Fall Break

The Saturday before Fall Break my family and I decided to take a walk in the trail in our neighborhood.  We had a great time. 

After our walk we headed back to the house to get ready for some company.  We had a family over that lives in Marshall, TX (I think that is about 45-60 minutes from us).  They were such a nice family.  I think that Rod works for a oil field company and buys valves from Anthony (company).  Christina is a stay at home mom.  They had 3 kids roughly our children's ages.  So it was fun. In fact I was telling Christina that I was planning on doing my very first garage sale next month.  Our neighborhood is having a neighborhood garage sale.  I have never been one on garage sale's having or going.  However this seemed like a good idea.  It wouldn't hurt to at least try it.  Anyways I guess her and her family (they moved from Kansas about the same time we did) use to do garage sales all of the time.  So she said she would help me.  It should be fun :)  (If I go through with it!!)  It was so nice to meet them ~ I do hope we get together again soon :)

Monday that week was "Fall Break" the kids had a picnic in the backyard.

We then went for another walk on the trail.  This time I let the kids play and run off of the trail.  They loved it. 

I later learned from some Mommies at the school that there are copperhead snakes there hiding under the leaves.  ACK!! I was letting my kids run through the leaves and jump off of big tree's onto piles of leaves. 

As I am sure you can imagine we have not been back to the trail. . .we will see if I brave it again now that I know of the danger! 

Oh also Caylea got stung by a bumble bee for the first time that day. . .no fun :( 

Terrific Kid and Owl Babies

I am not doing an awesome job of keeping up with the blog lately.  Since this is my way of scrap booking for my kids I better get to work.  

Anthony and I are so proud of Caylea her first nine weeks in public school she got the Terrific kid award at the Honor Roll assembly.  She did not make honor roll this 9 weeks but that may soon change.  Love that lady and her very sweet heart.  (that is when she is not giving me that attitude that I am quite sure is a payback of some sort from my childhood) 

Carolina's class did owl babies for their class display for pumpkin light night.  Now I knew that pumpkin light night was a pretty big deal by the display that we made however I really had no idea just how big of a deal it was.  A bonus is that it really was so much fun!  More about that later. 

Here is Carolina working on her owl baby pumpkin

Here is her owl baby. . .green and sweet

Carolina signing her name on the poster that was displayed by the display

That day was a lot of fun for the kids.  Also I had a lot of fun meeting new mommies and now some friends.  The last year meeting new people has been few and far between.  Our church is small with no young families so even though I love the ladies there we just didn't have enough in common to hang out outside of church.  The school decision for us has been a blessing for so many reasons. 

Fire Station Friday

Friday morning Caden and I got up and went to the school. I changed my stapling day to Mondays because Friday's are so crazy with other activities. While I was stapling one of the kids in Caylea's class Mom's came up to me and introduced herself. We had a nice little chat. Before our next place to be Caylea's friend Layla's Mom and I had a nice little chat. Then we headed out to help with the Stallion Store.

Friday was AR party day and those kids who met their AR goal got to go jump. For the Kindergartners it was for a "perfect report card". I missed Caylea's jump time and almost missed Carolina's being at the Stallion Store. 



I got there in time to grab a few pictures. She had a blast!

After the Jump Party it was time to head across the street for a Fire Station demo and tour. Here is Carolina and one of her best little buddies Kathryn waiting for it to start.

Right before it was fixing to start. There was an alarm. The Fire Truck and Men got called out. We waited for 20-30 minutes for them to come back they said it would be 15 minutes. It took them longer though so we headed back to the school.

Here is the truck leaving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqBVEQ8H_I

Carolina and one of her best buddies Aubrey

Here is Aubrey, Carolina and Saniyah while we were waiting :)

I love being one of the room Mom's in Carolina's class there are 6 of us total I think. We have meetings and so many plans for this year. It is nice to finally be meeting more people in our kinda new state.

Bounce The Day Away

Last Tuesday the PTO held a reward party for the kids. It had to do with a fundraiser they had. I volunteered to go up and help supervise the kids.

Carolina had a lot of fun. She only wanted to jump in one of the bouncers though. So she waited in line to jump in that one over and over again. Such a cutie!

Carolina and one of her best buddies Aubrey.

The Kindergarten, First and Second jumped for an hour. Then the Third, Fourth and Fifth the next hour. I loved it when the kids did the line dance! These are still the smaller children. I was manning a bounce house during the older kids jump time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9RiEAXfBes

The smaller kids again. I just thought this was cute. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6jPXnG7By0

Caylea and one of her best buddies at school. This is Layla. Friday while I was up at the school stapling and collating Layla's Mom came up to me and introduced herself and we talked for a little bit. It was so nice to meet her. She is a very nice lady and from everything that Caylea tells me Layla is a very sweet young lady. I prayed about it and was so worried about Caylea finding a good friend for her. I don't know why I worried about it though. I knew God had total control of the situation and that we were making doing what He wants for our family.

Caden got to jump with a few of the other small siblings in between groups. He wasn't sure at first but then he loved it and was so happy! Of course by the end of the 2 hours he was making me carry him around and laying his head on my shoulder. He was so still and relaxed I thought he had fallen asleep a few times.

Random

Caden loves to go to play golf with daddy.  Really they just go hit range balls and I think practice putting sometimes.  Either way our little guy loves hanging out with daddy doing pretty much anything!

I took this picture at church a few Sunday's ago when I had children's church.  I took the kids outside to play after we finished up our lesson.  This is Saniyah, Carolina, Faith and Caylea.  What pretty little ladies they are!

The Saturday before last when OU played Texas Anthony invited some of his work buddies over for the game.  One of them brought their little guy Alex.  Alex is 4 just like Caden and they really hit it off!  I can't say I enjoyed the game but I enjoyed the company and the beautiful day!

A picture of Caylea, Carolina and Caden after school one day.  With the exception of Caylea they are all loving the idea of homework! HA HA!

Caden and I decided to try out the trail last week.  We loved it so much we have been back a few times now with the girls and even once with Daddy.  I will post the really pictures in another post.  I just wanted to kind of get caught back up.  I hope to start blogging more often again soon. 

Last swimming day this year was last Thursday.  September 29, 2011 This was also (from what the weather man said) to also be our last 100 degree day this year!  YAY! Can't say I am not so so happy about that!  I am very happy with the cooler weather we've had this week!  A lot of walking and bike riding is in our future.  Also next week I am going to check out our neighborhood walking trail.  I haven't been yet and we've been here over a year so I think it's time.  I read online that it's paved so I can take Caden's bike and maybe even the dog's we will see :)  Our neighborhood pond is drained because of a broken dam.  I am not worried about it. . .less mosquito's right?!?

Anyways here are some pictures from our last swim this year.  We really enjoyed the pool the last two summers!  I am so proud of all 3 of my swimming babies and I can say swimming lessons are defiantly in their future next summer!

My pretty girl . . .however did we get so blessed?

Piggy back ride across the pool :)

My silly bear!  (Our neighbor calls her Polar bear~I think it's pretty cute!)

Sweet girl just enjoying her relaxing day at the pool. . .not too busy.  I think one other person was there with us for a short amount of time. 

I wanted a smile and he wanted this first. . .that was fine with me!  I love it!

Caden and Daddy

I can say the kids are defiantly not happy to see the swimming end.  This is when we told Carolina no more time to get out :(

Hanging with My Boy . . .and Girls

I love getting to spend my day's with my son!  I am so blessed to get this time this year.  When the girls first started school I felt Caden and I would be board without the girls and home schooling to do.  So at first I busied myself volenteering at the school and church as much as possible.  I was then wearing myself out.  Being outside of the house all/most of the day, coming home and not having time to take care of the things that needed to be taken care of, then having to make dinner and do homework with the girls (and Caylea had several hours of homework to begin with ~ I think this was an adjustment issue and she has figured out how to use her time more wisely because thankfully her homework is much much less now).  Then cleaning, making sure uniforms were ready and packing lunches.  It was all just too much!  I took a step back and decided to reevaluate what was going on.  I now volenteer at the school on Friday's.  Stapeling and colating, everyother friday is snack day and twice a month they have stallion store (they break up the grades).  I help every snack day and only some Stallion Store days.  I also decided to have lunch with the girls still but alternate weeks instead of having lunch with both of them on the sameday.   There will be days and weeks I spend more time helping out at the school (and church) but it's not every week. 

It has been so great for Caden and I.  I can get the house cleaned really well each week.  Caden and I have time to play trains, play doh, games, color, go on walks/bike rides and many other things.  He is so happy to get all of this attention.  He gets super excited when Daddy is at home working also.  I don't think he could feel much luckier.

Here is Caylea working on some of her homework yesterday.  She has really turned a corner!  Grades were so great last week all A's and B's YAY!  The grading scale here is much different than what I am use to.  If Caylea makes between a 93-100 that is an A, 85-92 is a B, 74-84 is a C, 67-73 a D and of course anything lower than a 66 is a F.  I am really happy with how things are turning out.  It took her several weeks to catch on, use her time wisely, learn to concentrate at the school oh and I think the hardest part for her is that she had to learn to use her brain.  With Abeka all the worksheets were just so easy.  It never really required her to really think and be creative.  I think the 3rd grade year would of changed that but not the 2nd grade.  She had to build up some confidence on the AR testing.  She takes a test after every book she reads and well my daughter loves to read.   I easily get 4 or more e-mails a day with her AR score on them (I did sign up for this).  I am not sure if she was not comprending it at first or if the tests themselves she just didn't care to think about.  Whatever the reason that has changed thankfully :)

My precious Carolina.  She is doing great at school.  She easily knows 15-20 sight words now.  She can sound out smaller 3 and 4 letter simple words also.  It is so much fun to watch her.  I wanted to be the one to teach my children to read (and I could have).  However I am fine with this also.  We work on her "homework" a few nights a week.  Really at our choosing her teacher just sends home a packet and we choose the nights.  Carolina loves it!  I take her completed work out of her binder each and night and look at it with her and tell her how proud I am of her and how great she is doing.  She is so happy to show me all that she does at school.  It is really the cutest thing!

Here is Caden doing a preschool workbook while Caylea is doing her homework.  He is pretty big stuff you know!  Oh I have to share this.  We had our window's open several days this last week.  On Saturday Anthony left the back door open while he was grilling.  Bad idea lots of flies decided to join us for dinner!  I HATE fly swatters because they are gross and squish bugs onto my house!  NASTY!  So I bought some fly paper and if a fly comes into my house I hang it and soon he will be on there.  Well Caden saw a few of them on there the other day so he took a chair over to where it was hanging and said to the "dead" flies.  "You better tell your friends to stay out of our house"  So funny I just had to laugh at him.  Then today there was another fly in our house.  Caden went over there and said "I told you to tell your friends to stay out now he is going to get stuck too".  HA HA!  Very true son!

Another cute story while I am on a role.  There is a little boy in Caylea's class that from what Caylea says does not like any of the girls.  You know a tipical 8 year old boy.  Well Caylea says he says mean stuff to all of the girls.  Nothing horriable just being bratty.  Well today Caylea told me on the way to critter co.  "Jake did not say one mean thing today to anyone Mom"  I said really that is great! Caylea then said "It's because I prayed he would turn into a nice boy"  I got such a good feeling about that in my heart.  I hope and pray he continues to be a "nice boy".

Unedited pictures again. . .maybe one day I will replace them but probably not.

Critter Co

The kids have been asking to go visit the animals at Critter Co.  They have been being so good this week we decided to make a trip today. 

It was so much fun to watch the kids getting to pet the animals.  Here Caden is and I didn't realize until I looked at the picture that it appears he was pinching the rabbit.  I hope that it just looks like that and he didn't hurt it.  It never jumped or anything so I think he didn't. . .maybe?

Caylea and a bunny love!  So sweet!

Today is the first time the kids held hamsters.  I remember loving hamsters for several years as a teenager.  However I also remember getting bit a few times also.  So even though at Critter Co. hamsters are out to hold I never wanted to pick one up or want the children to hold one.  They asked some young ladies sitting on the floor holding hamsters and rabbits to help them.  Carolina and Caylea did well.  I didn't get a picture of Caden because when she went to place him in his hand Caden moved his hand and said "He tried to scratch me!" lol

We had a great time but of course we left with the kids not understanding why I don't just buy them a puppy, bunny, hamster exc. . .  Anthony and I are discussing a way the kids can possibly earn a rabbit (or something will be decided upon a lot of research) in the future.  We will see but for today. . .a visit to Critter Co. has to do :)

I think Brandy and I would of been in heaven had we had a critter co. when we were younger!  I really remember loving my hamster :)

(these pictures are not at all edited. . .I just needed to get blogging. . .at least they are from my camera and not my phone this time :)