I just gotta wear shades

We just got them some new glasses.  Look how handsome they are!



A picnic with friends

Labor day weekend we got together with some of our friends for a picnic.  The best part of the picnic was that Sam planned and put the whole thing together.  He did such a great job.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

Connor resting up before the picnic (I guess he would not take his nap after, oops)

Picture was taken by Sam

Sam with Carl and Li Mei.

Connor Having a blast playing in the dirt.

Picture taken by Sam

All the kids having some food.

 

My monkeys hanging out in trees

After lunch we went down to the water and the boys had so much fun with the buckets of water.

You can not see it in this picture but Carl had just thrown a bucket of water at him, that is why he looks like that.  LOL

Sam had some fun playing with Connor in the water too.

After the water we went up for the kids to play on the swings.  Look at that smile, he is just to cute. :0)

Picture taken by Rob

Sam, Li Mei, Connor, Gabe, and Carl at the end of the day.  It was such a nice day.  Good job on your planning Sam.

(Sorry about the darkness of the picture, we were right under a big tree)



A common view...

I thought that I would share a picture that is becoming more and more of a habit around here.  It is just the sweetest, don't you think?

A little spell building...

So I am always on the look out for new and fun ways to teach my kids.  Well one topic that I find kind of, well boring to teach is grammar.  Then I saw this idea on Filth Wizardry.  What a great idea, I mean who does not have a ton of big legos lying around.  What not put them to good use and teach your kids something with them.

He was so excited to show what he wrote.  He loves making up sentences this way.

Make a Didgeridoo..

With our studying of Australia, one thing we had to make was a Didgeridoo.  I was so excited to find this link on how to make one. We gathered up the supplies and started making it.

First step is to get a three foot of pvc pipe.

Then we spray painted them all one color so that it would look like wood.

Then you let 2 very excited boys design up one each, with aboriginal style paints of course. :0)  Once they finish painting DH melted down the beeswax and made mouth pieces for them.

The finished products.  Gabe made the one on the left and Sam made the one on the right.  The boys love having them.  They love to put on little shows with them.  Thank goodness the noise level is realitvly low on them. LOL :0)

Halloween Box Swap for Kids...

My friend PisecoMom over at Mindgames is trying to put together a Halloween swap for all our cute little kiddos out there.  If you are interested you should make sure to go sign up.  Deadline for signing up is September 24.  So either click here or on her button in my sidebar and it will take you there.  So what are you waiting for, go sign up!

Edited to add... I was having problems with the button so I took it down.  Just click on my links instead.

Back to school...

Ok we never really stopped schooling over the summer.  It is that time of year when all of the kids are heading back to school.  Since we homeschool the kids do not get to participate in the shopping for new clothes and supplies.  Last year we came up with a fun tradition for them.  We get them a new toy or game that is educational, something to make learning fun for them.  Then to cover the new school clothes we get them a new "school uniform", pajamas. 

For Sam we got a new Geography book beacause he is so good at geography and needed something to challenge himself.  He got the GEOGRAPHY BEE, it is the study guide for the national geography bee.  He has decided that he needs to be the champion of it in the next few years.  We also got him the Brain Box All Around The World, what can I say my boy loves his geography.  Gabe continues to follow in his brothers foot steps and is also very good at geography so we needed to get him a new book too.  We got him The Everything Kids Need To Know About Geography.  He is very excited about it.  We also got him a brainbox game.  His was about the U.S. Presidents since I am woking on it with him this year.  Now here is a little photo shoot of them in their new outfits (their dad made the shirts and I did the pants).  Sorry for the poor shots.

First up Sam, his theme is the frog prince.  It is hard to see what the pants looks like but the frog on his shirt looks just like the ones on his pants.

Next is Gabe, his is Curious George (he is a little ham for the camera)

Now for some joint shots

The boys are having a great time with school and are staying very comfortable with their new outfits.  Hope that everyone is doing great with their school activities.  I can not wait to read all about them.  Until then have a great one.

A little bit of cooking.......

So a lot of baking has been going around here lately.  The kids are loving getting in the kitchen and trying out new recipes.  They especially love it when a recipe comes from another country.  One of the recipes that we did the other day was Pavlova, it is a popular dessert in Australia.  Since we are studying Australia right now the kids could not wait to try it.  I found the recipe on allrecipes, there was a few different recipes for it but this is the one that I used.  It was very yummy, really sweet though.

Looks so good right.  We used fresh blueberries to top it.  I was going to put strawberries but was all out when I made it.

Doesn't that look so good (trust me it was :0))

I made some minty brownies today.  They were so good, the nice and fudgy texture with a nice taste of mint.  I mentioned them on facebook and I had a friend ask for the recipe so I thought that I would share it here for everyone.  I got the recipe from my Hershey cookbook.  It is called Perfectly Peppermint brownies.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2/3 cup butter melted and divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups a/p flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 or 17 peppermint patties, chopped ( I used Andees mints from the baking section)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350'F.  Grease 13x9x2 pan.
2. stir together cocoa and baking soda, stir in 1/3 cup butter.  Add boiling water, stir until thickens.  Stir in sugar eggs and remaining butter until smooth.  Add flour, vanilla, and salt, blend.  Stir in peppermint patties (or mints, LOL).  Pour into pan.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes.
4.  Enjoy yummy goodness

So what are you baking in your kitchen?

Just a quick update

I wanted to let you know that we are still here just really busy.  Here are a few things that we have been up to...

So that is just a bit of what we have been up to.  Promise I will start posting again over the next few days to explain all of our fun activities that we have been doing.  Until then have a great day!