The Days of Our Genevieve...

Yesterday, Genevieve and I got to make an Apple Pie for the book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. It was a lot of fun and Evie did a great job!

We decided on tarts because they are a bit easier and they bake faster...


YUM!!


Blessings,

Happy Halloween!

Pioneer Woman, I am not.

I saw on her blog yesterday, cute little Halloween cake balls and I thought to myself, I can do that! So today we collected the supplies from our local Wally-world. Well, we TRIED to, that is. They didn't have lollipop sticks, so I decided to use plastic forks instead. I mean, that'd be scary right? Then, I finally found the melting chips, but they were over $3.00 a bag! I was just about to give it all up, but saw the almond bark in white and chocolate flavor and figured it was just about the same, so I picked that up instead. Of course they didn't have black icing. Well, I just picked up some gel food coloring. This is what we came up with...

Scary? Well, kind of...







Here's the kids working on their masterpieces...






The kids had a good time making these and I bet they'll taste good. Next time, I'll follow directions.LOL

Blessings,

The Jon Manual...

Jon's been creating again...





Blessings,

The Epic of Isaac...

This boy is soooo much fun when he isn't having temper tantrums.LOL He's had a bad week or two. First, he had his surgery, then he broke his toe, BOTH on the same day. Two days later he had to have his toenail drilled to releave the pressure. He's starting to feel better but got into candy yesterday and is having some issues today that has left him lamenting away his day in his room.lol Tomorrow is another day, though, right? I'll be praying it is.lol

Here's some photos of my little guy during happier times...

He built this castle...


Oh, no! Watch out...


Boys! They're all about the destruction...


Here's my cute with a new haircut...


And here he is all grown up and ready for the police force. Time sure does fly, huh?lol



Blessings,

What in the World is Lisa doing?

I know you all have been on the edge of your seat just wondering what I've been up to...

Right?

RIGHT?

Ahem.

Well, anyway, I've been mighty busy.LOL

I finally finished that cute little dress that I was working on, you know, the one made from Jon's old Hawaiian shirt. Here's the reluctant model...





I still might shorten it a bit but I'm happy with it for now. I took a million photos but she was grumpy. Oh well.

Next, I made Allison an Uber-cool backpack for her work stuff. She was looking for something that said, "lifeguard stuff-back off." Also, "lifeguard stuff-is stinky and it better be washable." Basically, she wanted a beachtowel made into a backpack and I wanted it to cost me nothing.LOL We both got what we wanted with this...







I also made a cute little clothes pin holder for my mom but forgot to take a photo of it before I gave it to her. It was an old button down shirt of Isaac's sewn on the bottom. Very cute.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sewing and creating each week or two whenever the time is right and the mood hits me.LOL Who knows what I'll come up with next....

Blessings,

Project: The End...

Well, I finished. Can I just say this was a pain in the rear? Believe me, it was. Remind me of this if the kids grow again will you? Maybe I'll just run away.lol

Here's the updated kids closet...


Here's the dresser, don't mind the mess or the little pile of clothes that I still have to try on the baby. They aren't going anywhere.lol


And here's another view, proving that the floor is no longer filled with clothes.


I am so thankful to have this project completed. In addition to this project, I also got rid of the changing table and cleaned the bookshelves off in the great room. It's looking somewhat better in here, although with all these kids, it doesn't look that great for long. ::snort::

Blessings,

Happenings...

The other day, Evie asked me if she and Isaac could have a picnic in the back yard. Well, it was pretty hot outside, so I decided that I'd just set up the umbrella and give them some artificial shade. They had a blast!


Evie fixed the lunch all by herself...


In the evenings, we usually hang out with our neighbor friends or we let the littles run up and down our street. It's a nice way to end the day...

These three were up to no good...



blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

Sophia is really growing up. It sure seems to be happening awfully fast. She's already wearing size 3T and tops the scales at 35 pounds.lol

Here are a few photos of my little cutie...

Bubble play time...


Look at those curls!


What fun!


She does this almost every day...


Outside playtime...


She loves this old push car that Isaac gave her...


But, her favorite thing in the world, is Allison holding her...


Blessings,

Kindergarten rotation...

Well, it had to happen sometime. Evie has grown up and I need to add a new rotation to my various lists. So here it is...

THE KINDERGARTEN ROTATION part 1

We've been homeschooling Evie in Kindergarten for almost 9 weeks now and I'm still working out the kinks. We started with just the basics, since Evie hasn't been the easiest child to school, and are just starting to branch out the past two-three weeks now.

For language arts, we started with Veritas Press Phonics Museum last year. She really liked it at first but it became a little too hard a little too fast for her attention span. So, I pulled and dusted off my copy of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons and tried that. Well, it was a perfect fit for her! She just started and is on lesson 60! I'm impressed with this little gem once again. I used this with Jon when he was 6 and it was perfect for him too. But most of all, I think that she was JUST PLAIN READY. You can't rush these things, believe me, I know.

We've been using VP Phonics for the writing portion and it's working well in that area.

For our extra reading, I use some very old books that just came back in print.

These were Eric's kindergarten readers! They are the " I See Sam " books. I have a "Caterpillar reading list" on our wall that Evie can add to every time she finishes a reader. It already goes around a corner!




For math, we began Math U See Primer last year but she didn't like following the rules so I had put it away for later. Well, later came and it's also a perfect fit. She LOVES Steve and so do I. I could almost kiss that man.lol Evie's wisking along at a brisk pace and is already in lesson 15. Already 1/2 way through and we're only in week 9 of our school year. I guess we'll be ordering the next book soon.

For our extra subjects, it was really hard to choose! I had two full curricula to choose from.

1. I had purchased Winter's Promise: Animals and their Worlds used from an online friend. When I looked at it though it seemed like it would be better for a first grader. Maybe someone who had a little reading under their belts. So I put it aside.

2. Five in a Row. I purchased this from a friend (Hi, Jodi!)last winter, but at first glance, it looked too hard for Evie. She really hasn't been too receptive to learning and the projects looked pretty hard for someone with NO background knowledge in the different areas. I thought that I would save this for another year but three weeks ago, I pulled it off the shelf and looked through it again. In my amazement, Evie had gained that base knowledge that was missing over the past few months on her own and was more than ready for this program. I collected the books from my shelves and we started in earnest three weeks ago. This has been a FUN curriculum! We don't do everything, only the projects that we have everything for and that she is interested in but so far it's been a real hit. We've gone through the books, The Story of Ping, Lentil, Madeline, and we just began A Pair of Red Clogs. Today for our project we ate like the Japanese do, with Chopsticks! I had just purchased some cheater chopsticks at Target a few weeks ago for an activity bin and they were the perfect first try with chopsticks. I also set the little's meals up Bento style with our cafeteria trays. They ate better than they EVER do for lunch! We've decided to do this more often.lol

Well, that's what we've been up to. I'll try to post more later, but Sophia has declared my "me time" over for now.lol

Blessings,

We are OBVIOUSLY...

larger than the average family.lol

A few months ago, we purchased one of those umbrella clothes lines to hang our laundry on. It SAID on the box that it could hold 3-4 loads of laundry for the "average family." Well, the "average load" must be extremely small and very light weight, because, for one thing, it only ever held 1-2 loads of our laundry and for the second thing, it BROKE! The sheer weight of our laundry snapped the pole in half. We fixed it once but it has broken again and I'll be replacing it with something much stronger this weekend, if not sooner. Bummer.

Here's my improvised clothes line until further notice...


Sophia seems to like it.lol

And, Yes, I'm still working on the messy clothes room. I'm at the point where I must try the remaining clothes on Sophia and she's only a little tolerant of the process.lol

Blessings,

When Good Things Go Bad...part two...

Well, I'm still working on it. NO, it doesn't look any better BUT there is a method to my madness and it's actually more organized. Thought I'd post some photos just so that you all can see that I really am working on it. Also, to show that sometimes things look worse before they look better.lol

This is the organized pile on the floor. I've got all the clothes separated into summer 24mo, 2T, 3T and winter 24mo, 2T, and 3T.


The bins are cleaned off and the dresses are sorted...


The dresser looks a mess but it's just the sweatshirts that Evie has outgrown waiting to be put into a bin and the jackets needing hung up...


Here's a closer look at the bins. It's getting better...I've already finished Isaac's and Evie's stuff. Last night I finished going through Sophia's summer clothes and will finish the winter stuff tonight. Wish me luck!lol


Blessings,