A Good Day and Go Dawgs!!!

This morning L got invited to play soccer with his special buddy T. He did great and is very excited to play in the spring. 

Sister dressed herself (pajama shirt underneath blue shirt.) Thank you J for my pink boots!

Go DAWGS!!! This is my favorite dress that I have smocked thus far. She is wearing it to church tomorrow.  If cool-aid gets on this one I may lose it!

Football, Football, Football

If you are looking for us Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday....We are at FOOTBALL! My boys are loving it so I am loving it:)

                                                  Best Dad Ever!!! Talking football...

                            Go Titans (L's team) and Cardinals (M's team). Both won their games this                                
                                                                      week. Yah!

School Update:)

This week we prayed for the people all over the world that live in tribes. We read a story about a missionary that lived in the Congo. We researched face painting in the Congo culture. I think they would fit right in....don't u? The very serious faces crack me up. Oh, and Luke wore his to football practice. 

Science is a favorite part of our day.  We are working through the Apologia Astronomy book. For the last two weeks we have been learning about the sun. Here  the kids are using magnifying glasses and the heat from the sun to melt chocolate. 

Learning is Yummy!!!

Solar System out of clay. 

This is a picture of our Mystery of History wall of fame. I think this pic was from the first week. There are the days of creation, Adam and Eve, and Jubal and Tubal Cain. We have added much more since the pic. We will update soon:)

Nate Dawg this is for you. Marcus misses you very much and he wrote about it in his journal. (I love the wii remotes in their hands).

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..