birthday

Disclaimer: I know I probably post way too many family event pictures for a public blog about homeschooling. I'm doing it again today. Sorry. Non-family members are welcome to bow out now with no hard feelings :).

There is a time and season for the Chuck E. Cheese's Birthday Party or the Pool Birthday Party, but I have to admit that my favorite kind of parties are of the quiet, stay-at-home, family type. That's what we did for Lil' Diva's 4th birthday this year. Not a lot of hype, but I think (hope) she still had fun.

She started the day with the stashing of birthday card money (thank you, sweet and wonderful grandparents!).

she opened one present in the morning, some paints and bubbles, which provided entertainment for a good part of the day

and we made birthday crowns

and birthday cake

I usually get off pretty easy in that department, as my kids, for some unexplainable reason, are not big frosting eaters, so the fancy themed bakery birthday cakes usually go mostly uneaten in this house. So usually I can get away with a simple, frosting-less pound cake with some homemade decorations on top. They don't make for very pretty pictures, but the money we save is a birthday present for all of us (especially my very frugal hubby).

Lil' Diva declared she could read, now that she is 4, and proudly "read" her birthday cards over and over.

And she loved all the birthday phone calls she got that day. ( Tho' by the end of the day she mentioned it was a lot of work being 4, having to talk on the phone so much).

That evening we shared a birthday party with grandma...

and of course, Lil' Diva had a wonderful time OPENING PRESENTS

and being the Little Diva that she is, CLOTHES were her very favorite gifts

I've shared this before, but another way I like to save a few birthday pennies is to make decorations with a printer and laminator. Seems like you can find clip art online for just about any theme. This birthday it was all about Littlest Pet Shops.

So that was her day. Thanks for staying with me. :)

How?

So I'm pretty sure this picture was taken yesterday


So HOW did my baby wake up this morning as a FOUR year old?

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! We love you!

Checking In

Between being indoor-bound by icky winter weather and a few of us still being in the final stages of virus recovery, not much has been going on around here to write about lately. But wanted to post a few random pictures to let you know we are still alive here in bloggyland.

Being stuck inside together HAS brought us closer together, with more time for snuggling

and creating


and there's been more time for teasing daddy

and the cat


we've spent so much time indoors that even the Littlest Pet Shops and the Bakugan are forced to get along

the truth is, I think we are starting to get a little CABIN FEVER

but we did have fun celebrating daddy's birthday this week (happy birthday, hunny!)

I admit it's been a struggle for me to fight off the January blahs this year (anyone else going through that?). But we just got some great news that Lil' Diva won't have to have the surgery for a hole in her eardrum we thought she was going to have to have, and we have some fun and busy-ness coming up soon, like Lil' Diva's FOURTH birthday (oh my), and a new baby in the family (my sister is due any day now (squeal!)), and BeachPea's first out-of-gym gymnastics competition, AND the first shoots of the buttercups are beginning to peek out of the ground in our pasture, so things are looking up. Hanging on until then...

Weekly Wrap up: Infirmary Edition

For all six of us, this was a week of fevers, coughs, stomach aches, headaches, body aches, stuffy heads, and ear infections.

But, it was also a week of...

Snuggling

pajama-wearing (all day long)

cat entertaining (we were bored)

game playing

play-doh creating

art making

read-aloud reading

many, many, many rounds of Skip-bo and Yahtzee (or "math practice"- ing)

and LOTS of computer fun

in other words, lots of "unschooling" going on this week. :)

Tho' I am soooo ready for this virus to go ahead and head on out, it was really fun taking a few sick days, putting away the teacher hat, and just getting to hang out with my kids and be a MOM. One of the things we all had fun together with was playing on some of those time-wasting, but totally addicting animal games on facebook. Petville was our favorite. Tho' I consider those games to be mostly entertainment, I think Cara (my amazing cuz) was right over at Sunshine Schooling when she said that there IS some learning to be got' from them - like, the value of money and the importance of working hard to save for what you really want, art and interior decorating skills, responsibility, and the value of helping others (you can clean your friends' houses and send them gifts). But then, I guess there is learning to be got from just about anything if you look hard enough (or are too tired to pull out the textbooks).

Still, looking forward to a healthier week next week (thank you, God!) and getting back on top of things again. But for now, maybe just one more nap...

Temporarily Out of Order

Be back soon.