Frying Pan Park

For more information check out Mimi's blog.
We had a great time. Near the end of the video you can see CJ sign eat. He wanted the piggies to eat some more food. He loved watching and petting the animals.

Great Falls Park

Last week we went to Great Falls Park. It was a beautiful day. We loaded up the kids and the bikes into the big white van and off we went. It was a great idea, I guess a lot of other people thought so too because we had to wait at least 20 minutes to even get into the park. I think the most I've waited in my life has been maybe 2 minutes for someone slow to pay.
The pictures aren't the greatest...I'm not the best photographer but at least I tried.
On to the adventures. I rode my bike pulling Lucy and CJ. Mimi ran from the back trying to keep up with Ben and Emily. Thomas and Thomas came but we lost them in route to the bathroom. Eventually after riding around the park and stopping at one viewing point we found each other again. The kids went "rock climbing" up some boulders and also "mountain biking" down one path to the viewing point which I thought was a little rough for 5 year-olds. The kids loved it. It was a wonderful day to enjoy the beauty of the earth.

McDonalds

Thanks Maren and Misty for a fun time at McDonalds. I had a great time letting the kids run crazy. Here's to our annual visit. It'll be fun watching the kids get bigger and bigger.

Climbing

(I guess I never posted this post-it's from January. I should known there would be bigger and better things.)
He's into climbing too.

Climbing!

This picture was taken in Indiana at the Swartz's house. After I took the picture I climbed up behind him to "keep him safe", well he decided to use me as a step. He was trying to climb over the top. When I took him down there was crying, I know, mean mother not letting him climb over the swing set. But you can see how proud he was of himself. What a smile.

So, it's official. He's a climber. I've known this for a while, but now I have to think about where I (and where I don't) put things I don't want CJ to get into. Yesterday he climbed onto the bathroom counter to brush his teeth/play in the water. I also found him standing on the piano keys. I originally had not put the scissors on top of the piano, but when Thomas found another pair I told him to just put them up there. Ah, the joys of having a toddler.

Creek

We love the creek. The kids have such a great time. It's about 1/5 of a mile walk to the creek. CJ loves to throw rocks. When we went the kids were wearing boots. As soon as CJ saw them in the water he got this big grin on his face and went right in. The kids also enjoy fishing.

What a wonderful week.

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A bit of CEC and some photos for the Worth's

So I know we're due for another C.E.C outing, tomorrow. But I found these pictures on Dad's camera and wanted to post them. Our family LOVES Chuck E Cheese. We go there almost once a month. We get awesome coupons, check fatwallet.com, and the kids play, and play, and play. The more cousins the merrier. For my mom's birthday we had at least 18 of the grandkids there. Ah, chaos. At least the adults can talk/yell to each other.

Even C.J. is learning the ropes. Thanks William for taking him under your wing.

Girl, I can't wait until this happens more frequently. The kids have such a great time playing together. A few of the favorite activities include: anything with Dora (hairstylin', Dora's playhouse, etc.), Polly Pockets, Ponies, playing outside, and so much more. It's great I love that our kids get along so great. Here's to getting into our house that much quicker!

School

For those of you who don't know, I've been "homeschooling" Emily this year. I loved her preschool last year, the weekly swimming was the best, but decided we could use the money for other activities for her. She's done swimming, ballet, and gymnastics this year for way less than what I would have spent on preschool. And it lets me use some of my SVU education.
So here's a summary of our school. Emily loves having school, we only do it a few times a week just like "real" preschool. I love that now that I am entertaining the idea of homeschooling, anything can count as school. We take trips to the creek, go on nature walks, read a lot of books, draw, paint, you get the idea. Not that I am required to keep track or anything, I just wanted to see what it would be like.
Emily misses the cut-off for Kindergarten this year (by 11 days) and so this fall she will be homeschooled as well. She has shown interest in wanting to read and make signs. Her first sign said "WEBRS YES", it's a sign for our bathroom. She sounded it out and everything. Her most recent sign was "NU PRSINS ULAD". Translation--No persons allowed. Although today she saw the sign and said "I forgot to put an E, I just did a R (in persons).
We use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I highly recommend the book. We are on lesson 37. We do about 6 or so lessons a month. Emily has read me two books, Pop, pop; and Muff and Ruff. I pretty much just do lessons when she or Thomas ask. They get a gold coin (chocolate inside) when they are done.
I have recently stumbled across "nature study" I love the idea behind it. Basically it's take the kids outside, let them observe nature, and then let them talk about, read/research about it, draw about it, anything they want. First I have to say how impressed I am with the kids and how far they have each improved. Thomas joins us whenever he is here. We've had a few lessons, yesterday's lesson was on a pine "branch" that the kids found on a walk.

It's a little out of focus, because I tried to make the photo bigger. Anyway, here is her rendition. I had her sign and date it because I was so impressed.

A little explaination on the extras. The yellow part at the top is a stick I was using to hold down her paper because the wind kept blowing it. The circles on the right are a face she drew but the eye was too big to make a second eye so she tried to make the head bigger, then she just drew herself on the right side. Other than that, I think she had it right on.

Just so you know, I used (without permission--I hope it's ok) my dad's camera for these, I thought this was too good not to be "published" to the web.