Uncle Philip is back in town

Well since I'm playing catch up on the last year I should clarify , he's been back for awhile. But after serving in the military for many years, he's still a novelty for the kids.

Timmy is convinced that, "uncle Philip is just a secret identity. He's actually Superman. We're just not allowed to know for our own safety." -Timmy

Mae and Liza love that through dating a really stylish, awesome lady, (Jessica) Uncle P. has access to horses!

Molly just loves to wrestle and play with him whenever she sees him.

I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him until he came back.

So all this combined, we're very sad that he's leaving for active duty again!!
However we are very proud of the sacrifice he and all our military make all the time. They are the real hero's of our country. Timmy doesn't realize how correct he actually is.

Kindergarten Graduation

Ok so,yes, she was already doing first grade work. But what homeschooled kindergartener isn't?!! Our amazing co-op offered a kindergarten graduation so we jumped right on board! And it was great as expected! Liza felt super special, and we all had fun. (Poor Daddy had to work though.) My favorite memory for this was the class had learnt a song in sign language, and I was mesmerized by their cute, small, chubby, arms, hands, and fingers singing out the words of the song.
And Liza was so excited to walk up and get her diploma, sigh. It's a long way until we do that again for high school, I can wait, no hurries!

Love that baby girl!!

We all have those days

As I sit here and try to catch my blog on our last year, I'm going through all these old pictures and remembering the funny stories that went along with them. They may not be all that funny to others, but they brought laughter into our home and need to be remembered. And that's why I'm playing catch up. Hopefully my kids will read this and remember these funny tales of themselves, and realize why moms is as crazy as she is.

This one particular day Mae was having a difficult time with her math work. Which I completely sympathize with. I've always despised math. The thought of doing it would make me cry as a child. So to try and not pass along those discouraging feelings to my daughter I was trying to make it fun, an Adventure! But no such luck. She had to relearn everything we'd already done.

She started laying her head dramatically on the table and moaning. Oh Boy! I know that feeling so well! So teasingly I started checking for a pulse, asking if she needed me to call math 911!

Carrying the joke on from there she drops to the floor and sticks out a droopy tongue. "Oh No!" I cried, "Math has killed my baby!" Lots of giggling and silly antics ensued. However after the mood had been lightened, she was able to clear her head and finish the work.

A suggestion to all homeschooling moms out there, make it fun. Make it light. Make it happy. The spirit of The Lord is a teaching spirit, and we love to learn. All of us, not only children learn more effectively in a stress free environment. If math stresses you out and makes you want to cry, Pray, laugh, breathe, and try looking at it from a new viewpoint.

My lesson from a silly seven year old. ;)

Joyschool Days

When Eliza was much younger a few of the moms from church came up with the great idea to have their own Joyschool. They invited Liza to join, so I looked more into it. I found out that the Joyschool program is a curriculum you can buy and it's a lot if fun! But my mom friends and I just implemented the basic idea of a once a week 'learning' play date. We've now had Joyschool for two years, Liza for two Timmy has done one.

For Liza it helped fill that social need she has to get together with her friends, to laugh, create, and play imaginary tales. But now that she's older most of those friends are in public school. So we've enrolled in a huge family homeschool co-op.

For Timmy he loved to hear from other teachers than me. But they were Mommies he was familiar with so he was completely comfortable at their houses.

I've dug up some pictures from this last year of Joyschool at our house. So many fun times!

Playing with apps

Yes I'm still a newbie with my iPad. So I've decided to play a bit. I don't think anyone reads my blog anyhow so this is entirely for my benefit. Lol!

I think as soon as I can get my pics from my camera to the iPad, I'll be back in business folks! ;)