Christmas Update

We had a wonderful Christmas! It started off a little rocky on Christmas Eve. My parents came over for some hors d'oevres in the early evening. (That's NOT the rocky part!) Pokemon King had been battling a cough, but suddenly it got worse and he could not stop coughing. So, Bond took him to the emergency room. The doctors said he might have the beginning stages of Asthma. WHAT? Talk about coming from left field! He got a temporary inhaler and some steroids. (he could use those! LOL!) I took him for a checkup today and he's fine. No asthma, just keep an eye on him.

Christmas Day was great! We had our usual breakfast casserole that had been in the crockpot overnight. After breakfast, we opened our gifts. The boys got a lot of nice things, as did Bond and myself. Bond's parents came over for lunch and we opened more nice gifts. I don't know how his parents do it. For breakfast they go to one brother's house, ours for lunch and dinner for the other. What a crazy day! And they shop for 11 grandkids! Whew!

The day after Christmas we went to my parent's house to celebrate with my mom's brother and his family. We do a gift exchange with them, but we only buy one present. The girls buy a girl gift and the guys buy a guy gift. After the food and gifts, we played Bible Pictionary. It was a lot of fun, but by then Bond wasn't feeling too well. He stayed home from church the next day and I lugged all 5 boys by myself. I'm such a trooper!

I think we are all finally feeling better now! Hopefully, it will stay that way!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and look forward to a Happy New Year!

Rocket Funny

It started snowing this morning. Rocket was very excited and really wants more snow to come. He asked me, "When will the snow grow? I want more!"

My Thanksgiving ABC's

Here's my alphabetical list of what I am thankful for. It is, by no means, complete! There are so many things I am grateful for. This is only a small portion of that!

A-All of my friends and family!

B-Blogging-A wonderful way to keep in touch with family and friends

C-Children-My 5 awesome boys!!!

D-Dreams-I have many wonderful dreams that I know will come true!

E-Everything good in my life!

F-Football-Yes...I love football!! Go Broncos!!! Go Blue!!!

G-Genji Japanese Steakhouse-Need I say more? LOL!

H-Husband-My amazing husband who is a wonderful father and husband! Without him, I'd be lost.

I-Ice Cream-Especially in 90 degree weather, even when I have to cover up with a blanket when I'm finished!

J-Jesus Christ-My Savior, who gave up his life, so we could have ours.

K-Kitchen-One day I will make a meal that ALL of my children will eat!

L-Love-Without love, life would be no fun.

M-My parents and my in-laws-They've stood by us in everything we do and have been there when we needed them.

N-Notebooks-Anything officey is quite cool. I also like the fact that both Dinodude and Rocket carried around their own 'handy dandy notebooks' looking for clues!

O-Online service-I'm an internet junkie. I love to surf...I love Facebook...I love those dumb hidden object games!

P-Pirates of the Caribbean-I really love those movies! I could watch them over and over again...actually...I have!

Q-Quiznos-Their subs are really good!

R-Rain-I enjoy a nice rain shower every now and then.

S-Scriptures-These are what help me through my rough times and guide me in time of trials.

T-Thanksgiving-What a wonderful holiday to spend with family, being grateful for all we have.

U-Umbrellas-Even though we don't own any that work...I'm grateful for umbrellas to keep us dry.

V-Voice-I'm thankful I have a voice that can be heard. (Yes...I do have a loud voice! Just ask my boys!)

W-Words-Without words, my voice would be meaningless.

X-Xylophones-I really couldn't think of anything that started with x, other than this. I remember having one when I was a child. It was fun.

Y-You! All of you that read and follow this blog!

Z-Zinnias-I've never really been a flower person, but I really like Zinnias.

So, what are you thankful for?

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I have fallen off the edge of the earth! Nope! Still here! Sadly, I've been engrossed in that evil conspiracy known as....Facebook! Yes, that darn facebook. It's not even so much facebook as it is the games on facebook. I'm on a quest to plant as many crops as I can and decorate my house. There's Yoville and Fishville and Farmville and Roller Coaster Kingdom and Farm Town and....It is consuming my spare time, which I don't have much of anyway! On the plus side, I've dropped Roller Coaster Kingdom and Fishville. I figure since the boys play their video games (Bond included!), I can play my facebook. After all, it's only fair, isn't it?

Oops!!!

See how brilliant the construction workers in our neighborhood are?

Happy October!!!

I love October! Halloween is my favorite holiday, next to Christmas. After getting our decorations out, I realized we don't have nearly enough. I'm hoping to get some more after the holiday when they roll out the sales!

It's time to decide on costumes for this year. Bond is not a dress up kind of guy, although he did go as a Steelers fan one year. Boo-yeah! I told him one of these years we need to go as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Maybe this will be the year! As for the boys....we haven't decided yet. Dinodude keeps changing his mind. First he wanted to be Mario. Then he wanted to be a blood ghost. As of now he wants to be a skeleton clown. We don't know what he's going to be yet, but I know it won't be too scary. Pokemon King wants to be a Hobo. That's an easy one to do. Rocket wants to be the dinosaur he was last year, but I'm sure it wont fit him. We're trying to talk him into being Pikachu. We already have that costume.

So, to all who read this, please post any costume ideas (preferably very, very, very cheap!) that you have for any of us!

Bond & I started exercising this week. Today is day 4 of the P90X, a very intense workout program. It's going great and I'm hoping we can stick with it. I think since we are doing it together, we'll be able to continue with it. Now we just need to work on nutrition. And that is for ALL of the family!

Hello Autumn!

It's Autumntime! I really enjoy this time of year. I'm one of those people who really likes all four seasons. Once one season has run its course I am ready for the next one.

Summer is over. Goodbye shorts....hello pajama pants! Goodbye hot, humid weather...hello crisp, cool weather. Goodbye green grass (or brown grass)...hello orange, red & yellow leaves. Hello football! Hello Halloween! Hello pumpkins and apples!

Last week we completed our 6th week of homeschool, so we have this week off. I really wanted to actually take the boys some places this week. Unfortunately, Dinodude and Rocket have come down with a nasty cough. Sleep has been almost nonexistent for us this week. On the plus side, Bond found some cough syrup that actually works!!! Sadly, it's tastes terrible, so it's not easy for the boys to take it, but they've been such troopers about it.

Although our lack of sleep and sickness has hindered our activities, I did manage to update Babymoon's clothing and clean up his room. I also hung some pictures up in our Bonus Room. We had nothing on the wall in there. I recently had pictures taken of Wally, Pokemon King, Dinodude and Babymoon, so I wanted to update the room with some pictures. I also hung up some pictures in the upstairs hall. It was looking so bare. Now, it's a whole new area! I'm still hoping to attack the garage. Since we became a two car family again, Bond would like to be able to put his car in the garage too. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but we'll try it.

Look What I Grew!!!

Woohoo!!! My sister-in-law gave me some tomato pepper plants. No peppers yet, but I got some tomatoes!!! Woohoo!!!

Rocket Funny

The other day Rocket was outside playing with the neighbor kids. All of a sudden he comes running in the front door, slams it and looks out the window while panting really hard. I asked him what was wrong and he replies, "P____ (the neighbor girl) is trying to marry me!"

Happy Birthday Yesterday Babymoon!!!

Our First Week Back

All in all, I'd say our first week was a success. It got a little off track in the middle due to some interruptions, but we manage to make it through. I purposely designed Fridays mostly free to make up for any interruptions.

We continued on the path of Math, English, Handwriting, Dictation and the usual. However I will post what they accomplished for their other assignments.

Pokemon King:

He rolled a green for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which means he could do a short skit, act out the story using action figures, or write & perform an original song or poem retelling the story. He chose to act out the story with action figures, but it is too large to post. For three stories, he was fortunate to roll a red on the narration die, which means he got to draw a picture relating to the story.

This is from This Country of Ours:

This is from Robinson Crusoe. This is one of the stories he will be reading for himself.

This is from Madame How & Lady Why:

Dinodude:

He, too rolled a green for Burgess's Animal Book, but the movie is too long to post as well. For these two stories, he rolled a red.

Tree in the Trail

An Island Story:

Rocket:

I've decided to go ahead and do Kindergarten things for Rocket this year. We are using Learning Language Arts Through Literature to learn to read. That is what I used with Pokemon King & Dinodude and it worked very well. He is also finishing the Explode the Code Primer Series. In addition to these we are reading various types of books and I'm also hoping to add in some kind of science. I didn't order Saxon Math 1, which is what I used for Kindergarten. I'm debating whether I should order it or just do some math things on our own. Rocket doesn't turn 5 until December, so I might wait until then. Right now, I would really just like to concentrate on teaching him to read.

School Starts Tomorrow

We were going to start school last week, but we had a family reunion on Sunday, so we decided to wait a week. Plus, I didn't have everything ready to go anyway. So, this past week I've been getting everything ready. Pokemon King & Dinodude are all ready to go. I'm still working on a few things for Rocket.

Starting in the middle of this past year, we decided to do 3 terms of 12 weeks each. I've planned our whole year (which will probably get messed up...it always does!) I've listed our Term 1 curriculum on the sidebar for those who are interested. We are still using Ambleside Online this year. Since we started it last year, I really feel they are progressing alot better than before. They are retaining so much more information and don't have to deal with boring textbooks.

I'm hoping to continue with weekly reports and to even do a better job! So, wish us luck! Here's hoping for a great new year!

Babymoon's Accomplishments

Over the past few weeks, Babymoon has started to walk and just yesterday he cut his first tooth. WOOHOO!!! Go Babymoon! He turns 1 next month. I can't believe how time has flown by.

Dinodude's Baptism

Dinodude got baptized on Saturday! What an exciting event! He only needed to be immersed once, unlike his mother! My knee popped up, so I had to be immersed twice. That's okay...just meant I got extra cleansing!

The majority of our family was able to make it! Awesome! Thanks everyone for coming out to witness this momentous occasion!

If only Babymoon hadn't been sleeping, the boys would've made the 5 bars for that cell phone commercial!

New Blog Addition

Just wanted to let you all know that Dinodude has started a blog. Actually, he started it last November, but hasn't kept up with it. He said he kept forgetting about it, but really wants to keep up with it now. So, go check it out!

Dinodude's Territory

Wally's Birthday/4th of July Party

Since Wally's birthday is so close to Independence Day, we like to gather at Grandma's house to celebrate. Her next door neighbor is very into fireworks & creates a wonderful show for the entire neighborhood. Here's a few pictures from the occasion.

Happy Birthday Wally!!!

Wally turned 16 yesterday. I just cannot believe it! We are sooo not old enough for a 16 year old!

Wally-you are growing into a fine young man. You do your best to set a good example to your younger brothers. You don't care what other people think and you are your own person.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

School's Out, School's Out, Teacher Let the Monkeys Out!

The boys are happy that our school year has ended. We finished last week with exams. I think our school year was a success, even with the usual nitpicking and complaining from the boys. On the plus side, Pokemon King informed me that he does like school, but complains because he'd rather be doing something else. So, that made me feel a little better. Now, it's time to plan for next year! The only items left to order are their math worksheets. Other than that, we are all set with our curriculum.

Here's some pictures of their exams. Together, they decided to do a play for Island Story, but I can't seem to get it to load.

Dinodude's diorama of The Velveteen Rabbit:

Dinodude's board game of Aesop's Fables:

Pokemon King's board game of This Country of Ours:

Pokemon King's diorama of Johnny Appleseed:

Dinodude's Birthday Party

Dinodude had his party on the 6th. He wanted a Scooby Doo party. He and Rocket have been watching a lot of Scooby shows lately. We played a game called Pin the Bone in Scooby's Mouth. Here's a before picture of Scooby. I drew it myself...not bad, eh?

Here's the after picture with all the bones.

I really wish he was more excited about his gift. Sheesh! 

I'll huff & I'll puff & I'll blow the candles out!

Another game we played was Making a Mummy. They teamed up with a partner. Each group had a roll of toilet paper and one of them had to get wrapped up as a mummy. This is Rocket.

I think this one is Dinodude :)

Here's the cake. The characters are from our Scooby Doo chess set. Frankenstein just couldn't keep his face out of the cake, so he's covered in icing. I kept telling him to wait until we cut the cake and I'd be glad to give him some. Hee Hee!

We also did a pinata. It was a bull. It wasn't very big. It held maybe 1/4 of the candy. So, Pokemon King and his friend stood by with the rest of the candy in a bowl and when the pinata busted, they just started tossing the rest of the candy down.

The last game we played was a treasure hunt. They split up into groups & had to find Scooby's missing Scooby Snacks. I hid those graham cracker Scooby Snacks & they went searching for them using clues I gave them. 

We actually have a lot more pictures, including the kids trying to bust the pinata, but I don't really know how their parents would feel about having their children's pictures on here, so you'll just have to try to imagine what it looked like. I'm sure they all had a great time. 

Happy Birthday Dinodude!

Today is Dinodude's birthday. He's a whopping 8 years old! I'm still in shock. Great things happen when you turn 8. Dinodude is looking forward to 2 main events: scouting and baptism! As you view his montage, keep in mind that it truly is Dinodude and not Babymoon, although it's difficult to tell sometimes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DINODUDE!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Pokemon King's Party

We held Pokemon King's party over the weekend. We had so many boys here, but it seemed like they all had a lot of fun. They had a Super Smash Brothers tournament and we did a pinata. We thought about having another game or two, but fortunately we didn't. There just would not have been any time left! Here's some pics:

Happy Birthday Pokemon King!!!

Happy 11th Birthday to my Pokemon King!

We love you!!!

Rocket's Bedtime

As I was putting Rocket to bed tonight, he walked into his room and immediately said we needed to read his scriptures. I agreed. We sit down to read and here's our conversation:

MOM: Remember what we talked about last night?

ROCKET: Hmmm. Nope.

MOM: The baby in the basket?

ROCKET: (very excitedly!) Yeah! What was his name?

MOM: Moses.

ROCKET: That's right...Moses! He turned into a baby!

MOM: Well, he was a baby. Then he grew into a man. He lived in Egypt.

ROCKET: Egypt? Is Egypt in earth? 

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: We live in earth!

MOM: Yes we do.

ROCKET: Where is it?

MOM: Let's go look at the globe. (We go into the schoolroom to look on the globe. I point out where we are, then I point out where Egypt is. It's purple on our globe.)

ROCKET: The purple one? That's far! What's this one? (he points to the yellow country next to Egypt)

MOM: That's Libya.

ROCKET: What's this one? (he points to green one next to Libya)

MOM: That's Algeria.

ROCKET: What's this one? (he points to a pink one)

MOM: That's China.

ROCKET: China? Have I been to China?

MOM: No.

ROCKET: Oh....Have I been to Egypt?

MOM: No.

ROCKET: Oh. (We go back upstairs to read the rest of the scripture reading. I start talking about how Moses killed an Egyptian.) He killed him?

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: Wow. Moses was a baby and then he grew into a man?

MOM: Yes. (I continue reading getting to the burning bush.)

ROCKET: Where is he now?

MOM: He's on the mountain. The bush is on fire, but it's not really burning. It's a miracle.

ROCKET: What's a miracle?

MOM: A miracle is something great that happens. You're a miracle.

ROCKET: I'm a miracle?

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: Where's fire at?

MOM: Well, fire can be anywhere.

ROCKET: Is there fire in China?

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: Is there fire in Egypt?

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: Is there fire in...........(very long pause!).....what's that yellow one?

MOM: Libya?

ROCKET: Yeah! (extremely excited!) Is there fire in Libya?

MOM: Yes.

ROCKET: I've been to China.

I love this little boy! I love our nighttime conversations. He has such an imagination and he is so innocent. Why can't he stay like this forever?!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. It really started on Saturday evening. Bond and I got to spend some time together catching up on 24. He stayed up late with me, which doesn't happen since he delivers newspapers in the morning. On Sunday, while he was still delivering the newspapers, Wally and Pokemon King were up early to make me a wonderful breakfast.

I didn't get to eat it in bed because I had to get up to feed Babymoon, but that's okay. I got to watch Special Agent OSO with Rocket while eating. After eating, they gave me their gift. 

If you look at the first letter of each candy, they spell out MOTHER. How cute!!!

We went to church, but left early to head to Old Man's Cave for a picnic and a hike. We did this last year for Mother's Day, the previous year for Father's Day and before that it was Memorial Day. I think it's becoming a spring tradition!!! It was a very nice day!

I'm so blessed to have my wonderful family. I love my boys!!!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Pinewood Derby

As we were traveling to church for the Pinewood Derby, Pokemon King had Baby moon laughing up a storm. We were so luck to have a camera on hand!

Pinewood Derby

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. The theme was Jurassic Park. This was Pokemon King's last Pinewood Derby, as he will be moving on to 11 year old scouts. He placed 2nd overall! Great job Pokemon King!

Weekly Report

I think we've had a very productive week. We were able to get most, if not all, of our assignments done. I think the nice weather earlier in the week was a great motive for getting schoolwork done. 

Pokemon King's Accomplishments:

HISTORY

• King Charles and his 'Cavaliers' or 'Royalists' fighting against the 'Parliamentarians' or 'Roundheads'
  
• Pocahontas
  
• The life of William Shakespeare

SCIENCE

• Cyrus McCormick & the invention of the Reaper
  
• Pressure in soda cans

GEOGRAPHY

• Marco Polo-These are 2 activities from the book:

Weaving

Chinese Mask

LITERATURE

• Parables From Nature-The General Thaw
  
• Children of the New Forest by F. Marryat (this is set during the time of King Charles)
  
• Pilgrim's Progress (we've recently decided to drop this-we will start it up again next year with an easier version-we both need to brush up a little more on vocabulary before we tackle this version again!)
  

LANGUAGE ARTS

• finished punctuation: quotations, apostrophes, commas
  
• wrote a book report (without a lot of fuss, too!)
  
• starting prepositions
  
• poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (some are really good, but others are really hard to follow)
  

MATH

• fractions, circumference, volume, proportions (I know it seems all over the place, but right now they are basically brief introductions)
  

Dinodude's Accomplishments

HISTORY

• King Charles and his 'Cavaliers' or 'Royalists' fighting against the 'Parliamentarians' or 'Roundheads'
  
• Sir Philip Sydney & The Ungrateful Soldier from 50 Famous Stories Retold
  

SCIENCE

• Burgess's Bird Book, which uses real birds to make up stories-after (sometimes during) we look up the birds to see what they look like & also find out a little more about them
  

GEOGRAPHY

• Paddle to the Sea-the story of a handmade wooden boat, traveling along the waters
  

LITERATURE

• Aesop's Fables-The Lion, the Bear & the Fox and The Hares & the Frogs
  
• King of the Golden River-just finished up 
  
• Aladdin & the Wonderful Lamp-the version we read has very little in common with the Disney movie!
  

LANGUAGE ARTS

• prepositions
  
• writing a letter
  
• addressing an envelope
  

MATH

• multiplying by 10, 100 & 1000; making change from $1.00; area of a rectangle; negative numbers on a number line; finding missing dimensions of a rectangle
  

Rocket's Accomplishments

Explode the Code-he varies between 1 and 7 pages each day. Right now we are on the second book, studying 'n' and he's doing such a great job! He concentrates so hard when he makes his letters.

FOR ALL: 

MUSIC

• Composer Gustav Mahler-Symphony 9
  
• Piano lessons have drastically improved-I'm giving their lessons on Friday and they are practicing every day!

ART

• Vincent Van Gogh-The Night Cafe

Pokemon King's painting of The Night Cafe

Dinodude's painting of The Night Cafe

Rocket's painting of The Night Cafe