Happy Flag day!

I think I'm finally over my Mommy/Homeschool burn-out because I woke up this morning ready to start doing some fun things with the kids again.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until all the ideas started popping into my head early this morning.  Yes, I got a little burned out and overwhelmed and also the pregnancy sickness got the best of me, that's where I've been the past few months.  But, even though we are not exclusively homeschooling anymore, I still want to make an extra effort to keep doing things with them at home. So, since it is flag day today I decided to quickly put together some activities for the boys today (April is off visiting Grandma and Grandpa and having loads of fun).

Here is what we have done for flag day so far:

 

We started in the morning by making red and blue colored rice for a sensory bin, and added the plain white after the colored stuff was dry.  Aric shaking his up.

Aaron shaking his up.

>>>While the rice was drying we went to a fun primary activity at the park and played games with all the children from our church.

Then we came home and mixed up all the rice.

It's been a long time since he's had a sensory bin so he was pretty excited!

While he was playing with his sensory bin, I made him a "red, white, and blue" muffin tin.

From left to right:  Blueberries, strawberries, white star bread, blue cup of lemonade, ham, and vanilla ice cream.  It was all I had on hand.  I've forgotten how fun muffin tins can be.  Like I said we haven't done much around here for a while.

His first bite was the ice cream so I had to tell him to save that one for last.  He did.

Flag day flashback (June 2009)...

These activities are from last year's flag day, but I hope to repeat them again this year.

This one was fun, sorting pompom's in the red white and blue stars.  I may not be able to do this one this year because I can't find red white and blue pompom's.  I thought I'd share it anyway.  I think what we may end up doing this year is using the star cookie cutters to dip in paint to make star shapes.

This one was a real favorite last year.  Making a fireworks picture with sprinkles.  The kids made all kinds of different exploding fireworks.
(Aaron June 2009)

First you draw out with chalk the kind of firework pattern you want, and then you follow the lines with glue and add glitter or sprinkles.
(April June 2009)

One of her finished fireworks.  She was proud of this one because it had a flag in the background.
(April June 2009)

Some other activities I don't have pictured that we did are:

• Driving through the neighborhood and counting flags.  I remember we counted 51 flags just driving through the neighborhoods around us within like 15 minutes.  My then 3 year old quickly learned how to identify the American flag after that. 
• Drawing stars in a circle on the drive way with sidewalk chalk and numbering them.  Then let the kids jump to each star and count the numbers.  I think we did 13 last year for the original 13 stars on the original flag.
• A Family Home evening on the topic of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I've never actually done this family home evening lesson from Chocolate on my cranium, but I have done some of her other family home evenings and my kids love them.

The fun thing is that all of these activities can be used again for 4th of July if you missed flag day.  We are usually camping so we'll do some different things at 4th of July.  I hope to have the kids make t-shirts for 4th of July this year.

One more thing...

I made this calendar from chocolate on my cranium so that we have something exciting and new to do during the summer.  It was really fun to make, and so cute to look at.  The first day was making "stained glass windows" using contact paper and tissue paper sandwiched in between.  I had the kids pick the shape and they chose ice cream cones, so we put them up next to our "cool summer days" calendar.  They turned out very cute I think.

Here is a close up of the daily "cones".  After we finish 30 activities then we'll probably have to refill it, but we may not get through all 30 with so many busy days of summer.  We will mostly do these when we don't have much going on.  We'll see.

Happy summer!

Goin' campin'

Our whole family is excited about this!  We finally found a trailer that we could afford and fit our whole family comfortably. 

Here it is!:

It looks monstrous in our driveway, but is nice and roomy.

We even slept in it in the driveway for a night.  It was so much fun even though we weren't really camping anywhere. 

The kids love the bunk beds:

I love the sink, microwave, stove, and queen bed!

We all love the storage and the space. 

It is quite the rig, and we're very excited to take it out soon!  Happy Summer!

Motherhood

Here we go again!

I've entered another phase of Motherhood.  One I thought I would never even enter.  I am expecting baby #4!  Just when I was comfortable with 3, and just when I thought (I guess it was more of a hope though) I was done after 3.  A whole new set of emotions comes with each new pregnancy, but most of all I'm very happy and blessed to have this new bundle of joy on the way.  

The sickness has definitely settled in, and I just feel drained most of the time.  So, life has been altered here a little bit.  I have decided to send Miss April to school next year.  She is going to go to a charter school which she is very excited for.  I am very excited for her too.  I've also got Aaron signed up for preschool in the fall too.  He is super excited and when we went to look at his new preschool as soon as we walked in he said "mom this is so beautiful!"  It was very cute.  I will say that the pregnancy isn't the only reason these kids are going to school next year.  There are many reasons, just like there were many reasons that I decided to homeschool, but that is a post for another day.  

So for now we are just going to enjoy the summer, and get ready for school in the fall if this rainy icky weather ever goes away!