Superman Room

Part of the fun of having a new room is getting to decorate it to fit the occupant. Dominic has had this giant Superman wall sticker for over a year (a gift from our neighbor) but we didn't have a space in the shared room to put it. Now that he has his own room Superman can finally be displayed! To earn his newly decorated wall he had to keep his room clean for 30 days. Amazingly he did that in just over a month. Here are some pictures of of the super room. Dominic even helped paint. The one of him sitting on the bed was taken right after we put up the sticker. He just sat there and stared at it for about 15 minutes. He really loves it! 3.18.11

TIme for a change of scenery

When we first moved into our house we were so excited to finally get to paint walls and make something our own. I really wanted a green bedroom. I had a vision of what "green" I wanted....and Michael had a totally different one. He was thinking green apple and I was thinking more sage. We talked it over and decided to go bright. It was fun and bright and perfect for a new home. I had a ball making curtains and a duvet cover to match our bright decor. Last summer we finally found a bed frame that we could both agree on..so we bought it. In honor of the new purchase we decided it was time to have a "grown up" looking bedroom. I have to say I was ready for something a little more subdued. So here we are painting the new calming blue walls. I LOVE our new bedroom. It is so tranquil and soothing ..don't get me wrong, lime was fun for a while but I feel like a grown up when I walk into my room now. We had to change the bed was facing so the photos are different angles comparing the before and after. Lovely isn't it? 2/2011

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We went up to celebrate Grandpa's 91st birthday. Happy birthday Grandpa. 2.20.11

First Happy, then...So super sad

Big week for Dominic, he learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. This is quite the accomplishment for our little 5 year old. He really just took off after a few tries. We are so proud. Of course with this new freedom comes risk. He was riding around our back driveway and lost his balance and landed face first on the concrete. His poor little face swelled up. Thank goodness he didn't break any teeth! 2.19.11

Hepner Family Visit

My friend from grad school, Michael Hepner was in the area for a presentation and he and his wife, Katie got to stop in and visit. It was great fun for all. The kids especially loved playing with his dog, Jack. They loved taking him for walks. 2.12.11

Finally Peace

Michael has had the blessing of having his own little room for the past 6 years. His office. He takes great pride in his decorating of this room and is just happy to have a little place that is his. That time has come to an end. We always knew it would when we found out that we were going to have a Dominic. So far the kids have been ok being in the same room but now we have reached the point where the both need their own space. For the sanity of the whole family. So this "office" will become Dominic's new room and the kids room will become Isabella's new space/piano room. I will post pictures when we have finished the new rooms. Right now we are just happy to have peace and quiet when it is bed time. The office is now relocated in the school room. It looks great and is very functional there. It feels a bit like we have played musical chairs with our whole house.

Happy St. Patrick's day

This year we tried something new for breakfast: green scones. I thought that the kids would be excited, but Dominic still brings up the year that we had green oatmeal as some super special day. I am not sure why he romanticizes something that was so easy! So after a breakfast of green scones he insisted on having some green oatmeal as a mid-morning snack. We of course washed it all down with green milk and later that night had corn beef and took a trip to McDonald's for a shamrock shake (it just wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day to Michael without a minty shake!) 2010, 2009, 2008, 3.17.11

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kitties are all grown up

Hard to believe that just a few months ago these sweet little cats could fit in one hand! Look how big they are now. 11.6.10

Fall Photo in the Leaf Pile

Nothing is more exciting in the fall than the giant leaf pile that the kids round up to jump into. Dominic had anticipation for weeks before the leaves started to fall. He just couldn't wait to rake. Here are some photos from the day in the leaves. 11.9.10

Oh-me, oh-my

12.11.10

My top 10 movie picks (ok more like 13)

I never really post anything that isn't about my family or friends but this week Michael and I have been talking about our favorite movies and what makes a movie fall into a "top 10" list. First of all, my criteria for a movie to fall into MY top 10 is that it has to be a movie that I can watch over and over and get entertainment out of it every time. So with that in mind it rules out movies that are scary or depressing (because why would I want to relive those feelings more than once for the sake of a movie experience?). Generally speaking I prefer movies that make me laugh and feel good. I love witty dialog and I am a sucker for a good RomCom. I also enjoy a movie that makes me cry if it has a good story and a good ending. I also love seeing movies that are about books that I love. All that known... here are my top 10 in no particular order.
1. Only You
2. It's a Wonderful Life (Still makes me cry every year)
3. Return to Me
4. Just Like Heaven
5. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
6. The Princess Bride (Such a classic both in movie and book form)
7. Ocean's Eleven
8. Knight & Day
9. The Bourne Identity (the book is 1,000 times better)
10. Count of Monte Cristo (Great book)
11. A Walk to Remember (Another great book)
12. Fools Rush In
13. Iron Man

Ok...so after I started doing this I realized that my top 10 was more like 13 ....that is ok right? I would love to hear your comments or hear about any movie suggestions that you could give. Our time to watch movies is pretty limited with our crazy schedule but I would love to have suggestions on what to put in our netflix cue!! Thanks.

Plowing the fields

When Dominic was born his Godparents gave him this blue and white poka-dot, microfiber, blanket. He has always loved it. As he got older he realized that it made patterns when you pushed cars across the fabric. He loves to get out his tractors and make tracks all over his blanket. He has been doing this for years and it makes me happy to see that he still loves to do it at age 5. I love the simplicity of it all. 1.17.11

Sledding Hill

Here are some pictures from our family sledding adventure. 1.16.11

Wipe out

We have a sledding hill at the park near our house. Every year we talk about going to it but for some reason it just never do it since we have a hill next to our house. This year we loaded up in the van and drove to the park and had a blast on the big hill. Dominic was even brave enough to attempt the steep hill on his own. Here are some pictures from his first big wipe out. Don't worry he was ok.

2010 Rewind

I am trying desperately to get caught up on my blog from 2010. Needless to say I have a lot to get caught up....going back all the way to September. So for January I will keep the new posts listed at the top and them put them in chronological order in February. I have added lots to December and November so make sure to check them out. As always I would love for you to leave a comment so I know that you were here. Thanks
Christina