Random Cuteness....

Hey she is still cute ya know...

Movies Movies Movies

Is it me or are there soooo many kids movies out lately. Within the past  few weeks we have seen Cars 2 (boo) Smurfs (Yay) and Glee (Yay+). Carly also saw Judy Moody and the not so bummer summer. Captain America, Spy Kids and Monte Carlo are also on the list. (Confession...while at the Smurfs there was a preview for Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked and I must admit I was the most excited).

Lapbooking

Lapbooking..Cop out or creative learning?...maybe both. It actually fills an entire morning and there are many many questions ... Good thing.. Usually we do lap books with a book that I choose. This time they got to choose...Carly chose Dolphins and Taylor chose (Great White) Sharks. This was a coincidence, I asked them separately and did not limit them to Ocean Creatures. Taylor tapped out early but here are the (almost) final results...

Back to Baking

We are keeping up with the schedule yes its true. Carly is doing about 4 hours of book work to date and Taylor is about an hour. Proud to say that Taylor is currently doing great in 1st grade grammar and Math and will officially be promoted to 1st grade as of December 1st. Yes you can do that when you home school : )   My Carly who "HAAAAAAAAAATES Science" and is in her first official year of bookwork Science is doing grade 4. When I went to order their curriculum I noticed that we covered every topic like twice, I mean we love planting but the girl had been growing and planting for like 7 of her 8 years and neither she nor I have green thumbs. We are pretty good at growing herbs though and will give that another shot....Back to curriculum..The only problem Carly is behind in is math, big shock since that is MY least fav subject, she tells me it is her favorite but there is an awful lot if complaining and stomach aches once she sees the Math book come out. We balance out the day with baking, painting, cleaning and swimming as the weather is still about 95 degrees during the day. Today we completed 2 hours of grammar and they asked to make a cake. Armed with a white Betty Crocker cake mix box, a can of white frosting and a 4 pack of food coloring we were in business.....I must add that they really did a great job and also learned about measurements in the process. Oh and Taylor cracked his first egg successfully...ahh the little things. Here are some scenes from the kitchen this afternoon...

What do get when you mix pumpkin pie filling, coconut mile, sweet and sour sauce, pancake mix, oatmeal and many many many other ingredients........... (word of the day) Concoctions... luckily daddy was not here and I needed to clean out the pantry and fridge anyway...this literally went on for over 2 hours and the kitchen and mommy are doing fine...

Carly POV

Taylor POV

Suncatcher

Thank you Aunt Donna for your never ending Arts and Crafts projects. Please keep them coming esp for Taylor. Carly enjoys too once she gets over that she is too cool and mature for Arts and Crafts And she actually enjoys it (shhh). This one was super easy and cute and are currently catching some rays in their bedrooms. We had tons of decorations andbeads and of course glue, so yay! XO

 

Orlando Trip

So we took Grandma Dee to Orlando for her 65th Bday. We had a great time and stayed at the Omni Hotel which I will definitely go back to (hopefully someday). We went to SeaWorld and yes I dragged around 2 kids and mom in 95o weather. Actually Carly was a trooper while grandma Dee and Taylor were slightly dragging. We went to Old Towne for Ice Cream and Jimmy Buffets in Downtown Universal for dinner.

Lego's and Taylor

 Taylor got his first official Lego set over the weekend. He has been loving his Pirates of the Caribbean video game and became interested in taking it to another level. We spent a good part of the morning with Legos and I think there will be more to come.....

I love this pic, he is so proud!!

Tea Party Tuesday

On the last Tuesday of each month, Carly and all the beautiful little home-schooled girls put on their best dresses and join each other for an afternoon of tea, snacks, crafts and a lesson in etiquette. This has been a very positive experience for Carly as she learns about table manners, prayer before a meal, waiting until everyone is seated to begin eating  and being charitable in our society. They are usually visited by a princess and even once by Alice in Wonderland. This week the girls will be donating items to a local homeless shelter and giving a short presentation on what it means to be charitable. Since this is a "girls only" class, I usually drop her off for about an hour and half while Taylor and I run errands or visit the Children's store at the Book Center. I am so thankful for Jenna who runs this co op and for all her preparation, hard work and dedication that she provides each month. Some scenes from the last two tea- parties.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn...

Wow am I exhausted. We have been non stop kids, pool and sun for 3 days now. After our river adventure we headed over to the water park pool Saturday with Carlys friend Keegan. Great place-North County Aquatic Center is fun fun fun..Two water slides, water playground, fountains, diving boards even a snack bar. Kids had a blast...definitely making that a regular stop this summer!!!

Taylor

Carly a second too fast

Carly and Keegan- so loud but having tons of fun...

Carly

Carly

Saturday Night Carly had Keegan sleep over (as if they were not exhausted enough from the day) they played, sang, talked and whatever else 8 year old girls do, deep into the night. They were at it again by 6:30 AM!! The rest of Sunday continued with more friends at the Clubhouse Pool, followed by video games and a McDonalds Pary at Heathers house.  Busy Busy weekend but lots and lots of fun!!!!!

And she sings too.......

A day at the Lagoon

Here in Vero Beach we are lucky to live about 5 miles from the ocean and even closer to the beautiful Indian River. About 20 miles North of here is the Sebastian Inlet State Park. There is a small cove/lagoon where the water is calm clear and about 3 feet at its deepest and full of all kinds of amazing sea life. So we went on an adventure this morning... The boys were up and ready to go early, as Carly and I considered calling it off and hitting Wal Mart instead, but we knew the outdoors would be a better plan so we dragged ourselves up and out, located our swim suits, water shoes, sun block and a couple of snapples and off we went-in the car by 8:30 AM. Once there I was so glad we did it. The weather was just beautiful with an ocean breeze on one side and the river on the other, boats were going in and out of the inlet and the planes were flying low. While we were there we tried to dig for clams and/or catch crabs for dinner but had no such luck. We actually did catch 2 crabs and while Taylor said "lets cook em up" Carly and I decided to throw them back in, they were reeeeeeally small...After we gave up our dinner plans we decided to grab the goggles and check out the lagoon. We were actually swimming about 6 feet away from a Manatee. We also saw some cat fish, a baby sting ray and  tons and tons of jelly fish. We watched the pelicans dive for fish and saw the egrets and cranes flying through as well. A great hands on compliment to the last couple of weeks of Ocean and Sea Creatures lessons- Some pics for your visual enjoyment...