farm park visit

We went to the Rutledge farm park over the weekend. We had in mind a trip to the pumpkin patch and a hayride, but the weather was 80 degrees so we just couldn't get into it :)
The girls enjoyed hanging out at the playground and visiting the animals though.
thats a cow model Iris is practicing milking on.







Serena, feeding a pony

















checking out the gardens, they had a pizza garden and a salsa garden and a moonlight garden.











Serena spotted a caterpillar














arriving at the farm












Serena enjoying the playground













Xavier, looks like he might be waving, Moms know better , he is trying to grab the camera :)











Iris climbing














pumpkin painting, oh boy !
We didnt ever go to the pumpkin
patch
the girls didnt mind though because we went to wal mart and bought pumpkins and paint.

cooookie umm ummm ummm

If you give a baby a cookie........... what a mess!
Dh and I talked about how we were going to not give the X-man any sweets til after his second birthday and I whole heartedly think its a great idea but the rest of the family has to give up the sugar too imo or we have a baby who is feeling like we don't care enough to share with him. maybe not all babies would take offense but this one sure did :)
so baby gets a cookie.

movie night

Family movie night :)
We watched Nim's Island . I thought it would be a good movie for the kids but I was delighted to find the main character proudly saying she is homeschooled, "technically unschooled" woohoo!
She was very smart and had obviously been learning lots and lots from books of her choosing.
Serena enjoyed it, I liked it , Ricky watched the whole movie despite it being a little kid movie, so I think he liked it.






Even Xavier wanted to see, :)
look at that little boy stand up!
He is 9 months old and I bet he will be walking well before he is one.

where have we been?

We have been playing school a lot these days.
Serena likes it especially when we have live lesons with her "teacher" The thing that rubs me the wrong way the most about the virtual school is being demoted from teacher to learning coach
especially since I am doing more teaching then ever ,LOL. ITs been a little hectic geting into a routine, but I think we have it down now. and we droppped their science and social studies. The science was stuff we had already done and the social studies was just to boring.

visiting 2

the kids having fun













Xavier has found a place to hang out













Iris,
I am so glad she is starting to look at the camera












Serena baking the cake , We made a dark chocolate cake with white frosting and blueberries sprinkled on top and in the layer
It was good :)










Serena can crack eggs and put them in all by herself now.

visiting Tia 1

On Saturday afternoon we went to Lydia and Kenny's for an afternoon BBQ and fun.












Here is Jesse, swinging from the bar in his closet, hmmmmm, what will his mommie say?













Jesse under the table :)














The kids playing play dough before dinner

just tuesday

just a regular old tuesday, but we still have fun. this morning we worked on an art/math project.
I made colored macaroni and we glued it to construction paper in patterns. originally we were to make necklaces, but mommie didn't realize how small the elbow macaronis we had were, very difficult for small hands to thread so a quick plan B was in order. we can make macaroni necklaces this weekend :)





















Then we went outside in the rain.
Serena wanted this umbrella for her birthday
and loves to get a chance to use it.
The video is a mistake, I thought I was
taking a picture , but its a cute three seconds
so i put it up. :)

BBQ

We hosted our first not just family BBQ.
I think everyone had fun (hey Ricky there you are again, bowaahaahaa) I was glad to get to know some new people from our HSing group and to visit with ones I already knew.
Serena loves to have her friends over and had a wonderful time. Even my teens who I have to say are darn good kids despite their status as grumpy teen boys, had a good time :)

these things happen

Sadly Serena's pet Hammie passed. She did cry
a bit when we first told her, but having a funeral for him helped her. No pictures of this but she wanted to check in the shoebox one more time
before we set it in the ground . Its a hard concept to grasp.








They helped to put dirt in the ground and then they went to find rocks to place on top.












Serena picked the spot so she can visit whenever she misses hammie.












After the funeral we played in our backyard to celebrate life. Serena played one of her favorite games, cheetah. She runs "seventy miles an hour" :) all over the yard, and growls at us .

this picture looks sweeter then a cheetah








this is more like it













and this is what we do with X-man while we play in the backyard. the pool is empty except for some baby toys. this way he doesn't eat grass and bugs and such.

my big kids

Ricky and Kyle after work.
Ricky seems to be just as tall as kyle, He loves that, since Kyle is his big brother. Ricky probably has one good growth spurt left at least so its likely he will pass Kyle. Oh yes and I have to add.........
Ricky, there you are on my blog (insert evil cackle) :)