This 4 year old boy...

...is the coolest kid.

Happy 4th Birthday Aaron!

He chose to have a pirate party, and I chose to have it at McDonald's because I didn't want to prepare or clean my house afterward :-). 

It was soooooo nice.

He was so happy on his Birthday:

These pictures are going to be way out of order, but that's okay.
Eating ice cream and cake always requires full concentration.

The whole party room that we had to ourselves, and the manager that helped with the party was so nice.

The cheesy Ronald McDonald cake.
They wouldn't let me bring my own cake in, oh well, he still loved it.

This present was from his Friends, and he loves it.

I love how a lot of his presents this year really reflects his maturity.
He really needed some "older" toys.

Hanging out on the playground.

Our cute little friend Hudson.
He saw me with the camera and kept saying "cheese, cheese, cheese" until I took his picture.
His Mom says "why can't he do that for me?

Aaron's friend Hailey.
I like this picture.

And, look, our McDonald's even comes equipped with a little kid jail!

Enjoying some health food.

Aaron and his friend, looks like we have some "treasure" negotiations going on here.
It is a pirate party after all.

We had the classic high chair races, of course!

I can't say that these look "cute", but they were fun all lined up here.

The table centerpiece, very festive.

All in all, the McDonald's party turned out pretty good.  I really enjoyed not having to plan a lot and clean up a lot.  Aaron had a blast. I cannot believe he's 4 now.  Here are some facts about Aaron:

1. He's going to preschool next fall, and he's very excited!
2. He only weighs 10 lbs less than his 8 year old sister.
3. He loves to play outside.
4. He loves to ride his bike which has NO training wheels.
5. He loves to swim and says that he wants to be on the swim team already.
6. He has a sweetness about him that just catches everybody's heart, especially mine.

Love this boy!

Wings of Wonder***field trip

Exotic butterflies.  Here?  Really?  In Oregon?   Yes!!!

This had to be the best field trip this year.  I don't think my kids will forget it anytime soon.  They just kept repeating over and over again "this is so awesome!"  


Imagine a room that is warm quite like the tropics would be with lots and lots of greenery, sounds of birds and soft music, moist air, and butterflies fluttering about to and fro (sometimes right across or behind you).  That was part of this field trip.  It was so beautiful, and quite an experience.  I've never walked with the butterflies before.

There were so many beautiful colors and sizes, it was amazing.  And, when you left the room you had to make sure that no butterflies decided to hitch a ride out on your back. 

It's amazing how close we could get to some of the butterflies.  These creatures are so beautiful, and we learned on this field trip how important they are, I never realized just how much they are needed.

My boys were equally impressed with the whole thing, but they really liked the snake room with the 10 and 11 foot snakes.  We had to go in there twice.  I didn't get a picture.

Remember when I said there were sounds of birds as we walked through the rooms, here are two little birds that were just in the middle of the walkway.  By the way, April took most of these pictures. 

In addition to the room of butterflies, there was a huge garden area outside, a lab where the butterflies are bred (which we were able to go into and see through the windows), and a store with butterfly souvenirs.  There were even cups with catterpillars to buy and take home to watch them grow into real butterflies.  Guess what we came home with?  A cup of catterpillars, a necklace with a beetle in it, and a silk scarf with a pretty butterfly pattern on it.  Not too bad.

Heads in a caterpillar, too cute!  Too bad Mr. Aric didn't quite get it. 

All of the planters in the garden were shaped like butterflies.  This picture is neat because it almost looks like April has huge butterfly wings.

April took some great pictures of the flowers in the garden.  The scenery on the whole trip was just beautiful.  Even the drive, because it was all back country roads.  We passed a lot of rolling green hills, and rivers, and farms.  Just so pretty.

Miss April exploring the gardens.  Who would've known that we had a butterfly farm so close to us!

Mr. Aaron exploring the gardens.  He just couldn't wait to get back into the store to buy that beetle necklace that he saw when we first arrived.  Funny thing is that necklace has disappeared since we've been home, so I can't take a picture.

I love discovering places like this.  It was a great day, and a great learning experience.  It is open to the public for non-field trips.  We may go back sometime just to see it all again.  We ended up not spending a real long time in the butterfly room because it was so warm, and the boys were done after only about 2 rounds.  I'd love to go in that room again and spend some more time. 

LDS homeschool web wednesday guest post

 I had the opportunity to write a guest post for the LDS Homeschooling blog.  They have what is called a web Wednesday feature that has links of interesting things and activities for homeschool or for anyone who wants some interesting things to do with their kids.  The post below is what I came up with, a random compilation of lots of new and old resources that I have discovered.  It was really fun to be a guest writer!

Preschool ABC's:

I have a preschooler and a toddler so I like to find a lot of fun and free curriculum that is useful. For ABC activities I go to these two blogs the most for resources: The first is Confessions of a Homeschooler, she has printables for almost every letter and with a theme! The second is No time for flashcards, she has simple step by step instructions for the letter of the week activities that she does with her preschooler.

Science and educational fun:

My 3^rd grader really likes to watch the free movies at Brainpop and Brainpop Jr. They also have games and activities go go along with the movies, and includes a wide variety of subjects. Only some of the movies are free though, so you have to check back frequently to see the free movie of the week. Another favorite of ours for more science fun is a blog called Think! There are weekly challenges to create something from certain items, which my 3^rd grader just loves!

Gardening fun:

Since a lot of homeschooling families are out in the garden right now, I thought some garden ideas would be fun. TLC had a cute garden idea to make a family flag garden bed, along with some other fun gardening ideas to get help get the kids involved and excited about gardening. Family fun also has a page 10 ways to make gardening fun, some more involved ideas for getting kids involved in gardening. Plus some garden and nature crafts to do.

Memorial day crafts:

Enchanted learning has some free crafts for Memorial day. There are some great worksheets too, but those require membership (which is very worth it if you do decide to consider becoming a member, lots and lots of printables).

Bird crafts:

My 3^rd grade girl has been really interested in birds since she read the book Lanie. She is excited to learn more and really be able to identify them. Here are some bird crafts from Danielle's place

Perfect for these late spring/early summer days. Most are free, and there are some other great ideas for other crafts and lessons.

Workbox or extra activity idea

If you are a family that uses workboxes, here is a great workbox activity from a blog called “what's in the box”using oreo cookies to learn about moon phases. If you are unfamiliar with workboxes, they are basically boxes filled with schoolwork and activities that the child works through during the school day. Homeschool creations has a great post and free printables if you'd like to see what they are all about. Putting in fun little activities during your school day like this oreo one breaks up the school work so your home schooler gets excited about what's in the next box (or what's next if you don't workbox).

What we've been up to...

We have been enjoying the nice weather, and going to and fro.  We are on break right now from school, and I'm starting to get things set up again so we can re-start soon.  Anyway, here is a little bit of what we have been up to.

We love to go to the park, and we love finding a new park even more.  We discovered this park one day that someone suggested we might find cattails at to do a cattail study.  We didn't find any cattails (although they show them on their entrance sign, I thought that was funny) where we looked, but we discovered a fun park that we want to visit again.

It's close to the river, so I let the kids go in "ankle deep".  The puppy (yes, we got a puppy, and his name is Andy) wasn't so sure about the water.  And, of course rocks are required to be thrown by boys.

It was so peaceful...

Finally, a good picture of puppy!

We went to national train day at the Amtrak station last weekend.  The kids got to tour the Talgo Amtrak Cascades passenger train.  We had a fun day as a family and we even rode on the local city "train" called the Max.

I think this appears to be the caboose (I didn't go on the tour with them, I stayed out with the baby). 

Puppy playtime!  This is such a cute picture.  Aric sure does love to play with the puppy.  He also loves to pull on his ears and tail. 

Here is a flower that April made out of some items.  

It's a Think! activity.  The idea is that you have certain items and then are challenged to create something out of those items.  This challenge was to create a plant or flower out of the following items:

3 pipe cleaners
1 paper cup
3 paperclips
3 inches of tape
3 pieces of paper
1 marker
3 objects of your choice

 

I thought she did pretty good.

I think I am completely in love with books now.  I love finding new books, and keep buying them (probably too much).  Here are some great books we found at Goodwill for good prices!  I love to find cheap good books too!

We loved the book Everybody needs a rock by this same author, so I was glad to find another title by Byrd Baylor.  I haven't read it all the way through yet, so we'll see.

Here are the rest of the books.  This doesn't even include all the ones that April already whisked away to her room to read.

Another note on books.  We also went to the library today and discovered these my first little house on the prairie books.  They are so nicely illustrated, and a much shorter version of the books (which I love too).  April loved finding these!  I think I may start collecting them.

What I love...

 What I love about homeschooling...I guess this is sort of my list of pros and cons of homeschooling.  There are so many reasons it's wonderful, and only a few reasons why it's not.  Sometimes it's easy for me to forget that though, and I lose focus of why I am really doing this.  So, here's a list for me to look at when I forget and am ready to send the kids back to school (because there are days that I really want to).  I may just keep adding to this list over time too.

What I love...

The boys watering the garden together

• I love this blog called Latter-day homeschooling!  There are some really great ideas, and it's very inspiring.  
• I love these Download 'n go unit studies from This old schoolhouse.
• I love nature study, and that April has been totally inspired by Lanie to start really noticing the nature she sees everyday.  She even got a new "field notes" book (nature journal), and put stickers of birds on the inside cover with names of each bird.
• I love building our library of books.  Since I've started homeschooling I'm always on the prowl for good books and making our supply at home bigger.  It is fun, and has made me and my children realize just how much we really love books.
• I love lapbooking.  This is a way of learning that my children really love.  Miss April loves to go back and read her lapbooks and it's a great way to preserve work.
• I love that I'm inspired to do more great things with my kids.
• I love homeschool blogs, and even non-homeschool blogs they really keep me going some days.  I see what others are doing and it all doesn't seem so hard any more.  Just pick something to learn about and go with it.
• I love taking pictures of all the fun things my kids do in our homeschool.  Once in a while we will start an activity and I won't have the camera, Miss April will say "where's the camera, aren't you going to take a picture?  Isn't that your favorite part of school?"  "Why, yes, it is!  (at least one part)
• I love workboxes...although we have stopped using them for a time, I hope to get back to them soon.  
• I love all that I've learned while homeschooling both educationally and how to be a better Mother and teacher.  There are a lot of things that I'm learning right along side my kiddos.  I love it. 
• I love that I get to spend all day with my kids.  It really is a treat though sometimes very hard.
• I love that my kids can take time to eat their lunch and have some good conversation with them.
• I love that we can learn pretty much whatever the kids want to study.  They often find something interesting and ask "mom can we learn about this?"  I always jump on that and try my best to start in some way learning about it.

What I don't love about homeschooling...

• I don't love that there aren't more opportunities for co-ops and clubs close to us.  
• I don't love that sometimes I have SO much to do, it's overwhelming and often homeschool gets pushed aside when things get busy.
• I don't love that it's just me leading the way all day long, often with no breaks.  It's not all bad, but there are points in the day where I am just ready to be done. 
• I don't love that everyone thinks I'm some kind of supermom because I homeschool.  I'm not.
• I don't love the non-existent time I need to get everything done that needs to be done each day.
• I don't love chasing after the materials and supplies I need.  I often find a great activity and there is always something that I don't have whether it be the book, or the materials, or the right place/space.  This would probably be solved with better planning and organization.
• I don't love how unorganized I am.  When it comes to homeschool, I will admit that I don't have every day planned out like I should.

Like I said I'm sure I could keep adding to this list as I remember things I've thought in the past about homeschooling, and come up with new ones.  

Another American Girl book finished!

I finally finished reading Lanie to Miss April tonight at bedtime! She was excited to finally finish it, and it turned out to be a very cute story. I don't know if you remember my post about her Lanie lapbook that she did back in January, but yes it has taken that long to finish (although, she did finish the lapbook way sooner).  Mostly because we hadn't read it for a while.  Here are my thoughts on the book:  It is a great story, and very inspiring to the reader to want to go out and explore nature.  I have to admit that as I started to read it with my daughter I was a little worried that it might take a turn and get a little too "environmentalist" I guess, but it didn't.   Miss April is inspired now to start a "field journal" (as Lanie calls it), and she wants to start the second book now.  We also learned some new things while reading the book, and April definitely wants to sleep under the stars in the backyard like Lanie did.  I also love how Lanie relates to her family in the book, especially to her little sister.

By the way, April is saving all her money for the American Girl store in CA.  We have decided that our family vacation destination will be southern CA this year, and her wish was to go to the American girl store (of course).  She is very excited, and I'm excited for her.  Her dream would be to save up enough money to buy the Lanie camper, it's very cool.  But, she knows that's probably a no go at $295, I think she has decided on something a little more in her price range. 

P.S.  I'm saving my money for the American Girl place too!  I want to get my own doll so I don't keep playing with April's.  She doesn't let me anyway  :-)  Just kidding, although I think if I were to really buy a doll it would be Felicity. I love her time era, and her dresses.

A girls lapbook

Let me just say that Miss April rocked on this lapbook.  First of all she was very excited.  Second, she was organized.  Third, she had me working with her through each little part.  It was sweet!  We had such great conversations about girls and the things that happen to girls.  She asked questions, and we had fun laughing about things.

This lapbook accompanies the American girl library book called "The care and keeping of you: the body book for girls."  Great book, and great place to start when wondering what to talk to your girls about.  We got the lapbook from homeschool share, here.  Wonderful activities, and lots to do!  This was a packed lapbook!  It ended up being 3 folders long.  Here is the first picture before she started, ha, we thought 2 folders would be enough.  Oh, and she designed her cover with a picture of herself.

Now here's where the organization part came in!  I read somewhere that to make a lapbook easier that you should cut all the little books out, do them, and then lay them out in the folder.  I suggested this to Miss April and she was all over that!  She got some gallon ziploc bags for each section, and then some smaller sandwich bags for the subsections.  It was so nice and made things a lot simpler to go through.  I have to tell you I was pretty impressed.

Here she is working on a part of it.  Like I said we worked together on ALL of it.  I promised her that I would read the whole book with her (she had lots of questions), and this was a great way to do so!  I even got out the real stuff (where appropriate) like the deoderant part where it talks about deoderant and what it is, why we use it.  She loved that. 

Finally, here is the completed lapbook.  It turned out neat.

Okay, so, for those of you who do not know what a lapbook is, here you go!  Basically it's a file folder folded so that it has 2 flaps, and you open it up to find a whole bunch of "mini books" that have all kinds of information about a certain topic, or book, or whatever it is that the child is studying.  April loved the cuteness of the girly things on these mini-books.


This book covered everything from head to toe.

She laid everything out very nicely!

I love the name of that one book "the pits".  Can you guess what that one was about?

And, even the personal girl stuff...

We love lapbooking!