We're HOME!

Well, the week in Disney was an absolute whirlwind. Getting up early walking all day and going to bed late. It was so nice to have my sister and her family with us and even ride some rides and see some shows together. The drive down was not bad at all with all the movies we watched and stopped every 3 hrs. The kids did so great, I could not believe it! There were so many fun memories that I could not even write them all down. It was so much fun and exhausting all in one. Thanks to Nana and Poppy for letting us use the time share and for all your help at the parks and with the kids. This week I am posting the pictures from Disney & next week I'll post the pics from our trip to Hilton Head South Carolina. I put alot on Facebook already, but I didn't want my blog to be neglected...so here goes!

Matthew caught his first little lizardTRex restaurant at Downtown Disney...this place was awesome!Thought this one was funny....The guys and the kids in the Lazy River

and more to come!

Disney Here We Come!

We'll be driving to somewhere south of here on Friday & completing our trip to Disney on Saturday with Bill's parents and we'll be meeting my sister Deanne, John & the girls at Orange Lake Resort. We'll be hanging at the resort until Tuesday & will hopefully be going to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, Hollywood Studios on Thursday and Epcot on Friday. Friday will be Bill's 39th birthday (Happy Birthday baby!) so he'll be able to get into Epcot for free. The kids are sooo excited & we are too. The last time I drove to Disney was when I was a kid & I remember snoozing comfortably in my sleeping bag in the bag of my parents' station wagon. I remember thinking "We are here already?". (I don't think my parents had the same thought). On the way home, we'll be stopping at Hilton Head SC for a weeks stay at the beach there...where we can hopefully recover from all the craziness of Disney. So in the mean time...I hope you all enjoy this last bit of summer! See you in 2 weeks.

Another Good Find

So with our home overflowing with books, I needed to find a bookshelf and some kind of storage unit for the dining room. My goal is to keep my kitchen & dining room (the place where most of our homeschooling happens) looking still like a dining room but functional at the same time. The problem is, with Bill's recent injury & not being able to bring in extra money from appearances, we really did not want to spend the money. So I looked up all the Goodwills in our area, packed the kids up one morning last week and went on a mission. At the first one I found a 3-shelf bookcase for $8. This is now in our guest room/reading room. At the next place I found this server. It was an ugly colored brown oak, with old, ugly handles...it just looked old. BUT it had good storage inside & some potential...and it was $10. So I sanded it up, sprayed primer on it & 4 coats of white paint. I bought new handles at Home Depot and now it is in our dining room & is the home for playdoh, math manipulatives, science supplies, crafts, paper & coloring books.

I also had some extra kitchen curtain material & made a little curtain for my bookshelf. I never knew getting my home organized could be so fun! (I just wish I felt the same way about vacuuming & folding laundry).

Box Day!

2 days ago we received Madison & Adrienne's homeschool books in the mail. What fun it was to unpack all of the books and watch Madison grab one by one to look through them & read the covers. Adrienne was a little less impressed. Madison begins 3rd grade & Adrienne will be starting K/1 also. I plan on teaching them all together for Bible, Science & History, but I will need to teach Mad & A seperately in Math & Language Arts. This will be my most challenging year so far as I will need to be quite organized to teach this much material. I am grateful that Matthew loves the computer so he'll be learning his letters, sounds & numbers on Starfall.com...a great website for preschoolers...while I'm teaching the girls & since he still naps, we'll be doing History at that time (which can be a bit boring for the little guy). Here are most of the books we'll be reading this year.

Science. The DVD is "Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution"

American History



Read-Alouds and Madison's 3rd grade readers

Summer Memories

The summer is flying by...literally. It is so true that the older you get, the faster time seems to go. I cannot believe I have an 8 year old & my baby will be 4 next month! This is why I am grateful to be able to capture these wonderful summer memories with Bill & the kids at Dutch Wonderland. We spent the day there yesterday...the morning at the water park & the afternoon on the rides. I LOVED screaming with Matthew as we slid down the giant waterslide together as well as me & the girls riding on the rollercoaster, laughing and screaming all the way. Bill walked the whole way (and rested in between), never complaining once & even carried our large swim bag on his back. He amazes me! Here are some pics of the day...enjoy!

Sowing Seeds

This spring the kids planted all different kinds of seeds and watched them grow. We talked about the 3 things every seed needs to grow. A few of the plants didn't make it, but this pot of seeds that Matthew planted survived & this is what grew! I thought it was too beautiful not to share.

The Trophy

Swim Champs were Saturday and Madison swam her little heart out. The pool was a meter and a half longer (but we didn't tell her that). Butterfly she came in 2nd to last but swam the stroke beautifully...it is not her favorite stroke because it is so difficult but she does it well for an 8 year old. She won her heat and placed 5th or 6th in breastroke. I think it was her best time. It is her favorite stroke & she does it so well. We also had the end of the season party on Sunday. Madison was awarded best attendance and also most improved. Here's a shot of her with the team trophy. We hope she continues to love swimming...it's a great sport!