Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day 2011



For dinner the kids helped me plan a special romantic meal. We drank out of wine glasses (which the kids were super excited about), had a candle light dinner with chicken cordon blue, broccoli & cheese, rolls and rice. For dessert we had chocolate dipped strawberries and chocolates. This was the first Valentine's day in our red kitchen. Doesn't it look good with all the Valentine decorations? 2.14.11

Happy Valentine's Day 2011




Valentine's fun didn't stop at breakfast, we had a festive lunch as well. Pizza with heart shaped pepperoni and strawberries cut into heart shapes. Wash that down with some red Kool-Aid and it is a pretty special day. To top the whole day off, Grandma Mary was here to celebrate with us. She brought cards and candy for the kids too. 2.14.11

Happy Valentine's Day 2011




What better way to start off the day of love than with pink, heart shaped, pancakes? Every year Michael and I make Valentine's for the kids. This year Dominic got a flaming heart from mom and a Spiderman heart from dad. Isabella requested "lots of hearts" for her Valentine, the one from dad is on the left and mom on the right. We topped off breakfast with candy from our boxes of chocolates. 2.14.11

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Why I love home schooling


Home schooling can be incredibly challenging, frustrating and rewarding. Some days I wonder if I am doing the right thing and there are days like today when I know when I love the results! We started our morning as we always do: breakfast, daily chores, prayers and then all the subjects (reading, poetry, phonics, language arts, science, history, spelling and writing)...at least the ones for today. Dominic worked on his phonics and reading and then I went up stairs and left the kids to play.
Dominic is always so anxious for Bella to get done with lessons so they can play together. He is so sweet always asking "when is Bella going to be done? I want to play with her." Since she got through her main work so fast this morning she gets a break until after lunch before we read books and do extracurricular activities like art or games. Some days she burns through her work (like today) others she drags it out until 4pm! Needless to say Dominic was thrilled.
After watching the kids run up and down the stairs I asked what they were up to. They then told me that they were setting up a store. They had all the play money that we use for math lessons and they had marked price tags on books, toys and games and they had set them all up around the school room on the desks, couch and table. Bella had on a name tag to let you know that she was the cashier and Dominic was quite happy putting items in his cart and paying his bill. This lovely learning game went on for about a hour and a half. Then the items were all bagged up and the kids decided that they were going to go on a airplane to have a vacation. They took all their items and packed them in suitcases, including packing clothes to wear on their trip. It was so cute hearing the kids agonize over which color shirt to pack or which shorts. I guess they are going some place warm. They then made an airplane out of chairs and they got ready to board for their trip.
I love watching the kids play with such imagination and creativity. I know that this isn't a direct result of homeschooling but the fact that they had to opportunity together to do it is. The great thing is that it is only 1pm. They were so busy having fun they didn't even stop for lunch until now.
I am off now to pack some airplane snacks for the stewardess to pass out during the flight. I know that there will be days that I am frustrated and wondering why in the world God chose this vocation for me....hopefully I will remember days like today and smile and thank God that I had the opportunity to see that children are the greatest miracle I have witnessed and that I am so lucky to be part of his plan.2.8.11

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Super Bowl Fun


Our tradition for super bowl really doesn't revolve around the game since we rarely even know what teams are playing. It is all about he commercials and the mass amounts of snack food. Here is a picture of our spread from this year. Super fun! 2.6.11

Friday, February 4, 2011

Kitty Valentine



Dominic really wanted to make a Valentine box that looked like Krypto our pet cat. Here is his end result. He is so super proud of his creation. 2.4.11

Valentine's Box Winner



Last year after the St. Margaret's Valentine's party Isabella devised a plan to create "a cool robot box" and a few weeks before the party she started constructing blue prints for the box. She and her dad spend almost 3 hours working on the project trying to make her vision a reality and here is the end result. Her first place prize was gift card to Wal-Mart. 2.4.11

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Return of the Squirrel: year 3


Yet another year for our pet squirrel: Pizza. All it takes is a big snow to bring him back to our back door. He puts his little paws on our sliding glass door and bangs until someone brings him something to eat. This year he must have been really hungry because when I opened the door and started to put my hand out to give him some food he couldn't wait for me to my hand out all the way. He bit me. Luckily it didn't break the skin so I don't need to get tested for rabies. :) Here is a picture of him eating some nuts. Click here and here for previous stories of pizza. 2.3.11

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The year of the "Blizzard"


The weather man said that we might be lucky to get a total of 8 inches of snow. This was a relief to me after the non stop snow and ice we had last year. But as always, the weather man was sooo wrong since we have had a ton of snow already this year 36.4 inches! February 1st of 2011 is the first time the kids have heard "blizzard" in our area. In honor of this exciting event we created a snow tent and had our history lesson inside it while we ate short bread cookies and popcorn. We even ate dinner in the snow tent. Michael worked from home for two days due to the road conditions. It was fun having him around during the day, even if he was working. Unfortunately the blizzard never got so bad that we couldn't see across the street (which my children really wanted) but it was still fun. The kids pretended to be part of the Ingall's family and talked about "The Long Winter" and all the blizzards that Laura had to endure. When it was all over Dominic said "I wish we could have another blizzard, they are fun!" of course they are ...when you live in a warm house and play in a snow tent all afternoon. 2.1.11