Thankful

I just can't believe the awesome friends we have. I've really wanted to get a nice swingset for the backyard for a long time. We had one our friends gave us several years ago which was wonderful, but the kids wore it out and I was afraid it was going to collapse every time they went on it!
So a friend knew we wanted one, and also knew a lady at church getting rid of one her kids had outgrown. It was a very nice, big, sturdy rainbow one with 2 big kid swings, spot for baby swing, tire swing, big clubhouse, slide and rings and hanging bar. So they gave it to us! And as if that wasn't enough, another friend who owns a construction company had some of his employees come set it up for us yesterday!! And they took the old one down!
The kids are soooooo happy. They played on it for about 6 hours yesterday and even ate supper in the clubhouse!

Baby girl!

Placenta is out of the way, palate looks intact, and she's still a girl! A big girl... 3 lbs 6 oz, measuring over 2 weeks ahead. No wonder my back and hips are killing me!
Pretty cute too :)

Week 7

I have to say after 7 weeks of homeschooling that we absolutely love it. It's better and easier for me than I thought possible. I'm loving Mother of Divine Grace and since she flies through the lessons, I'm able to add things like science, art, and math every day instead of twice a week. She soaks up everything like a sponge and actually squeals with delight when I get out her math book. (Who DOES that??) She loves handwriting and has improved tremendously in 7 weeks. She loves religion and literature and poetry too. She is hungry for knowledge which we believe is such a gift! Tonight she wasn't feeling well so ken made her some camomile tea. This led to a big discussion of herbs and spices including smelling and touching every fresh and dried herb we had. She was fascinated and Ken did a great job explaining it.
I put a spelling app on her phone (old iPhone) and she loves it. She's spelling words like butter, canary and sunflower with very little help and only because she wants to!

Homeschooling has also had some side benefits I had never thought about. The best one is that while we are doing school at the kitchen table, John Paul and Leo play together so nicely every day! It's amazing! When we are done, all 3 of them have been playing together for hours. This had led to me being able to keep up with the laundry, cleaning, etc better than ever before. I actually have more time! I have time to bake bread and cook delicious and healthy meals and the kids love to help me which leads to more learning (measuring, mixing etc) We have more time to spend with grandparents and friends.
We have lots of down time and time for quiet reading and imaginative play. Madeleine has had time to catch bugs, learn about them, observe them and take care of them. She builds elaborate structures and makes up detailed stories with her Legos and animals. We have a flexible schedule so if something comes up, we can work around it.
We are all having a lot of fun and learning so much! Madeleine is also loving Sunday school and gymnastics class. We went to a friends wedding on Saturday and she got right into the group of kids on the dance floor and danced all night! She even led the conga line! Hopefully we can keep this up :) so far so good!
Pics from Heather's wedding!

Baby skirt

Finally getting into the knitting groove for baby girl! I finished this skirt yesterday and I'll put a wool diaper cover under it. I've also been making a few other diaper covers for under sleepers. Love love love wool on little babies!
Also Madeleine and I dyed some yarn with kool aid! It was such a fun project and I got some colors I needed out of it ;) if I ever get my computer fixed I will show y'all how we did it. For now I'll leave you a few pics. In the skirt, the yellow, turquoise and purple/red trip were dyed by us. And the hat is in the auction for Andrew take 2! Go bid!

Proud moment

Ken and Madeleine trying to get the 2/$5 honey nut Cheerios on the top shelf at target.

Religion class

For Madeleine's religion this year, we read a bible story on one day, then the next day she retells it to me in her own words and illustrates it in her bible book. Here is what she told me to write today after hearing the story once. Is this normal?? I was very impressed!

First gymnastics class

I signed M and Jp for a 3-5 beginner gymnastics class and today was the first day. Madeleine was so excited and did great! Jp wouldn't even participate until the very end. L sat on grandmas lap most of the time but got free at the end and started climbing on all the mats. Let's hope next week goes better!

Also M had an eye doctor appointment today and her eyes look perfect, no more wandering out and she has 20/20 vision in both eyes! Yay!! We don't have to go back til May ;)

Overheard

M: John Paul, do you know how to make friends?
JP: no.
M: well, if someone smiles at you, you have to smile right back. Then ask them what their name is. Then, if they ask you what your name is, you have to tell them your REAL name, which is John Paul Landon. And that you have a brother named Leo Michael. And a sister named Madeleine Margaret.
Then you start playing together and you have a new friend!

Alice Mary the monarch

She hatched! What a fun project. Ken and I were saying, how could anyone possibly say there's no God and an intelligent being did not think of this?? A giant yellow and black striped worm attaches itself to something, makes a cocoon in less than 10 minutes, somehow while he's in there grows wings, legs, antenna and his body shrinks considerably, then he comes out and immediately knows how to fly! Wow!! We were all pretty amazed at the whole thing. Surprisingly, madeleine was happy to let her go, but John Paul cried! Not what I expected.
She was the most beautiful butterfly I've ever seen!

Fun picnic

We wanted to get out of the house yesterday even though it was raining... Daddy had a great idea.. A picnic in an open shelter at our local park! So we picked up Qdoba (baby girl's favorite!) and headed over. It was so much fun and we even let them explore the woods around the shelter after lunch and get a little wet :)
We will definitely be doing this again!

Who says homeschoolers are weird?

Blogger meet up!

We had a great time! Loved meeting you G!
Jenny touched a goat!
Leo loves his godmother ;)

Science lessons

Madeleine got a book at the library about how to make bug habitats. (just what we need!) and we just happened to find a monarch caterpillar the same day! So we made it a habitat with a glass full of water, cotton balls and several sprigs of milkweed. It ate the milkweed for a day, then settled into a spot at the top of the butterfly house. Today it is curled into a J shape ( which happened to be the letter we worked on for handwriting today!) we are excited to see it form a chrysalis and emerge as a monarch butterfly! Madeleine named "her" Alice Mary, which is what she wanted to name her baby sister... So I guess this is the next best thing!

Done with week one!

It was so fun and went Better than I ever imagined! Handwriting is gonna take a lotta work, she is doing great at math and loves religion! (that was my favorite subject too.) literature is great and even John Paul and Leo listen in on our books. In religion we read a story from the bible and then the next day she retells the story in her own words and illustrates it. That's her favorite part so far :)

Day 2

I could totally get used to this! Although someone (with no kids) tried to give me advice on socialization today and that annoyed me.

We are having so much fun!