We're BAAAACK! (In Texas, that is!)

After moving every 12 months for the last couple of years, we are back in our Texas home.  It really feels like we never left.

Happy Birthday LJ!

LJ turned 4 on the 1st!  We are so blessed by this energetic, funny, inquisitive little gal.  Here are her 20 questions for this year:

1. What is your favorite color? Red and pink
2.  What is your favorite toy? Singing machine
3. What is your favorite fruit? Straberries and blueberries
4. What is your favorite TV show? Doc Mcstuffins
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut Butter & Jelly
6. What is your favorite outfit? Dresses
7. What is your favorite game? Picnic game
8. What is your favorite snack? Strawberries
9. What is your favorite animal? Elephant like Ellie, stuffed animal
10. What is your favorite song? "I love the way you hold me" and "God's Not Dead"
11. What is your favorite book? Dora the Explorer
12. Who is your best friend? Sienna (next door)
13. What is your favorite sport? slip n slide
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play fairies
15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk and OJ
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Horsey and Ellie
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Golden Grahams, Rice Checks, Cherios
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Hotdogs
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A cheerleader

Summer Time!!

Let the summering begin!!  Yesterday was officially our last day of school.  The girls finished up their self-assigned reports and so we are off!! Today we are having 'Field Day' with family.  A great way to start our summer.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

We have a week left of school!  (Well, at least our more formal form of school)  School never stops, really I have plans for a math facts challenge and reading minutes challenge for the Summer.  Anyway, we are all excited for a more flexible schedule.
We are wrapping up our year with a few projects.  Our Social Studies focus this year was World Geography.  So, we are planning on having a country fair displaying our lap books and other work from around the world.  We also have a test on all of the countries we were identifying in the Geography game.  We took the same test (mom and dad included) at the beginning of the year, with comical results.  It will be fun for the Girls to see how many countries in the World they know now.  In a combined Science/Geography project the girls are making a model of all of the geography terms we learned this year from our "Geography A-Z" book.  Science was learning about ecosystems this year and many of the terms we learned go hand in hand with Geography.  Love integration! The girls are also finishing up reports for English.  Lindsay is doing a report on England and Leslie is doing a report on Koalas.  They chose their topics from things they wanted to learn more about from Geography or Science.  The girls completely pushed to do these reports, it wasn't in the plan but I went with it.  That is one of the great things about home school, If the girls want to pursue something, I can let them run with it!
We are trying to finish out our Math books, but it looks like we will be leaving a few lessons for the beginning of next year.  They are so close but as the weather is getting better and Summer is almost here, it is harder to get them to focus on math lessons.  We want to be able to say we are done with school on the 14th so whatever is done by then is where we will end it.
Finally, the girls will end the year with their state-required testing.  WA state requires that each homeschooler over 8 must take a standardized test.  I am having Leslie tested even though she doesn't technically have to.  I don't put much stock into the results of these but I am always interested to see the results.  Having looked at the practice test, I am pretty confident the girls will do well.
I will finish with some pictures of the last few months.  It has been fun!  And I am looking forward to next year, but ready for the break!

Lindsay works on her geography model

Koala treats while studying Australia (didn't work out great)

We discovered an online American Girls club via currclick.com

Making Fabrege Eggs in Russia

A visit to the Pacific Ocean while studying oceans in science, we saw a whale!! 

We made Babushka Dolls for Russia

Origami in Japan

Our volcano model

The final volcano for some reason I didn't get a pic of the eruption.

School Catch up

I also need to catch up with school.  We have not been slacking off .  I truly meant to post every week.  Well, home school and new baby keep a Mommy busy!  We have been having a great year.  We have our struggles.  But we survive.  I can't believe we have less than 9 weeks left!  Some highlights up to now:

 Playing The Geography Game in dress up clothes

 Practicing spelling words with playdoh

 Making fiesta flowers

experimenting with the strength of eggshells

 Learning how to sew a pillow

 A trip to the Zoo - this orangutan was playing peek a boo with LJ.

LJ spells her name for the first time!

A trip to the Pacific Science Center

A trip to Outer Space (Boeing's Museum of Flight)

Everett Children's Museum

Air Force One at the Museum of flight.

Volcano model while studying mountains

Chinese lanterns while studying China.

We are having a little fun.  :-)

Playing Catch Up

On a recent trip down memory lane, viewing posts on this blog from the beginning, I realized that I really need to keep posting here.  It has become a scrap book of sorts for our family.  So I need to do a little bit of catching up.

First, I need to cover an important addition to our family.

Meet Walker:

Born Sept 14, 2012

He gave us a little bit of a surprise by taking his first breath of fluid instead of air.  This lead to a 7 day stay in the hospital for treatment.  Not what we planned but in the end he has no long term issues and we finally got him home a week after his birth.

The sisters were very excited to have their baby brother home.  We took 4 weeks off from school to get acquainted with our new life.  Those 4 weeks went way too fast and ended with a mini vacation to Lake Chelan, one of our favorite places on earth.  

Fast forward 7 months.  WJ is nearly 7 months old and this boy is not slowing down.  He started crawling before he hit 6 months, and he started sitting himself up this past week.  It seems like he will be standing up before we know it.  As it is now, he gets into a crawling position and then stands up (picture "downward dog" yoga pose).  He is eating solids pretty well.  His favorites are Butternut Squash, peas, parsnips, and bananas.  No teeth yet, but he seems to be teething all the time.  

He smiles all the time but is pretty conservative with the giggles.  It is a great prize if you can get him to giggle.  Lately he has been a mama's boy.  He's pretty attached to me.  I don't mind, unless I actually have to get something done.  :-)  WJ's sisters are in love with their little brother.  They are great baby sitters for mom to get a chance to shower.  LJ (3) is a little aggressive with the little guy, thinking he can play like she can.  When he was just a couple of weeks old, I was sitting with him on the floor in front of me after a diaper change.  I turned to pick up clothes just to turn in time to see LJ trying to pick up her littler brother with no neck support.  Another time she tried to make him walk when he was 4 months old.  Luckily, WJ is really laid back and not really bothered by his sister's attempts to play with him.  

From the mouths of babes

Walked into this sweet conversation this morning:

LK (9): We are all God's Children, isn't that neat?
LJ (3): But Mommy and Daddy are grown-ups
LK: But they are still God's Children
LJ (looks at me entering the room): Mom!  You know, God and Jesus are listening to me?!

I know that this doesn't have much of a punchline but I wanted to record it.  I wish I had been there or been a fly on the wall to hear the entire conversation.  So sweet that LK is teaching her sister about God's care for his children.

3 1/2 year old wisdom

I really need to write about these more often. Lucy (3 1/2) has some of the funniest things to say. Here is a recent convo with her:

Lucy: Mom, You know, plants need water, and soil, and sun.
Me: wow Lucy that is pretty smart.
Lucy: and pixie dust.
:-P

Another day I was washing the bedding in our room. This was after we had washed her bedding several times that week due to early morning accidents. She came in and with exaggerated exasperation she exclaimed, "Who peed?"

She's always got us laughing.