First craft

In an attempt to add some fun to our homeschool routine I decided to add a weekly craft.  Since this is the first week and we are still learning each others names, we made name tag necklaces.  Ok ok, we made them because I found a bunch of crafts off oriental trading for a Very good price and this was one of them. 

First Day of School

I think (although I'm not sure) that we all survived our first day of school for the year.  The kids were all so excited.  Like really really excited.  The oldest made signs showing what grade they are now in.  Joseph is in 2nd, Derek in 1st, Lorelei is doing pre-k work.  Christian and Jason are in monster school.  This is where they teach each other their personal tips on how to be a better monster.  They have both already learned so much.

I had made each kid a little bin filled with school supplies.  Today we started off school by decorating each with their names and other stuff.

Baptism, Birthdays, and Bunkbed

Last May my parents came out for Joseph's baptism.  I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted, but I'm glad I remembered to get this one.

Since we live in a 3 bedroom house and knew baby #6 would be here this year I was determined to figure out a better space saving plan.  I saw a bunch of triple bunk beds online that you could buy; however, they were well over my price range.  I found $10 plans and decided it was something we could do with my parents help.  We had some wonderful friends in the branch who loaned/helped us use their tools and truck to pick up the wood.  As usual, I wish I had taken more pictures of the process.  Getting one of Frank helping was a good one to get.

My parents were great sports to spend 3 days of their time at my house working on these.  Total costs from wood, to stain, to plans came to just under $300. 

We've had these bunks for 2 1/2 months now and they are still very much loved.  They are also extremely sturdy.  In case people are wondering who sleeps on which bed, Derek is on the top, Joseph the middle and Jason as of 2 days ago is on the bottom. 

My parents trip had them here on mother's day.  That was fun for me.  My siblings helped pitch in on a gift that I hoped my mother would like.  Sometimes watching your mom cry is a good thing ;)

They were also here for Joseph's birthday.  My mother made Joseph the Harry Potter robes he'd been wanting.  And Derek bought him the owl webkinz. 

All the kids very excited about Joseph's knex set.

Last Feb the oldest 3 started taking Karate lessons. Here the boys have recently gotten their yellow belts. 


This reading picture pretty much sums up our entire summer. 

 

 

Derek's 7th birthday. 

It's a Girl

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Catch Up

October 25th, 2011 Lorelei turned 4. She asked for a pink cake and got one.
And she got a couple of other things.

Nov. 14th, 2011 Christian turned 3. He asked for an orange cake with orange frosting.

Here he is with his new present, Green Crocodile who still follows him all around the house. Green crocodile is a webkinz which my kids all love.

I took this picture of the kids and thought it was really cute. I'm not sure if I liked the color scheme going on with the kids or what, but I thought I knew a way to make it even better- add the missing kid.

Sometimes our best intentions really don't turn out.

2011 saw our very first solo Thanksgiving. Here's me playing... err prepping the turkey.

Here are all the kids watching me with the turkey.Ready to eat. I will say that dinner turned out very yummy and I actually had fun cooking everything with Frank. Derek looked at this picture while I uploaded it for this blog and said, "Oh that was our yummy dinner." So I must have done something right. :)

On thanksgiving day, Derek caught a toad. I wished I had gotten his face in this picture to capture how ecstatic he was about this. He named the toad Dirty and tried to feed him and whatnot for the next couple of weeks. It was a huge tragedy when we discovered him dead a few weeks later. Dirty was buried in our backyard with a pot over the grave to mark the spot. Joseph is already asking how long do we have to wait until he's just bones so we can dig him up.
Some times I've had people comment or ask how you (general you) can have more than 2 or 1 or whatever kids. They say things like "3 is hard because I only have two hands". When I look at this picture I think of those comments.

Because we live so far from family I spend a lot of time on the phone. I try to tell family the funny things my kids have done or just try to describe my kids in general. I'm really at a loss for words when speaking of Jason. I can't put all the pictures I have of him up, suffice it to say many are not appropriate for the internet.

Ok, I get the cars, and the trucks, and the lining things up, but I don't get cup of noodles he pulled out of the cupboard to put with them.
yogurt anyone? I get so tired of cleaning this up I implemented a new rule for the other kids. No yogurt unless Jason is napping.

Jason has been climbing since he was tiny. And I guess he likes to sit in things??

Who needs to buy their kids their own special chairs complete with embroidered names? They just need to get a big pot.
At some point in January we decided to pull the boys out of public school to start homeschooling. It's not perfect, but I believe it's going well and I'm surprised at home well I have enjoyed it. Sortly after we started Aunt Natasha talked the my older boys on the phone about Owl Pellets and then sent a kit with some pellets for the boys to investigate. They found hundreds of little bones and spent hours looking at them.
Here they are sorting the bones in their homemade museum.


In February Grandma and Grandpa McQuade came for a short visit. I remember right before they left to snatch a picture.



And last, but not least I've uploaded one video. I believe it's from a bit ago. I like it because it shows the interactions between the kids really well.