Beach Vacation 2012

We just finished up a great, exhausting, want to do it everyday vacation. We had so much fun being together.

I whipped these bathing suits up before we left. They are turquoise seersucker with cupcakes embroidered on the fabric. I used the free pattern from Sew Beautiful, but extended the top.

Ms. E was a great beach babe. She took awesome naps under the umbrella.

We had gotten a little toasty one day and decided we better take a break from the beach. Super fun time playing putt-putt and go carts.

1st lap....

2nd lap... M won!

My little big man.

Follow me to the beach..

Blessed beyond measure. No matter what this life brings, I always want to be wherever they are.

We hung out at Harborwalk Village one night. Love this picture. We couldn't pull that off again in a million years.

My Royal Guards.

Ok, I got so tickled watching these little ladies clog. I couldn't help picturing myself, my Ray sisters and my SIL. Girls, a picture into the future. When we get all these kiddos raised.. of course.

Until Next Year:)

Our Picks for 2012-2013

Well here it is... What in the world we are doing this year. I have felt like for the last several years I fret, read, pray, fret, read blogs, worry, self-doubt, PRAY HARDER and then decide what curriculum we will go with! Well this year I took my husband out to dinner to have a much needed conference if you will. It was quiet and we could really talk out our plan for the next year. At the end of the night we knew what we wanted to do. We decided to go back to Sonlight. We love the books! However, after doing MFW Adventures I learned a great deal about notebooking. I will incorporate that into our Sonlight. M 2nd Grade Sonlight Core B with MOH1 (Bible,History, Read alouds). Science Apologia Creation Series Astronomy. LA/spelling/Reading Sonlight. Math-U-See Beta.

L Kindergarten. Sonlight 4/5 with MOH1 (History,Bible). LA K Sonlight. Apologia Creation Series Astronomy. Math-U-See Primer. A Reason For Handwriting.

K is 3. Rod and Staff About Three Books. She loves to learn and do whatever they are doing.

Our Schoolroom

I am super excited about our schoolroom this year. Our schoolroom is our dining room turned schoolroom. I love it being next to the kitchen.

I decided not to leave the boys' desks facing each other this year. They can get silly really fast:) I felt like I didn't have many options with the furniture we had in there. I decided then to get rid of one of our cabinets. That was a great solution to our lack of space. I put a small bookshelf next to each boy. I love this setup because each one has their work boxes right next to them. I keep all the stuff to put in them in the bottom two shelves. This makes for easy reloading while cooking dinner!

K's desk

This is my desk under the white dry erase board. I have all my teacher's manuals on the shelf next to my desk. I know I have changed our school room and system a bizillion times, but this seems to be the most functional for now:)

We are at it again!

My big L is doing "real" school he says this year. I can't believe this is his Kindergarten year. He is so excited to be doing more school.

M listening to Secret Garden audio book.

Wolverine biscuits!

Creation books from Mystery of History.

Play-doh snakes..

Catch Up Post

I know I talk alot about how wonderful my man is, but one more thing. For my birthday this year I was given some birthday money and I knew what I wanted to spent it on. However, I was just a little short. Hubs came through for me..... So to most people the gift I wanted may not make you want to jump and down and scream, but for me that is exactly what I did when he said "order it and I will cover the difference." Drumroll please.... I got a year subscription to Ottobre magazine. Ok for most normal folks that don't sit and read sewing blogs, Ottobre is a sewing magazine from Finland. Each issue comes with 40 patterns. Yes, 40 awesome patterns for my kiddos ranging in all sizes. So I am getting 7 total for this year (that's 280 patterns!!!). Here are some cute shorts for E. They are Pufferfish from Ottobre 3/2012. I used some cute red buttons from my Mama Bonnie's button box. All the more reason why I love these:)

More shorts.. This time for K. They are called Hula Hoop shorts from Ottobre 3/2012. I will be making these again. Denim for sure:)

What about that model pose!

Here is K's new gymnastics outfit. I used a suit that fit her for a pattern and super shiny dance wear fabric that I got for $4 (I have enough to make another one too.) I completed this in less than an hour. Whoo Hoo love projects like that. She absolutely loves it. I have tried to get a pic with her being still in it but she isn't still with it on.. not ever.

This is K in her new princess pajamas. Once again.. jumping! I used a pattern I have had for ages for the pants. For the shirt I let K pick some of the pictures from the fabric to applique on the tee.

Love this pic!

I know this is a catch-up post.. M went to music camp a few weeks ago. He had so much fun. These are pics from the performance on that Friday night. The serious look on his face started out as a way to not smile at his Daddy making faces at him. Cracked us up!

A Nightgown and a Skort

This is a nightgown for K that has been on my sewing table for...ev...er! It is princess flannel she picked out at one of our many trips to Joann's.

For this skort I used Children's Corner Sara's skort pattern. She loves these skorts. I made Ellen a matching bubble, but didn't get her pic in it.

What a cutie pie:)

A Date With Daddy!

I absolutely love the way my husband takes time with our kids. This time it was K's turn to go on a date with Daddy. Chick-Fil-A was having a Daddy Daughter dinner complete with Cinderella horse drawn carriage ride. I love this pic because she had just gotten ready, and as usual went to find her Daddy for his approval. She was kind of sad that he was no where to be found. I did convince her that he would be back. What she didn't know is that he had ran out to get her some flowers.

And.... he saved the day!

Rose for her and one for Mom of course:)

Kate and I whipped up her outfit out of some fabric she convinced me to buy about a month before. She also had to have "princess hair".

I love the crown on her tee.

She left a trail of glitter everywhere. They had a wonderful time.