Thursday, February 28, 2008

Book List #26----

Ok for some reason my children think that there is not enough books this week. That is what they tell me. They are so funny. I guess they are loving the library every week. So here is our newest list.

448.) Don't Know much about the Kings and Queens of England by Ken Davis
449.) Built to Last by George Sullivan
450.) Grand Canyon by Linda Vieira
451.) if i had a DRAGON by Tom and Amanda Ellery
452.) I am not Sleepy and I will not go to sleep by Lauren Child
453.) Miss Spiders New Car by David Kirk
454.) Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst
455.) Good Night, Mr. Night by Dan Yaccarino
456.) Monkey Lost by Ed Heck
457.) Dora Goes To School by Leslie Valdes
458.) All Aboard the Dinotrain by Deb Lund
459.) Dinosailors by Deb Lund
460.) Beauty and the Beast by Ellen Titlebaum
461.) The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
462.) Fun Dog, Sun Dog by Deborah Heiligman
463.) The Mystery of Roanoke Colony by Xavier Niz
464.) Winter at Valley Forge by Matt Doeden
465.) The Story of Jamestown by Eric Braun
466.) The Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving by Mary Englar
467.) The Adventures of Marco Polo by Roger Smalley
468.) Dora's Pirate Adventure by Leslie Valdes
469.) Serious Farm by Tim Egan
470.) Does a Baboon Sleep in a Bed by Fred Ehrlich
471.) The Practically Perfect Pajamas by Erik Brooks

Once again my little Sam made sure there was plenty of Historical Graphic Novels on there. They have become his favorite things to read. Gabe really liked the Dinotrain one. He has read that alot. I enjoyed The Practically Perfect Pajamas, very cute book about a polar bear that wears pjs. So that is it for this week. Happy Reading!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I thought that I would share a photo of my most favorite time of day here. Tax season makes for a really long day for me, so these moments are really nice. They almost make me want to wake him up and play with him, almost. LOL. No this kid is very sweet and I love him awake but he has to much energy. If we could harness his energy we could power our home I think. LOL. This picture is so sweet though. I just want to eat him up.

Monday, February 25, 2008

This weekend we went to the nature center. I love that place. They are so wonderful there. The staff always answers all the questions my little guy throughs at them. There is so many fun hands on exhibits there. My favorite part is that it is FREE! Perfect Family fun that fits the budget. When we got there this time, this extremly large bird (picture does not do it justice) was standing out side the front steps. It was probably the same hieght as Gabe. You never know what wildlife you are going to see when you come to this place. It is wonderful.
We took our flat traveling buddy along for the adventure. She had a lot of fun. Since she is so small she was able to fit into some of the exhibits.

Today the boys spent all morning mving the toy corner from the living room to their bedroom. Well Gabe did not want to help out that much and was usually getting into Sams way as you can see. They did get it done but it took all morning so we are going to have to do the rest of their school work this afternoon.
The theme for this weeks unplug your kids project was letters (alphabet). We pulled out the letter mat that I made the boys a while back. To start with Sam worked on Gabe's letter recognition with him by writting a letter on the dry erase board and Gabe had to go stand on it. For Sam I had to make it a little tougher because he knows all of his letters, so we worked on spelling. I would write a word on the dry erase board, leaving out a letter, then he would have to find the missing letter. He had a lot of fun doing it.
That is it for now. Make sure to check back for next weeks theme...music. I will also have my new book list coming up this week to, plus all of the other wonderful work we are doing to.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

We had a nice and busy week. So here are some photos from this week. First we have Gabe working on some of his sensory work. I gave him a bowl of water with some dish soap in it. He took his straw and blew a bunch of bubbles. He had a great time doing this.
While he was doing that Sam was coloring in his pictures of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. The kid was so excited for Presidents day.

Well Sam worked on some measuring for math this week. While he worked on that Gabe worked on some Continent Puzzles. Look a little closer Gabe, I think that one fits. LOL
Gabe got a little tired of walking so he decided to hitch a ride on Sam. Thankfully Sam did not really mind givining him a ride. He even showed his dad later.
This week we started giving tickets to the kids for t.v. time. We were trying to cut back on the time that they watch because they were not getting anything done. They started out pretty good but by midweek they ran out of tickets. So there was no t.v. for a couple days. The boys handled it pretty well, A lot of books were read this week. As you see in the next few pictures every time I turned around they were reading. So I think the new t.v. program was a success.


Gabe is never much for arts and crafts. So when he told me the other night that he wanted to make pictures for us, he was to cute to pass up taking a picture of. I actually like this picture because he looks like he is teaching his little lion at the top of his paper.

These two pictures I got from an idea on Amber's blog. She gave supplies to her kids to do car washes. They looked like they had so much fun that I had try it with my boys. I finally got to it, and of course they loved it. Thanks Amber! They sat at the table for an hour washing as many cars as they could. Gabe's job at the car wash was to dry the cars, I think that he thought his head needed some drying.
When Gabe finished up on the car wash he decided that he needed to play limbo. How low can you go? My boys definetly impress me with their creativity on thingss to do. It is nice that they are getting older and come up with ideas on their own.
We had a new adventure with our flat travler. She went to Sam's favorite place.....the Library. Sam took several pictures of her trying to pick out some books. She was very good at picking out books for him. Now if we could just get her to stop climbing the shelves. LOL.

She picked out wonderful books about space and some history for him. Two of his favorite subjects to study.
We plan on having another adventure with her today.... The nature center. It should be a lot of fun. Make sure to check back for photos of that. Also I will get a new book list up this week and the Unplug your Kids project. The theme for that this week is letters (alphabet) . I hope that everyone has a great weekend.


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Book List 24 and 25....

Ok we were all sick last week so I never got to the book posting for the week. So I thought that I would post them with this weeks. I hope every one likes books because this list is going to be a long one. enjoy....

402.) Lightship by Brian Floca
403.) Awakening the Dragon by Arlene Chan
404.) Saint Valentine by Ann Tompert
405.) Ella of Course! by Sarah Weeks
406.) Umbrella by Taro Yashima
407.) The Ballad of Valentine by Alison Jackson
408.) Poetry for Young People by Lewis Caroll
409.) June 29, 1999 by David Weisner
410.) Look Alikes Around the World by Joan Steiner
411.) Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski
412.) 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle
413.) The Loathsome Dragon by David Weisner
414.) Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood
415.) Buffalo Wings by Aaron Reynolds
416.) Ms. Frizzle's Adventures -- Ancient Egypt by Joanna Cole
417.) Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood
418.) American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osburne
419.) Thomas' Big Story Book by Rev. Awdry
420.) I Love Our Earth by Bill Martin Jr.
421.) Sammy Salami by Jerry Smath
422.) 26 Letters and 99 cents by Tana Hoben
423.) The Boy on Fairfield Street by Kathleen Krull
424.) Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
425.) Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon by Jules Bass
426.) Pablo the Artist by Satoshi Kitamura
427.) Prancing Dancing Lily by Marsha Diane Arnold
428.) Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive by Karma Wilson
429.) Dinosaur Dinosaur by Kevin Lewis
430.) Sleepy Head by Karma Wilson
431.) The Red Racer by Audrey Wood
432.) Ms. Frizzle's Adventures-Medieval Castle by Joanna Cole
433.) The Hog Call To End All by Suann Kiser
434.) We The Kids--The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States
435.) The First Moon Landing by Thomas Adamson
436.) Buffalo Soldiers and the American West by Jason Glaser
437.) Lewis and Clark Expedition by Jessica Gunderson
438.) Tell a Bunny by Nancy Wallace
439.) The Night Eater by Ana Juan
440.) A picture book of Louis Braille by David A. Adler
441.) Naughty Little Monkeys by Jim Aylesworth
442.) Ice Cream Cones For Sale! by Elaine Greenstein
443.) Why the Banana Split by Rick Walton
444.) Prudy's Problem and How She Solved It by Carey Armstrong-Ellis
445.) Animals Should Definetly NOT wear clothes by Judi Barrett
446.) Punxsutawney Phyllis by Susanna Leonard Hill
447.) The Remarkable Farkle Mcbride by John Lithgow

Wow that was a lot of books. A bunch of good ones. If any one is up for a good reading fest?? I would have to say that one of my favorites on the list was "June 29,1999". If you like the book "Cloudy With a chance of meatballs" you would like this book, It is along the same lines. Sam really liked the Ms. Frizzle Adventure ones. She is always fun to learn with. Gabe has really been taken with "Dinosaur Dinosaur". A very cute story about a dinosaur boy and what he does during the day. Please make sure to check out all of the other wonderful books on the list to.. Happy Reading.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Unplug your kids.....
This weeks unplug your kids project theme was....fabric. We were unsure of what to do because there is so many great ideas to do. I brought out one of my many crates of fabric and told the kids to see what they could come up with.
These two pictures are the front and back view of Gabe's project. His brother so kindly posed for him so he could make a costume. Gabe was supposed to return the favor but he did like the fabric on him.
Sam started on another project because of his brother not being able to help him. So he started cutting strips of Fabric to make a braided jumprope. Unfortunetly he got a little distracted today and did not finish it yet. I will try and post a picture of it when he does finish it.
Make sure to check out all of the other projects at Unplug your kids. Check back for next weeks project. The theme is .... Letters.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

RAIN FOREST CAFE.......
O.k. so we are all finally on the mend around here. So we took the boys out today to the Rain Forest Cafe. This trip we had a new friend travel with us. Her name was Flat Ashlyn. She is down here visiting us from our friends in North Carolina. I think that all of us had a great time today. It had been a while since we had been to the restaurant. They even added a playground, so cool. Here are some pictures from our outing.

Sam and Flat Ashlyn are very happy to be sitting next to the fish tank!

Flat Ashlyn decided to try and get a little closer to the fish. I think she wanted to go for a swim.

Time to decide on what to eat. Lots of yummy choices.

Hmmm...I wonder if DH realizes that there is a frog on his head.

And not to leave out the little guy. He was having a blast monkeying around.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Oh what a week......
I have been so busy. Let me share the past few days with you and what we have been up to. Ok the last day that I posted anything was Thursday. Here are some photos of what the kids did on that day.
First Gabe played that he was the Statue of Liberty. I know my kids are a little odd, they like to pretend that they are World Landmarks. That is one of the many reasons that I love these crazy kids of mine though.
This one was complements of Gabe. I went in the Bathroom to find this. When I asked him what was going on he said..."The dinosaur needed his medicine." Ouch! poor dinosaur.
Then the kids did some art projects for The Chinese New Year. They are making their own ribbon lanterns. They have yet to finish them because I was missing one of the supplies. So as soon as I get to the store they will be able to finish them.
Friday was a catch up day. We had fallen so far behind on our work this week that I gave the boys time to finish up on it. That is one of the many joys of homeschooling, schedules can be adjusted with ease. So in this picture Sam had made one of the floor foam puzzles. Well Gabe thought that he needed to naap on it. Sam thought that he was to cute and took the picture.
Well this picture and the one below it were of some robots that Sam built because Thursday was also "Love Your Robot Day". So he built these two great robots. We also watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on Friday because it was Jules Verne's Birthday.

Well on Saturday we went to the library as usuall. Unfortunetly we had to walk there because the car is still broken down. We found out it is the transmission on that. Yuck!!!! Well the library is 3 miles away so 6 round trip. So all four of us put on back packs and set off. All bags were filled for the trip home to. The boys were so good. Gabe cried some but that was because he was in a lot of pain, his sneakers have gotten to small. By the end of the walk daddy carried him up on his shoulders. Then when we got home we unloaded the books and headed out to finish the last of our errands. The boys walked about 7 miles total that day. Oh and for the last portion I did allow them to switch their shoes. Also on Saturday it was the anniversary of Hershey's Chocolate foundation. So as the picture above shows we mad some chocolate covered pretzels.
Sunday we normally due our "unplugged" project. The boys just did not feel up to it this week. So this was there unplugged time. Sam played monopoly with daddy. Gabe sat there reading while they played. It was a nice easy day. That night things changed though dh came down with a fever. Pretty sure he has the flu, because he is still home fighting whatever he has. So monday ended up being a pretty tame day with him being sick. I spent the day taking care of him and trying to get ahead on the cleaning in case I come down with it. Now that brings me today a whole lot more cleaning and taking care of the sick. The kids are coming down with whatever their dad has. The biggest bummer of all is that it is ......
Gabe's Birthday.
He turns 5 years old today. So it is kind of a simple birthday today. We planned on going to here and here this weekend but it looks like we might have to postpone it for a week. oh well. Happy birthday to my baby anyways. So until everyone feels better I might disappear for a few days. Hopefully I will be back soon though.


Thursday, February 07, 2008

Book List #23----
Oh where has the time gone. Such a busy week. I am finally set with the book list. So here is the new list. I finally topped 400 woohoo.
385.) Painted Circus by Wallace Edwards
386.) Storm Boy by Paul Owen Lewis
387.) Great Aunt Martha by Rebecca C. Jones
388.) Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
389.) The Biggest Boy by Kevin Henkes
390.) Hans Brinker by Brucce Coville
391.) Just Me And My Little Brother by Mercer Mayer
392.) I Want A Hug by John A Rowe
393.) The Beast With A Thousand Teeth by Terry Jones
394.) Behold....The Dragons! by Gail Gibbons
395.) HO-LIMLIM......A Rabbit Tale From Japan by Keizaburo Tejima
396.) Who Took The Cookies From The Cookie Jar by Bonnie Lass and Philemon Sturges
397.) Taj Mahal by Caroline Arnold and Madeline Comora
398.) Snow Dude by Daniel Kirk
399.) The Curse of King Tut's Tomb by Michael Burgan
400.) Home Run by Robert Burleigh
401.) Is There Really A Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell

I thought that the "Taj Mahal" was a wonderful book. It is a beautiful love story. The pictures in the story are absolutly amazing. Gabe likes "Snow Dude". Sam says that it is alot like the Gingerbread Man, Just the snow man is main character. Sam really loved "Storm Boy". It had a really beautiful story line to the book. He also recommends "Behold...TheDragons" and "HO-LIMLIM" . So that is the list for now. I will try to update about everything that we have been doing this week over the next couple of days.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

What a day I had yesterday. It started out pretty well considering that DH was at work until 8:30 last night. The kids were working on the school work. Gabe was having a blast playing on starfall.com and then we read a couple of books. We read Me and My Place in Space and Me and the Measure of Things by Joan Sweeney. Excellent books. She has more in the series too, so check her out. Sam worked on Rosa Parks since it was her birthday. He read 2 books about her. The Bus Ride that Changed History by Pamela Duncan Edwards and If a Bus could Talk by Faith Ringgold. They wanted to play with their pop up bus too in honor of her, but they ran out of time. They decided to try and do that today. Sam also did some work sheets and studied up on constellations. That was our morning. It was pretty good, well then we have the afternoon. I put the boys down for naps (because they certainly needed it.) Well Gabe goes into my room and Sam stays in theirs. Gabe fights every single nap. So in rebellion this time he dumped a container of nuts and bolts all over my floor. Then he got into my craft supplies and found the permenant ink stampers. I did include pictures below. I got lucky it could have been worse. Then Sam woke up saying that I needed to spray the whole apartment down because he had an accident while sleeping. Oh what a day. DH sat safely at work laughing his butt off at me.

Well I had every intention to blog about this yesterday, but I did not get a chance. I did however find this given to me by Kate. Thanks Kate it made my day improve alot. I automatically want to give it to you to because your blog is excellent!

To Share with other people that I think is excellent. Now that is tough because there are so many out there. To start off I want to give it to Amber. She is so amazing with all of the projects that she does with her kids. So very full of information. Really cute kids to boot. Next I want to give to Yasmina. I love reading about her adventures with her kids. It feels like we so much in common when I read hers. Then I want to give it to Pattey. Her blog is just a lot of fun to read. She has so much fun on things that she does with her kids. Basically I would give this to everyone out there but then that would leave no one for these ladies to give it to. So you are all Excellent. Keep blogging.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Where has the time gone....
Was it really last Tuesday since I posted? I guess so. Well I will recap for you. On Wednesday I decided to take a "sick" day. The kids are having lessons 7 days a week, plus with all the other work I have to do around here, it was getting to be a little much. So when I told Sam of this idea I thought that he would be fine with it. NOPE!! The kid is crazy. When I said wouldn't it be nice to have a day off. He said no and asked if he could plan some of his own lessons than. Go for it kid. Of course Gabe was fine with it, ment more play time for him. I had very good intentions to get some house work done that day, but you know what happens when you get the best of intentions. Nothing gets done. I have to say it felt really good to just sit and do nothing all day. I did pay for it the next day though. A whole lot more cleaning to do. The kids and I took the next day and just cleaned the whole day. So that brings us up to friday. I got inspiration from Kate, since it was national Freedom Day she let here daughter choose her work so I did the same thing for the boys. They loved it. After DH left for work Friday morning I waled outin the Living room to find this.....
The boys love their new globes that they got for christmas. They spent the morning learning about different countries. You can see that Sam is reading a book in the picture too, It is a kids atlas so that he can learn even more. Well then the day got worse. Dh came home for lunch and informed me that the car was dead and we were going to need a new one. That stinks we had to run errands over the weekend. I can promise you that grocery shopping with out a car is not fun. A trip to the library with out one is no picnic either. So things had to pick up some where...
This is how mine picked up. I found these two snuggled up watching a show. That does a heart good to see them be so nice to each other. Well we decided to rent a car for the weekend to get the errands done. That is what picked my three guys up, they loved what we got. Keep in mind we were driving a mercury sable. A nice car and all, but see here to see what we got for the weekend. So much fun. I have to admit it perked my mood more to. LOL.
I just felt the need to share this picture. Not sure what was in his hand but he seemed pretty pleased with it. He is such a cutie. So Saturday was spent doing errands. A pretty decent day. Then comes sunday. Not to bad of a day either. The boys worked on their unplug your kids project. It was with pipe cleaners. Well I was so proud of them because I was the only one here and I was very busy, so of course I was being bad and letting them waatch some shows from the library. Well I looked over at one point and saw this....
They had turned off the T.V. and put on the raio with out even being asked. Then they started working on the project. They love boats so they made one. They used some pipe cleaners to decorate and connect the boats. It was very cute.
Gabe of course wanted to include his little people for the ride. They were having a good time with it until they went to test it out. We let them put water in the bathtub to try it. That is when the bad part of the day happened here. Sam sitting on the side of the tub fell in...backwards. He hit the back of his head pretty good. Had a nice size bump on the back of the head. Thankfully he is ok and no bump on the head this morning. I am sure that you understand that he did not feel up to playing with it anymore. Gabe did a little later though, he took a bath with it and had a blast.
Well then our day turned to this. Gabe wanted daddy to fly on his legs (just so everyone knows dh did hold his own weight up, Gabe is not really as strong as he thinks. All though those little legs are really strong. LOL)
Gabe decided he needed a turn on daddy's legs. He had a blast flying.
Then Sam feeling much better from his accident decided he wanted to try to.
Then after all of that we watched the Super Bowl. Needless to say sports in this house is interesting. I was raised a New England Fan and Dh was raised a New York Fan. So during Baseball it is my Red Sox to his Yankees and football of course, We could not miss this game. I just new one of us was going to bed pleased. Of course it was him. Oh well, I will give the Giants credit they played a great game last night. Oh and today is a sad day around here. TAX SEASON starts. The kids saw their dad this morning for a little bit and will not see him again until tomorrow morning. I hate tax season. Only 70 more days after this though. We are going to miss him so much. Oh one last note please check out the other entries at unplug your kids.
I will try to post more tomorrow.