more christmas eve

hanging out after our christmas eve dinner.

christmas dinner

Serena is helping me make the rice a roni dressing for our christmas eve dinner.
I decided to try eating our big meal christmas eve
and then enjoying the leftovers on christmas day.
It worked well and I think we will do it again next year. I got the idea from listening to some talk about the traditional Italian "dinner of seven fishes" that is served christmas eve. I would love a night of seafood, but not everyone in my family agrees so we had a delicious turkey dinner.





Serena is spending alot of time in the kitchen with me. I am so glad we can spend that time together
talking and learning.

fun

having a little fun with static electricity :)

25 days of crafts

I got a crazy notion that I might be able to do a craft a day with the kids from decmber 1 -25th.
So far I have managed to get something done everyday although some take two days to complete, the point isn't to have 25 crafts but to spend that time with the kids everyday :)

Left is Xavier making a beaded snowflake, so simple! just pipe cleaners twisted together and bead slid on the ends.

Fall leaves

blogging season again I guess :)
My excuse for not blogging is I have three little ones, but thats exactly the reason I want to blog most. Well the load seems to be lightening quite a bit lately, Xavier is more often then not opting to toddler after his sisters as they play, instead of clinging to me 24/7 which is both nice and a little sad :( my baby is growing up.

So we did the first of many Fall crafts this afternoon. Serena is really into art lately so I am going to try to do a ton of it for her. but I need to find a way to incorporate the other two, or at least distract them. Iris is pretty content to do something like Serena as long as she is included but I would like her to have something similar but at her level. Xavier wants to anything the girls are doing for about thirty seconds and then wants to walk on the table and mess up whatever they are doing, lol. well he doesn't really want to mess it up he really just wants to possess whatever they are doing and the messing it up is just a result of that.
Working on the project. Serena was skeptical of the methos at first, putting the 50/50 glue/water on the leaves instead of gluing them to the paper but was happy with the results. project here
http://deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com/
Love that blog btw










My little Man before his art destroying spree :)
He does like to color and paint but is obsessed with what ever the girls are doing. I guess that is a common sibling reaction but I havent seen it so strongly in any of the other kids. Maybe it is because I am homeschooling and I do much more then I did with the others.







This isn't Irises handiwork from today, but I wanted this up. She did this a few days ago . It's a picture of the family and everyone is holding hands......aaawwwwww, how cute.
gotta love Daddy beard :)









Here's Serenas final product.
Pink leaves, lol.
thats here favorite color and I think she might have had all pink leaves if her Dad hadn't asked are you going to do any leaves in fall colors like orange red or brown?

The original directions called for tracing the leaves from a template, but I could figure out how to make the leaves as big as I wanted them. So after trying to trace around them to make them larger ( big pita) I got wise and remembered that there are an abundance of real leaves all around my house, so we headed out and collected some which I put in the printer/copier and made a copy of so Serena could easily trace the outline onto the tissue paper. oh and the black scribbles on the bottom, one guess who made those marks.

The fourth

We enjoyed a pretty good fireworks display thanks to our neighbors across the street. The springfield fireworks were cancelled so I think
they got together as a neighborhood and bought alot of nice fireworks. they even had a finale :)









Daddie grilled some burgers. I recently found out some even more disturbing news about hot dogs so they are off the menu.











But broccoli is on the menu, lol. Xavier is just crazy for broccolil when we are out in the garden I have to watch close or he will just lean over and take a bite out of the plants.










We had a rainy spell and didnt check the garden for a few days and ended up with a huge zuccini.
We are going to grill it, yumm.

camping

Xavier taking a much needed nap during our camping trip. I meant to snap a shot of the background behind our car, there is construction going on.. loudly. I couldn't believe that the baby was sleeping right through it.










Capri suns is the only way I can get all three kids to sit long enough to snap a picture :)












WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
Superbaby!












Iris :)













Serena monkeying around.

Our trip was fun. Missed getting pictures of the girls swimming in the lake because we didn't want to risk taking the camera down by the water. But they did swim and had a pretty good time doing it. It was a bit rocky which made getting in and out of the water difficult but we found a place that we will go next time that is more beachy.

In the garden

Serena and our Dill plant, it blends well into her green shirt :) Dh is in the back grouond watering and feeding the garden.











Iris checking out our squash blossoms. I am so tempted to pick some to eat because I hear that they are quite delicious and I have a sopranos family cookbook recipe for them :) but I really want the squash so i am hesitating.









Hard to see, but we have the beginnings of tomatos. I planted three kinds. cherry, roma and beefsteak. The girls will be allowed to eat the cherry ones right out of the garden.











Broccoli! I planted allot of this because we love it so much. this one is super early . wonder if i should cut it out and eat it .

summer school

We are making suns to celebrate the upcoming summer solstice. Xavier thinks Iris's paint might be better then his and he ought to try a swipe :)











Serena is going to 7 on her birthday so that means we need to start recording our hours of school. In Missouri a child must do school 1000 hours a year. 600 must be in the core subjects and 400 can be other. This doesn't need to be turned in to anyone but we need to have it in case someone were to accuse us of not educating our children.
I got a binder and am keeping a diary of what activities we do and the time it takes . our goal is 1hour of math a day, 1 hour of art or music, 1 hour of science or social studies ( I am doing science one week SS the next so we can focus on a topic all week, this week is science and we are studying oceans) and 2 -3 hours of LA

Iris is learning lots right along with Serena.
She loves doing school because she is a big girl now(3 1/2) and doesn't let us forget it :)

the most famous girl we know

Kyles girlfriend Jordon was a model in a hair style competion this evening. Serena had a really good time watching all the pretty and pretty wacky hair :) She also enjoyed the attitude of the models walking the catwalk and has been practicing her best walks since we got home. Iris and Xavier fell
asleep during the show despite the loud dance type music. Jordon did really good. She walked well, not any stumbles or wobbles ( many girls did). you cant really see in the picture, but she is covered in gold glitter. and the dress, thats a pillowcase :) all the models were wearing them.


And below is a Video that Stars Jordon and her sister Lauren (who was also in the show but I don't have a pic) Kyle helped them make it, watch the credits :)

summer fun

Bad news, the hose has a leak
Good news ... the hose has a leak!
Xavier is cautious, Serena skips around and
around the squirting water.










Serena telling Xavier how much fun it is to run in the water.












Iris prefers sunbathing :)

snakes at the zoo

time out for capri suns and sitting on a tiger.













Xavier doesnt stand still for long, but a cheeto slows him down for a couple seconds
Iris petting a snake in the reptile house at the Zoo.
So brave for a three year old ;)










Taking a lunch break

spring

The girls having a picnic,
Spring is here I hope.
hope its a long one, before the real hot weather comes.

St. Patricks day

The girls making Cookies to celebrate :)
We had an "Irish breakfast" for dinner.
Bacon, fried tomatos and mushrooms, eggs and soda bread. And we also had "champ" wich is potatos and green onions It was pretty good. but I think I am going use it as a base for cheesy broccoli soup.



































This is how Xavier occupied himself while we were making cookies, eating all our yummy spring strawberrys :)