Life with our little family of 3...

This morning I was vacuuming the endless pine needles that get tracked in when I decided to have a little fun... I decided to vacuum Sammy... no reason... He just sat there and looked at me with contempt! He must have sat there for 10 minutes contemplating his course of action... Do I... A) go for her juggler? B) puke a hair ball up on the bed? C) leave a nice stinky one in the box? D) just sit here and look at her with contempt? He eventually chose D) then jumped off the piano and settled in for his 11th nap of the day... I guess this explains why he tried to escape into the snowstorm last night. Experiencing hypothermia was much more appealing than being vacuumed by a human...

Homeschoolers get snow days too! :-) Today was one of those days! We now have about 3 or 4 inches of snow. It's still only 19 degrees at 11am though so the snow isn't great packing snow. But it still makes great snow angels!

We are having our first snow of the year! Yeah! I hope that this isn't the last time either! They are predicting up to 4" by tomorrow! Yeah! Too bad it will only be here for a few days. Nothing like fall harvest with a dusting of snow!

Last night I went to be early since I wasn't feeling well. Robert helped Emma with getting herself ready for bed. After he put her to bed he stayed up to watch some tv. A little while later, I woke up to Emma in our bed with me. She brought her pillow, Elly and a blanket with her.A little while later I got up to get something to drink. When I looked in her room this is what I found... I also asked Robert if he knew that she was in our bed and he said he didn't. So the only explanation for the picture above is she was trying to make it look like she was in her own bed when he checked on her! Sneaky, sneaky... This morning I asked her why she brought her blanket in. She told me it was because she knew I didn't feel well and didn't want to disturb me by getting under the blankets so she brought her own. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she did kick me all night under the covers! And that I didn't have any blankets several times throughout the night so I end...

Today we continued our study of the beginnings of England. We read about serfs, noblemen and castles. Our project today was to make an edible Norman Castle! Yum! Emma is adding the final touches to the castle. It almost looks too good to eat... but no worries I am sure it'll be gone once Emma's friend arrives!

This year for history we are studying 'The Middle Ages'. Our history curriculum always has great ideas to help bridge the story and real life. Emma particularly likes the cooking activities! This week we began learning about England. On Tuesday we learned about Alfred the Great. In the story we read of him hiding from the Vikings in the wild countryside of Wessex. He took shelter with a peasant and his wife who didn't know who he was. While the woman of the house went out to gather firewood, she asked him to watch the cakes that she left on the hearth. Well good ole' Alfred the Great was so worried about how he was going to defeat the Vikings, he let the cakes burn! To top it off, he was too embarrassed to tell the woman that he was the king! So on Tuesday we made "Alfred's Cakes". Emma has become quite the cook! She does really well following all the directions for a recipe. Though she isn't always keen on having to get hands on with some of the rec...

Today we started a new curriculum about the solar system. The first activity was to put together a model of the solar system. It took us awhile to make decent circles but we finally did it!

Emma started a birthday tradition a few years ago... sleepover party. She loves having friends come over for a birthday sleepover. In the beginning we only had a few girls actually stay the night... well this year it was different... 12 girls stayed... yes TWELVE plus Emma = THIRTEEN girls! What was I thinking?? There were games.... Presents... A Movie... Breakfast by Daddy... And lots of laughs, giggling, non-sleeping girls, music, dancing, a spa and lots of fun! We went through a 6 ft sub sandwich, 2 family size bags of chips, 1 box of Mandarin oranges, 12 cupcakes & 1 mini birthday cake (Thank you Rachael!), 1 gallon of ice cream, 2 gallons of Apple juice, 1 grocery size bag of popcorn, gallons of water, 36 pancakes, 14 sausages and 2.5 rolls of toilet paper! All of this without a single catfight, mean word or exclusion! Yeah girls! You rock! I would say it was a very successful birthday... Happy Birthday Emma!

I was reading an article in "Thriving Family" from Focus on the Family... when I realized the catagory for the article was for parents of Tweens - kids ages 8-12! Our baby isn't a kid anymore... she is a tween!?! That makes me the parent of a tween! Ahhhhhhh

I love homeschooling on days like this! It is sunny and beautiful outside. So we sat in the living room to do our history. Emma snuggled up in the chair with a blanket and her coloring pages while I sat in the opposite chair. We had the warmth of the sun on our faces. At one point my heart was full with knowing that we are making the right choices in our lives...