baking and art week 2

 

This week we made these Cookie Dough Bites.

I am not at all a photographer and am by far neat about anything,

as you can tell by the drizzled chocolate over them.

But they tasted amazing!!!!

The best thing about them was, there was no

baking involved and they only took about 20 minutes to make.

Perfect for little hands.

The worst thing about them was, they didn't last very long.

 

 

 

For art we just cut out pumpkins and decorated them.

Buster had to decorate one for preschool, so

Bubbas did one too.

 

Baking and Art week 1

When we started schooling this year I had decided I wanted to 

make baking and art a priority.

Bunny told me from the start she didn't

want to bake. Although I love it,

she does not enjoy it at all.

Bubbas jumped in right away and told

me he wanted to bake. So we have been

trying to have a baking and art class about every

other week.

I am a couple weeks behind, but I am going to try

to post pics of the projects/recipes here

so I can look back and remember what we

did.

The first recipe we tried was chocolate chip cookie dough fudge.

It was good, but I would recommend you not

use all the sugar it calls for. They were so

sweet they actually hurt our teeth.

You notice Bunny couldn't stay away.

He was supposed to wait until I took the picture

to shove it in his mouth.

For art we talked about primary colors.

I let them mix colors with icing and food coloring.

Then they experimented with paint. 

Mixing primary colors together to see
what other colors they could come up with.

A day of firsts.......(a couple weeks late)

Duckie had his first day of a new job.

He decided not to go back to school this fall

because he wasn't sure he wanted to stick with his 

accounting major. Then got hired as a full time

teller in a bank.

Buc's first day of 9th grade.

Bunny's first day of 6 grade. Still homeschooling.

Bubba's first day of 1st grade,

and not happy about getting back into the swing of things.

He's also still homeschooling.

Buster's first day of preschool. 

This is definitely not Sissy's first day of being cute.

Learning to read & Day 3 of our thankful tree



I'm proud to say I have another reader in the house.

Bubbas can officially read.

He's mighty proud of himself.

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I'm thankful for...............

Dad- Great kids

Mom- My family

Duckie- Sleep

Buc- My bow

Bunny- Dad taking me hunting

every day this week

Tator- A new family that is good

Bubbas- Daddy taking me places

Buster- My trucks

Gee, if it wasn't for daddy being on vacation,

and the deer being in full rut,

what would we blog about?

Brownie sundaes and hatching triops

Sorry I haven't been back to fill you in on Tator's birthday evening. Tuesday night was rough. She came home in a mood and I knew it was going to be a hard evening. She got mad about little things here and there all evening. There was a lot of yelling, running through the house and slamming things. I tried to be patient and for the most part I was. But after her continually calling me a horrible mother and telling me how I have ruined her birthday and ruined her life I could only take so much. I very calmly told her she needed to go to bed. When she finished shoving her bed against the wall over and over, she did. She put her pajamas on and got into bed. I told her if she didn't stop yelling at me I was leaving her room before she was even in bed and I would see her in the morning. As she continued to yell I leaned over, kissed her head, told her I loved her, then left the room. I sat outside her door until she calmed down, then came down stairs and ate half the dessert I had made for her.

I had a hard time sleeping that night, wondering if I had handled things right. We got up the next morning and she was fine, she was back to the same mostly pleasant attitude she's been in the last 6 to 8 weeks.

Wednesday night we had AWANA so we weren't home to do anything. So today I made brownies, and although we had a rough evening, we made it. We had brownie sundaes to celebrate her 8th birthday.

I don't know how we'll handle her birthday party this weekend. Last year we had a surprise party at grandma's house. I know I won't be telling her about it before hand.

I have also decided that next year I'll be having a party for her at the beginning of October. She will never be expecting it then.

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Update on the hatching triops. We went from having 3 babies swimming around in the bowl to 5 then down to 1. I don't think we're doing something right.

We'll see how it goes

Tomorrow is Tator's birthday. I'm not at all excited about this and let me tell you why.

About three weeks ago her attiude changed. When I really thought about it I could almost pinpoint it right back to a certain conversation we had around that time. She was going on and on about her birthday and how she wanted her party and what she wanted for her birthday. I reminded her that her attitude would determine how her birthday went. After 6 months of pretty bad raging I did not have a problem telling her that. My apologies to anyone who doesn't agree.

My fear is that her attitude changed because of her birthday and will change right back as soon as her party is over. Her change for the better has made things so nice around here and she is pleasant to be around. I pray she is really changing and starting to heal, but only time will tell.
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Grandma and grandpa brought Bubbas a kit for some hatchingTriassic Triops home from vacation. Bubbas and Bunny had fun setting them up today. We are on day one and they are still eggs. We have never done anything like this before. I'll keep you posted.

Learing about Ireland and Germany

Last week Bubbas and I studied Ireland and Germany.

I am having so much fun with this.

For supper one evening we had Irish Roast Pork with Potato Stuffing,

Scones, and an Irish Apple Cake for desert.

I got all the recipes from here.

It was really good, but different.

Not a real colorful dish, but I didn't use fresh sage and thyme like it called for.

I was afraid if my kids saw something green in it they wouldn't eat it.

I just used the seasoning, I'm sure if I would have used fresh it would have looked prettier.

Then later in the week we made a German cookie.

 I didn't think to take a picture right when they were done so the cookies,

 like the Irish Apple cake were gone before I knew it.

Europe here we come.....

 

 After a lot of debating and praying I choose to enroll Bunny and Bubbas in an online school this year. Part of me was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up with everything they wanted me to do with Bubbas, but the other part of me was so excited not to have to worry about what we were going to do everyday or finding the time to put together all the lessons myself.

I have to say it was a great choice.

As soon as Bunny figured out how to get her lessons every day she became a lot more independent. She also has 2 online classes a day. In the morning she has a math class and in the afternoon she has a literature class.

Her and I have always struggled doing math together so this is great for both of us. While she's in class having someone else teach her math (someone she won't argue with) it gives me time to really work with Bubbas. She's really enjoying the change this year.

I have to admit I was very unsure about homeschooling Bubbas this year. He is so hyper and hates anything that has to do with school. But he is doing great. I am really enjoying watching him mature and learn new things everyday. I decided to do Kindergarten with him again this year. He did real well last year with Kindergarten math but really struggled with phonics.

We are really enjoying history. We started out learning about the different continents and the countries in them. This week we are talking about the continent of Europe, and the countries Spain and England. A couple nights ago we had a Spanish dinner to go with our lesson. I choose a chicken and Spanish rice casserole and a quick and easy apple tart. Almost everyone enjoyed the dinner and Bubbas is really enjoying telling everyone about what he has learned.

One Hail of a Storm

Last week we had a huge hail storm go through our area.

When it started to hail I thought, how neat I can show

 the kids what hail looks like. Expectally Bubbas who has no idea

 what hail even is.  So I quickly opened the door to show them the ground

 and the balls of hail. It started to get darker and darker and the hail got

 heavier and heavier. When it was over with this is what our yard looked like.

I have never seen anything like it before.

It was hailing so hard it created a stream down our sidewalk

and through the yard down to the road.

Notice the road, it looks like it had just snowed.

When it was all over with Bunny, Tator and Bubbas

thought they'd go out and try to shovel it around.

It was just starting to get dark as the school bus came to drop Tator off.

We were waiting at the door for her so she wouldn't take her time getting into

the house. When she jumped off the bus she started running as fast as

she could to the door. When she got inside she ran up to me and threw her

 arms around my waist and held on real tight. When I touched the top of her head

she was shaking so bad I couldn't believe it. I have only seen her scared one time

in the entire five and a half years she's been here. I pushed her head back to see

 her face, she was crying and was as white as a ghost. I couldn't believe it.

She was scared.

 Really, truly, scared!

 She said she started to get scared on the bus and was really scared about

having to walk up the drive. I held her tight for awhile and then she calmed

 down. Once she saw everything was ok she went to the door and watched

 it hail with the other kids.

I felt so bad for her, but also excited because she had actually felt fear.

   

Homeschooling Bubbas

   I started homeschooling because I love to be with my kids. I hated dropping them off at school everyday. It seemed like the school got them all day and I only got to spend 4 hours a night with them. Half of that time was in the car as I ran them from practices or some kind of lessons whatever events they were in at that time. Then trying to squeeze in homework; the whole time trying to understand why they even had it when they had just been at school for 7 hours. So when Bunny started with her school anxieties and she asked to come home I jumped all over that. Of course since she was coming home Buc wanted to come home too.

  

   So about two and a half years ago we started homeschooling. The first year was horrible. I spent a lot of time crying, but we made it through. Everyone said " the first year is the worst" and they were right. We did make it through and the next year went much better. This year Buc went back to junior high so that lightened the load a little.

   Bubbas started kindergarten this year and that has been a challenge. I had done Kindergarten with Tator the year she turned 5 and she picked it up right away, but Bubbas was a whole different story. I was used to teaching the girls who would sit and listen. This boy thing is a whole new experience. He hates it and I have to admit I wasn't really enjoying it either. I debated just waiting another year. Trying when he was a year older, but I pushed on. In the beginning he hated phonics. He wanted to call every letter K, because as he would say "its just easier to call them all that."

   Now I'm happy to say he's getting it. He has even started adding, which in the beginning I never would have thought we'd get to that this year. I use Christian Liberty Press for math and as soon as he has mastered all his phonics were starting the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write program. I am so excited. I hope to have him reading by this summer.