Just another day...

I love my life...mainly because I get to hang out with these cuties all day.  

photo credit: Mary Kathryn Wimberly

 

I also love that my girls go to a Christ-centered school where I am actively involved in their learning process by getting to home school twice a week.  And I LOVE our home days - where we can sleep in, take our time eating breakfast instead of feeling rushed; and where my pre-schoolers can (and want to!) get involved in the learning process.

All I have to do is say "time for flashcards!" and Dawson & Brady come running.  I love that they want to learn - or maybe they just want to do what big sisters are doing - either way, I don't care. 

They are learning!

Today, they were in earshot when I said it was time to read Annalee's history chapter, and the boys decided they wanted to hear about King James too!

 

One more thing...Dawson has been having a language/learning explosion for the past few months, and I love how hard he is working to memorize his ABC's and 123's.  I snuck up on him "reading" his favorite book last week...if you have never read this Dr. Seuss book, I apologize that you may have no idea what he is saying. Hopefully it is still cute!

a day of firsts

Being that we don't celebrate Halloween,  or do most things associated with it, yesterday was full of fun and new activities.  It was a gorgeous day, so I decided it was time to introduce the kids to the fine art of pumpkin carving, which was made even more fun when the neighborhood kids joined us:

I failed to take pictures of the kids scooping out the pumkin goop, but you can be sure there was plenty of "ooh, gross!" comments along the way.  Addie was my most diligent worker, and made sure the pumpkin was completely clear of all the goop before it was time to carve the face.

When it comes to costumes, we have mostly just princess stuff for the girls, and one Darth Vader costume for Brady.  So when the girls wanted to be Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) and her best friend Diana Barry, I had to start asking around for ideas.  My mom-in-law's suggestion to rent costumes from our local community theater was a success!  The girls looked so precious & authentic.

Brady's costume was easy...of course he wanted to be Darth!

I had to get clever and a little crafty with Dawson, but came up with this rendition of Anakin Skywalker...

 

Another Halloween first was getting to go trick-or-treating at Daddy's office...the boys got over their timidity and had a blast once they figured out what was going on.  (The girls had gymnastics and were bummed they couldn't go; maybe next year!)

getting candy from Daddy's office

posing with some friends

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year, which is also Awana night for us...so they let the kids come in costumes.  This made the girls so happy since they missed out on the trick-or-treating.