We're still alive over here! It's been quite a busy summer and my camera died. So, I now have a new camera and tons of pictures to upload. We also had a flood in our basement and that has occupied us for the last three weeks! Ick! Everything in our school room got wet and the majority of our homeschooling supplies had to be tossed because of mold and mildew issues....not to mention the magnitude of items in the laundry room part of our basement that got ruined! All of the furniture and even our desk top computer got ruined....sigh. It's been a long three weeks!

Happy 4th birthday Nick! He was a pirate all day! He had a wonderful day! We had lunch with Grandpa and Grandma. Then a nature treasure hunt and back to the grandparents for dinner and a party! I can't believe my guy is 4 already! He has grown in so many ways over the past year! The past month has brought a nice maturity to his character and the mischievious naughtiness has tapered down....perhaps we are at an end? He was quite delighted with the green hulk pajamas from grandpa!

BlogBreak

Well, it seems my blog break has been noticed and I shall update! Nick turned 4 on May 6Th and I have a world of pictures to share as well as our Whitefish Point trip and the recent trip to IL for the Waldorf at Home conference with Donna Simmons of Christopherus fame. I am anxious to tell all about that,but need to get some rest first. We have had such a busy week and not alot of sleep! Is there ever enough sleep in this house? The question is...when exactly does Liam sleep through the night? He is 16 months old and it is time! Time for me to get some sleep! The little two both took a nap at the same time and the big two played and you know what I did....I cleaned. Why did I clean instead of napping? The house is still a mess and everything I did clean will be messed as soon as the little two wake and I am still tired! Oh the wonderful joys of being a mom of little ones! Joys like hand prints on freshly washed windows or mud tracks on freshly mopped floors.....although dad was the one who did that last! We have had wonderful sunny and cold weather! It has been quite nippy and still too cold to plant our seeds in the garden. We have started seedlings indoors and they are growing well,but when do we get warm weather?

Break Away Tennis

Wayne has started another business with a friend called Break Away Tennis. You may check out the website at http://www.breakawaytennis.com/ The website was done by yours truly. I think it's a great concept....even for someone who really doesn't give a hoot about sports!

Spring has Sprung...Finally!

Oh warm weather has finally found us here in the wild north! The kids and I played hookie and went to the library and then the park! It was wonderfully warm and we had a fabulous time at Lower Harbor park playing with our friends. There was an oil spill in Lake Superior and we were able to see the barge and all the going on's of the coast guard, firetrucks and police officers on duty. We saw the detective that we met last Friday at the Police station field trip we had. Alec asked why the Detective was there. I wasn't sure....maybe they didn't see the large barge in the middle of the oil spill....hmmm! I need to get batteries for my camera and then I will upload the pictures I have been promising for a month! Elysa had her figure skating show this past weekend and she was fantabulous! She looked really cute in her outfit and skated wonderful! She really enjoyed it. Our friend's were in the same group and during rehearsal the mama taught me to knit! This is big! I can crochet fairly well, but knitting.....that's a whole 'nother can of worms! I have tried unsuccessfully for two years and through 6 books and numerous online tutorials to figure out how to get those little stitches on those little sticks to look okay! Alas, my dear friend showed me a much easier way to do it and....drumroll please.......I CAN KNIT! Nickolaus promptly tore all the stitches off my needles,but I can knit! Now if only there were more hours in the day and a few maids in the house....I'd be good. I just noticed that Liam had taken off with my knitting needles and ball of yarn and has wrapped the unraveled stitches around his body and is trying to knit.....it would be cuter if it hadn't taken me so long to get that bit done!!

Alec's Poem

Alec wrote this poem and I just had to share!


Spring
A new flower blooms
The sun is bright
Crisp air looms
Out come bugs at nights

Up shoots new grass
The big oak gets new leaves
The bird starts to nest
Old Man Winter grieves

Holy Tuesday!

We are continuing with our Holy week projects and will update with some pictures as soon as I track down the cord! We would like some special prayers for Grandma today. She is in the hospital at the moment and having some surgery done. She may have to have another stint put in. Please keep her in your prayers today and pray that all turns out well! Thanks!

Happy St.Patrick's Day and Holy Monday!

No green script for today! I guess the good ol' people at Blogger didn't realize it was St. Paddy's day and green script was required! We will be making shamrock cookies, decorating them and then blessing a few lucky people's homes with them! We have very festive three leaf clover headbands and we shall all be wearing green while we head to a festive dinner with corned beef and cabbage. On this day, we will not forget that it is Holy Monday and we will be changing our seasonal table in our classroom to reflect that. Now if only Princess Spring would chase that darn Jack Frost home.....

What's New?

Well, things have been busy here! William had the rotavirus and that was alot of fun! lol I turned 28...even more fun! lol Nick gave me a dirty diaper, Elysa gave me a dead laptop battery wrapped in a silk, and Alec gave me a movie we had watched the day before! Someone needs to work on them in the gift department! We've been working on this really fun math unit from Serendipity http://ebeth.typepad.com/photos/gnomes_gnumbers_/index.html and the kids are having a blast. I will upload some new photos in the next few days hopefully! The kids have been having fun with their imaginative play lately and everything they play has an "Uncle Larry" in....ala the picture of Uncle Larry on the fridge! We now have Uncle Larry gnome, knight, barbie (the boy one!), army guy and a plastic fish! It used to be my sisters that would always be included in their creative play, but now it's Uncle Larry everything!

Fairies!

Fairy cupcakes

Elysa chose a cupcake tree with fairy dusted pink and purple glitter and fairy mushroom cupcakes instead of a cake. Her's had glitter candles and Tink. What's that Jon? Your cupcake sprinkles are popping? Woops! It looks like Mama and Elysa must have put pop rocks on yours on accidental purpose!

Enchanted Fairy Ice Skating Birthday Party!

Elysa had an Enchanted Fairy ice skating party with all her little friends at the Commons. I set up the fairy arbour and meadow complete with a wooden stump entwined with tulle fo her to sit on and our enchanted play qult sprinkled with rose petals for the girls. We used Tinkerbell decorations and dried poutpourri on the table and a whole lotta magic fair dust sprinkled everywhere....glitter! We hid the magic glitter fairy eggs filled with tiny fairy eggs around the ice rink for the girls to find after they began skating. When the girls arrived they each got a fair hair wreath, magic wand, and mttens I had glued roses on to complete the fairy look! I will have to put pic's of those up later....I am quite proud of my work! ;0

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Presents!

Elysa's birthday pictures

Here is Elysa the big 6 year old cutting her cake at Grandpa and Grandma's house, her cake and Papa scoopin' icecream for all.

The last photo is Elysa talking to Auntie Heather on the phone!

The kids in the schoolroom

Happy Birthday Elysa!

Happy 6Th birthday Elysa! Yesterday, was Elysa's birthday, but I had a slight malfunction with my laptop (Some little children and an infamous pug spilled water around it and the battery completely malfunctioned.) and my computer network crashed (That would be the mom trying to "fix" everything.) Elysa had a wonderful birthday and I will post more about it and pictures later today. Happy Birthday Bella!

Knights of the Round Table

We've been working on this unit in math with the kids http://www.charlesbridge.com/school/pdf/RoundTableMasters.pdf It's been alot of fun! Anything with knights is a big hit with the boys! We've been reading through The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. We're in the second book that covers the Middle Ages and the kids are loving it! We watercolored large paper and made shield's out of it. We used watercolor pencil's to decorate them and they had a blast! Alec put his sibling's names on his, Elysa put ballet shoes and hearts on hers, and Nick put dragons and a knight killng it...kind of gruesome, but that's our 3 yr old!

We're on the mend..stay away germs!

Seriously,stay away! I am soooo tired of being sick! My ears are doing better and I can hear again..there is still ringing....time. Sigh. Liam keeps tugging at his ears....I assume they are getting better like mine and the constant popping is driving him crazy as well! The last visit to the dr and the ears were looking better.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A little late, but better than never! So, Happy Valentine's Day!

Ear infections...bleck!

Liam and I have been dealing with ear infections since my last post! Bleck and ouch are all I can say! LOL We are slowly on the mend and I have a bit of updating to do!

Warm weather!

The weather was nice and warm out today. The kids have had it with being cooped up inside and headed outdoors for a little fun! The boys built a snow fort and then bombarded Elysa with snowballs. When that was over.....mom put a stop to it! They all built a snowman...carrots and dried cherries make nice facial features! Look at that pretty little face on Bruiser! He's smiling and yes...he's wearing an argyle sweater! It's stylin'!

Children's Museum

We visited the children's museum while we were at the tournament. It was not as large as ours, but much easier to keep an eye on the kids! The kids all loved the little wheelchair's they had! Aren't those the two cutest firemen you've ever seen? Nick and his buddy Drew.

Visiting the Children's Museum