Noah's Birthday

Well, Noah certainly had a fun 8th birthday. His dad took the day off, as he usually does on birthdays, and we had a fun-filled Friday! This was a huge deal since most of the week before-hand has been really quite boring and uneventful. (which I'll explain on a later post) We had planned on doing a sledding party for Noah today (Saturday), but that has been postponed til next Saturday (which will also be explained in that post I mentioned).
Since Noah was born on an Olympic year, I think that destined him for loving winter and all winter activities. When most people groan at a forecast for snow in late-March, Noah is ecstatic. So his birthday was full of his favorite things....

After a breakfast of his choice (pancakes with sprinkles, bacon, and eggs) we were off for a couple of action-packed hours of sledding. Here's some pics....


Thumbs up!

After Sophia's nap and some down-time for the boys, we headed back outside for some ice-skating. And I have to mention...I looove ice skating! :)

I don't have a good picture of her, but it was Sophia's first time skating and she actually did very well! We'll have to get her some skates for next winter.

Here we are...all tuckered out. After skating, we warmed up with some hot Shrimp and Potato soup, requested by Noah. I usually let the kids pick what they want for their birthday dinner and Noah loves shrimp!
Needless to say, everyone slept really really well!

Noah's 8!

Look at my sweet, sweet baby! I can't help getting misty just typing this :( I cannot believe my baby's 8!! Everyone always tells you your kids will grow up so fast...they're not kidding!

Sometimes I feel like Noah's was and is my little guinea pig child. On the parenting end, I've never gone through what I'm going through with him. I've never been a mom to an eight-year-old! As a mom to Noah, sometimes I say, 'I'll never do that again' or 'this definitely works, do this with the next two.' But even though he can feel like my 'rookie-kid,' there's something so special about it. With your first, they're the ones you get to do things with first...like the first day of school, and the first time with the training wheels off, and the first baseball game.

Noah, being your mom for 8 special years has been both fun and crazy!! I'm so excited it's your birthday, I hope you have a fabulous 8th birthday and here are my 8 wishes for you!

#1: I wish you a wonderful year of firsts, my little guinea pig!

#2: I wish for you to stay such a caring big brother to watch over your little brother and sis...they love you so!



#3: I wish for you to do great things with the intellegence God has given you.

#4: I wish for you to build great things with your Legos!

#5: I wish for you to try new things and be the brave boy that you are!

#6: I wish for you to carry on that enormous enthusiasum you have into everything you do.

#7: I wish for you to stay funny forever!
#8: I wish for you to deal with your crazy mama despite her downfalls :) I love you, I love you!!

My First Blog Award!!

What a wonderful day! I've received my very first blog award! What a great feeling that someone out there enjoys reading my little ol' blog....thank you to Legend's Wife over at 'The Way We Homeschool' for choosing me for this award!
If you receive this award, here's the rules:

1.) Thank the person that 'awarded' you...thanks again to Legend's Wife!

2.)Pass the award on to 15 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are awesome! Here's my list and I am cheating a bit ;)

~Caution: Wife and Mom Under Contruction

~Robin's Thinkin' Spot

~Farmgirl Paints

~Homeschooling Hannah

~Jamie's Rose Cottage

3.) Contact the bloggers and let them know they've won!

4.) List 7 things about yourself.

Here goes:

~I'm a mom of three busy, cute, charming, sometimes challenging bebes.

~Growing up I never thought I wanted to be a mom, but God proved me wrong!

~I love the change of seasons where I live...we get beautiful seasons here in SD, but right now I'm anxious for Spring!

~I love old things...and I'm really anxious for antiquing season to start again!

~I love to learn about anything...especially God's word, history, gardening, and homeschooling to name a few. And to learn things, I read LOTS of books...I love them. (I also love the way they smell.)

~I'm a planner...I plan everything! Everything from meals to birthday parties to curriculum I'll use five years from now. So, naturally I also LOVE lists!

~I love a good massage! Sometimes a mama needs a break!! :)

Magnet Time

We're still keepin' on with our energy study for physical science and this past two weeks, we've been looking at magnets. We do science about once or twice a week, so I try to get at much packed in as I can! We did lots of short experiments with our Usborne Science Activities book.

This picture shows Noah with the 'substitute teacher' for the day...also known as Uncle Jesse. Here they are 'flying' a construction paper heart with paper clip on it using a magnet to hold it up in the air. We also experimented with magnets, seeing where they stuck; learned about the earths poles using opposing ends of magnets; and tested the strength of different magnets.

This week, we'll starting the last part of our study: LIGHT!

Heart Art Valentines

After our incredibly fun Salad Spinner Turkeys, I wanted to badly to try it again!!
So, we recreated it for Valentine's Day. It's quite similar to the turkeys, just a paper plate in the ol' salad spinner, squirt on some holiday appropriate colors (red and pink in this case), and spin away!

This a great project that even a two-year-old can do without help. Here's what our plates looked like.

We cut the plates into heart-shapes and added some lovey-dovey messages.

Voila! Instant Valentine-y wall art!!

Valentine Art

Last week for art we made a super-sweet keepsake for Valentine's day.

Using an air-clay, all three of the kiddos shaped themselves a heart-shaped bowl. (I had to help Sophie a bit.)
After a couple days when they were dry, they painted them, using pretty Valentine colors.

The two on the left are Jack's, the one in the middle is Sophia's, and the one on the right is Noah's. Noah used some extra clay to make the little flat hearts that we glued magnets to.
Here's the finished hearts with a little Valentine treat!

oxoxo!

{linking up with Tatertots and Jello}

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Last week, we covered another Eric Carle story: The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
For a snack, we enjoyed some yummy fruit that 'something' chewed through :)


Here's some of the activities Jack made for his lapbook:
(We found these over at Tot School)
Food booklet

Sequencing activities

Nature Study this Week

This is what we did for 'nature study' this week. The snow was perfect for packing into a lovely snowman!
Seriously, this was part of school today. Is homeschooling not the best?!!?

Have You Ever Played With Oobleck?

Here's some good fun for your kids to help you get through these long winter days:

I've been making Oobleck for my kids since Noah was 2 and it has been a HIT at our house! I made it again the other day and I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I don't remember where I got it...Family Fun maybe? But it's really easy....

1 1/2 c. cornstarch

1c. water.

Mix.

If it's too wet or too dry, just add the other ingredient till you get it right.

The fun thing about Oobleck is that it appears wet, but when you pick it up, it looks like a solid, then like a liquid again. My kids like to pour it onto a cookie sheet and play in it.

Have an ooo-y gooo-y good time!!

Pieter Bruegel

In January, we studied Pieter Bruegel for artist study because we're also looking at snow and ice for nature study and he has a lot of landscape paintings that involve snow. The painting above is called 'Hunters in the Snow.'

So to round out our artist study, I asked the boys to create their own landscape painting including snow. Here's what they did....
Jack: He didn't really want to paint a snow painting because we wanted to draw a Star Wars painting with Light Sabors all over. Whatever, he did do a painting, right?? And he's 4.

Noah: He listened a little bit better to direction...he painted himself in a forest with snow coming down. The snowflakes are hard to see in this photo, but he did a light blue sky with little flecks of snow. :)