Paper Mache Globes

Three days to complete but the globes are done. Nope the land isn't exactly right but the kids had fun making them. I wanted to have green and brown tempera paint for them but somehow I guess we used all of those colors and I never replaced them. We ended up using green finger paint which wasn't a really bright idea but one that worked. Overall they were a hit with my five year olds. I think Nathan was jealous he didn't get to make one. Maybe I'll let him make one really soon.

10/23/08

I voted yesterday. Funny thing was I wanted to vote early to avoid lines since I'd be dragging the kids along with me and I still stood in line. I guess the lines were probably shorter than any line I would have stood in on election day but I didn't expect to have to wait in line. I stood in line just to get to the election clerks desk for about 35 minutes. After that I had about a 5 minute wait for a voting machine. Overall a much shorter wait than I'd expect on election day though.

Nathan has moved on to the continent of Asia. Tuesday we learned about China and made a dragon boat. Today we finish our tour of China. I think he really enjoyed the activities we did for China. Also in reading he's been reading the complete stories of Peter Rabbit. Yesterday we read about Benjamin rabbit and afterwards made some cute little puppets. All three boys enjoyed making the puppets and then acting out little scence from the story. In the end they just started making up new stories because they were having so much fun.

April 11th

Long time since I've updated the blog. Mainly because someone who I had a falling out with was visting the blog. Anyway I'm back.

The boys are 5 and 3 now. They are huge into the Power rangers, much to my dismay. They are constantly playing power rangers and driving me nuts. We put up the tramp my mom bought them for Christmas up and they are enjoying that to the fullest. I just really wish it would warm up outside so they could play for hours on it.

We've decided to homeschool Nathan for kindergarten. Depending on how things go we may stick with it for first grade or enroll him in public school at that point. There were several factors that led us to this decision and we do feel it is best for him at this time. However we are a go with the flow type of family and if at any point it isn't working for us we have no problems enrolling him in public school. We are using the K12 program for kindergarten. He had to take a math test to decide on his placement and he did test out at the middle of the first grade for math so I must be teaching him well so far.

Noah and Zachary are still going strong. They sure are different from their older brother. Its been so much fun watching how two kids born at the same time can have such different personalities. They are a joy to watch and live with.

September 18

Wow I have not updated this blog in awhile. I've been crazy busy and just plain forgot. Let's see updates on us:
Homeschooling is going great right now. I'm amazed each and everyday at how much my kids are learning and I love to watch how they just get it sometimes. We are starting our Halloween unit this week and the boys are so excited. We also read 5-10 books every night before bed. This has become a very popular event in our house and each child has their own favorite books. We use the library to try out new books and buy ones that we really like.

Me- Didn't win at the Davis County fair for my picture but I learned alot. I was going to enter a picture in the Utah State Fair but totally spaced the entry date. I was also going to enter a bread but decided not too. I've been canning like crazy for the past few weeks. I did pickles, corn relish, pickled beets, sliced peaches, peach pie filling, frozen peach preserves, applesauce, and apple pie filling. Last week I hurt my leg and I'm slowly starting to recover.

Nathan- We gave up on teaching him to read right now. I can't find a phonics program that he enjoys and I'm not much for forcing a child into something they just don't get. He is still a huge Buzz Lightyear fan and wants everything he can get that's related to Buzz. His speaking skills are getting better but his eating is getting worse. I'm thinking of maybe putting him back into eating therapy.

Noah- What a character! This kid is a hoot. He just loves life and loves playing. He loves his wah wah (his twin) and his dogs. He's always going out of his way to take care of the dogs. He's so close to potty training but just doesn't like to stop doing anything to go use the potty. He does throw huge temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

Zachary- What can I say, he's a very demanding child. I lose my temper with him all the time. I think maybe he should have been an only child. He's just as big of a Buzz fan as his older brother.

Friday June 8

Happy Birthday to me!!!!! Lets see, well today was a much better day then yesterday. I was willing to give my kids away yesterday but today they were back to their cute selves and if you can believe it there was no climbing today. YIPEE!!!!

Nathan was quite upset today when he found out it was my birthday. He wanted to know if his Aunt Mary made me a cake and he I told him no he insisted we make a cake ourselves. We made a cake from scratch and it actually turned out pretty good. It was quite ugly as we had a very kids who were in a big hurry to frost and decorate but its the thought that counts, right? Nathan also dumped all his toys out and picked out some "gifts" for me and wrapped them in towels to present to me. Honestly I have to give the kid credit for wanting to make sure his mom had a good day today. I heard him tell Zachary to not bug mom its her birthday.

We've been without internet for 36 hours. Honestly I was stressed about it but now I think I should have internet free days every couple of days. I got alot of things done in those 36 hours.

I asked Don about enrolling Nathan in a preschool program but he things we should homeschool to see if homeschool him through elementary will work for us. I think it will but I have my doubts every now and then. We had music/art day today and we really enjoyed it. I checked out a book from the library that had music on cd that tied in with famous art and we listened and looked. All three boys enjoyed it and Noah led the orchestra.

Going back to my birthday, can you believe my husband left me home tonight so he could VOLUNTEER his services to his work. No takeout from a favorite resturant for my birthday, no instead I ordered crappy pizza from a crappy place and wasted my free calories on crappy tasting food. Whatever, I'll get over it but right now I'm pissed.

Tuesday May 8

Well Nathan was pretty sick. He had strep throat. He's all recovered now, back to fighting his brothers and dogs. He's still on antibodics but he'll be fine. He also had his first nosebleed, which may I say was not a fun experience.

Noah and Zachary and doing well. Both have a slight cough but other than that they are fine.

I think homeschooling the boys is going to be the way we go. Don has really jumped on the bandwagon and I'm having fun researching now that I know he's willing to consider it. I've joined the local homeschool group for support and ideas. Right now we are homeschooling things he'd be learning in preschool and its going well. I take his led right now, if he asks for school time we have school time. We are also reading every night before bed, about 5-10 books and thats about 30-45 minutes. His really enjoying the books (and the twins do too sometimes) and some of the books he can say the words before I get to them. I also stop and let his finish the sentences. Its not that he can read the words but he knows them after one or two times of me reading to him.

His favorite books right now:
Where the wild things are
Don't let the pigeon drive the bus
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

MondayApril 30

Well its been awhile since I posted. The boys have been crazy and I've been trying to cut back on internet time. But here are some updates:
Noah was sick with croup earlier in the month but is doing better now. He's the only kid in the family who doesn't whine (thank goodness I don't know if I could make it through 3 kids whining). He loves to swing on the free swing set we scored, neighbor had one she didn't want and asked if we wanted it.
Zachary is doing well. He started to get sick too, like Noah but I started him on Orapred before he got as bad as Noah did. He's still the most daring of all the boys and I'm constantly trying to keep him out of trouble.
Nathan is suffering from allergies big time. He's not sleeping good at all and is just plain miserable. Benadryl and Clartin are doing nothing for him so I may have to break down and take him to the doctor for a prescription drug.

Don set up the swamp cooler yesterday for us. I can't believe we finally have a cooling system in place for the hot weather. Bad news our roof is in really bad shape. The tiles are coming off big time. I hope we can make it to next spring before we have to replace it.

New month this month and I have new goals for the month. They are:
1. Grocery budget of $300. Between buying mainly organics and local foods I really hope we can do this. I've organized all my coupons and here's hoping I can do it. We do get some delivered from our local dairy and although they are sort of pricey I like it.
2. Fun budget $200. This includes clothes and books and all that sort of stuff.
3. Try to get the boys out of the house at least once a week on playdates.
4. I need to start exercising again.
5. Develop some sort of cleaning routine.
6. Buy and plant annuals and get the stone for the front yard bought.

Don finally agreed with me that homeschooling our kids may be a good idea. This month I am also going to start with some basic skills for the boys to learn. Also potty training is going to be big this month. I'm hoping we can be out of diapers during the day by the end of June with all 3 boys. I'm also going to work really hard to break the bottle habit they all have.