Started School Today

Today we started school. Monkey has been begging me to start for a few days now so I figured we would give it a go. We always start out the year a bit slow to get everyone back in the groove. We do do some things over the summer but they are more relaxed and here and there so it takes some time for us to get back into the swing of things.
 We started with math. All 3 boys use Singapore math US edition. Singapore Math Monkey started with 1A, Cat Boy with 2A, and The Boy is in the middle of his 4A book. When Monkey finished I gave him my phone and had him start tracing letters and numbers using the Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) app I have on my phone while I worked with the other 2. When he got bored with that I put some Leap Frog videos on for his letters on Netflix. We just use Netflix for streaming and it is really great. There is even a Homeschooling with Netflix group on Facebook. Homeschooling with Netflix.
 Next it was time for Science. We have been using R.E.A.L Science by Pandia Press for a few years now and LOVE it! R.E.A.L Science Odyssey There is a ton of great experiments that really keep the kids engaged. I am using the same book for all 3 kids. This year we are doing Earth and Space. Since I could not find our thermometer to do the first experiment on Weather, I went and found a short video on Amazon Prime about how they predict the weather. Then I ordered a new thermometer on Amazon with Amazon Prime. I absolutely LOVE Amazon Prime and if you don't already have it try it out. They have some promos with Amazon Mom and Amazon Student.
 That was all we managed to do today. I am waiting on a few more books to come in before we have everything we need to start, but since we start out slow anyway it is ok. We also need to finish setting up the school room since we are moving it from its own room into the basement. However if I waited for that to get done we would NEVER start school.

Long time no post

Wow it has been 2 years since I have last posted. Funny that the last post I posted was of Cat Boy's first day of kindergarten and now we are starting on the 2nd year of homeschooling him. It has been going great and the best thing for him. Kindergarten was wonderful for him but 1st was not so we pulled him and have never looked back! This year Monkey will be starting Kindergarten, Cat Boy will be starting 2nd grade, and The Boy will be in 4th.

Of course taking Cat Boy out of school was the least of the changes around here! We welcomed Princess into our family almost 6 months ago! The boys all love their little sister and she is already so spoiled with love. She gets so sad if she is alone because she is so used to having SOMEONE to entertain her.

The boys were excited she was home

Out little princess

As we start our new school year, and The Hubby gets ready to start his new company (check it out if you need any IT services. www.erilistechnologysolutions.com ) I hope to keep this blog updated. We have a lot of exciting changes and things coming up in the next few months so hopefully I can use this to keep everyone updated.

 Yesterday was Meet the Teacher day at Cat Boy's new school. He is going to Kindergarten this year and  is going to a new school. He was excited to go, but as soon as we get ready to go into the car he started to have an anxiety attack. He was scared and did not want to go. I literally had to make him go into the room and he cried for about 30 minutes. It was way to much "new" for him. New school, new teachers, new kids, just to much unknown. It took a while but I got him through it and then he was just fine! There were 2 great little girls who tried to make him feel better and that just made my heart swell! His teacher seems GREAT and I think he will have a great year! As soon as I said "This is Cat Boy" while he was screaming she went to grab his picture chart from his last school. She was nice and prepared for him and his challenges and that made me feel  so lucky that we have her. She told me her dad passed last year and his name was Cat Boy Smith....she knows he was meant to be in her class and I think she is right!

Today was the first day. He was super excited to go and yelled at me for taking to long taking my 3 minute shower! LOL He helped me pack his lunch in his new Hello Kitty lunch bag. He had to have a heart shaped PB&J sandwich, little carrots to show Mrs. Hirtz (he told her yesterday how much he likes carrots), and little chickadees (like goldfish). I was worried he would still be hungry but they have breakfast at school too so he said he was fine after having 2 breakfasts!

 He was excited to see the bus coming! We had talked about how he was riding a big bus this year and it would no longer have car seats built into the seats like his buses did for that last 2 years. He said he would be fine and would just hold onto something. He ended up being assigned to the first seat on the passenger side and sure enough was holding onto the wall in front of him as they drove away! I love that he is on that side of the bus so I can see him in the window! He waved bye to me for the first time in the 2 years he has rode a bus! I was SOOOOOO happy!

 Since I knew I would need something to keep me busy today we met some friends up at Anne Marie Gardens to have some fun! Here Monkey is making a wish flag as part of an art exhibit they have going on. He is drawing ghost friends in the picture but said he did not have a wish. The Boy did not want to make a wish flag so he just ran around.

Right now Anne Marie Gardens has a Fairy House exhibit going on. You want around and find the 45 hidden Fairy Houses. They give you a map and on some houses (like the one in the picture) there are little clues with letters on them and when you put all the letters together you can spell out the secret words. Oh and they have a dress up area so the kids can dress up while they run around the gardens. The Boy is wearing a dragon hat!

Off the path a bit was the Fairy Obstacle Course. There were a bunch of fun activities there. Stump Jump, Fairy Cafe, wooden board where you put your head on characters, some other stuff, and the Fairy Stage. Lydia (the one in the yellow) insisted that all the adults sit and watch a show put on by all the kids. The Boy was the dragon, Lydia was a warrior princess, and Thane was a knight! They of course killed the dragon! We had a blast and found all the Fairy houses! The Boy is already talking about going back before the Fairy Houses are gone and bringing Cat Boy. We will be back!

Finally it was time for Cat Boy to get home! I was bursting with excitement to see how his day went! When I asked him how school was he simply said "HAPPY!" He had a great day and after bribing him with Burger King he told me all about it! He played blocks, on the bouncy things at recess (whatever that is), read books, made a project (which he brought home and it was super sweet about how he will be just fine in school ect), had lunch, and generally had a fun day! I know there will be rough days ahead but for now I am just glad today was okay!

Trying again

So my attempt to keep up with this blog has not gone well. LOL I am going t try yet again. We have been super busy around here. Cat Boy starts Kindergarten in 2 days, The Boy has already been starting his 2nd year of homeschooling and Monkey has just being seeing what he can get away with.

Like I mentioned The Boy has started school already. We got new curriculum this year and so far I am loving it. Science in particular has a ton of really cool labs which he is loving. He just loves science, especially when labs/experiments are involved.

The other day we made animal and plant cells out of jello and fruit! Of course all the boys got involved in this one and loved that they got to "eat science". Now I know animal cells are not orange but I have had that jello for EVER and wanted to use it up. LOL They green square is our plant cell with cut of grapes as chloroplasts and an orange slice for the nucleus. The orange circle is our animal cell with an orange slice for our nucleus as well. The kids thought cells were very yummy! When they were done Monkey mixed the two and told me he made a plant animal. LOL

The Boy also played kickball this summer. He loved every minute of it and can not wait till next summer. I of course wished it was not as hot but I was glad to see him happy again after the disaster of spring flag football. He was coached by our dear friends Erin and Russ who sadly are not going to coach next year. I only hope he gets a coach that cares as much about the kids as Erin and Russ do!

Hello again!

So it has been almost 2 years since I last posted on here. I am REALLY going to try this time to keep this thing updated.

This past weekend we took an impromptu trip to Norfolk Va. The kids had no idea where we were going and early Saturday morning we loading them up in the van for the 4 hr drive. When we started getting close they got all excited about the big cargo ships and other ships we could see. The first stop was to the Nauticus museum. www.nauticus.org. If you live in, or ever visit the Norfolk area I HIGHLY suggest you go. We had a BLAST! It is great for kids. Unlike most museums it was almost all hands on and they could touch so much. The main attraction is the USS Wisconsin which you can go on and either just walk around the top deck and a little bit of the inside or you can pay a bit more and get the guided tour which we will do next time.

Here are the boys looking through a para-scope. They thought this was really cool. We could see all around the museum including the ship. After the para-scope we went into a room with all sorts of items from the USS Wisconsin including an old computer that could of fit us all in it! They had items from the kitchen, bunks hanging from the ceiling, and the bridge you could go in and play around in.







One of the activites for the kids was this long pool of water. Inside where all these white blocks (you can see Cat Boy has one) and these holders for the blocks and some toy boats. What you would do is make different channels to guide your boat and see how guiding the water would make it go faster or slower, be full or empty, ect. The kids played here for over 30 mins!





We caught a demonstration to teach us about the guns on the USS Wisconsin. She tolds us how the guns worked, popped a balloon full of Hydrogen to simulate what it felt like when the guns went off (The was REALLY REALLY cool!) and then as you can see here The Boy got to help with a demo about shooting close range vs. long range. Then she tought us about the armor piercing guns which was the coolest part. She shot a pencil through a block of wood and BROKE the wood in half but not the pencil!



There were also some computers set up with simulators. Here Cat Boy is fling an airplane. There was also a sonar one where you would fire missiles, one where you were on a NOAA plane monitoring the weather, and some one with classified documents from WWII. They could of played here all day.

After the museum we went to dinner at an all you can eat seafood buffet for Monkey's early birthday dinner. We all enjoyed it and ate way to much. LOL We went back to the hotel and all crashed in bed and watched Despicable Me. It was really cute.

Then Sunday was Monkey's birthday. We had brought his presents with us so of course as soon as we woke up he wanted to open them. He got this lego truck, a Toy Story shirt and Handy Manny shirt from us, a Toy Story Lego set from Grandma Shields, a Toy Story toy camera from Cat Boy, and Rex and Buzz on a skateboard from The Boy. He was very excited with all the presents.





We got home in time for the big football game. GO BEARS! Since I was not sure when we would get home I had not gotten stuff for a cake so I had to run out and get stuff during the game. I decided we would do Dirt Cake and Monkey just though it was so funny that it was called Dirt Cake and kept laughing saying "I eat my DIRT!"

Ashton's first Birthday and SNOW

So once again I forget to update this thing! Since I last blogged had Monkey's 1st birthday! I cannot believe my baby is 1 already! I seems like not to long ago we were in shock over finding out I got pregnant on my own! For his birthday we just hung around. Uncle Rob had come over the night before and spent the night so that morning I had everyone pancakes and eggs for breakfast. For dinner we ordered one of Monkey's favorite's pizza!

Since his birthday was on a Friday we had his party the next day. He had a Winnie the Pooh party since he seems to just LOVE and Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. So I made him 2 Pooh cakes. One to destroy and one for the rest of us the eat. They did not take long at all and turned out pretty cute! Uncle Rob was glad to be there when I made the cake molds so he could lick the batter! LOL Good thing I made 2 cakes because I rinsed the first one out before he could eat it and he was upset.
Monkey was not sure what to think at first and ust kinda scraped the first little bit of frosting off.

THEN he figured it out..... You can see all the other kids eating the safe cake LOL Cake was EVERYWHERE! All in the back of his head and inside his ear! I gave him a bath after and the water...oh the water... LOL Some of the guests were shocked I was letting him go at it so much but hey you only have one first birthday and it is nothing a bath could not take care of! Though I was happy I got him undressed before we did the cake!
A few days later we had our first REAL snow...it only lasted a day but the kids had fun. We were lucky enough to find a sled and some gloves that make my kids look like OJ. However finding gloves in Jan in Maryland is hard...they were all on clearance already!











We also went to DC one Saturday! It was a really nice weekend and in the upper 60's. They now have the flag from the Star Spangled Banner on display so we thought we would go see it. I have pictures from this day but they are on someone else's camera. We never did make it to see the flag but we did see the Deceleration of Independence, some guy dressed and President Lincoln, the Magna Carta, and ended up at the Museum of Natural History where we say some animals and Dinosaurs. The kids had a great time and Cat Boy loved going on the choochoo (Metro). We can not wait for it to get warm again so we can hit up the zoo!

One night during dinner Monkey was fussing to get down. We were all still eating so I let him down and he was playing in the kitchen. He loves to take the cookie sheets out from under the oven so we hear him and figured this was what he was doing. He started squealing to get our attention and we turned around and saw this! Yeah he knew he was cute!










Then last night we had some MASSIVE snow. Massive for this area anyway. Close to a foot. So we bundled up and went to play today. Cat Boy did NOT like it. He liked it fine last night when it was falling but it was just TO deep for him. He was ok when we first went out but then he fell. You can see the picture of him when he fell and just grabbed his head like OH NO I FELL! Daddy and The Boy went sledding on the hill and we had some snowball fights. We tried to make a snowman but it just would not work very well. Daddy took Cat Boy inside and The Boy and I went to sled in the neighbor's yard and then play on SNOW MOUNTAIN (the pile made from plowing!). It was a blast but very cold. We do not have good snow clothes since we NEVER get snow like this.

Long time no blog

So it has been a long time since I have blogged. Yeah I forget. We have been busy.

Thanksgiving found us in IL and KY. In IL we visited my family and also saw Erin and met baby Mackenzie finally. Monkey and her got along great and the boys loved the train restaurant we found ourselves eating at twice.

In KY we stayed with The Hubby's parents and Monkey had his first Thanksgiving! He enjoyed the food a lot and made sure all his body parts got a taste. Cat Boy decided he did not want to wear a shirt so he was a sexy beast for dinner. :)

Back at home we headed to Leonardtown to visit Santa. The Boy was excited and Cat Boy seemed excited too until it was our turn! He then ran away. Monkey did great and The Boy needed me to remind him what he wanted for Christmas. As we were leaving Santa handed us some candy canes and Cat Boy was once again ok with Santa. :)

Christmas was exciting. They boys took all day to open their presents since they wanted to play with everything as they opened it.

I had to open the rest of Cat Boy and Monkey's presents right before 5 since some friends were coming for dinner. Every year we do a prim rib roast and invite everyone that does not have family close to come and join us so no one is alone on Christmas. This year we had a 15lb roast!

This is The Boy and Cat Boy playing Bakugan.

On Jan 2nd we got our first snow! The boys were super excited and got dressed right away to go out and play. Cat Boy ran up and down the parking lot just squealing with joy and The Boy tried to catch snow on his tongue and thow snow clumps at me. We just got a dusting and it was gone before the afternoon was over.

Yesterday was The Hubby's 30th Birthday! On Sunday we threw him a surprise party and everyone had a great time. He was shocked.

Monday the boys and I made him the Hershey's cake. They wanted to put I love you sprinkles on it.
We sang to him and Monkey was all mad mommy would not let him have some cake. He gets some of his own in just a couple of weeks so I told him he could wait.