Weekly Wrap Up - Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Well this was a nice, quiet week for us. Just the week we needed. Seth woke up Monday morning fever free and stayed that way, thank goodness!! He was still quite a bit sluggish on Monday though so we did not make it through a full day of school. We tried...but Seth just didn't have the energy to think.

Monday night was a pretty bad stormy night and when we woke up it was still raining hard and our whole place looked like a lake!! They issued a warning that the Trinity River at a point not far from us was going to be flooding and the levels they were predicting were the same levels from a warning almost 5 years ago when officers were going door to door asking for volunteer evacuations because they were expecting this whole area to flood. I remember it all too well because it was a week before I gave birth to Aaron! Yikes!! So needless to say Tuesday we didn't get any school done because I was too busy watching the reports of the river level and making preparations in case we were going to need to hook up the RV and vacate!

Thankfully though as of mid morning the rain stopped, and once it stopped they realized the levels would not be getting as high as they were previous predicting....therefore I was able to breathe again! :-)

I did bring in Seth's Pathways after the rain stopped and we worked his next lesson in that...but that was all the school we got in that day. Seth was feeling much better and was in FULL FORCE...I guess making up for lost time...I probably needed to get him in the classroom to get some discipline on him but it just didn't happen. Oh well...

Wednesday we finally made it back to the classroom! YEAH!! And it really did feel nice. Seth's behavior was still off balance so that was a bit of a challenge...but we did make it through a full day of school!

During our bible story (Grapevine Studies) Alyssa decided to participate and was doing her drawings in her coloring book. She kept saying "Look Mommy. I did it. Just like you!" It was precious! Of course it was scribbles but I she was using the same colors I was!! Aaron said she needed her own bible notebook so on Thursday I pulled out an empty composition book and let her have as her "bible notebook"... of course she is too smart for her own good and realized real quick she didn't have boxes in her notebook like the boys had.



Thursday we finished our blue Pathways book!! YEA!!!! One more reader to go to finish 1st Grade!! Seth is doing so well with these. I am so proud of him. We played a game with the 117 new words that were introduced in the blue book. I put the words on a powerpoint that I showed on the monitor. I had listed on the first slide if he got so many right he got so much money...the more he got right the more money he got! He had to get at least 59 right to earn any money! He ended up getting 96 right and earned $3.00 spending money!!

We also started full swing for potty training this week for Alyssa...oh boy...We got her a special princess potty chair that makes music when you go! We have had some failures (go through about 5 pair of panties a day...) but we have had some successes too!! I don't think it will take long (I really really hope not! LOL!) I am just glad that she is finally showing some interest!! She has shown a little in the past but it never stook. I told her there was no turning back this time!!



Well it looks like the garden survived the rain. Seth's bean sprouts seemed to like it. You can see them below with our new row markers (veggie names written on smooth stones with a sharpie).


I just had to throw this picture in of our spoiled rotten puppy dog!! She looks like she is smiling!! LOL!


And here are some more pics from Seth's party...my friend Tami took some with her camera and sent them to me!! (still haven't gotten hubby to get the others off of his work laptop yet!)















The funnest part of the party, I thought, was when I got in on the action of fighting with the light sabors! Seth and I had a duel!!





LOVE this pic of Seth and Aaron going at it!! :-)


Well I think that does it! (and I'm not two weeks late this time - WHOO HOO!)

Until next time,
Kellie

Weekly Wrap Up: Birthday and Sickness :-(

Ok so now I was over two weeks late on posting a weekly wrap up. Things have just been CRAZY!!! And I have been kind of waiting on my hubby to transfer the pictures from Seth's Birthday party from his laptop to the main computer so that I can access them and it just hasn't gotten done yet. :-( So you will have to deal with the few pics I got with my phone for this post. Hopefully I will post better pics later.

So as you can guess we recently had a birthday in the household. To catch you up from the last wrap up, we had a not so normal school week two weeks ago. We had to cancel school on Tuesday because Seth got a bad earache and so we we made a trip to the dr and he was diagnosed with a DOUBLE ear infection. But the meds kicked in and he bounced back pretty quick. By that Thursday though we were just getting in the very basics because I was busy with party planning and Seth was just too excited. In fact he was trying to get his reading worksheet done and he pressed his hands into his forehead and said "Mommy I just can't concentrate. I am too excited about my party." I decided at that point to go ahead and declare Spring Break for Watson Christian Academy!! LOL!!!

I do have one very cute picture to share from that week of school. Granny has gotten in on the whole letter writing and has started leaving notes in the mailbox for Seth (and we write back and leave it in her mailbox)... anyways on Thursday she left cards for all three kids in the mailbox that morning! They were all three so very excited about their cards! Here they are holding them up for a picture for Granny.




That Saturday was his birthday party and it was a huge success despite the fact that it was STORMING all day!! I originally had planned an outside party because a lot of Seth's friends from co-op and church were coming but we realized as the week progressed that the forcast was just not going to allow it.

So hubby came up with a great idea of having the party in the barn!! We cleared out the cars and mopped the floor and brought in tables and chairs and it worked GREAT!! In fact it worked so well that I think all parties from now on will be in there LOL!! In fact we are already planning a princess farm themed party for Alyssa in April!! It is going to be so cute!!

Ok back to Seth and his party! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy (once again I'm sorry you are having to deal with my pics from my phone today...it's just the way it's going to have to be today!)

It was a Star Wars themed party and Seth wanted the Millennium Falcon as the cake. With the help of my awesome cousin Sarah we actually pulled it off!!! (it took 3 cake mixes and 4 lbs worth of powdered sugar to make the icing.) Here are a couple of pictures of the cake.






Here are the tables set up in the barn.


Of course since it was raining we couldn't leave the big doors up...so we had to have a way of people knowing where the party was when the drove up in the driveway so we made a sign for the door.



Here is a view of the cake/presents table and the food table.


Another view of the cake/presents table (and in this pic the only presents were from grandparents and Mommy and Daddy...once everyone else got there the table was full!)


Here is the food table (we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs). Believe it or now that is the table saw -- LOL!! We just lowered the blade and put a tablecloth over it! It worked very well! :-)


Those were all the pics I got because after that point I was busy blowing up balloons and then having fun at the party! :-)

Seth learned how to ride his bike without training wheels on Sunday...but of course we were too busy helping him learn to get any pics UGH!!

My mom and cousin Sarah stayed for a couple of days after the party and that Monday all the girls went and had a girls day while the boys rode bikes and went to Home Depot and stuff! Alyssa very much enjoyed her first girls shopping day (and really racked up too...she is so spoiled!!) We went to Sam Moon's and Grapevine Mills mall.

Here she is showing off her new headband, pearls and purse she got at Sam Moon!




We ate at Rainforest Cafe. (she looks WAY too grown up in this pic)


I had to throw in this adorable pic of Sarah!!! :-)



And Yes Alyssa did shop until she dropped!!


We also put in our first "real" garden this week!! (some of you might remember my attempt at container gardening...I am determined to learn this skill - LOL!)

Daniel got a good deal on a tiller and we got some plant starters. Then Uncle Adam came up with some seeds and we planted them as well!!

Here is Daddy tilling the ground, working hard! (I helped too but no pics of me LOL!!)



Seth watering the four sections.


I also found two container tomato plants that were just too healthy to pass up. They had lots of green foilage and already had blooms and baby tomatoes!! I am so excited!!!



See the baby tomatoes???


Our last co-op day was the day before Seth's party. In his biology class they made a cd cased greenhouse for pinto bean! It was such a cool idea. When we were planting the garden they were already sprouting so we decided to put them in the ground (along with some more pinto beans). This was just two days after that (7 days after we started the cd case greenhouse).


Unfortunately our week of Spring Break was not all fun :-( I came down with a bad head cold at the same time we decided to do the garden. Thankfully mucinex gave me the energy and drive to get that done but I came in and CRASHED afterwards!! For two days I felt horrible!!

Then on Thursday, Seth's actual birthday he woke up throwing up with a 103 degree fever!! Of course this was the last day of his antibiotic from the ear infection so we headed back to the dr. Thankfully he tested negative for strep and flu and ears looked good. Dr figured he got that nasty stomach bug that is going around. He had fever spikes through Saturday :-(. Thankfully yesterday he only had a low grade fever and so far today he has been fever free!!

Alyssa got a light cough in the week but nothing major thank goodness! So far Aaron has stayed well!! Poor Daddy though came down with the head cold yesterday :-(!! I am hoping he gets well soon and that will be all the sickness this house sees for awhile!! It is NO FUN!!

Well if you made it through this novella CONGRATULATIONS!! LOL!!

Until next time,
Kellie

Weekly Wrap Up: Another Two Week Catch Up!

Well once again I have gotten behind on my weekly wrap ups. Things are just staying too busy!! I am so ready for our Spring Break next week :-)!!

The past two weeks though we continued to just move right along! We had two full weeks of school. Seth has almost completed his 2nd reader in the 1st Grade set from Pathways!! (There is only one more book after this one before he completes 1st grade!)

With our weather becoming more and more Spring like Seth is finding that he really likes to go outside to read his stories for the day! (We leave Alyssa and Aaron in the schoolhouse playing play-doh while we go read (-: )




Here's Alyssa and Aaron playing play-doh...this is an activity that they have really been enjoying lately. I like the fact that it keeps them busy and confined to one spot without destroying the whole room. :-)



Seth did a very good job memorizing the Lord's Prayer for his Sunday School class and as a result earned a really cool Veggie Tales 365 Devotionals for boys. Ever since we start our school day reading one of these devotionals. Seth reads the verse from the bible (of course I have to help with some of the words but he is doing a good job) and then we read the devotional and have a small discussion about it and then both him and I say a prayer for our day! It is so sweet hearing him pray for his day! This is very quickly becoming such a special time in our day!



A dear friend from our homeschool co-op group knew how much we liked puppets and gave us a very cool puppet stage! It is suppose to be a door frame puppet stage but I had hubby put a couple of hooks in the ceiling of the school house and I rigged it up to be able to hang the puppet stage in the school room. I am able to put it up and take it down as needed.

We are going to be using this A LOT when Aaron starts kindergarten!! :-)





Seth tried to get a picture of the day that we used it so that the snake could tell him about the 'sn' blend! (sorry it is a bit blurry...I think Seth was having trouble keeping the phone still to take the picture)




Speaking of the blends puppets...I have been putting them up on a string on the wall. One day I played a game with Seth where I called out a word and had him go point to the puppet that showed the blend that the word started with. He had a lot of fun with it!



I decided to separate the blends and digraphs. This picture was taken before quite a few more blends were made...I need more room for my blends.



We are continuing to move right along in our Grapevine old testament review and are starting the stories of David now. The boys are still enjoying this way of telling bible stories.

There are really no other major highlights to report from the last two weeks...we are just trucking right along :-)

Seth has his birthday party this coming Saturday...so this is going to be a pretty busy week trying to get school done and get ready for all his friends to come on Saturday!

Thankfully next week is Spring Break and we will all get a break!

Until next time,
Kellie