Homeschool Adventures!

Wow! I can't believe we have been homeschooling for over 3-months now! We have had MANY adventures so far! Here are pictures of just a few . . .

We visited the Pine Knoll's Shore Aquarium on Homeschooler day in September. They had amazing aquatic animals, our favorites being the sharks and the jellyfish. We also got to visit the touch tanks and held crabs, sting rays, starfish and eels.

We were doing an ocean study unit and made these lunch bag whales as one of our crafts.

We have a history club that meets once a month to discuss what we've learned in history. We are studying ancient times. We have learned all about Africa, Russia, the Middle East and the Orient. We do craft projects, games (like Sumo wrestling and guerilla warfare games!), and share reports on what we've learned.

This was so cool! We went exploring in a creek bed and found TONS of fossilized shark teeth! I have never seen anything like it! The kids found all sorts of stuff from old sea animal fossils and bone and really cool rocks as well as the teeth.

We gathered acorns at a park one afternoon and brought them home to paint and made little jack-o-lanterns out of them. very cute.

We have plenty of time for snacks. Here is a snack that Caleb invented on his own. He says its ALMOST all healthy stuff (except for the candy corns!)

This snack is not as healthy! Yummy ghost sugar cookies!

Cutie Pie William

Sniff Sniff. William turned 11-months old this week. Somedays it seems like this has been a really long year, and other days I wonder how my baby got so big so fast! He is just a real sweetheart. We have had a miserable couple of teething weeks this past month, but now he is back to his curious fun-loving self! I took these pictures a while ago, all on the same day. He is just on the go all day long! So, first I found him strategically sitting in a booster seat, watching the paper towel roll unravel. Then, he got food all over his clothes so I had to change him. It is not uncommon for me to find William pulling the dishes out of the kids' dishes cupboard, but this day, that wasn't enough. He had to be IN the cupboard throwing everything out. He's always trying to get "up" onto something.

Which brings me to his next messy picture (which wasn't too messy this day, but potentially it leads to flour spilled, pots on the ground, cups, spoons, whatever onto the floor). He loves to climb. The kids sometimes use this ladder to help me cook or to reach something in the food cupboard. They have a bad habit of leaving it out and William is like a magnet to it! He sees it set up and nothing else can deter his mind! He is up in a flash destroying whatever he can reach on the counter!

(He does mix up a pretty mean fried eggplant and spaghetti, so maybe I'll let him keep climbing!)

September Harvest

Look what I picked from my garden yesterday!! Ok, so I know it isn't much, and the eggplant is tiny and the onions are about as big as they were when I planted them, but its September and my garden is still going! I have to admit, our success this year was medium-fail! But, its nice to have a little bit to show for all of the hard work. Oh, and just so you know, I whipped up a mexican omlet with these ingredients for dinner and it was so yummy!

Hurricane Irene

Wow, so blogging has taken a backseat for a while! I thought I would throw a few pictures up on here while I had a minute.


So, the big hurricane came through a couple of weeks ago and it was just a really interesting time here. We talked about this hurricane days before it arrived. When it did come, yes, Bryce and the kids went outside and played in it. Earlier in the day, it was all just fun and lots of rain and wind, but then that wind picked up and boy, it was kinda scary! We don't have many trees around our house, so we were fortunate enough report that our only damage was a ripped off corner piece of the house, and tipped over topiaries (and spilled gravel) on the front porch.

Glad we didn't have this to clean up!

Happy Independence Day!

Our cousins, the Carrs, came in to town to help us celebrate the 4th of July! I organized our neighborhood's first annual 4th of July parade! I really didn't know how the response was going to be, but when I walked outside Monday morning and saw the cul-se-sac filled with red, white, and blue kids on bikes, wagons, scooters, and lawn mower trailers, my heart filled with American pride! It was so wonderful to see! The parade was awesome - we invited the neighborhood over to our backyard for popsicles, volleyball, cornhole, and neighborhood mingling. People stayed for a couple of hours (before the heat melted us away). It was awesome.

The prep work:
We even had a lego float in the parade!



We made firework cookies (and ate them too!) which were really easy and very fun-looking! We "cooked out" (as they say here) and the weather was pleasant enough to enjoy eating outside together.
We did sparklers and snaps and smokey snakes before it got too dark. These 3 boys were brave enough to do some snaps in their teeth!
I just love celebrating the 4th! We sang patriotic songs as we lit the fireworks and talked about our country and how fortunate we are to be living here. We are just reading in the Book of Mormon about the Jaredites being brought to the promised land. We are so blessed to be here at this time in history. God bless America!

(we also did face painting this day and Annabelle had been a "black cat." It didn't come off that well!)

Blacksburg and Annabelle's 3rd Bday

Annabelle turned 3! She got a barbie cake and lots of fun girly presents. She felt so special. She is such a sweetheart! We love her so much!


Bryce went to scout camp last week, so I took the kids up to Blacksburg for a quick visit with friends. We rode horses, went swimming, visited the park, drove by our old home and school and neighborhood, rode on a zipline, made applesauce, played with friends. It was so refreshing to be back with friends. A piece of our hearts will always be in Blacksburg!