Our Little Cheerleader!

We have ONE daughter.

I truly think God knew what he was doing 

when he only gave me one.

I adore her,

and 

she challenges me daily,

she definitely keeps me on my toes.

Yes I grew up with 2 sisters, 

you would think I would know how to 

deal with girls more than boys...

not really,

I always got along with boys

better than girls when growing up.

(less drama!)

I was not and am not really a "girly girl".

But with her help, 

I am slowly figuring it out!

We have had the boys in sports

as soon as we could.

We wanted to start our daughter

in dance as soon as a dance studio would accept her!

Once we got settled here in Texas,

we found a dance studio close by

and got her started.

We tried the ballet/tap/jazz class,

but my sweet little girl just had WAY too much

energy for that class.

Then after talking to the instructor,

we moved her to the

hip hop/cheer/tumble class.

How perfect!

The class starts with the running around

the room!

(Pictures here)

This past weekend, 

we experienced our first

Dance Recital!

It started Friday night with a rehearsal.

Just A and I went to that one.

We were allowed to leave once her number was over,

but she was having so much fun she wanted to stay.

So we did, 

til 9:30pm!

And she danced along with every other dance...

Below is a link to a video of the rehearsal,

I am NOT the best videographer,

(or photographer for that matter)

I don't pretend to be.

Don't judge,

just be happy you have a video to enjoy!  

(haha!)

A's Recital Rehearsal Video

(click on the above link 

to get to the youtube video)

Then we got up bright and early on Saturday morning,

she still had her hair somewhat done up

from the night before

and she threw on her soccer uniform

for her first practice of summer soccer.

She is one of two girls on her team.

Then back home to get her hair back in curlers

and ready for her evening performance.

Dance, soccer, dance...

she is a talented and well rounded child already!

A's Recital Video

She had a ball!

And the boys did too!

We let the bigger boys take their DS games

They watched on and off,

Daddy & Mr. T really enjoyed it,

I caught them enjoying it too,

so daddy can't deny that he actually

enjoyed himself,

look at that grin!!

Daddy even got his tiny dancer some flowers,

J insisted on giving them to her,

so he stayed with me to gather our dancer,

while daddy went and got the car after the recital.

Ms. Priss sweetly walked to the car and told 

daddy that J had gotten her some flowers.

So he got all the credit, 

but daddy was ok with it...

he was too busy beaming about his

Tiny Dancer.

 Here are some other pictures from our 

Recital Weekend:

I dropped our little dancer off,

then met up with the boys.

The oldest two wanted to see 

all the dancers,

so I walked them back there.

I do believe they were in a little bit of heaven.

Little Miss with her little friends waiting backstage for their routine.

  

Ms. Priss' friend with the same name...

Unfortunately/fortunately, we just rented

these costumes,

so they took them back after

the recital and I forgot,

so I didn't get a picture with

daddy and his tiny dancer.

Next time!!

Tot School

When we decided to start homeschooling

I wanted to make sure I had some items for Little Miss.

She begs to do school with us.

As you have seen before, 

I really like 

Confessions of a Homeschooler

She has wonderful ideas

and 

has created some pretty neat items

for the younger crowd.

For Preschool:

Letter of the Week

For Pre-Kinder:

K4

I have also enjoyed using some

items from 

1+1+1=1

I really enjoy looking at all of these 

wonderfully creative ideas!

Then I automatically feel guilty

because I don't have all thes 

wonderfully creative ideas

for my littles to do during school!

I have started doing a "little"!!

When I ordered the boys Abeka books

I also ordered Little Miss a couple of books

Child Art for 2s

Arts & Crafts with Amber Lamb

Readiness Skills K4

I have finally started letting her start her books.

Well, she started one book.

Then I printed off and laminated 

quite a few items from the 

Letter of the Week program

mentioned above.

It is a CUTE program

and I had been waiting until I thought she was

ready for it to start

printing

and 

cutting

and

laminating.

She was completing each of the 

little activities quicker than I was getting them made!

I am not sure I will print all of the activities

for each letter, 

just the unique ones.

She does repeat a lot of activities,

which is easy and makes sense...

but I am not sure I have the desire to do that.

Here is Little Miss working on her
"school work" this week with us.

They are both working on the letter "A".

 After she finished all the activities I had for her,

she made a drawing for me.

Now I just have to figure out a way to keep up with 

this one's desire too!

Baby Shower Invitations

I have a crafty side,

It doesn't come out often enough.

Mainly due to budgetary issues

and I have to have a purpose.

I am not one to make things just to make them.

I don't buy something just to buy something

and I don't go shopping just to shop.

I actually HATE walking aimlessly around a

store, without a purpose.

(but I digress)

My sweet little sister is having her first baby.

This has been the single hardest part of 

this big move...

I cried off and on the weekend she told us 

she was pregnant.

I was so disappointed that I wasn't going 

to get to share this with her.

She is far enough along that the showers are starting.

Airfare has increased,

so unfortunately,

the 1500 mile journey

for a baby shower

isn't gonna happen.

But, I wanted to be involved somehow!

So when the grandmother's-to-be

(aka, Nana & Glamma)

decided to throw a shower,

I decided to dig into my 

crafty side

and

offered to create the invitations.

It is the one thing I can do 

while being 1500 miles away.

I am so pleased with how they turned out!

I went through a couple of  designs before I settled on this one.

After a couple of different attempts, I settled on this design.

After the design was decided upon, 

I put my paper cutter to use.

I definitely couldn't have managed this project without it.

I also discovered a new crafting tool

"adhesive squares".

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to assemble

these invitations,

we use glue sticks for this type of thing in this house...

but glue sticks don't seem to fit the bill for this project.

After cutting out all of my pieces, 

and tying up the little bows...

I started assembling.

The results!

Beating the Texas Heat

A few nights ago we had an early dinner and then 

ventured up to church 

for me to take a class so I could volunteer.

Daddy took the kids to the playground across the street

during my class and everyone was super thirsty

when we left.

We had a couple of things to do on the way home, 

so we stopped at Sonic for some drinks.

R, noticed they had 1/2 price milkshakes after 8pm...

so we indulged!

We got the older boys one of their own,

then split one between the littles.

However,

the littles got pure ice cream...

when I opened it to split it into two cups...

it was just pure ice cream.

I tried to stir it the best I could to make it 

easier for them to eat,

but they were VERY impatient

and I got tired of listening to the complaints

so I handed 

the undrinkable milkshakes back to 

them.

I noticed a short time later, than T had taken 

the lid off and was using his straw as a spoon,

I was impressed with his logical thinking 

and turn back around and we continued our ride home.

Then I noticed how hot it was still outside...

and I took this picture of the temperature gauge on 

my rearview mirror.

This was the temperature at 9:07pm 

on June 11th.

I took this picture and sent it home to my parents 

and sisters...

I decided to take a quick peek at T to 

see how he was doing with is ice cream...

This is how we beat the late night heat in Texas!!!

Homeschooler Blogger Contest

If you have nothing better to do...

Click on over

http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/Top-25-Homeschooling-Moms-2012?trk=t25_Top-25-Homeschooling-Moms-2012#_

And vote for me please!

(I am pretty far down on the list -
so keep scrolling down and look for my
blue & brown butterfly!)

You can vote every 24 hours...

Helps keep me encouraged

and motivated to continue to do this!

Thank you!!!

Here We Go!

Our new school year has begun!!

When the kids were in public school back in NC,

we opted for the year round schedule.

At first, I was honestly worried about

having them home
ALL SUMMER!!

What in the world would I do with them?

How would I keep them entertained?

Would they lose everything they had learned in school?

Then couple that with the potential of 

taking vacations "off season" 

when rates were cheaper and beaches were emptier...
They would only be home for 3 weeks
at a time...

We figured we would give the
year round thing a try.

The idea for the year round school is typically

9 weeks on

3 week off

They don't line up that neatly, but that is the basis.

When we decided to homeschool, 

we decided we liked the freedom of the year round schedule...

After muddling through our first few
months of homeschooling,
we are finally ready to
jump in!

The boys finished the math books and language books

we were using as our schooling to complete
Kindergarten and 2nd grade.

After hunting and searching, I finally decided to 

continue down the modified
MODG path we were on.

I am using the same materials for both boys
but on their grade level.

Abeka: 

Math, Language, Spelling, History, Science

Rod & Staff - Pathways:

Reading & Comp

Religion:

Seton

Geography:

Road Trip USA


I have been feverishly trying to figure out the best
way to handle their assignments
and trying to figure out some sort of schedule
just to make things go more smoothly in this house.

With the help of some new homeschooling friends,
over a couple week span,
I put all of the boys daily assignments in excel.
First, by subject,
then there is a "master schedule" that is
arranged by week and day.

Week 1 for R, looks like this:

(click on it to make it larger)


We have opted for a 4 day school week.
Basically - it is 5 days of worked put shoved into
 4 days...BUT - there is room for "catch up".

R gets these assignments on Monday morning.
It is HIS responsibility to get them done!
After breakfast, I park at the kitchen table.
The littles come and go as they please,
and the big boys get busy.

There is still a LOT to figure out,
but this week was a GREAT start!!

We managed to get all of the assignments
on R's list done.
Except for all of the history.
We are going to work on that though.

Our first "break" is scheduled for the
first week of July when Grammy comes
to visit.
We will use that week to "catch up"
and visit with Grammy!

Until then...
Here We Go!

Bookmark Project

I have been so excited to share this post with you.

I am not much of a Pintrest person,

but somehow I stumbled upon 

the cutest idea  few months ago!

Homemade Bookmarks!



First I took crazy pictures of the kids
acting like they were hanging from a rope.

Not the easiest at this age.  We had to give T
a plastic golf club and have him hold it over
his head!

Then I cropped the pictures a LOT
to get rid of as much of
 the colored space around them
as I easily could.
(no need wasting colored ink, right?)

I fit as many as I could on one sheet.

Then cut them out, the first time.

Then again fit as many as I could on a lamination sheet
and ran them through my laminator.

And started cutting then out a second time.
(ugh!)

I used the process described on the original posting

(here)

to make my handmade tassels.

Then I threaded my tassels through holes

I had punched in their hands so it would

look like they were hanging from a rope.

Then I sent these out to family so that they could have

these smiling faces staring back at them while they 

did their Bible study 

or

studied in Nursing school! 

Most of my family reads books from 

e-readers lately,

so I suggested that they could also be hung from 

thumb tacks on the office wall.

I got this idea from over at Creative Family Moments

 and ran with it!!!

Thanks for posting this CUTE idea!!!