Look what my wonderful hubby surprised me with for my birthday!!!!!!
This is not just any blender but it is the Vita-Mix that I have been drooling over for a little over a year! I LOVE it and I have several recipes that I will be trying soon and if I don’t ruin them I will share them with you:)
The girls and I are going to continue to do school through the summer but it is going to be very light. Ellie will continue with a little writing and math and a lot of reading and Emily will wrap up Raising Rock Stars Preschool lessons but together we are going to start our State Study. I am so excited and have had a lot of fun planning:) I bought Confessions of a Homeschoolers Road Trip USA curriculum for the main part but I am changing and adding a few things. I am using The Little Man In the Map 
which is such a great book using rhyme and visual clues to help you remember the states and locations. I am also using this atlas that is recommended in Road Trip USA.
We are going to start with the Midwest states which ties into the pioneer theme from the Little House on the Prairie books we are enjoying right now. I got the girls each a passport book with the 50 state flag stickers from Rainbow Resources 
and this cool map for them to color each time we finish a state.
I also bought the girls each a Dover Coloring Book of the State Flowers and Birds to color.
Other than a few books from the library and a few puzzles that I have collected over the years I will get the rest of the information from Road Trip USA. Each state has fun facts, great recipes and craft ideas! Our plan is for both girls to make a big notebook of our activities so they can go back and look at all of the fun stuff we did.
First stop…….Minnesota!
Chris wanted to do some sort of class with the girls once a week since he doesn’t get to be a part of our morning school activities. He was thinking about doing science but decided on woodworking. The girls were so excited!!! Chris took them to the hardware store and they each got a tool box and their own set of tools:
Hammer, screwdrivers, screws, nails, pliers, safety glasses, tape measure, and a level
The first few weeks they talked about each of the tools, tool safety and how to properly use them. They were very interested in this but Emily was a little disappointed that she couldn’t use her tools anytime she wanted. Can you imagine…..I would have holes all in the walls, gauges in the floor and who knows what else.
The first project they have been working on is a fairy house to keep outside. It is coming along quite nicely! Ellie is getting really good with her tools. The other day her Leapster batteries died so she went and got her screwdriver and replaced the batteries and didn’t need any help except explaining which way to put the batteries in. I love that he is teaching them life skills!
It has been a very busy couple of weeks at our house so I thought I would just do a random post of some of the things that we have been up too.
Chris turned 40! That means that we have officially been together for half of his life:) I had a wonderful day of adventure planned for the two of us including kayaking, zip lining etc. but it rained all day on his birthday and was unseasonably cold but we didn’t let it ruin our day. We regrouped and spent a wonderful relaxing day together. He really is the most amazing, loving, giving person and I am not just saying that because he will probably read this:) Happy Birthday babe!
We had a crazy Easter!
The girls spent a wonderful weekend with their dad at Grandpa’s which means……. I was home alone. This doesn’t happen often but when it does I take advantage of it! It was such a great weekend of shopping, eating, a little exercise, pedicure/manicure and lots of sleeping but I was so ready to see the girls and Chris! It is great to have a break but even better to get to see everyone after 2 1/2 days of down time.
We recently went to Great Wolf Lodge and had such an awesome time!!! I couldn’t believe how big the water park was for an indoor water facility. I love that you can swim a little and then head to your room for a break and a snack and then walk back downstairs and swim some more. The lodge gave a great great rate for homeschoolers and I really hope they will do that again because we would love to go back! Can you believe that I didn’t bring my camera?? I’m good like that:)
A friend and I are taking a cooking class based on the book Nourishing Traditions. We just finished our 2nd class out of 6. I have already learned so much! I will be writing more on this soon!
I am in school planning mode (aren’t I always) because I will be going to a Homeschool Convention soon. I am going to be purchasing Ellie’s curriculum for 1st grade and a preschool program for Emily because she will be done with RRSP by this fall.
OK if anyone is still reading that just about wraps up our last couple of weeks!
My mom is petrified of snakes and I do mean petrified!!!! I don’t like them one bit either. They make my skin crawl and give me major ebee jeebee’s (what? that is a word) but I am no where near as scared of them as my mom is. I have tried very hard not to show my fear of snakes around the girls especially since we can’t seem to go outside without seeing one:( Unfortunately, Ellie has had several run ins and is actually more scared them I am. Once she was riding her bike at the greenway and a snake ran across the path in front of her. Next thing I know she is off her bike and running towards us and screaming like a crazy person. More recently we were at the museum and she wouldn’t even walk down the aisle with the snakes in it.
Emily on the other hand doesn’t seem the least bit phased by them. We have talked about how we shouldn’t pick up anything insect/animal that we find outside (except for caterpillars, ladybugs etc.) but I guess she didn’t realize snakes were included in this because the other day she picked up a snake in the front yard like it was no big deal. All she said was “Ewww, snake.” Luckily it was a brown snake and it was dead and thank goodness my poor mom wasn’t here!!!!! The really funny this is she can see a little ant on the ground and run and scream like it the scariest thing in the world. Go figure!
Our space tub was such a HUGE hit that I really wanted to make one for Spring and Easter. Here is what I came up with:
Here is what I put in it:
Dried beans
Miniature clay pots
Basket for birds nest
A few plastic bugs
Large plastic egg and small plastic eggs from the $ Tree
Little fuzzy chicks. I got these last year after Easter for 75% off at the grocery store
Little foam bird from the $ Tree
I have scoops, bowls, tongs etc. that they will use too but I usually just set those beside the bin.
We finished up our 3 weeks of space last week. I think we all really enjoyed it. It is crazy how much I am learning along with the girls! I won’t show you all of our activities but I will show you the girls favorites.
Of course they loved doing the phases of the moon with Oreo cookies and eating them afterwards! This idea and printable came from Spell Out Loud.
We made a big moon to hang on the wall with homemade puffy paint by mixing shaving cream and glue together. I got the idea from No Time For Flashcards. This was very messy which means Emily loved it!
We cut out stars and moon using our homemade play dough. This is usually a hit or miss but luckily it was a hit!
I set out stamps and stencils with a few sheets of paper but Ellie wanted to make a book. I love it when they take initiative. She wanted to narrate and illustrate it but I had to do all of the writing.
Pin Punching the constellations from here.
This is another fun activity from Spell Out Loud. You toss M&M’s on a piece of paper and wherever they land you make a little star, connect the dots and name your constellation. Oh and than eat the M&M’s of course!
A few of our other favorites I did not get a picture of were:
Eating astronaut ice cream
and the hands down favorite - Visiting the planetarium!
I had grand plans for Friday. The girls and I were going to stay home and play, bake and have a tea party. It was going to be a great day but than life happened and we all woke up grumpy! Chores were not being done with a happy heart so more chores were added and tears started flowing. After all of the drama I didn’t want to play anymore which caused more tears. Luckily, we still had our tea party and that was the highlight of the day. We gathered up a big stack of books, set the table and enjoyed a good hour or more of books, giggles and tea. I know that our table and our tea parties aren’t the least bit fancy but the girls think they are and even though we have these parties often they always get excited! Thank goodness for tea parties!!
During all of our sick madness Ellie turned 6! Luckily, I was the only one sick on her birthday. I still can’t believe she is 6. It seems like she was just born yesterday yet it is hard for me to remember her when she was an infant. She truly has the kindest heart and is an amazing big sister!!!! She loves jokes and pranks but is scared of her own shadow. She is ever so cautious but has never met a stranger. For some reason this was an emotional birthday for me. She just seems to have grown up so much over night and I might have cried a time or two. I am so incredibly blessed to have the family that I do. Here is a little walk down memory lane.
A few days old
1st Birthday
2nd Birthday
3rd Birthday
4th Birthday
5th Birthday
6th Birthday
I know it has been awhile since I posted but it has been a crazy 2 1/2 weeks here. Ellie had a cold, Emily had the flu, I caught the flu which turned into a sinus infection and ear infection, and then Emily caught a virus or something that gave us a scare on top of another cold. Thank the Lord that my awesome hubby took over and took such good care of us on top of taking over most of the household responsibilities during that time!!! I am feeling back to normal and other then a little bit of a runny nose Emily is better too!! Emily was mostly feeling better Friday except for her cold so I was able to get away for the weekend. I have had a girls weekend planned for a few weeks and I thought that I was going to have to cancel but I am so grateful I didn’t because I had a BLAST!!!! I went to the mountains for a Christian women’s retreat with these two beautiful ladies.
It was cold but luckily the rain held off until Sat. night and it didn’t interfere with most of our activities. We started off our weekend with a big bonfire, smores and The Neighbors blue grass band! The next day we tried the rock climbing wall
for at least a few hours.
