The Flag Goes By

How Lucy Enjoys The Trampoline

Enjoy the bit of drama there at the end from Anna. Be assured she was absolutely fine.

Windy Nights

Anna just finished memorizing her first poem of 1st grade.  Windy Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Peak Into Our Science Lesson

 Benjamin is studying Botany this year and one of the first lessons he had was to better understand Taxonomy, or how scientists break down and classify different organisms.

His job was to collect a variety of shoes (and bonus....organize the breezeway in his quest).

On the chart he then decided what main groupings or Kingdoms he would use to classify the shoes.

sneakers, boots, crocs, sandals

 And to put the shoes into piles depending on those Kingdoms.

breaking them down further...into smaller groups.

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order

 A job well done!

The Fruits Of Our Labor

The first of several batches I hope.  I am picking and processing as they come

A Tooth and a Miracle!

****disclaimer: I just got a new camera and my already poor photography skills are made so much worse due to it

Anna lost her first tooth today. I doubt anyone has ever lost a tooth to as much cheers and congratulations as this girl received!!  She has been talking about it a mile a minute ever since and was very excited about a visit from the tooth fairy.

We carefully stored the tooth in a tiny little miniature cup with plans to put it into a ziplock to store under pillow.  While I was at soccer practice with Ben I am not sure exactly what happened, but it sounded like she took the tooth from the cup, put it in a ziplock herself and then went out to sit in the grass to wait for me to get home.

When I pulled in the driveway I found a very frantic and tearful little girl.  The tooth somehow magically fell out of the ziplock into the grass.  Wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I can only imagine it was a miracle that lead Claudio to actually find this tiny tiny little tooth in the grass after looking for about 20 minutes.

So Annabella is tucked safely into bed with her tooth tucked on her pillow.  And the tooth fairy should be here any moment!

School Day 1 - And Curriculum Choices

traditional first day of school breakfast: scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls

Why yes that is a toddler on the table driving us all insane!!

So day 1 of the 2015-2016 school year is over.  Ben and Anna worked steadily and got through their school work accurately and quickly...with nary a whimper for either of them.

Beatrice and Lucy on the other hand.  Whoa baby!  They seriously may not make it through this school year alive.  There was much screaming, complaining, wailing, peeing in pants, and demands.  I am considering velcro and duct tape for tomorrow.

So our curriculum choices for the year.  We sort of loosely follow Mother of Divine Grace as our backbone or jumping off point.  As you will see there are a lot of modifications though.

Annabella Grade 1 -
Religion: St. Joseph First Communion Catechism as well as a few other little books we will read together
Math: Abeka Arithmetic 1
Phonics: Little Angel Reader B and Workbook B.  We are just finishing up this from last year and will soon be moving to C.
Poetry: recommendations from MODG syllabus
Handwriting: Writing Our Catholic Faith Gr. 1

Benjamin Grade 3 -
Religion: St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 1
Math: Singapore Primary Mathematics 3A and 3B
Language Arts: Primary Language Lessons
Poetry: Recommendations from MODG 3rd grade syllabus
Latin: Prima Latina
Science: Exploring Creation With Botany with the Junior Notebooking Journal
History: How Our Nation Began along with a long list of biographies and living history books that you can find on the MODG website or in the syllabus
Handwriting: New American Cursive

School All Ready to Begin a New School Year 8/10/2015

It is certainly not the most glamorous.  Or even Pinterest worthy.  But it is our little corner of the house where school happens.  We are about to embark on a new school year.  Anna is in 1st grade and Ben in 3rd.  I will hopefully get to sharing our curriculum choices soon.  I am excited and ask, in your charity, to please pray for another successful year for us.

The Book of The World

Ben and Anna have been enjoying writing, illustrating, and "publishing" (adding binder clips) their own books.Anna created this one today and I just thought it was wonderful.

The Book of the World

Adam and Eve in the garden by the apple tree with the serpent hanging down.  See the apple in Adam's hand?

Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell

Moses and the Ten Commandments

On Lent Christ is Dead on the cross. On Easter alive.

An Easter egg

This cracks me up.  They always create a barcode on the back of the books.

Wood Delivery

We had three cords of wood delivered the other day.  We heat the house in the winter with the wood stove as our main source of heat.  Last winter was the first time we did this and it worked out very well overall.  It also gives the kids some real and useful work to do just about all year long.  Cutting, moving, splitting, hauling, stacking....getting enough wood prepared for the winter is an all year project.

Little Robot Giveaway!

If you head over to Ben Hatke's blog you can enter for a chance to get a copy of his new book Little Robot.  My kids LOVED LOVED his Spacegirl Zita series.

Jolly Raffle Giveaway for Little Robot

How Does Your Garden Grow...

In an effort to get back to posting more regularly I thought I would post some simple garden photos.  The lack of posts had been gnawing at me because the kids so love looking back at what they were up to a year or two or three ago....And here nearly 6 months have gone by with nothing posted.  A baby changes A LOT in six months!!!

Yarn Along - Just In Time For Spring

So it turns out that blogging isn't the only thing I stink at keeping up with!  Knitting too!!!  I started this Wee Balaclava in September or October and told Anna it would be done before it got cold....because it is a quick knit.  But with the baby not sleeping through the night until about two months ago my evening knitting time just wasn't happening.  Nothing ruins motivation like lack of sleep.

Well little Lucy finally started sleeping through the night (and as a side note.  We just went cold turkey...and where I assumed this would mean weeks and weeks of her screaming for hours every night.  It was nothing like that.  She whimpered/cried maybe 30 minutes one night..and maybe 5 minutes the next night and DONE.  She has slept through the night ever since.  And still loved us in the morning) and so I finally finished up this hat just in time for Spring.

I made one for Ben as well but this one came out so much better.  There was a confusing bit of the pattern to get the stitches right around the face and it was much easier to figure out and do correctly second time around.  Now I am tempted to tear Ben's out and redo it.....maybe this Fall LOL....

What I am reading:  33 Days to Morning Glory, Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan's book), and The Devil in the White City

If you are interested in the pattern it is free on Ravelry.  Search for "Wee Balaclava".  For more yarn alongs check out Ginny's blog, Small Things.

Feeding Tube Awareness Week

It is the 5th annual Feeding Tube Awareness Week!  I haven't participated in Feeding Tube Awareness Week for a while....mostly because we are tube free and so I forget!  To check out posts from the 1st and 2nd annual awareness weeks click those links.  And if you want to see the post about removing Anna's tube click here.

 Well here she is...a vibrant and very healthy 5.5yr old.  She is in Kindergarten and learning to read.  She is full of life.  She loves her brother and sisters. 

She is full of spunk, but sweet and selfless.

She loves her dance class and her friends at Little Flowers.

I am here to tell all you mommas out there that there is life after the tubie.  After the diagnosis.  After the never ending doctor appointments.....and the accompanying bills.  Annabella is still a tiny pixie weighing in at 32lbs, but she is healthy.  She eats.  She thrives.

I just showed Anna a picture of her tummy with her tubie and she said, "ohhh I miss my tubie.."  When I asked her why she didn't really know.  But I think I understand.  For over two years her tubie defined her in a way and it sustained her.  There are things I miss about those times too.  And we certainly have more than one family joke about those days.  Now we laugh about pump beeping malfunctions in the middle of the night.