Lara's Lair

Xaviers birthday, new year

2011-01-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

playdough

2010-05-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well I guess I forgot how these load, lol
so this is after we made the playdough

Serena was off on an adventure with her friend Emma. So I needed to do something out of the ordinary.

This is while we are mixing the playdough.
This time we used a no cook method.
It was nice that the kids could do it at the table
from start to finish, they loved mixing it with hands!

X with his yellow playdough :)
That is his favorite shirt.
If he sees it he has to wear it so we have to sneak it into the laundry.

adventures with dad

2010-05-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

Their Dad took them "fishing" monday afternoon. They loved watching these bluebirds coming in and out of their nests.
Serena found a lizard . The boys would have brought it home to me, she just gets it in a picture, lol. the birds nest are on the bottom of an overpass, lined up.

outside fun

2010-05-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

The baby you don't recognize is a friends DD.
We know them from church so when he transitioned from being a sahd to being employed it seemed like a good idea for her to come here and it is working out nicely : )
The girls really love having a little girl to dress up and dote over and Xavier is relived to have some of the attention he is used to receiving divided up :)

This is an activity that I am sure will be repeated lots this summer. Everyone loves it including Mommy who finds sitting by the pool very relaxing .

S is helpng J put on her dress up shoe.

This is us planting sunflower sproutsand that will be the only record of us planting

them because they quickly disappeared. Moles? birds? aliens? The mystery continues.

spring

2010-04-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

take out the papers and the trash..........

2010-04-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Iris's birthday

2010-01-31T23:14:00.000-08:00

more X's birthday

2010-01-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

Xavier enjoying a piece of birthday cake,well he really just enjoyed the frosting :)

I have been told that this is what brothers do when they get together as young men.
Ricky is on track to be the tallest and he couldn't
be more pleased.

All the kids

2010-01-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

We took these on Xaviers birthday

2010-01-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

my girls in the snow christmas day.

all bundled up and ready to go. the second picture is them before I said , hey you guys dont have to go you know. you look like I am making you go out

My little Rissy.
She loves to pretend so much.
the ponys are a gift from her brother Joe.
I told him He could get her two of just about anything and she would be thrilled to have them talking and playing in no time at all. :)

christmas 09

2010-01-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely christmas!

The girls with their stockings.

The girls getting into the stockings :)

more christmas eve

2009-12-28T05:57:00.000-08:00

hanging out after our christmas eve dinner.

christmas dinner

2009-12-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

having a little fun with static electricity :)

25 days of crafts

2009-12-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

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

St. Patricks day

2009-03-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Dads Birthday

2009-03-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Serena and Iris making Their Dad a cake, pineapple upsidedown cake as requested.
What a fun cake to make!

The girls made their Dad some cards :)

The cake came out great and he loves it :)

winter blahs

2009-03-04T00:27:00.000-08:00

I realized that I haven't posted anything except Iris's birthday in February and that actually happened in January.
The middle of winter isnt that exciting around here I guess. We have been doing lots of school.
Serena is reading and loving it :) Math is fun and I am so glad that she likes it. We started Spanish and that is also neat. We took a Spanish/English dictionary we have and looked up things around the house and labeled them, that is a really good way to learn the names of things. I just had to start doing school with Iris because she was quite unruly if she had nothing to do while I was doing school with Serena, so I have been printing out alphabet books for her to color a different letter everyday and we are going to collect all 26 to read to her as she is learning the letter sounds. When I do math with Serena I give her one of the preschool math readiness sheets froma book that I had lying around and she likes that. We just finished a unit on money and that was fun because I could give her a handful of pennies to count and stack and then They both love to play store, so my house is not only labeled with spanish words many things also have price tags and everything is under $1, lol.
The picture above.....Xavier was turning the tv off and on and the volume up and down while anyone was trying to watch so I had the great idea to put the toy boxes in front of the TV to keep him from being able to reach the buttons worked great for a couple weeks. There he is sitting inside the toybox and soon he will scooch up and turn the tv on or off or the volume up or down.:) We have been having Serena take him far down the hallway everytime he does it hoping that this will serve as some kind of "natural consequence" that would disude him, He is unphased.But sometimes he gets distracted on the way back into the living room which gives us a break for a bit :) Spring is coming and hopefully that willmean more posts.

Iris is three

2009-02-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

Iris's Big day was the 28th :) (of january)
The day was very exciting for her because we had a big snow and her older brother came and took her and Serena and Dad sledding. No pictures of that, Mom didn't go and no one wanted to be responsible for the camera in the snow; ) But she had a great time, but so great she came home and fell asleep before dinner and presents and cake! We had to send Kyle, Jordon and Ricky away without eating any cake.
When Iris did wake up She opened her presents,
she is wearing one of them in the picture to the left.

Here she is having her cake, in the middle of the night. You may notice that before Mommy was up and ready to sing happy birthday some girls helped themselves to a piece of the cake, or two.

Iris requested a strawberry cake, which I managed to deliver with no red dyes, woohoo!

Eagle days

2009-01-19T03:50:00.000-08:00

The kids and I enjoyed a presentation at the nature center about eagles today. Serena took these great pictures of the bald eagle.
Her name is phoenix and today she was quite vocal, you see the picture of her with her beak
open she is calling loudly.

Before the presentatio0n the kids got to hang out and play with the nature exhibits.
Xavier is holding a baby possum

Iris is loving a red fox.

Serena is holding a cardinal, one of several birds that she held. She is still so very interested in animals and how to care for them, she wants to be a zoologist who lives on a farm when she grows up :)

faces I love

2009-01-18T01:15:00.000-08:00

random pictures of my littlest ones

Red belt

2009-01-18T01:11:00.000-08:00

Serena has moved up to Ninja red.
next is black and then its on to the big kids class.

Owl prowl

2009-01-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

Our local nature center had an owl prowl last weekend. we bundled up and went into the woods to see if we could find an owl, no luck but thats ok because the zoo brought owls for us to look at :)
We got to see a screech owl, a bard owl and a great horned owl, pictured.
Serena impressed the presenter with her question, "do owls have sticky feet?"
I didnt know what she was talking about
but the presenter did, " lots of raptors have tiny little nubs on the bottom of there talons that helps them to grip prey she explained, but owls do not have this feature probably because their prey is rarely wet, or wiggly after the initial grab."
We had a good time.

our x baby is one !!!

2009-01-18T00:48:00.000-08:00

The girls assisted making this cake and they picked the flavor
, carrot :) yumo

He cant wait to dig in.

he agrees, YUMO

I think he looks so angelic in this picture, I barely see the frosting mess :)

Serena helps Xavier open his presents

Kyle and Jordon help Xavier get into his presents.

cookies and hot chocolate

2008-12-31T11:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve we made sugar cookies to leave for santa. Kyle came over and helped.

This is the face of a girl who has been eating red and green sprinkles right from the jar :)

Serena didn't feel well all day, but we were glad she joined us for some decorating and hot chocolate.

Kyle helping Serena with her cookies.

Ricky's friend Tara came over too.

She helped Iris make cookies.

Iris decorating a cookie

what we left for santa :)

christmas cookies 1

2008-12-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

Serena was sick this christmas eve :(
but that meant that my helper for making cookies is Iris:)

She and I had alot of fun, I had to keep my eye on her though because she kept wanting to take bites :) It reminded me of making a birthday cake for ///////////gabe when Serena was two .She was helping me frost it but she was taking her butter knife and licking it clean almost faster then I could get the cake frosted :) must be a two year old thing :)

dry ice

2008-12-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas eve and we found a box on our doorstep. Yummy beef kabobs from gramma
(thanks) and a homeschooling plus, dry ice.
We had a great time pouring water over it and watching the effects.

christmas tradition

2008-12-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

we only have a few traditions so far, adding more every year, but letting each child buy an ornament for the tree was something I thought we might have to forgo this year but happily when we went to w/m I saw many of them were just a dollar. Maybe I was wrong about how much they have been in the past but
i was thinking they were 2-4 each. any how I was so glad we found them :)
I picked Xavier's its a little hard to see but it is a clear prism with pictures of snowflakes in the middle. apparently its delicious ;)

Serena wanted a" disco ball" hmmm how does she even know the phrase disco ball, I am not sure, but I love the ornament.

Iris picked this old fashioned looking one. A bell with a bow. it reminds me of my grandmothers antique ornaments.

Here is group photo. Rickys are the ice skates
He is camera shy :) I put Xaviers on a piece of construction paper because it all but disappears on the table.

turn my back for a minute

2008-12-28T23:14:00.000-08:00

look what became of my little boy!!

oh what a mess

who ever could be responsible for dropping flour all over her little brothers head?

She looks so cute and innocent doesn't she,
unfortunately the evidence says otherwise ;)
Mommie just cant turn her back!

Breaking news

2008-12-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

While I was working on the gingerbread houses post, Serena lost her first tooth :)
She is excited to be getting a visit from the toothfairy!!

gingerbread houses

2008-12-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

WE had a nice time making gingerbread houses.
This is serena as Jordon, Kyles friend :)

Getting ready to assemble.
I just didnt have the time to make real gingerbread, maybe next year, but we really enjoyed using graham crackers.

KYle and Jordon came over to help the girls build houses. I am very glad that they did.

Kyle asked Serena what style house would you like? modern? Victorian? hee hee, "I want a castle " she said. uh oh

they set to work

Ricky is busy working ona more traditional stlye house.I was impressed with his knowledge of gingerbread house making. He knew how to put supports in so he could make a nice tall house.

Jordon helps Iris. She is very patient with our Iris who is a little more interested in eating the candies then constructing a house.

I think its great!

A close up

Now here is Ricky's finished house.

Serena gets a castle :) good job Kyle.

tree decorating

2008-12-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we decorated the tree.
Iris had a great time discovering all the ornaments and trying to get them to hang on the tree. She isnt much taller then Xavier so many of the ones she hung were taken down by Xavier as soon as she turned her back to get a new ornament :)

This is Xaviers first Christmas. He was very surprised to see this tree being brought in and eyed it suspiciously until we started putting ornaments on it, now he likes it :)

Serena is getting so big. She is into more then just getting the ornaments on she wants them to be just so.

She also wants to decorate other places in the house. here is what she did around the computer.
thats my chatroom where I do housework races with my fly-friends :)

This is the village my grandmother made.
I set it up but Serena said that it was missing people and asked if she could add some, I think its a nice touch.

and there they are. I tell you , geting picture of the three of them looking at the camera is almost a christmas miracle

gingerbread men

2008-12-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

We had fun making chain gingerbread men :)
we have our tree to decorate today pictures soon.

Xmas coutdown

2008-12-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

WE made an advent wreath of sorts.
The girls painted toliet paper tubes that had been cut in half. then we glued then to a piece of posterboard . a cotton ball was placed in each and then a a couple of pieces of candy to be had each day til christmas eve.
the original directions didnt call for the pieces of construction paper, but we had to have numbers :).

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

We had a very happy thanksgiving. We went to our local UU church and had dinner with some of the members and guests. The weather was an unseasonable 60+ degrees so we played in the
"backyard" while we waited for dinner to be ready.

Xavier trying out walking in the crunchy leaves.

Kyle and Ricky, poor boys were starving but they didnt complain to much. They kicked around a soccer ball . one of the members asked about school and expressed surprise when she found out Ricky is 4 years younger then sophmore is college Kyle, much to Kyles chagrin and much to the delight of Ricky. Its mainly because they are the same height and I am predicting that it wont be all that long til Ricky will be taller.

Serena swinging. She likes to dress up for all occasions. this is a cute little gingerbread man
dress.

Iris didnt want to dress up this day, she is still a cutie pie .

Tired of playing outside they took advantage of the chalkboard wall in the preschool room.

Our new friends. I am so glad that they had this dinner. It gave me a chance to get to know a few members better which was nice. We have been going to the UU church for a few month now and we really like it.

pinata

2008-11-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

We were going to make a Pinata to celebrate thanksgiving but it ended up being a decoration
because we just didnt have the heart to smash it up ;) truth be told, I ended up doing most of the crafty stuff and Serena glued things on and I ris lost interest about 2 seconds after the pictures of her and serena paper mache ing the ballon were taken. Serena and I did have a nice time sitting at the table and talking while we put the turkey together and that is really what I want anyway.

look whos walking

2008-11-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Xavier is really taking off now. today is the first day that he has walked across the room. In the video you will see he would have passed serena up and kept going, if she hadn't wanted to hug him so badly :) oh , not long now and he will be running around with his sisters.

Fall Fun

2008-11-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

Serena and Iris had a blast today jumping in leaves. It brought back lots of fun childhood memories for me, seeing them run and jump and play in the leaves. Serena could rally get a running start and jump in. Iris was a bit more
timid. Xavier was napping when we started, allowing mommy to spend a chunk of time racking leaves together for the girls , but when he did wake up we brought him out to join the fun.
We have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather, the girls hardly needed the long sleeves and jacket, it was close to seventy today. I am actually looking forward to the colder weather....... remind me of that in a couple months when i am waiting anxiously for spring :)

halloween

2008-11-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

Serena got to go trick or treating twice.
once with her Dad and Iris and once with this crew. Theres Jordan the kitty cat, Kyle aka monkey business, Ricky aka hobo who will work for candy, and James the big scary gorilla.
And serena, little Hannah Montana. Iris fell asleep before the big kids got here to take them
out . I thought it was nice they wanted to take her and she was thrilled.

baby antics

2008-10-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

hold on tight, crazy camera angles and movements. Serena is the filmographer and is still working on technique. I was doing Iris's hair when Xavier crawled over and took her..........film at eleven (or when you hit play)
in the beginning Serena turns the camera all the way around to look at it and see if its working, lol
and then when it gets funny the camera starts shaking wildly because she is laughing.

gramma visits

2008-10-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Gramma came to visit and brought halloween treats. She gave Serena the wig that completes her Hannah Montana ensemble.( Actually she got the whole costume , thanks gramma) She brought Iris a couple of withes hats which she loves despite her declining to wear one for the photo ( two year olds, what can you do?) gramma on the other hand is much more cooperative :)

Jesse's birthday

2008-10-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

The Birthday boy, Jesse.
We had a great time cwlwebrating his 5th birthday.

Knights !

2008-10-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Ricky is playing football for the Knights. He has been having a great time. He is right on the line so he can play for Jv and V so he plays for both.
Its been a really good experience for him and look at this I got not one but two pictures of him to put on my blog with very little grumbling on his part.

luna moth?

2008-10-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

We got caterpillars from a nice lady at the springfield nature center on "bug o rama" night.
she said they were luna moth caterpillars, and a google search seemed to confirm this. we fed the caterpillars and waited patiently once they retreated into cocoons and one morning we awoke to find a beautiful moth, not however the moth we expected, a luna moth is described as light green and has a fancy tail on its bottom wings.
I really must find the womans name who gave us the caterpillars and ask her about this, dont hold your breath :)

poor daddy

2008-10-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

thought this as hilarious, look at how xavier has fallen asleep with his foot right up on daddys shoulder, lol. and my camera is awesome at taking night shots, that room is really dark, just the tv and no lights. I am lucky the flash didnt wake everyone

football practice

2008-10-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

this is us killing time waiting for football practice to be over. only seconds before the girls were whining and crying about being cooped up in their carseats but snacks to the rescue :) Serena is munching on moms own trail mix (cheerios, raisins and peanuts, while Iris got the Toms hot fries.

Mr. X enjoys just watching the game, lol, well thats what it looks like but really I doubt thats what he is looking at.

and this is just a cute picture, imo.

music lesson

2008-10-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

Serena is teaching the little ones how they can make "music" by banging on anything :)
the washer and dryer are very satisfying to
bang on because they make such a beautiful noise.
at least it is something they can enjoy together :)

discovery center visit

2008-10-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Xavier and Iris enjoyed the under 5 room while serena and Gabe went to the immersion theater.

spending a little time building.

Xavier has a snooze :)

Someday I will figure out how to upload these pictures in the order I want them ;)
Here Gabe and the girls made an arch bridge, even though it looks like they deconstructed one.

The girls had great fun with this. a metal wheel spinning, they tossed different items on it to see how they spin and react.

farm park visit

2008-09-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T01:06:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-20T02:25:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-09-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

visiting 2

2008-09-08T02:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

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) :)

mystery picture

2008-09-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

There I am yakking on the phone in the background, so how come I don't know who took this picture or when ?? I had to post it though because His face is just so darn happy and cute,
Its like he doesn't mind that his mommie is obviously procrastinating getting him dressed :)

last pictures of zoo

2008-08-27T02:20:00.000-07:00

Whew we took allot of pictures this day
Iris is feeding the fish.

A tuckered out Xavier . I am glad that he is sleeping in Daddies backpack, I wasnt sure that he would.

A more alert moment for X-babier :)

Me and my girls, Iris reluctant to sit for more then a second, that's 2 1/2 for you :)

zoo part 3

2008-08-27T02:09:00.000-07:00

We love to visit the misters at the zoo :)
The droplets of water sit on your hair til you rub them in and they look like snow or ice in your hair
well.........

For some it looks more like a head of gray hair, hee hee.

The girls enjoy playing at the small water activity.
The water jumps up out of the holes in the ground. lots of fun games can be played, kick the water, slap the water, look into the hole til the water surprises you, lol, thats a favorite

Iris loves playing in this and squeals with delight

I am working on tricking Iris into looking at the camera, I did pretty good, say her name and press the button at the same time so when she looks it will be clicking already. now to capture the smiling face

zoo,part 2

2008-08-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

Xavier's turn to try on the junior zoo keeper hat.
I don't think we have ever put a hat on him before. must be a weird thing for a baby.

What is this thing they put on my head??

I would really rather you gave it to me so I can chew on it for a while. speaking of chewing, 8 months now, 0 teeth! I can hardly believe it,
I have never had a baby go this long without getting a tooth. I was bemoaning this fate to my mother, and she said my older brother didn't get a tooth til he was over 1 year .

outing to the zoo part 1

2008-08-25T00:43:00.000-07:00

What a great way to end the day ;)
JUst as we were leaving the zoo Daddie found
these two peacock feathers. The girls were thrilled.

I really like this picture of Dh and me
came out really nice, and there is a sweet little
something that makes it extra special :)
It is also extra special because serena took the picture, she is getting to be quite good at taking
pictures.

stopping for a lunchbreak, they have really cute
kids meals that come in the hat Serena has on her head.

insect o rama

2008-08-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

the springfield nature center had an "insect o rama" event this evening. lots of games. I this one the children are pretending to be ants getting ready for winter. they are passing bits of food (tennis balls) using tongs emptying one basket and filling another.

This one looks like fun, I didnt get a whole lot of info about it (trying to keep my eyes on Iris )
but I do know that she is being a dung beetle rolling
dung along.........eeww.

In this game Serena went through the life cycle of a butterfly first chomping some leaves, the going into a chrysilis, emerging as a butterfly,laying eggs and then flying away :)

Here are my girls being babybluebirds

working hard on a craft project. They really enjoyed coloring and chatting with the nice lady assisting with this craft. She asked Serena about school and when she found out that we were homeschoolers she offered me a little advice on teaching kids to read, make labels for everything in the house, I have heard that before but hadnt thought about doing it lately, think i will. oh she was a kindergarten teacher years ago.

Here is Irises finished project. Serenas will be up soon, she got tired of coloring and asked to finish it at home.

Studying insects :) Iris loves butterflies

Serena likes dragonflies best these days. this was a neat exhibit, they had the tray of insects projected on a screen above so the kids could see.

Serena looked for insects in the wood that they must have brought in from outside.

My little wanderer, sigh.
I was surprised that she took off a couple times.
right into the crowd and she out of site. I have always been opposed to those child leashes, but if this keeps up I would certainly reconsider.
she is cute as a button though isn't she :)

There was alot more neat stuff that I didnt get photographed. If your local checking out these free activities at the nature center is well worth the effort, even with a wandering 2 1/2 year old.

adventurous dinner

2008-08-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

Expanding our pallets, we tried a curry for dinner tonight. I am not sure how authentic the recipe is,especially since I got it from "miserly moms" , lol, but it did have curry as an ingredient and thats somthing that we as a family had never tried. I remember that my brother had a girlfriend in high school and the two of them made dinner for our family and used curry, I loved it, others in the family not so much. I was unsure how it would be recived, but I am happy to report everyone liked it. It was meatballs in a curry sauce, and then a tray ( the same monkey tray) of condiments; raisins,coconut,pinapple,picles,hard boiled eggs and peanuts. The girls loved being able to pick their
own .

After dinner Litle X was worn out and lounged with Dad

2008-08-19T09:45:00.001-07:00

this weekend we had a barbaque :) Gabe and the girls pretended that we were bbqing snake steaks. the weather was really gorgeous, in the 70s and not very humid, not really typical august weather in mo so we were very glad to take advantage. I think I am going to buy an additional grill. I watch too much food network and especially Bobby Flays grilling shows and I want to try grilling all sorts of things! Grilled eggplant for instance, mmmmmmm.

cicada

2008-08-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/pests/g07259.htm
Here is something that every MO kid knows about, a cicada shell. We learned all about them at the link above.

big day for Xavier

2008-08-19T09:27:00.001-07:00

The bumbo seat used up its usefullness, he started climbing out of it too, boys, lol.
I had Ricky go up to the attic and bring down out attach to the table high chair ( thanks Ricky, I will be getting a picture of you on here soon, bowahahaha) X resisted getting into the chair at first but after he was in and given a few cherios
he loved it. He likes sitting with us during dinner
and I dont know but I think he realizes that he is at the head of the table and enjoys that too;)

Rickys freshman orientation

2008-08-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

The girls and I accompanied Ricky to his freshman orientation bash at Parkview high school on the 14th.
The girls got to get their faces painted, always a big hit :)
Serena chose a kittycat and Iris a butterfly
then we ate junk food :)
Ricky is absent because he is avoiding pictures at the moment, hmmm, maybe not so much the pictures as moms with cameras, lol. I will get him very soon though, bowahahaha

Kyle visits

2008-08-19T09:11:00.001-07:00

We got a rare visit from big brother Kyle last week. He is starting his sophomore year at MSU
the end of this month. College kids are busy busy busy I guess. At least Xavier isnt crying every time Kyle looks at him like he was last month :)

Park day

2008-08-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

We decided to head out to the park today.
The weather here has changed from oppressively hot to pleasantly warm. Serena is practicing her tree climbing. We have an apple tree in our back yard that her little friend eric scrambles right up but she cant quite do it yet. she has much more luck on this tree.

Iris loves to climb too but she sticks to the playground equipment

Serena ran into a friend from karate class, what a happy surprise :) they had a great time playing "word girl" Serena was wordgirl, the superhero girl with a great vocabulary:) and Henry was Dr. two brains, the evil villain who somehow has a mouse brain in addition to his regular one, lol.

Just hanging around, so I can take their picture

Me and my little boy :)
I didnt realize the sun was right behind me like that, but I like the way it came out just the same.

a big day for xavier

2008-08-09T22:31:00.001-07:00

His first haircut, at only seven moths old! It was looking straggaly. I hope that it is better, I had a hard time with the back especially because I cut it while he was asleep on my lap and his head was tilted to one side or the other. Dh says that it looks pretty good and thats all we really need :)

And then Xavier crawled . It's not like he hasnt been sccoting around but this was a real crawl which Dadie had to catch opn video : )

A BOX FROM GRAMMA

2008-08-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

The girls got a box from their gramma today:)
some new clothes, they are posing in :)
and a cool magazine about flowers and birds,always big hits around here. thanks gramma :)

avocado seeds and butternut squash soup

2008-08-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

We made butternut squash soup today, mmmmmmm its good :) having your kids help make food really gets the to eat just about anything, at least try it. the girls ate a bit of this and then said it was a bit spicy. I have to agree, i think i will cut down on the coriander next time.

We also planted an avocado seed. I guess it takes a long time for them to grow so we will have a plant to look after all winter. I am thinking that we will get some more and have a little garden
of sprouting plants all at different stages. life sciences :)

2008-08-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

We took it really easy this weekend. reason 1 being that we have had a few really full weekends and reason 2 we wanted to save on gas. We did tidy up the house quite a bit, yippeee :) .
and daddy took the kids, yes all three, in the backyard to play in the pool while mommy spent some time cleaning the kitchen yippeee again, lol. here are some pictures not from this weekend but fun just the same :).
LOL here is a video I am trying to figure out how the camera works, hee hee.

Sisters , thats a cute photo :) .

remembering grampa

2008-08-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

Serena asked to go to the cemetary and bring her grampa a picture, so we did. I find it interesting that she is the one who so often initiates our visits to the cemetery since she never even knew her grampa who passed away in 1994 about 8 years before she was born. She talks about him, asks about him and tells me that she misses him.
I have a bunch of pictures i really want to get in a scrapbook in memory of him, need to get to that sooner rather then later.
We were happy to see that they have added a monument for Vietnam vets since thats were my Dad served

Naked Ladies??!!

2008-08-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

We have these pretty flowers in our yard.
Someone told me that they are called "naked ladies" I guess because they have no leaves
on the stalks and are such pretty flowers.
anyway its fun to say , "look at the naked ladies!"
to the kids , and watch them laugh. :)

hide and seek

2008-08-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

first picture ; Serena being found by Iris and leaving her hiding spot

Second picture; Iris finding a place to hid while Serena counts.

:) It was pretty easy for Serena to find Iris ,LOL
but she played along and did a little searching.:)

a visitor

2008-08-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

the other day, we had a homeschooling lesson thanks to a visit from the plumber.
Nothing was wrong, just a yearly inspection to make sure everything was ok.
He did end up finding that the drain under the kitchen sink needed replacement and He also replaced the toilet due to a build up of calcium.
So the girls got to watch him do those two things and he was really nice about telling them what he was doing. He also crawled under the house to check out the pipes under there, the girls didn't go under but they stood outside the crawlspace entrance and asked him how things were going and warned him of spiders that were lurking here and there. After he left we read a book we have called "keeping clean" it is about hygiene but it also has a real nice illustration of what the pipes look like under a house and how water gets in and out of a house. the author is Vicki Hobbs.

fun fun fun

2008-07-31T01:45:00.000-07:00

Oh, Boy! I got a new toy. I finally took a bunch of stuff to "other mothers" (a local consignment sort of store) and look what I got, a bumbo. I plan to use it in lieu of a highchair since it takes up so much less room. I also have a chair that hooks to the table for when I want to let him get the experience of feeding himself, but this will be handy for all the feedings I need to help out with.
Its a little funny, I saw a boxed bumbo on the counter at "other mothers" and told the lady that I wanted it, and was ready to buy it sight unseen, but she said want to try him in it and lifted the lid.......... oh no! its pink!!!! I exclaimed." oh is that a boy" says she, grrrrrr, lol. I was truly considering getting it even though it was so unfortunately colored and weighing in my mind how upset his dad would be if I presented this as his boys new chair but the lady quickly had a conference with the owner and it seems someone had one on hold and hadnt come to pick it up.
whew!
Xavier seems to really enjoy sitting in it. I have even used it a couple times while i am fixing something in the kitchen, but that is dicey because he has a pretty good reaching range from that seat and he wants to get anything and everything in his reach.

slow news day

2008-07-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is super Hot here. We spent some time this evening playing in the pool.

Sunday at the discovery center

2008-07-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

WE recently bought a membership to the local discovery center
and WOW do they have allot to do. Today Serena got to play scientist and do an experiment.
She got to look at her strands of dna in a test tube. We had her swish water around her mouth for 30 seconds and then spit it into a test tube .next we added a sqiurt of soap and after a minute a squirt of alcohol, then, viola , strand of her dna could be seen floating in the test tube. next time i will get a picture of that. this time I had to let Dad take over so I could take care of Xavier for a bit. They also did a cheek swab and she got to see her cells under a microscope.

We found a whole floor that we didn't know was there.
It was around the world and they had lots of
neat stuff from different countries. The two we spent the most time at this week were Mexico and Japan. here is a picture of the girls and their Dad dressed in the Mexican dress up clothes.

Whats this a picture of a sombrero?
Oh , there's a baby under there! lol
Xavier enjoyed playing with the pretend food, but i think was a little confused by it, confused and disappointed. If you look at the hat pic you can see his toes sticking out :) I think its cute :)

Now we are in Japan. Iris is pouring tea for us all while serena looks on. And then Serena gets a turn. she has put on a kimono . Oh, and she remembered that last year we made bird nest soup for the Japanese festival celebration we have.

We had a great time :)

Little rabbit Foo Foo ; Redux

2008-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

I think it is so cute, Serena wants to change the little rabbit foo foo song.
for those unfamilar with the song.

"little rabbit foo foo hopping through the forest
scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head"
"
"down comes the good fairy and she says " little rabbit foo foo I dont like your attitude scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head. Ill give you8 three chances and if you dont behave, Ill turn you into a goon."
" so the next day, ....repeat from beginning

Serena heard this song a few times and then asked id we could re write
she wants little rabbit foo foo to learn his lesson and be good :)
so "little rabbit foo foo hopping through the forest , scooping up the field mice and kissing them on the head. down comes the good fairy and she says, little rabbit foo foo oh I love your attitude scooping up t6he field mice and kissing them on the head. I gave you three chances and you learned to behave so you wont ever be a goon! :)

just thought this was cute :)

2008-07-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

Excitment already!
We went out back so i could try to get a picture of the three kids
(semi successfully) wish i could get them to all look at me and smile at the same time :)
after giving up on that entirely we were about to go inside
When serena spotted a snake by her outdoor slide. we snapped a photo and went to the computer to identify it and found it was a western garter snake. Serena wants Daddie to catch it so she can pet it! I think it should just live out in the backyard undisturbed :)

2008-07-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Below is a picture of my youngest, Xavier.
I wish I had a picture of all my babies sleeping in my arms
like that, what a precious fleeting time it is when they are so
little they can be held and admired while they sleep.
It got me thinking that all these childhood moments
are fleeting and i ought to give recording them a try, thus our blog.