Random Pics

What Taylor is working on....

OH , we took a large bowl, combined water, chicken broth, the remains of his bones and some carrots...froze the whole thing and plopped it on the ground for Jack to play with..he shared with Joy and was happy for his surprises. We have another one in the freezer for later today...

Good Dog XOXO

Scenes from the Kitchen...

Following my new Pottery Painting Hobby, I have decided to redirect my emotional energy into the care and well being of my family with food and desserts. Carly and I have been wanted to create Shrimp Pizza..and YES its as good as it sounds. Here is what we used.....

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product, but let me just say it was sooooooo good. I also threw some fresh spinach on after the sauce and then layered it with the sausage and shrimp then the cheese......

 Then for dessert...there appears to be a reason that  I dont bake very often. The mess, the measuring, the exact amount of baking soda? Ugh cooking is much easier, a dash of this, a pinch of that...anyway, I made a Vanilla Pudding Poke Cake..suppose to be cake poked with the handle of a wooden spoon then filled with pudding. It was...OK? The pudding set too soon and didnt fill in the holes all the way..next time right? here is a pic though and I have to say it tasted better then it looks....Oh and my sweet baby ready to help : ) love him...

Trying to keep busy...

We are trying our hardest to keep busy , while slowly weaning off school a bit. I went to Michaels and got all kinds of goodies. We painted more birdhouses and attempted out Bird-bath. We got pots, bright colors (so the birds can find it), adhesive and Spray enamel. I wanted to make it a bit fancy but my painting skills are limited to Palm Trees and abstract shapes...I would like to make a Hibiscus flower on the next one so I might practice. Heres what we got...

.....and then this....not bad for my first attempt. Can also be used as a patio table, can get different sized pots and stack differently, use in the front garden..Oh the possibilities are endless...I might have found a hobby........

XOXO

What we are working on this week....

Well we were off to a good start this week , however after the arrival of the Wii, Papa bear decided to call in sick to work yesterday to play video games with Taylor hmmmmm? Not much math is going to get done with the Sonic super Olympic games all revved up by 10:30am, so yes, yesterday was a huge bust....I think I said "go to work, Marc" 5,000 times!!!

Today the kids had dental appointments and since they haven't been in over a year I thought the outcome would have been way worse...final verdict..they are going back next week to fill a cavity each

I have been getting a lot of questions about curriculum lately ( you know who you are) so I thought I would post a few pics of the books the kids are currently using. I think we are going to take July off BUT we are going to have to fill the days with something besides iPods, pads and super Mario etc.

This came in the mail this morning and Taylor has been working in it most of the afternoon. He doesn't do the writing part but I think I may throw that in later as a writing exercise just for fun ( evil laugh)..

Draw write now

Geography, which they both love and the Atlas to supplement....

And the dreaded (by me) Math books. I do not care for the Singapore Math and am going back to Horizons Math 100%!

Carly is just about finished with book 1 and yes, she is way behind but we should be able to catch up by the fall and if we dont, oh well, we dont!!!

Taylor is doing well in the Singapore but it is just so boring...the Horizons, although has LOTS and LOTS of reviewing is just over all better, with better explanations as they work. I will just have to pick and choose my way through the lessons. 

Finally, Evan Moor reading comprehension, this is on top of Creative writing, grammar and spelling which is Abekka and then Horizons Spelling. Carly has been working out of these books since, Kindergarten, I think. 

Keeping busy

Since we are no longer participating at the gym 2 days per week it is up to me to try to fill the days with interesting and creative ideas. The pool is good, but with temps about to reach 90 degrees any minute it is still more of an early morning/evening activity.


We went to Michaels over the weekend and picked up some bird houses and terra cotta pots for organizing Carlys hair ties and lipsticks. Should be doing that later this week.


Today went well and we did about 3 hours of school work, our main focus for Carly is on math, as she has completed all of her 3rd grade books except math.

After school work, they wanted to paint the bird houses. Can you tell which belongs to each of us? LOL

Carly and I are also highly addicted to the Draw Something app. Some of the drawings turn out completely crazy looking like "really should we even be playing this game", but Carly being the little artist-in-denial that she is, actually comes up with some really cute ones when she wants to..here is my current favorite.

And yet drawing some more she even broke out the markers.YAY

Taylor has been wanting to bowl ever since our home school field day, he came up with this little idea ...now he has Wii Sports which he loves but I kind of like the more creative ideas.

 I think I will be able to pull this off after all. Luckily we are all home bodies so it might not be as hard as I think. 

Blog, frogs and sausages

Hello there! Well thanks to my sister taking a break/bet from Facebook and her new updated blog she has suggested we join this blogging journey together, so here after a 4 month hiatus I am here to update you!


First, I am blogging on my blog app, which is super wicked cool and I love all things "app". Apps are our friend after all, someone looking out for us and making our lives easier..


So here goes, another shout out to my dear sister who made me a lovely dinner, not 1 but 2 nights in a row and who was oh so accommodating after my 2 children and I gave her literally a 20 minute warning that we would be staying with her for 4 days.


Back to the sausage... She made me a super yummo dinner of sausages , peppers and potatoes. Well, if you know my sis, you know she can not eat onions. They make all kinds of nasty sounds come out of her :(
Well me , I am a lover of onions, so because of her inspiration to the dish I returned home to Florida armed with not only a big, juicy, sweet Vadalia but also a cute, little, sweet potato just to shake thinks up a bit. Yup, I live on the edge.
Anyway my version both before and after cooking, and if I do say so myself was rather yummy. Thanks Donna xoxox.

So after a lovely 4 day escape to Georgia we retuned home with birds and bunnies on our mind. You see we visited a game ranch while away and all decided we needed more pets, many more pets. 

 So upon careful consideration we decided to look into lovebirds and possibly a rabbit. Well in the middle of our family, new pet, conversation, Papa bear was getting out of the pool, grabbed the closest beach towel and there on his greying chest hairs was the cutest little tree frog. Carly, Taylor and I all looked at each other and screamed " PET". And just like that, Hoppy became the newest member of the Dinowitz family. We quickly googled tree frogs and made a list of his needs: Branches, smooth gravel, bugs dead or alive, non-chlorinated water and mulch. Hoppy was a resident for 2 days and while we captured dinner bugs for him we were concerned he was not getting the proper nutrition that he needed and deserved. So we decided to let him free, sort of.... We left it up to Hoppy, we opened his container cage and let him decide if he wanted to hop or stay. We checked on him through-out the day and he was there. Taylor suggested maybe he didn't know how to hop out, with a name like Hoppy you never know, so we then decided to lay the cage open for easy escape. At last check Hoppy was staying put. We will see what tomorrow brings but here is the little guy....