Life with our little family of 3...

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...

These pictures were taken during our trip to Michigan. We had a wonderful dinner with my cousin and her husband.Here I am with my Aunt Sandy and my wacky brother Brian. Here we are with my cousin Ann. Here are Gabe, Brooke and Emma playing a game in the hotel. They got along so great! Emma cried though when we left them at the airport. That is one of the hardest things about living so far apart... guess it means we'll have to travel to Texas one of these days!

We had dinner with my cousin and her husband one night during our trip. Andy is a musical genisus when it comes to the piano. Emma came up with the idea to have a piano playoff. She decided that Andy needed to be blindfolded to make it more even. Here they are playing a piece together. Though he is so good that he was able to duplicate what Emma played without looking! My niece Brook is looking on and waiting for her turn! Finally she got her turn! Here is Emma attempting to play with her eyes closed. Ms. Kelly would be so proud... because she did it!