Dr. Seuss's Birthday

We had quite the treat at 5:30AM. A phone call from the district saying it was a SNOW DAY!!!!!!

Heavenly!!!

We spent a lazy morning (and day) in our jammies.

We enjoyed a special breakfast.

Then made some Seussical Landscapes.

The kids have been doing Seuss art all week and we've been reading lots of his books too! Yertle the Turtle was a favorite this go around.

We wanted to watch The Lorax at my dad's but it wasn't on Netflix so we ended up binging on the end of season 1 and all of season 2 of Stranger Things.

Glorious fast foward button!!!! 

The funny thing was Ella was really into it. She cuddled me the ENTIRE time. And thank goodness Papa had a spare arm for Maria to lean in too!!

He always spoils us with dinner and a yummy dessert- lemon meringue pie!! By the time we left my dad was shoveling 5 inches of snow off my car windows.... no joke!!! Thanks dad!!!

2 Year Volcano

I have been cleaning the house like crazy lately. I feel like I don't have control of some things, but I can have control of my home environment.

I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff. If I don't love it, it's gone. In this amazing (Konmari) process, we found a volcano!!! The kids enjoyed making it and experimenting.

Big and Small... check

 

We finished up a unit on Tall Tales. The girls loved them and thought they were quite funny... although John Henry was depressing. Why must we always kill the black man?

 

The girls analyzed different stories and recapped events that were exaggerated.

 

 

We ended with writing our own stories. Christina's was quite entertaining. She came up with everything herself. She did a story map and 2 drafts. Loving her cursive!!

 

Lily and the Demon

Lily was the biggest, strongest and the fastest baby in Ohio. Why a house looked like a mouse to her! Lily was so extraordinary she could fly around the world! One day she was playing her version of hopscotch and she saw a demon. A disgusting, horrid, smelly, mean, big, farty demon. The green glob of goo from a book she had seen was right in front of her! Lily shouted, "Why did you come to earth!?!?!" She was mad at the demon. Before the demon could answer, Lily stomped on it until it was a green pancake. The next day the moldy pancake demon came back. He was way flatter than any pancake she had ever seen. She yelled angrily at it, "Why did you come back!?!?!" She bit him in half and surprised everybody in town with an awesome pool party. It is still going on to this day!!

 

 

We also started on something a little smaller... CELLS!!

"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" Alma 37:6

I love being able to tie gospel principles into the things we talk about. We went over all the scripture stories we could think of where small things had great impact.... and then we built.

 

 

Was is just last Saturday?? We went a-garage-sale-ing. We found this beauty for $3. (Bookcase sans  books) Score!! It really is so much fun to go out and get junk with Joe. He becomes hyperactive, despondent, and a myriad of other emotions all within the time frame of 55 minutes. We got a lawn edger for $10 and tons of books. The Daisy Meadow Fairy series are simple, but fun. I think the girls read all 30 within 2 days.

Joe found an MP3 player for $5 that he is going to resell and I found Pride and Prejudice for $2.

The shame lies with me though. There was a George Forman grill that was huge... $5. I wouldn't let Joe buy it because we don't have room and he had already spent $17. Honestly, he's such a drug addict when it comes to these types of things. Then after 10 seconds after driving away, my addiction kicked in and we headed back. Unfortunately, it had already been swiped up.

Regrets. Oh regrets.

Bringing back the excitement in learning....

 

Christina loves learning her capitals. All she needs now is about 6 on the East Coast. The Dollar Store had this mural and the girls love it! Even Elijah loves pointing to the tractor and saying "Digger".

It's just nice to see them enthusiastic about learning. They love to color this and quiz each other. We have 2 puzzles and a Carmen SanDiego game too.

 

For handwriting we copy scriptures and it's wonderful because they are memorizing at the same time. I took all the Friend magazines we have and sorted through and created binders. One binder is dedicated to all the scripture quotes. I thought it would be a huge undertaking, but I actually finished quite quickly and it's a very handy binder.

 

We started Tall Tales and are studying Mexican History/Culture/Cinco De Mayo... yes, even Spanish! Bless the library system!! They gather the books for you and have it ready at the drive up window!! Honestly, who needs text books!

 

Christina is writing a report on Giraffes. Their tongues can be up to 18 inches long!!

 

Maria is a little brain. I wrote to her teacher because she had been mentioning how she never learns things at school. The teacher was wonderful and now Maria doesn't have to do morning circle. She does dictionary work and has also become a reading group monitor. She gets to sit in the teacher's chair and listen to the children read. She helps them with words and will start them off if they need it. She says she loves it. Also, I found out from another Mom that a boy named Wade wants to have Maria be his girlfriend. I think I was too abrupt because I replied that Maria has a good head on her shoulder and only dates literary characters. And of course, talking to Maria, she told me not to worry because she doesn't date until she's 16.

Bless you prophets. Bless you.

 

Wow. Maybe I shouldn't blog at midnight. I think I'm rambling.

Our Earth Day Festivities at Home

 

Our little guys have sprouted! It was very exciting just in time for earth day!

 

We made some apple bird feeders and recyclable bird feeders. Our backyard is quite the hot spot now!!! We love watching the birds. Christina has a lot of updating for her Who lives in our Backyard chart!

 

I looooooooooved the girls reader theater of The Kapok Tree!!! We have 2, 10 minute videos that are utterly fabulous!!

 

The girls started their paper mache giraffe.

 

 

 

We did Kapok Tree art, recycled earth art, paper mache globes, lots of singing and KWL chart. We did earth shape poems and read lots of earth day books. We also did a nature scavenger hunt where we looked for the 5 senses in nature. We picked up trash, 6 pounds along the way.

And of course, we went to a park to have plenty of outdoor time.

 

Eli loves to do work with sissies at the table.

 

He also enjoys pretending he's Michael Jackson and shouting/screaming "Weeeeeeeeeeeeenie!!!!!'.

He's not a pervert, but it's just really funny. Then he sees us laugh and loves the reaction. 

We need to be better about not laughing.

 

 

Lastly we did origami seed pots of recycled paper and earth day cupcakes for our neighbors and friends.

 

I am constantly amazed by the beauty that surrounds us. I'm dumbfounded as to how people can believe this earth was just an explosion and created from goo. I know that our loving Heavenly Father created this beautiful home for us to have joy, to learn and to grow. To be tested. It's such a blessing to know why I'm here on this earth and what is expected of me. I'm grateful to Christ who made eternal life possible through His sacrifice. Indeed He organized this earth and lived on this earth and set the perfect example for us.

 

 

A few more updates to add to our earth day collection:

 

The earth in our hand, colored pencil art.

 

Summer- the giraffe. Although her name changes, I find, hourly. She prays and eats with us, however I have not let her ride in the Barbie jeep for fear of her life... seeing as there are no seat belts.

 

Our Walls are Covered

Well. We are having fun. Our days are filled with excitement, growth and new things.

My only complaint is that I'm running out of wall space.

 

We've been studying wind & clouds this week. We made a wind vane and record our observations daily. I kind of want the girls to interview a weather person/meteorologist ... wouldn't that be fun?

 

 

 

I follow a lady's art blog and she said that often time, art projects are based off of pictures she sees. I saw an image and tried... I thought it turned out pretty well. Movement Wind Art.

 

 

We wrapped up the last of the birds in our backyard. Christina did a great job researching about them. We're hoping to get a red-hawk.... only time will tell.

 

Clouds are gorgeous!! I found some great stuff on pinterest: cloud identifiers, poems and charts. We also made cloud dough. We were a little bummed because in the morning when we started their wasn't a cloud to be seen.... all blue skies. In the evening however, it was fabulous! We even saw rain clouds.... cumulonimbus!! Tomorrow I'm going to print out some of the pictures the girls took of the clouds, put them in a plastic protector and will draw shapes we see!!

One thing that I wasn't expecting was my sweet toddler wanting to do EXACTLY what big sisters are doing. He learned a new word today, "Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. So Cool." and was looking for clouds with the identifier too.

We've been writing... A LOT. The next couple weeks we'll be focusing on poetry. The girls at dinner time say it's their favorite part of the day. We've done haikus, color poems, alliteration poems, diamante poems and acrostic so far. Their vocabulary is impressive. One thing I'm extremely grateful for is the internet. It is THE resource. I feel like I have a good handle on what I'm doing, but the internet just jams in awesome upon more awesome stuff. The girls love their "poet tree". I'm tempted to do a poetry night too and set up a beatnik type coffee shop feel.

 

 

Math is going very very well. Christina has mastered the algorithm for 2 digit multiplication as well as 2 digit expanded form multiplication. We're still working on facts and recognizing them quickly, but one thing I notice is she'll always get the right answer, it just takes her a moment. I've decided not to use flash cards, she doesn't enjoy them at all. Multiplication.com seems to be the solution. She loves the games and even some I can play with her. I'm going to work up to 4 digit by 3 digit multiplication, take a brain break with fractions and then start on division.

Maria is adding perfectly with regrouping up to 3 digits. She is doing great reading longer numbers, even into the hundred thousands. She can make the highest place value from drawn playing cards and lowest. She also goes on multiplication.com and does the addition and subtraction games. She's also a quick one.

 

We've started memorizing states and capitols. The girls have free reading time everyday and currently we are enthralled with Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger Games. We have been so blessed to find the very best books lately!!! It is a great book so far with a take off of Alice in Wonderland, New York city sewer style. As we read I feel like it is a little scary, but the girls insist it isn't and are absolutely enthralled.

 

Most importantly... we have time to study the gospel. I love talking about things of eternal nature and significance with them. I feel the spirit so strongly as we talk, study, read and think together. Learning is important. Knowledge is power. But the key to understanding is pondering over the things of our Heavenly Father. My ultimate goal can be compared, as Jacob does, to our family being a olive tree. I want our branches to be good, I want our roots to be strong. I want the Lord of the Vineyard to see our fruit and have our fruit be worthy of His love. He has given us so much.

 

As I spend so much time with the kids, my heart is a little sad. I must admit. They are so beautiful. I know baby Joe is where he needs to be. I'm completely at peace. As a mother, I see my 3- Christina, Maria & Elijah... and know that Joe is just as wonderful and special and glorious. Obviously, he's perfect. I just miss him. I don't wonder what it would be like with him here. I don't wonder at all, my heart just misses him. In the quiet moments, I just remember the love I have for him. The love we shared in our brief time together here. My heart only mourns that I have to be patient and wait to see him again. I actually don't care about the seeing, it's the holding. My arms ache less, but they always remember. My solace is in Christ.