Movin and Groovin!

Yesterday the girls got their first hula hoops for their PE class today. They were thrilled! They had a performance with them last night, invitations and all!




Ellie at PE this morning


SJ trying to get to the soccer ball (didn't get a pic of MC with her big girl group)


I've been movin and groovin with the laundry today...better go get that put away!


Painted pumpkins yesterday


And a special surprise for tomorrow...tickets to the Aggie game! We got 2 calls today with different people offering tickets, so we ALL get to go! The kids are so excited! Hope it's not too hot :-)


What my little cherubs look like right now as they rest up for the big day tomorrow. I better go join them! Or should I put laundry away???


Have a wonderful weekend, all!

Mary Clare's New Poem

Here she is a few days ago (stuffy nose) reciting:

Singing
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Of speckled eggs the birdie sings,
And nests among the trees
The sailor sings of ropes and things
And ships upon the seas

The children sing in far Japan
The children sing in Spain
The organ with the organ man
Is singing in the rain.

Homeschooling update:
-Math-U-See--LOVE it!
-100 Easy Lessons--Approaching lesson 40. She's reading fairly well but really hates to read and doesn't care for this book. We tried a "whole language"-type approach the other day when the book went missing; might try that every now and then.
-Bible Narrations--starting to get bored with this. Yesterday I wrote a one-sentence narration and had her copy it to get in some "copywork".
-Journaling--she loves it!
-Poetry--mostly enjoys this
-Group activities--trying to step back a little. We've missed the last 2 nature club meetings. Tomorrow starts PE days so hopefully we'll make that!
-Art/Music--haven't been doing a lot of organized stuff, just listening to good music and letting them paint and cut and play with playdough as much as their little hearts desire! Today they painted pumpkins so I'll post those soon. They LOVE ballet class and we're hoping Mary Clare's knee injury heals up quickly so she can get back to skipping and ballerina runs!
-Civics/Geography/Manners--need to do more of this!
-Behavior--that's a whole 'nother post!!! ;-)

National Night Out

Well, this was before the "NNO" but MC found a beautiful green bean in our overgrown garden!


Ready to walk down to the neighborhood park for the National Night Out (I just can't believe how big MC is looking these days...)


Wheeee! (Glad she didn't hurt her leg again...this scared me!) You may notice a blue mouth and blue on her shirt, from a sno-cone!


Whoa!


Checking out the Apache helicopter from Daddy's old Army Reserve Unit. The kids all enjoyed watching it take off later that night


Ellie's turn


The mini-ferris wheel! The girls are in the blue one!


After a quick walk home and back due to a potty accident :-/ we enjoyed the rest of the evening at the park with Daddy arriving after work. Always fun to play at the playground in the dark! We visited with several neighbors and always enjoy our fun city "festibals" as Ellie calls them! Hope your neighborhood had something fun too!

Weekend fun

Ellie making pinecone bird feeder at First Friday celebrating St. Francis of Assisi


Playing at our new neighborhood teacher store after craft time



Enjoying the park


Stevens :)


How did she get so big?


Loving the monkey bars


Big boy with his Robeez shoes


Strangest looking dog ever--a dalmation crossed with a basset hound...the owner called him an "abomination!"


Don't try the cereal at our house this week; we don't follow the "30 second" rule!

Three glances

Right now, 3 members of my family are taking a nice afternoon nap after a park visit and early steak dinner. Ellie and I are awake and I'm reading blogs, which is taking me forever because our internet connection is very spotty. She has been dancing around and talking and singing to herself...right now she's singing "we love our mom so much" and "God is so great so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God I can do...boom boom" and "I don't have a mom and dad...because I'm the mom" :)

But I had to post on the blog because the past 3 glances when I've turned around from the computer have been quite interesting.

1. I turn around to see Ellie with no clothing on, a baby doll on her head, and practicing plies standing on the bed.
2. I turn back around to see her tap dancing (still with no clothes, only tap shoes) on the wooden chess board.
3. Finally I turn to see her with tap shoes on her hands doing a headstand hanging off the bed.

I better go clothe my silly girl! What would I do without my Ellie-belly? I hope your Saturday has been just as interesting!

Our Austin Getaway

(warning, LOTS of pictures!)

After Roxy's shower the girls got to see Devin and Katie's backyard chickens!


Checking for eggs! So much fun!


Our little "twins", Steven Joseph and Veronica's Fernando Isaac both 9 months old!


Veronica reading "Angel in the Waters" to the kids


Girls getting their schoolwork done!


Bubbles!


IKEA fun!


Even enjoying IKEA in the bathroom ;) Lest I forget how crazy it is to use public restrooms with 3 young children...strollers or shopping carts, diaper changes, tooshie-wiping, nursing, hand-washing, water fountains...it's like an Olympic sport! Today at the park we spent about 20 minutes at the public restroom...4 different restroom visitors!


Somehow the girls scrounged around my wallet to find 50 cents to ride this "airplane" at the outlet mall


The fountain at the outlet mall


The cardboard coloring castle, "De Colores" as Mary Clare named it!


Playing with Math-U-See blocks


SJ finds another friend his age


Backyard fun at the E family home, where we got to send farewell wishes to the H family as they prepared to leave for their new family mission in Nicaragua with their 3 young children and one in-utero. Please pray for them!


The girls on the patio by the restaurant where we had lunch in nearby Georgetown


Baby boys having fun!


Play-dough


The last day we found a big festival in Georgetown, a wagon trail ride adventure. Here are the girls next to a teepee.


Campfire cooking!


Wagon


The San Gabriel River


And the fun park there! My cute kiddos posing for the camera before we head back to pack up and go home!





Thanks again, Roxy, for hosting us for such a long visit. We had a wonderful time and appreciate you opening your house to the big bunch of kiddos! All our love and prayers, especially as you await baby's arrival!

Can you translate?

Two stories Mary Clare wrote on her own this morning! I love Kindergarten invented spelling :) Kudos to anyone who can translate one or both of them; NeNe excluded since Mary Clare just read them to her!!!