Records

I am sure I have pictures to post if I wanted, but for now, I think I just need to get back in the habit of keeping some kind of documentation of what we do. We have been using our little calendar but blogging obviously provides more room for detail.
Niki and I played on Starfall yesterday for a couple of hours. She hasn't been interested in this website lately. Upon re-introduction to Starfall.com we discovered Niki can now read! Amazing how it just happens. We watch Word World, and the LEAP videos often, and we read daily but, who can say why everything actually clicked suddenly? I can say there was no coercion or pressure put on Niki to learn to read at the age of 3 and 4 as there was for Mady when she attended private school. Niki also loves workbooks. We worked on some mathy sort of pages yesterday as well. There are some blank pages in the workbook which Niki filled with her own made up story in her own made up language that seems to consist of the traditional alphabet. We all painted pictures yesterday. Niki painted some rainbows and the boys painted, well, the boys painted lots of things. We also began a new book titled "Fever 1793" about a little girl living during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Niki wanted to go bike riding with me last night. Instead of leaving our neighborhood for a long winding stretch of hilly road, we stayed here and I rode a short 3 times (3 Miles) around our neighborhood with Niki, which seems like a long distance for such a little girl. So to put everything in schooly terms, we had a bit of history, math, reading, writing, PE and art. I believe that is a full day people.
Luke and Ezra and I played Memory and color Bingo. We played them our way since Luke and Ezra are a bit young for following "rules" to board games. Ezra also decided he needed to paint some of his die cast cars...on the laminate flooring in his room while I was helping Niki on Starfall. There were tire tracks all over the floor!
Niki and Luke have a pretty nasty cough so we are headed to the library for some books today and maybe to a friends house (who already has the nasty cough.) Mady should be home Wednesday and we can begin her new writing videos. I know she will LOVE that.
Next week we have plans to hit Port Aransas with Nenaw while she is on vacation. We are staying in a hotel, a rare event for this camping family. As a matter of fact, I think the boys have spent one night in a hotel in their 3 years. Consider all the trips we have been on all over Texas. This will be an exercise in finding what is socially acceptable behavior for Texas hotels.
The weekends around here have become extremely busy. There are so many free outdoor concerts in the area and our family loves to be outside the music is an added bonus. We have tickets (these ones weren't free) this weekend to Concerts in the Garden in Ft. Worth at the Botanic Gardens. There will be a laser show!
So, off to the library and visiting we go!

Black Fly

I had never heard the song Black Fly by ZZ Top until I looked it up on LimeWire. What have we been doing you ask? Cleaning house and taking photos with a cheap little macro attachment I found on Amazon. The attachment will only work on still life shots bc it is basically a magnifying glass that can be attached to a camera. Pix look cool though. The Fly shots are cool. Click on them to get the full effect. The photo of the Christmas Carol program with the last letters of the word Christmas cut off, is the one taken with the macro lens. It is a truer image. My camera would not take the photo that closely without the flash, which washed out the true colors on the program.

Last night we went to see a production of "A Christmas Carol" put on by the folks @ a local church to help raise money for 4 local charities. It was an awesome production. The actors/actresses were amazing and had to have put a great deal of time into the production. The set was equally well done. Unfortunately, the boys did not do as well @ this play as they did @ last weeks "Rudolph." We still have the seasons "Nutcracker" to attend next weekend, only the girls to that one, I know better!

Today we are off to visit some friends. We will share the camera, make some cookies, and talk about gnomes. Yes, gnomes. I like gnomes (and fairies) and so does Logan. I found a 12", inexpensive, wooden gnome while I was Christmas shopping, so I bought it. I am bringing it to him today.

Ok, this was just a lame post so I could post these pix. Should have just posted them without the commentary. Rambling now...not sure why I am even awake at this hour of the AM.

Family Traditions

I guess I have been taking pictures mostly of the kids faces and not too much of what we have been doing! We have been swimming with our friends a few times in the past week but I can't keep an eye on everyone and take pictures so there are no pictures :(

We haven't really had too many guests since everyone has been ill. Good news, Luke (aka Pookie) is feeling much better and the stomach virus seems to have subsided today. It will take another day to make sure he really is fine. Today our cousin Danielle arrives from Michigan to visit for the 4th of July! Good news, there will be no burn ban this year so we can set off fireworks @ our house! The Forestry Service determines whether or not a burn ban is needed based on a dryness scale and each county reserves the right to put a burn ban in place even if the Forestry Service does not issue a burn ban-our county just announced we will have fireworks this year! In case you can't tell I am excited. We haven't had fireworks in a few years thanks to that dryness scale!

So we are almost ready to go meet Danielle who has agreed to do some letterboxing with me. We are going to eat @ the restaurant that serves "the best hamburgers in Texas." Then letterbox and maybe head to the tattoo shop. (The kids won't be along for the tattoos.)

I will take the camera and maybe get some shots of the tattoos!

New Year's Eve

I know some of you are curious to see the pix from New Year's Eve. Let me just say, I didn't take many pix and if I had they would have been blurry...if they weren't blurry it wasn't me taking them bc I was slightly inebriated and honestly I had a very enjoyable night. What did I learn? When you take a picture of blue silly string stuck to the ceiling, unless you have an awesome camera, you can't really see it in the pic! What did Niki learn? I hope Niki fell asleep before she learned too much!

C'est la vie!