Inspired By ::: 10 Things, Vol. 2

For today ... a listy. Ten things that have caught my eye online over the past few weeks taken straight from my boards at Pinterest. (Pinterest is like a visual bulletin board online to store and catalog things you find on various websites. Genius. Totally helping me keep on track of all those links or ideas I want to save but never keep up with). I've linked my Pinterest over on the right if you are on there and interested in following. : )

1. I've always wanted to try making playdoh for the girls. Maybe this will be a late summer pre-school project.

2. I *love* this. Am on the watch for cool rocks to do this to.

3.  Am dreaming big dreams about a one-year old boy birthday party (since this is my one shot at one of these). Cars? Puppies? Dinosaurs? So. many. cute. options.

4. Putting dollar bills in balloons and then popping. My oldest would love this.

5. N1 and one of her 2nd cousins love to write each other letters. This is on my list to make for the girls to send back and forth to each other.

6. Crockpot beef stroganoff - this is one of my favorite dishes so I'm definitely going to try this crockpot version!

7. If I had oodles of money, I would buy these and hang them ALL OVER the little girls' bedroom.

8. Everyday journaling prompts from Ali Edwards. Very cool.

9.  This looks so summery and yummy - grilled corn, avacado and tomato salad. Yum!

10. Worth ending on.

Linking up to 10 Things on Shimelle.com.
Happy Sunday!

The Fourth in Photos

Our first 4th of July in our new neighborhood. They really go all out for the kids!

We started the day decorating our bikes for the 4th of July parade through the neighborhood. (Bike decorating is not a gift of mine ... I definitely took note of what other moms did for next year!)



The middle munchkin. : )



The boy wanted to get in on the decorating, but he was really only concerned with how things tasted.



Maybe my favorite shot. She is SUCH a girl ... always with her little rainbow bracelet on.



Lining up. The fire truck leads the parade which I think is pretty cool.





By the time we walked the (short) parade route, he was already crashed out.



Mid-morning snack for parade riders.



While the kids ate their rapidly melting ice cream, the fire fighters were setting things up for a little fun.













We ended the day with a cookout over at our neighbors, but there is only one photo to document the end of the evening water fight. At this point (even with the help of many other willing pairs of arms), I was trying to pacify a very tired boy and not taking many pictures.



A good day all round and one I hope that the girls will remember fondly.

9

Just as an update...

to this post...



Book 2 was JUST as good as book 1.

And book 3 doesn't come out until February, 2012. You see my dilemma! : )

Mini-Twins

Supplies:

Free template from JessicaSprague.com.

Crystal Wilkerson (CW) June Office Supplies
   - label

CW Spring/Summer 2011
   - teal background
   - kraft and sunshine stitches

Echo Park Little Girl
   - orange scallop
   - purple, pink, orange heart
   - purple stripe background paper

Font: Pea Jane

You can click the picture to see larger in Flickr.

2011 Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge

For more information, click the button above to visit my friend Carrie!

We are planning to read The Magician's Nephew aloud this summer - truthfully, we've had a few days head start, but our read-aloud time has been a little sporadic of late so the extra days should only help us finish it this month. That's all the promise I plan to make although I would love to be able to read The Last Battle with the girls as well. We shall just have to see.

Thanks, Carrie, for hosting another year!

The Schoolhouse Planner

I know I said I wasn't going to post this week, but I completely forgot that I had signed on to review a great resource from The Old Schoolhouse Store - The Schoolhouse Planner.

I am not a stranger to the planner ... I purchased both the 2009 and 2010 version and wasn't planning on purchasing the 2011 version. I figured that with the two that I had, I was set with whatever forms I could possibly need. However, this one is over the top bigger than the two I had before! Topping out at at mega 819 pages, the planner has about every form that you could possibly need.

Things that I love about this planner:

• The two page monthly layouts - large squares with lots of room to write in (which, with four kids, I need large squares!) There is a lined and unlined version of this layout - I always go for lines myself - and a one-page monthly planner page if you don't need a two page spread.
• Fifty-eight pages of recipes!
• What they call "must-know lists" - things that a student should memorize and/or handy references for facts such as the books of the Bible, miracles / parables of Jesus, list of Newberry and Caldecott medal winners, a picture book list, U.S. Presidents, the periodic table of elements, a kitchen conversion cheat sheet and the list goes on.

And then there are the homeschool forms! So. many. options. : ) There are weekly planning forms in many different layouts (one of which I think will be my form for this coming year with two students). There are daily planning pages, assignment sheets, and long range planning forms (map out your year for each student with goals you want them to accomplish). Another set of forms that I have been using since the first planner I purchased in 2009 is my Twelve Year Planning forms - they are great for jotting down ideas for down the road, ie., books that I want my girls to read in high school that I might see mentioned in a homeschool catalog or a blog post. Speaking of high school, they have TONS of high school forms that are geared to help you plan your students course of study. While I don't need those for several years, they look like some great resources for down the road!

My two-cents about this planner now that I've told you about some of the great features that it contains:

• it contains a WEALTH of information and forms - tons that you will see yourself using and many that you didn't even think of but will come in handy all the same.
• It is pricey at $39.00. (I can't remember, but I don't think I paid that much for the two I purchased).
• This would be a great resource for a first-time homeschooler who might need a jump-start on planning and organization.
• It might be a tad bit overwhelming when you start going through it. There is certainly a lot of good stuff here, but there is also a lot of stuff that I won't use that I had to wade through. 

All that to say, if you are looking for a great planner for your homeschool year, I can recommend this one as one that is worth considering. 

Thank you to The Old Schoolhouse Store for allowing me to review and share my opinion on this planner. I received no compensation other than an electronic copy of the planner - all opinions are my own.

Busy Week

This week is shaping up to be a busy one with some summer fun (playdates and friends having babies) and some summer not-so-fun (attending a funeral this week for a dear friend who's dad passed away).

Taking a little bloggy hiatus and will be back next week!

Show and Tell

I figured I'd do a little show and tell of things I have noted this week that hopefully I have time to go back and spend a little more time on.

I'm excited to participate in Ali's Week in the Life project again this year. This will be the third time (I think) that I've participated in this project. Truthfully, neither of the previous years have ever made it into an album. However, I do have those weeks documented on the blog and I love looking back and seeing a glimpse of the dailyness that is our life. This will be the week right before the start of school so who knows if it will include a lot of last minute summer fun or some last minute preparations so that we can start school the following week. Either way, I love this process of documenting and am looking forward to it.

Melissa Wiley is a author and book blogger that I stumbled on to ages ago. She has a huge span of kids and when she recommends a book, I put it on my list to check on at the library. She recently had a Q&A post on her blog and so I threw one out about books for N1 as we embark on a study of early civilizations / ancient Greek / ancient Romans / ancient Chinese civilitation a la Story of the World. She didn't just give me a suggestion or two - I got a whole post! Thrilled to pieces I am. Between her list and the book reviews that Amy at Hope is the Word did last year, I am not as scared of tackling this area of history with my 2nd grader as I once was.

Shimelle has been posting some great travel-related scrapbooking posts. It's making me want to take a trip just for the sake of a travel scrapbook. : ) We aren't traveling this summer, but I'm bookmarking this post, this one, and this one to refer back to when it's time.

So many posts about living an intentional, present life where I am right now ... do you think there is a message I'm supposed to be hearing? : )

This post from Ann Voskamp about scripture memory and this one about family time in the Word. Convicted, I am. Making plans.

And for something on an extremely humorous note:

This makes me really laugh. : )

Currently ::: Late June

Current Books: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, The Hidden Gallery (Book 2) and One Thousand Gifts (found my copy).

Current Playlist: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. There is always so much noise (good noise!) present in my life with little people and a husband who is a musician. When it is my choice, I choose silence and have whenever I have (rarely) been alone of late.

Current Color: summery orange

Current Drink: decaf iced tea and lots of it

Current Food: lots of fresh veggies to go with my Weight Watcher eating. Salad, sauteed veggies and lots of fruit is the majority of what I've been eating and I will be very sad to see the end of summer and all this fresh goodness.

Current Favorite Favorite: lots of lists on a plain legal pad. It has been my constant companion of late as I plan household, upcoming school, etc.

And this picture of girl cousins.

Current Wishlist: to order our school books. It's on the agenda for next month, Lord willing! I've got my list made out and am ready to go.

Current Needs: some time to process all the thinkerly things rolling in my brain. Thoughts about school, thoughts about keeping life simple, thoughts I need to get on paper. 

Current Triumph: A-hem. -21 lbs, thankyouverymuch.

Current Bane of my Existence: the continual need to bathe children that play outside every evening and want to keep on going until the sun goes down. And by saying, bane, I mean that this is a good problem to have, but I'm not really looking forward to having to wean them from such summertime high-jinks and schedules when school starts in about month.

Current Indulgence: Of late, not much in the way of foodie indulgences (see current triumph above). I do have a bowl of popcorn and apples every evening after the girls go to bed. That's about as crazy as it gets. 

Current Mood: indecisiveness? Is that mood? Thinking lots and lots about balance for us over the next school year as it is the season for signing up for activities and enrolling in programs. There is much more I could write about that in this space, but I'll just leave it with this for now...

Current #1 Blessing: having several weeks in a row here that are free, or nearly so. We had plans to travel and see T's family at the end of June/beginning of July and those fell through. We've taken a rain check for later in the year, but that means that this week, when I would have been packing and getting us ready, was blissfully empty; next week, when we would have been on the road is also completely free because we weren't going to be in town. Working very hard to make sure those weeks stay that way.

Current Outfit: denim skirt and purple t-shirt. 

Current Excitement: Cars 2. I'm as excited about the girls about going to see it at the theater.

Current Link: I have a whole slew of them coming tomorrow for a fun listy-Saturday post. Stay tuned... : )

Read Aloud Thursday ::: Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle

This week, I thought I would share a wonderful book that we discovered right before Father's Day and have added to our home collection. Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle was one I had seen on at least one blog on the days leading up to Father's Day (of course, now I can't remember who to give credit to). When I heard what the gist of the story was, I quickly ordered it for the boy to give his Daddy for Father's Day.

Mister Seahorse is a book about some special undersea animals - the daddies! In several of the different fish species, the daddies are in charge of keeping an eye on the eggs or toting the freshly hatched babies around and protecting them. The seahorse, for example, is one such species - after the mama lays the eggs, the daddy carries the eggs in a special pouch until it is time for them to hatch.

The book, of course, has the amazing art of Eric Carle. It also features so very cool see-through pages (like a painted transparency) that illustrate how certain fish can hide and disguise themselves underwater. A neat interactive element to the book that I was surprised to find.

A sweet, sweet book that we are enjoying and are glad to add to our collection!

For more Read-Aloud Thursday, visit Amy at Hope is the Word.