Letterboxing

This is our newest find this fall (Letterboxing) and we are still going strong with enjoyment and challenges! Quite honestly. . . we LOVE Letterboxing. It combines several of our VERY favorite things to do. . . hike and seek! ;-D Seriously though, we love to hike, it's part of our regular routine, and we love to still engage in anything that is treasure hunting'esque (don't bother looking it up, I just made it up!). If you want to learn more about Letterboxing and/or find some boxes to go hunting for in your area, go to www.letterboxing.org. There are like 593 boxes in our state - incredible! Sometimes we decide to go hunt a certain area so we just log online and print off the directions or sometimes if we have a field trip we check to see what's in that area that we can hunt for while we're there - SUCH fabulous fun and so adventurous! Daddy and the boys are working on creating our own family stamp to use for logging when we find a box and for our personal logbook - I'll be sure to post a pic of it when it's all done. Some of you may be familiar with geo-caching and that is pretty much the same thing just with a GPS system, rather than a compass. Since we hike on a regular basis we really wanted the boys to be able to fully understand and utilize their compasses, plus they were a gift from their Grandma & Grandpa L for their birthdays, so we're putting them to good use! Boy are we racking up the miles on those babies! ;-D Anyways, check out the link and plan your own family adventures.

Family Photos

We took advantage of the extra hands and had them snap a pic of our family! :-)


My Dad and P, Daddy & I and the boys, my baby brother and his wife and daughter.

Vacation

This is my baby brother, D, and his adorable little daughter, C. He was home for leave from Iraq for a few weeks and we were able to spend time with him and his family at my Dad & P's.


You can see how much the big boys love Uncle D - they think he's "it"! :-)


Littlest man is a fish - who has no fear! We have an eagle-eye on him!


Just having fun!


They would stay in the water ALL day and night, if we'd let them!

Georgia's Surgery

Our big girl had surgery to get fixed and get her do-claws removed, all 4 of them. She has to wear this lovely contraption for about a week so her sutures will have a chance to heal and hopefully be removed then. Poor baby, but she still looks so cute! Our girl proudly weighed in at 78lbs - she's 6mo old! :-)

Another First - Tent Camping

Our 1st experience camping in a real-life tent! Look at how awake they still are. . . at 1:16am in the morning! We had just finished up a late-night hike the park offered (it was fun hiking in the dark with limited flashlight use), and we had the munchies! :-)


These are our very special friends - the F family, who we were able to enjoy this experience with. We love you guys!


Look at them all. . . hard to believe they're all 6 now! And even harder to believe we've been getting together for almost 5yrs! Look at our babies!


The big boys and I enjoyed this wonderful experience together while Daddy & littlest man enjoyed some 1:1 time and he got to accompany Daddy to the office - such a big boy!
I cannot state enough how much we enjoyed this trip and what a wonderful job the park did at putting this program together - we so enjoyed ourselves. And our family has had an RV for over 9yrs so we love the outdoors and enjoy camping but it was a neat experience to tent camp. . . we will be buying a tent next year for sure to add to our future experiences!

Reading Anywhere. . . Reading Everywhere

These shots really speak to the truth about where we read/learn/discuss/research - yep, anywhere and everywhere! ;-) Boy isn't that the truth?! I walked out to the garage as we were getting ready to go for a bike ride and the boys were getting their shoes on. . . well, I found them hanging out together on the freezer just reading away. The next day we were outside playing in the backyard and they went back in the house and brought books out onto the deck and sat and read there. Reading is just a normal part of our everyday activities. . . just like eating and breathing!

Firefighters Survive Alive

Oh my goodness, this shot is just priceless! It truly captures how they felt. ALL. DAY! They were hooping it up! And their fire fighter hats were intact until bedtime and we could barely get them off of them for bath time! ;-D


Today we had our much-anticipated field trip to Survive Alive and we were very excited. I coordinated this field trip for about 10 kiddos and everyone really enjoyed themselves. The wonderful gentleman (a retired firefighter)who helped facilitate this program set-up for us was so great with the kids and just plain amazing! There was a police officer who came in and talked with us about his role with the police department and about gun safety. Then we spoke with the firefighters about fire safety and then we took the Survive Alive tour which involves fire simulation in a home. This gave the kids all good experience to test the knowledge of what they had just learned regarding fire safety and what to do in case of a home fire. They all did a great job! We really enjoyed our visit there and we also got to visit the Firefighters Museum which had an old fire wagon - it was amazing to see! After our visit we went over to Daddy's office and donned our new fire hats and chatted about our exciting field trip and what we learned. God bless the firefighters who so selflessly protect us!

K'nex Creatures

Ours boys really love their K'nex and will build with them (or anything else for that matter) for hours. . . the possibilities are endless. This seems to be ds3's favorite building manipulative right now. . . I think because he really enjoys making little cute, funny-looking creatures and then naming them and telling us about each of them. . . very fascinating!

Spend or Save?

That was today's topic - spend or save? We were reading and this was what littlest man chose for his reading, so when I was done reading it out loud he told us what he would "spend" on and what he would "save" for. Apparently, he's saving for a plane. . . so he can fly us all to Hawaii! ;-D Hey, sounds good to us! lol

Performances

We were invited to a performance today. . . via personal invitation, which was hand-delivered. We were told to arrive at a precise time and then we would be guided from there. So of course, I changed into a nice skirt and was then escorted to a front row seat where we were given a lovely, healthy snack to munch on while we awaited the starting performance. :-)
We were then treated to a lovely play performance which was a story they had all created together (yep, this is where the tears start). Then each of the big boys took turns playing a musical solo for us on their instruments. . . so we enjoyed a piano performance, guitar singing, violin solo and then the show closed with a gymnastic performance by our littlest man. And did I mention all the lovely decorations they hand-created? It was incredibly sweet. . . something I will treasure and remember forever. I feel so blessed to be with them to enjoy all their creativity and to be a part of it all! I am a Mama whose heart is overfilled with joy! :-)

Today's Engineering

While I prepared breakfast, the boys engineered their own creation. . . a building with a secret hide-away. Secret passageways/hide-aways/compartments are "it" these days. . . they are so creative and the amazing thing is what they all come up with together. Someone will have an idea and they may start at one place and end somewhere completing different from where they originally anticipated. I could watch them for hours, literally. It's phenomenal what little ones will come up with when we supply the manipulatives and then just get out of the way! :-) (unless your assistance is requested of course - then ya jump right in!)

"Fireproof"

This is something that is very near and dear to my heart. . . we need to come together, in Christ, and help one another, share what we know, and encourage one another in this journey of marriage. I feel incredibly blessed that God chose me to be the wife to my wonderful husband - what a blessing he is to me and what an amazing father he is to our children. I am thankful to him, each and every day, for the effort that he makes to always provide for us. . . spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.

Let's reach out to another and share, support, uplift and encourage. . . the way God commands us to, in His name. Let's share the message of this coming movie! Please join me in praying for marriages across the world - for strength and God's direction and amazing blessings.

Afternoon Out

Today we headed over to Paradise Cafe to grab some lunch and then to round out our afternoon at the bookstore, choosing some new books. The big boys earn new gift cards based on the readers they get thru. . . then they get to take those and choose more books to devour! I love watching them carefully perusing the book isles and picking up and inspecting possible choices, it's such fun to watch during this process. Not only do they feel proud of their accomplishment and happy about their new gift card that is theirs to spend on what they choose, but they also get to use their math skills while figuring out how much they have to spend and what they can get with it. . . or how far they can stretch it! :-) Love, love, love the bookstore!

Shoe Thief Strikes Again

Shoe. . . shoe. . . oh shoe, where are you??? Uh huh, I'm wondering if any of you know the shoe thief as well? Does he come and visit your house too??? It is astonishing for me to think of how one actually loses a shoe. . . I mean seriously. . .I am very well organized, have taught (or that I had! ;-)) our boys how to be organized, and we even have a system in place. Yet somehow, we are missing a shoe! And truth be told, it's not just one shoe, nope. . . it's 1 shoe today for ds4, but ds2 and 3 have each lost a croc to the shoe thief over the last 6months. Pretty soon, we may have to start charging the shoe thief for all these great new shoes he's accumulating! ;-D Sooo today, our handsome youngest one was stylin' in his own kind of. . . hmmm. . . we'll say. . . fashion! :-)

Happy 15th Anniversary Babe!

We celebrated our super-fabulous anniversary by taking a little trip, just the 2 of us. . . for 4 wonderful, incredible, amazing days! WOW - did we have the greatest time! It's so easy to get bogged down with the everyday life stuff, and anyone who knows me understands how important I think it is to make weekly time for just you and your spouse, but getting away, truly away. . . well, it's just F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! Our 4 little men were in the best of care (my sis - thanks again Hun, you rock!) and had a wonderful time all of their own! :-) When you know your kids are in great care with someone who loves them, it's easy to relax and really enjoy your time away. So this little snipet of a pic is all you get. . . oh and the free advice to plan your own annual away-from-the-kids, just-the-two-of-you trip. . . the rest of our trip is well. . . Top secret! ;-D

1st Day of Co-op

Today marks a new day! The beginning of our co-op year, yay! And the boys and I are very excited as God has led us to a new co-op group this year - lots of new friends and new adventures await us. While we are year-round homeschoolers, our co-op group will follow a standard school year length and then break from classes for summer. Don't our little men look so big. . . and so handsome?! :-)

Birthday Festivities Come to a Close

Well, after about 6 straight days of celebrating (since they're 6, ya know!) with friends and family, our family headed back to their respective homes and we began to prepare for our 1st day of co-op! This pic is a true testament to how wound up and exhausted they were, all at the same time! ;-) The boys said to us several times over the past couple of days, "this is the BEST birthday EVER - can we do this EVERY year?!" Boy Daddy, what were we thinking?!

Birth Day. . .our babies are 6!

What a morning. . . full of laughter, giddiness, wide-mouth smiles, lots of hugs and kisses and LOTS of excitement! We arose bright and early and let the big boys open up their gifts before we hit the road for their birthday trip. Daddy and I had packed the night before so pretty much everything was loaded and ready to go - it was a nice, relaxed time spent just basking in the glory of their sweet littles faces and shouts of shear happiness. I love to treasure these moments. . . I can hardly believe our babies are 6 today. . . it seems just yesterday I was on bedrest, just hanging out gestating, eating 4000 calories a day and reading to them in the womb. . . how is it possible our babies are 6?! It just goes too fast. . .

Our big boys ask if we could take a birthday trip so, per their request, we headed to the amusement park of their choice where we had the BEST time! Daddy & I were so impressed with the park and their cleanliness and family-friendliness - it was simple and purely THE BEST place to spend the best day! :-) Thank you Jesus, for these amazing little boys you have lent to us!

Park Day Fun :-)

Early Bday Present Gets Delivered

They. Were. SOOO. EXCITED! It's hard to say who was more excited with the anticipation - the big boys or Daddy and I. ;-) We had told the boys that they would be receiving a gift, via delivery, before we left for their birthday trip. The suspense was such fun. . . well, for everyone except Daddy - he doesn't like to wait! I had the piano movers call me when they pulled into our addition and then I had the boys go sit on the couch in their playroom. They waited so patiently and it was wonderfully sweet to hear the excitement in their voices as they talked amongst themselves about what it could possibly be (a new 4-wheeler, maybe another puppy from Daddy, a HUGE remote control helicopter). . . oh my goodness, I could hardly keep from falling over on the floor with laughter just listening to them! lol The movers were awesome - they had it covered/wrapped and left it that way for the surprise. . . I had all 4 of them close their eyes and then the movers slid it into the designated place. . . and then aoilo - the screaming began! ;-) You can see in the 2nd shot when they opened their eyes - it was truly priceless! Yep, I think Daddy & I did good on this one! :-)

Another Tooth Gone

DS1 - and his new fabulous grin! :-)
Tooth #3 gone. . . and exactly 1 week before celebrating his 6th birthday - what a morning! His brothers are sooo excited for him, it's so sweet! :-) He is the only one out of the trio to have lost any yet and it's hard to tell who's more excited . . . him. . .or his brothers. And yes, of course I cried - but then those of you who know me well, probably already figured that. He was so cute - he said, "I know, you're crying because I'm growing up." (sniff/sniff) Yes my sweet son, it's bittersweet for Mama.

Leaf Pie. . . err, umm. . . Tree Pie

I had to laugh because as I was typing this new post to our blog, DS2 said, "Mom, it's not a Leaf Pie, it's a Tree Pie, " LOL - well, there ya go! :-) We were out doing our usual Nature Study and exploring and observing and then the boys were studying the big tree in our back yard. Well that turned into a discussion about what the tree eats and how it survives and how old it is (the big boys were sharing and teaching their youngest bro). . . and then came the question posed from DS3 - "What type of pie do you think the tree would like?" And this was the result! I must admit, I love just watching them and those sweet little wheels spinning. . . so incredibly creative!

Berry Picking

We awoke bright and early and headed out the door to go and do some berry picking! Today was the perfect day for it too, very overcast (looked like rain for the first couple of hours) and cool with a lovely breeze. And we pretty much had the orchard to ourselves (see the advantages of being early birds?! lol). We picked blueberries and raspberries. It's still a bit early for the raspberries so we didn't get a ton of them (we'll go back in a couple of weeks) but we ended up with a little over half of a flat of blueberries, so not bad for 4 little ones and a Mama! ;-) We picked and just enjoyed the incredible surroundings - they have a couple of lakes on their property and some woods and it's just amazingly beautiful. We did some berry picking and some nature studying all wrapped up together today! We will be making some blueberry jam with the blueberries, yummy!