Fall Fun

Is there anything better than playing in a pile of leaves??

Nick! Don't undo all of our hard work!!

Sisters

Kate, corny as always :)

Hangin' out

Hard at work, of course...

What a good little helper!

After church, we decided that since it wasn't raining, we needed to start raking the leaves up. If it isn't done before the snow hits, then I'm stuck with TONS of them to rake when it melts in spring.

The kids pitched in and raked, picked up garbage, and put away their toys.

Perspective

Ellie was learning about perspective in art class today.

She drew a train and has decided that she should hang it in Nick's bedroom since he loves trains so much :)

Kate's Moose

What do you draw in art class in Alaska?

A moose of course!

Homeschool Club #1: Gym Day

Everyone loves Tug o' War!!

The Mummy Design Team

Yes, that's Kate under all of that T.P.!

We belong to a group of homeschoolers that meets for club days and field trips. Today was "gym day" and the kids had a great time playing all sorts of different games. Kate's favorite part was when she was dressed up as a toilet paper mummy in a contest they did.

Fall Collage

Ellie found all of these leaves in our yard. Aren't they beautiful?

She decided to make a leaf collage for decoration :)

Deployment Ceremony

It's hard to believe there are about 400 soldiers behind them!
Andy is at the VERY back.

It's cold!

My totally butch husband with his really cool, time worn beret, signifying his lengthly time in service and years of selfless loyalty to his nation. If only every man could be so cool............

Governor Palin speaking.

Today was the deployment ceremony.

It could potentially have been a real nightmare. (Picture being seated in the MIDDLE of a set of flimsy, skinny, made-for-5-feet-tall people bleachers with a pack of wiggly, hungry, cold kids with you, trying to keep them quiet while Governor Palin is speaking close by)

Luckily, I thought ahead and put Lexie and Nick into the daycare on post for a few hours. If I hadn't, then my nightmare surely would have been reality.

So, it was Ellie, Kate, Tori, and I who braved the wind and sat on the itsy-bitsy bleachers for 3 hours.

I have to admit that it went better than I had envisioned.

Tori cried a few times, but I was able to pop a cork in her and keep her quiet :)

I made a huge mistake in letting Kate dress herself. It was 44 degrees out when we left this morning. I told her that she had to have long pants and a sweatshirt on. I grabbed everyone's coats and a warm blanket to put over Tori. I thought Kate was good to go until we got out of the car and headed for the shuttle bus. That's when I noticed that she was wearing open-toe sandals. She was cold until the woman in front of us felt sorry for her and ran and got an extra pair of socks out of her truck :) Needless to say, I have let the girls know that the sandals and flip-flops are to be packed away until next year. The time for boots has come!

Anyway, we made it through the ceremony and I was able to take a few good pictures. I let Ellie take a few also while I was busy with Tori, but she ended up with a couple of pictures of Sarah Palin's legs :)

The kids enjoyed the pass and review portion of the ceremony. You don't realize how big a brigade of soldiers is until you see them all march by in formation. Andy was easy to pick out since he was at the very back of the formation with the other First Sergeants.

Astronomy is....

One of the things that we have not been able to do much of yet is science. There just haven't been enough hours in the day this past week. I am hoping that we will get caught up this week.

Gilgamesh

Ellie's rendition of Gilgamesh

Kate's rendition of Gilgamesh

Ancient Mesopotamia studies

This week we are starting to study Ancient Mesopotamia. The kids are learning about the different civilizations that lived there: the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians. They are learning about cuneiform, ziggurats, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and daily life in Ancient Mesopotamia.

This is the list of books that we are using for this week's study:

Fall is here!

Even though it's not officially fall yet, it sure looks like it here!!

I generally like fall -the crispness in the air, the beautiful colors, the crunching of dried leaves under my feet. I even enjoy raking leaves into piles (although I hate bagging them up!)

The only thing that I don't like about fall here is that it means that winter is right on it's heels.

I am not ready for the short, dark days and the bitter cold and slippery roads.

Please autumn, take your time......

That's amore!

When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie
That's amore!
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine
That's amore!

Ok, so when I got this birthday present from Andy's parents in the mail,
that's what song kept playing through my head :)

Have you ever had a chocolate pizza?
Two good things that are great when made as one!

I have to admit that I was absolute terrified when I opened the box that
this was packed in.

In the top of the box were soggy manila envelopes.  Yikes!!

I thought that maybe there was something important in them.

Thankfully, they were full of ice packs to keep the pizza from melting :)

Unfortunately, this showed up at my house when I was in the middle of
baking 300 cookies (as I posted before).

I was not in a chocolate-eating mood.

So, it sat in my kitchen until today when the kids BEGGED to have a
 slice of pizza.

I decided that I could wait no longer.

We each had a slice and YUM was it good!! That's amore!

Art Classes

Kate's Project from this week's art class.

Hooray! I'm saved from having to teach art lessons to the kids!

I had planned on using Artistic Pursuits - which I probably will still use in the future.

For this semester though, I got Ellie and Kate into art classes on post. The greatest thing is that since Andy is deploying, we get 4 free on post classes per year, per child. Together, their art classes would have cost $500 - but I got them for FREE!!

They started this week and last through December.

I can't wait to see what the kids learn! I am sure that they will learn more from this class than they would from me. I am artistically challenged - I draw stick people!!

Operation Bug Out

I am SOOOOOOO incredibly tired today. I can barely keep my poor eyes open.

We had a unit fundraiser today and there wasn't much help. We sold BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, chips, and homemade cookies. The sandwich stuff and chips were bought at Sam's Club. Guess who got to make the cookies??

Yes, I spent 10 hours in the kitchen yesterday, making over 300 cookies (Yes I said 300). I don't care to ever see a cookie again. Well, maybe I won't go that far, but it will be a while before I get a cookie craving :)

The fundraiser was in conjunction with "Operation Bug Out", a deployment event for kids where they got to go from station to station, learning about Army life. They got to try out MREs, go through medical stations just like soldiers deploying do, etc.

The best part of course was that Nick got to get up close and personal with a helicopter. He was pretty excited.

Fun Day

Nick and Sparky, the Fire Dog

Nick is talking through the loudspeaker - and enjoying it!

"If only I was old enough!"

Lexie was enjoying the fire truck.
(She had her face painted and it was rubbing off - that's why she looks so dirty!)

Exploring the Ambulance.

"I'm not shy!"

Firefighter Lexie.

Ellie and Sparky.

Today was the Brigade's organizational day. All of the soldiers were busy playing in various sports tournaments and they had a fun day for the kids.

They had a fire truck, an ambulance, and a police car there for the kids to check out. (Aren't they always at all of the functions? The kids are still always excited to see them again!)

I think Nick found his calling. You should have heard the sirens going! He was clicking all of the buttons and he even spoke through the loudspeaker in the fire truck. The firefighters were ready to recruit him :)

Our new pets

The kids loved our dog Buster and we were all sad when we had to find him a new home.
We've been "petless" for some months now. I decided that it was time to add some excitement to the house again.

Did we go cute and fuzzy? Cuddly and furry? Nope.

We went creepy and crawly...



Now let's just hope that Nick doesn't let them loose in the school room!! Maybe I should duct tape the top shut??

Imagination Library: Month #3

Here are the books we received this month through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

I think they are going to be tonight's bedtime stories :)

Gymnastics

The girls' gymnastics class is full of kids of various ages this year. They seemed to have a great time and they got quite the workout!!

First Day is Done!!

We made it through the first day of school. It went okay since the kids were super-motivated. The only problem I had is the same as always - what to do with Nick??

He won't sit in his high chair for long and he won't play in the play room for long. He's okay for a little while and then he's off to other things on his own which equals trouble. Figuring out what to do with him during the day is going to be the hardest part of putting together my schedule.

Dance Classes

The girls sure are happy to be dancing again. They really enjoy it.

I have fond memories of tap dance class as a kid. I vaguely remember doing the can-can to "Codfish Ball" with a big papier mache fish on my head. I wish I had a picture of that to show the kids!

Unfortunately, my dancing instruction stopped in early elementary school and that's about where my skill level has stayed. I don't dance - unless I've had something to drink. I don't think I've had anything to drink in the last 10 years, so I don't dance :)

There is a Middle Eastern Dance (aka Belly dancing) class for adults which is offered at the same time the kids are in class. I enjoy watching them (and listening to the jingling sounds they make as they dance), but I would never have the guts to do that!!

I remember my mom taking a belly dancing class (I think taught by my tap dance teacher). I'm proud of you mom for belly dancing after having 4 kids!! I wish I was as brave as you :)

For now at least, I will leave the dancing to the kids. Maybe I can talk Andy into some ballroom dancing classes when they are older and we can actually have some time to ourselves!!

School is Starting!!

We start school in the morning.

I should probably be sleeping, but instead I'm doing last minute things: making muffins for breakfast, printing out assignments, clearing off the table, etc.

Am I completely prepared? Do I have a schedule yet? Of course not!

I have no choice but to start and do the best I can over the next few weeks. We will take time off whenever Andy is home. I'll try to get a feel for how long it takes us to do each subject. Hopefully by the end of September I will be able to put together a decent schedule for us to follow. Until then, we will just go with the flow and get as much done as we can. The kids are excited to start and that is all that counts!