Art History class.... day 1... doing homework

8/27 -"Art History" class started today. D & K are in morning class 2 hrs. and James right after them for 2 hrs. It is a History class studied through the art & architecture, people & writings of the time. This semester is Middle Ages. They also study astronomy/constellations, learn Latin phrases, read books & stories, do art projects and probably more I don't know about yet. There's also some science.... last couple years they studied bones & muscles of the body.

As soon as we arrived home the boys started their homework and worked for a solid 2 1/2 hours! They Love the class. I'm Very happy with it too. I was anxious about the class because I have never met the teacher. But I've only heard Great things about the class. I put a lot at stake..... I pretty much only joined this charter homeschool so they would pay for this class. It is $350 a semester, the charter pays $300. So after trying out the charter, paying for this class and using as much of the free curriculum from the resource center I can.... I'll decide if we stay with the charter school or not. If we don't (highly likely) we'll just have to find the $$ for the class. But it already looks well worth the money. It's way cheaper than the Catholic school they were in and we found the money to send 2 kids there for a few years. So I'm not too worried.
Derek completing his flower - and the close up..... The lines are curvy but hey, he's only 4 and he did the coloring correctly. The assignment was to draw straight lines out from the center and then use a light color next to a dark color all around the flower.... which results in a 3-D effect.
James is making his own "monopoly" looking game board. He worked hard coming up with consequences and funny things to happen to the player.
Katie shows off her flower.
The boys are filling in their constellation maps. One map shows the lines and they are assigned to fill in the constellation lines on a map with just the stars.

First Day of home "School"

8/27
Officially the charter school started today.
so that means we started school today...hmmm

So we looked at our books from the school.

And played gamecube.............


Here's a snack of bagel pizzas.

looks like my camera is off a day.....

Katie did look at her Math U See manipulatives.
Both kids did a lesson in Reading Mastery.
Katie is in III and James is in V .

James did a religion lesson, Seton spelling and looked at the Singapore Math. But I ordered MUS Epsilon for him.

Derek has been doing worksheets as fast as I print them out for weeks, and suddenly today... nope... not going to get any schoolwork out of him today.

I think I made too big of a deal about my Kindergartener! During Mass yesterday he wanted to sit on my lap and for me to hold him up - well he wants that every Sunday. But I was just too tired. So he moped and I whispered that he is almost 5, and he will be a Kindergartener tomorrow, so he has to be a big boy. Well that didn't help much. I sent him over to Geoff so I could hear mass. Then I ended up carrying him at communion time. It was more of a snuggle than a holding. My baby is getting so big. I try to melt these memories into my mind. The days when I'm still able to hold my 42 pounder in my arms. He can wrap his legs around me and his arms around my neck and someday he will be taller than me. I like to stand him on the pew and look up at him and tell him someday I really will be looking up at him because he will be taller than me someday...... Then I'll search my memory banks back to the days when I could lay him across my lap, across my leg with his head at my knee and his feet touching my belly. This was about homeschool........... but that's exactly it, I want to homeschool to spend every moment I can with my kids, before I know it they will be out on their own and we'll just have the memories.

stretch your Dinner idea

A couple weeks back I had a coupon for the Bertolli frozen dinner, and they were on sale.



I chose the Shrimp with penne, asparagus, grape tomatoes & spinach.



The kids usually eat plain noodles, so I figured that this dinner for 2 would make the plain noodles more delicious for dh & me.





I was very surprised that all of the kids enjoyed the dinner.






Katie liked the shrimp and James liked the sauce.






Luckily, they were still on sale - $5.99. They are expensive. Usually $7.99



I bought 6 to keep in the freezer. We eat 1 or 2 a week.


But I stretch them out by adding veggies I have on hand. Broccoli, red pepper, grape tomatoes. And 1/2 package of pasta.

Tonight we had the Chicken, rigatoni & broccoli. I added the red peppers & more broccoli. with some butterfly pasta.

my ocean artwork

drawing has kept me from blogging for a couple days.

The inspiration is from the

Draw Write Now books.

Derek tests his Halloween costume

We were in the Children's Place shopping for a few new shirts and Katie found some skirts for $7. I had a 20% off coupon so when Derek was looking at Halloween costumes I said OK.
Even though it is in the 90's he wanted to test it out.

Grandma's Retirement Party

8/23/07
After working for this company for 25 years my mom retired.
They had a barbeque and a nice cake for her.

A BIG hole for the Pool

8/22 - The start of the day: Derek, Geoff & James check out the progress and watch the digging.







The end of the day!






The kids are having a blast playing in the dirt.
Since we hit the water level, our area has underground springs, we have some water in the bottom. We'll have to (unexpectedly) add a hydrostatic valve under the pool to pump out excess water.

We're building a POOL!

.........................August 21, 2007
Construction started today to dig out the hole for our pool.
Day 1

the bobcat arrives and moves rocks

Gonna Party like it's Aug 17, 2007..... HSM2

8/17 Our High School Musical 2 Party.
If you have a daughter
if you watch the Disney Channel,
then my guess is that you were inside watching the movie on Friday night.


We planned weeks in advance. We were at various stores stocking up for our party.
Friends were coming, the house was cleaned and decorated.
We made our own school banners.


At walmart I actually found plates and napkins that afternoon. We bought cute bags filled with HSM2 gifts for the girls, nail polish, lip gloss, mirrors, notepads & a picture frame.

James did this decorating up on a chair. Katie handed him the pieces of streamer & tape.
I did the twisting streamers.


Walmart was doing a givaway, I read on the website, way too late. But when we were shopping there the checkout girl had this HSM2 blue tag and card around her neck. I asked for more and she said we missed it. I said I knew that but we liked them for our party. She was so kind and gave us hers! They did have more of the blue lanyards so we took 6. I scanned the origianl card and printed out HSM2 "passes" for everyone and hung them on the lanyards.

Our game for the evening was "Can you find Troy's Lips". I printed out a picture of Troy and the girls put on lots of red lipstick. Then they closed their eyes and tried to get him on the lips.
It was cute and fun.
Our menu was pizza, breadsticks, veggie tray, and cheese & ham on crackers
Dessert was popcorn & jello stars, m&m's, brownies and m&m cookies.

Summer Reading

From an Unschooling Yahoo group I read suggestions for the following books and checked them out right away from the library.....

Surviving the Applewhites, by Stephanie S. Tolan
I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked the conflict between the characters.
My favorite part was when he realized that no one cared that he was spiking his red hair everyday and that it really was a lot of upkeep and work each morning. Then he realized that no one cared about his black clothes & jacket which was too hot to wear nor did they care about the rude sayings on his shirt.
I also like how he helped with the caterpillar situation in the garden, thus creating the butterflies on display for the son.

Carry on Mr. Bowdwitch, by Jean Lee Latham and John O'Hara Cosgrave II
I liked this book a lot too. He was a brilliant man. I enjoyed the parts where he wanted to learn something, so he found books and copied them, then translating a book to learn Latin going on to learn other languages the same way.
My favorite part was when he was so emotional (when normally so calm) about the tables being wrong in their calculations. He was so dedicated to mathematical perfection. (that's why I like math, only right or wrong answers)

Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
This book was pretty good. I think the old movie, which I like and have seen several times, did a good job of following the book. So it was easy to picture the events because they are in the movie. (the OLD movie, Clifton Webb & Myrna Loy, not new the Steve Martin one.)
There are a few more events and more descriptive parts to the babies and childcare in the book.
I enjoyed when the mother took all of the kids on a railroad trip across the country to see her parents. That was quite an undertaking and adventure. Also, like in the movie, when the birth control woman comes calling and is exasperated to see that she had been tricked when the 12 kids come running through at the father's call.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Derek's alphabet trees.

From Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

printouts from www.KizKlub.com

in the Stories & props tab.

Both trees I printed in b&w and he colored them.

The small letters I printed in color, cut out and he pasted on. The capitals I printed in b&w and he colored them Green -- his favorite color!

Porch decor before & after

Before shot.

old blue sofa.

new tropical print loveseat, other pieces are being put together.

After shot:

Loveliness of the Seashore

Elaine is the beautiful hostess for The Loveliness of the Seashore Carnival.

I send my entry in very early so that I would not forget.

So I got to be #1 on her list. :)

Come for a Dip and refresh yourself without getting sandy!

I have other posts about going to the beach in Hawaii in Dec 2006, Dec 2005, and going to the "Lake" here in San Diego (Really the reservoir).

Favorite New products

I never drank coffee until Frappacinos were invented when I was over 32. It was about the time I was pregnant so decaf was fine. But there was something addicting about that stuff. Nowadays I think about a cafe au lait when I wake up in the morning. I never liked coffee, but always loved the smell of the beans and brewing coffee. I like milk with a little coffee. So I was very happy (and my wallet) when I could bring the *$ (starbucks) home for less.
It is still about $7 for a 4 pack, but I can drink 1/2 a can a day. That's better than the Dulce de Leche drink at the store for $4.


Now for something healthy.........................
I've been enjoying Bear Naked for a while now. I love to mix some granola with vanilla yogurt for breakfast.
For a while... the Banana Nut has been my favorite!
The Fruit & Nut, and the Protein flavors are good too. But now my very Favorite is the Triple Berry Crunch. Added plus is the low sugar! The dehydrated berries are big and crunchy and delicious.

We've been seeing the commercials for the cereal straws for a while. I found them 2 for $5 so I bought them as a surprise for the kids.

The Cocoa ones are the best, but they are VERY cookie like. So they do not seem like a breakfast item at all.

The kids are having fun with them. They really do like using them as straws, but it has to go quick because they Don't like the cereal once they get soggy. I like them dry out of the package, but again, I think of them more as a cookie.

Kids on the trampoline