a.k.a. toast

William is always saying and doing the funniest things. I usually forget to post them, but here are some things he has said the past few days that made me laugh.

For breakfast one morning he asked for a "plain cooked piece of bread with butter on it."

He got a this hippity hop ball for Christmas and bounces all over the house with it. I called him a bouncy-roo one day and he told me I was silly because he is "not a kangaroo or a boucy-roo, just a normal human boy who is is bouncing on a ball."

I don't take him shopping very often, but a couple of days before Christmas I took him to the mall. We entered the mall through a store entrance and shopped their first. Then I asked him if we should go to another store. He said sure, let's go to the car. I told him the mall had lots of stores in it and we could just walk there. He was a little confused and I could tell he wasn't sure he should believe me. Then we walked out of Pennys and his eyes got real big and he said, "Whoa, that is a lot of shopping."

On that same mall trip, we went to the mall map as I was looking for a particular store. He asked what we were doing so I told him we were looking at the map and it would tell us where to go. As we were leaving the mall we passed by the same map. He stopped directly in front of it and stared at it for a long time and touched the map a couple of times. Then rather perplexed said, "It's not working anymore. It won't tell me where to go."

Just this morning I gave him a bowl of cereal and forgot the spoon. He told me, "Mom, cereal is not food we use our fingers for."

And a quote from Alahna as well. David must have been really good this year because Santa brought him a Weber smoker. Yesterday he tried it out and smoked some pork and chicken (and it was so so yummy). As he was outside getting it started I turned to Alahna and excitedly told her that Daddy was smoking! She gasped and with a very worried and confused look on her face said, "I don't think that is something to be excited about."

Happy Christmas Eve

This week has been full of Christmas baking, Christmas shopping, Christmas movies, music, and all other things Christmas! I have loved it!

We went to Victoria Gardens to enjoy the Christmas-y atmosphere and the fake snow.

Cookie's first Christmas with us! Isn't she adorable!

My littlest kitchen helper!

A little bit o' the Bard

I am always trying to broaden our literary scope, encouraging the girls to branch out and read things besides fantasy.  I am a fantasy lover myself, but there are so many other things out there to read, especially the classics. They are always the best. I usually do this by reading to them the things they are hesitant to read themselve, but I haven't done much with Shakespeare. I have mentioned him a time or two and read a couple passages from different plays, but that's about it.

So on Thursday when the girls spontaneously pulled out The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and started reading Romeo and Juliet to each other, even though we were supposed to be working on something else, I was completely thrilled! They read almost 3 acts out loud to each other and I was pleased to see that they were able to follow along and understand what was going on. I decided to jump on the opportunity and found a version on netflix that seemed authentic and was available to watch instantly.  They thoroughly enjoyed it (minus the little nudity that we had to skip, on a PG movie too!) and are now talking about Shakespeare and how amazing he is.

This is one area that I have seen real growth in since we started homeschooling. A year ago I had a hard time getting them to listen to A Christmas Carol because "they talk funny" and "I can't understand what they are saying." Now they are reading Shakespeare and laughing at the little jokes and swooning at the gushy stuff.  I love it!

America's Got Talent

The girls and I spent this last Saturday down in the LA area supporting my niece who auditioned for America's Got Talent.  (We will find out late January if she made it.) We started the morning watching the lunar eclipse, watched the sun rise over the mountains, and then at the end of the day we saw the sun set over the ocean. Doesn't get much better than that!

What a cute bunch of girls!

Some goofballs at the Santa Monica Pier.

The kids each picked one ride to go on.

I just love this picture!  Makes me laugh!

Happy Thanksgiving

We were so happy this year to have David's parents come and spend Thanksgiving with us! We have so much to be thankful this year and family is at the top of the list! Here's Grandma, William, and Cookie taking a snooze at the end of a wonderful day!