It's Official

Harvest is Over
There goes the last full truck.
Life is good!

Joseph loves Sam.  And I think it's mutual.

Winter is on its way.  The frost froze our pumpkins.

We have meat in the freezer again.  Warren just crawled into his bow stand and within minutes connected with this nice 6 point.  Yum!

Joseph is a cutie patootie.  And that's official.

My Young Scientist

Samuel was eating soup for lunch.  Hug and Kiss of course.  He let out a burp and exclaimed, "What did you put in this?  CO2?"

Here they come!

There they go!

Sam's given the dirtbike a try twice before, but he was a little too apprehensive.  Not the right attitude for dirtbiking.  Today after watching Disney's Motocross he asked to give it a try and attacked it full force.  Warren and Sam rode around the house a dozen times before trying a bit longer ride to the mailbox.  It gets pretty hot in that helmet so they decided to take a break and ride again tomorrow when cooler weather is forecasted.

Happy 7th Birthday Samuel

Cars 2 coloring set from his sisters.

Reading his golden ticket which stated that he was going to see Cars 2 on the big screen later that day.

Tackle box tray from his big brother.

The coveted Darth Vader light saber from mom and dad.

He wanted a cranberry marsh cake which Warren and I made happen.  Mostly he wanted a pile of dirt made from crushed oreos.  We made that happen, too.

BB Gun...A Bit Early

In our home the rule regarding BB gun ownership requires the youngster to be 7.  Sam has a couple months to go but we made an exception since Unca Dan was here for turkey hunting and he wanted to present Sam with a 70th anniversary Daisy Red Rider and a Rooster Permit. 

Thank you, Unca Dan!  It means the world to me.

Joseph didn't want to be left out so he grabbed the toy gun.  Amazingly, he knows just what to do with it.

We took a short walk Easter Sunday.  Sam shot at blowing leaves and floating debris on the pond.  He was thrilled.

Brothers' Conversation

Brother #1 - No double dipping your chips in the salsa. I'm watching you.

Brother #2 - I don't double dip. I just backwash.

That's what I call brutal honesty.

Keeping it Fresh

Sam started reading a few early readers in kindergarten this last year. He's bright and extremely active. Often it's difficult to rein in his enthusiasm for reading. See, it happens to be of utmost importance to remain somewhat still when reading, therefore our sessions are typically very short. And this summer....we've completely let it go. I still read multiple books a day to him; he's just not reading anything to me. But today he ran across his basket of Bob Books and brought two of them to me wondering if he could read to me. Of course, I jumped (well sat calmly) at the idea of him reading to me, knowing how important it is to keep things fresh in the minds of young learners. He sat somewhat still, changing only his leg position multiple times. His hands gripping the book, he read the words: Mat. Mat sat. He turned the pages without starting a conversation with me or standing up or asking to go to the bathroom or a snack. It was a blissful 8 minutes of reading with him. Reading is the toughest thing you'll ever love teaching your child.

Two Things We've Been Enjoying

Baby Signing Time with Rachel Carson - Wanting to start reading the Anne of Green Gables series, I put on this video for Little J tonight. Everyone in the house was singing along. We all agreed that no matter what we're doing Baby Signing Time draws us in. Even Warren, armed with a new Deer and Deer Hunting, couldn't help putting it down for The Diaper Dance. Gotta love a DVD that has something for the whole family. *Click on the Diaper Dance link and listen to a bit of the song*

Amazing Machines Truckload of Fun Book Set - This set of 10 little books is great for the young child interested in vehicles of all kinds. Includes books on: tractors, airplanes, boats, cars and many others. Sam loves these books. He's 6 and probably at the top end of the age range. I'd recommend them for children as young as two. The rhyming rhythm entertains the littles, while the fairly detailed info keeps the older ones coming back for more.

Kindergarten Classifying

Thanks to my mom and all her perusing the Internet for printables, I had a number of printouts with animals. They worked perfectly for animal classification. I cut the pictures apart and then wrote "Mammals" and "Fish" on a large sheet of paper. I had Sam tell me what he knew about each category. I prompted him a little and soon we had a few simple characteristics of each. Then he took the pile of pictures and glue and set to work deciding which category they fit it. This took him a long time due to glue problems; we need more gluesticks.

Sam's Been Wondering About a Couple Things

Sam: Hey Mom, besides bacon bits what else do kangaroos eat?

Apparently, he knows more about kangaroos than me.

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Sam: When I grow up I'm gonna have a girl cow and a bull and they are gonna breed and make baby calves.

Me: So you want to be a dairy farmer?

Sam: No I just want lots of baby calves. They're so cute.

Some time passed.

Sam: I know how foxes breed and I know how chickens breed and I know how dogs breed and I know how horses breed, but I don't know cows breed.

And since it was a statement and not a question.......we just left it at that.

Art Journals

At the beginning of this school year I bought the kids each a 5x8 art journal. I found lots of ideas at Art Projects for Kids and added them to my favorites. For a good portion of the year we made an entry each Friday, but then after Christmas we just forgot about the journals until I bought some Crayola Paint in the Brush brushes. I got out Easter cookie cutters, had them trace a few shapes, embellish to make an Eastery picture and then printed out some Easter poems for them to copy in the write spaces. All the kids enjoyed this page and worked diligently. Matter of fact they made more than one page. The next day Sam got out the paint and art journal again asking for the ABC cookie cutters. I helped him trace the letters for his name and then he painted, adding stripes and dots to make it fancy. Again he loved this. The cookie cutters give them just enough of a start and then their creativity kicks in and takes over. This is definitely a project I will remember for a rainy day.

Early Spring Bike Ride

The round about plans for the bike ride all started with an idea to take a vacation of some sorts to somewhere warm. As a family we hovered around the laptop typing in cities and states that had potential to be warmer than central Wisconsin. We didn't find much - Hawaii, Arizona, and Miami, Florida. We really wanted something a bit closer. Something close enough that driving wouldn't wear us out before the actual vacation started and wouldn't leave us bleary eyed once back home. Then after a little closer look at our weather forecast things began to look pretty good. This week was expected to be in the low 60's early on and then turn cooler and even down right wintry as the weekend neared. So in an effort to take in all the sunshine we could we opted for a 45 minute drive to Stevens Point's Green Circle. We chose Schmeeckle Reserve as our starting point/parking area. The total miles biked was around 12-14. I chose the Moses Creek trail as I had never biked it and it included two boardwalks which I knew would excite the kids. What a great trail. We did have to do some biking on a busy road, but that's over now and all they keep talking about was the cool boardwalk.

A couple of my favorite lines overheard:

At the beginning of the trail still in sight of the parking lot and van we intensely looked at the map deciding which way we should go. It took a minute to figure out the orientation of the map.

Nick: We're Lost.

The word single file was hollered out a lot, mostly directed to Samuel. About 4 miles into the ride he finally yelled back:

Sam: What is single file anyway?

Once we told him, the problem subsided.

And now for a couple of pictures

Today's Thoughts

Soggy days are in store for us this week. Gloomy gray skies too. I should expect this, after all we are nearing spring and that means moisture and mud here in central Wisconsin. Still the sun is a welcome visitor after the dreary days of February. We definitely took advantage of it the past few days. Lot's of backyard baseball, horse riding, tipi building and bike riding.

But now here we are a little more homebound and colds making their way through everyone. Last week it was Emily with a terribly sore throat and now Sam is coughing, Amber has teary eyes and a drippy nose and Nick is stuffed up with a sore throat. Little J's top tooth has been showing through for well over a month and finally it seems to be ready to make its appearance. Emily just said she sees a corner of it peeking out. I'd say it's about time. He's had his bottom two teeth since about 13 months, but that's it. Now at 19 months (almost) he's getting his third tooth, I think.

Talking about Little J he's really mobile. He crawls up and down the hall looking in the bedrooms for things to eat. Tell me why a rubber twister tail (fishing bait) is appealing, but a cooked carrot.....no way! He crawls through the end table which is a sight to see.


And loves to be read to. Sam does a great job of memorizing books and then reading them to Little J. The current reading favorite is My Silly Book of Colors by Susan Amerikaner.

Last week was a birthday week. Warren's turn this time. I feel bad for him having a birthday during Lent. But we celebrated as much as possible.

Happy Birthday. We love you.

So, I'm Weird

Sam: Amber, mom put apples on top of the pork. Really, she did. And guess what? Now she's putting onions on top too. I'm not eating it.

They both ate it and lived.
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I actually wanted to watch the State of the Union address. It's amazing how becoming a parent, homeschooling mom, business owner and taxpayer has made me so much more interested in politics and what's happening in Washington D.C.

They Think I Know Everything

Sam: Mom, how do you say dinosaur in Spanish?

Considering my knowledge of Spanish consists of a 3 week mini course in 6th grade and a review of the colors in a Shapes board book, I didn't have an answer for him.

From the 5 Year Old

Mom, I'm going out to the hayloft to get some privacy.

Granola Head

I'm not really a granola head, but I did make granola today using this recipe. We were sampling it and giving our opinions as to what should be added.

Me: toasted pecans and dried cranberries, maybe a little more coconut

Nick: mini chocolate chips then they would taste like chewy granola bars

Friend M: raisins would be good

Sam: You know what would make the granola really good......Butterfingers

I can see my kids have a thing for chocolate. I can't blame them, so do I.

Learning Letter Sounds

Samuel is working at perfecting his beginning letter sounds. He isn't much for paper and pencil unless it's for math. He loves his math workbook. But for letters and sounds he'd much rather play games. What we've been doing lately is to pull out the tub of animals and bucket of ABC tiles. Then we select an animal say its name and find the letter tile representing its beginning sound. He loves this and since we have plenty of animals, never get bored doing the same b is for bear over and over.

That Grin

Today Samuel smelled of cologne, lots of cologne. When asked if he had gotten into dad's cologne he just smiled. You know, that sheepish little smile that keeps growing the more he thinks about what he did. He didn't have to say a word. We knew the answer by the grin on his face.

Kids' Funnies

It's haircut time around here for all the boys. We were discussing what type of cut each wanted and Sam asked:

Can you bald me around the edges and leave a mohawk in the middle?

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Amber is always full of her own words; here are her latest dictionary entries:

shaggy pants - stretchy knit culottes/split skirt

hannatizer - lazy man's version of hand sanitizer

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The newest game around here is just a remake of an old favorite. Hide 'n Seek is fun with people, but how about with kittens. The kids bring the five kittens into the porch, close their eyes, and wait for the kittens to run off and "hide". Then they search for the kittens. Simple, but by the squeals and giggles I hear is obviously tons of fun.

Birthday Cakes

Talking about birthdays reminded me I had wanted to post some simple instructions on making kids' birthday cakes. My kids are always walking by the decorated cakes at Walmart and pointing out all the styles they want for their birthday. But I learned long ago how to bake and decorate cakes using Wilton cake pans. I borrowed many cake pans from a friend and just followed the contour lines on the cake for the frosting placement. But even those cake pans get expensive. I was happy to get an idea from Danielle Bean. She searched the internet for simple images appropriate for her children's birthday depending on their interests. Then she used that picture as a model for decorating her cakes. Here is how I have modified her directions. I'm not so artistic and have no perspective when it comes to drawing so this is how I make it work.

Finished product

Ray - 5th birthday July 10First of all I let Ray choose a topic. He chose tractors this year and wanted a very elaborate Kubota just like his daddy has. But we settled on a simpler version. I don't remember where I found this image. Most likely it was a coloring page. I saved the image and then used my print wizard to print it as large as I needed (8x10). Then I cut it apart in sections so I could pipe in the stars in sections. I use Wilton disposable bags with a small star tip. I only do stars and lines. Always trying to keep it simple.


I laid the pieces on the cake and used a black decorator gel to trace the pieces.

I make up and color all my frosting at once and then place in the refrigerator to keep it firm. It's much easier to work with firm frosting then soupy frosting. I pipe in the stars and then fill in the rest of the cake with another complimentary color. All done except for the candles and ice cream.

***I don't know why Blogger won't place my photos the right way, but they keep turning them vertical for some reason.