Our Petersen Family

Things grow fast around here.

2012-01-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

This tree magically appeared in our house a couple of nights ago. Just sprung up over night and it's about time too. It was supposed to grow at the beginning of the school year. You know, we are attending Quercus Alba Academy of Magic and what kind of school that is named after a tree wouldn't have one on its premises. I'm looking forward to all sorts of magical things happening to it throughout the year!

School room's coming along

2012-01-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

David built shelves for us to help keep our school things organized and the transformation from playroom to school room is coming along. There are still plenty of toys in there but we are trying to keep them all on one side of the room. It's only somewhat successful as of yet, but I am hoping it will get better with time. After all it's been a play room for 9 years and only a school room for a few months.

too much candy

2012-01-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

William has been complaining of an ear ache today.. He's pretty sure it's because his ear has had too much candy. HAHAHA!

I am smiling.

2012-01-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

This is blurry, I know, but I just had to share. This smile just makes me laugh. This is William's "I am smiling" face whenever I try to take his picture.

Joshua Tree

2012-01-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

A couple of days after Christmas we packed up a lunch, some snacks, a bunch of water and headed to Joshua Tree National Park. What a wonderful place to spend the day! The kids had the time of their lives hiking and climbing on all the rocks and it was a miracle that we made it home with only a few scrapes. Even William kept up for the most part. Perfect strangers would stop to watch the 4 of them climbing around. Most told us what wonderful climbers they were and how amazing that we let them climb so much, but I couldn't help but wonder what was really going through their heads....

Study Aid

2012-01-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Anna has been struggling to remember the second declension masculine for Latin class so today I gave her a free study aid.

She thought it was pretty funny and it seems to be doing the trick!

A Peaceful Christmas

2012-01-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was very quiet and simple. Other than going to church we stayed home all day and just enjoyed being together. Over the last couple of years we have tried really hard to scale down the amount of gifts we give to the kids. As a result we have saved a lot of money and it has been easier to stay focused on the true reason of the season. I don't think our kids have suffered any ill effects from our smaller Christmases and I laughed when Alahna cheerfully announced that she got a "good haul" even though it was probably the fewest gifts she's ever received.


Thanks to loving grandparents and aunts and uncles they still had plenty of things to open!

The stack of books the girls received. They got more excited about some of these than anything else!

The boys loved their knight costumes from Grandma and Grandpa! They are official dragon slayers now!

Alahna and Robert spent about an hour and a half building a Lego castle. It was fun to watch them work so well as a team.

Best Christmas Present Ever

2012-01-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

Robert received an unexpected Christmas gift this year in the form of broken braces! They broke two days after Christmas and let me tell you he was not sad... at all! And the best part for him....they didn't have any openings to get them fixed for almost 3 weeks. I said to him today that was like a Christmas present. He said, "That is the best Christmas present ever!" David reminded him how important his braces are and Robert told us that he really does like them... just not putting them on... or wearing them.

a.k.a. toast

2011-12-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-14T14:34:00.000-08:00

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!

Sugar cookies. Yum!

2011-11-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

Today Grandma and Grandpa Petersen arrived for Thanksgiving and they brought with them sugar cookies, frosting, and candy from Grandma Jane. The kids had a blast decorating and we are super excited to have family here for some of the holiday season!

Gryffindor Wins House Cup!

2011-11-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

We finished our second year (or component) at Quercus Alba and the Gryffindors were overjoyed to win the house cup this time around! And to the other houses' immense relief they were very generous with their prizes and shared with everyone.

Of course we had to have a feast....

Knickerbocker glory from Harry Potter

Sword and the Stone cheese

a compass cream pie for Prince Henry the navigator

Pea Pottage from the medieval period

We also had authentic medieval potato cake, pretiola (pretzels), and cheches (a medieval recipe for chickpeas).

The kids did a great job on their projects, but I did not to a great job getting pictures, but here is a brief summary anyway.

Anna created an empire. She made a map, a flag, and a system of government for her new kingdom.

Alahna decided to try her hand at medieval food. She compared the food of a peasant to the food of a noble and even attempted to live a day in the life of each. She was very hungry the day she was a peasant.

Robert, with Alahna's help, made a storybook about a dragonslayer.

William drew a picture of King Arthur with Merlin and Morgana.

Temple trip

2011-11-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

We just got back from the temple with the youth! It was Anna's first time and David and I were excited that we were able to get a babysitter and both be there with her. Afterward, we took the youth out to eat and the Bishop turned to me and said, "Isn't being a youth leader awesome?" I didn't even have to think twice to give him an honest answer. Yes, it is awesome. I love being with the youth, they are amazing and I know I am going to learn a lot from them.

Cute moment from the night: While we were eating I stole of a bite of Anna's food. One of the leaders asked her why parent always steal yummy food. Anna was quick to answer, "It's called the parent tax. They brought me here and paid for it, that's just the way it is." I love that girl!

Hail the Dragonslayers!

2011-11-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

This is why I love homeschooling! It gives me a good excuse to paint things like fire breathing dragons on my fence with my kids. We spent a large portion of this week working on this awesome dragon as a group project for our Hail the Dragonslayers component of the year.

Written around the dragon are words like; greed, lazy, lies, filth, etc.. On the swords the girls wrote the "be's" that we have been focusing on this year plus a few other things. They use the swords to slay the dragon. Today after a little tiff between Alahna and Robert I sent them outside to figure out what was causing there problem and how they could use the swords to slay the dragon. They each beat up the fence for a couple of minutes then came inside, happy to tell me what swords they used and why.

Hide-a-way

2011-11-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

Look who thought he was so sneaky. Did anyone else try to hide in the dryer as a kid? I did, but I was always so scared that someone would turn it on that I never lasted very long. I guess I've always been a big chicken.

(This is our old dryer that we are selling. It is now turned around so it can not be used for hiding anymore.)

Medieval painting

2011-11-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

This week we learned a little bit about art in the middle ages. The kids were taught about Giotto and the Limburg Brothers. Then they mixed their own paint using sidewalk chalk and egg yolks and used it to paint their pictures.

another field trip

2011-11-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Last week, along with Halloween and Robert's doctor apt, yes it was a busy week, we went to a church that was decorated as a medieval castle and did brass rubbings. It was a lot of fun and I think we will be going back again.

A knight came and told us about his armor and weapons. If you look in the picture you can see one of the larger brass rubbings on the right.

Alahna with her rubbing of a unicorn.

Afterward we went to one of the Forest Lawns for lunch and to look around at the art that was there.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

We spent Halloween with our school group. We did some fun school work in the morning, ate lunch together, carved pumpkins, played games, ate some more, and went trick or treating. It was a great day and everyone was wiped out by the time we got home.

Our fun school work included dissecting owl pellets. The kids thought it was pretty cool. We were able to find at least 4 different animals, and possibly as many as 6, in the 3 pellets we dissected. Most of the bones we found were rat bones, but we are pretty sure some belonged to a shrew. (The kit we used came with a diagram to help you determine what animals the owl ate.)

He is just too cute!

Anna was dressed as a nerd and she played the part very well!

Robert was Harry Potter and absolutely LOVED digging into owl puke!

We think this skull belinged to a shrew

Alahna was a beach bunny. Her owl pellet had the shrew.

This is the skull of a rat. Anna had 2 complete rats in her pellet. She even found a spine still intact.

One of the many games the kids played was bobbing for doughnuts. This was one of my favorite Halloween activites when I was young so I was super excited when my kids were able to experience the fun!

And last, but not least.....William the lion. I don't even know where this costume came from, but William found it in our Halloween box and was determined to wear it. It was missing the tail and the knees were almost worn all the way through. At the end of the night it went straight in the trash can!

And can you believe it, I didn't get a single picture of our pumkin carvings or of all four of the kids in their costumes! What kind of a mother am I? Geez.

Sherwood Forest

2011-11-07T19:50:00.000-08:00

We took a field trip to Sherwood Forest a couple of weeks ago. Actually it was very little like Sherwood Forest, but it did have 3 oak trees and that was good enough! The kids enjoyed the brief hike and learning a little bit about how the plant life helped the early settlers.

The group under one of the oak trees.

Of course, Robert had to climb in the tree.

I love Robert's face. He was not thrilled about having his picture taken....again.

A Robert update

2011-11-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Last week Robert had a doctor's apt. After spending almost an hour going over past symptoms, surgery, and current symptoms with 3 different doctors we decided that it was still best to continue postponing surgery. Unfortunately they said he has to continue wearing the braces and the older he gets the harder that is. He has realized that wearing them and the eye patch makes him different and let's face it, kids don't want to be different. He is still a pretty good sport about it, but we have moments when he has just had enough. These moments tend to break my heart and I wish I could take it all away for him. Luckily for me, he still finds solace in a hug and a kiss!

Home

2011-11-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

My kids are complaining that we are not home enough.

WHAT?????

We homeschool. Is it possible to not be home enough when you are home schooling. Apparently the answer is yes. This year our schedule has been a lot more hectic than last with activities away from home nearly every day. My kids are almost begging for a day to just stay home so they can "just get their math done". I have to admit this is a challenge I did not foresee when we leaped into this crazy world of home education.

Change

2011-10-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

After serving in the primary for 9 years, in various capacities, I have been released. Last week was Anna's last Sunday in Primary and this week was mine. I will now be serving as the Young Women's president. Poor Anna, she just can't get rid of me. I was in primary pretty much the entire time she was. Now my youngest is a Sunbeam and it is likely that I won't be in primary for most of his years there. It's just kind-of strange when I think about it.

12 years old!

2011-10-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Seeing this many candles on one of my babies cakes makes me feel a little bit old!

One minute she was this little peanut in my arms and then I blink and she is 12! I feel like with her birthday we are beginning a new stage of our lives. Goodbye primary and hello YW and boys....all of a sudden she is talking about them. What is up with that???? Over the last year her interests have started to change. She is no longer interested in the little girl games and is talking on the phone more and wants to wear make-up and cares about her clothes. I just don't know that I am really ready for this, but now that I think about it I wasn't really ready for her when she was that little peanut either.

Her big present was getting a little make-over for her room. We kicked her out of it for a few days while we got it ready then on her birthday we surprised her with the changes. Without spending very much money we were able to give her room a whole new look. (I forgot before pictures....again.)

Lady Gwendalyn

2011-10-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Being a homeshool mom means being willing to make a fool of yourself on any given day.

Last week a portrait magically appeared in our school. It was of Gwendalyn the Good from the House of Dragon. She was a descendant of St. George and told us all about how he slew a dragon. She taught us a little bit about what life was like in the early middle ages, when she was alive. She was even able to travel to one of her portraits in a far away castle and bring us leftovers from a great feast!

Over the next few weeks we will be learning more about the middle ages and how we can be modern day dragonslayers.

Lady Gwendalyn

(and just in case you are wondering....Lady Gwendalyn is a completely fictitious character.)

Ravenclaw Wins House Cup!

2011-10-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

At the end of term feast presentations were made, points were counted, awards given! All Quercus Alba students ended the year with honors (they accomplished all their goals for the component) and Anna was awarded the Ivory Acorn Award for achievement in Mathematics. (Any student can be nominated by a teacher to earn the The Ivory Acorn Award each component. Anna was the only one to receive it this time.)

Anna adding her points. Ravenclaw was first to add there points. You can't tell from this picture, but it was really a tight race for the house cup.


Ravenclaw wins by a just a narrow margin! Gryffindor almost had it!

All of the food represented something that we learned about. Here are Olympic rings representing the first Olympics.

Apple slices for the fall of Adam, a rice Krispie pyramid for Ancient Egypt, ABC cooked for the Phoenician civilization, lettuce boats for Jaredites sailing to America

Tower of Babel onion rings, Caesar salad, Lahna's ginger snaps and ginger-ale

End of term projects

2011-10-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

I was so proud of the kids projects for this component. They all worked really hard and did an amazing job. This component we did a dash through history from the creation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire so all of there projects were tied into that somehow.

Alahna did her's on ginger. She researched it's origins and it's medicinal properties. She also made ginger snaps, candied ginger, and a video about Noah.

Robert's project was on King Solomon. He made a poster, built a replica of the temple with Lego's and read a story about Solomon.

William learned about the Tower of Babel and drew a picture.

Anna's project was all about Imhotep. She did a ton of research and made some startling discoveries. She also learned about the mummification process.

Polyjiuce Potion

2011-10-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

The girls made polyjuice potion for a school activity. Don't ask what was in it.... you really don't wanna know.

And just to show that we do in fact do some actual work in this school of ours, here is a picture of Alahna doing her math.

I thought we were past this stage....

2011-10-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Conference Weekend Fun

2011-10-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

About a week before conference a good friend called and said she had tickets to the Saturday morning session and asked if me and the kids would want to go with them. Because I am not very good at spur of the moment kind-of decisions, my gut reaction was, um......no way. But then I thought about it and realized that I would be absolutely crazy to pass up the chance to go to conference and see my family.

Conference, of course, was the highlight of the weekend for the girls and me, but we also had a great time full of laughter and yummy food with family.

Robert with his new patch buddy!

The boys thought it would be fun to climb through the doggy door.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

2011-09-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when one of your children, not going to name names here, runs the dishwasher for you.

Luckily all the bubbles stayed within the confines of the dishwasher!

Hangin' with the boys

2011-09-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

The scouts invited anyone in the ward to join them on their 8 mile hike last weekend. Of course, David and Anna jumped at the chance to go. Anna was the only girl on the hike, except for a couple of moms, and was one of the first to the top.

3 things

2011-09-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

I am so behind. On everything. It's a little overwhelming to be honest. There is so much that I am supposed to be doing and there just isn't enough time in the day or energy in this body.

But there are 3 things that have happened that I cannot put off posting about any longer. I have given up on getting the pictures for them.

Event #1
Alahna celebrated her 10th birthday! I know, I can't believe it either. She is a decade old! How did that happen? She celebrated by spending the day at the mall, spending all her b-day cash, with mom and sister .
Alahna is a great big sister to her brothers, full of laughter, smart as a whip, and always looking out for others. She still loves her stuffed animals and reads to them every night.

Even #2
Robert celebrated his 6th birthday! We helped Robert celebrate by going to the beach with some friends! Robert is the most energetic little boy I have ever seen but is finally learning how to sit still when he needs too. He is reading very well and loves to play games, especially chess. He is very generous and loves to make others happy.

Event #3
We had our start of term feast and the children were sorted into their houses. Here at Quercus Alba students are sorted by a sorting robe rather than a hat. Here is how the children were sorted:

Anna-

Oh, A Gryffindor you think you are,

But I can see your mind.

Though bravery you have its true,

Its by wisdom you’re defined!

Ravenclaw!

Alahna-

Seeking out wisdom,

You’re sharp as a tack,

But when others need you

You’ve got their back!

Hufflepuff!

Robert-

Courage tried and proven,

Endures without complaint,

Muscles full of vigor,

Your heart is never faint!

Gryffindor!

William-

I can see you’re pure of heart,

Sweet as Cox’s honey,

Ever helpful, mind on others,

You make each day sunny!

Hufflepuff!

Look who's reading!

2011-08-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last school year I began doing these 100 reading lessons with Robert. He finished a couple of weeks ago and earned a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Earlier this week he kept pestering me looking for something to do. A few minutes later he ran down the stairs excited to tell me that he read a "real" book all by himself. (A real book has chapter's, in case you were wondering.). He "even sounded out the words he didn't know". Helping him learn to read has been a very rewarding part of homeschooling.

Here's the book he read

school pictures

2011-08-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

I took the chickabidees to our favorite local park for "school" pictures and a picnic today. It was really hard to choose, but here are my favorites...

Anna

Alahna

Robert

William

(Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)

instructions on how to be a kid

2011-08-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

1. Ask hundreds of questions.
2. Repeat.
3. Repeat.
4. Repeat.
5. Touch everything.
6. Repeat.
7. Repeat.
8. Repeat.

Just a cute picture from some of our summer fun!

musical dog

2011-08-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that Cookie's favorite person is Anna. She love's her to pieces and doesn't like to be away from her very often but yesterday was the first time I had noticed this. I thought it was so cute!

Quercus Alba Academy of Magic

2011-08-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

So...Every year for school I am hoping to have a new epic adventure. Last year we journeyed through Greece and Rome and the founding of Americas as we pretended to be demi-gods at Camp Hero. (If this seems strange, you haven't read Percy Jackson!)

For this school year our inspiration comes from 2 places. First, this talk about what it is to BE. It was given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins during the last session of General Conference. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Our second source of inspiration is the famous Gandhi quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." As a vehicle for teaching these most important concepts to our children and the other more academic things, we have taken a spin from Harry Potter.

A couple of weeks ago our children received acceptance letters, via owl of course, to the Quercus Alba Academy of Magic. For you muggle folk out there, Quercus Alba is a wizarding school similar to Hogwarts only in America. With their letters they also received a flyer for the back to school fair at Diagon Alley. I wish I had the video camera running when they opened their letters. It was like Christmas morning with all the jumping around and shrieking!

Last Saturday we took a portkey to London, went through the Leaky Cauldren and into Diagon Alley where the kids visited Madam Malkins, Ollivanders, Eeyelops, Gringotts, and even Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to buy all their necessary supplies. It was a magical day that I am happy to have behind me!

Here are most of the wizards at Madam Malkins trying on their robes, William was too fast for me to take a picture.

Our cute owls! Can you guess whose is whose???

One of my favorite parts of the year is the school song. It is what calls us to together at the beginning of the school day.

It is to the Harry Potter theme music.

Summer's last flings

2011-08-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

We were able to work in a camping trip and a beach trip before David headed back to work.

We went camping for 3 nights and 4 days with some friends and loved it! It was a bit of a drive to get there, but I think this is my new favorite place to camp!

Like the hat? It was a necessary evil to keep my scalp from frying!

I left my camera at home for the beach ...and then spent 6 hours regretting it. This was our first beach visit where William went in the water willingly with out any coaxing! He didn't last long due to the cold water and then spent hours upon hours playing in the sand.

Now David is back to work and I am frantically trying to get everything ready for our big day on Saturday!!! More on that later...

Summer fun/work

2011-08-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Deciding to home school has changed my summers drastically. I now spent a great deal of my time prepping for the new school year. It seems any free second I can find I am working on something for school; sewing, reading, writing, planning, collaborating, organizing; creating and on and on. My list of things to accomplish before opening day seems to be endless. This last few days I have had an angel in disguise, aka my sweet mother-in-law, here to help with all my sewing projects for the year. While we were sewing away David was enjoying his yearly summer unemployment by taking the chickabidees to the movies, the community pool and the park. Now my angel is gone back home, David goes back to work in a few short days and school starts for the kids and I just a couple of days after that. This summer has flown by way too fast!

Here's a picture just because I haven't posted any in a while! Isn't she beautiful! And notice her haircut? She left for our road trip with long hair and came back with short, thanks to our good friend in CO. She loves it and it has been so easy and fun for the summer!

Not lost

2011-07-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when a baby or young child dies people say they are lost? "We lost the baby." As if they are an item that was misplaced. I have even said it myself and every time I do, I cringe. We would never say that of an older individual. "I lost my Grandma?", I don't think so. So why do we "lose" our babies? When babies die they are not lost and as a Latter-day Saint I know for certain this is true. Seven years ago Davie was born. 40 minutes later he died and I know right where he is.

Happy Birthday, Davie!

New AFO's

2011-07-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday David took Robert to pick up his new braces for his legs. I didn't take a picture because they look almost identical to the last ones, just bigger. Robert is not happy about them, but is a trooper and wearing them anyway. People always ask how long he will have to wear them and I wish we knew. I do know that, for now, they are helping us to put that surgery off a little longer and as much as he hates them, they are better than surgery.

Our Grand Summer Adventure

2011-07-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

So when I asked David what we should do this summer several months ago he told me this crazy plan about spending three weeks driving around visiting friends and family. At first I thought, he was joking. When I realized he wasn't, I thought he had lost his mind. Then... I started thinking it might actually be fun. And you know what? 4,394 miles, 186 gallons of gas, and 10 states, and 3 audio books later, I can honestly say that it was more than fun! It was grand! And I think the kids will always remember it with fondness! (And most of the time the DVD players weren't even hooked up! YEAH!)

I might get a chance to post pictures later, but it will be a while. A very long while. My focus right now is on planning our school year.

To everyone we saw, we loved seeing you and had a fantastic time. To everyone we didn't see.... maybe we will catch you on our next adventure!

Home sweet Home!

2011-07-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

No matter how good the vacation is it is always good to be back home! More on our amazing road trip coming soon!

Now I get to spend the rest of the summer trying to catch up on planning for the upcoming school year! I have got my work cut out for me!

Look who's a year older!

2011-06-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

4 years ago my life was out of control scary. There were so many unknowns surrounding William's birth I was going a bit crazy. I know all births are full of unknowns, but William's were all rather frightening. It's been long enough now that I can almost say it wasn't really all that bad, but I still get filled with feelings of anxiety whenever I ponder on the details too much. The part that still makes me sad though is missing my last baby's birth. Neither mommy or daddy were there for that first cry. I didn't fully see him until he was over 24hrs old and even then I was so loopy, tired, and hurting it was hard to enjoy him. But.... it was totally worth it and I would do it all again if it were to give me my little monkey.

I am absolutely certain that he is the cutest four year old in the whole world. So, I am sorry if you thought you had the cutest four year old... because you're wrong. (I just might be slightly biased though.) He has the sweetest little voice and says the funniest things in the funniest ways. We all adore him and I'm sure he is getting a little too spoiled. I know my other chickabidees weren't this doted on, but that's just what happens with the baby.

Some of his accomplishments this last year...

becoming fully potty trained!
Learning to recognize his name and he's so close to writing it all by himself!
learning many of the letters and sounds
counting to 20 (most days anyway)
finally getting dressed by himself
becoming extremely talkative....to anyone who will listen!

He still likes to have help when it's his turn for prayer. We have been encouraging him to try to say it by himself and every time he tells us, "I'm only free years old, guys." Maybe now that he's four he'll give it a whirl!

We love him very much and can't wait to see what new things he will learn and do this year!

13 years

2011-06-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 13th anniversary to the man of my dreams! Thank you for being my night in shining armor!

Fatherhood

2011-06-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

This morning at breakfast I asked William what it meant to be a father. Here are his answers:

be in charge
be a boy
play lots of games

I found his answers so amusing I thought I should ask the other children the same question.

Robert said,

buy lots of stuff
be in charge
read dumb boring books
drive a whole bunch
play games with your kids

Alahna said,

you have children
your awesome
be nice
give your kids things
love your kids and don't beat them (This one really made me laugh, not sure where that came from!)

Anna said,

the male who helps raise the children
to provide for the family
be supportive of his family
sacrifice for the family

Happy Father's Day! I am so blessed to have David as the father of my children and to have been raised by my amazing dad! And of course David wouldn't be the man he is if it wasn't for his dad! Thank you!

paint by numbering

2011-06-15T15:39:00.001-07:00

A great way to spend the long summer hours!

A graduation and a birthday

2011-06-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

I was so lucky this week to be able to fly home and watch my sister's oldest graduate from high school and be there for her baby's 11th birthday! These are the kind-of events I normally miss and I really wanted to be there for my nephew. He has a special place in my heart, that one does. So Sunday evening I looked up plane tickets, found some cheap ones, and packed my bags!

Finally... a clean little boy

2011-06-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Having a cast on for six weeks makes for one dirty little boy. Especially when he was due a bath before the cast went on. A long soak in a tub full of bubbles was just what his little body needed!

my 2nd baby

2011-06-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

This princess is growing up too fast so I have to savor these moments when they come.

it's coming down

2011-05-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

The school year is over and all the stuff is coming down. I am looking forward to having my house look like a house again and not a school. I envy the lucky ones that have a dedicated school room.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

Pancake breakfast, visit to cemetery, hiking and finding lizards with friends. Not a bad way to spend the day!

Anna and Parker. We are all a little baby hungry here. Well.... almost all.

A big THANK YOU to all the men and women and their families that have sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do.

book club

2011-05-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

Friday the kids had their last book club for the year. At the end of the party we raffled off the pledge that they made earlier in the year. Anna was thrilled to win it!

Closing night

2011-05-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

Heroes Quest: Mt. Olympus and the Guardians of the Flame came to a close Monday night. It was a perfect end to an amazing year. Some of the mom's (including me) put on a little skit from Antigone, (a play written by Sophocles) for everyone, the children recited the Declaration of Independence, the older kids performed a song that they wrote, awards and tokens of the year were given, we watched a slide show of the year, and finally the torch was passed from a Roman citizen, to a founding father, on to our heroes!

Our heroes!

the goddesses and Poseiden

Nike (me) and her heroes

the heroes crowned with their victory wreaths and holding their flames (flashlights)

Singing the school song one last time, a very emotional moment

book group heroes


David surprised me with a new dry erase board, markers, and a world's best teacher certificate.	Isn't he sweet!

This year has been unbelievable. I went into it very nervous about homeschooling, but now I can say with my whole heart that this was the best thing I have ever done for my children. It has been so much fun to watch them learn and grow. After we got home from our closing celebration Anna came up to me, gave me a great big hug and told me thank you for being willing to homeschool. She said this has been the best school year ever and that she had so much fun learning. She even said...this was a real shocker... that math wasn't even that bad!!!

Now, the plans begin for next year. It's going to be very magical, I can feel it already!

Closing presentations

2011-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Alahna made a book that she titled, "Traveling with the Ancients". She took the time period between 500 and 300 B.C. and studied five civilizations. Then wrote and bound her own book. She worked on it for months and it really turned out neat.

Anna made a power point presentation about dogs in ancient Greece, both real and mythological. It took her awhile to find something she was truly excited about, but once she did she worked on it for hours at a time until it was finished. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her with her project.

Robert has worked on his "book of heroes" throughout the year. In it he drew pictures of all his heroes. The list includes mostly family members, but there are a couple of others like, Jackie Robinson, his ultimate hero right now. He made his cover at the beginning of the year when he was still learning how to write his name.

The girls and I worked together to make this liberty quilt as we learned all about the American Revolution.

And finally, the whole younger group after all the presentations were done. (The younger group consists of all the elementary age kids; the jr. high and high school kids did their presentations on a different day.)

split lip and other fun

2011-05-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

click on the picture to see it better.

A couple of weeks ago Robert tripped and hit the fireplace completely splitting his lip right next to the scar from where he split his lip 3 years ago. This time he did a more thorough job and needed to be stitched back up. As always he was an amazing patient. The nurse started to wrap him up in a papoose to hold him down and I told him that really wasn't necessary, he would hold still. The nurse gave me an "are you crazy" kinda look, but took me at my word and stopped. Robert didn't move a muscle or shed a tear until the doctor was all done and mentioned no chips or other hard foods. Then he cried. He could handle the pain, but no chips. What?

William went to get his big cast off and it was decided that his arm wasn't fully healed yet so another cast went on. This one only goes to his elbow though and he has been much happier with it...and he can pull his pants up and down again. That's always a good thing.

School is over and life is slowing back down a little. Fun posts about our closing festivities will be coming soon!

time flies

2011-05-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is what Anna said to me today when our lunch time was an hour later than normal,

"The difference between Discovery (their old elementary school) and being home schooled is time. At discovery I would sit and watch the seconds on the clock tick by waiting for lunch or recess. Now I look up and we've past lunch time and it seems like we've just started the day."

Time flies when your having fun!

Always right

2011-05-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

David reminded me of something I should blog about last night.

Sunday morning Robert and I were having a little disagreement. David asked him, "Robert have you ever been wrong?"

Robert contemplated the question for a few seconds then with a great big grin answered with all sincerity, "No, I am never wrong."

David followed up with, "You have never, ever been wrong before?"

"Well, sometimes I am wrong when I do a math problem."

Then David asked, "Have you ever told a lie?"

Again a moment of contemplation followed by a huge honest grin, "No, I have never told a lie."

He was so sure of himself and so proud of himself that he was never wrong and never told a lie.

Good grief, no wonder it can be so hard to reason with this kid.

Getty Villa

2011-05-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to the Villa and it was well worth the wait! We absolutely LOVED it. It was the perfect thing to do towards the end of the year. We had so much fun seeing, first hand, the things we have been learning about this school year. I was a little nervous going into this, art in the antiquities are rather rampant with nudity, but everyone was very mature about it and we managed to make it through with no embarrassing comments. It is something that has been discussed quite heavily this year and I guess they were listening after all.

There was a conservation station for the kids to practice some of the things that archeologist do to find and restore artifacts.

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The mummy was the kids' favorite exhibit, imagine that.

The gardens were exquisite.

After the Villa we went to Santa Monica pier. This is the only pic we have. Thank you Anna!

3 weeks from today is our closing day for this school year. It has been amazing and I am so sad that it is about to come to an end, also a little stressed at all the things I want to get done in the next 3 weeks. I would expect little blogging to be done between now an then!