Teaching Tuesday

We've had a great couple of weeks (I totally forgot to post last week).  I've altered our year end plans slightly.  Why?  Well, we had some really nice weather last week and I already saw how hard it will be as it warms up for the boys to do school.  We are really hitting a lot of review at this point so I have combined lessons and plan to be done by the end of April - about 2-3 weeks earlier than planned. 

One of the things we are focusing on at the end of this year is time.  The boys love time and on this particular day, they had to write their name as many times as they could in one minute.  They loved it.  We also tried doing other things to see how long it took such as running through the living room, doing jumping jacks, and singing Jesus Loves me.  

And yes, notice the two diverse ways the boys are dressed?  One without a shirt and one with a sweatshirt?  Another reason we love homeschooling!

 This is the book we use for our lessons on Time.  It's a great introductory book - it goes slow and has lots of repetition.

We have also worked a lot on money this year because the boys both love it.  Here, Josh was counting out a bunch of change to give to Darryl has a gift.  It was really neat watching him count by 5, 10, and 25. 

 On Darryl's day off recently, he had PE class with the boys outside.  They worked on throwing the football at the garage door to see who could hit it. 

We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day last week.  I'll share more in a post later but we did do a fun craft with a rainbow along with lots of St Patrick's Day themed worksheets that corresponded with what they boys are learning in their regular work.

Family Fun - The Circus

We have wanted to take the boys to the circus for awhile and felt like they had finally reached great ages where they could actually enjoy it.  The Shine Circus came to town this month so we took advantage of "Buy Two, Get Two" tickets and headed out for a day of fun!

 We had fabulous seats.  We were dead center, front row.  We had no one in front of us and had clear views of everything. 

 Joshua - very excited about the whole day.

 Nathan - already figuring out everything he wants to buy, ride, and see.

 Darryl, the big kid at heart!

 Josh couldn't wait to get his hands on some cotton candy.  He and I are the cotton candy lovers so we shared this wonderful treat.

 The boys got to pick out some great sourveniers.  This is Nate's light gun.  Josh got a light wand plus they both got light up necklaces and some Sponge Bob Blow Ups.

 Super Cute! (Darryl and Nate, not the lady's butt behind Darryl hahahaha)

 Me and my boys.  :-)

 THIS is the Tiger tamer - wow, he was a character.  Totally 100% 80's everything - hair, outfit, dancing moves . . .he made us laugh.

 This guy totally intrigued the boys. They were amazed that he could walk on that high, moving wheel.

 We were very surprised to see the elaphants.  I love them - probalby my favorite act in the show.

At intermission, the circus floor was open with lots of activities.  The boys convinced Darryl to take them to a bounce house.  I stayed in the seats and used my big camera lens to find Darryl - do you see him? LOL  It was a ZOO at the circus during intermission so he was amongst many people! 

We really had a lot of fun and already are planning to go again next year. 

We left the Circus and got dinner before heading home.  It was really a great day!

Weekly Menu

This was a pretty normal week.  No forgotten groceries; nothing really unexpected.  . .. just a run of the mill week.  I even put away my own groceries so there were no cans of biscuits put in the cupboard :-)

This coming week is planned as follows:

Saturday - We'll have homemade pizza tonight.  Normally I have Darryl bring dinner home since he'll be working but, we'll be gone all day Sunday so . . I figured we should eat at home.

Sunday - We are heading out on a family fun day to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement.  We had hoped to go away for the weekend but cut back a little - Josh (and Nate) have AWANA games practice on Saturday and then it ended up that Darryl has to work so we are doing this on a Sunday this year.  We'll eat out for both meals today.

Monday - Chick-Fil-Lay Nuggets and tater tots.

Tuesday - Pan Fried Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli, and Buscuits

Wednesday - Waffles, Bacon and the kids favorite sausage

Thursday - Double Crunch Orange Chicken, Fried Rice, Green Beans, Rolls

Friday - Tacos, Of Course!

Make It Monday - A New Bed

This past week we had some fun "making" a new room for the boys.  We've been talking about getting the boys bunk beds for well over a year.  There are a a few reasons.  One, it would open up a lot of floor space in their room for toys and, well, Legos.  Two, Josh's bed frame was completely falling apart. I've been searching online for months for the perfect bed.  I finally had found one so we drove to the furniture store to check out the one I found online  . . . and saw another one that was tons betters, came with drawers, for the same price.  So, after searching for months . . we bought one that we never once saw online HA! 

 Despite the mess, I wanted to get some before photos of their room.  I'm the first one to admit that their room got a little messy but I knew that the bed was coming so . . I figured I would organize and clean once the bed was in the room!

 So, we had to first clean everything out of the room.  I had some awesome helpers.  They got busy with hammers and ripped that thing apart.  (For real). 

 Harley the cat took over the headboards once I moved them into the dining room.  He is so photogenic.

 Nate wanted a picture of himself in the room licking the hammer.  What?  Don't all kids lick a hammer?

 I then laid the mattresses down on the floor so Nate went to get Josh and made him close his eyes so he could surprise him.  It was super cute :-)

 Then the boys got to jump on their mattresses for the rest of the day. 

 They loved hanging out in their room. 

And Nate loved sitting underneath the headboards in the dining room.

 Josh's face - kills me.  Wow.  Needless to say, the boys were crazy excited when the workers arrived with the bed. 

 They hauled chairs up to the door so they could watch the "Bunk bed Super Heros" put the whole thing together.

The final product!  A bonus?  See the drawers?  I asked if the drawers came with bed and was told no.  In all my research, I learned that those drawers run an additional $250.00.  We didn't really need them and I don't mind having storage under the bed.  So I was quite surprised when they drawers showed up with the bed.  I guess since it was the floor model - we got the whole thing!  Oh, and the boys picked the bed - they LOVED the white and you know what?  They have good taste - it goes perfectly in their room!

Things My Kids Say

* The boys and I were out running errands recently when they had  a discussion about food we ate on a trip.  They were trying to figure out when we ate snacks in the truck; Nate firgured out that it was when we traveled to that other country and saw people and they he and Josh went home with Papa and Nana.  That is when I figured out that it was when we traveled to Alicia's house . . in Ohio (Yep, Mom, another country!) for a family get together!!  I so love how their minds work.

* The boys got new bunk beds recently.  As we were talking about needing to empty their room out so the workers could set up the new bed, Nate proceeded to tell us how he was going to arrange some things in the room "perfectly".  I said, 'Nate you are going to be my engineer!" to which he immediately said, with his arm in the air, "Choo Choo!!"  HAHAHAHAHA  Yep, that is an engineer! 

* Nate brought me is toothbrush the other day and informed me that he needed a new one because "This one has lost its strengt.  Yep, strengt.  Took me a bit to figure out he meant "strength" -- the bristles were no longer strong.  That kid and his mind!

*  The boys latest thing is to answer the questions we ask like this:
Us: So, is your mac and cheese good?
The Boys:  No, it isn't good . . .. .it's GREAT!
They think it is the funniest thing.

*Nate informed me that he loves his Papa more than me.  Then he said that he still loves me 100% but he loves Papa a gazillion % :-)

Family Fun - Spring?

 Spring in Michigan - Snow, 60 degree weather, no coats, and bikes! 

Family Fun - Balloons

Like most kids, my kids love balloons.  One day last week, Nate brought out a balloon he had and got Josh and Darryl to start playing with him.  Somehow, the balloon got a hole it in and lost the air (It was one of those small balloons that never loses air . .. ) He was devastated.  I went digging and low and behold, found a bag with some balloons in it and it made his day.  Well, it made us all laugh and have fun until Darryl and I ran out of air and almost passed out from lack of oxygen :-)

 Nate attempting to blow up the balloon.

 Josh started to get the hang of it but then he thought it was funny to blow and blow . . .and then let the air back out in his mouth HA!

 Nate getting a little better . . .

 Hahahaha - what do I even need to say?

All I can say is that we really did laugh a lot.  This was an unexpected family day - Darryl was home from work due to some bad weather and the kids I babysit were home sick.  We all stayed in our PJ's and hung out together.