cloth snack bags for my kids.  The tutorial came up in one of the blogs I read and I knew that it would be a hit! 
These were ridiculously easy to make and I think from cutting to finished product it took about 30 minutes to make five.  I used unbleached muslin for the lining, scrap fabric for the outside and hook and loop tape from the dollar bin at the fabric store; so in addition to being easy, it was also cheap (like the cost of 2 boxes of plastic snack bags).  I'm going to take the time later this week to make up a second batch so that we have a spare for each kid.

Unexpected Blog Break

 

I am sure that you have all noticed that there has been a bit of a break on this blog.  We have had an incredibly busy few weeks and I have not been able to find the motivation to post. 

After a much needed rest, I hope to be back on track to get some posts up!

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Bliss