Our Day - part 2 (finally)

So...finally...here's our day after lunch. Generally, after lunch, Nathan gets back to schoolwork. This day, it was reading a book with Mommy - well, Mommy reading.


In the meantime, the girls occupy themselves. Some days they watch tv and other days they just play.


Then Nathan moves on to piano. He practices 15 - 30 minutes each day. Lately, he's been learning hymns.


While he's practicing, I get Sara down for her nap.


...and Caroline starts her down time.


Nathan usually gets a little more schoolwork in before his down time. This day he was working on some sign language.


There's not a picture of Nathan's down time. He usually has 45 minutes of school reading and then some free down time. It's not unusual for him to read longer than required. After downtime he finishes up about 30 minutes of school. This day he was working on a program to allow kids to create simple computer programs/games.


Once everybody is up, they usually spend the afternoon playing. Here they are rolling up in their quilts. I have no idea what they were this day.


After Daddy gets home, we eat supper. Apparently I didn't actually cook this day (we don't usually have sandwiches and salad for supper).


The evening involves any number of activities (which is part of the reason this post took so long to put together). The vast majority of the time this includes cleaning.


Eventually the kids get ready for bed...put on their pj's, go potty...


...brush teeth...


...read their Bible stories and pray (usually everybody would be on the couch together)...


...and head to bed by 8:00.


The End.

really...eventually...

If anybody out there is wondering...I am working on getting the rest of our day posted. The problem is getting the pictures. One day I got some after lunch until I started supper. Today, I got some of supper. Maybe Monday I'll get the rest of the evening. :) It may have to be pieced together, but I'll get it eventually.

first baseball game

Today was Nathan's first baseball game. Granddad is his coach. Here are a few pictures from the game. (PS: Don't miss the other new post below.)

room changes

Because Sara has been potty training and has been mostly staying dry at night, we (I) decided to go ahead and move her to a big bed. So, last Saturday (April 2nd) we rearranged beds and rooms. Here's Sara's last night in the crib:


And here she is in her big bed for her nap on Saturday:


Here's the girls' room before the move and after (from the door):



We took Nathan's bunk beds apart. Caroline got the bottom bunk and Nathan kept the top. Here is Nathan's room before and after (again, from the door):



After fixing up the room, I wanted to customize Sara's name for her (especially since I haven't been able to make her a twin size quilt yet). Here are the girls' names before the change:


Sara's letters were repainted to her "blue" color, the ribbon was changed to match, and they were girlified just a little:


And I couldn't add bling to Sara's without adding a little for our girly girl (you have to look close, but there are flowers and curls on each letter):

Our Day - part 1

Don't judge the quality of these pictures, but I thought you might enjoy a peak into a "typical" day at our house.

When Nathan gets up in the morning, he watches some cartoons. If the girls are up, they join him. After eating breakfast, they generally play something together (and get dressed along the way).


At 9:00 we start school. Here Nathan and I are starting with some history reading.


On this particular day, the girls start with cleaning up the playroom.


After reading, Nathan moves on to math - first with Mommy and then some alone.


And the girls continue to clean (slowly)...


Occasionally there's the need for a potty break.


Here Nathan is working on learning to type.


Finally the girls are finished cleaning and move on to playing (and important things like putting on socks).


After typing, Nathan moves to his room for a short Bible reading and journaling. Oh...and in between he added some verses to his Bible verse box.


Today, we play battleship (a little strategy lesson?) and I have some help.


Eventually, the girls are booted out of Battleship and pick up a game of Candy Land on their own.


And then Nathan and I do a little more reading to fill our time before lunch.


Lunchtime...choo...choo... Nathan helps by making Sara's sandwich.


And Caroline works on making her lunch.


Coming Soon...lunch to bedtime.

Techie kiddos

Happy Birthday, Sara!

Caroline's "new" bike

Rather than buying Caroline a new bike and then having Nathan's old one to throw away, we decided to remake Nathan's into a girly bike. Here's what it looked like before (missing it's cover on the handlebars):


And here's what it looks like now:

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

from his birthday

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Nathan from his birthday:

points of interest

Sara:
- talks a TON (in English even)
- calls Nathan "Buddy" and Caroline "Hine"
- loves her babies
- sleeps with two babies or sometimes one and a doggie
- also sleeps with a blanket and a "quilt" that was Mommy's as a baby
- wants to wear underwear and go potty but doesn't care about staying dry
- knows that S-A-R-A spells "me"
- seems to favor a light teal-ish blue (I can't think of a good name)
- is quite defiant
- cries on the way to getting a spanking, often saying "hurt"
- is silly

Caroline:
- learned to tie her shoes in the last week with VERY minimal instruction
- forgets words and names all the time
- loves her big brother and little sister
- LOVES purple but claims her favorite colors as pink, purple, and blue (because it's close to purple)
- is a great colorer
- loves birthdays
- gives the best hugs
- likes to sleep on Nathan's top bunk
- loves pictures in books - the reading part is optional
- has athletic ability

Nathan:
- LOVES to read
- is fascinated with war stories - especially WWII
- loves to learn about hurricanes, tornadoes, and volcanoes
- is very good at math
- is ready for THE talk
- plays the piano well and learns new songs easily
- is currently having a problem being respectful
- favorite color is red
- is very emotional
- loves to make gifts for people out of paper and string (and random other added components)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

edited picture

Ok. Here's the same picture as below with a few edits. :)

a couple pictures

So...I haven't been updating like I want to lately, but here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment (please ignore the scratched head, blue eye, and snot):

This one was a couple weeks ago, but is more like reality!

some of her words

Wednesday morning I wrote down Sara's words. I thought you might enjoy reading some of what she's saying these days. She has many more words, but these are the ones that I caught that morning:

potty - poddy
Mommy
eat
eww - usually about snot or poop
too - in this case meaning "I want to watch tv too."
my - meaning "mine"
eat this
spoon - poon
ok - tay
thank you - she has various pronunciations for this, for a while it was "doity doity"
eat more
all done - dah dawn
out
batteries - bah-ies
down
top
door
uh-oh
help - hawp
some - tum
juice - joos

Homeschooling

In case you were wondering, here are the subjects (in no particular order) that Nathan is covering in school:

- Reading
- Writing (print and cursive)
- Math
- Science
- Bible
- Piano
- Project Planning
- Sign Language
- Creative Writing
- Geography
- History
- Art
- P.E.
- Spelling

(Don't miss the post below.)

she's not such a baby anymore

This post was mostly written last Friday.

Our "baby" is growing up. She seems to be getting big so fast. She's 19 months now and acting more like a 2 year old. Her vocabulary is very quickly expanding. She is picking up words left and right. It's so crazy for us because Nathan didn't say much until he was 2.5 and Caroline started when she was about 22 months. Sara has been picking up words for months now and, in the last week, she has started combining words. It's so neat to hear her start to be able to put words together to communicate what she wants. Here are a few examples:

see...Mommy? - she wanted to know if I saw another airplane
please...door - asking Caroline to open the door
color...me - pointing to the crayon on the high chair where she had been coloring earlier

She also jabbers on in "sentences" - something the other two never did. It's really cute. It's funny how you can tell that she thinks she's saying something. She repeats words that we say regularly. For example, just a minute ago she found her ball and I said "you found your ball" and she said "found".

Since Sara was about 15 months old, she has been using the potty. I've taken her when she's asked and she pretty much always goes. At first she pooped in the potty, but more recently she has only peed. I've been thinking for a while that I needed to get on to "real" potty training while she's interested in going. But we've just had a lot going on so I wasn't ready to commit. Today, though, she is wearing underwear - the thicker training pants kind. I couldn't find our vinyl ones to go over them, however. A little while ago she came to the door (of the room where Nathan and I were doing school work) and called me. I told her to go back and play. Mistake. A little bit after that, Caroline told me that Sara was in the bathroom. I headed that way to take advantage of the opportunity to take her. Too late. She had pooped in her underwear - nasty poop - and it had come out the back. She had found it with her hand and had wiped it on her shirt to get it off. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! There was no saving it. I had to just put her straight in the tub. I don't mind the pee pee messes so much, but poop in underwear is just nasty. I think Sara agreed. Maybe next time she'll think to head to the potty. I hope. (She decided this weekend that she didn't want undies. We'll try again when we have at least a week to stay home...mostly.)

Sara loves to play with Nathan and Caroline. She thinks she's as big as they are and can do everything that they do. She enjoys playing with her babies and is often a little Mama. She pushes them around in strollers and feeds them and covers them with blankets to sleep. Her favorites are still the two hard headed babies. They are the ones that she sleeps with and wants to play with most often. Nevermind that they were both Caroline's...they aren't anymore. She also has a favorite ball. It's one that my grandmother bought her at Cracker Barrel. It's on of the bumpy rubber-ish balls. But this one is special. It lights up when it bounces. Sara is good with puzzles. She occasionally works on the chunky puzzles that we have around. She always knows where the pieces go, but she sometimes has trouble getting them lined up quite right.

Sara knows one color - purple. She makes one animal sound - moo. She loves doggies. She is very strong-willed - that means lots of discipline for blatant disobedience. She screams...loud...like a girl. She went through a biting phase - it was her retaliation for the other two doing something she didn't like. She loves to cuddle - with her head on your shoulder. The end.

quick pics