Fun with Friends

Last weekend, the girls and I spent the night at my friend Teri's house. Both her husband and Jeremy happened to be out of town on the same night, so we thought we'd keep each other company:-)

We took pizza over for a very unhealthy dinner at my organic friend's house and she made us rice crispy treats later in the evening. The kids played a lot, we watched Little House on the Prairie and then the kiddos went to bed. Once they were in bed, we watched an episode or two of The Duggars and then she allowed me to indulge myself and watch Dirty Jobs. I think most of you know that we do not have cable and so when I get to spend time at someone's house and we just feel like vegging out, I like to sneak in a episode of Dirty Jobs. I think it's crazy how many different jobs are out there, and I'm totally entertained by watching them work. I really like it:-)


My two sillies

There's that crazy face again!!

Nicole and Hunter building a tower.

Anyway, the next morning, Teri made us Spinach pancakes, which aren't as bad as they sound and we took off for a play ground. It was a fun way to be distracted in our husband's absence, and I think both hubbies were glad we had something to do while they were away. Thanks for having us over Teri!

Nicole didn't even play on the equipment, she just played in the sand the whole time.

Concentration!

Hannah also LOVED the sand. She was trying to "swim" in it. She loved it so much that she decided to fall face first into it...

Actually, she was trying to climb on something and slipped. Since I knew she was ok, I made her wait to have it wiped off until I could snap a picture.

Hunter, Teri's almost 4 year old is in love with Hannah. He asked if they could borrow her for a while. He loved to play with her.

Feathers for Lunch

Before we left for vacation, Nicole and I started a unit on birds and cats. We predominately used the book Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert. Most of the ideas we came up with came from the unit resources at Homeschool Share.

This was a really fun unit. The book is about a cat who is tired of eating canned cat food, so he sneaks out of the house looking for something wild to eat. It introduces many different types of birds. The drawings of the birds are pretty accurate and the last several pages have facts about each of the birds mentioned in the book. Most are even drawn to size. The book also has lots of great rhyming words. One thing the homeschool share unit didn't hit on are all the plants that are mentioned by name in the book too. So, this book has a lot to offer as far as different directions you could take with it.


My plan was to be talking about what we had been learning while on vacation. I knew we would spend a lot of time outdoors and there was a really great math lesson intertwined with the book. The idea was to go outside over the course of a day or a week or whatever, and make tally marks of the different color birds we found. Then, at the end of week, make a simple graph showing the number of blue, red, gray, black, white, etc. birds that we saw. I was really excited to do this...but kept forgetting:-(

This unit went perfectly with our trip, we saw soooo many different types and colors of birds, especially at our condo in Gatlinburg. The lady below our condo had a humming bird feeder, so they were out in the evening. There were many opportunities to reinforce what we had learned the previous week.


I knew we would have a lot of down time while in Atlanta, so I took some materials from the unit. One day, Nicole and I made a bird/cat mask. She did a great job coloring it, gluing feathers, spreading sparkles and sticking stickers on her mask. She still likes to wear it around. btw...in this picture, she has sunglasses on under the mask, that's why the eyes are black.

We also talked about why God created the birds to be different colors. I introduced the idea of camouflage to her. We played a hide and seek type game called "Camouflage the Birds". We printed pictures of all the birds from the book (and I laminated them one day) and we hid them around a couple of rooms, camoflauging them against similar colors. So, the red cardinal was hiding near a red vase. The bluejay was hiding near a blue picture. The green hummingbird was hiding on top of a green tile. It was fun to camouflage the birds, and when everyone got home from the convention that night, they were able to find birds all over the living and dinning room.

When we got home from vacation, we put all of activities together to make a lap book. I'm sorry this picture is flipped the wrong way. If I weren't lazy I'd fix it. Anyway...on the top (really right side) is a flip book about cats, then our birds from our camouflage the birds game, and a small booklet about what kinds of food that cats eat. In there, we had a wild side and a tame side. The wild side had pictures of birds, mice, snakes, etc...the tame side basically had pictures of cat food cans.

Then on the bottom (left) of the lapbook are our rhyming word eggs. The eggs flip up to reveal the rhyming words. Like wild and mild or lunch and munch. Nicole matched up the rhymes and I helped her glue the labels together.


The back of the lap book has a chart comparing cats and birds. A cat has live kittens and feeds them milk, a bird lays eggs. A cat walks, runs and climbs, a bird flies. A cat has fur, a bird has feathers....you get the point. And we also have our Bible verse, "Mathew 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: fr they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"


This was a story about Billie Bird that we got to read and act out. Then, Nicole had to label the bird parts (beak, feathers, wing, crown, etc). There is also a bird bingo game that I made up, but we never played it.


Just before vacation, as our unit officially ended we spent some time painting (which both the girls LOVE to do) with Feathers instead of paint brushes. It was messy and fun.


Even Hannah got in on the action.


There were two things I wanted to do, but never got around to. 1. to make an edible bird's nest (using chocolate, lo mein noddles, and jelly beans) and 2. to make a bird nest from items we collect outside and stick them into play doh. We sort of did this a few months ago when we read Owl Babies, so I didn't feel to bad missing out on that.

Feathers for Lunch, and the unit at Homeschool share had so many fun activities and hits most of the subjects in one way or another. It was a really fun book to read and use. I recommend it.

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The other day, we were doing some counting. Jeremy's started doing basic addition and subtraction with Nicole, so we decided to work on it a bit more. What better way than with edible manipulatives. We poured out some Skittles and sorted them into groups of ten. We counted them each individually, then by tens. Then Nicole sorted them by color and we counted again. We talked about which color had the most and which had the least. Then we started adding and subtracting. The best part was subtracting, because that meant we could eat the skittles.

At one point there were 7 orange skittles. I asked Nicole how many orange skittles she wanted to subtract and she said, "Um, 7" . So, then I asked her to guess how many would be left. She didn't know....so we tried it. She stuffed all 7 orange skittles in her mouth. Again I asked her how many were left and she wasn't sure, because we haven't talked much about the number zero. It was funny though because she had orange drool pouring out of her mouth.

Obviously she doesn't know how to add and subtract yet...but it sure is fun to learn AND eat sweets at the same time.


Nicole really looks forward to our time in the mornings to read and do activities together. It's our little half an hour or so of uninterrupted Nicole & Mommy time...and I love it too.

Princess Diaries

I had another post planned for today, but it'll just have to wait.

This morning we went to my friend, Sky's, house. She has twins that are 6 and a 3 1/2 year old name Clancey. The twins were in school, so it was just Clancey, Nicole and Hannah today. Remarkably, the two older girls played almost an hour while Sky and I got to talk and hang out with Hannah, who was entertaining herself quite well. We then had a little cupcake decorating break with cheese and crackers for a snack.

Then, back upstairs we went..this time Sky, Hannah and I followed. We had so much fun playing with the girls and talking. Sky's girls LOVE dress up...specifically Princess & ballerina dress up. Nicole found a Cinderella dress & shoes and decided to wear it around for a while.




I thought that Hannah should be in on the action too. She got a ballerina outfit and an outrageous wig. They were adorable!


I just had to share these very funny pictures.

Sky....if you read this, thanks for having us over. We had a great time!

Visit from Nanny and Papaw

We got home from vacation on Sunday night, and Monday Nanny and Papaw came in for a visit. They are Valerie's mother and step-father. We were excited to see them on Tuesday because it had been a long time since we've visited. Nicole was about 5 months old last time we were in Alabama :-( and they had never met Hannah.

The girls fell in love with them instantly. Hannah and Papaw became little buddies, and Nicole enjoyed having tea parties with Nanny. We had the opportunity to spend several evenings with them while they were here. We enjoyed our time. Here are some pictures...




These two pictures have a sweet story. Nicole was sitting on Grammy's lap and Hannah came over. Nicole's first reaction was to kick and make a squealing "get away from me" sort of noise. We've been working on having self control in these situations, so I quickly looked at her and said "control your legs". Then, Nicole reached down, pulled the blanket off and tried to pull Hannah up on her lap. She finally made it and I got a couple of pictures of the three of them...Nicole on Grammy, and Hannah on Nicole.

The tea party girls


Hannah with her buddy Papaw

Hannah, Grammy, Nicole and Nanny

Vacation Part VI - Tea Party & Miscellaneous

I guess part of the fun of a road trip is the driving. At least some people would say that. I think Jeremy and I don't mind a 4 hour drive, but after that...it's hard to make it fun.

We had his handy Garmin GPS unit who Nicole named "Zacky". Zacky was our guide through backroads, interstates, major cities and places even she had never heard of. For the most part, Zacky was helpful and we were thankful for her. However, more than once she told us to "veer right" or "turn right" much to early.

One such instance happened the ONLY time I was driving, in Atlanta, at 9:00 at night as I was searching for a CVS to "buy" diapers (they were going to be free). Zacky told me to turn right, and so I did. Only to find my self on the interstate in stand still traffic for more than half an hour with two sleepy children and one somewhat frustrated husband. I however thought it was hysterical. Especially when we had to pay a toll...then, pay the same toll 3 miles later when I could finally turn around. Jeremy really wasn't frustrated or mad, but he was missing the season opener NFL game, so I'm pretty sure he was at least a bit annoyed. We made it to said CVS, I bought diapers and bribery candy bars all for a buck, so I think that made it worth it. But, I never did drive again, haha

It wasn't our only CVS trip though on the trip. A few days earlier we had to stop to pick up some meds for our little sicky. I spent far to long in there, not looking for deals, but trying to figure out what in the world to buy for Hannah. I HATE buying medicine and get a little freaky about reading all the labels. I'm pretty sure though that Nicole was having fun in the car with daddy. I also bought some peace candy in there too:-)



So...... A few thoughts about taking a road trip with two small children and a pregnant lady...

~Driver must be patient and willing to stop every hour, if needed
~Driver must be patient and willing to listen to crying/whining
~Driver must be patient and willing to listen to the same children's CD for hours
~Driver must be patient and willing to answer the same questions over and over
~Driver must be patient and willing to pick up the same blanket and unknown amount of times because pregnant lady can't reach that far.
~ Driver must be patient and willing to deal with a GPS unit that isn't always right, but a wife that, of course, is ALWAYS right (not really)
~Driver must be patient and willing to change courses in a blink of an eye

****Good thing we had a GREAT driver! He did all these things and MORE***

~Automatic toilets are NOT a good idea. More than once the potty flushed while Nicole was on it, and operation potty stop was over. She refused to go potty or stay on a potty that flushed while she was trying to go. A note to friends, bring sticky notes to cover up the sensor, would have saved us many extra stops.

~Automatic sinks ARE a great idea. So are automatic soap dispensers. However, automatic hand dryers without the option of towels are a bad idea. Especially those newer ones that blow out hurricane force winds. More than one little one has rushed out of the bathroom screaming for fear of being blown away.

~Driving through Atlanta is ALWAYS stressful, no matter what time of day or night (twice we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic after 9:00pm).

We had fun at rest stops, eating snacks and taking pictures.


The girls did remarkably well in the car. AND....we didn't even use the DVD player. Nope...not even once! I was shocked. But, they were fairly contained with books, coloring, and listening to the same music over and over. They also did well falling asleep at nap times...for the most part.




A game we played all vacation long was "Hey Cow". Jeremy introduced Nicole to this game several weeks earlier and it progressed to a family affair. Whenever we see a field of cows, we roll down our windows and yell as loud as we can "Hey Cow" (although Nicole says "Hi Cow" and Hannah just screams). At first I was a bit annoyed, but then I began to find what a stress buster this was. It's actually a lot of fun and bonus points if you scare more than one cow, hahaha. Hannah now yells at whatever animals she sees on side of the road. This was why they were so excited to see cows on my uncle's farm:-)

Of course our driver was ALWAYS serious, focused with two hands on the wheel at ALL times!




We had a fun time. Thanks for coming along on our journey.

I have lots more posts planned for the week, having nothing to do with vacation. We had a visit from the girl's great-grandparents, we've finished a unit on birds and cats and I'm still hoping to sit down and review a book for you. Stay tuned:-)

Vacation Part V - Louisville

On our way back south, we took a small detour to Louisville, KY to visit some friends. It was well worth the couple of hours out of our way.

I got to see my sweet friend Amanda, who moved from Naples in May. Her husband is in his first semester at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Amanda and I talk a lot through e-mail, so it was fun to get to see her new apartment and hear about life as a seminary wife, in real life :-)



After Amanda and I visited for a few hours, Jeremy's buddy John Michael got out of class (in his last year at SBTS) and they decided to go play Frisbee. John and Amanda came too...with their almost one year old, Maryn. So, we headed over to the beautiful campus to play some Frisbee. Nicole, Hannah and several other children had fun playing in the big green space and I had fun hanging out more with Amanda and my friend Amy.










We watched John Michael and his brother Glen play their intramural basketball game and then took off for dinner and a search for Ale 8. What is Ale 8 you might ask? According to Jeremy and others, only the most perfect beverage invented. It's a ginger ale type drink that is only made and sold in Kentucky. It's called Ale 8, but the real name is Ale 8 one (as in, a late one). I think they are gross...but don't let that get around when I'm up there, I'll get in trouble:-) Anyway, we found some Ale 8 (only 6 pack glass bottles are acceptable by the way, no cans or plastic bottles allowed) and we had a nice time of fellowship with John Michael at Moes.


The next morning, we took off for Atlanta. Our vacation was officially over. We started on business and ended on business. Jeremy had a large convention in Atlanta Wed-Sat that was the whole reason we even attempted our trip.

In Atlanta we stayed in a beautiful and very large house with Jeremy's parents and his co-worker Dan and his new bride Shanine. I don't have any pictures in Atlanta. I ended up getting pretty sick and sort of laid low. We just hung out at the house while the guys went to their show. Well...I went one day with Jeremy, even though I was sick. Mostly because he wanted to show me around, and I actually really enjoy walking around with him, listening to him ask questions about up coming products and viewing demos of amazing projectors and speakers. We even got to go out to a nice dinner that night, paid for by one of the vendors they use. It was fun to be with him that evening. Usually these shows are far away and I can't go with him, so I hear about what he does. I enjoyed being a part of it this time.

Sunday we drove home and made it in right at bed time. It was a long trip, but we had a lot of fun, made some great memories and enjoyed many many hours of wonderful time with our family.

I have one more vacation post tomorrow with some miscellaneous stories and tips for the next road trip. I hope you enjoyed coming along with us. It's been fun to sit back and remember the past few weeks.

Vacation Part IV - More Family

Sunday after the reunion, we decided to leave Twin Lakes early and head into Columbus to visit my cousin's church and hear him preach. We were a few minutes late (do to an untimely potty break) but we made it. We enjoyed being a part of their service and hearing him preach. Nicole and Hannah did great in the nursery with strangers, they just walked right in and played, and I'm pretty sure they stole the hearts of the nursery workers too:-) We then went to my cousin Matt's house and his sweet wife Charity cooked us lunch. We enjoyed a nice afternoon of fellowship with them as our children napped. We were hoping to make it to the Columbus Zoo, but that just wasn't possible. Maybe next time. However, I think Jeremy has recruited another player in his weekly Tiger Woods Golf Internet match up play while I'm at the Clipper Chicks meeting.

After lunch we headed out of a town a bit to visit my Mama Pat & Papa Sam. We were so very excited to see them. We got to their house just in time for some yummy fried chicken and dinner with them and my Aunt Julie and Uncle George (who graciously allowed our rambunctious family to stay with them for a couple of nights). Nicole had not seen Mama Pat & Papa Sam since she was 18 months old. She may not have *remembered* them, but she does know them. She sees pictures of them all time and even talks on the phone occasionally to them. Mama Pat thinks Nicole remembers that last visit though, because one of the first things she did was walk over to a little drawer and try to open it...a drawer I'm pretty sure she opened a closed a lot on the last trip. Who knows?

Hannah met them when she was 8 weeks old last year. Obviously she didn't remember, but she took a liking to them right away. After dinner she would walk back and forth from Mama Pat to Papa Sam giving them hugs. It was sweet.


Loving on Papa Sam


Mama Pat reading The Jungle Book to Nicole


Loving on Mama Pat


Papa Sam and "his girl" Nicole


Papa Sam with both of his girls


Hannah walked in this morning, just waking up from her nap, and went straight to Papa Sam. She sat in his lap for about 10 minutes. I don't know who enjoyed it more, him or her.


Papa Sam, helping Hannah eat her breakfast.

The next day (labor day) we had sticky buns in the morning (per my request) and then headed out to my Uncle's farm for a labor day pot luck. We hung out in his barn all afternoon playing corn hole and eating yummy food.

My little cousin Cassidy hanging out with Hannah


Cassidy again, with Nicole this time.

Remember my corn hole champion from just two days before? Well...I think I jinxed him by bragging on him to much. We again had a very competitive corn hole tournament, this time with teams and double elimination. We were randomly assigned a team and I was teamed up with my Aunt Debbie, who I believe played basketball for OSU (is that right?) She is a fierce competitor. Well....this time it was the other half who was the corn hole champion. Aunt Debbie and I took down the other teams and became the Labor Day corn hole champions. I do have to say that I heard my Aunt Debbie had her doubts about me. When she found out I was her partner she murmured to someone "Great...I get the pregnant one!" hahaha. Actually...It's probably the best corn hole I've ever played....I knew I had to step my game up for her.

My corn hole pose

The girls also got to see a couple of cows, which was exciting to them because we had been yelling at cows all vacation long (I'll explain in my last vacation post in a few days).

Nicole and Hannah had fun playing in the dirt

The highlight of the day for Jeremy though was taking Nicole on her first 4 wheeler ride. They started off slow, but ended going pretty fast. His excuse "She kept telling me to go faster, I couldn't say no to that!" hehehe.

Daddy and Nicole on the four wheeler

We were pretty exhausted after the day on the farm. We ended up going out for pizza with Aunt Julie and Uncle George then watching football and playing pool the rest of the night. The next day, Tuesday, we knew we had a few hours of driving ahead of us to Louisville. But, I'll tell you about that tomorrow:-)

Vacation Part III - Twin Lakes

Twin Lakes is a beautiful piece of property my aunt and uncle own about an hour and half east of Columbus, Ohio. They so graciously allow friends and family to visit and use their property throughout the year. I've only been twice, both in the summer time, and it is beautiful. I'm sure it's nice in the winter too...but it's pretty much taken over by the men in our family trying to get "the big buck". Well...I take that back, I think the women are out there hunting too...I know my Aunt Susan and my mom are often camouflaged in the woods trying to out do the guys:-)


The view over one of the lakes


Twin Lakes - early morning


Twin Lakes - Early morning, a different view

Anyway, we were excited about going to Twin Lakes this year, because our timing was perfectly lined up with our family reunion. Unfortunately, we only got one full day out there. Hopefully next time we can stay a few days and enjoy the peace and quiet, the animals and the oh so nice weather.

We got in on Friday night, pretty late, but super excited to see my aunts and uncles AND.....JUSTIN!!!!!! Yes ladies and gentleman, my little brother was there, with his sweet fiance, Erica. We were very excited to see Justin. He moved to Ohio about 6 weeks earlier for a job, so we missed him. He is doing very well, and seemed incredibly happy. I know he'll be happier in a few months when he finally gets hitched....then he'll have all he's been waiting for:-) But, we spent Friday night hanging out by the bonfire enjoying our time with the family.

Justin and Erica

Saturday, the reunion kicked off with nothing other than the Ohio State Football game vs. Navy. Really....nothing happened until the game was over because they are all die hard buckeyes. We were the only family not wearing OSU clothes, but that was just because I forgot to pack them...sorry guys. Iactually missed most of the game because I took a much needed nap with the girls.


Nicole playing baseball with daddy and Uncle Justin

Riding on the paddle boat before the game.

After the game, the competition began, Corn hole and horseshoes. Aunt Susan set up the games, single elimination style. Now...my family takes these games pretty seriously. They play corn hole quote often, or so it seems. However, they didn't realize these Floridians also know how to toss a corn bag, and surprisingly a horseshoe too. Jeremy quietly took his competition out....until low and behold, he was in the final game of BOTH corn hole AND horseshoes against my cousin Matt. And, would you believe it....he won both of those games. He became the corn hole AND Horseshoe champion for the 2009 family reunion.

Uncle Wayne officiating Matt & Jeremy's final corn hole game.

He was even awarded these trophies.


They also had plans to have a father/child fishing competition (of which I'm sure Jeremy and Nicole would have won, haha), but those never happened. However, of much greater importance...Nicole caught her first ever fish! In all honesty, she was pretty freaked out, but it was a moment of pride and joy for Jeremy to be there with her, catching her first fish.

Holding up the big catch
The day began to wind down with a delicious potluck dinner, yummy dessert, and even a visit from Uncle Harold and Aunt Marlyn (who were actually AT the OSU game earlier in the day) Does anyone know her recipe for those rocky road bars? yummy!

Again we had another camp fire and enjoyed a beautiful night listening to my cousin's son practice guitar, hearing stories from high school days, and enjoying yet another night of conversation with Justin and Erica.

Hannah and her buddy, Uncle Wayne. I've got more than one picture of those two together...they really had fun together.

We loved our time at Twin Lakes. It was fun to see so much family at once, to play with the kids all day in the fields, to eat lots of good food and to sit by the fire at night.

I put together a slide show of most of the pictures we took at Twin Lakes. If you want one or several in particular, e-mail me and I'll get them to you:-)