I'm Not Sure What Happened....

But I must have blinked,

Because my little ground hog isn't so little any more!

Ardon is growing into quite the young man that's for sure! We went out for late evening coffees (decaf of course) to help ring in the birthday celebrations and look forward to a fun day of celebrating!

Happy 9th Birthday!

We love you!

It's Official

The first day of school that is!

The kids were so excited to get started!

Ok, maybe excited isn't the correct word but they were at least willing and I think it came as kind of a surprise that real book work was being done today so they were too shocked to complain! Yep, that's how I roll!

 

The day started off well and we just did lighter introductory work so it wouldn't be stressful. 

To say I've been anxious about this school year would be accurate. I've felt like kindergarten, for us anyway, is such a crucial time educationally. That is when we get so many basic concepts down and the curriculum I use has them reading quite a bit by the end of the year. It was a lot of work with Ardon but I've know it would be a lot of work in many different ways with Elee. She's my dreamer and usually the child that would rather live in a pretend world by herself than play in reality with her brothers. She is VERY sensory in everything and gets overwhelmed easily. That being said, we will take the year in stride, adapting what we can and working our way through the rest. Educating at home is definitely an adventure and with 2 full time students (plus my 2 extra's) I'm sure it will be much busier from here on out. That being said, today was a good day and I look forward to many more of them down the road!

To top off our first day back to the books,

Bronze was home.

His work schedule has been very different lately, to say the least! So he got to be around for our kick off to the new year. He and Eliad sat together and did some bible stories while I worked with the bigger kids at the table and Weston napped.

I had originally planned our school starting schedule to be a little different than how it actually ended up. The youngest 2 kids are having some major dental work done next week so instead of putting everything off an extra couple of weeks I am just splitting our first full week over this week and next. That's what homeschooling is all about right? And as hard as it is for me in this respect, I'm trying to just relax and go with the flow!

A Week Back Home

It's hard to believe we have been back in town for a week all ready! Our trip flew by and the week back home has gone by so quickly as well. 

Here are some of the random things that have gone on and sped us through the week! 

We got some fun shopping in and used our birthday money.

Just what we needed too, another noise toy! You know, you can never have too many of those!

We also did a little birthday celebrating for someone else.

Weston turned one last week so we made cupcakes and helped him celebrate while he was at our house.

It's hard to believe but in no time at all he'll have been with us for a year!

I spent a lot of time tearing apart our school cabinet to try and organize/get ready to start the new school year.

We have 2 full time students this year you know!

We also spent time breaking in our new playdough.

There were lots of sweet treats to decorate.

And last (at the moment) but certainly not least,

We spent some time in the dark! Yes, I just had to open my mouth and told my husband that we'd already spent our due time without power for the year when we had storms go through in April. This morning when the small thunderstorm went through, we are assuming lightning hit our transformer and it blew out power before we could get ready for church! Thankfully the power came back on before it warmed up too much so the house didn't get hot!

A Good Dog

You know how you can tell you have a good dog?

You can make jerky on a dehydrator in 'her' room and she won't bother it!

Quarters From Uncle Tom

One evening before dinner Uncle Tom had the kids line up because he had something for each of them. To their surprise, he pulled out a roll of quarters for each of them!

Now some of you may realize how valued quarters are in this household but for those of you who don't, he may as well have given them each a gold bar! We went to the mall today and they each got to spend some of their quarters on splat balls, too much fun!

Thanks Uncle Tom!

The Great Outdoors

We spent most of our days either outdoors or with the house all opened up enjoying the fresh air. The weather in Santa fe is amazing, if you're warm all you have to do is step in to the shade and if you're chilly you just step in to the sunshine! I absolutely love the climate there and it made me sad to even think about coming back to our humid, heatwave! 

The kiddos loved running back and forth between the front and back yard and being able to go through the house without hearing, 'hurry, shut the door!' and I loved it to! It's also monsoon season right now so occasional light afternoon showers are typical. One afternoon grandma got out rain gear for the kids to play outside with. She is always thinking of them and makes everything so much fun!

The afternoon before we left we spent time out on the front lawn enjoying the fountain and conversation together. The kids found a stash of silly hats and brought them out to model for everyone. As you can see, grandpa was king of the lawn, ha!

We followed our visiting with the traditional send off dinner at Dion's for pizza. We went back to the house for a short bit after eating and said our emotional fair wells. It was a wonderful visit and we packed so much into a short amount of time. We will be missing everyone greatly and already look forward to our next visit!

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

We love to spend time just hanging out with everyone when we travel down to Santa fe. This trip was a bit last minute,  grandpa's health has not been good and we especially wanted to spend some time with him while he is up for it.

His body may be failing him but his mind is sharp and he still gives us a lot to laugh at. He still enjoys piddling around in the kitchen and watching me while I cook and I really enjoy the time we spend together! 

Grandma is just as busy (actually busier) as usual but we got to enjoy time with her as well. Aunt Netta surprised her and I with spa pedicures so we could get away and relax a bit together, it was wonderful and we may have over extended our welcome just a little so that we could enjoy the massage chairs a little longer! 

The Opera

Wow! It was quite an experience that's for sure! 

The opera house was really something, the structure as well as the scenery were beautiful. 

We've never been to anything quite like it and had fun dressing for the occasion. 

The story was interesting and there were little electronic screens in front of each seat with captions so you could follow along and it was very entertaining. To be honest though, we were a bit worried about sitting through the whole 2 hours but we enjoyed ourselves and it went by fast!

Thanks for inviting us grandma, we had a good time and were glad to experience something new together with you.

The Pantry

As usual, we had to eat at the Pantry at least once on our trip!

It's going to be a busy and fun day. After brunch we're on our way to a movie then the opera is tonight!

It Smells Like...

Santa Fe!

There is always a lot of good food and we've been having a feast today!

On the left was breakfast and the rest is dinner for tonight.

Plus chicharones!

Destination Reached

Well, after a very long, eventful and somewhat traumatic day we started a long journey and have finally arrived at our destination! 

We made pretty good time and as you can see, the rest of the crew is perked up after napping a lot of the way! Since some of us have been up going on 22 hours and it's still technically the wee hours of the morning I'm going to highly recommend a little more napping before we get too far!

Boise City

Gas stop!

Off Into the Sunset

Still have quite a bit of road to travel but there's quite a view at the moment!

In Transit

A gash in the head and a brown recluse bite haven't detoured us yet so here we go!

Old Fashioned Fun

Everyone seemed to be struggling to find a quiet activity to stay busy with while Weston napped. They tried a couple things then moved on to legos but that didn't last very long. No one seemed interested in any of the usual things we've been doing over the summer. I was racking my brain (and the internet) to find some ideas when something dawned on me. Down in our storage room was a box of my toys from when I was young. I brought it up and the kids were in awe as I started pulling things out. Once we got everything assembled the kids didn't waste any time and got busy playing.
Ardon was talking about how much fun these toys were and said he liked 'old fashioned' toys better!

It's Pewfect

Chocolate mug cakes for breakfast

                Well, the batter is yummy...

So surely the cakes will be yummy.

Yep, pretty good stuff!

Getting Closer

Out of the bigger projects we've had going on one is getting closer to being done!

The kids are getting excited!

They are looking forward to something a little more exciting than plastic bags!

First Summer Sprinkler Fun

It was finally warm and sunny enough to drag out the sprinlker! They played for a long time and had a blast!

Making Progress

Well, it's not the original project we started on but it's been added to the list! Here is our progress so far on wooden project #2!

Weekend Fun

Today we went to a parade to support law enforcement.  It was very last minute because Bronze read about it in the morning news but we decided to give it a shot.

There were fun things for the kids to do before the parade. 

They all got their faces painted.

Ardon chose an American flag inside of a police badge.

Elee chose a Frozen princess crown.

And Eliad got a Captain America symbol. 

After some bubbles, tattoos and chalk on the sidewalk it was time for the parade.

We saw officers on horseback,

And all sorts of vehicles used by law enforcement and for public service.

(While eating Popsicles they handed out!)

There were lots of other things too!

It was a fun Saturday outing!