What a week!

I am tired just thinking about the week that we've had. We started our school year 5 weeks ago, but this week, school officially started with our group and in addition we started another program too. First, on Monday we started Classical Conversations. A little while back I got an email about this from a friend and thought it sounded interesting. The boys and I went to go check it out and while I was impressed, I was not interested in driving to Lakewood every week. I have a friend who was very interested and decided to start her own group and it is literally right down the street from us. So far, I am totally impressed with what the boys have learned and retained. It is going to be tough, I know. Each week they have to memorize a lot of new stuff for the next week. But I already can see how valuable this is going to be. You can read more about it here: CC.
We also started at Friday school yesterday. We have a new location this year and while the parking situation leaves a lot to be desired, I love the smaller campus.
We also started CCD (religious ed. class) on Thursday. This is Charlie's first year and Harrison's third. Charlie wasn't too thrilled to begin with but I am happy to report that when I picked him up he had enjoyed his class. His teacher is a very sweet lady too.
And if that wasn't enough to push me completely over the edge, Harrison had Boy Scouts last night. It is going to be a very busy school year. Charlie is also a scout now, but he hasn't had a meeting yet.
Did I mention that I am also running the 3rd grade book club? Another mom and I are in charge. Honestly, how could I not? We are both so excited, our 1st meeting is the week after next.
Here are the boys on there first day of 1st and 3rd. And just because no one would believe me, here is Audrey in the braids that lasted approximately 5 minutes.

summer reading program party and cool art

A couple of weeks ago I took Harrison to a party celebrating the readers for the library's summer reading program. We had fun and it was hotter then hot as usual. The party is in the evening and I always make a point to be there when they open. We walk around for a little, eat and play some games. I totally appreciate how the library has this set up. They give the kids a ticket book that allows them to use tickets for the activities and bounce houses. You must use a ticket for each thing. This results in there not being huge lines for the bounce houses, because let's face it, that's all they want to do. The high light for me is the Schwan's truck which provides the bomb pops. Once a year I have a bomb pop thanks to them. Harrison enjoyed himself and even got his arm painted which surprised me, he usually doesn't go for that type of thing.

Last weekend we went to the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Canyon. It's been probably 15 years since I've been. I love walking around there and Laguna is not a bad place to be. The artwork was really cool and the jewelry was beautiful. It happened to be Beatles weekend so there was a band playing Beatles songs and a few more hippies then usual. I picked up some artwork for the house. You can see the piece I got for Audrey's room here: Sun Dance is the name of the print. You may have to scroll down to see it.

In other news, we started school on Monday. So far so good. I took the boys to the barber today and they got haircuts for picture day which is next Thursday. Fall seems to be in full swing here even though it really isn't. Shhh.....don't tell them!

officially back to "school" :)

We started school a couple of weeks ago and today the boys started back at their Friday school. So now it feels official. And right now Audrey is asleep and the house is super quiet!
We have had quite a week here. Besides being extra busy, we lost another friend to cancer and I've got a funeral service on Sunday to attend.
Life is beautiful! Enjoy every day.

back in the saddle

We are back in school here. I started 1st grade with Harrison last Monday to be exact. That sounds funny doesn't it? The biggest problem with school now is that we are still doing swim lessons too, and those really cut up our day. I expect next week to go much smoother. So far, so good unless you count yesterday when he just refused to finish his math. It is still SO HOT here. Thankfully our AC is fixed or this post would have an entirely different tone to it.

I am feeling good, finally! Our ultrasound is at the end of the month. I am still on the fence about having the boys find out. I think we will just wait and see. If one more person asks me if we are trying for a girl, I may go postal. No, we did not try for a girl, I would be overjoyed with another boy. There, I said it. After all, we've got 2 pretty super fantastic boys already, I'd be crazy to not want another one. And no, that doesn't mean I've got anything against girls at all, I'd take one of those too. :)

Charlie starts preschool on the 11th of Sept. He seems excited some days, and could really care less on others. I feel really good about not having him start K this year. He is doing as well as, if not better than Harrison in swimming. Can you believe it? Yay for swim lessons!

Robert has been very busy. He's got freelance work on top of his "day job", so he has been coming home and going straight to work in his office.

Is anyone watching Big Love? Only 2 more episodes left. Man, I love this show. I love Bill Paxton too.

star of the week :)

This picture is from about a month ago, but I love it. I thought it would be a good one for this post. Harrison was "Star of the Week" at school yesterday. When I picked him up, his little friend Haley told me. Harrison was so proud, and excited. On the way to the park I asked him how he earned it and he told me that: 1.) he obeyed the teacher 2.) he asked how a friend was that had fallen, and 3.) he remembered the bathroom rules. :D He was most excited about receiving a certificate for a free meal at Mimi's Cafe. We called Daddy and told him so Robert insisted that we go that night. It was a late dinner for us, but we had so much fun. After dinner the manager came over and gave Harrison an achievement pin that is a star with the word Mimis written across the top. The manager then preceded to give us all one. Charlie was pretty tickled about that.
Robert also had a good day. While we were waiting to be seated he told me that Disney finally made him an official part of the staff. We're going to Disneyland, baby!

sick..........AGAIN

Yep, I'm sick. I have Robert to thank this time. He got sick before Easter, and I really thought it skipped over me, but no such luck. I don't want to gross you out with the details, but let's just say that I had no idea that one person could produce this much gunk. I am seriously blowing my nose every ten minutes or less. I hope that the boys don't get it.

Besides that, we are doing fine. Robert is working, Harrison is finishing up kindergarten soon, and I am starting to plan next year. I have the most fun with this aspect of our schooling. It is hard to narrow down things, there are so many great options out there. If I bought everything I wanted we would, 1.) be in school from 9-5, and 2.) I would be broke. Thankfully my budget doesn't allow these things to happen. The nice thing is that for some subjects I will just have to buy the student workbooks for Charlie when it's time for him to start. Speaking of Charlie, we have decided to have him attend preschool one more year. I firmly believe that he is too young for kindergarten just yet.

As our school year winds down, I have been thinking a lot of our successes and failures. (Well, we haven't failed anything, that is probably the wrong word.) There are things that we could have done differently. I also think back to the beginning of our year and how I thought I was prepared and ready to go. I was, for the most part! Harrison surprised me in a lot of ways. We had our bad days where I thought, "what am I doing?" And we also had excellent days. The majority were good days. Homeschooling for us works right now. I don't know that it always will, but for now it suits us. Just looking at samples of his work from Sept. and now, blows me away. I am looking forward to next year, now if I could only narrow down my options. ;)

**this just in, I read the funniest book to the boys about teeth. Harrison has his first loose tooth and is quite nervous about it. Anyways, I highly recommend this book. It gets a lot of laughter, especially if you do all the different voices, like yours truly. :) The book is,
Open Wide, Tooth School Inside.

Long Beach Airport tour 11-3-06

We went to the Long Beach Airport for a field trip with our ISP group. What a neat place. The airport has a 1930's art deco feel to it, totally cool. The nice thing is, is that the airport has historical status, so the design will never change. The tour is great, very informative. We started off with a demonstration of the fire trucks, and wow, they can shoot water very high, and very far. They are mostly on call. Thankfully there are not too many fires at the airport.

The firefighters were all super nice, I think that's a prerequesite for firefighters don't you? After their demonstration, they gathered all of the kids together for a group photo. I told Harrison to go up front, and one firefighter leaned down and picked Harrison up and put him on his shoulders for the photo. I love that he is oh so casual with his hands in his pockets.

We then got a tour of the tarmac and walked over to the terminal where we got some airport history. After that, we headed up to the observation deck to watch some planes land and take off. This is what the boys thought about that:


And thank you to the very kind rental car attendant that didn't think it was odd for me to ask her to take our picture. The reason the sign is partially covered is because there was a film crew there filming a movie out front.

At dinner tonight, I asked the boys what their favorite part of the airport tour was. Harrison told me he loved to see the planes taking off and landing. Charlie told me that his favorite part was seeing the luggage. :D If that's not a four year old for you then I don't know what is!

Amy's Farm 10-9-06

Our school group had a field trip last week. With the kind of week I had been having, it's a miracle we made it. First off, I would have bet money that the field trip was scheduled for a completely different day. If our team leader had not emailed a reminder, we would have missed out. It didn't help that the date had been switched before. Hmmmph. We did make it, and we had so much fun. The farm is out in Chino, and does this kind of thing regularly. It is a working farm too, not just for kids. I took my mom with us, and she really enjoyed herself, even though a calf tried to chew her jacket. Yum.

The best part of the tour was that Harrison and his friend got to feed a baby calf it's milk from a bottle. I got some great pictures, but I don't want to post his friend's photo. If I can figure out a way, I will. At the end of the tour, the kids all got to pick out a pumpkin. Definitely a good day.





I am very excited. I am going up north this weekend. My friend, Suzanne and I are flying out on Friday. We are going to meet up with our friends Susie, and Elizabeth. We will all be staying at Elizabeth's home. They are all scrapbookers too, in fact that is how we all met. On Saturday we will be shopping in San Francisco. Robert will be holding down the fort here with the boys. I have no idea what they've got planned, but I'm pretty sure it involves Star Wars and staying up late. Hee hee.

So, have a good weekend! I'll return with lots of photos to share, I'm sure.

a fair day 9-25-06

Our ISP group had a day at the Los Angeles County Fair last week. Yes, despite the colds all around, we went. It wasn't too bad. Everyone should go to the Fair at least once. I figure now, I'm good for at least 5 more years. Oh the humanity! Our day started out nice enough. We got there in plenty of time, entered before it officially opened and managed to see a lot of things. My favorite exhibit, (I know the boys were thrilled), was the arts and crafts. You should have seen the quilts. My mom and I stood there with our mouths hanging open staring at them. Remember I said I wanted to take a quilting class? I thought I'd try this out as my first project:

Ha! Isn't this gorgeous? I really could fill this whole post up with pictures of the quilts I took.
No trip to the Fair would be complete without a visit to the barn. My mom said that her trip was worth it just to see these babes:

I tried to figure out a way to scoop one up and stick it in my shirt, but no go.
Harrison and Charlie l-o-v-e-d the trains. They have a fantastic train exhibit that you can walk through. We spent a lot of time here too:

They were also pretty fond of the NHRA Museum. I actually enjoyed it too, and was thrilled to see the World's Fastest Indian there. If you haven't seen the movie, grab your keys and go to Blockbuster now. Go on. I'll be here when you get back. Robert and I watched this about a month ago, and we both loved it. Great movie. Anthony Hopkins was superb. It's a true story, and I think I can pretty much guarantee that you will like it too. Here is the actual motorcycle:

And lastly, no post would be complete without the mention of Fair food. Come on people, does any of this sound the least bit appetizing? If it does, keep those thoughts to yourself. I give you, the deep fried Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich:

Friday at the beach 9-8-06

We spent the afternoon and part of this evening at the beach. Huntington Beach, to be exact. Harrison's new school group, (or ISP, Independent Study Program) had a beach party to kick off the new year. We has so much fun. I met lots of new people. There were quite a few families there. We had a barbecue in the evening, to which everyone brought something. The weather was perfect, Robert even got a little surfing in. The boys were covered in sand when we left. I felt like a needed a pressure hose to get rid of all that sand. Straight into the tub they went. And now, I'm off to sleep. :)

Oh, and when Harrison was going to bed he asked me if next time, we could go to the ocean that doesn't taste like salt. Love that kid.

we survived our first day 9-5-06

Yay! Harrison really surprised me. I didn't know what to expect. He loved math, and wanted to keep doing more of it. We read, wrote and colored. All in all, not bad! Is this a promise of what's to come? I can only hope. :) Happy Tuesday.

homeschool curriculum 8-28-06

Well, a few people have asked me what I will be using this year, so I thought I'd list it here. Whether you homeschool or not, take a look. Some of it is pretty darn neat. :) This will be our first year, grade K. I can't believe that it is almost here! I've elected to start on the 5th. Tomorrow, I've got registration and I will be meeting with the resource teacher that is assigned to me.

Math: Math U See

Writing: zaner bloser

Science: Backyard Scientist, I purchased the book for ages 2-7

Reading: Teaching Character Through Literature
and: Hooked on Phonics

Art: I have a lot of different ideas for craft projects and activities, I'm not using anything in particular

History: I've got a lot of children's books that pertain to certain historical events. I'm not going to do a formal history program just yet

Religion: The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions for Children's Faith Formation, in addition to our Bible :)

So, there you have it.