Creative Play

One of the many benefits to homeschooling is flexibility in our schedule. While we definitely have a "flow" to our day, we are not limited by the clock. This allows us to approach our time together unrushed and more peacefully, something I feel is very lacking in today's modern society. But this also means there is a lot of time to do "nothing". Over the last several years (I think it has been 3 since we went tv free for the kids), I have been able to witness my children's creative play blossom! This growth was especially noticeable in Blake. Whereas before, his play was limited and very closely tied to media images and story lines, he has since been able to freely imagine anything! It has been such a pleasure to watch him grow and expand in this way. And as the boys are getting older and stepping away from this imaginary playland a little more, I try to take notice and soak it up whenever I can.

a common scene, creating their own books
all four of them have very seperate ideas going on yet they are creating together

Parker is putting on a puppet play involving a lush meadow, flowing river and several gnomes

in the end, he lifted the green silk and unveiled a world full of precious gems

this particular morning, I was a customer at a very tasty (and local) restaurant. Parker loves to use the shoe bench as a stove/oven

Jacob was also the owner and chef of a restaurant

my very tasty fruit soup. While we have play food that they could use, they were able to create using cut up paper.

I am so grateful to be able to provide my children with time to just play! Not only are they creating memories, but they are also learning so much.

Patterson Farm Field Trip

No spring is complete without a trip to the farm! Yesterday, we ventured out to Patterson Farm with some of our homeschooling friends. It was such a wonderful day and we practically had the whole farm to ourselves. We started the day off with a quick video about the farm and then headed over to plant seeds for our pizza garden. Each child got to plant tomato, pepper and onions seeds to take home (yippee!). After planting, we went on a wagon ride around the farm and then headed into the barn to visit with the animals. The kids especially loved this as there were many baby animals! We picniced in their play area and hung out there for quite a while before topping off the day with ice cream and fresh strawberries. All in all, it was a fantastic day and the kids are already asking when we can go back (their u-pick for strawberries opens next week, so I am thinking soon!).

listening to the planting instructions
diggin in the dirt

on the wagon ride

feeding the goats

oh my, I fell in love with this baby goat!

cute little pigs

MaKenna loved this bunny!

more babies!

a few of the peacocks. One of the workers went into the pen and gave the kids each a peacock feather!

driving the tractor at the playground

the kids discovered a little creek near the play area and spent a good amount of time playing in it. They even built a fairy house out of mud. I think this was Parker's favorite thing as he was talking about it all night.

cutie patooties

a great ending to a great day- ice cream!

After the we left farm, we headed over to a friend's house for a quick visit with their baby ducklings. The kids LOVED them (and I am thinking ducks will be in our future, if we ever live near a pond!). MaKenna wasn't too sure about touching them at first, but after a few minutes she was brave enough to pet them. I think she had sooo much fun seeing all the animals she usually reads about everyday.

Kite Weather

High on the hilltop I fly my new kite;

Springtime is kite-time and full of delight;

Kite on the wing, I hold the string;

Pull away, tug away, kite in the sky.

A. Carpenter

Springtime means kite time! Last week the winds were gusty enough to use the kites for the first time this year. Our neighborhood has a lot of trees in it which blocked some of the wind, but the kids were able to get the kite up and keep it up by running up and down the street. I wasn't able to get a picture of the kite way up in the sky, but they did a good job getting it to fly. MaKenna had no idea why we were running up and down the street, but she thought it looked like good fun, so she did too (cutie). I am hoping the next kite-weather day we can go to an open field and really let them fly! There is just something magical about flying kites.

Bits of Spring

even doggies like to smell tulips

our dogwood in bloom new finds in the warm clothes box

lizard taming

and bonding

azalea bouquets at the dinner table

children's garden

more tulip smelling

and spying new friends (do you see the skink?)

Spring has been oh so good to us so far! We have been enjoying spotting mother nature around our house and new finds appear almost daily. This has been our first house we have lived in since having the kids where there are flowers to pick in the yard, snakes and lizards hiding in the tall grasses and lots and lots of trees! Last weekend we spent a good portion of our time just hanging out in the yard. MaKenna always goes to the tulip "patch" to sniff the flowers and then she proceeds to find dandelions or other "weeds" to pick. One day she was carrying two sweet gumballs in her hand and then she quickly dropped them and ran over to a small violet patch we discovered a few days before. She proceeded to pick three violets and gave them to me! I have memories of picking my neighbors flowers when I was young to give to my mom and I have a feeling she will be the same! The boys will pick flowers for me every once in a while, but they are definitely more interested in lizard and snake wrangling. MaKenna and I discovered the anole and the skink on the side of the house and I called the boys to come take a look. Jacob caught the anole and then he told me he was going to put it to sleep and began to stroke it. To my surprise, that lizard was as still as still could be! He was pretty proud of himself. We were lucky enough to witness his color change as well...he went from brown to green within a few minutes. I can't tell you how happy I am that my children share my love for the simple things!

Welcome Lady Spring!

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to welcome Lady Spring's arrival by celebrating with friends! After what seemed like an eternal winter, it was wonderful to officially say goodbye winter, hello spring! Friday we ventured over to our good friends house to dye some spring eggs. The older boys lost interest pretty quickly (are they really getting to be that age already???), but the younger guys loved every minute of it. The biggest challenge was keeping the two little girls from trying to eat the already dyed eggs!

picking their eggs
the dyeing assembly line

what will it look like?

Half of the final results! The eggs turned out beautifully!

On Saturday, we hosted our potluck Spring celebration. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and it was such a great night! After eating together, I did a small puppet show for the kids while the daddies hid all the eggs. Then it was time to find them! We ended the evening by roasting marshmallows by the fire. We all had so much fun and it was a great way to start Spring.

grown up talk (with no kids!)

waiting to hunt for eggs

the kids did a great job and were able to find all but 1 egg!

marshmallow roasting time

enjoying the fire

I love Lilah's face (I have no idea what she was telling Jacob though)

We have been enjoying the warmer weather and spotting the changes in our neighborhood on our morning walks. There is always a bit of excitement for the kids around the change of seasons. Our spring is already setting up to be busy with camping trips, planting our first garden (however small it may have to be!), birdhouse building and nest watching, hikes and playing in the creek once again, more spring celebrations, visits to farms, birthdays and visits with family!

Blue and Gold Banquet

Last Saturday, we attended the Blue and Gold Banquet for cub scouts. At the banquet, Blake received his Bear badge and Jacob received his Tiger badge. Both boys also earned various belt loops, bead and pins. We were all very proud of their hard work! Grandma and Poppa were able to come up and attend the ceremony with us.

Jacob is extremely excited about now being a Wolf scout and would do all the achievements now if we let him. I told him he needed to pace himself or he would have it all done before summer!

Nine years around the sun (eeek!)

How is that I am already the mother of a 9 year old!!! We spent a long weekend celebrating the life of Blake and what a wonderful (and busy) time it was! Grandma and Papa came up for the weekend to join us in our celebration and then Monday was a party with friends. Blake declared this birthday the best one ever (yea!). I get a little teary eyed thinking about my first born growing up so quickly. It seems that all too soon, he will be making a life of his own out in the world. I am just not ready for that!

the birthday table
checking out some gifts with daddy (specifically, an ipod!)

Papa helping him with his leather pocket knife case

Elizabeth's new clothes- mama knitted her a new sweater and made her a new dress, my first attempt at sewing clothing

silly boys at dinner

the birthday boy!

making a wish

present time- his friends were so thoughtful and gifted Blake with wonderful gifts

I can't even begin to articulate how proud I am to be his mother. Nine years ago, he changed my life forever and helped me to find my place in this world. I was young and had NO idea what I was doing, but he made mothering easy. My sweet, loving, kind, generous, helpful, funny, smart, athletic, goofy son, I love you so, so much!