Happy Birthday, Emma!

Happy Birthday To Our Little Princess, Emma!

Today is our youngest daughter, Emma's 6th birthday! Where does the time go? They grow up so quickly.

I will save the getting sad part of this experience for another day because now is a the day to celebrate! Emma got to pick her birthday breakfast--cinnamon rolls; and her birthday dinner--Baked Chicken Parmesan with corn. She picked chocolate cupcakes for her cake.

Well, I better go finish dinner. I just wanted to say a Happy Birthday to our little princess, Emma!

Water Olympics

Our Primary had a Water Olympics Activity today! Since one of my callings is Activity Girls Leader, I got to go and help out, and well, play.

I was manning a station today--the Sponge Tic Tac Toe Olympic Event. Bet you didn't know it was an Olympic event! They had me draw a Tic Tac Toe board on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, and then they had a bucket of water that had 2 different colored sponges in it. The kids then took turns throwing a sponge and seeing if they could get a Tic Tac Toe. It was a lot of fun and hot!

So to liven up my station a little more I started getting the kids wet by wringing out the sponges on top of them. My first group was a couple of older boys and they were trying very hard to be gentlemen, but as Josh said, "I was asking for it!" By the end I was completely soaked, not an inch of me was dry. But hey I was cooler. And all the kids were soaked!

Afterwards, while I was helping to clean up my girls were plotting with their friend Charlotte. They came over and asked when can we have a play date with Charlotte so she can come over and go swimming? I told them we better go find her mom and figure out a day and time. So, we find DeAnn and they ask her and then her and I start to talk about when would be a good time. And all three girls pipe up, "How about right now? Please, please, please!" So as if we weren't wet enough, we came home and went swimming for two hours!

Lots of fun!

Girls with Mia's Sunday School teacher!

Emma doing the sweatpants in water relay! There was a pair of sweatpants in a bucket of water, the kids had to put them on run down and around on the leaders and then run back take off the sweatpants and put them back in the bucket of water for the next kid in line.

Mia doing the sweatpants in water relay!

Mia and her group playing Tic Tac Toe!

Emma and her group playing Tic Tac Toe!

What Has Taken Up So Much Of My Time

I know that I have not been posting as much these last couple of weeks. I have been busy figuring out what materials to get with our funds from our charter school. I finally have my list and even have it turned in to our Education Specialist (ES). So, that is finally done, one less stress!

After I figured out what materials to get, I then had to sit down and figure out our basic day to day home school schedule. Okay, I didn't have to but I find that I am more organized if I have a basic schedule written down. I did it so that the book work will be done in the morning and funner things and special classes and activities will be after lunch.

The schedule is done. The schedule also had to be flexible, if we decide to do a field trip to the zoo we need to be able to do that! And if we are babysitting, no problem, if the kids are old enough they join us in school. If they are not old enough they play while we do school, granted we do less formal work that day.

But this is one of the things that I enjoy the most about homeschooling, besides being with my kids, is the flexibility!

Mia took her assessment test a couple days ago for the charter school, all kids 2nd grade and up take the assessment test at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. The test scores will help me see what I need to work on with the girls.

I already know that we need to work on Math. We just got our new Math program and I think that it will be much better for the girls learning types. Last years Math program did not mesh well with the girls' learning styles.

They are more like me--hand on learners and visual. None of do well in the lecturing scenario. I know that for myself when someone starts talking and there is nothing for me to do, I fade out to another place and time! The girls are a lot like this. Our new Math program looks to be more interactive.

We also got our new Spelling Program and Handwriting programs already. We will stick with Hooked On Phonics for reading as the girls are doing well with this program. We will be starting Level 3!

Starting in October both girls will be participating in an art class given through the Riverside Art Museum. They will both also be taking a Ballet/Tap dance class as well as a Hip Hop dance class!

School officially starts on Monday the 25th. We are so excited to get started again and excited to start all our new programs. Now we'll just have to wait for the rest of our materials to get here.

Stuff Emma Did This Weekend

So Emma started a small business this weekend. She got a 2 liter bottle, filled it with water, and then put it on a chair in the hallway with some styrofoam cups. She put a cup out to collect payments (1 cent a glass) and called her new business her "Water Stock."

(Since she knows we're playing the stock market game, she sees the words "stock" and "business" as pretty much the same thing--a way to make money.)

"Good for you, Emma," I told her. "That's the way to make money. Offer something people want at a fair price."

"Yeah," she said. "And a penny, that's easy for people so it's a really good price."

Her Water Stock has been in the hallway all weekend, earning her a few cents here and there.

Today, the two liter bottle ran out of water.

"Hey, Dad," she said. "It looks like my business is all done."

"Well, I'm proud of you for doing it," I said.

"Yeah," she said, "but I'm glad it's done. I didn't want to work forever."

********************

So we're talking with the girls about warm blooded and cold blooded animals.

"Warm blooded animals can make their own heat and keep themselves warm," I say. "Cold blooded animals can't do that."

"Yeah," says Emma. "Because people can rub their hands together real fast to keep warm, but snakes don't have hands so they can't do that."

My Posts On Orson Scott Card's Boot Camp

I got asked about Boot Camp.

My posts about Boot Camp are all on my other blog.

Here they are:

My post about why I decided to go to Boot Camp.

A short post about the first morning of the writer's class.

Post about the rest of the first day of the writer's class.

A post I made while doing online research for a homework assignment.

Post about the second day of the writer's class.

The third day--the day I spent writing a story of my own.

The fourth day, the first day of the workshop portion, where we talk about everybody's stories.

In a post I didn't write until today, I talk about the rest of the week, and what I felt like I got out of the class and workshop.

And there you have way more than you ever wanted to read about it.

Tagged By The Andy Man (I think).

i am: a teacher, a storyteller, a father, a husband
i think: about everything way too much
i know: a lot less than I used to think I did
i want: a job that makes me want to wake up early
i have: an amazing family
i wish: more often than I accomplish
i hate: car problems, money problems, and being sunburned
i fear: a lot less than I probably should
i feel: like a kid who's just play-acting he's a grown up
i smell: and I'm embarrassed about it
i crave: fried food way more than sweets
i search: for matching socks
i wonder: where my family will be in five years
i regret: too much to write about
i care: too much about what other people think of me
i always: feel silly doing these little survey things, because I'm so worried about what other people will think of me
i believe: there is usually a solution
i dance: alone
i sing: songs I make up to my kids (and anyone else who will listen)
i don’t always: stay awake through movies any more
i fight: to do things I know I have to do
i write: science fiction and fantasy
i lose: all kinds of stuff whenever I get stressed
i win: once in a while on Smash Bros.
i never: can decide what/where to eat
i listen: to podcasts and audiobooks more than music
i can usually be found: doing something besides whatever I should be doing
i am scared: of cutting off options by making final decisions
i need: to lighten up
i am happy about: my family, my calling, and getting to go to OSC's Boot Camp

Busy Day. . .

The girls and I had a pretty busy day today, full of lots of fun things!

We started off the day with swimming lessons. Mammy has been giving the girls swimming lessons. The girls are getting pretty good! They are like little fish in the water.

After swimming and getting cleaned up we went to the post office to mail out five books that I had sold on half.com. I will have to go back to the post office tomorrow, I sold one more book and something off of my Ebay store. (My Ebay store is http://stores.ebay.com/Books-Crafts-And-More and my half.com store is http://shops.half.ebay.com/momcrafting4fun. I just started Ebay and I have a ton more stuff to add to it)

We then went shopping for Nikki's birthday present. (Nikki is Erik's youngest brother, Andy's fiancee) I had no idea what to get her but I think that we finally found the perfect gift. You'll have to ask her tomorrow after she opens it!

We then stopped at the mall to do a secret shop ( just another way I make a little extra money.)While we were there we got a pretzel to split and clip on earrings for the girls! They can get their ears pierced when the y turn 8 if they want to. It's their choice. We figure that since they are accountable in the Lord's eyes at 8 they might as well start making choices that will affect them forever then, too.

After we got home the guy came and picked up the chicks. It was sad to see them go.

Then we went to Melody's apartment. Melody is a lady from our ward who just happens to be blind. The girls don't think anything of her being blind to them she's just Melody! We love Melody and have become really close to her in the last few months. She has three parakeets and the girls love to play with them. They got to hold and pet the birdies more tonight than they ever have. Melody actually named two of the birdies after the girly girls, the birds are named Mia and Emmy, and then there is Happy! We took over Schoolhouse Rock to watch and had pizza and brownies! Yummy!!

The girls were so exhausted when we got home. I think that they fell asleep before their heads even hit the pillow!

Mia at the mall

Emma eating the pretzel!

Licking the bowl!

Literally!