We Like to Drag Things Out...

Like birthdays. Jack and Chloe have had the privilage of two parties this year. The last one was a good ole fashioned hot dog roast. We gathered up at my mom and dad's place with Leila and her crew, Uncle Jim and my grandmother from Nashville. It was great fun. I think we will make this one of Jack and Chloe's birthday traditions.

The Papa Express...

Have a blessed day!!!

On This Day 4 (and 2) Years Ago...

Well, time flies...whether you have fun or not. But I wouldn't trade the roller coaster of emotions and the memories God has blessed me with when he gave me my children for anything in this world...not even a lifetime supply of Starbucks Frappacinos. Two of my little ones turned another year over yesterday, so I thought I'd share a few pics I have of them spanning their relatively short lives up to this point.

Jackson Cole : May 24th, 2005
Chloe Madeline: May 24th 2007

Happy Birthday Jack and Chloe!

Moments...

It's Just Her Thang!

My oldest daughter just LOVES music. She loves to sing and play my various stringed instruments, but she absolutely has a passion for the piano. She has always been around music, as my family, on both sides love it. She has grown up sitting next to either her Nannie or Aunt Shanna on the piano stool.

About a year ago, my grandmother gave me her piano that her mother, my great-grandmother Louise (who is my namesake, at least as far as my middle name goes) gave her when she was a little girl. It now sits in my living room, covered with dust (yes, there's dust) and old church hymnals that are falling to pieces, pictures of loved ones and various heirlooms. It is a beautiful piano in need of tuning...badly. But, there is something about it, even in it's untuned state that sounds beautiful. I think it's probably the memories. I can remember my own little fingers playing the very keys my grandmother played as a little girl and now, my daughter plays with such passion. The music she creates can actually sound like she knows what she's doing, but most of the time, she gets caught up in singing a hymn we're studying or a song our family sings in church and she just wails on the piano and it's just her and that piano...

Laid Back Learnin'

I made the executive descision a couple months back to take the whole month of December off from school. Now, that's not to say we won't be doing any work, but just that it will be more flyin' by the seat of my skirt kinda learning. Reading lots of great books, doing some crafts and projects, letting the kids guide a little more and , of course, focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. I have been up to my eyeballs in crafting for the holidays. I have so many neat projects I want to do, that I'm making a new list every day. I have finally realized that I need to stop looking, settle down and focus and get to work or I'll never get it all done.
Today, we read "Mirette on the High Wire" and I introduced the kids to their story journals. I saw a similar idea like it on a blog that I can't remember. Instead of elaborate lapbooks, this mother bought some blank scrapbook notebooks and added only a few little mini books or pictures for each story (each book got it's own page). I really liked this idea, cause , although I love to do lapbooks, until my children can be more involved in the making part, it's too overwhelming and not as much fun as it ought to be. Well, then my sister , oh wise mamma as she is, suggested doing pockets instead. So....here's the collaboration of the two ideas. Just a regular cheap composition book with some cardstock pockets taped to the pages. A pack of index cards , glue sticks and an itchy Google Image Search finger later....voila! Self-guided learning at it's finest...




The cards have information written on the back so they'll make nifty little flash cards for more advanced readers, while even the littles can use the pics to jog their memory. We had Geography of France, Niagara falls, Bellini's travels , French landmarks, and French artist cards. I also threw in a little mini book on the circus that I found and they tuck them away in their little pockets. It's a very handy and more simple alternative to lapbooking. For a craft, we made torn paper collages ala Henri Matisse, a french artist we learned about. No post would be complete without an assortment of pictures of my kids...




Here's Chloe...eating....again. I know it must seem like that's all the kid does. Well, that's about right. Here she is with Lillie and Jack's rejected bowls of soup the other night. Chloe's kinda the clean up crew around here. Everyone gives her their scraps....:) Just for the record, she only ate her bowl and some of the next in line.Here's some pictures taken at Thanksgiving...If you're a PETA supporter, you might want to look the other way...this bird's been picked!






Tanner doing what he does best...riding on Jack!
Livy Grace doin what she does best...being too darn cute!

Hunter doing what he does best...cheesin' big time for the camera.

She even looks cute when she sweeps... The next generation of Kitchen Duty...

Don't let the looks fool you...they are rotten...and adorable.

This was the before dinner pic, I didn't take an after dinner cause it wasn't pretty...neither was the clean up!