Monopoly

A few weeks ago Kevin mentioned to me that he LOVES monopoly and can't believe that we don't have it. We have been married 9 1/2 years and I had NO idea that he loves monopoly. He went out that night and bought it. We have played a handful of times in the last few weeks. I have never been a big fan of monopoly - I am just not a risk taker. I hold onto my money - fearing that I will lose it all if I buy too many properties.

We played last night after the girls went to bed and this is what our board looked like close to the end of the game:

He has VERY little money left and has mortgaged most of his properties. I on the other had have a number of houses and a lot of money.

Kevin took one more turn and landed on a property of mine with 3 houses. He had to pay me close to $800 - but couldn't afford it. I'm now wondering if it is still one of his favorite games!! Ha!

Saturday Social

Here are a couple of new blogs that I am loving!!

1. Homeschool Creations - I love the printables that she has available and I love that she blogs about the different school lessons all the kids are doing!!

2. 1+1+1=1 - I love this blog because she had TONS of really great ideas to do with toddlers and preschoolers!! If you have toddlers or preschoolers at home, check out this blog for some new, fun activities.

3. This website is great! I love this idea of raising our kids to be "Rock Stars!" Check it out to see what I am talking about!!! If you want some ideas on how to intentionally teach your kids about Christ, this site is for you!

Accountable Kids

Has anyone heard of the Accountable Kids program?

It sounds intriguing - I could see it working here, but don't really want to spend the money since I don't know anyone who has tried it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for my husband, my daughters, and my family. God has truly blessed me!!

The cousins had a great time playing together today!! I love it that all of our nieces and nephews are so close in age to our girls. We have 2 - 5 year olds, 2 - 3 year olds, 1 - 2 year old, 1 - 10 month old and 1 - 6 week old. So fun!!

Too Little Time

Busy cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. Oh, and cooking, too!! We are hosting Thanksgiving this year! My family is all coming over.

Are you hosting Thanksgiving? If not, where are you going?

Our Christmas Lesson Plans

I love, love, love the Christmas season! I love that we have a month to reinforce everything we try to teach the girls throughout the whole year. There are so MANY fun things we can do together as a family! I love teaching the kids about why God sent his son and what that means for us!!

I started this post on November 8th, but I wanted to have all my plans complete before posting. So, here are our lessons for the month of December - not necessarily in order.

We are going to spend some time talking about several different Christmas symbols: advent wreath, trees, angels, the star, candy canes, and gifts (with an emphasis on giving gifts and God's "gift" to us). I hope to spend a couple of days on each symbol.

On Sunday November 29, we are going to introduce the Advent to the girls. Each Sunday as a family, we will light the appropriate candles in our Advent wreath and read the corresponding scripture.

(The following activities are in addition to several things that we do everyday, including phonics lesson, calendar time, Bible verse practice, sight word review, etc.)

Some of our crafts include:

Advent wreath - My objective for this activity is that the girls will be able to tell me what each different color candle represents.

Handprint/footprint angels - although instead of the poem that is suggested, Norah will write "Glory to God in the Highest" Luke 2:14.

Paper plate angel - Lucy loves any craft that involves cutting!

Some of our math activites include:

Paper chain - instead of using the bell and poem suggested here, we are going to use this star

Pattern bead wreath - using green and white beads on a pipe cleaner, Norah will create an AAB pattern and Lucy will copy an AB pattern

Decorate the Christmas tree - Norah will use addition facts to figure out how many ornament stickers to put on her paper tree. Lucy will identify numbers and put the corresponding number of stickers on her tree.

Compare weights of various Christmas objects.

Measure and compare different sizes of candy canes

Venn diagram with our big Christmas tree and the girls little Christmas tree.

M&M Christmas counting book for Lucy and this M&M activity for Norah - using Christmas M&M's

Bead candy canes - The girls will put 10 beads (red and white) on pipe cleaners. We will work on 10's and 1's.

Practice counting money - Christmas shopping - I am going to set up the shelves in the basement with toys and books so the girls can pretend they are going Christmas shopping.

Some of our copywork will include:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. Isaiah 9:6

She gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. Luke 2:7

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light. (We Three Kings)

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8

Other language arts activities include:

Acrostic - Christmas

Dictate a Christmas story using some of these prompts.

Sequence Christmas events - After listening to a story, Norah will put sentence strips in the order they happened in the story.

12 Days of Christmas - After listening to the song, the girls will make their own version.

For science we are going to try to make our own candy canes!! We'll see how that goes!!

Much of our read aloud time will come from The Adventure of Christmas. We will also read a different Christmas book every night at bedtime.

We also hope to spend a significant amount of time teaching the girls the importance of helping those in need. We filled a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child (funny thing: I thought Norah would want to fill a box for a little girl in the 4-6 age bracket. Oh no, she wanted to fill a box for a 14 year old girl. I explained the age bracket is 10-14. She wanted to circle the number 14 where it said 10-14. Let me just tell you that I have NO idea what to buy a 14 year old girl. We managed, though, and ended up filling our box rather quickly) and we will send cards and goodies to the girls we sponsor through Compassion.

Obviously, all our plans are subject to change and I always like to have plenty of things to choose from - even if we don't get to them all!!

And the Winner is. . . . .

And the winner of my giveaway is. . . . .Misti! Congrats, Misti!!

My favorite Christmas picture book is The Legend of the Candy Cane! I love the illustrations in this particular book and the story is a very sweet inspirational story. Norah has liked this book from early on - she wants me to read it over and over!!

Random

• One more day to enter my giveaway! Check it out!!

• My friend, Andrea, who is Mrs. America competed in the Mrs. World Pageant in Vietnam and came in as 1st runner-up! Congrats Andrea!!!

• We have had INCREDIBLE weather this weekend!! After a week of rain - we are soaking up the warmer weather!! The girls helped Kevin put up Christmas lights outside yesterday! Kevin likes to take advantage of the nice weather to get the lights up!! We just do white lights on the house and some pre-lit garland on the porch. Simple. Lucy commented on the way to church that another house looks prettier than ours. This house had TONS of "toys" in the yard. Santa, reindeer, snowmen, angels, etc.

• After 7 months, our new pastor finally received his visa! We are so excited to see how God works through him over the coming year!!

• We are having Thanksgiving at our house and I am so excited to have everyone here!! The girls are excited to play with their cousins.

• I sold a couple of aprons last weekend and had a custom request so I am working on that today.

A Couple of Funnies

Norah: "Our neighbors on the West get all the way on the top roof of their house to put up Christmas lights."

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(If Lucy wants to do something or make us believe something, she always tells us someone else told her to)

Lucy: Belle (my parents' dog) sleeps in his room.

Me: Belle is a girl.

Lucy: No, he's not. He's boy. Grandpa told me.

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Lucy: Can I have some gum, too?

Me: No, when you are 5 you can have gum.

Lucy: Jackson (her 6 year old cousin) told me I could. (At this point she had not seen Jackson for a couple of months and if she does, she doesn't really talk to him.)

Friday Flashback

Here is my flashback for this week.

Lucy was about 17 months at this point. Sadly, I think Daphne will be climbing like this much sooner than Lucy!

TFT: Christmas Trees

Just curious to know:

When do you set up your Christmas tree each year?

What traditions are involved in setting up your tree?

When do you take your tree down?

10 Months

Each month seems to go by more and more quickly. . . . .and I'm not very happy about that. It seems like it has only been a few weeks since I went into labor in the middle of the night and we called my friend, Cherie, to come over while we went to the hospital. It wasn't just a few weeks ago - it was 10 months ago. The crazy thing is that she doesn't look much like a baby. I think it is because she has so much hair and it is long for a 10 month old, but she looks like a little girl!!!

Daphne is growing, changing, and learning so much now!

Some of the big changes are:

She officially waves bye-bye and sometimes repeats the 2 syllable sound in bye-bye.

She is cruising along all of the furniture and occasionally lets go to balance for a couple of seconds.

She is eating mostly finger foods with the exception of breakfast when she still has rice cereal with fruit mixed into it. She seems to love cheese, pasta, and any kind of fruit. She will eat corn, peas, carrots and green beans. She also seems to like cottage cheese and yogurt.

She is FINALLY taking her bottles better. She willingly drinks about 20 ounces a day - sometimes a little more.

She is working on her 8th tooth. Daphne isn't really grumpy when she is teething, but she doesn't nap well.

We have all been trying to teach Daphne to clap - with little success. The funny thing is that, for whatever reason, whenever we clap in front of Daphne, I always clap and say, "Yaaaaaay." So now when we clap, Daphne will clasp her hands together, hold them tightly, and says, "AAAAAAAY."

I don't think I have mentioned this before, but Daphne LOVES bathtime which is a HUGE thing for us. Norah and Lucy hated baths! In fact Norah cried for EVERY bath until she was about 4 and Lucy cried every bath until Norah stopped crying! We tried all kinds of fun toys - but nothing worked. Daphne is the total opposite! She squeals when she hears the bath water. Whenever she is in the bathroom, she hikes a leg up like she is going to climb in herself. She doesn't sit still in the tub, either. She is a crazy girl - splashing and crawling. She is seriously a little fish. I literally have to keep a hand on her because she even tries to put her face under and comes up laughing!

Norah and Lucy are LOVING that she interacts with them. She is such a fun, happy baby!!

-pictures to come-

Oops

Just realized that I never posted yesterday! We had a little bit of a crazy day. It seems like I am having a hard time keeping the house in order so when we have company coming, I have to run around, cleaning like a mad woman!!

Today, my niece has been here all day, so with 4 little girls running around, I haven't had time for much of anything!!

Hopefully, I will have more to post tomorrow. . . hopefully!

Quote of the Day

Today's quote of the day comes from Norah.

"Mom, are you pregnant?"

Ummm, no. But thanks for asking - now I am going to the gym.

Random Pics

Wow! Was that a whiny post yesterday or what? Bleh! Sorry - totally over it now!

These first two pictures are right out of Daphne's Adventures in Wonderland. Have you not heard of it? Well, in one part Daphne becomes a giant in a little house. Check it out.

Enjoying the beautiful weather we have had over the last couple of weeks.

We attempted to get some pictures of the girls for Christmas cards. I think we have a couple of decent ones to choose from but here are some of the ones that are NOT options.

I think Daphne is trying to decide whether to smile or cry.

Okay, leave it to her sisters to really make her cry.

Umm. . .not sure what Norah is doing. Daphne is trying to escape!

Seriously?!

I feel like I have posted so much since Nov. 1 that I don't have much to say today! Except that I have only had 4 people respond to my giveaway. I have to say that is a little depressing. Okay, so "depressing" may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm pretty sure more than 4 people read my blog - and most of them have children. I thought giving away a Christmas picture book would be fun, but clearly no one else thinks so. I certainly don't mind picking out of 4 people - but seriously, 4 people?!

Any suggestions for getting more responses?

I'm not picking a winner until November 23 - so you still have time to enter!

Thankful Thursday by Lucy

Here are some things Lucy said she is thankful for!

1. Mommy

2. my baby sister

3. Norah

4. Daddy

5. a couch

6. a magazine

7. a nice house

8. friends

A Few Funnies

Yesterday, Norah came up to me and said, "Can you give me $3000?"

I told Norah that I don't have that kind of money. She responded with, "Then can I have $40?"

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Clearly in need of money, Norah wrote a note to Savannah that said, "Dear Savannah, Can you please give me $0.93?"

When I asked her why she needs $0.93 she told me she has $0.07 and she wants to make $1.

(I didn't let her mail the note by the way.)

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Earlier in the week we had tortellini for dinner. Lucy ate all of her and said, "Can I have more of this stuff?"

I said, "the tortellini?"

She said, "Yes, can I have more chinnalanna?" (I have no idea how to actually spell what she said.)

After she had her second helping, she said, "Can I have more chinnalanna?"

I corrected her again and she said, "That's what I said, chinnalanna."

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Today, Norah said, "I wish we lived in a barn."

I said, "Do you mean you wish we lived on a farm?"

"No, Mom, I wish we lived in a barn - you know, where the animals live and there is hay and stuff."

That's a far cry from this statement.

Dinner Flopped!

I had high hopes for our dinner tonight. I mean, how can you go wrong with pumpkin, mascarpone cheese and pine nuts (three of my favorite ingredients)? Seriously! Well, it didn't go as expected!

This is what I made. . . . .I mean, attempted to make.

Making the filling was easy. I use pie pumpkins regularly now during the fall season. Once you make a pumpkin pie with a pie pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin, you may never go back! It is incredible! (For those of you who don't know, I LOVE pumpkin - almost anything pumpkin. Growing up in the the "Pumpkin Capital of the World," how can I not? Right?) I already had some pumpkin that I had roasted, pureed and froze.

The hard part was making the pasta. I have only ever made homemade noodles for chicken noodle soup, but have wanted to try ravioli. First of all, I rolled and rolled and rolled the dough until I didn't think I could roll it any thinner. In the end, after they cooked in the boiling water, they were WAY too thick. Also, there was A LOT of filling and not nearly enough pasta dough - I actually made 2 batches of the dough. About half of the ravioli didn't seal so the filling came out in the boiling water. The pasta was just bland. . . blah! The filling was decent, I think, but it was hard to tell under all that thick, bland pasta!!

Everyone tried some, but the girls filled up on bread and applesauce and Kevin and I are considering ordering a pizza.

The worst part about making a meal that doesn't turn out - especially one that is challenging to make - is that you still have to clean up the mess! Ick!

Tuesday To-Do List

1. Finish 4 aprons

2. Clean out the refrigerator!

3. Finish some file folder games

4. Get file folder games laminated

5. Straighten up kitchen and wipe down counters

6. Work on December lesson plans

Not so bad unless you add the fact that I have to do all the normal things: cook meals, laundry, school, change diapers, etc

Monday Madness

First - those of you fellow blogspot bloggers, is there a way to make a post stay at the top of your page? My friend, Nicole, is doing a giveaway (which you should totally check out!) and her post describing it is a "sticky" post. It will remain at the top of her blog. She has a wordpress blog, though and I can't figure out how to do the same thing here.

If I don't figure it out - don't forget to check out my giveaway!!

Since we had another beautiful day today, we had school outside. Lucy usually sits with us while we read, but while Norah works on her phonics and math, Lucy does her own thing. We went on a bug hunt and my girls were literally digging in the mud looking for bugs. We found tons of worms, a few crickets, a bee, a spider, ladybugs and a bug that is unknown to me.

We played outside ALL. DAY. LONG. and we ate lunch outside. I mentioned to Kevin that Daphne tried to eat everything she could get her hands on - grass, leaves, bark, chalk, etc. Wow - she wears me out!!

I have been making some children's aprons for a home art sale at a friend's house. If you live in the St. Louis/St. Charles area and are interested in buying homemade items for Christmas, let me know and I will get you the information. There will be jewelry, aprons, bibs, burp rags, pottery, paintings, etc. It should be really fun. Let me know if you would like to purchase a child's apron and I can totally hook you up! Here is a picture of one of my aprons.

Survey and Give-Away

As mentioned yesterday, I am working on our lesson plans for December. Last year we borrowed this idea and we wrapped up 25 Christmas books. The girls opened one every night and we read that book at bedtime. They LOVED it!!

We intend on doing that again, but as I have been looking through our Christmas books, I started wondering what other books are out there that I don't know about. I know there are tons of Christmas picture books so I want to know what your favorites are!

Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite Christmas picture book is. I will give you until Monday, November 23rd to comment and then I will pick a winner and send that person a copy of my favorite Christmas picture book.

Spectacular Sunday

For those of you in the St. Louis area (or the Midwest, for that matter), hasn't this weekend's weather been INCREDIBLE?

With Lucy still not feeling well, we didn't want to take her to the park to infect others around us, so we have spent the entire afternoon in the backyard. We borrowed the Morrison's play yard when we went camping and we have neglected to give it back (we will return it, Heather, I promise). Since we still have it, we put it in the backyard with a tarp underneath so Daphne could play outside without eating the grass or leaves. Norah and Lucy played and ran around and I worked on lesson plans for the girls for the month of December. I am going to post our Christmas lesson plans for anyone wanting a few extra things to do this holiday season. Stay tuned!

It looks like the next few days are supposed to be nice too - not quite as warm, but still nice! I am hoping to spend a significant amount of time outside!!

Sick Saturday

I know I missed posting yesterday - but following Nicole's lead, I will post 2 today!!

Lucy woke up extra early yesterday morning. When I picked her up to put her back in bed, she was burning up! We had heard her coughing a couple of times in the night, but nothing else seemed to be going on.

On Saturday morning, we debated whether or not to take her to the doctor. Of course, I have felt a little paranoid about my kids getting H1N1. We did end up getting the vaccine - we finally decided that we couldn't keep ourselves holed up in our house all winter long. If my kids were over all healthier kids, we wouldn't have done it. The fact of the matter is that my kids seem to get sick very easily. I was totally stressing myself out every time we needed to go somewhere.

Anyway, Kevin - who was gone for awhile in the morning - ended up getting home in time to take Lucy to the doctor. I really didn't want to take all 3 to the germ infested doctor's office. Lucy, thankfully, doesn't have H1N1, but she has walking pneumonia. She is on an antibiotic and will hopefully be on the mend soon. You can tell just by looking at her that she feels miserable. What boggles my mind is that she was totally fine on Friday and then woke up really sick on Saturday. Strange.

Flashback Friday

This is a favorite of mine!!

Three on Thursday

Just wanted to share 3 websites/blogs that I recently found that I LOVE! I have gotten some really great ideas for school stuff for the girls!!

1. Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons

This blog is divided up by grade level and then lists a bunch of art lessons for that level!! We are going to do this lesson today.

2. Early Bird Homeschool

Even if you don't homeschool, she has some really great ideas that you can do at home!! If you have a beginning reader, try this!

3. Free File Folder Games

I love file folder games! I love that you have a whole lesson in one file folder that you can take anywhere! The games are divided by subject. Here are some Thanksgiving file folder games!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Top 10 Tuesday

Heather's Nablopomo schedule includes Top 10 Tuesday. I thought I would participate with this one!!

10 things I LOVE about homeschooling:

1. Having school in our jammies

2. Having school with 2 princess - crowns, feather boas and all!

3. Doing all of our school work outside on beautiful days

4. Field trips together as a family and with our friends!

5. Being able to go out of town during the week - and still getting our school work finished!

6. Watching the girls learn/explore together!

7. Totally changing our lesson plans to explore an new found interest

8. Getting excited with the girls when we discover something new

9. Doing our science lessons with daddy while camping or hiking

10. Snuggling with my girls while reading a good book in the middle of the day

A Palace and a Few Other Funnies

Today Norah said, "When we move (again not in the plans - she is just dreaming), I really want a house that looks like a palace in the front."

Lucy responds, "Oooh! Me too!"

This is cracking me up because a week ago, Norah wanted to live on the top floor of a skyscraper in New York City.

As we were shopping for a present for Sawyer's birthday, Lucy said, "Sawyer is my best buddy!"

As heard over breakfast, "Norah is never going to be my sister again!"

NaBloPoMo

I am going to attempt to join the NaBloPoMo train and blog everyday in the month of November. Instead of totally following Heather's schedule, though, I am going to post something specific about what the girls (maybe not all 3 in each post) are doing.

Today - Daphne is sleeping. She woke up at 6:15 (due to the time change) this morning and was back to bed by 8 a.m. The poor girl is EXHAUSTED. The girls were up a little late because we were at the Aberle's last night. Daphne is still asleep! I would love it if she would sleep until 11 - we'll see. Hopefully, it won't take her too long to adjust to the time change - not sure that I want her day to start at 6 a.m. everyday!!

Oh, and today is our second day of sunshine in a row!! Amazing and beautiful!! We are certainly going to spend some time outside!!