Caroline's first Day of school

Caroline had a BIG milestone last month! She started school on August 29,2011. We are doing a homeschool curriculum that is technically an online "public" school. It is called the Ohio Virtual Academy. They use K12 curriculum. We are liking it so far. She is very glad to not have to leave home everyday and we love having her here. Her brothers wouldn't know what to do without her! I am making it work so far with all the other little ones at home. We will see what the future holds as far as homeschooling in the future but for this year it's working for us. Caroline is such a sweet girl. She is pretty quiet and shy around others but will talk your ear off at home. She LOVES Barbies. She likes to set up her little Disney princesses, her littlest pet shops and her Little People princesses. She likes to draw and color is so anxious to read and write. She loves church and is in Sparks in AWANA this year. I love my girl to the moon and back and can't believe she is already in kindergarten. Here is my princess on the first day of school......

To celebrate her big day we all went out for dinner at IHOP

Caroline turns 5

We started 2011 out on a bit of a bad note. Mark and I had been having some issues and were seperated. Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time but was definitely the worst and longest. The good news is that through the grace of God we are doing much better and back together today (October).We had been staying with Mom for a while so we spent the kids’ birthdays at Mama Lisa’s. I got balloons and donuts for Caroline to wake up to. She wanted  a Rapunzel cake and so that’s what we got. She loved it! We went to Toy Story 3 on Ice on Grayson’s birthday for both of them.

Craft Day

When I was a kid my Mom and my Aunt Melanie (Mooie) would have my sister and I and all my cousins make cookies and crafts together. We all loved it. Now that we are on the next generation my Mom is continuing the tradition. Last year she had the kids as well as their cousins from West Union and some friends come over to make crafts. We did it again this year the Sat. after Thanksgiving. The kids had lots of fun and I thought I would share a few of the crafts…..

First, we made little snowman ornaments. I made these one time for gifts when I was in high school.

You need: small wooden spools, small woooden round balls or “heads”, black plastic top hats, snow-tex paint, scraps of cloth for the scarves.

Use hot glue to glue the “body and head” together.

Paint with Snow-Tex and let dry.

Hot glue the hat on.

Use a sharpie to draw on the eyes, mouth and buttons and an orange one to do the nose. You can use cream blush or lipstick or a pink marker to smudge on the rosy cheeks. Tie string around his neck for the hanger and then cover with a small strip of cloth for the scarf. Stay tuned for some more pictures from our craft day tomorrow!

I'm Back!

I haven't posted in over a month! My Grandmother passed away at the end of October and I was in Delaware for about 10 days. We have just been busy and I haven't been on much. I have been behind in even reading the blogs I follow! I am ready to get back to posting and reading. I am in the Christmas mood early this year! We already have our trees up. I have lots of cleaning up to do today after the busy Thanksgiving weekend!
We went to Mom's house for Thanksgiving and the kids and I stayed the night down there. Mom and I got up at 3:45 and went shopping. I pretty much finished all my shopping!! It wore me out though, I have been trying to catch up all weekend! We had "craft day" at Mom's on Saturday. I took pics for some mini tutorials of the crafts we did. I will try and get them up this week. Here are a few pics of the last few weeks. Stay tuned for more posts to come :)

Cutie boy and Candy Apples...

Cutie Boy

AND Candy Apples

Putting sprinkles on…

Daddy is stirring the caramel…..

YUMMY…Cavities!!

A Few more pictures from vacation

My sister Heather got married while we were in Delaware. These are a few pictures from the wedding. My mom made the kids’ outfits. They were adorable!

These kids LOVE coffee. If they can get it they will drink it up! No sugar either….just cream and coffee like their Mommy and Mamaw!

Aww, sibling love!

This was taken the day we got back from the “cowboy show” Grayson and daddy were getting the bad guys!

I think we should be in the covered buggy with this many kids!

I can’t believe it but my next post is #100!!! Guess I should do something special and fun…..wonder what I could do, I’ll have to think about it….see you for post #100!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

We visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum in June. We had a lot of fun. There was lots to do and play with for the kids. We ended up not getting there until almost 1 and didn't have time to see everything so we will have to go back...darn :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sweet Boy

My boy is growing so big so fast! He is really smiling and "talking" a lot. He is already getting a tooth!! He has been really fussy for the past few days. He has had a cold and been teething on top of it, poor guy. He really is a sweet boy with lots of big smiles when he isn't crying ;)