1st Day of School 2012

                       My little man...  Can ya tell he is EXCITED?!

Anna is looking pretty, confident and ready for her 1st day!!



First day of school for both of them was Monday, August 20th!  Anna started 2nd grade and I am home- schooling Will's Pre-K.  They both were extremely excited for their first day of school and they both LOVE their teachers!  We all had a very successful first week of school and are looking forward to next week!!!

After Will and I dropped Anna off at her school, we came home and got ready for our 1st day.  Once I put the 2 babies that I keep (Jace and James Henry) down for their naps, we began our lessons for the day.  (we have school from 10-12 every day).

 To make it "feel" more like school and not a daycare, I prepared his desk that we would use on a daily basis.  He loved it!

I am finding that he is a quick learner and is doing really well!

  

On Fridays, we will have a fun activity or craft.  After all our work was completed today, we made a marble race track and raced to see which "RED" "ONE" marble hit the finish line first!

I have to admit, I am enjoying the extra special one-on-one time I am having with my son!  My prayer is that I can prepare him for Kindergarten and future grades as we go through our school year together!



Good "Clean" Fun

With school starting for Anna just around the corner, I am enjoying my last few days with both my kiddos  at home.  We like doing crafts and today's was extra fun for all three of us.  (I found this on "Pintrest", so I am not able to take full credit for the idea.)

We first had a bar of Ivory soap.  (ONLY Ivory soap can be used for this)

We watched it "GROW like a plant" in the microwave.  (Put it in for about 2 minutes on high power)

 It comes out looking like "clouds"

 The kids then played with it... it crumbles in your hands!  WEIRD

Anna says, "This is AWESOME!"

We then added water, and blended it until it was like dough and moldable.

Anna played kitchen with it -pretended she was making homemade rolls. 

Then we put them into cookie/ play do cutters.

Will and his finished soaps!!

We did 3 bars of Ivory soap and made 8 fun sized soap bars for the kids to use in the bath and Will has recently decided he likes to use bar soap to wash his hands. 

Will's favorite part was the clean up!  He didn't like how the soap felt "SLIMY" so he was more than willing to clean the cookie cutters and all our tools for me!  : )

Summer Fun

I am still keeping 2 children (other than my own) every day during the week. I have had Jace, 14 months old, since he was 2 1/2 months old. The other, James Henry, 17 months old, has only been here for a few months. The 4 kids keep me busy but I enjoy it. (Most days!!)

Jace

James Henry

We have been very creative in finding activities here at home this summer, for we are not able to leave the house when the babies are here. We have made tents out of sheets and chairs and they've pretended to go camping in the living room.

The kids have even created their own restaurant called "Mama Mia's" and guess who their waitress is... you may have guessed it- Me /Mama!! I even created a menu for them to order from! We've had a lot of fun with it every week!

We had Mama Mia's outside this day!

We've also made crafts, colored, put together puzzles, played games, played outside (when the weather permits), watched movies, had sleepovers, and have even come up with some fun ideas that I have gotten from a website called Pintrest. (Yes, I have enjoy "pinning" cute ideas after the kids go to bed!!) I am happy to report that my kids have said the words, "I am bored" very little this summer!!  Here are a few pics I have taken here and there this summer...

Will being silly while we were playing in his room

 Anna being silly while we were playing in Will's room

Water day with friends at their house, here in the neighborhood. 

Anna making breakfast with me- Muffins!!

 Will playing with friends he had over

 Anna's best friend, Destiny, spent the night

Putting together puzzles outside

Playing a game of marbles! (our favorite family game)

On the weekends, Steven and I always try to come up with some fun, rather inexpensive things to do as a family. I will post more about all of the fun weekends at a later day.

So, STAY TUNED until next time!!

I'M BACK... My Computer Is Fixed!!

IT'S A MIRACLE!!  I am finally writing another blog post!!  I have gotten much grief from friends and family about my last post being Anna's Kindergarten graduation over a year ago...  Well, I have no more excuses for not blogging.  My wonderful hubby fixed our computer yesterday so I am getting caught up on all of the STUFF I need to do on our home computer and this is one of them! 

So... WOW, where do I even begin??  Our happy little family has done SO much since May of last year, I don't even know what to talk about first...  

If you were to ask the kids what we've done this summer their answer would be, "We went to the beach!"  We went to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with my parents and grandmother, the first week of June and LOVED it! (They are wanting to back already)  I was unsure how they would take to the sand and salt water but we became "Beach Bums" that week to say the least- we were there almost every day.  We built sand castles, walked the beach searching for shells, watched pelicans dive for fish (at times nearly at our side), and the kids met other kids while there and played with them. 

In this pic, Will was pointing at an oncoming pelican that landed near us right after the pic was taken!!

When we weren't at the beach we were at the pool swimming! 

This is the only pool pic taken at the pool, they wouldn't be still long enough for me to take any--they were having too much fun!

(my grandmother and Anna)

The only day our feet didn't touch the ocean or pool is the last day we were there and the only water we touched was RAIN!!  So we made the best of it and went to Sawgrass Mills (a very large mall) and walked around after having lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe. 

They even rode the carousel there at the mall

Later that evening we went to IKEA.  The kids (both big and small) loved walking around the huge store of home furnishings. 

 We also took an air boat ride into the swamps and searched for alligators.  They got to see an alligator up close and personal after our ride at a separate show.  They even got to "touch" one!! 

 

 My dad and I even HELD the alligator!! They did not feel like I thought they would!

To remember our AWESOME  first trip to Florida, the each bought an alligator to play with on the way home.  Stuffed of course!

I promise, there will be more to come later about what all we've been up to, so.... STAY TUNED!!

My Kindergarten Graduate!!

It is SO hard for me to believe that her entire kindergarten year is now behind us!!  As I was growing up I always had people tell me those popular phrases, "you are growing up too fast," "you have gotten so big -you make me feel old," "time flies when you are having fun"  and there are MANY more!!  I never really understood what was meant by those phrases and thought they were crazy... That is until now, when I have a children of my own.  They have new meaning to me as a mom!!  It seems like just yesterday that I brought Anna into this world, and now I have watched her blossom and bloom into a smart, talented and beautiful young girl!!  Her daddy and I could not be prouder of her and her many achievements during her first year at school. 

Her kindergarten class' put together the cutest "Kindergarten Celebration" Friday the 27th.  They sang 9 different songs, shared some things they learned and Anna had a special speaking part as well.  They all did so good and it was very cute!! We want to thank Grammy, Grandaddy and Nanny for coming with us.  I have purchased a video of the show and will have it sometime this summer.  Let me know if you would like to see it.

Here are some pics we captured of her special celebration day...

 Her speaking part!!

Anna with her friends, Jillynne and Micah

 Her friend Jamyia

 Her "boyfriend" Weston

 Her kindergarten teacher, Ms Reesa

 Anna proudly showing off her Kindergarten diploma and her Citizenship award 

She received a Citizenship award at the closing of the "Kindergarten Celebration" from the principle of the elementary school.  It is awarded to individuals who had excellent behavior throughout the entire school year.  They use a "color card system" in the classrooms, and when a student is disobedient or disruptive they change their color card.  Anna (and a hand full of other students from the entire kindergarten class) was one of the recipients of this special award for not changing her color card ALL YEAR!!