Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Their New Favorite Activity!

 Every Sunday night we make some fabulous pizza, put our pjs on around 4:30 and fire up the PS3!
It's pizza and video game night and it's their FAVORITE!
It's the only time all week that they are allowed to play video games.
Emma beats me at least 80% of the time, making me want to practice to beat the 5 year old!
They have their favorite characters/players!
They enjoy their favorite type of pizza!
& hopefully we have a favorite activity to last us a few years!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

A Week in Our Life

 Our week contained lots of games like Memory (also Go Fish and a fun dice game called Math Dice...it's all about adding and subtracting). The girls are getting so much better and it's a great brain game to start our days with. We're to the point where we don't have to "let them win."
 Our science curriculum through CC is focusing on earth science so we're learning about rocks and the layers of the earth, mountains and volcanoes still to come. Daddy took the kids on a rock hunt! We also made rocks out of crayons this week and the girls showed them off during presentation time at CC on Thursday. I need to record a CC presentation time, it's so interesting with a room full of 5 & 6 year olds :) 
 Jeremy has been great at getting the kids outside (thankfully it's been plenty warm here in OK). In the above picture they are actually using the metal detector to search for treasure!
 When we haven't been fighting Influenza B we've squeezed in learning/sorting our colors and working on our phonics/reading/spelling. Emma has almost finished our Kindergarten spelling program and is begging everyday to do more! I'm hopeful that we might have a reader on our hands!! Kate is struggling but I know we will find our grove with reading and we're seeing daily improvement ... it's just a little slower.  

 Reed working on filling up his reading chart! He has to be read at least 3 books a day (the girls can even read to him some of their books) ... plus he joins us in our Bible Study every morning and he gets a chapter every night before bed. He loves counting his stickers & is showing signs that he's ready to start working on phonics!
We had a tea party one day for snack. It's a favorite of the kids :)
It has been a long week with illness and tired and grumpy people (mostly the 32 week pregnant momma)! I'm thankful for forgiveness and grace every day and I'm so thankful that I get to spend my days with these crazy, adorable people!

linking up with:
http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/


Friday, January 18, 2013

Recently

I or should I say we?!!?
(the difference 10 weeks makes!)

1. Have started teaching a photography/yearbook class at our local homeschool co-op! It's full of 12 teenage girls and OH MY! I swear in 45 minutes they say 3 trillion words.
2. Have been craving graham crackers in milk & oranges
3. Have been playing the piano again with my chubby, swollen fingers and it feels amazing to be reading music again
4. Am loving the baby kicks and will miss them. This pregnancy is moving too fast
5. Am busy planning our school year for 2013/2014! It'll start in July and I'm excited and motivated and pray that I can keep up with all of our lofty plans!!
 He:
1. Loves playing the piano
2. Loves wrestling with his Daddy and will literally jump from furniture and land on his dad!
3. Is showing signs that he is ready to learn and I'm excited
4. Talks with his baby sister and then will ask questions about her ... & is really confused that she's stuck inside
5. Plays with cars and Legos and Batman toys and can't get enough of them
 She:
1. Is a reading machine and will tell us at least once a day that she loves reading (YAY!!!!)
2. Dresses herself in the most interesting outfits
3. Is really enjoying her sewing kit
4. Is struggling with our adjustments and backing out of some commitments until the baby comes. It's not always easy adding a baby sister but she'll get there.
5. Asks to go to the splash pad ... hello kiddo it's 35* outside!
 He:
1. Is looking forward to his dad and brother joining us in OK for a fun weekend of fishing and other manly things
2. Is working his butt off  as always
3. Is so supportive. He jumps to help whenever I need it. He is picking up my slack and is making plans to sacrifice more of his time when Ziggy arrives ... He's great & I'm blessed
4. Is dreaming of fishing
5. Is loving our new Sunday night schedule: Homemade pizza & video games. It's a great family night, even if our 5 year old is the ruler of the control!
 She:
1. Got new glasses and we can tell that they are working better because she is asking to wear them OFTEN!
2. Is showing HUGE jumps with her learning and we are so proud of her
3. Is such a helper. She is a true blessing
4. Is working on getting tooth #2 out and dreaming of another visit by the tooth fairy
5. Sings to Ziggy ... did I say I'm not ready for this pregnancy to be done. All these sweet moments will be missed
She:
1. Will join us in 9 short weeks
2. Only moves when she can't hear her siblings ... she's like clock work
3. Rarely gets hiccups
4. Finally has a name!! And I'm thinking it'll be perfect & more importantly her Daddy loves the name
5. Is already so loved!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Let's Play Catch-up

Reed has been loving Lego and car adventures/explosions/crashes, etc.! He plays with these for hours a day. He also has a Lego book that consumes much of his day! This big  guy has also started working on letter recognition. Nothing formal, just tracing letters & coloring but he loves to do school while the girls are busy with their work. 
 I read some great books over Christmas break that has completely encouraged/changed our homeschool! We hit the ground running the week of New Years {when I wasn't dying of sinus pressure}. there has been a fabulous schedule established, no TV, limited computer/phone time for MOM & DAD, and LOTS of reading. It has been a great few weeks and hopefully I've created a routine that we can keep when the sweet baby joins us in just 9.5 short weeks!
 Above, Professor Dad is teaching them about crystals in his best Julia Childs voice...they thought it was AMAZINGLY funny :) After about a week our crystals have grown to look like snow. Unfortunatley, that might be the only snow we get this year.

 Please excuse my dirty mirror...This is me at 30 weeks pregnant with sweet Ziggy! I'm feeling so great and not ready for this pregnancy to be over. I might change my mind soon but right now I'm just enjoying what most likely will be my last pregnancy.
 For Christmas the girls received a zip line! They have spent hours hanging from the handles and running into trees! Such a fun way to spend our afternoons and work those big muscles.


These two monkeys have been wiggling loose teeth like their lives depend on it! Our poor tooth fairy needs a stash of quarters for these two who seem to be competitng in the tooth falling out department.

& that's it!
No major changes but a great start to 2013!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Wrapping up 2012

 This little monkey lost her first tooth! She pulled it all by herself on Friday {12.28.12}. She bounced around for at least an hour bragging about her new state of maturity!!
 In honor of her first tooth gone we all used straws for lunch!
Plus we had amazing bread bowls full of turkey soup...the new biggest 6 year old ever had no complaints!

 And it snowed!!! It wasn't sticking yet, at least not during these pictures but we had to take advantage of it at least falling from the sky. Our mostly Okie 3 year old was "FREEZING!!"  but our girls had a great time {and yes, Jeremy is still wearing shorts in December when it's 40* outside ... such a fashionista he is}!
It was a great last few days of 2012 in the Martin home!
We have a lot that we're looking forward to in the new year.
happy 2013!