Farmer's Market

The other day we took the kids to our local farmer's market.  The kids love going here and getting the fresh fruit and vegetables here but this trip was a little different though.

I promise Gabe had more fun than it looks like in the picture.  He was just a little upset because I asked him not to be silly in the picture.  I know, I know mean mom.  :0)

The difference for this trip was that the kids got to pick their fruit and veggies off the plants themselves.  They thought that this was the funnest thing.

First up was the strawberries.  It was hard to get the boys away from these plants.  They loved finding them in the plants.

Gabe really enjoyed racing up and down looking for new plants.

Sam was a little more patient and relaxed on his hunt.

Eventually we seperated a little bit.  Sam went with his dad and found lots of yummy ones.

I got this little cutie as my helper.  He wanted this picture because of the really long stem.  :0)

My three guys showing off the haul.  Rob really does have some in his bucket but Gabe has the most in his.

We got a nice little strawberry haul.  After picking the strawberries we headed over to the the tomatoes to pick.  We did not stay over there long because all the tomatoes were green.  We did pick some, just waiting for them to finish turning red now.

Heading to the stand to pay for our goods.  It was a really beautiful day for picking.

Some shots from the outside of the farmer's market.  This was an antique wagon.

I love the red in this tree.

This was a bottle sculpture that the kids thought was pretty neat.  It was for sale if you want it.  It  is a just $89.  Sorry kids maybe next time.

That is all for now.  Off to enjoy a homemade oreo, yummy

Coming soon

I know I disappeared for a week but I promise I am back with lots of pictures to share.  As you see we have been hard at work.  No major thing going on just our basic fun.  I will explain this photo soon too!  Till then have a good one.

Cooking with Kids

Learning to cook is an important part of life.  I have heard so many stories of kids leaving home and having no idea how to cook.  Worse they have no idea what to do in a grocery store.  Well I am going to make sure that does happen with my boys.  If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that Sam is not an issue on this front.  He is even one of the big reasons why I am having problems losing wieght, the kid can bake.  He has even been working on knowing how to grocery shop.  He is capable of looking for what the best deals are.  His favorite thing now is when we go to the store that I give him his own list and he goes off with his brother and teaches him how to do it.  I like it because my shopping is getting done twice as fast now.  He even knows how to use coupons, LOL.  Love it! 

Gabe is a whole different story.  He is just learning his skills in the kitchen.  Gabe is a really smart kid he just needs a little more supervision in the kitchen because he is still the kid that will grab a hold of the hot pan handle with no oven mit.  Ouch!   I want to give him more independce in the kitchen though because that is important to his self esteem.  For christmas I wanted to give him his own cookbook that would assure more independence for him.  I spent a few days searching and I found The Do It Myself Cookbook.  What a great cook book, the recipes are so easy for the kids to follow on their own.

Here is a picture of the way the recipes are set up.  This is actually the recipe that he did.  It is Peanut Butter, Strawberry, and Coconut on Cinnamon Bread.

As you can see he takes his cooking very seriously, look at the focus on his face.  He really loves being able to cook.  It is one of his goals to work on this year.

Showing off the completed sandwich.  He is very proud of his work.  I mean wouldn't you be look how good that sandwich looks.  It was very yummy too!

On a side note the kids did all of their grocery shopping for this recipe and stayed well within my budget.  I was thinking of trying to make a cooking segment each week.  It will feature recipes that the kids have made on their own or with very little help.  What do you think, Let me know if you like this idea.

How the rest of our week went!

Well my boys truly love homeschooling.  I mean most kids would right?  However for the few years that we have been doing it, it has not been easy.  With all the good moments there was just as much bad moments too.  I think though, fingers crossed, we might have actually found our groove.  My biggest problem was getting them to get all of their work done on time.  They would be so far behind.  Our schedule is 3 weeks on 1 week off, and that week off they would always spend it catching up.  About 4 months ago something clicked in them and they started getting things done daily, never falling behind any more.  I really hope that I did not just jinx us with that statement.  Oh well we will see.  Now on to the rest of our week....

Plenty of silent reading time.  Sam does plenty on his own that we do not have to put it in his schedule.  Gabe though we have to assign him something.  Then when he is done we have to ask follow up questions to make sure he got it.  As you see though we are not completly mean.  I wish that my work consisted of me curling up on the couch and reading. 

There was some sewing going on.  Sam is hiding behind the blanket because he is trying to make something for his brother's upcoming birthday.  It was the only way that he could think to hide it from him.  I can not show you a completed picture until after Gabe's birthday to make sure that he does not see it.  Gabe did make a sewing project though that I can share.  Sam's favorite country to learn about is Italy so Gabe sewed the flag for a pillow. 

Photo taken by Sam

They boys did start on the water science this week.  Along with the worksheets they have had lots of fun experiments.  Gabe is doing a taste test of regular water to see if there was any flavor. 

Sam, using an eye dropper had to figure out the size of one drop of water.  The photo below Sam is trying to build different styles of boats to see what one can hold the most before sinking.

There was plenty of pictures being taken all around.  The boys recieved this camera in the mail this week as a free gift for one of the mailing clubs that we are in.  It is not the top of the line camera but it is perfect for them to play around with, and hey it was free!

There was baking of course.  Sam recieved a donut maker for christmas and loves making his own donuts.  He brought some of these into the girls in ballet class.  He is smart, The only boy in the class and he brings in homebaked goods to the girls.  I think I am going to have some problems keeping those girls away.  Gabe did do some cooking this week to, but I am going to share that tomorrow.  Make sure to come back for that. 

Playing with play-doh. Great way to build up the muscles that are needed to write with.

We practiced grammar by playing a game of lego grammar.  Momma won, but Sam was really close behind.  Gabe, ahh he still needs ome work on that.  He will get it though.

Lots of Just Dance 3 for gym class.  The keep trying to beat mom and dad's score.  Good luck boys, you will get there.

Of course there was lots of lessons on the iPad.  Gabe is working on an art lesson here.

Sam was working on his money lapbook.  Did you know that Antartica has its own currency?  He was pretty excited to find that out.  The money is really pretty to, yup there was penguins on it.

We played monoply crazy cash with Gabe.  That kid kicked my butt.  He is a little Donald Trump in the making.  He loved it that I kept calling him money bags.  He laughed so hard that he was having problems breathing.

Look how proud he was that he was beating me.  Funny little kid he is.

Have a great day.  Check back tomorrow for a cooking with the kids (Gabe recipe)

Mathblaster Winner

We have a winner for the Mathblaster Membership!  Congrats to Mind Games I know that you guys will have tons of fun with it.

School time

We took a little bit of an extended break around here because of the holidays.  The boys did a bit of unschooling during that time but were missing the structured lessons that I give them.  Needless to say they were pleased to get back into the routine this week.  On Monday they started their lessons before 8, they were a little eager to get going.  LOL. 

They started practicing music on the iPad.  We got the Dr. Seuss band for an app and is fantastic.  The kids are having alot of fun with it (Husband is too!)  If you see right below Gabe's hand there is a line of circles that has all the notes on it.  They can play their own songs or songs that are offered on there.  If you do not have this app I highly recommend it.  It cost only a couple of dollars.

Practiced penmanship by writing out postcards to family.

Worked on a short story (He was hiding from his brother so he could concentrate)

Built with legos as a life skill.  Gabe worked on it as a way to follow directions.  Sam actually worked on rewriting the directions so that there would be no pictures as a way of giving clear directions.

We started in with water science.  Of course we had to start with the sink or float experiment.    Sam stayed at the counter to write in the results while Gabe waited eagerly at the tub to drop in the item.

There was also some arts and crafts.  With Story of the world the boys learned about the conquistodors and made mask of them.  Sam is in the top picture and Gabe is right below.  If you look closely at Gabe's he is sticking his tounge out, always trying to be funny!

So that is what we have been up to so far this week.  Hope that the rest of the week goes smothly as the begining.. 

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Wishing and Fishing...

I was going to share some pictures of the kids getting back to school, but blogger is being a pain and not letting me.  I can however share some really cute videos of the boys public speaking today.

 First off I wanted to mention the backdrop.  For the longest time the boys hung a ugly old blanket up as a backdrop.   So for Christmas, Rob and I decided to make the boys new back drops.  We picked up twin size flat sheets at Wal-mart for $5 each.  Unfortunetly we have only got one done.  To make this one though we just used up a bunch of our extra felt and hot glued it on.  So the only expense was $5.  The kids loved using this today and can not wait to see the  others that we make.

The Poem was called Wishing and Fishing

from Dirt on my Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy

Wishing and Fishing

I was just wishing that I could go fishing

What I might catch I don't know

A shark or a whale, or a fish with no tail

No matter 'cause I'll let 'em go.

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Avengers Mansion

Gabe has become obsessed with the Avengers over the last few months.  Well for you that have seen the Avenger's on Disney XD know that they have a mansion as their headquarters.  For Christmas we got an unfinished doll house from Michael's.  We painted it up for him to have the mansion.  He even got a bunch of the little action figures to put in it.  Some were from us but he used his Christmas money to get the rest.

Here are some shots of the inside of the mansion.  We still have not decorated the inside up yet.  It is really hard finding the furniture that is not all pastels.  We are still on the look out for some though.  I think some paintings might be neccessary to.  We will see. 

For the outside I painted a big window on each end.  Then as you can see the back has windows and a door on it.

With some of the christmas money he did also buy the Shield Ship.  Sam took an old box and decorated it up to have storage for him.

The house itself is not being used as much any more.  I think that he is getting tired of moving it around.  It is almost the same size as him,LOL.  I am going to work at setting up a special area for it and I think that it will draw his attention back to it.

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