Week in Review 2016: #25

Life

What a week! Father's Day was on Sunday and the children enjoyed showering Daddy with affection. At church, the primary children got up and sang a song for their fathers. Bridget is a good sport and has always gone up to sing her songs with the other children in front of the congregation, but George has always been too afraid. However, this time he want up! He was so cute singing. They both were. I know that daddy appreciated it. 

The following day, my husband took off from work and spent the day with us. We made a visit to the blueberry farm and had a delightful time. My husband's parents joined us and all together we picked about 8 pounds of blueberries (for $12!). 

Afterward, we headed to my husband's hometown for lunch. While we were at the restaurant waiting for our food, I brought out my camera to see the pictures I had taken at the blueberry farm and Liam decided to start cheesing it up. Naturally, I had to take a picture. 

On Wednesday night, we had avery severe thunderstorm that came through our area. It got really bad around 11:30 p.m. as I was reading in bed and I got up to take a peek out the window. Lighting was flashing constantly (like a flash second---I'm not kidding) even though I did not hear very much thunder. The wind was blowing strong and I was very nervous. I consulted with my husband (who had woken up from the loud noises of the storm) about whether or not I should wake the kids and take them to our 'safe room'. We checked the weather quickly to see if there was a tornado warning and saw none, so we let the kids sleep while I kept an eye out. Finally, the storm passed and I was able to get some sleep.

The following morning, I took a look at the backyard to see the damage and was surprised not to find it full of storm debris. I did notice that our tomato plants had been hit and were leaning. It is too soon to tell whether or not they will survive. They are over 6 feet tall (this is not an exaggeration) and well over the height of their cages. While we were sad about our tomato plants, we were able to get our first harvest from them that afternoon. There are many more green ones left that we hope will continue to grow.

Other than the excitement of picking tomatoes, Bridget had some excitement of her very own. Her two front teeth have been loose since the end of April. Over the past week, they have finally gotten loose enough to anticipate their coming out. I took one last picture of Bridget with her full smile, as I knew one of them were bound to come out that day.

George is captivated by this whole loose tooth business that he has been following Bridget around just to keep up-to-date on her teeth. He brought out one of the Berenstain Bear books where Sister Bear gets her first loose tooth and had been 'reading' it all day. Bridget was nice enough to let George wiggle at her tooth. You can tell by his face that he didn't know what to think!

The children went about their business, played with Papa who came over for a visit, and lo and behold, an hour after I took those pictures, the tooth was out! 

Bridget had come running out of her bedroom in freak-out mode because she had been playing with a toy flute and somehow knocked her tooth backwards where it was barely hanging on. When I took a look in her mouth, I knew it was time. I got a wet paper towel and had her lay down on the couch. She was terrified. So I gave her the paper towel and told her to do it, and she did! 

I cleaned the tooth in the sink and she went running to show Papa, George, and Liam the empty space in her mouth. And here it is. Baby tooth #3. 

Homeschool

This week, we have been reading about the Greek gods and goddesses. As a child, I was fascinated by the stories of ancient Greek mythology. As I was reading to Bridget, I realized that this has not changed. I am still fascinated by it all. It might be time to check out a few books from the library for myself on the subject. I am especially loving this book. The stories are well written and the illustrations are great. I will need to look into purchasing their book on Norse myths for the upcoming school year.

An easier version of The Iliad that I had ordered came in yesterday. Our local bookstore had The Odyssey so I was able to get that but wanted to read The Iliad to Bridget first. We began reading a version of it that went a bit over her head, so once I found that Classic Starts has an easier version of it, I knew that it would work. I have already read many of the Classic Starts book to the children and they follow along very nicely. I hope to start on The Iliad this weekend and finish both books by the middle of next week.

Linking Up With:

Bridget's FIRST Haircut!

We have put this off for years, but it was finally time for Bridget to get her first haircut. She was mostly bald up until the age of 2, and we were so excited that she finally had enough hair to put into a ponytail at almost age 3. Her hair growth took off from there and she has loved having it long. Now at the age of 6, we felt it was time to warm her up to the idea of getting her hair cut. Finally, she was the one telling me to schedule the appointment. So I did! 

Here are the "before" pictures. (Excuse the leotard. We were getting ready for ballet and I snapped the pictures just before putting her hair up in a bun.)  

She wanted us to get our hair cut together, so after ballet we headed over to our appointment with Kelly. Bridget wanted me to go first (I had about 3-4 inches cut to even out my hair which is still trying to recover from post-baby hair loss---nothing dramatic). 

Then it was her turn! Her hair looked especially wild since it had been in a tight bun. 

Kelly tied the ends of Bridget's hair, her "baby hair", into a ponytail so that I could keep it for Bridget's baby book. The ponytail was about 5-6 inches of hair. Then Kelly did some more cutting to even it all out before Bridget got her hair washed, dried, and trimmed some more.

When she was all done with the cutting, Kelly asked Bridget if she wanted some waves or to make it straight, and Bridget opted for straight hair (though I was hoping Bridget would ask for waves).

Since Bridget really doesn't smile for pictures when we are around other people, I didn't take any good "after" pictures until the following morning. She had almost no tangles and she is absolutely loving her new hair.

My biggest fear of getting Bridget's hair cut was that it would make her look too grown up. While it does make her look older, I still think she is absolutely adorable. Love this girl!

Week in Review 2016: #7

Life

The children were able to see Daddy a lot more this week. It was Parent's Week for Bridget's dance classes, so he was able to make it to those and I brought the boys with me so that they could get some time in with him and so that the boys could also watch Bridget dance.

Today, my mother-in-law spent the day with us. We went to the library, which is an outing the children always seem to enjoy. I was able to get a good selection of books for science and the children and Grandma picked out a good amount of fun books to read. After the library, we met Daddy at our favorite Thai restaurant for lunch.

Other than those happenings, our week was pretty uneventful. Oh wait....

Last Saturday, Bridget lost her second tooth!!!! You'll have to excuse the tiny bit of blood in her mouth. I literally took the picture seconds after the tooth came out. That night, she put it under her pillow and the Tooth Fairy left her a dollar.

This second experience was very different for me because Bridget's permanent tooth had just broken through behind her baby tooth a day or two before her baby tooth came out. I had never seen such a thing, but later learned that it's called a "shark tooth" and that they're quite common (occurring in 1 out of 10 children). A week later, it does seem as though her tongue has pushed her permanent tooth forward a bit, or perhaps I am only imagining it. Here is what it looked like before the baby tooth came out.

Homeschool 

We are really enjoying science right now and have been spending a little more time on that.

We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods every night after Liam goes to sleep. The kids look forward to it. We're almost done and that makes us sad, but I already have a few more read-alouds lined up.

I am also transitioning to a no-school-on-Friday schedule. I needed to have some wiggle room when it comes to make-up days, doctors appointments, and field trips, without entirely giving up our Saturdays. So far it is working and I have already begun planning next years school schedule (second grade is coming sooner than we think!) using a 4-day a week schedule. I'm liking it, as it will give us Fridays for field trips and Daddy time (my husband has off or only works half a day once tax season is over and we like to make the most of it).

Linking up to:

Moving Forward into 2016

This week has been a week of closing chapters and saying goodbyes. I'll begin with the goodbyes.

My husband and I were able to help send off a wonderful family of 11 (!!!) that we have gotten to know over the past 8 years. They have certainly been an example to me with their faithfulness, kindness, and generosity. Their move was bittersweet. Of course we were sad to see them go, but we are so happy that they have received an answer to their prayers and will begin a new chapter of their lives. Thank goodness for modern technology allowing us to stay connected.

The rest of the week was mostly uneventful for us. It has been rather wet outside, though the weather has been warm. I am hoping that over the weekend, the sun will be shining and I will have a chance to rake up the leaves in our backyard.

The children had some changes this week that will continue to take place through  the new year. One of the biggest changes will be to this guy here. He will finally be moving out of the nursery at church and into the larger primary with the "big kids".

Our church moves the children up to the next class at the beginning of each year and it is done by the year you were born. Because George is a January baby, he did not get to move up to the primary last year and instead had to remain in the nursery. He is one of the biggest kids in there, but I know he has enjoyed every minute of it. He was asked to bring a snack for their last Sunday together and he wanted to bring homemade peanut butter cookies.

I know that the transition from nursery to primary may come with an adjustment period for him, or he may surprise us and dive right in. I do know for certain that his new teachers are wonderful women. I look forward to hearing about all of the fun he will be having in his big kid Sunday school class.

This not-so-little girl will also be moving up to the 6-year-old class. It is not as big of a transition as what George has, but she will be getting a new teacher and the children in her class may change some. Currently, they have combined the 5 and 6 year olds, but they may change this and the classmates she knows could move up to the 7 year old class and may no longer be with her. We'll just have to see.

This baby boy here does not get a major change in his life until the end of January when he turns 18 months old and joins the nursery at church. I am anxious to see how that will turn out. When Bridget was that age, she screamed every Sunday for what seemed like months every time I attempted to leave her in there. George on the other hand walked right in and didn't look back. I am hoping that Liam will do the same.

I also have a few changes of my own that will be taking place in the new year. I have goals that I have set for myself. Many of them will help me when my life will change drastically in mid-January when my husband's busy season begins and I will be doing this parenting thing primarily on my own. Last year things ran so smoothly as I had the children on an excellent bedtime schedule that made the rest of their day easy for me. After my husband's busy season ended, the routine eventually stopped being followed. This year, my goal is to keep it going. 

My biggest goal, however, has to do with making goals. I will not necessarily be starting all of my goals on January 1st. I plan to implement them gradually so that I don't get burned out trying to stay on top of things. I also plan to list my goals here soon so that hopefully I can be more accountable for them. 

I am certainly ready for a fresh new beginning.

Week in Review 2015: #42

Life

For the past few weeks (since the last day of our Washington, DC trip), Liam has been teething. Some days are better than others, but he's been having a rough time. He is growing four molars, all at the same time. There are days that he is so cranky he screams on the floor until I pick him up, and even then he's still sobbing while holding his ice (thought it's not as bad). This typically happens in the morning, when I am doing school with Bridget, which can complicate things as he always trying to grab at the pages of anything I'm reading or working on.

Here is a picture from one of his worst days this week. One part of his gums where a tooth is coming in is even a little bloody. He was crying so hard with tears streaming down his face, but much to my surprise, he was all smiles when I brought out the camera. You can still see the tears under his eyes but he was having a good time cheesing it up for me.



In other Liam news, he has been sleeping in his crib at night for two weeks now! It took maybe two nights for him to fully adjust and I think it helped that he had already been napping in his crib like a champ. It sure is nice having our king sized bed to ourselves again.

We also went on another mini-vacation this week. We headed up to the Blue Ridge Mountains to see the fall colors. We left early Thursday morning and after a 5 hour drive we were at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville checking out their fall garden. I had never seen so many chrysanthemums in one place before. We spent the night in Asheville and on Friday morning drove down to Hendersonville, where we went gem mining and apple picking. We made it back home at 9:30 Friday night. We all had a great time! I took 217 pictures on our trip so I'll be posting a few of those in later posts, but here are a couple to share now.

Liam and I in the fall garden at the Biltmore Estate



The kids at the apple orchard. We were on top of a mountain, but you can barely see another mountain top on the far left.

 

Homeschool 

 

We only had three days of school this week due to our trip. We were able to complete our writing work for the week and also got close to finishing a math lesson. All that is left to do is to take the test, then we'll be able to move on. We're moving along in other subjects as well.

 

 

Family Movie Night

No movie this week, as we were out of town on Friday night.

 

Next Week's Movie: TBD

 

Linking up to:

 

 

Week in Review 2015: #41

Life

Nothing much to report on our day-to-day lives. This week was a relaxed one with only our usual routines and extracurricular activities. My parents adopted a kitten named Freddie, which the children finally got to meet this evening. They were excited, but now George is not happy with the cat because it "sworded him with its claws". His words, not mine.

Liam colored his first picture this week (took no interest in it until now). He had fun scribbling at his own little table while big brother and sister colored at the homeschool table. The coloring stopped once he realized he could eat the crayons. Once that took over, I snapped a couple of pictures of him and his masterpiece before putting his crayons away and giving him his snack cup.

Liam and his first official masterpiece. Notice the red crayon on his bottom teeth.

Homeschool 

 

Reading

We had shelved Bridget's reading lesson book for a few weeks, due to her becoming too frustrated to deal with. We hadn't stopped reading in general, but just the formal lessons from the book. This week, however, she brought it out and wanted to do it. We sat together on the couch (where we do our reading) after lunch once Liam was asleep in his crib and worked on a couple of lessons. She still got very frustrated (which aggravates me because it is usually accompanied by an attitude) but she said she still wants to do it. I'm glad she's getting more serious about learning to read.

 

Science

We finished up our study of cats. I had made some notebooking pages with photos from around the web of the animals we are studying. For each animal, she tells me one thing she found most interesting about that animal, and I'll write it on the board for her or on another piece of paper and she copies it onto her notebooking page. It also includes a place to put their diet and the habitat they are typically found in. Then she gets to glue a matching picture of the animal onto her habitats board (George helps with this). Last week we studied lions and cheetahs. This week, we finished up our study of cats by learning about tigers, leopards, panthers, jaguars, mountain lions, American bobcats, and European wildcats. I was able to find a few books at the library in the children's fiction section about tigers and mountain lions. I was so disappointed that I could not find a book about cheetahs. We read about them on our non-fiction books but I was hoping for a cute 'storybook' about them. Cheetahs seem to be her current favorite of all the wild cats. She still enjoyed the other books very much (story time seems to be George's favorite part of science anyway). Next week we're learning about elephants, rhinos, and hippos!

 

Bridget and her big cats notebook pages and habitat board

 

A Few Books We've Read...

Tiger's Story by Harriet Blackford

Mother to Tigers by George Ella Lyon

Little Lions by Jim Arnosky (about mountain lions)

 

Family Movie Night

No movie this week, as we had some other things to get done to prepare for our daytrip to visit the grandparents tomorrow.

 

Next Week's Movie: TBD

 

Linking up to:

 

 

George: Two Years Post-Op!

Today is a special day, and it's a day all about George. It is not his birthday but it is a day I will remember each year for as long as I live.

 

George is now two years post-op! He had open heart surgery on October 7, 2013. It was the scariest day of my life, but he pulled through and he is stronger than ever. I am so grateful to all of his doctors and the nursing staff in the PICU who took care of him throughout this entire ordeal.

 

We are so happy to have this boy still with us. I look forward seeing him live a long and healthy life.

 



October 7, 2013 (just after open-heart surgery)



George today! Growing so big and strong!

Week in Review 2015: #35

Life

While most weeks seem to be uneventful, this week sure wasn't! On Monday morning (August 31st), we discovered that Bridget had her very first loose tooth! She's been waiting for one and I assumed it would not happen until after her sixth birthday. Once we found out she had a loose tooth, my husband and I figured it be in there for at least a week hanging on by a thread before it finally came out. Oh boy were we wrong! The tooth came out just two days later, on the evening of  September 1st. She was tumbling in the living room and playing with Liam and my husband thinks that Liam may have kicked her mouth, but either way, out popped the tooth! She came running to me saying "I think my tooth just came out!", as she digs around in her mouth for her tooth. And there it was. A huge milestone for her. She's growing up too fast. The Tooth Fairy left her a little message with two dollars.

Bridget and her tooth!

 

Another milestone was hit in our family about the same time of  Bridget's major milestone. Liam walked! On August 31st, he took a few steps to follow his daddy. After this, he wouldn't even stand for us. But then on September 1st, he walked across the living room. I don't have any pictures to share of it but I do have a video. While I thought that was it for him, that he would now be walking everywhere, I was wrong. He still mostly crawls. He's an extremely cautious baby and I'm perfectly okay with that.

 

In other news, Liam broke my computer one morning this week. I left the doors to my computer hutch open while helping Bridget with her math lesson. Liam wandered over and pushed the button to my CD drive. Once it came out, he tried to pull it out even more. When he screamed at it for not coming out (he screams at whatever frustrates him) was when I noticed him. It was crooked and I managed to pop it back straight, but then it would not close. It felt as if something was blocking it from going in. It ended up being a long day, as I was now unable to close the doors to the hutch even if I wanted to, and it was nearly impossible to keep him away from it.

 

Liam, right after breaking my disc drive.

 

When my husband got home, he was able to take apart the disc drive (or whatever it is called) and repair it. My husband is good at all things computer-related (even though this is not his field of training... he's an accountant). I am so glad he got it to work again, because we use the disc drive to watch the Math-U-See instructor's lessons. Bridget thinks the instructor is a hoot!

George assisting daddy with fixing the computer.

 

Homeschool

 

Math

Bridget is back on schedule for math, and has even got ahead. She took her test for lesson 5 (and got all correct) and we began lesson 6. She HATES lesson 6. It involves writing numbers 0-100 over and over again. While her writing is quite neat for a first grader, she still hates all writing assignments. I've told her she just needs to get it done and as soon as she is done with lesson 6, we can move on to the next lesson and not worry about all that number writing again (although her numbers have improved even since beginning the lesson... no more backwards numbers!).    

 

History

We had to play a bit of catch up for history. History and science are our subjects we do after the most important one's (like reading, writing, and math). It's easy to fall behind, but it's just as easy to catch back up. We began the week reading about King Narmer and the uniting of the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt. This was a review for Bridget as we learned this at the beginning of Kindergarten last year (before I decided to stop and wait until this year). She remembered everything and so we did not re-do of the projects.

 

Then we moved on to cuneiform and hieroglyphs. Bridget already knew a lot about hieroglyphs so we were able to breeze through this lesson as well.

 

I then went back to a previous lesson and read her a few Egyptian myths. She loved these! I'll probably end up reading them to her again before returning them to the library.

 

Next, we moved on to mummies! If you had asked me at the age of 12 what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have told you that I was going to be an Egyptologist. I loved all things Egypt, especially the mummies! After we read about making mummies, we made one using something I had from when I was a young girl learning about Egypt. We took the body apart, removed the organs and placed them in the appropriate canopic jar, then wrapped our mummy for burial.

 

Putting the lungs into the canopic jar.

 

Wrapping the mummy.

Adding the burial mask.

Our mummy ready for burial with all four canopic jars.

 

A Few Books We've Read...

Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroplyphs by James Rumford

Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile by Tomie dePaola

The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Leonard Everett Fisher

The Star-Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt by Dianne Hofmeyr

The Voyage of Osiris by Gerald McDermott 

Zekmet The Stone Carver: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by Mary Stolz

You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! by David Stewart

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder! by Jacqueline Morley

 

Family Movie Night

The newest addition to my week in review is our family movie night. I choose a movie based on what we studied in history or science. This week, we watched The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Movie night is actually dinner and a movie ,as we spread out a blanket on the living room floor and eat our dinner while watching the movie. This week, I made "mummies" for dinner. We also had brains (tater tots) and blood (ketchup) to keep with the gory topic. Bridget did not like me calling the ketchup "blood" and refused to dip her mummy in it. She also left the brains alone but she did enjoy her mummy! George ate everything without any issue. We carried Liam's high chair into the living room (to prevent him from crawling over the kid's dinner on the floor) and he had brains and eyeballs (grapes, cut into pieces).

 

"Mummies" for dinner!

 

The movie went over well with George but Bridget kept yelling "Turn off the movie! I want it off!", anytime anything scary was happening. Minutes later she was laughing at whatever funny thing was happening, then she was back to being scared. She wouldn't let daddy cover her eyes and ears during the scary parts---she still wanted to see. It was pretty funny. We had to talk to her for about 20 minutes before bedtime to let her know that the movie was all pretend and she ended up sleeping through the night with no problems.

 

Next Week's Movie: Joseph, King of Dreams

 

Weekly Meal Plan

Last Week: August 30 - September 5 Meal Plan

This Week: September 6 - September 12 Meal Plan

 

Linking up to:

 

 

Yum, Yum!

Another milestone has been achieved! Little George has begun eating solid foods.

We started him on rice cereal on Monday (Aug. 6th). He did so good! When we started Bridget out on solids, she made a huge mess. She kept pushing the food out of her mouth with her tongue (she was also a bit younger than George is, in her defense). George on the other hand, ate ALL his food. The little bit that did end up on his cheeks and chin, I wiped up with the spoon and fed it back to him. He loved it! He even tried to feed himself:

We fed him again yesterday, and this time I made it not so runny, and I also made an extra tablespoon of the cereal (Monday he ate 1 Tbsp. and Tuesday he ate 2!). He also gave me the impression that he wanted more after he finished eating yesterday.

This experience reminded me of how much fun it was when Bridget was starting to eat solids. As messy as she was, she was also pretty funny to watch. I can't wait to introduce George to more foods and see his reactions and to watch him learn what to do. It's also neat to see Bridget encourage George and cheer him on.

Here's another one of the little guy that I had to include in the post. It was right before his first bowl of rice cereal.

I wonder how much bigger those squishy cheeks can get!