Today we took Everett's love of hockey to school. Set up on numbers is a bowling format, Everett totally enjoyed aiming at recycled bottles and calling out their numbers. He must have practiced for at least an hour all without any permanent damage to our home. Isobel deiced to bowel at them. They had great team work resetting the bottles for each other. I this kind of school!

By the way, this is what Isobel chose to wear during errands yesterday. My moma raised us with the grace to wear what we liked providing that we were covered and appropriate. She was very cute company.

We're Back

My mom took us on a small vacation during Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. We had our own rooms and a hot tub on every balcony. So cool! Ian thought I was nuts for sneaking in without children . . . in the am and pm. We had a special dinner that none of us had to worry, cook or clean up after. Isobel took this picture of my mom.

Due to either snow or lack of work, Ian has been home a bunch! He even jumped in to do some school work with Evie. The kids loved it. Monday morning usually comes to quick for them. Every night they ask dad if he will be home in the morning. He was able to say yes quite a lot.

He even joined us for the homeschool ice skate. Everett loves most sports and would love try probably every sport. He has been learning how to stop and turn on the ice. He received a hockey puck for Christmas so I am sure a that will go with us next time.

Isobel is gaining confidence too. She just wears her boots (with a good cleaning) and maybe touches the ice a few times, but mainly wants me to carry her around and around and around on the ice until I need a break.

I mentioned the snow and here it is. Maybe around a foot or so once said and done. It just kept coming! I took this picture from inside the house. Do you see how cold it is out there. You would have to be nuts to waddle around with multiple layers while trying to avoid frost bit on exposed skin. Besides the house was quiet with all of them out of it . . . .

Recently we went to Mindport down town. They say it is an art gallery with a hands on exhibit area. I can only explain it as something similar to the Seattle Center with an art twist. Either way it was very cool! Here, Ian and ever are experimenting with fans and mist to make tornadoes. We played with sound, water, sight, heat . . . . For $2 each! I was happy everyone happy. Here, Isobel is watching the lights react to either the music provided or her voice. It's downtown on Holly if anyone is interested.

Where did the time go?

You know your baby is no longer "the baby" when she becomes the horse.

Good Fun with Purpose

Montessori Prescription for children with learning disabilities by Orem & Coburn: Great description and purpose of manipulative. Explained introductions. Provided incite for school age and adolescents. Lists activies. Not a lot of pictures but that is why I like this one....

Basic Montessori Learning Activities for under fives by David Gettman

We are doing puppets too. It seemed an easy, fun, yet totally productive way to internalize language. We will be making sock and felt puppets then retelling (reading a book, making characters, retelling it in theater) and making up stories (such as Evies latest adventure to the dirt track or his lego/ rescue heroes adventures).
Playtime Rhymes by priscilla Lamont: Rhymes and body movements for the very young, but a great start!
101 finger plays, stories and songs to use with finger puppets by Diane Briggs: Multiple songs and rhymes to use with each set of puppets. Convenient and multipurpose.

I did not see this in any montessori book

If your family is prone broken bones or stitches (you know who you are). . . this is your fair warning...

We started our schooling this morning experimenting with ramps made from our block box and some HotWheels (what ramp construction worked best, how far did it go, what surface works best, does style of car matter?). I am one for the practical side of learning. "How will I use this knowledge in real life?" Well Everett took it a step (LEAP) further and we ended up at the local skate and bike park. Amen and how cool that such an outlet exists here in our wonderful town!! We had an hour before dinner and a son pleading to go give it a try:

We are so proud of him. Not because he can do this, although cool, but because he is confident to try, determined to get back up (fell once), bold to play with the big boys, and cautious to know his limits. Way to go Evie!

New Favorites

A friend asked for some links to some of my resources. You will find some cool places to the left. I will not be held responsible for any additions or money spent on them :0) Hope you like them too.
OR
The book shelf for some of my favorite books (library or owned).

Pay off

Everett walked into the kitchen yesterday asking if or when he would attend the nearby school. I have soft talk my answer in the past, but this time I just said "No". Evie guessed at the reasoning "Because they don't get to praise God". I completely agreed and added that they don't get to go to grandma's in the middle of the day, go on frequent "field trips", cuddle and cook with mom this much, attend mid day soccer, enjoy parks when they are not crowded to have play days and such. "Oh" he said happy with our plan. So following that, we went to a garage sale and were able to take a trunk load of free clothes to our church for the homeless. We later joined some friends at a park to play prior to a tagging along on a boy scout hike (Evie asked when he would be getting his suit, otherwise known as a scout uniform. In about 300 sleeps sweetheart). Sounds like a good date at school to me. :)

So today started with hot waffles, a walk with Tegan, Ken, Max and Jake (Ken is our neighbor friend, Max and Jake are Tegan's), a by-chance pick up of materials for our craft fair (teasing you I know. . . you have to come) and a road trip to Target to solve the problem of the money burning in Everett's pocket. Everett has been receiving an allowance lately. He has shown GREAT maturity in managing his money recently. Store after store Evie either could not afford or chose not to get something. He saved enough to buy this Lego set this week. Everett spent his school time assembling it . . . ALL BY HIMSELF! He flowed the directions, fine motored it perfect, and even took this picture.
We finished our school time by making brownies for daddy. Hope you guys had a great day at school.

Evies Plans

Evie: "I want to be a mom when I grow up."
Me: "Really, why?"
Evie: "Then I could stay home too. Or be a dad; work hard and not sleep"

How did we get here?

It does not look like much except that there was never plans for these two to share a room. Each of these cute blonds had to work their way through a high fever a while back. . . 103 for 24 hours. Somehow in order to keep the peace or meet some comfort needs of some sort, Isobel was allowed to bunk in Everett's room. Surprisingly, Isobel stayed in bed the whole night. Shocking to me since I had no plans to move her out of her crib, until the age of 3 or so :) Well, its been a little over a week. They each have their own beds, although they seem to only be an option. Isobel and Everett have been playing together even better. Their relationship is one major reason for our homeschooling. Even tonight we ignored the bedtime hour since they were playing so well on their own. We love these two, and I am so glad they are loving each other.

Pumpkin Chunkin

Let them fly:


















This is how they became airborne. Seven trebuchys with five pumpkins each. We had great weather. Thank you Lord for giving mankind creativeness and a bounty of goards for instant pumkin pie memories

Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival

Our plans for this Saturday. Don't miss it!!

School Supplies

Would you pass this up? It's original cost at a garage sale was $10 . . . for two telescopes. Hhmm? Maybe. Still not sure? We don't have any immediate needs for one, let alone two. Where am I going to store them? I ask if he would take $5 for both? Great. Thanks. And he even carried them to the car. We are waiting for the first clear night. This is a picture of the small one.

A drill press you ask? Bran new! A cragslist special for $50. Well worth every penny for my boys, I mean MEN, to have time and skill together.

Saturday, November 15 8:30-4:00 @ Bloedel Donovan Community Building, homeschoolers will be holding a QUALITY craft fair. Everett and Ian will be working hard. You know you want to know. See you there!!!!

Soaking It Up

One of my mommy moments. I ALWAYS wanted to be a mom. I am so thankful I am able to stay home with our kids (to take the extra time it takes to cook with kids, to clean up the extra mess after dinner, to finish all that I ignored in order to have this time). My sweet Bel. You can be so rough and tumble and headstrong. Next you are putting on an apron and eager to please. I hope the world is ready for all that God has crammed into that little body.

That's My Boy!

I have suffered from migraines since I was young. One hit again today. Everett crawls into our bed most mornings. This morning upon hearing his sister wake up, Everett proclaims for me to stay in bed. He delivers apple coffee cake to my bedside, feeds the dog and then gets his sister out of bed. They both come in smiling. Unable to eat, Isobel was more than happy to finish my breakfast (like most of my meals). Evie offered to take Isobel to the living room for a game or a story. Evie was so proud of "doing all the work". Thank you Evie for all the help. I am proud of you too!

How does your family take a walk?

This is us on our way home from a neighborhood festival.

Back From Vacation ( . . . still adding text)

We started with a little geo caching during our road trip. Here Isobel is sad that she is not holding the GPS. Great start. We are only a few hours into our 4 day trip . . . .

The drive is beautiful heading East on Hwy 20. Ian loves it over here.and I use to find it to brown and dry. When we were dating we drove to Twisp and back . . . just because. I had no idea where we were going. I am still learning which highway goes which way and what cities are there. Anyway, I am glad we went back. The weather was great. Sunny but enjoyable.

We rented a cabin on the Methow River. I learned a couple things during this trip. 1. Ask who is the house keeper and if there have been any problems recently. 2. Check fishing status on river. It is not nice to tempt the men in your life all weekend with fish they can not catch on a closed waters river. The lighting is not great but I love the true personalities this picture captured.

Here is my side kick in the kitchen. She cracks me up . "I help", "Me do it", "Stir, sure?"
I've learned some things in cooking with a toddler. Emphasize stir slow. Fill the measuring cup up half way twice and let her pour it in. And always use a bigger bowl than needed.







Isobel's personal goal was to replenish the river with all the rocks that were not already in it! Everett tried ans succeeded in skipping a few and seeing how far he could throw them. We all like it when Ian throws a rock straight up and listening for the cool sound once it enters the water.








Here we are mailing my parents a postcard. They always send the kids one from their travels, so we thought we would do the same.

Of course our family found a book store. The kids and I headed directly to the kids section. We fell in love with two books we had to take home. Isobel and Evie are always ready for story time!











I humored Ian by going to Eastern Wa. He humored me by attending a "Rubber Ducky Race". 1500 duckies were part of a fund raiser. Each duck was $2 and assigned a number. The ducks were dumped over bridge 1 and collected at bridge 2. The first duck there won.



What a sight to see that many duckies floating. I so wanted a ducky. But that would be a direct contradiction to our Christian beliefs . . . and the lessons we teach our children. No stealing is no stealing. Even if there are 1499 others, ALL of them are not ours. So I took pictures! On our way out, Everett commented to someone, oh so honestly, that moma wanted a duck but it would not be ok to take one. Thanks kid. Rating me out to a perfect stranger. I had not done it so

why mention it! Anyway, as I was making dinner in the

kitchen of our cabin, in flew a pink ducky. Mixed emotions, but taking it as a token of love, I laughed. Now what? I have a pink ducky. that I can not display . . . until they are older.


This was a rare sight. No daytime naps, including car time, but out like a light at night. Pretty good for a girl who ONLY sleeps in HER bed! Plus she does not travel well either. And why should she. 99% of our life and friends exists within 2o minutes of our home.








Any parent knows this is a rare sight too. We finally find where the boys want to fish. I am all ready to read in the sun . . . and I fall asleep. Or at least closed my eyes and thought about what I read.
FISHING










We got a chance to befriend a few horses.

Game time by fireplace. Nice!

We had a great time. So much so, that we are already planing a winter getaway.

Gotta Share This

Look what I found!!!! I usually only read blogs of people I know but this is right up our ally:www.passionatehomemaking.com/about

One Fine Night

Stef came over last night to cut my hair. How do like that. A fantastic hair stylist who comes to your house! So cool. The kids and I got a trim. Isobel put baby powder on our noses as an attempt to keep her head still and looking in one direction.

This is Ian and I at dinner. The setting sun blasts through our front window. We had some fun making shadow puppets.

Fruit of 10 years Hard Work

We were able to sell the tree we cut down a while ago as firewood on craigslist. I encouraged our son to help load the wood. He said he would rather not and I guess that was ok. How happy my heart was when he went and readied himself to do the work anyway . . . on his own and in his own timing. I was bummed when I went to take pictures of his manly responsibility only to discover a dead battery. How proud I was of him to selflessly serve another with no expectation of reward or compensation. Just his serving heart and a great altitude to participate in anothers benefit (and to clean up our back yard). He even maneuvered the wheelbarrow! Empty of course but still a challenge for a young gentleman. Thank you Evie for showing another Jesus' love and your parents fruit of hard work! We are proud of you!!!

P.S. It is our 10 year wedding anniversary, more hard work and great fruit, but I must go care for the one politly asking to get up from her crib.

Cleaning can be fun...with a friend

I know that it does not look like much (picture to come). This is my laundry room and mud room. To much stuff has been crammed in this space and it has been needing an over haul. Carolynn to the rescue. I would have been happy with just organizing it. Carolynn on the other hand wanted my white linoleum floor clean (who puts white anything on a floor?) It's beautiful! She even washed my washer and dryer tops.

What were our children doing? The girls slept for the most part. Everett and Ian (Slocum that is) played great and even did a little school with out us. We found them playing "sink or float" in the bathroom sink. Not a big problem. The problem came once the girls woke up. One of them came to us with "mommy . . . we sock". She had been adding and adding and adding water to the boys earlier game in the sink to the point that now the bathroom was being flooded. So my bathroom got cleaned too.

Thanks Carolynn!! It's off my list and it looks great.

Solid Rock Homeschool Camp

Welcome to one of the highlights of our summer! Solid Rock Camp was offered to our family. A two day camp out with 6 families and almost 30 kids. These are some of our most favorite people. All home schoolers, all Christian, all great people that you would want to surround your children with. Here Everett is "checking in" with the camp director (and host) Mrs. Bergeron. He gave his name and received a bagged breakfast, team colors (camo) and dorm number.

Isobel had a good time with the little ones. The little ones participated in the coloring, play dough, and bubbles. Here she is with Ruby. Ruby and Isobel are only three weeks apart. They know each others names and get excited to see each other

Here is Everett's team the "Courageous Crusaders". Every team had an adult leader and a jr. leader. Togetherness and encouragement were themes of the camp. Any responsibility and kindness earned a water balloon for your teams jar for the water balloon fight on the second day. Boy did we need it too. It was so HOT, around 90. We had 6 tents that became "dorms" for each team. Each team needed to clear the ground for the tent that they worked together on. Evie was able to camp out overnight. He loved it!!


Here is the meal line. Everyone washed up, grabbed a tray, and had the best camp food. I was one of a couple moms asking for recipes. Once done, and they wash their tray, they earn tickets for the snack shack.

We had a great time with familiar and new friends. Here is Isobel and Isais (3 yrs?) Is he not one of the cutest. His smile and sweetness are the best.

This was like any other fantastic camp. Games, water relays, team work, smores, camp fire with songs (ours were our favorite church songs). I am so glad that they are hoping to do it again next year. It was a lot take on ladies!! Count me in for any planning help you might need.

Thank you ladies for all your hard work. Thank you families for raising such awesome, Christ loving children, fun and encouraging young people.