School 2012-13: How it has all come to an end!

The school year has come to an end!

Last day of the school year in Tomorrow! 6/11/13!

(Currently 6/10/13 11 PM)

My Smart Little Dudes are about to finish their last day of their first year of home school! They did AMAZING! I have never before been so proud of them!

These 2 little geniuses are finishing off the year with a ton of new information that I feel they would not of had if they had been left on their own in the traditional Brick and Mortar schooling program. 

My eldest is ending his school year in the middle of a 4th grade class! He had a lot more work to get done than his younger brother this year so I am proud that he got as far as he did. His year end testing compared to his beginning of the year testing had a great rise in numbers. Most kids only get an increase of 145 points in both Math and Reading, my guy improved by 245 points in Reading and 345 points in Math! He is so smart! He also did pretty great on his state testing, he passed them both!

My guy who started his year off in 1st grade courses is finishing the school year off at 15-20% completion in all 2nd grade courses! He has gotten so good at his work that when it came to his scores for his testing from the beginning to the end of the year he had massive improvements! The one that I am most impressed with was he word recognition. (I am sure this is because he knows what letters make each sound and he knows how to put them all together!) He went from below Kindergarten level in word recognition to a 12th grade word recognition this school year! I know his teacher said to take the score on that with a grain of salt but I think he is an awesome kid for getting that score! LOL His other scores were all in the 2nd to 4th grade range for all the other categories. Which is great since he is in all 2nd grade courses.

I look forward to continuing to work with my children over the Summer and into the next school year. They are also excited to be starting their Summer Camp Classes next week as well! Even my little 5 year old is going to be joining the Summer Camp fun this year and learning to use the online classroom tools that his brothers learned over the summer last year.

That is all for now. I hope to post lots of new photos and information soon! Take care!

~TTFN!

In Recent News...

I know I have not been on here to post much lately and I apologize!

Pre-read warning..... CAUTION BREASTFEEDING PHOTO BELOW! (just for those who don't want to see breast)

This is a long one... Hope you have the time! LOTS of photos too though!

In recent days we have made a few LARGE changes our lives. And they are revolved around our most recent big purchase!

Here is that purchase.......

It is a 1999 Ford Taurus SE! And so far it has been a complete save! 

1. A huge save on gas! 

We were paying double the gas to drive into town (roughly a 45 minute drive one way) twice a day to get my husband to and from work and allow me to have the other car at home just in case something else happened at home. Now, only one trip for him to go to and from work. And then when I need to go into town for groceries or what have you. Also, it costs less to fill this little car up compared to our van.

2. We both get more sleep! 

We were both only getting around 3-5 hours a "night"(he sleeps during the day and works at night) and then leaving early to take him to work (he was getting there 2 hours or so early every day!) so that I could get back home at a decent time and get the kiddos fed and into bed! And then I could fall asleep once all the kids were asleep and be up around 4:30-5 o'clock in the morning to go pick him up and bring him home and then go about my day with the kids (often after a nap). 

So I have had a little more time to spend with the kiddos!

He decided that Grandma and Mommy's cucumber looked yummy!

He ended up eating most of what we had on our plates!

That is not a "yuck" face you see there!

That is his "oh look a camera is out" silly face! 

The above photo is of one of our new favorite meals before it was baked! Spinach Chicken loaf! and below is the baked product! It is oh so yummy! I have not been able to decide if I like it cold or hot better yet! However, On a zero carb flax bun cold with a little bit of mayonnaise on it, it is to die for! And super filling! 

Next.......

The flax bun I spoke of earlier! This was my lunch one day though. I had a bun with 2 fried eggs, a few cheese slices and some mayo and mustard! It curbed one of my cravings I have had for awhile to make and enjoy a fried egg sandwich! YUM!

Next is the forewarned Breast photo!

Nursing and Giggling! We stopped in a parking lot in town to have a good nursing when we bought the Taurus last week. After we bought the car we went to the insurance company followed by the DMV and then gas all for the Taurus. So little dude was ready to eat! And he could not stop laughing at Daddy! So I took that opportunity to snap a few photos! And this is one of the cutest with his big grin on his face!

That would be my oh so handsome Nephew Gabriel! Hard to believe it but, he turned 6 months old on Friday! Half a year old! (Picture was taken on Friday and posted by my sister and I stole it from here Facebook!) I know I haven't seen him much in his short 6 months as I should! This would partly be because they live 400+ miles away. But I love seeing the photos of him and hope that with time I will be able to visit him (and my Sister) more often. Specially with having two vehicles, travelling just got cheaper! We wouldn't have to get my hubby a hotel room in town so he could ride the bus or his bike to and from work (he has a car now!) And we wouldn't have to board the dog! Because my husband would be home with him! The only expenses would be the gas to get there and back and our hotel there! Sounds like we may need to work out how to get there some time this summer once school is out!

Speaking of school!

Both boys completed their Science class early and were able to advance in to the next grade level! Since they are Grades 1 & 3 the school put them into Grade 2 Science (as well as History and Art) together. We have already sent back the Science 2 supplies that they asked us to and received the Science 3 supplies! So we are set for the summer and next school year! (Yes, I am going to be "that mom" and make them continue some school work during the summer, not every day, but every week!)

My 1st Grader has also advanced to his 2nd grade courses in Language Arts! He advanced at 95% and has completed all of the "set" of classes! We are still waiting on his school supplies to arrive for that class and hopefully we can get started on those classes next week! Since now all he has left to work on is History and Art with his brother and Math by himself for this school year!

I am so proud of both of my school going guys right now! They have worked their booties off! Hopefully their little brother will work just as hard next year! He has been accepted and starts home school on September 4th, 2013!

He is so excited that he keeps asking when his school stuff will get here and when he can start school! I had to break it to him that it wouldn't be here until the end of Summer. I thought he was going to cry. Poor little guy. Wish I could sped up time for him sometimes! LOL

This is my oldest on his first ever day of school!

First day of Kindergarten!

He was so little! He was also scared!

But he did AMAZING!

My little genius!

This photo would be his 2 little brothers hanging out in the stroller while we waited for the bus to show up! They were little troopers and would sit there every morning and when we would get home they would eat breakfast and then play, play, play... It was a simple time! LOL

I wish I had more photos of my older kiddos to share. I need to connect my camera to my computer and get them off there. I have started taking more and more photos on my camera since the in Wal-mart PictureMe Portrait Studio closed down. I am going to have to either take photos on my own or pay a lot more to get them done. My other option is also to have my friend who lost her job when the portrait studio closed take the photos. I would love to give her the money rather than someone I don't know or to a big corporation. When I have to photos on my computer I will be able to post them! The studio closing also got me thinking about how I am going to do Christmas photos for family this year as well and I think I have come up with a pretty neat and fairly cheap idea! Another reason I have been taking photos like they are going out of style!

That is about all I have for now... Take care everyone!

~TTFN!

Summer? Or Fall already?

So, Summer is supposed to be here. But, this is Central Oregon and anything goes! We have had some super warm days and some not so warm days that were filled with rain, like today! The "worst" or "best" storm we have had, depending on how you look at it, was a couple days ago. It was raining so hard that my 7 year old could not hear his teacher on the computer, so he sort of missed out on his class a little. We tried to tell her that we could not hear her and I guess she thought we meant our speakers were turned off. We started getting instructions on how to adjust the volume on the Elimunate system! LOL

Summer Camp Online has been great for my boys! The oldest had fun learning all about Camping and campfire songs and that sort of thing. However, they only offer the exact same class or club this week as well, same topic and everything, so he is not going again this week to the same thing. The 6 year old though is attending the Dinosaur Camp this week since he did the "Twisty Tales" class last week. The Twisty Tales class was interesting. He got to hear "The true story of Little Red Riding Hood as told by A. Wolf", "Cindy Ellen, a Cinderella Story" and a couple others that he had a ball with. One they had even read in his Kindergarten class last year at school, so he knew all about it! They gave out printable coloring pages and mazes and word searches and stuff like that every day. It was great for them all. After his class from 9-10 am, all 3 of the older boys would sit at the table and color for an hour or two. The Dinosaur class is turning out to be pretty neat as well. Other than the fact that they gave me some links to some websites that don't actually contain what they said they should. At least, I haven't been able to find the "items" on the sites yet. They did give us the recipe for "fossil molds" and we forgot to make them today, so tomorrow before his class we will have to get them done. Here it is for those who want it.

Fossil Mold Ingredients:

4 cups of Flour
1 cup of Salt
1 and a half cups of water
Mixing Bowl

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in your bowl until they come to the texture of a usable dough! Salt dough! Have fun making different types of "animal" molds.

This seems like something fun that wont take too much effort and I will post pictures once I have them to post! Another neat part of these "classes" is that if your child misses a class you can get the recording from the day before or the entire week if you don't make it in until Friday. The instructions to make a permineralized sponge so that it seems you have your own fossil! Pretty neat right? According to his teacher, it took her about 5 days to get it solid! I think we will get that going in the morning too! And of course, I will post pictures once I have them to post.

This is a pretty busy week including all the Summer Camp for the 6 year old. My Sister arrived in town today and the boys went crazy! I am so happy to see her pregnant! It has been a long time coming and she deserves this baby! I can not wait to meet the little guy/gal. My oldest is so lucky! He is going home with her Wednesday (this is Also my mother's Birthday) and staying with her until the baby shower on July 7th! But the part that makes him lucky is that he gets to go to her second ultrasound with her where hopefully they will find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! I want to know real bad! There are so many projects on hold for that baby until I know what he/she is!

That is all for tonight. I hope to be back tomorrow with photos of finished projects!

~TTFN!

Hot hot Summer days... Sort update from today...

It is getting hotter and hotter here. 

This is not something new, it is just Summer in Central Oregon. LOL! I tried to get the new hoses for our pool hooked up today, fail! They are the largest size I could find (both at the store and online) and they don't fit. The hose opening is the same size as the part I was hoping to connect it to! I am now going to have to resort to taking the "skimmer bucket" to the store with me and attempt to connect the hose at the store to the base of it. I think if I do this then I will be able to get the pool completely cleaned out and ready for swimming. The temp of the pool is already starting to look up! This time last year our pool was still in the 40-50 degree range, this year we have already hit and passed 60! Woo! I am looking forward to getting back into the water with my boys! They had so much fun last year swimming and diving, I hope they do the same this year! We will also need to buy a new vacuum hose, this is the one major pool part I can not find in our "stash" of pool supplies. And for some reason, no one knows why, I seemed to think for a short amount of time that I could use the small 3 and 6 foot long hoses that we bought (the too small ones from above) to vacuum the 18 foot wide pool! LOL. Yes, I know, I'm a dummy! 


My boys were showing today that they are going Summer Stir Crazy! They kept on being really good and calm and actually silent and then, like a light was flipped on, they would start being rowdy and hyper acting and extra loud! They did their best when I had them color their Dad's Father's Day card. It was really cute! They gave him a card that had a Grizzly Bear on the front and a BBQ and then on the inside there was a picture of a burger and a ketchup and mustard bottle sitting on a table. To the left side of the card it said something about Bear Hugs and Yummy burgers and then said "Kids color the picture for Dad" So, since there was 4 kids and only 1 card, I took a black crayon and drew a swizzled line down the middle and then one across it to make 4 sections. I then let the 6 year old decide who got to color which part and then I colored in the baby's part and then the 6 year old colored in his part (plus part of his older brothers, who didn't seem to mind), followed by the 7 year old and then the 4 year old. I saved the 4 year old for last since I knew that he would scribble all over the card if he wasn't completely supervised. I was being a super multi- tasker at this time and cooking a part of dinner and feeding the baby his lunch at the same time as supervising the 4 year old and his coloring. So, sadly, the 4 year old got some of his "art work" on the 6 year old's part and for a short time you would have thought it was the end of the world. I finally got him to calm down and not be so upset about it. 


My 7 year old has an obsession with Computer Gaming! I fear I have a tiny uber nerd! LOL. That is not such a bad thing though. He will always get along with his Aunt, Uncle and Dad, all nerds of different degrees themselves. He has been on computers since he was about 4 months old if not younger, thanks to my sister and her other half. (Not a bad thing, he is pretty advanced for his age actually) He is currently playing a game called Wizard 101 and he loves it! This comes from the kid who keeps begging me to get him a World of Warcraft account. "It is free up to level 20 Mom!" is what he says to me. I just can not make myself pay to play a game! Tonight he started asking me to let him buy $5.00 worth of "crowns" or something on Wizard 101, I told him no. Because if I was going to spend money on gaming online, I would have purchased for myself as well by now. LOL! He is excited to see his Aunt next week because he wants to talk to her about getting a World of Warcraft account from her, something they have discussed in the past. We shall see what she says about that one. 


Happy Father's Day To All The Dads! I hope you got to spend time with your kiddos and enjoy the fact that you are a Dad. Remember that your kids will always love you! Hopefully next year my Hubby wont be sleeping all day due to working the night shift. To my own Father: It has been just over 12 years since you passed away, there are days I miss you a lot and I think of you often. There is so much you are missing out on, your Grandchildren do not know you and never will and neither will my sister's children. Yesterday was your birthday, you would have been 62 years old. Wow, how my life has changed since you were here. Happy Father's Day Dad, wherever you are now.


~TTFN

Summer Time in Central Oregon! Woo hoo!

All 4 boys Chillin' on the couch, watchin' TV!

Summer is here and my boys are finally out of the Brick and Mortar School system! They "retired"(as I like to call it) from school at the same time as my Oldest Son's Teacher! She was an awesome Teacher, She was My First and Second Grade Teacher and now she also taught my oldest child Second Grade! I was so Happy that he was going to have her as a Teacher this last year. She did a great job Teaching me and I knew that he would have just as much fun with her, and he did! That boy is so much like me when it comes to some schooling things it is actually funny! We can both do Math like it was a Sixth Sense. It is sad to see her go, but at least she taught my son before leaving. And I got to see her again. I was/am very close to my Elementary School Teachers. It was very Hard for me to call her by her first name. When she would call to discuss my Son and would say her First Name instead of Mrs. ....... I had to take a minute and go, "Oh, Yeah, You!" to myself! LOL. On the other hand, it was perfect timing for her to retire at the same time that I decided to take my kids out of the "traditional" school system. However, it had me wondering at the same time, How many Teachers can my oldest son get to retire?! LOL. Granted, as far as I know, His Kindergarten Teacher is still working. But, his First Grade Teacher AND Second Grade Teacher BOTH retired after Teaching him! What does that say about my child? LOL I say, it says he had "old" Teachers! He he. Either way, she was a great Teacher for well over 20 years and now she can enjoy her retirement!

For our Summer fun we have a lot of different things planned. For one, My Sister's Baby Shower is July 7th, we will be going to Vancouver to stay in the same Hotel as my Sister and her other Half so that he can watch the 2 middle boys in the Hotel while we go to our Cousins house for the Shower. At the end of the last week of June my oldest Son will be going to stay with my sister in Spokane until the Shower when he will come home with us. He gets to attend my sister's second gender scan for her baby. The one last week was inconclusive. They caught a quick look at what the tech thought to be "boy parts"! I feel bad for that. I know, a baby is a baby and we are all thrilled for my Sister and her other half because they have wanted a baby for awhile now. But this would be boy 5 for our side and boy2 for her other half's side. Either way, Their little bundle will some day be in the outfit you see on my little guy! It is, what we are calling, the Lumber Jack (or Jill) outfit! The "onsie" is a long sleeved button up plaid shirt, much like what you can find for grown men! The pants are corduroy, and a funky olive green, but cute! And it is a full out onsie style shirt, size 6 months! We figured, put some sort of flowery something or pink in "her" hair and it could look girly! This coming from the Mother of 4 boys who insisted on wearing over-all's for the longest time after about 2 years old! LOL. I think that if I had had any girls, they'd end up tom boys! LOL But, we shall never know now! Any who, back to the "Summer Fun"...

I took on the Pool Cleaning this year and so far, I kinda want to scream! We seriously need to get a cover over that thing so that we (the me part of that) don't have to keep on scooping bugs (gnats) out of the pool, 15 times a day! But, hopefully with using the pool vacuum and a few other added "cleaning tools" I can keep the pool clean and warm and comfy all Summer long! And the kiddos all love to swim, so that will help with some of their being "occupied" this Summer. A few other things "in the works" are, a driving trip to visit some of the "local" dams. Also, we intend to go to Lake Billy Chinook or more importantly, The Cove Palisades (for more info on The Cove, follow the link)!!! My Mom used to take my Sister and I there all the time when I was a baby! I have only been back there a handful of times since I "grew up". That trip will be one of those, get the kids to bed super duper early and then be ready to leave the house at 6 AM to get there around 7:30-8 in the morning and spend all day, packing Breakfast and Lunch as well as snacks and then coming home for Dinner that night! I am extra excited about that one, if you can't tell by the details! LOL Another option in to "travel" the Cascade Lakes Highway again, do some Hiking, picnic by the lake, swim. All that fun stuff! Some of the Lake trips I hope my Hubby will be able to attend. It sorta feels like he will be missing out this Summer as far as "Adventures" with our boys go. We also talked about going to Smith Rock Park, that is a steep climb if I remember correctly. My Mother said she did it with me strapped to her back, so I guess I will be able to do it too, if we go! That is one of my least favorite trip ideas, I never really had a ton of fun there as a kid. One of my favorite places to go hiking is Benham Falls (the link actually takes you to a site for the Falls themselves, but you get the jest. LOL, you can hike to the falls too from Lava Lands Visitors Center at the base of Lava Butte) I took my 2 oldest there with my Hubby and a Friend and we hiked for awhile! I was pregnant with #3 and the other 2 were 2 and 3.5(almost 4) and they had a blast! Of course, we were hot and had some water with us and ended up getting a few scraps and cuts from tumbling over roots and such, but it was a fun experience with my boys! But those are just a few of our "Nature Adventures" I think we can look forward to this Summer. Otherwise, we will be home by the pool(s) (The big 48" tall pool and the tiny waiting pool for the kiddos that we got last year).

The only thing I said was: 

"Let me get a Picture of you 3." 

And do you see the looks I got? LOL

My kiddos continue to keep "hamming it up" any time they are out and about and know that I am wanting to snap some cute photos. For the most part, except for a few days here and there, we picked up the 2 oldest boys from school for the last few weeks of their "stay". One of those days we walked up the hill from the dentist's office to the school with the baby and he was enjoying us being early! His cute little "Tot Goggles" are what I think makes this photo extra neat! He looks so laid back and relaxed in his stylish shades, but then he is sticking his tongue out which makes it look like "Hey, get that thing out my face Mom!" or... "Yum, Phone, eat!" LOL I swear, each time he sees my phone, the tongue comes out and the hands fly up! I partially blame this on the guy at the Doctor's office who was talking to the other woman at the counter while I made another appointment and he handed over his phone while saying, "It's ok, I have kids and Grandkids, He can't hurt it any more than they do!" OH MY GOODNESS!!! This was no cheap phone either! This guy willingly handed over his expensive smart phone and basically said "Go for it! Break it! I don't care!" to a 6 month old! YIKES! Mr. Not Very Bright Award has been taken for the year! LOL. In any case, since I had to literally RIP the phone out of his hands to get him to give it back to Mr. Not Very Bright so that I could help Mr. Gimpy out to the car (LOL this was when my oldest was on crutches, he had gone to my appointment with me too), the baby almost attacks phones now. It is almost frightening how fast he lunges for a cell phone!

The boys are all excited to be on Summer Vacation now. I even have my ^ year old set up to do "Summer Camp" through his online school for next year. He was super excited when I told him he had the opportunity to do it. Starting Monday at 9 AM he will be on the computer, Monday through Friday, for 1 hour in his Summer Camp Class. He is starting with the Twisty Tales Camp! I think he will really enjoy it. The "camps" are split by grade level and allow the kids to sort of pick the "class" they want. He picked Twisty Tales, Dinosaurs and Science Explorers for his Summer Camp Classes! They are different each week and in the middle of it all he will be taking 2 weeks off from it, thankfully we have the baby shower in the middle of the 2 weeks off! LOL. The first Camp starts at 9 AM and another is at 10 AM, Depending on the Camp and the week, the time changes as well. My oldest has decided NOT to take part in the Summer Camp thing this year. Which is fine, he would have to skip one of the weeks anyways so that he could go to his Aunt's house and not have to worry too much about anything but helping out his Aunt and spending time with her and his Uncle for what may be the last time, for a while at least. I am not so sure she is going to want my rug-rats running around and having to take care of them as well as her own new little one. He may change his mind once his little brother does it a few times, we shall see. He has different camp choices and at different times for his grade though. He could do Water Safety, Dinosaurs or Boys Book Club. But he said he doesn't want to read this Summer, odd! He loves to read! Silly Kid! Only time will tell. He might see his brother having fun next week and decide that he too wants in on the experience. When they all start to get older I may look more into other actual Summer Camp options. But for now, online works awesome!

Showing off his top 2 teeth in a giggle!
(came in third and fourth)

Showing off his bottom 2 teeth!
(came in first and second)

If I haven't mentioned it before, the baby has been cutting teeth and drooling like a super leaky faucet! I do not remember my other boys "leaking" this much! His pillow he sleeps on his soaking by the time we get to his "middle of the night feeding" and during any day time naps. I almost feel like I need to wring the thing out! He is constantly drooling! It is insane! I am sure they did the drooling thing, maybe I just wasn't as observant! LOL. This IS the first time I have been home with my baby at this age and wasn't so tired from working that I just wanted to sleep. I have always had to go back to work and do the whole working full time thing to support my kiddos before now. Hubby has that end covered now. (The working thing)

At the park on 6/14/12

Maybe it is just me but I think he is growing up so fast! Granted, he is "small for his age" according to the doctor's office, but he is advancing and is always so alert, when awake of course. He has even started to sit up, instead of lean forward. See him showing off in the photo taken at the park? He was enjoying the grass. He soon after this decided he wanted to plunge forward and EAT the grass, which caused him to roll over to his belly. Either way, he was actually enjoying the grass, this was a first. He normally cringes away from the grass.

Now that I have basically filled your minds with my life and my boys' lives, I shall say Good Night! Or Good Morning, depending on when you are reading! I feel tomorrow will be another pool cleaning and outside day. After my 7 year old decided to vomit in the car today (thankfully most of it was caught by blankets and such on the floor of the back seat) I finally made it to the store to buy Sunscreen for the boys so that they will be able to play outside and not get sun burnt as the 7 year old did the other day when we played outside for the majority of the day so that Dad could sleep. Hopefully I can get more color on my legs! LOL We shall see! They may be underwater in the pool! I will update... Hopefully sooner, rather than later!

~TTFN!