Susan G. Komen 3-day Fundraiser

We are having a Zumbathon today to raise money for the Susan G. Komen 3-day.  We are giving away door prizes.  My sister already picked up a few of my pieces, but I thought a few pieces related to the cause might be nice too.  Especially since I woke up at 1:30am (that's what happens when you drink Red Bull with your dinner!)  So here are the pieces I started and finished tonight.

Field trip to the Old Capitol Building

Despite what my lovely five year old daughter says, we DID take a field trip today-even though we did not ride a bus. LOL. We took a trip to the Old Capitol building.  Although I don't know much about government, they did have a good time.   Next time we will take Daddy with us, although for 7 and 5 years old they learned enough for now anyway.

Art Room/School Room Redo

So I have had one BIG table for our art/school room.  Hasn't been working well.  It takes up the entire middle of the floor, its difficult to walk from one side of the room to the other when everyone is working, the kids distract each other, etc.  So I decided to make 3 small desks instead of the large table.  I didn't want to cut the large table top we had in case we wanted it for another project or my FIL wanted it back.  So I found the perfect size at Lowe's AND it was already cut!! yeah I probably paid a bit more for it precut, but it was the perfect size and easy.  I was in/out in about ten minutes!!

So as soon as I got home I started moving stuff around.  I am a bit of a hoarder! Yes I do admit it.  I have TONS of scrapbooking supplies but haven't scrapbooked much since we moved to this house 4 years ago.  I also love crafting, so I have a rubbermaid bin OVERFLOWING with stuff I WANT to make.  Yeah it's sitting right under my table.  Will have to weed through that fast as it is obstructing Jacob's desk at the moment.

Anyway, here are a few before...

I am so not organized-its a work in progress!

The massive table which I thought would be perfect-it was a mess, I just cleaned it off.

To the left is MY work table. To the right is a dresser FULL of stuff.

So as you can see it pretty much takes up the entire room.  Actually this isn't how I had it originally, this set up actually gave us a little more moving room.  But it left one side of the table and one book shelf unreachable.  So after much planning and still no organizing...

Here is Jacob and JoAnna's desk with my work table in the middle of them.

 Here is the opposite wall.  Actually on the other side of this wall is a coat closet, which I would LOVE to  open up to this room and put all this stuff in the closet and relocate the shelf and armoire.  I still have a lot of organizing to do.  But I hope with the new set up I can get that done quickly.  Maybe this next week I will work on the shelving in the closet AND then maybe knocking a hole in the wall!!!!

Here is Jace's lonely shelf.  He is only 2-soon to be 3 and isn't doing much school.  But I will have to pull our little table out of the garage for him.  He will probably be upset with me when he wakes up in t he morning.  He will feel a little left out I am sure.

Weekend Art Class

Since I was working on some items for our upcoming fundraiser.the kids wanted to get in on the fun.  So I pulled out their paints and let them at it. Here is JoAnna painting a cross.  She did well with the painting but got a little carried away adding layer after layer of paint.

Jacob also painted but I must have taken those photos with my phone-which tends to be a challenge to get them on the computer.  Those will have to wait until tomorrow.

After dinner I tried to finish up a few paintings I had started during Jace's nap time.  Of course he then wanted in on the painting.  So there are a few shots of him painting.

Three of the canvases I finished today

An Evening to MYSELF!!

So my parents are in town for the weekend for my kids' birthday party.  The kids wanted to stay with my parents at my sister's house and my parents agreed!!  My husband is working the night shift tonight.  So... I am home...ALONE!  This doesn't happen very often.

So tonight I got out all my craft stuff.  I finished a few projects that I have started over the last year and started a few more.  I am working on  a few things for a craft fair we will be doing in October.  Also I am trying to make a few "door prizes" for a Zumba fundraiser we are doing in September.

So I have been busy busy.  Here are a few of the things I have been working on...

This is what happens when mom is left alone for the evening with NO kids and NO husband!!

Week 2

We have started our second full week of school.  I am still trying to figure out a routine that works well with three kids.  It's a challenge.  Seems everyone needs me at the same time!  Plus the time crunch of having to get the 3 year old to daycare before his class goes down for a nap really limits our schedule.

JoAnna is in kindergarten so we are doing letters, sounds and numbers.  She knows her uppercase letters, most of her lowercase letters and most numbers 1-10.  We are taking a letter a day and flying thru the alphabet.  Then we will come back and reinforce phonics.  We are touching on phonics but mostly working on recognizing letters, numbers and writing.  JoAnna also started Upward Cheer this week-that was interesting.  She didn't want me to leave her side.  Hopefully she will get over that before practice tonight!

Jace, well it is a challenge to get him to do much of any work.  He LOVES cutting with his scissors and leaves a trail of tiny pieces of paper EVERYWHERE!  I am working with letter and number recognition with him.  However, he is only 2, will be 3 in two weeks, so he is still young.  So this year I am focusing on letter and number recognition.  So far he has done well with his letters, of course we are only on C.

 Jacob is flying thru his work as we are doing a good bit of review.  I am using Explode the Code to reinforce some of the "rules" we learned last year in language.  Not sure where we will go from there, not wanting to use the language program we used last year-so we will see.  He is doing a lot of reading.  I read to him, he reads aloud, he reads to himself.  Yes, lots of reading.  We had a field trip to the library yesterday with our homeschool group.  He learned how to look up books by subject, author and title. He was very excited to get a book about snakes, he read 3 pages before we were able to cross the street to meet the group at the park.  Fun times. Jacob started Upward Flag football this week.  I didn't get to watch much because I had to stay with JoAnna, but the few minutes I did see he did very well!

Here are a few pictures from our week so far.....

Gold Fish Color Sort

Some math fun!!

Field trip to the library

Upward Cheer

Upward Flag Football

Don't know why this picture is turned, I even rotated it and uploaded it again. Weird.  So after three tries, I give up. Just tilt your head!

Jace LOVES to cut with his scissors. He spent most of the morning cutting and leaving tiny pieces of paper all over the house.

Here is JoAnna, she did not want her picture taken. Too bad. LOL

More cutting....

...and still more cutting.

Here is JoAnna making her "glitter g".

Some of my school finds this week

We had a great first week of school at home.  I did send Jace (almost 3 year old) to preschool Thursday and Friday.  This seemed to make our day go faster, but I felt terribly guilty.  I want him home with me.  Maybe I will send him for a few weeks until JoAnna gets into the school routine.  Then I can work on him.  Even though today is Saturday my 5 year old wanted to do some school work.  She only did one of her work boxes but the fact she "wanted" to do school work was great.  

 I had taken pictures of lacing blocks so that my 5 year old could practice copying the patterns I created.  She did great with it and my 2 year old wanted to try it out today.  He also did a great job.  

My 2 year old also found a Disney sticker book I brought home for him.  He loves stickers and I loved that the book gave him a place to put his stickers, besides the windows on my back door and my kitchen cabinets.  My 5 and 7 year old were very jealous and wanted their own sticker books.  So I pulled out some sticker books I found at the dollar tree a few weeks ago.  I had purchased these for my 2 year old, never dreamed my 5 and 7 year olds would enjoy them so much.  They spent at least an hour with these books.  

Also this week I bought a laminator today.  

 

I have been wanting one and have done some research.  I found a great one on Amazon.com and then found that my local Wal-mart carried the same model.  So I went today to check their price, since the price was not listed online.  Luckily it was the same price as Amazon.  So I have been laminating like crazy today.  I have tons of stuff in sheet protectors but ran out of those long ago.  I am very excited about adding this to my array of tools. 

We also made a trip to Target this week.  I had a much better trip than the one I took last week at my local Target.  This store had these little pocket charts for $1.  I have been looking into pocket charts but didn't want to spend $20-+ on a pocket chart that I might not use that often.  I couldn't pass this one up though.  As you can see my 5 year old lost one of the letters today. Oh well.  

 

I also found these great workbooks in the $1 bin at Target.  I am such a sucker for these educational books.  I have bought several at Target and Dollar Tree.  These are mostly for my second grader. 

 

Well that is all for now.  I had better get back to laminating!!  

Komen 3day

I have been training for the Susan G. Komen 3day.  It's an event to raise money for breast cancer.  We walk 60 miles in 3 days and camp out in pink tents for two nights.  It's going to be AMAZING!

However, my training hasn't been so great.  I had been walking with my mom, sister and a friend.  I took the last month off.  Not on purpose, I was just too tired to walk in this crazy heat.

Two days ago I was awake at 5a.m., so I decided to get up and walk.  I walked 4 miles in an hour and five minutes!   Best timing ever for me.  I felt it later for sure.  That afternoon my knees were sore, next morning my ankles, back and quads were sore.  This morning I wake up and my left foot hurts.  I am OLD.  I am only 34 and I feel 80. Everything hurts. I can't bend my knee, can't squat, or get up from the floor easily.  It sucks!

Anyway, I tried walking this morning, to walk THRU the pain.  As soon as I left the driveway it started lightning.  I thought maybe its heat lightning, or it'll pass.  No.  The more I walked the worse it got.  I don't play with lightning.  So I came home.  I walked a half a mile.  Not impressive, but maybe it was enough to work out some of the soreness.

Our Week in Pictures

Science experiment about water currents

Jace and his tinker toy drum

Gummy bear math

She was suppose to be making a playdough "D"-she made a nest and eggs-this was after Jacob and I had a discussion about the difference between egg laying animals and live birth animals :)

More gummy bear math

First Week of School

We have had our share of bumps this week.  I am so torn between taking my soon to be 3 year old to preschool (which is free for me since I work in the afterschool program) or keeping him at home with us.

Pro Stay at Home:

1. I want him home with me
2. I want to be the one to take care of him
3. I want to be the one to teach him (although our teachers are excellent)
4. I want to be able to love on him all day
5. I don't want him at daycare 8-+ hours a day. (I would have to take him before 9am so that he doesn't miss class time and so that it doesn't interrupt the middle of our day. Its a 15 min. drive one way to daycare-so it'll take @45 min. out of our day)
6. He won't be this age forever and I don't want to miss this age-it's my favorite age

Cons to Staying Home:

1. He is at the clingy stage and likes to be with me constantly
2. He tends to be a little fussy when I am giving my attention to the other two
3. I have to be at work at 1pm which is in the middle of naptime-so if I keep him home he has to get to daycare before his class goes down for nap at 11:45-which puts a time crunch on our day. 

So I am torn and undecided.  We have tried it both ways this week.  I took him to school by 9am this morning and I got so much done with the two older ones, but I felt guilty taking him.  He also fussed all the way to school saying he wanted to stay home.  Broke my heart.  The other three days this week I have kept him home and he has done well.  He plays mostly but I have been able to get him to do a little school work with us.  

WinShape Camps for Communities at Ridgecrest Baptist Church

This past week my 7 year old attended a WinShape camp at our church.  This was the first I have ever heard of this camp and the first time it's been to this area.  Camp started at 7:45 in the morning, much too early for us.  It ended at 5pm each evening. LONG day full of FUN!!! He has such a great time and learned so much.  They had 19 skills to choose from, 3 of which they were given to do each day.