Friends

We ended up spending 2 days with friends this week. Mady leaves to visit with some family, for a month, tomorrow. Even though we wanted a quiet week @ home just visiting with our cousin Danielle, Mady needed to see some of her friends one more time. Of course when we left there was a silent protest for us not to go which ended with us leaving anyway.

So Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with the family in the evenings and Thursday we went to do a science experiment with some more of our friends. Mady and Ezra played in the cornstarch all afternoon while Niki and Luke chose to test it out for a few minutes and then clean up and play in the multitudes of toys in the Rebecca's garage! 4th of July came and we thought the fireworks ban had been put in place. A quick call to the courthouse cleared up the misinformation and we were off to purchase a small fortune in gun powder filled, exploding cardboard! We hung out with the family while watching our own fireworks show which ended up lasting 2 hours! We had a few technical difficulties...and Ezra and Luke difficulties...and wind difficulties. Ok it wasn't smooth sailing but we all had a blast! Family traditions are a major part of our extended family life as well as just plain fun to do. Dom took the girls to watch a movie this afternoon then onto Home Depot for some math lessons, which is actually measuring for a backyard deck.

Deeply and importantly talented

or maybe more like amusingly and superficially talented. Our family does a little bit of everything and this weekend is a clear demonstration of our family doing a little bit of everything. I submit, we are amusingly and superficially talented and I think we like it that way!

The girls played XBox 360-the game is Ghost Recon, the new one, whatever it is numbered. Dom taught them how to work the controls and Mady and Niki are truly having a blast, pun intended.

I know in the boys baby books there was a sticker for "Ate with a spoon!" Everything in our house is a finger food to them, that is until now. They are using utensils now. Why just tonight when we were enjoying our Pomegranate tea, Ezra used his fork! Luke did use his spoon though and once we managed to pry the fork from Ezra's cute little hand, he was happy to use a spoon as well.

My sister and dad built supports for the 4 walls of the future east Texas cabin. Soon after watching the supports being built we watched Mady drive Niki, Luke, and Ezra around on the mower. It was a warm day and I am so thankful we were able to be outside. Our family loves to be outdoors, so being inside on any day is not as fun as being outside.

We also made it to watch the band play this weekend. This was the first time the boys have gone. Ezra examined every move Bill made while he was singing and playing his guitar. Luke seemed slightly overwhelmed but by the end of the night he was running around and dancing.

Mady and I went to hang out @ the bookstore this Saturday for a bit. She found a computer game in which you take care of horses in a stable and we bought a book with some nice illustrations of various animals.

We bought the board game BLOKUS @ a local comic book store. I have only played this game with Mady one time so far but she loves it and best of all Niki is able to play it too. The rules are easy to understand and the pieces are all kinds of neat shapes so it is fun for exploring with. It is a fun strategy game to aid in logic and reasoning. We also found these fun websites this week for mathy stuff. If anyone else has any math suggestions or ideas please pass them on. Math is one of my biggest concerns for Mady. She has struggled with it in PS so I want to make sure she is well prepared.

This week we are going to the Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo and I think we may travel a couple hours north to visit a cotton farm!

New Hobby: Letterboxing

OMG! Our unschooling group decided we wanted to try letterboxing, so we went on our first letterbox quest today. We all had a blast! We searched for 3 boxes in Keller and located all 3. We then went on to stamp in the hidden book and place the letterbox stamps in our notebooks. I think this will be an awesome way to learn about our state history without cracking a textbook! Many of the letterboxes are planted by historical markers and in beautiful parks.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely, so immensely in fact, we have decided to recruit my sister and Aunt Julie to go with us this weekend to locate boxes in Fort Worth. Today we used some stamps that Sarah had laying around her house. Tomorrow we are planning on trying to carve our own stamps. That will be an adventure in itself!

We have another busy week ahead. I do plan on spending sometime soon trying to load more pix on the web. I discovered it takes a great deal more time to upload pix than these sites suggest. I think the entire world must try to upload pix @ the same time...ah, frustrating.

In other family news, Dom has decided the kids need to do formal math. I am trying to rescue Mady (she is the only one old enough to be subjected to this currently,) by telling Dom that we can help her memorize the multiplication and division facts up to the 12's (she does know how the process of each works) and then we can send her to an Algebra tutor. For me, that is acceptable and Mady has agreed.

Also, everyone keeps asking what I would like for Christmas. I told Dom I want a zip line to fly through the air on, I think he thinks I am more crazy than he originally thought! If you have no intention of giving a person what they ask for, why ask? Oh well, I just want some more fun stuff to do with the kids!

I think we walked 5 miles today. I am so tired-off to bed!