Silly September

How could we have a silly post without Ben?

Although I'm becoming more and more concerned about the effects of age segregation in Church, my children still attend there own little classes for now... but I digress... that is for another post.

In Ali's class, each week in September was a different silly day. Silly hair, silly shirt, silly outfit, silly hat. She was sick last week for the silly hat (and boy we had a silly one) and this week for silly outfit we'll be in Alabama, so here is our silly post. She won third place for silly hair and first for silly shirt. We had a lot of fun making it together... pulling out all my scraps, sorting M & M's, hot glue, & crafting.... yep it was silly fun.

Happy Fall!

As a tradition is continued, we made a massive owl to mark the new season....

Mr. Howard was our owl friend last year and now I introduce to you the bigger, Mr. Howell. He'll make appearances here and there until the Day of Thanks.

Fantastic Handyman

Meet our specimens... what a lovely color

That shell thing was home to some large lake creature, until a bird had it for dinner. Now it is our specimen.

We house some live critters in Ella's old baby food jars (holes in lids)....

My crazy ideas come to life with my manly carpenter husband. Just think, if he actually had space and tools... oh, what could I come up with for our school room?!

My idea + Dan (and Charlie) + Lowes = an AWESOME specimen box. It even has adjustable slots for larger pieces. I saw something similar at my favorite vintage store, but they wanted a ridiculous amount of $$ for it.

The children and I collect nature daily and it finds home everywhere, but now it can be neatly displayed and learned about in an organized manner. This goes great with the magnify glasses and field guides I have for their stockings this Christmas.

Can one be excited about being a nerd?

I'm a little giddy about our larger than life (4ft x 6ft) chalkboard.... :)

Look Who...

HAS LIBRARY CARDS OF THEIR VERY OWN!!!

I hadn't planned on getting the kids their own cards yet, but we actually hit an all time limit of library items and NEEDED to get them today so we could check out. But I'm glad I did because they were brilliantly excited all morning and bursting to tell Dan when we came home.

It is a special day indeed, and now that I think about it, as much time as we spend there, it is perfectly fitting.

Shapes & Such

Cubes, pyramids, triangles, squares, rectangles, circles..... fun with shapes.

Trying to teach on two levels at the same time... while remaining relevant to both... this activity hit the nail on the head.

A Boy and His 3rd Day

This lego cake was a lot of fun to make. Halved large and small marshmallows atop cut pieces of pound cake.

And his gift this year was legos, so I spelled his name on a cake with legos. He loved it!

And a hat to mark the (3) occasion.

All the commotion was exciting, but it was early for these sleepy eyes.

This was the first thing he (& Dad) built with his new lego set. He's standing infront of the streamer wall made for him to walk through to get into the living room.

His requested favorite breakfast... Dutch Babies.... my favorite too!

We also got him a cowboy hat because he's been asking for cowboy attire which is also what he wants to be for Halloween.

Then it was off to Lakeland Family Fun Center. We did this last year with him, but he asked to go again this year too.

Then off to his requested lunch... Five Guys... he doesn't even like the hamburgers, he just wanted to throw the peanuts on the floor!

After Sugar Rush tradition, we went home for a nap, then his requested dinner was my homemade mac and cheese with peas. Grammy & Pap came for dinner before our friends, the song and CAKE.

A toad that wanted to join the party.

A Bittinger Playdate

School Days & A Dream

It scares me... BUT, I love love love being teacher at home. Educating my children, so far has been one of the biggest delights. We don't know how long this will go, in the formal sense, but for now it is a stage of life I'll enjoy to the fullest. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would want to keep my children home instead of public school AND never in billion years would I have thought that I would truly enjoy it as much as I do and anticipate for now.

I secretly want to be a farmer one day... really. It seems these two worlds of raising families and crops parallel... well, I haven't actually done the crops *yet*. Very humbling it is to be a mother and perhaps more so to be a teacher.... but then again is there really a difference? Farming (I imagine), mothering, teaching... sounds roughly along the same vein.... all needing tending with love, wrapped in service. One cannot compare plant life with human life, but I cannot help noticing the Creator of them both miraculously grow them... while one serves the other, it in turn gets served.

For now, I most evidently realize this miracle...

My children grow toward their Source, the Son, just like plants... all while His servant waters them both.

It scares me, but excites me more.

Welcome to Our Home, Gators

This is a little retention area in the parking lot across the street from our building. It is normally a grassy area, but with recent rains, fills with over flow.

Hearing a rumor that FOUR gators had found new homes here the children and I ran as fast as we could, camera in hand, to investigate said rumor.

Twas true, except we counted three. Loving the thought of seeing nature naturally we stared long and tossed stones (lightly of course, not to harm, just friendly interaction from a safe distance ;)

Little Guy... Ben's favorite.

Rains stopped, water drained... we said farewell to our reptilian friends with an open invitation to return another rainy day.