Family Parties~

We celebrated Amelia and Ben Curtis' birthdays together with burgers and cupcakes~

Ben Curtis was SO surprised to see T Rex at his party~

Ben Curtis~ who can believe you are already four???~

That evening we dressed up like princesses and headed to Addie's party~

We had the best day being with family and celebrating sweet birthdays!

Journals~

Today we were very happy to have Addie over for a little playdate~

Amy joked we could practice what it will be like when Abby comes home... 

was pretty awesome as everyone paired off to play!

Since we were already outside when Addie went home, 

I thought it would be a great day to bring our journals out~

I want to share what our journals hold as they are actually treasure books for me as a mom and teacher.

Some of you may have heard the term 'Notebooking' where students write, draw, collect info, etc about a particular topic.

We actually did some that last year and kept in binders.

To say the least it was very tedious making copies, hole punching, and adding to a binder... just a whole bunch of paper.

We have also used Journals in the past but only wrote stories in them... this year I got just a little more organized (smarter) and are using them for everything except our art work.

Each child has their own journal that we work in every day. I say 'work' because we use it for lots of various reasons.

I am going to share a few pages out of everyone's journal to give an idea of what this little 'treasure' book holds!

EK~

~Copywork and dictation

~Poetry Notebook

~Social Studies writing

~Notebooking page that we glue right into the journal

~Math

~Today we all wrote Nature stories... EK's was about spiders

SJ~

 ~Science Writing

~Work with her Bob Books

~She goes anywhere in the house each day and draws a picture of whatever then we write the words together

~More Bob Books work

~Two stories she has written in last two days

PC and WP~

~Both boys trace their name and tell me the letters each day

~copy numbers or shapes

~Begun working on some patterning

~Today they both drew (EK drew for WP), they colored, and dictated what they wanted me to write. WP went back and traced the words.

EC~

(I do not stress at all about what she does... sometimes she follows directions and sometime no... it is her stage and I LOVE it!)

~Tracing name and coloring in shapes

~Cutting and gluing

~Tracing shapes with tracers

~Today she told me what to draw and I did then she colored. :)

Hope you can see why I hold these books as my treasures and what a cinch to store at the end of the year rather than a big binder.

We LOVE our journals!!!

 

Cousin Time~

We LOVED having Max and Addie over to play this morning~

 We started inside but within the hour, we headed out remained there the whole morning...

even through lunch~

 My kids all said~ WOW Mom, we sure are having lots of picnics... I can't think of anything better to do in the spring!

Better enjoy it now because come June-August... hot as blazes!

Cousins Playing~

We had a beautiful day today and got outside to play~

 but guess who made it even more fun??? Max and Addie!!!~

A VERY beautiful day~

Spring is finally here!

And THIS is what it was like once in and everyone bathed~

Just a big ole party!!!

Parties All Day~

Today was a party day for us.

Our first celebration was a baby shower for my sweet friend Melissa who will be bringing home Lily Hope very soon~

  This is a collage of our three babies... Payne, EvieClaire, and Lily Hope.

It was so wonderful to be out with the girls celebrating another sweet one coming home to her forever family~

The bottom left photo is of me, Melissa, and Sheryl: all connected by the red thread and our beautiful Chinese children! 

 Can't wait for Lily Hope to be home safe and sound!

Then after naptime, we were off to Jason and Amy's for Addie's 2nd birthday party~

It was SO wonderful to be @ their house with family to celebrate.

The kids had a ball playing and we ate a delish dinner.

Isn't the photo of Addie in her Minnie Mouse dress adorable? Evie really loved the light up shoes... I WILL be getting our Cinderella light up shoes out tomorrow! Happy birthday beautiful sweet Addie!

A really FUN Party Day!!!  

New Cousins~

The girls and I along with Sissy/Sam visited Cousin Slate today. What a sweet doll.

Loved watching Evie and Addie play together. Future BFFs for sure!

Last photo shows Sam pushing the cart with girls in Walmart. :)

Loved having a New Cousin day!!!

 

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