Homeschool Preschool 2010

We decided that we are going to homeschool. We love the idea of having a close nit family. Our children being best friends. We can teach them bible (without the high cost of private school). For now this works for our family. I love the idea of being there when the light bulb goes off in there head and they learn something. However I did find myself freaking out about 2 weeks ago. I had thoughts like, Can I really do this? How am I going to make this work? Will they actually learn anything? How will I get all the house work plus spend time with the kids and teach all done in 1 day!? The more I thought about it the more I stressed. I'm a big picture kind of girl - I don't just plan for the week, I plan for the next 5 years. Nathan told me, try it this year and we'll go from there. DUH! I calmed down. This school year also really snuck up on me.... I don't know where the summer went? I had a baby at the end of April... so I guess that can be my excuse???? School started on August 9th here. AUGUST 9th... what in the world! I didn't like that at all... it's still summer. So I'm homeschooling... beauty of it... starts when I say :) Preschool is starting in September :) me happy now! From all the advice that I got from all my homeschooling friends, and the internet, majority say they don't spend much time on preschool. Nathan and I talked about this and decided that we wanted to homeschool preschool and have them be ready for kindergarten. Maybe even ahead of the game? So my plan is to teach preschool to Taylor and incorporate Addy when she shows interest. Like I said I was stressing over the thought of homeschooling and September seemed to be hanging over me... So one day last week I said "Lets do school!" Taylor was so excited! We did the whole weeks work in 2 days. She loved it! So we "officially" started today. LOL again the beauty of homeschool - it's on our time frame! In our house we have a formal dining room. We didn't have a table for it, the room was really hodpodge mess and junk cluttered in there... oh and Nathan kept his guitars in there too. So we decided to make this our school room. Everything isn't done but we will grow with this each year I'm sure.

First "official" day of Pre-K

Taylor 4 years old

First "official" day of preschool when she wants too :P

Addison 3 years old

Class Clown to say the least! I have to explain the picture... I was trying to get the girls to take pictures next to our door for their "first day" picture. They were not cooperating b/c they wanted to eat cheetos and not take pictures. So I gave them 1 hoping that would get a smile enough for a good pic.... I said to Addy "smile" and this is what she gives me! Unprovoked... My Addy.... oh goodness, child you crack me up! Yes that is cheetos in her mouth, yummy! I thought it was hilarious, that I am trying to get first day of school pics and this is Addison's reaction. We'll see how she does. :)

Our schoolroom walking in the doorway from the living room. Nathan's guitars are still being kept in here until we really need the space. And my beautiful bistro table that I wanted for such a long time... I believe is going to have to be sold on Craigslist and get a more practical table. It works for now.

View of room from kitchen. Bulletin board, days of the week, month and weather. Pics of my cute kiddos.


Left of the bulletin board. Chalk board (we did the letter B today) That is their learning posters. Where we hang up what they are learning that week. This week's theme is the jungle. Addy got all excited and said "oooh boy! I want to go to the jungle! I want to take all my friends!" :) I think I'm going to really like homeschooling! If she were at school I would not of heard her reaction and what she said.


Addison standing on Taylor's desk. I am on the look out for more desks!

A place to display our work. Ok seriously. I have to add more hooks. It is already full! :) That is our letter tree from the book Chicka Chicka Boom book. We are going to add the letter that we learned that week to our tree.

Our letter B scavenger hunt today. We searched the house for things that started with the letter B. Book, Boots, Bottle, Block, Butterfly. That is Taylor's picture that she colored today and how she wrote her name. :)

I am so glad that I am blogging (again). I really want to be able to remember these sweet things that are going on in our life. The way that Taylor first wrote her name. My plan is to have my blog printed each year to have as a family scrapbook. :) Heres to planning! lol

Goodwill Finds & Naptime

Today the kiddos and I were scooter-pootin' (gotta love my Gramma) this is the term that she used to run around town... with no set thing in mind. Scooter-Pootin'.... you just never know whats going to happen or what you are going to come across. (I figured I had to give a definition to that term if you weren't in my family) So... we were scooter-pootin' around and I decided to go into Goodwill, looking for a certain book. (I was on the phone with my friend while going into Goodwill and see says Oh I have that book you can have it SWEET!!! That's free baby!) so we go in anyway. You never know what you are going to find. And honestly I never really know how long I'm going to be in there. I usually just pass over the toys b/c it's usually hodpodged junk and broken things that I don't want. Well we SCORED today!!! They had a ton of princess dolls, this princess house thing, a Dora scooter (not pictured) and a Dora suitcase. The princess dolls are around $20 brand new and yes that is 2 Aurora dolls. She is kind of like a stuffed animal. She was only $.99 so I bought both! When you have 3 little girls more than one princess doll is a great idea! We were at the disney store recently and Taylor wanted that Aurora doll but at $15 I told her no... see patience pays off. :) Anywho... all the dolls look almost brand new (some of the dolls hair is loved... but it would get that way anyway, right??) I got all that for $20!!!! That princess castle/bed thingy.... I almost bought for Taylor for her birthday at Target and it was $20.... drumroll, please... I got it for $1.91! I am sooo glad that I didn't buy it brand new. I love finding deals and saving money... now our girls are spoiled already... but seriously who could pass this up? The girls were obviously excited I couldn't keep them out of the picture... CUTE! So I had to share my finds for the day.

Here is Addy in all her princess heaven...

Every girls dream....

Can you tell Taylor was excited!?

Sooo cute!

Jackson hanging out... is it ok for boys to play with Princess dolls?

So of course when we get home (from Goodwill with all the princess excitment) it's naptime... Taylor and Addy were playing so nice and quiet with their princess dolls, I decided to let them stay up. A choice that I knew I would regret around 6:00 and love at 8:00! So I told them they could play quietly in their room. So they had their princesses taking a nap. Everytime I would peek at them they would making snoring noises. LOL

That's Addy hiding in that Dora pop up game thing.... I guess it was her tent... not sure.

Girls playing thats their princesses all lined up sleeping.

Both of them in the "tent"

Payton sleeping - so sweet!

Addy's Birthday

In case you are wondering how we celebrate their birthdays...This year we had a joint birthday party for Taylor and Addison (see previous post) They wanted the same theme... so we did it together. On their actual birthday we have a family dinner and cake of course! This is when we give them their present from us. So Addison's 3rd birthday was August 9th. We had a family dinner and gave her, her presents. Addy was so sweet and excited. Perfect age for the excitement and really getting that its their special day. The girls are really big into Toy Story right now. So we got Addy Toy Story toys... say that 5 times fast!

Taylor and Addy excited about her presents.

Addy got a Jessie doll

Do you think she liked it?


Addy also got a Jessie towel.
Playing with her Jessie doll.

Me and the Birthday Girl.

Blowing out her candle. She really enjoyed doing this

Eating her yummy birthday dessert

Payton really liked it too

Jackson hanging out. He is the most sweetest, happiest baby! :)

Toy Story Birthday Party

For the girls birthdays we have a family dinner on their actual birthday and a party later with their friends. This year we did Taylor and Addison's birthday parties together b/c they both wanted a Toy Story theme. Taylor turned 4 on July 13th and Addison turns 3 on August 9th. So we had their party in between their birthdays.

I recently got a cricut :) my new best friend. So I made their decorations. Please forgive the photos b/c I totally forgot to take pics of the decorations until after the party and I had taken some down.... URGH! Oh well better late than never!

Here are the cupcakes, well whats left over LOL. I made the cupcake toppers. I asked the girls which character they wanted for their party. They LOVE Jessie but the chose some of the other characters too.

Birthday banner I made. It actually turned out tooo big. I wanted it hanging on the mantle... Oh well. Mostly everything I made and planned didn't turn out the way that I thought... but it did all come together nice.



I used the girls Toy Story toys for the decor as well... Here are Woody, Buzz and Jessie hanging out on the table.

The mantle not what I planned but had to go with plan B.

Daddy and Payton and one of the birthday girls, Addy.

Here is Taylor. I made each of the girls a bow with Jessie on it. They loved them! I also bought Taylor and Addison matching Jessie shirts and Jessie flip flops.

Payton showing off her Toy Story tattoos. Each kid got a tattoo when the arrived to the party.

Addy picking out her tattoo. See her flip flops :) sooo cute!

I had Toy Story coloring sheets for the kids to color. And then we played a game that I made up to go along with the Toy Story theme... Each child got a potato head and we put all the pieces in the middle of the circle and see who can make the silliest potato head. It was cute and the kids loved it! By the way I bought all the potato heads on craigslist for $5! Score!

Charlie and his Potato Head

Meredith and her Potato Head

Katelynn putting her Potato Head together

Payton sticking her tongue out like her Potato Head

Taylor and her Potato Head

Addy and her Potato Head

Lots of Potato Head pics but I couldn't resist the kids were so cute and very proud of what they made. :) Next was Pin the Tail on Bullseye. Taylor of course didn't want to play. Here she is with her Daddy's help.

Dustin cracked me up playing this game. He is moving the blind fold so that he could see where to put Bullseyes tail! lol

Charlie playing the game.

Sweet Birthday girl

Daddy and the Birthday girls (best pic I could get)

Presents... Taylor was so sweet. She came up to me after all the games were done. "Mommy, may I please open my presnets?" They had a great time!

They each got these cute Toy Story coloring things.

I love this picture of Addy. She is ready for that cupcake.

Ok... Taylor oh my dear sweet Taylor... She doesn't like cupcakes (or anything choclate and sweet besides sugar cookies) I know! Weird... anywho but she didn't like having "Happy Birthday" sang to her either. I think being the center of attention... ??? Who really knows. So that is why she is in Nathan's lap with that look on her face.

Taylor didn't want to blow out her candle and said that she wanted Addy to do it for her. (We talked about this before hand) And of course Addy is all over it!

Addy blowing her candle out.

Payton could not wait for her cupcake... she kept asking me for one. She really enjoyed it too! :)

This is how she ate it! LOL

Sweet Taylor

The girls playing with their new toys and wearing their new Jessie pajamas.

We had a good time and enjoyed our celebrating our girls' birthday with our frineds. Thank you everyone for coming! You really blessed us!