Monday, September 2nd

Even though it was Labor Day and a school holiday for most, I decided we would go ahead and mostly have a regular school day as we have two outings planned for the week; and also to give Jim a little downtime to relax.  We began our Science (Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy) and History (Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times) and Spelling, while also having a casual SQUILT lesson during lunch.  In the afternoon, Jim and I were able to go see a movie and get back home in time to grill out and have a bit of family time before bed.  A good day!

Both of the girls are great big sisters to Waverly, pay her plenty of attention and so forth.  But today, Scarlett was especially interested to hold, play with, change and otherwise tend to the baby.  She will make a terrific babysitter one day! 

For our first history lesson, the kids learned about what History IS, and how historians can learn about people who lived a long, long time ago.  We read from our text, had a related storybook, and then the kids were given a project.  They were each to play the role of a historian within our own family tree and were assigned a family member to interview.  Lincoln's subject was Jim - of course I had to help him read the question and I wrote down his answers.  I love that he wants to be involved!

Victoria's subject was Grammie.

And Scarlett had Nana :-)

Scarlett's finished project.

Victoria's finished project.

Scarlett finished up before Victoria and snagged Waverly for some baby-talking time.

I love how Waverly is smiling up to Scarlett, who was saying, "Mirror, mirror on the wall - who's the smartest baby of all??" and Waverly would coo and gurgle in response :-)

Next, Lincoln worked on a name-trace worksheet.

And the girls worked on their spelling list for the week.

Lincoln chose not to do Science with us, so it was just the girls and I sitting on the sofa while I read three pages out of the textbook.  This is stretching them a bit - these are three loooong pages, so I am trying to make sure we take frequent breaks from reading where they can ask me any questions, or comment, and mostly narrate back to me in their own words what is being discussed.  However, we made it through and all agreed the material was super interesting, before the girls headed to the table to work in their Junior Astronomer Notebooks.

They also have a little blank paper booklet where they can write down one thing from the lesson that they found interesting - Scarlett chose to write "Stonehenge helped people know what season it was" and Victoria wrote "Birds use the stars [to migrate]."

While the girls were working in their Science journals, Lincoln and Waverly were downstairs with Grammie watching a Curious George.  I was so proud of Gram, as she actually took this picture AND sent it to me! :-)

At this point, it was 12:30 and time for lunch!  We took a break and while the kiddos ate, we had a very casual SQUILT lesson.  I discussed who Pachelbel wrote Canon in D for, briefly reviewed some of our music terminology and explained how many people have copied this very popular piece of music ("Pachelbel Flattery").  Then we listened to the full song again before I played a few other songs as instances of Pachelbel Flattery - one of the more famous one being The Beatles' "Let It Be."  

After lunch I had the kids bring up the blocks from the Family Room and work on making mini-Stonehenges.  Victoria's finished product~  I love how she didn't add the horizontal elements, but did add the inner cluster.

Lincoln joined in the building, but not of Stonehenge :-) 

Scarlett's finished product~

By the end of the night, the kids were all worn out from their school work and lots of playing while Jim and I were at the movies.  Waverly tried to stay up late, but she just couldn't withstand the trickery of Daddy rocking her to sleep in his office chair as he played on the computer ;-)

Sunday, September 1st

I had discussed with Jim my need for a couple of extra hours this weekend to prep for our school week.  We would be launching into Science and the remainder of our History curriculum, and I wanted to take the time to print out everything we'd need, review the material, and just make sure I felt ready.  So to facilitate me getting the time I needed, Jim took the three big kids hiking and Nana kindly played with Waverly!  It was so nice to feel as though I was super prepared - thanks guys!!

It was Jim's morning to sleep in, and so I the kids up to paint for a while in an effort to keep the noise level down to a dull roar ;-)

Jim took the crew to Kennesaw Mountain to hike - one of their favorites!

On this particular outing, they took the bus to the top so that they could hike downhill.

They had lots of stories to tell me about meeting a "real soldier" who "wasn't a real soldier from THAT war [Civil], but acted like it and was FOR REAL in another war [Vietnam]."

Such good hikers!

Not always a good plan ;-)

Taking a moment to enjoy the view~

Lincoln enjoyed that on the trail all of the other walkers/hikers referred to him as Captain America when they saw him :-)

Love them!

Saturday, August 31st - Nana's Birthday!

Saturday was a very laid back day, and I actually didn't take very many pictures at all!  Jim and I went out with Scarlett, Lincoln and Waverly to do a little bit of shopping, while Victoria chose to stay home with Nana and relax.  In the evening, we grilled out and had steaks for dinner in celebration of the anniversary of Nana turning 21! ;-)

Scarlett: Day 2 of her Rainbow Dash shirt :-)

Posing next to a Rainbow Dash sign, lol

Lincoln secured another (cheapo) Captain America shield since his mysteriously went missing (I'm pretty sure it lives over the fence in the woods behind our house now).

After a quick lunch out, we returned home and the kids took a nap before hanging out with Daddy a bit for the Notre Dame football game.  They all had on their Irish garb, and they thought it would be hilarious for the enormous bears to have jerseys, too!  Jim humored them by pulling out a couple of his old Bulls jerseys and (literally) wrestling them onto the bears :-)  Oh, the things parents do for their kids! haha

Friday, August 30th

We had been planning to attend an afternoon of kickball fun with our SASCH group, however the day had promised to be sticky-hot in the afternoon and the kids were worn out from our full (and napless) Thursday.  Instead, I opted to skip the group activity and keep our light-schoolwork-day agenda.  It ended up being just what the kids needed - they had lots of down time, playing time and seemed to enjoy the schoolwork we did as we began a new facet of our fall curriculum.  For the late afternoon, Jim and I split up - he took Lincoln out for a daddy-date, while Gram, the girls, and I headed to the mall... to get Waverly's ears pierced!! 

Just after breakfast, I laid Waverly down in the living room for a bit of blanket time.  Lincoln laid down across from her and encouraged her along - he is anxious for her to crawl! (oh, if only he knew...)

Jim has been doing such a great job of working out every morning.  Before he leaves for the gym, he sometimes will take 5 or 10 minutes and "work out" with the kids - getting them to practice their karate moves, doing push ups, and lifting weights :-)  Lincoln is pretty sure he is awesomely strong.

We had our first SQUILT lesson.  SQUILT stands for Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time, and will be used to introduce several musical concepts to the kids (dynamics, tempo, rhythm, etc.) while also helping them become familiar with several famous composers. 

We're beginning with the Baroque Era (the kids enjoyed learning the origin of "Baroque" as being bizarre, weird and different), and our first composer is Johann Pachelbel.

I spent quite a bit of time discussing terms and we would clap or snap different tempos and different dynamics.  Lincoln's favorite part was undoubtedly being able to shout "LOUD" and then whisper "soft," haha. We also watched a few clips of Mr. Gregg on Youtube, before quieting down and listening to two different versions of Pachelbel's Canon in D.

While they listened, they drew on their "Draw What You Hear" worksheets.  This is Scarlett's - she wrote (on the bottom) "I feel good" and "was slow, lawd [loud]."

The front of Lincoln's...

...and the back. I asked him why he drew what he did, and he got really defensive and replied, "Well, you SAID it was Canon in D!" Oh my goodness - what am I going to do with this kid?? I died laughing!  He painstakingly worked on drawing all of those D's so nicely!

Victoria's drawing.

Grammie graciously offered to take the kids out front to play for a while, and Scarlett took Salty out on the leash to get some good exercise.

Chalk time!

Victoria has a mild obsession with lady bugs :-)  She had Grammie and Lincoln digging through the fern leaves to find them for her so she could collect them in her cup.

Grammie and Waverly at the mall, ready to do the deed!

Gram was such a trooper - at first I asked her to be the one to hold Waverly so that I could take pictures.  Once we got there though, I was so relieved she was going to hold her for other reasons - namely, I'm not sure I could have gone through with it!!  But she was calm and cool under pressure :-)  The girls, casually sipping their Starbucks in the background, were anxious for Waverly, too!

Getting the dots drawn on her ears...

...and all done!  Such a good, sweet baby girl!  She cried for just a minute and was totally over it. They look so pretty :-)

One other reason we went to the mall was to try on several different types of clothes.  Before I start purchasing any fall pants, tops, etc., I wanted to get a feel for what sizes I would need to be hunting.  The girls did such a great job and tried on loads of things without complaint!  I decided I would let them each pick out *one* clothing item from the clearance area at Macy's - Victoria chose this dress ($4!) and Scarlett was ecstatic to choose a Rainbow Dash shirt ($7, from one of her favorite shows, My Little Pony).  Of course they had to have the tags off and wear the clothes out of the fitting room ;-)  Then Grammie bought each girl a new boo.  We had fun watching them spaz out over which one to select (and for Lincoln, too), and the clerk at the store was chuckling at them as well :-)

We grabbed dinner at the food court, and little miss fell fast asleep - it was an eventful afternoon for her!

Meanwhile, Jim and Lincoln were at Mountasia, zipping around the go-kart track!  Jim had a groupon for unlimited go-kart runs that expired soon, so he was happy to take Linc with him to enjoy the fun.  Jim said Linc really enjoyed it...for about four turns - then he was done :-p

Now miniature golf?  Definitely more his speed!

At home later that evening, everyone was tired and worn out but happy to be back together.  Lincoln proudly showed off the new, just-his-size baseball glove that Daddy had picked out for him after their Mountasia fun.  He loves it!