S.A.B.

Or in other words ... the Spontaneous Activity Box!

What is a Spontaneous Activity Box you may ask???

Well, it's something new we're trying this year in our school day. I got a couple packs of cheap index cards and a plastic index card box ... had lots of fun decorating it with fun colored ribbons, and filled it up with spontaneous activities!

Basically the idea is, sometimes school gets boring, dull, and tedious. So every once in a while, at totally random times ... I will pull out the box and we will stop whatever we're doing and take 5-10 min to do whichever spontaneous activity is listed on the card.

Some ideas are:

• put a puzzle together
• do an I Spy book
• put on a puppet show
• pull out the playdough and create something
• go outside and hula hoop for 5 min
• play an educational game

etc, etc, etc ... you get the idea. I'm still looking for more ideas ... so if you think of any feel free to share!! Some ideas may take longer, or we might do after 'class' (like bake something with Mom today), and some might be something they do for the whole day (like wear dress up clothes or PJ's to school all day). We might even have a picnic lunch or snack outside ... either way they are all things that just help break up the day and bring in some variety.

This week ...

at Wellspring Academy ...

We have been learning about the Universe in our science co-op class ... so here is J coloring the planets while she looks them up in a reference book to see what colors they should be ...

We have also been learning about each of the 50 states ... H is coloring a picture of the state bird of Arizona, the Cactus Wren ... she looked it up in our 50 states book ...
These are the solar system mobiles that the girls completed, they show how far each planet it away from the sun ...

We talked about rhyming words today ... and came up with some lists of as many rhyming words as we could ... then the girls wrote a couple sentences of poetry using words that rhyme.

Then came the fun! Today was Friday and was raining and cool ... so after work was done I let them paint! A rare treat around here as I usually don't want to get into all the mess! They had so much fun creating!!
Old egg cartons make GREAT paint trays ... just throw 'em out when you're done!

H's family party

Last Sunday we celebrated H one more time ... I think that makes about 3-4 celebrations for this special birthday girl! Guess you could say we like to celebrate life around this house!

Anyway, my Mom and Bob's parents were able to join us for a beautiful Sunday afternoon to celebrate H. We also celebrated Bob, his birthday was earlier in the month and he was given some great gifts on Sunday too. The girls worked hard painting these beautiful lighthouse slates for Daddy ...
{and yes, they had instruction from my FIL, but they did them all by themselves ... I will share more about their art lessons soon.}
H got lots of new books, she was thrilled! A set of Cam Jansen mysteries, some cool books about bugs and sea life and a Little House book too.
Her 'big' gift from Mommy and Daddy was this keyboard ... we are hoping to start piano sometime in the next year ... but for right now she is loving just playing around on it and trying to learn it by herself.

Bob's Dad, the girls and Bob ... these two little girls are so blessed to be adored so much by these two wonderful men.
My Mom, the girls and Bob's Mom ... once again, SO blessed to have two wonderful Grandmas that love them so much!
My big girl, pretty soon she'll be as tall as me ...
And my other one that is catching up very quickly! My Mom and J ... this picture turned out so cute!

A rare picture of all four of us ... He was still withholding that smile ... but the braces came off this Wednesday so pretty soon you'll start seeing photos with a real smile again!

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

I am so excited that it's finally fall ... don't get me wrong, I love summer ... but fall, oh fall ... I love the colors of fall, the leaves falling down, the cooler air, the scent of pumpkin spices and fresh picked apples, the corn mazes to find your way through and days to enjoy roaming through the apple orchard and pumpkin patch ... there are so many wonderful reasons to love fall!

Getting into the spirit of fall meant bringing out my bin of decorations from the attic. I really enjoyed myself the other day putting little fall touches all around the house, then making a (couple) trips to Micheal's to purchase (just a few) new fall things.

I saw this amazing idea for a Pumpkin Topiary on a blog I like to visit. I thought it was so cute and would make the perfect addition to my (ugly) front porch this year. Yes, my front porch is ugly, boring and usually looks terrible ... so I've been trying to come up with ways to make it look more appealing, you know the whole 'curb appeal' thing? So, at Micheal's the faux pumpkins were 50% off - yippee! as were the leaves and other fall decor. So I sat down the other night with my trusty glue gun in hand and set out to make my topiary. I am so pleased with the way it turned out that I think I might make another one next year (or whenever those pumpkins go to an even bigger discount!) My only regret is that my lovely husband thinks it looks like a pumpkin SNOWMAN! I keep telling him it's a topiary to which he just replies "what's a TOPIARY?" He's even got my daughter asking "mom, where are the eyes and mouth?" GGRRRRRRRR ....

Anyway, my glue gun and I certainly had fun together, we also created a new fall wreath which I was also pretty happy about. My home is finally looking fall-ish!




Oh and I'm loving, loving, loving the pumpkin spice candles ... I may just burn through them before the season's over!

Goegeous Flower Gardens

Last week was H's birthday ... so we had a relaxed school day in the morning, then headed off to a great state park that is right on the ocean. We brought our bikes and went for a great bike ride, then walked around the gorgeous flower gardens for quite awhile. The flowers were amazing and the gardens are all around this large old house where they often have weddings. The whole setting was just beautiful.


Here she is ... Hard to believe how fast the time has flown by! One we call "brain flower" at work!
Some form of daisy ... I think!
Sunflower
Dahlia
Straw Flower
Snapdragon

Road Trip part 1 - Friends

We took the girls up for a quick little road trip. We stayed the first night near with our friends. The girls always have a ball playing with Haylee and Ella ... and I always enjoy spending time with Julie and seeing their little baby Cora. The girls bounced on the trampoline, played in the water hose and had a great time together. I only took a few pictures and I didn't even get one of Julie or Cora! I have to get better about getting everyone in the pictures!

H and Haylee ...
All four girls ... J and Ella ...
Me and Ella ...

Road Trip part 2 - the Lake

We spent a while on Monday exploring the Lake area. We walked around to see the sights, took some pictures, ate lunch out on the deck of a restaurant that overlooked the lake, and checked out a few hotels in case we ever want to come back.

Road Trip part 3 - Indoor Waterpark

This was our second time going to the Indoor Water park. We had a blast again, just like last year! We chose to go on a Monday since we knew there wouldn't be too many people there and it was perfect! We had mostly everything to ourselves, there were only a handful of other people in the whole hotel.

We spent hours in the water park going up LOTS of stairs and coming down LOTS of slides! The girls favorite was this huge tube that we called the 'family' slide because all of us could go on it together. In this photo the girls went down alone, you could hear their screams the whole way down!

Bob taking a break ...


Relaxing on the lazy river ...

The hotel also had a Johnny Rockets restaurant. We had a great dinner there ... then later that night we went back again for dessert! It's a very fun place to eat where they make your ketchup into smiley faces and the waitresses sing and dance for you. (J was so embarrassed when they sang and danced, she wouldn't even look at them!)
Yes, I was there too ... always taking the pictures and not getting in them!
Yummy shakes at Johnny Rockets!! Once again we had a great time. The hotel also had a great arcade room and gave the girls free tokens to play in there. They won some cute prizes and had so much fun. They also gave each kid a Looney Tunes stuffed animal ... just what we need - more stuffed animals!! =)

It was a great trip and the kids had a blast and Bob & I had a pretty great time too!