Christmas in July 2013

Ryanne's phonics. She has 2 text books, activity book, assessment book, readers, 3 dry erase boards, 4 mini dry erase boards, site words cards, dry erase marker and eraser, magnetic letter tiles and 3 ring binder.

 All the school books have arrived!! Now to organize the school room and go school supply shopping after I inventory what we have left from this past year.

Ryanne's Language Arts!

Ryanne's science.... graduated cylinder, magnets, safety glasses, magnifying glass, thermometer, blow up globe, mirror, activity book, story books.

Ryanne's math

Collin's science.

Collin's language arts (includes literature, writing skills, vocabulary, spelling, and handwriting.

Collin's math.

Can you tell they color code the kids by grade? K is blue, 1st is green and 2nd is orange. Collin's is on the top shelf and Ryanne's on the bottom. YAY!!

Our weekly adventures! :)

 This dress was a hand me down from a friend. Isn't it beautiful? She has worn it to church the past two Sundays. Yes, I know it's a bit fancy for church but she loves it and it's certainly NOT a play in the yard type of dress so I figured if she's going to get any use out of this beautiful princess dress then she may as well wear it to church. She loves to spin in circles in it. Love it! :)

My little girl gets emotionally attached to objects. I think it's part of her secondary 2 energy (Carol Tuttle's energy profiling). I put a shirt into her giveaway pile that was too small for her. She never wore it but she burst into tears and started naming all the things she had done in that shirt. So, this gave me an idea. She needs some way to store all these memories and save small items so she'll always have them. But, she lies to have fun, everything has to be fun so we needed a fun way to do it. So, she and I went to Hobby Lobby one morning and bought her a small 8x8 scrapbook. It has become our Sunday afternoon activity. She LOVES it! This is her first page. We decided it should be about her since it's her book. I think she did a great job. She did all the cutting, placing, and sticking on her own. I just stayed near by in case she needed me and showed her all the options in my supplies and how they worked or what the text said. So much fun for her! I hope it will help so she doesn't become a hoarder one day. LOL! ;)

Occupational therapy was fun. He was working on core and upper body muscles. He did push ups and things like that. This is a photo of a game he played where he had to use his core muscles to reach to the blue table and grab a clothes pin then reach to the green table and placing it on the coordinating color while saying the letter the color started with. 

We went on a family outing to Books A Million. Collin got so excited when he saw a plush Creeper right at the front of the store. Creepers are from Minecraft which is a game Collin LOVES. :) He carried the Creeper to the sales associate and asked how much. He scanned it, told Collin the price and handed it back. There was so much disappointment flooding Collin's face that it just broke me heart. He said it's $39.99 for a food tall plush Creeper. Collin said he was thinking it would be around $20 but it was double! He was so sad. So, we came home and folded these out of paper. The kids colored them. The one on the left is Princess Bubblegum (Ryanne's) and the one on the right is a creeper (Collin's). Paul and I did the cutting and the folding and decided we are never making things like this again. Oh! They are difficult!

My sister let me babysit her kids while she took her youngest to a well-baby check up. I was so excited. We had breakfast, played, made a volcano erupt (Collin's clay volcano with baking soda and vinegar) then we went on a mile long walk. By the time we got back my sister was back! 

Then we all went to the library and the kids turned in their summer reading sheets to the library. They had to read 10 books and the kids got a certificate and a hand puppet! :)

Later, we went to the library for a free performance of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. In this scene we have the shepherd, an audience member who is being posed for a painting done by Van Goat Gruff. LOL! I thought that was funny! :)

Paul leaves for scout camp in the morning and depending on if I want to attempt a Lowe's Build and Grow by myself with the kids, we may go tomorrow. :) We'll see. This was our week of adventure. YAY!! Now, we'll see what next week brings.

Touch a Truck Day

This is my favorite community activity each year!!!!!

Animal control's large animal truck had this gurney that worked with an automatic pulley system to drag animals onto the truck. Well, today it dragged children inside. 

The police gave out snow cones, stickers, suckers and coloring supplies to everyone.

This is the car Ryanne wants when she grows up. I wouldn't let them in with the snow cones.

When she finished her snow cone she got in the driver's seat.

And everyone's favorite part -- the firetrucks hosed down the children.

Keeping up!

I was informed by my husband that I needed to update the blog. It's how he keeps up with what the kids and I do. LOL! So... I am updating.

Ryanne and me posing for the camera. She loves doing the duck face. 

 If anyone wants to watch her dance then you can watch this video. The first 2/3 of it are her favorite warm up dances and the last third of it is one of the jazz dances she worked on over the summer. She loved jazz so much she is taking mini jazz and pre ballet in the fall. YAY!! You will probably have to turn your head sideways... sorry!

This is the 4th of July cake the kids decorated all by themselves. I think they did an awesome job!

We found Collin a bike at Goodwill for $30. I was so excited because his knees were hitting the handle bars on his old bike. This bike looks like someone bought it and then left it in the garage until the child outgrew it. The tread on the tires even looks good. There is a little bit of yellow spray paint near the chain and the tires are flat. That is all. He is so excited! Now, we just need to pump up the tires. :)

I went out to visit David's grave for his birthday. I took him some yellow roses. My dad is buried right next to him so I was able to "visit" with them both on my own for a bit.

Collin's occupational therapy. Seriously!! It looks so fun! I want to participate. This day he wrote letters in shaving cream on the mirrors and then sat on the swing, and had to balance so it didn't tip, and pick up bean bags from letters with the claw to spell the words he wrote. 

We also went blueberry and blackberry picking so we made blueberry crepes! Yum!!!

A picture of Ryanne's dance picture.

A picture of the picture of Ryanne's dance team. :)

Collin is getting new glasses!! These are of him trying them on at the ophthalmologist's office so they aren't sized to him yet. But, don't worry. I'll take a picture of him when he gets his actual ones. They are for reading only. Don't worry, I bought the insurance and got the bendable frames. haha! MY 7 year old boy wearing glasses? The poor glasses... 

We went to the ecology lab presentation at the library. They have a free activity every week that we go to. This is the coyote. Isn't he cute? Well, cute until someone besides his handler goes near him and then he turns vicious. Ha! There were many other animals too - amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. A favorite are the gators. :)

 Last week the kids went to Pirate School at the library but I forgot my phone so got no pictures.

I'm sure you all remember I have talked about Carol Tuttle's energy theories. Well, Ryanne is a type 1, meaning she is a fun loving girl and high energy. :) She has a very outward energy while the rest of the family have more inward energies. So, I guess one day she was tired of our stillness so she packed a lunch for herself and packed another lunch of fake food and went out with her imaginary friend, Joey, and had a picnic. LOL! I thought it was awesome! She is such a creative girl and seemed to have so much fun with it.

Something is wrong with our invisible fence and Arwen keeps testing her boundaries and getting out. We have learned that she loves car rides though. :)

We love Build and Grow Workshop at Lowe's. They made the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story. haha!

The stickers they put on the outside of the wooden truck even just had the "YO" on the back. Love it!

Collin and me posing for the camera in the waiting room at occupational therapy.

Occupational therapy.... they use that "seat" a lot anytime he does sit down stuff. I kind of want one. It adds extra sensory when he's doing something that involves sitting. He has to keep himself balanced in it and has to stay sitting criss cross apple sauce. He does well. He can rock just slightly but has to focus on staying balanced which occupies enough of his sensory to focus on writing, folding paper, or tying shoes. :)

After the shoe tying, he went back to bean bag grabbing on the swing. I seriously want to try it!

We also go to the dollar movies. The past two weeks we saw:

Coraline - This was a great movie! It was a bit scary but my kids love scary movies. There was also one scene where an old woman wore pasties. A little immodest and got a giggle from Ryanne as she whispered to me, "She's naked." Oh my... other than that it was a great movie. ;)

This week we watched Big Miracle. I wasn't sure if the kids would like it because it seemed more grown up then what they like but they were totally into it. I was in tears through part of it and the kids were almost. Collin was holding me as he fought back his tears. Such a great movie! They loved that it was based on real events.

Okay, those are the events of the last two weeks. :)

Hannah

If you would like to read other posts about women from the scriptures then click here.
Scriptures to study:
1 Samuel 1:1-2:21
LDS Bible Dictionary pg 698

Hannah is such a amazing example of faith! Pres Kimball said, "Someday when the whole story of this and previous dispensations is told, it will be filled with courageous stories of our women, of their wisdom and their devotion, their courage, for one senses that perhaps just as women were the first at the sepulcher of the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection, our righteous women have so often been instinctively sensitive to things of eternal consequence." Ensign May 1978


Like many women of the Old Testament, Hannah could not have children. She had a very kind husband (demonstrated in 1 Sam 1:8) and was a very righteous woman.

One night, she vowed to the Lord (1 Sam 1:11) that if she has a child she'll rear him as a Nazarite (to learn more about Nazarites read Numbers 6) and 'give him unto the Lord'.

She bears a son (1 Sam 1:20) and names him Samuel which means "heard of God". In 1 Sam 1:24-28 she gives an offering to the Lord, thanking Him and reminding Him of her vow.

My favorite part is 1 Sam 2:1-11. This is Hannah's Psalm of Praise and is a wonderful example of joy and wisdom. It's an inspired perspective through life's trials and one of those things we can all learn from. We all go through trials and if we have the same attitude and gratitude as Hannah then life would be so much happier. Verse 11 is also a prophecy, earning Hannah the title of "prophetess" to many scripture scholars.

Hannah is blessed with three sons and two daughters according to 1 Sam 2:21. To learn why, read Mosiah 2:24-28.

I am so grateful she received more wonderful blessings -- her children! Samuel was not a selfish request so she was definitely urged to make that plea/vow by something other than a desire to be like the other women. I hope to find the blessings and joys in my trials and have the faith to endure them as Hannah did.

Here's a brief timeline of Hanna and Samuel's life:

• 1200-1020 BC        Judges provide leadership to Israel
• 1075 BC                 Hannah gives birth to Samuel
• 1020 BC                 Samuel anoints Saul as the first king of Israel (1 Sam 13:1)
• 1005 BC                 Samuel anoints David as the second king of Israel (2 Sam 5:5). The site for the temple is identified. Samuel dies.
• 956 BC                   Nathan anoints Solomon the third king of Israel. (1 Kings 11:42)      

Questions to ask yourself about Hanna (feel free to answer below or link me to your post). :)

1. What is unique about this woman and her story?
2. How does she fit into the time period in which she lived?
3. What Christlike qualities does she exemplify?
4. What would I ask er if I met her?
5. How can I relate to her?
6. What can I (or others) learn from her experiences?

Summer activities!!

Last week we watched....

If you'd like to see the trailer....

It was surprisingly cute! The kids and I all really enjoyed it!

This week we saw Rio!

The trailer:

The freebie activity at the library was a Dinosaur Discovery....!!

The kids got to pretend to be paleontologists and dig for bones (chocolate chips) in a cookie with a toothpick. When finished, they were able to eat their findings and the dirt. ;) Throughout they read dinosaur books and they also tested their knowledge on dinosaurs and learned some fun facts. Finally, they all got dinosaur gliders to make at home. Fun fun!! I love free and cheap activities around town. :)