More Critters!

Our caterpillars are here!! They arrived via terrible mail lady yesterday morning. Our mail lady is the worst. She's always forgetting to bring our things, leaves our packages at the post office and she didn't let us know our caterpillars were out there, she just left the UPSIDE DOWN on top of the mailbox. Geez Lady!! Anyway, they are here and they are not babies as promised, but Blaine is happy so I am happy :)

To our surprise, they are already changing! The are forming into the chrysalis today which means we should have butterflies in 7-10 days. Very exciting!

The tadpoles are the same, so hopefully they will transform soon.

Ta-ta for now :)

Wordless Wednesday

Cave Paintings!

Today Blaine and I made "cave paintings" with paint we made from smashed up flowers of different colors. We are currently learning about the first people on earth in History and how they lived after being banished from the garden. J.J. helped us gather different color flowers: dandelions for yellow, some roses for pink and we found some pretty purple flowers, and some grass, to make green of course :) It was pretty fun. Although, Blaine was expecting Crayola quality paint, once he got over his disappointment we made some pretty cute paintings. I taped paper to the front of the house and that was our "cave wall".

The first people also made their clothes from animal skins, but I think we will skip that activity ;)

New Additions to the Family

Today in Science, Blaine and I were learning about tadpoles and frogs. I say "we are learning" because I am really learning so much that I either didn't get from my good 'ol Munford Tennessee education or I just wasn't paying attention. Probably a little bit of both. Anyway, we're sitting on the couch reading Tadpoles and Frogs, one of his science books, and there's a knock on the door. It's the mailman. He's delivering our Live Tadpoles!!! You should have seen Blaine's face! He now thinks I am the COOLEST mom ever for orchestrating such a miracle.

We immediately drop everything and run to open our live little critters. We've only had the Planet Frog habitat for six months just taking up space on Blaine's dresser, so we were excited to get some use out of it. They came in two separate white bottles. We had to fill the habitat with bottled water and leave the unopened bottles floating in the water for 30 minutes before opening them and dumping the tadpoles in the habitat water. The boys were actually very patient. Blaine and I looked up facts about tadpoles on the internet while we waited. Finally the boys took turns dumping their own tadpole in the water. The tadpoles are much bigger than I expected and even more amazing they made it through the USPS system alive! We now have two new additions to the family. Blaine named his tadpole "Rockstar", huge surprise! We've only had a bunny,two hamsters, and a mouse named "Rockstar". J.J. named his.....drum roll please......."J.J.".

We are all looking forward to raising our baby frogs and watching the life cycle of a frog from tadpole to frog. I'll keep ya posted ;)

Positive Changes

What a week!!! There has been so much going on! I told myself I was going to do my best to blog everyday, and I have been a very bad girl. I think I am finally settling into this new life we seem to have, so hopefully there will be more blogs more often. I'm not even really sure how I feel about blogging yet, but I'm trying it out at least. :)

This week was definitely a week of changes. Josh started his new job....BIG change! We are still getting used to his new schedule, and trying to get used to being quiet so Daddy can sleep in the mornings, but I am really thinking asking a 4 year old and 5 year old to be quiet all morning is WAY too much to ask of them. I told Josh he had to start wearing ear plugs! He is now, and I hope it's working. He needs to sleep, but I need to keep my sanity.

We also started homeschooling this week!!! YAY!!! Today is our third day and it is going so much better than I even anticipated. The first day was quite a load and yesterday was about the same, but today is mainly some reading and activity sheets, so it's a nice break for a Friday. Blaine is really enjoying every minute of it. I though the load of work would be too much on him and I had planned on maybe making some things optional or even leaving some things out to do as summer reading, but at the end of each day, we have done EVERYTHING, even the option activities and he asks for MORE! I love that little learning sponge!!

I am IN LOVE with Sonlight! I know it's only been three days, but I am pretty sure we will be a Sonlight family up until the end. I have never done anything that was so laid out and smooth as Sonlight. The have truly made homeschooling a blessing! The most work I have had to do so far is looking over the lesson plan the night before just to make sure I am familiar with what we're learning the next day, it takes all of 15 minutes. The next morning, I open the Instructor's Guide and start watching the magic! I am so glad God's hand was at work and everything worked out where we could do Sonlight. We really did think it would be impossible, but God had a plan.

Box Day!!!

I finally did it, I "let go and let God". We are officially a home school family! Man that feels good to announce :) I have always believed God wanted me to home school our boys but I was so afraid. God even put people in my life at every turn that home school and were very successful at it and I still couldn't give in. I feel that every step our family has taken since day one has lead us to a clear path to home school. Then there were all the obstacles that came our way that made it ever easier to make the decision. I am always asking God to show me His plan, "God just TELL me clearly what you want me to do with my life. If you want me to do _____, just make it so clear that I KNOW it's what you want for me." And that's what He did, over and over again. I am so proud to be a home school family, I am no longer afraid and I am even REALLY REALLY excited and confident about it. I have told all my friends, let me known to strangers and even my family knows. Now all I have to do it let it be known to my grandmother.....wish me luck! :/


Today was a Box Day, Yay!!! This was actually our second box day from Sonlight. This was a smaller box with just Science and Language Arts Activity Sheets and The Timeline Figures. We were very thankful to have found Core K used on the Sonlight Fourms so all we had to order were the consumables.
We had previously ordered Horizons Math 1 including the Manipulatives and we also ordered Handwriting Without Tears 1 and the MathTacular DvD. Once we get our big box containing the Core K, we will be ready to rock and roll!! It couldn't come soon enough either because Blaine has been very antsy to start :) I don't know who's more excited, me or him!

Purple Rain, Purple Rain

Today it's raining so that means Daddy is home with us, yay!! Blaine and I decided to make Josh a nice breakfast since this is such a rare occasion. With Blaine helping in the kitchen, out came purple pancakes, purple applesauce and purple milk! (You'll never guess Blaine's favorite color.) Daddy was impressed :D