Today is this beautiful girl’s birthday!!
You are such a precious gift, Addie Mae!!
Happy, happy birthday!!
We love you!!
School Review
Well, here we are at the end of another week of school!
It seems that I only take photos of school these days – but it is the only time I am somewhat still, I suppose!
The rest of the day I am running around here trying to keep up with everyone and everything!
It is such a sweet new season we are in, that I am loving to the fullest! But a busy one!
Tate and Eliza started their week finishing up the letter “U” and learning about the last two of the five senses.
Some more printables! And cutting practice!
We also made an umbrella with contact paper, an umbrella frame I cut out of black paper, and ripped paper.
Eliza said, “MOM! It is stickidy!” but she pushed through and actually enjoyed this craft!
When we talked about our sense of sight, I played a game with the littles to see if they could look at a pile of things, then turn around with their eyes closed, and then turn back around and guess the thing I removed from the pile.
Tate doesn’t miss A THING. And I mean A THING, ever! So, this was not even close to hard enough for him. Eliza enjoyed trying to guess!
We also learned about taste, and as always had a pile of go along books from the library to read.
I think the read aloud is our favorite part! All three of us!
We moved on the the letter “D” this week too!
So there was a doughnut craft, some painting of dandelions with forks, some more printables, and some more go along books to read together.
I also grabbed a few photos of the middles while they were doing their work!
I don’t speak of all the normal things we do each week, but they are still happening.
Like therapy for Eliza. We do it everyday, and it is needed and life changing still!
I have a Bible time with the kids everyday before lunch, and we work on memory work then too.
I also give Eliza sensory “snacks” throughout the day – which usually look like she is playing.
She loves them!
So we made some letters disappear with eye droppers full of water.
I have her be my helper in the kitchen a lot too, which has her touching all kinds of different textures and smelling all kinds of different smells. She is doing SO well!
So, about Five In A Row. You are supposed to read aloud one book every day for five days and run in all kinds of directions with it – from History, to Art, and Language studies, for instance. I LOVE Five In A Row! But we do it more like fifteen in a row! I just find SO many things to run with and do that we cannot stop after one week!
This week we finished up our study of Follow The Drinking Gourd mostly with read aloud books. This subject of slavery tugged at our heart strings, and sparked many conversations around the lunch table and throughout the day. I love the interactive way FIAR allows you to approach these lessons, because it makes the children remember it. Really remember it!
This book was sad. But good. I did not let the littles listen to this one.
Last, but not least, a photo of Chad, my right hand man. Who is going to be taller than me soon. And told his Dad that he and I are becoming best friends. Insert all the crying eyes right here. He is a gem! This new season of life has many perks!
Drawing tutorials are still fun for the middle boys!
Can you all believe it is the end of August??!! We have two very, very special birthdays this weekend, which may cause some crying in my eyes!! My babies are growing up!
Hope you all have a great weekend too!!
A Recipe//Banana Split Ice Cream Cake
Here is a fun summer like dessert to make, even though it was only in the mid 60’s here today!
I made this dessert grain and dairy-free, but I am sure you could make a graham cracker, sugar, and butter crust and use dairy ice cream as well.
Banana Split Ice Cream Cake
Crust:
2 cups almond meal flour
1 cup coconut sugar
2/3 cup melted coconut oil
two pinches of sea salt
Mix well with a whisk and press firmly into a 9×13 pan.
Cover the crust with 3-4 sliced bananas. Cover the bananas with one quart of softened vanilla ice cream. Freeze for an hour or so, and then drizzle the top with melted chocolate. Sprinkle chopped nuts over chocolate (optional). Freeze for at least five hours before serving. Set out for about 10 minutes before serving.
I melted a whole 10 ounce bag of chocolate chips with a tablespoon of coconut oil. Instead of drizzling the chocolate on top of the ice cream, I covered the top instead. You have to move quickly to get it to spread out before the chocolate hardens!
Enjoy!
Our Week in Review
Wow, this week has FLOWN!
Since our school week ends on Thursday, and we clean and do errands on Friday, Friday is really the weekend in my mind!
YAHOO!!!
School has been so amazingly fun. All around. Love these kiddos enthusiasm and happy hearts!!
The little two learned about the letter “U” this week!
I wish I would remember to take more photos! It would be so fun to look back on ALL that we did someday!
Chad needed modeling clay for Science this week, and that was a blessing for the littles too!
We made the letter U out of many things as usual, but modeling clay was a new one for us this week.
Our sweet sensory girl loved playing with that clay! YAY!
We also used the clay to press letters into. Tate liked spelling his name!
I am starting to notice areas where the littles are excelling, and areas they are not. Number recognition is an area that Tate needs to work on – of course in no hurry being that he is only five – but just something I am seeing that he doesn’t know.
So we used a printable and some chips to cover the numbers as I called them out.
Then Tate would wait for Eliza to make her choice and do the same one! It was deja vu!!! From when Addie Mae and Grant were this age!
I put some tall jars in between them! I used to have a divider for in between Grant and Addie Mae.
Printables are a huge hit with Tate and Eliza, and are SO easy to provide for them!
Here are the middles working at the kitchen table on their Math. Sticking out your tongue makes you smarter, did you know that!? SO cute.
I taught the littles about the five senses this week, and we actually haven’t finished it all. So fun to have them use their senses to learn about this!
First, feeling into a bag and guessing what they were touching. Tate got this all right!
The next day we learned about hearing. And made some noise with beans in containers!
Today was about smell. Tate did not want to be blindfolded, but Eliza was ALL in. She guessed them all right too! And then after lunch, I found her running around with that blindfold on with her hands out in front of her. Crazy girl!
The middles spent some time building bridges with popsicle sticks and clothes pins. The idea was to see how strong they could make them with out any help. They would stack our school supply boxes on their creations to judge their work!
My Mom also visited this week!!!! We were so “cited!” Of course we went shopping so Grandma could spoil buy something for the kids!
We also drove and showed my Mom where we hope to live if the farm sells anytime soon, and then had popsicles and coffee at the local co-op.
Tate and Eliza took the opportunity to show their Grandma their adoption story books! Such a sweet time hearing them talk about their life before us with such pride.
I did try to get some photos of my Mom while we were at home too!
I am sure you will enjoy these photos too! Clyde is nine months old already! Crawling! Has teeth! Trying to pull up on things! Eating everything in sight! His eyes keep getting bluer, his lashes keep getting longer, and his blond hair keeps getting curlier! He is my SUNSHINE!
What a full fun week it has been!
We miss you already Mom!
We are still waiting on the farm to sell – with hopes that the Lord will still see fit to bring the buyer He has for this amazing place! I will admit, some days it is hard to wait, but most days I am so very busy enjoying my days here with these kiddos that I don’t have time to think on it! We are still praying hard though! We know God has the perfect plan!
Dinner is smelling yummy, my love is on his way home, my littles are at my feet playing sweetly, my boys are mowing the farm, my girls are spending the evening together, my mom was just here visiting……..LIFE. IS. JUST. SO. GOOD.
Hope you all are enjoying your days too!!
