It's a 4 Ring Circus!

have a groooovy halloween, baby!

I am guessing that this is Halloween 1977.
I must not have had any candy yet.

stop and smell the roses

little tutor

When Josh asked for help with his assignment, apparently this is not what he was after.

brought to you by scrubbing bubbles

Ryan is coming home tonight this week so as to not miss any Halloween festivities (and to celebrate his birthday), so we're cleanin up around here to make it look like we do stuff while he's gone.  My kids were very fascinated to try my new potty gel.  They even flushed a few times to get the full effect.  Sadie said, "Wow, Denny is not going to believe THIS when he sees it!"

You can expect us to disappear for a few days -- Ryan will home for a long weekend, and my mom & Don are coming up this weekend, too.  See you next week (in time for me to be getting ready to head out to San Diego!).

ho hum

Me and the mini-me
before we headed off to Lego Robotics this am

Kitty kisses that smell like fish . . . thank you, I think.

I guess I better get off my duff and finish getting this room put together (it's going to be a great studio/office).  The piles of stuff behind me are starting to bug me, but this room is dangerous -- I always get sidetracked.

There's the new sewing table with room for my regular sewing machine and the serger.  Wall unit with fabric and lots of other crafty goodies.  Drawer carts with more crafty goodness.  Now I need to finish organizing it and actually pull up the big box of fabric from the downstairs closet to weed through and stick into the wall unit there.  Very fascinating stuff, I know.

reading with Sadie

This morning was the usual, taking Ryan back to the airport and then coming home and getting things in order around the house, and getting kids on task for their school assignments.  (and maybe a little Facebook to start the day . . . )  It will be nice when someday my husband works in the same city that we live.  Or really, even the same state would be good.  But I will be glad that he at least does in fact have a JOB, so I'll shut up now.

Today is Ryan's birthday, and he is officially an old man -- 35.  We're going to celebrate this weekend when he's back home, but today his present is a video of Sadie reading for him, since she didn't get to show off for him this last weekend (yes, we were really THAT busy).

the game plan

Ryan has concluded that we should go ahead with the plans to be in California for Thanksgiving.  So, here is the schedule we are now looking at.

Nov 7-9  Drive out to CA
Nov 17-21  Take 3 days this week for Disneyland
Nov 26  Drive to Sacramento for Thanksgiving
Nov 27  Thanksgiving at Darren & Cherish's house
Nov 28   Drive to Monterey
Nov 29   Drive back to San Diego
Dec 5-7   Josh & I fly to Houston for Early Robotics competition
Dec 12-14  Drive back to Austin with Ryan, who will work the rest of December in Austin

That's the plan.  Unless mayhem ensues, which it seems like it always does . . . .

more braggin'

I am excited and thrilled to announce that Sadie starting reading yesterday!

We had been working together on some basic phonics skills for awhile, with mediocre success (tried both 100 EZ Lessons and Phonics Pathways), when suddenly it occurred to me that the reason she was having some difficulty is because she kept trying to make these non-word practice exercises into words.  So, I moved her way ahead to reading three- and four-letter words, and WAH-LAH, she was suddenly doing much better!  Then I dug out the Sonlight readers and she was flying through them and wanting to do more.

It was really wonderful getting to share such a proud moment with her.  Luckily Ryan was in town an extra day this week, and she had just finished the readers when he came driving up, so she got to run out to tell him all about it!

braggin'

About two years ago, I bought a highly recommended, yet heinous, puzzle.  We spent the better part of a weekend putting it together.  I did learn a lot of geography, but when we were done, I put that thing away and didn't plan to see it again anytime soon.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh started bugging me about pulling the puzzle out again and I kept putting him off.  It takes up too much room, etc, etc.  He finally took it upon himself while I was busy rearranging the upstairs to set up a table in his bedroom and get started without me.

I thought to myself, "It's going to take this kid a year to get this puzzle done."  Lo and behold, it only took a couple of days!

kids' activities

For the curious, these are the weekly activities our kids are doing this year (in addition to the usual schoolwork).

Mondays -- Our family has been sponsoring a weekly health class for our other homeschool friends from church.  We've talked about the Food Guide Pyramid, exercise, staying well (staying away from germs!), and we also play some P.E. games like kickball, etc.  We eat a healthy snack together as well that the kids help make (we made fruit smoothies in the blender, for example).  We just had our last class for this fall.  In the spring I'm planning to help the kids put on a short play.

Tuesdays -- Josh has Cub Scouts and Delaney has Activity Days at the church.

Wednesdays -- Josh meets with his friend Sofia to work on LEGO Simple Machines projects with Sofia's mom (this is the latest reincarnation of our LEGO Robotics club).  They will go with another family to compete in Houston in December, and again in the spring.  We trade houses to meet together and the other kids play in the background.  (Josh is doing this instead of Tae Kwon Do this year.)

On Wednesday afternoons we continue to have Creative Wednesday with Aunt Karyna and our cousins.  Sometimes we all do a project together, sometimes just the mommies do a project while the kids play.  One time we made these little pom pom critters from a Martha Stewart kit (did you know that Wal*Mart carries her line now?).  The kids had a lot of fun with it.  (And Natalie has a gift for closing her eyes in almost every picture I take of her, oh well.)

Thursdays -- all three girls have dance class on Thursday afternoons, so Josh and I get to wait around the dance studio from 4:00 to 6:00 (their classes are staggered).  The way the class times cross over, we don't really have time to go to the store, so we draw, play Uno, read, and otherwise amuse ourselves.

Fridays -- we STAY HOME!  Actually, Fridays we get our house ready for Daddy to come home.  Lately his flights have been in the early evening so the kids can come with me to get him at the airport.  There is usually a mad dash to give Daddy a hug (accompanied with "DADDDYYYY!!!", with other passengers looking on and smiling at the enthusiastic reunion.  I decided to video a bit last week, but didn't get the full effect!