Fun Friday's

Why they love Friday's...

games

picnics

library books

46 to be exact

Lord Of The Rings

popcorn

and staying up way too late!

Meet My New Love

Meet my new love. I woke up yesterday morning and as usual read Nie Nie's blog. She mentioned Sweet Cakes again. This cute little deli/bakery on Main St. in Mesa and since we hadn't been in a while AND it was 'Fun Friday' we decided after our trip to the library we'd make a detour and try their highly recommended homemade Oreo cookies. Let's just say, they didn't disappoint. OK, I'll admit, Kade and I were hoping to see Stephanie there since she also mentioned she'd be stopping by...no such luck.

It's been a fabulous week! We are having beautiful weather here in Arizona. Low 70's, sunny skies...perfect for a hoodie w/ flip flops (my personal fave).

Soph's birthday was totally fun & memorable. My friend from Utah made her this tutu, she loved it and so did everyone at the zoo. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the Phoenix Zoo wasn't crowded at all.

Wednesday night we had Joey over again. You can read more about him here. Things are always interesting when Joey's around. He wears us out, but we enjoy seeing him. He's always obsessed with using our Internet. Well, the monitor on our office computer was throwing tantrums and since the recent costly repair on my laptop, I decided to hide it upstairs. You can imagine how frustrated Joey was getting. Pacing the floors and asking every 2 minutes if Kimball had fixed it yet. Yes he got his pizza, cupcakes and Pepsi, but he wasn't going to be satisfied until he got to use the computer. Needless to say, Kimball being the big, giant, lovable, push-over that his is, took Joey to Best Buy and bought a new monitor. An hour later Joey was surfing the web and couldn't have been happier.

Thursday night we went to dinner with some clients. I was SO excited for a date night in the middle of the week, I even pulled out my 'good jeans'. They have a beautiful home in a ritzy part of Scottsdale. Before dinner we met there so I could see our masonry work. I have to say it blew me away!!!! There's a pool, water features, fireplace, fire pit, sunken bar area, planters, island, BBQ/breakfast bar, huge indoor fireplace, columns, stone patios etc. I'm sure I've missed something. Kimball does a lot of 'high end' jobs but this was the motherload! Seriously? I can't believe that A.) Anyone has that kind of money to spend on {one of } their homes, and B.) How far Kimball has come in his knowledge of masonry...self taught mind you. Just another reason I love this guy. I'll have to admit, coming back to our house was a tiny bit of a disappointment...but that's exactly why I'm not wealthy. God knows I couldn't handle it. I'm sure I'd get even more prideful and materialistic. It's so hard not to covet other peoples things, especially when you know you could do some serious entertaining (and laying out) with a backyard like that. I have to wonder if heaven is that divine.

Now brace yourself, I have some great news...Soph's using the toilet. WOO HOO! The day after her birthday she woke up and decided she was a big girl. It's now Saturday and she's only had 2 accidents (#2's) so we'll have to work on that, but she's hasn't even wet the bed. In the business world this is equivelant to a major promotion or a corner office on the top floor with an incredible view. You stay at home moms know what I'm talking about.

Now if you're like me and bummed that you didn't go to Blissdom this year...link up at my friend Patty's blog and we can all whine together!

Lapbooks - Science

This is our first attempt at Lapbooking. You can tell because we glued the cover to the back by mistake...oops! It went well and it was a lot of fun and in my opinion a great way to learn. I don't think we'll go making a lapbook on everything we study, but it was fun for a change.
I just found a bunch of information and activities/worksheets on the Internet. I didn't note which sites I got them on but there's a ton of information if you just Google: Bee lapbooks or bee notebooking.

Bees are fascinating insects and I thoroughly enjoyed studying them as well.

I hadn't planned for Jaxon to create anything but he got the idea to make a scrapbook page for his nature journal and went to town on it. It was a great day!

Mom School

Gospel: Book of Mormon (Helaman finished ch. 11)

Read Aloud: The Little House On The Prairie (finished ch. 9)

History: The Story Of The World ch. 39(studied Roman Emperor Nero, Christian persecution & Emperor Constantine).

Science: Loved on more science books about insects

Jaxon

Assigned Reading: The Work And The Glory (two chapters) vol. 1, listened to Kade read chapter from Young Reader's Bible Stories.

Science: Made a scrapbook page (insects), played on Discovery Kids Insects web site.

Math: Saxon 5/4 lesson 83

PE: Martial Arts & soccer at park.

Kade

Assigned Read: Chapter in Young Reader's Bible Stories

Art: Pencil drawing of Christians catacomb's in Rome.

Science: Made a lapbook (Bees), played on Discovery Kids Insects web site.

PE: Park Day with friend, soccer w/ friends.

Free Read: Mom read Bug book to him, Kade read The Magic Tree House.
Sophia
Art: Drew on the walls, shutters, & chair in the boys room w/ a blue marker!!

Creative Play: Built castles and giraffes w/ blocks

PE: Played outside

Music: Sang lots of songs with mom

Jessica
Personal Reading: Bible (Prov., Thes), Benjamin Franklin, The Fat Flush

Study: Finished Oliver DeMille's audio, Thomas Jefferson Education...the basics & took notes. I now see just how rediculous it was for me to worry if Kade was ever going to LOVE reading...he's only 6!
Writing: Journaling

I am leaving for Utah tomorrow night for my nephews wedding, I am SO nervous/sad to leave the kids. It is crazy how much we have bonded this past year. I wish I could take them all with me, but I suppose the free time will be good for me.

Last week, Kade lost his first tooth. It was sad for me, but great for him. He left his window open that night so the tooth fairy could get in. He now talks with a lisp, it's adorable!
Last Friday night, the boys had a little party at our house. It was a joke contest/movie night. They invited several friends and had a blast shining the spot light on the boy telling the jokes. They all did a great job, even the shy ones. They had treats, popcorn, prizes and of course a Nerf gun battle before and after. It's so fun to watch them grow and interact with their friends. Jaxon was the host of the joke contest and was hilarious...to my surprise (I'm not sure why), he had a whole routine memorized and was dropping jokes one after the other. The boys all behaved so great, we'll definitely do it again

Little Jerry Seinfeld...

Fall Break

I would have pushed through fall break, but since I was going out of town, and my neice Carly and her baby were coming for 9 days, it was necessary to take one. Don't think that their minds turned to total moosh, because they had a great time making movies with Carly's video camera, going on a few field trips and playing outside.

Battle for the chair.



Playing outside




ART Field Trip - As You Wish Pottery Painting
Carly took the boys to paint pottery and get ice cream. Kade was so excited about the ice cream that he rushed through his painting constantly asking "How much longer?". His race car ended up looking like an ice cream cone with lots of bright colors and sprinkles on top. :)





Field Trip to Schnepf Farms
It was 96 degrees with no shade, we were sweating buckets! We only stayed 2 hours, do you blame us? Oh yeah, and I was sick with a chest cold so you know how that is!


Stinky Pigs!!



BounceU - The kids loved going to their friends birthday party.




Fun's Over - us dropping Carly & Gavin off at the airport.
Notice: the Vicks rub on my neck...yeah still sick!

The Awkward Hug...not really!
Thanks Carly for the visit and for taking such great care of the kids. You're the best!

TGIF

Thank Goodness it's Friday!!
Is it that obvious that I love Fridays?
We made it through another week of studying hard and getting much accomplished. I feel really good about the progress we've made. Jaxon needed me to spend more time with him on grammar and math and I am, and it's going much better, and hey, I'm still alive and kicking! Was that a run on sentence? I don't know but I'll probably be learning any day now. :) I haven't been too excited about grammar, but now that we are diving in, it's pretty good curriculum and Jaxon is enjoying it.
Kimball is now Jaxon's official Latin tutor and that is going well too. The boys piano teacher is back from her long break and Kade is rip, roaring, ready to go! He loves playing and it's been a hard thing for him to have one piano lesson and then nothing for 8 weeks. His teacher had an emergency c-section the day after his first lesson, so he has been practicing the same stuff (plus a few songs Jaxon taught him) for a very long time. I am so impressed that he's kept a great attitude and through it all, managed to practice valiantly 15 minutes a day. Even if he was just playing around at times, I didn't care as long as he was playing. The weather has been a lot cooler in the morning, allowing us to do our reading aloud outside.
Kade's excited to read our History Encyclopedia for additional information on Ancient Egypt.
Jaxon is our joke maker, he helps us not take ourselves too seriously.
Sophia helps out by feeding our dog saltine crackers.

Now for the fun Friday part...park day with our home school group. We went to San Tan Village, a fun outdoor mall with a splash pad and play area.



There was a pretty good turn out and Jaxon really had fun playing with two new friends, so did Kade. I was totally shocked that Sophia got soaked in the fountains and ran around like a crazy woman. She's usually shy and reserved but I guess she needed a Friday too!