Friday, October 31, 2008

Home Improvements

We've always HATED the carpet that is in our dining room. Carpet in the dining room under my messy boys is just a joke. The milk gets spilled, and ground into the carpet, food is always spilled, I'm constantily having to vacuum (ok- have the boys vacuum and revaccuum) the carpet. A "Before" Picture. We did tear the carpet off the 2 bottom steps before we took this- we had to take the steps out to lay the flooring down- it was easier than trying to go around them .Sunday night- Ben found some laminate flooring listed on KSL.com classifieds for less than 1/3- goodness even less than 1/6 of the normal price. So we made a quick trip to Salt Lake and beyond to pick it up. It's beautiful! Ben has spent the past couple of nights laying it down in our dining room. It looks BEAUTIFUL! We still need to put some caulking or something around the edges, and put the steps back in, but WOW! I love it!


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pumpkin carving fun

Halloween- what can I say about Halloween- I'd just as soon skip the whole holiday. What exactly are we "celebrating" anyway? According to my boys we are celebrating "Candy!" uggg! Just what I need- more sugar running through these wild kids! The town does a "trunk or treat" at the park-and while the boys would love to go- I'm simply not giving in! We are going to a Halloween party at Ben's aunt's house in Kaysville. Dinner, movies, games, and it'll be tons of fun. The boys can wear those silly costumes they've been planning, and Doodle says."maybe there will be some candy there"
Anyhow Sunday evening we carved our pumpkins (again, I'd rather skip the whole Halloween thing- but the boys grew pumpkins in the garden just so we could carve them.) - YES they are kinda odd shaped- but hey that's what grew in the garden- so that's what we used.
from left to right- Doodle's, Ben's, mine, Bug's, Roo's
Bug scooping the guts out.
Doodle- telling Dad how he wanted his carved.
Roo- decorating his with marker, drawing hair on it.
Doodle- he had to carve his all by himself- YIKES- but he still has 10 fingers- so he did fine.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Happy Birthday Ben!


Yesterday was Ben's 30-something birthday. ;) Of course life is busy and we had a crazy day yesterday between a practice for the Primary Program on Sunday, Karate, and Ben had Home Teaching appointments. But we managed to squeeze in a quick "Happy Birthday to you!" and a few gifts. He only gets 4 candles- because all the rest were Pink! And the Boys didn't think he wanted Pink Candles.
My boys are so silly. Whenever it's someone's birthday, they like to tease that they are getting that person a Barbie, or some other girly thing. As we are sitting at the table, Bug and Doodle went to get the presents, and Roo pipes up, "Dad, I got you a...." (and I just KNEW he was going to say what he really got him) "... I got you a pink thing that holds a girl's hair!" LOL! Guess he can keep secrets after all! Christmas will be interesting, as they are already telling each other, "I'm getting you a barbie for Christmas"



HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!! I hope you had a Great Birthday. I am so blessed to be your wife. I love you!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Even More Uses for Craft sticks

It became "Craft day" at our house yesterday afternoon, as Doodle and Roo found the box of craft sticks (ok- so it's STILL sitting by the front door where my dad left it- so it wasn't hard to find) Ok- Here goes! Numbers 2-8 out of 101 uses for craft sticks- (Here is use Number 1) lol- Roo and I started out making this But it turned out, we didn't have a box to glue the sticks onto. So we decided to make a Box instead(use number 2!) Or you can make a triangle shaped box (Use number 3) on a square bottom (Roo calls this an "elk box") not sure why!?
Of course- the Box needed a lid (use number 4) or if you'd like- you can call the lid a flag (use number 5) If you are ambitious, artistic and adventuresome like Doodle, you can set out without a plan. Clothespins work great to clamp the pieces together while you are waiting for the glue to dry.
Use number 6- a colorful bedroom Decoration that Doodle Made.Use number 7- a house! Though it's not 3-d like the one we originally planned to make- it turned out great!
Oh- I said uses 2-8- use number 8- donate a box to the friend that came to visit us today. ;)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Bug's Skylark Notebook

Bug has Finished up his Beyond FIAR unit study on Skylark. It was a Super book, with many great things to explore. Some of the highlights-
First off- the Cover-
And the most important page for keeping our studies organized- The Table of Contents- each time I give him an assignment I have him write it on the table of contents page, that way we are both sure when the assignment is done and in the notebook. Otherwise things would get done, but he couldn't find them, and they wouldn't get put in the notebook.

Other fun assignments- Ds had a fun time with a photography assignment- reading books about photography and taking pictures with his digital camera. A lesson on Animal Gestation periods-

Colorwheels (page from Beyond manual) and ds's painting of the drought.

We did lessons on Cows and used This as a resource, and ds put the cow diagram in his notebook.

As always I LOVE to include Cub Scout stuff in our studies- He earned the Weather Belt Loop and Pin- we used This worksheet to keep track of it all, and included it in his notebook.

Bug did some research on Yellowstone Fires of 1988, did a virtual field trip (as if we've never been there ;)) and also the Great Chicago Fire using this link. He listed the qualities a Firefighter needs, and wrote an acrostic poem about Fire:
Fire
by Bug

Fire is Burning
In the Streets
Rain comes down on it
Everlasting Glow
I already posted that He made Biscuits all by himself for a Home Ec. assignment (and applied Math!)
One of his favorite Assignments was a Travel Brochure he made for Maine- The Cover
Inside pages
Back page
He wrote a report on the Loon:

And we had a fun time with Genetics using this http://www.biologycorner.com/docs/Paper_pets.doc

Of course for each chapter we did the Discussion questions from the Beyond FIAR manual, and many more lessons that I haven't included here. At the back of his notebook he has a Menu he wrote to go along with Skylark, the new vocabulary words, and some copywork and dictation pages.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Columbus Day Boat competition

This is Part 1 of 101 uses for Craft sticks- My dad came over the other day with a HUGE box of tongue depressor/craft stick thingys that the boxes were a big damaged. And told the kids to build some cool things with them. So here's the first of 101 posts on what to make with craft sticks. :D

For school today- we read 2 books about Christopher Columbus. This one- A Picture book about Christopher Columbus and This one a little bit longer- but the pictures are amazing, and it's much more detailed. Then I assigned the boys to "Make A Boat" Roo was assigned the Nina, Doodle was building the Pinta, and Bug the Santa Maria. Here they are hard at work figuring out how to build their boats. Roo LOVES using scissors. So his boat had a TON of sails.
Bug and Doodle working hard on their boats.
Roo's version of the Nina. See all the sails. Doodle's finished version of The PintaAnd Bug's Santa Maria.
The Final exam- will they float?! It's decided that Clay might help make the sails stand up, but it is too heavy to float, so Roo and Bug's boats don't float. The Winner of the Best Floating Boat Competition- Doodle's Pinta
The Winner of the "Looks most like Columbus' boat" Bug's Santa Maria.
And the winner of the "Fastest boat in the ocean" (it would have to be with that many sails) Roo's Nina.

Fall is in the air...or is it winter?!

Ok so we get ready for church yesterday morning, look out the window and there is SNOW falling from the sky. After church there was enough snow on the car that it needed scraped off....(where in the world did that window scraper go!?- probably in the truck- it hasn't been used lately for some reason lol) Here's a view out our front door. ok- so it wasn't really a lot of snow- and it's mostly melted now- it's just the simple fact that it's FALL- and I don't wanna skip fall and go straight to winter!
Fall is when I'm in the mood for popcorn. :p yum it just seems to fit with the season for some reason. And When Ben was at the Produce stand buying apples for me to make applesauce with (that's a whole nother post my basement full of jarred goods) he picked up some popcorn. yes- on a cob! Seee!!! The guy there told him to just microwave it in a paper bag. So after church we decided to give it a try. YUM! The popcorn was delicious. It just popped right off the cob into the paper bag. Here's what it looked like when it was done. Except for the first one that I burned a little bit. yuck! I hate the smell of burnt popcorn.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Our FIAR title for this week was Harold and the Purple Crayon. What a Fun, simple story with lots of imagination. Monday we talked about how the story happens in the Boy's imagination. We also read a go-along book Harold's ABC's.

Tuesday we talked about the artwork thoughout the story, and Doodle drew his own pictures of "Doodle and the orange crayon" on a huge paper. Wednesday was math day- we counted the windows on one of the pages, got well over 100, and talked about fractions and pieces of pie. Thurdsay we talked about the phases of the moon, we read a book about it, How the Moon Seems to Change and did a simple experiment to show how the moon doesn't really change shape, we just can only see part of it lit up. Using a flashlight, (the sun) a Ball (the moon) and Doodle's head (the ear

It was a Great school week!

UGG!! What's happened to my blog list on the sidebar?!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

My little Chef

Last night for dinner- I made some fajitas (an overabundance of bell peppers in our garden this year). The boys were running around fighting as usual (sad that's an ordinary thing around here!) And Doodle was teasing Roo. So I called Roo in to help me make dinner. We went to the basement to get some fruit to make a fruit salad. Roo found some pineapple and mandarin oranges. I was going to mix some pudding mix, or cool whip or something in with them, but didn't have anything. So Roo made our salad. lol- I opened the cans, drained them and handed them to Roo. He dumped them in the bowl, and asked for a "stir thing" So I gave him a spoon and he mixed them all together. I handed him the bowl and said to put it on the table. He gets as far as the table, then said "take my picture mom" ROFL- I guess he's seen the big boys get their pictures taken with food they make as school projects. So I took his picture with his "salad" He was pretty proud as he asked dad "please pass the salad I made" Silly kid!

Friday, October 3, 2008

More Karate- Board Breaking

2 posts in one day- but some boys told me I needed to post these pics of them today! Last night was the breaking class at Karate, and both boys were excited to go. Last time I just got pictures of them after they got home with there boards- Here. But this time I remembered my camera- so here's some pics of the boys breaking their boards.

Bug broke 1 board horizontal alone, then 1 vertical, then 2 stacked up horizontal. He did awesome! My camera batteries were almost dead, so I didn't get one of his vertical board. Next time I'll try movie mode ;)


Doodle broke both of his boards horizontal. He was so pleased with himself. It took him a few trys to break his second board, but he did it!


Mr. Gumpy's Motorcar fun!

Doodle's FIAR story for this week was Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car It was a FUN story. In the story Mr Gumpy goes for a ride in his car, and the children, the cat, the goat, the calf, the chickens, the dog, the rabbit...... all come with him. He gets stuck, and they all help push him up the hill. On Monday we learned about England and Europe, as Doodle noticed that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car. We found England on the map, and talked about some of the different words they use. This site that someone posted on the FIAR boards was very helpful! We also read a family Favorite- Mr Gumpy's Outing (same premise- all the animals and children are going out with Mr. Gumpy- only this time they take a boat ride, and tip over)
Tuesday we talked about the way the story was written, how it takes place all in one afternoon, whereas some books take a week, a month or longer for the whole story to happen. We also noticed that on one page in the story the characters all answer "Not Me!" and compared it to the Little Red Hen story. So we read that story.
Wednesday, Doodle wasn't feeling too well, so we kept it simple. We read the story, looked at the artwork, and talked about texture in artwork and crosshatching.
Yesterday we talked about the 12 "people" who go for a ride in the car, and talked about a Dozen. And since Mr Gumpy has a car- We also read Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom and talked about Patterns. We used counting cars that we have to make the patterns in the book. I also found this fun puzzle that we put together. Then since Mr. Gumpy "didn't like the look of the clouds" in the sky, we read a book about clouds, and how to identify different clouds. Here are the go-along books we used this week- It was a Fun school week!