That's what happened

So here's what happened...

We slept in late. I slept in late. We ate breakfast late and missed our Wednesday morning playgroup. This is a pretty standard Wednesday morning habit- wake up late, check... miss playgroup, check. But this morning we had to get out, we had library books due.

I didn't just want to get all the kids in the van and drive to the library and not do anything. I checked online for a story time. No dice. So I figured we do something else (again, getting the kids in the van and not doing anything= not an option). There's this neat toy train barn about an hour away so we went there.

The train barn was actually really cool. This family is really dedicated to this toy train collect and it's beautiful and detailed. There are a lot of buttons to push to move trains, turn lights on, open doors and watch little people and vehicles move in and out of them. It's great. My kids enjoyed all of 15 minutes of it (which is actually not too shabby) after which the family dog decided to try and get to know these new, little visitors. 

My kids are completely terrified of dogs. Every time this admittedly very sweet dog came around it sent them into full panic mode (full panic mode includes- howling, declarations of fear and scaling me like monkeys). 

So we left. 

Got back home an hour later... 

and yep, I forgot to return the library books.

Tantrums

Every once in awhile (daily) one of my babies throws a tantrum. The worst is when it happens in public. Usually, they're mild and easy to address or ignore until they pass.

But sometimes I need to use a mental coping technique that I've just decided to call, future me.

Future me is used by imagining what is currently happening has already happened and I'm able to laugh about it.

For example-

Hey, remember that time we went on a field trip to a farm and my one and half year old threw a tantrum during a hay ride that involved crying, shouting "no" and throwing herself into a bale of hay, while my two and half year old screamed at the top of her lungs in panic. That was ca-razy! 

 
 It then becomes much easier to comfort said children in a reasonable fashion without my head exploding from panic and/or embarrassment.

This plan is not bullet proof. So, please share any coping strategies of your own!

School's in session

 
This first day of school went considerably better than last year's.

We started the day out with prayer (and coffee). 

Then got right to work on some math. Math for 4Kers is pretty much a bunch a fun. All the kids enjoyed today's math lesson.

We did reading next. But I think I'll move another subject in it's place and switch reading to a time when the girls nap. Clifford did really great for his first day back. But the reading was, not surprisingly, well over the girls' heads. Maria did enjoy her "writing" assignment I put in her backpack though.

This lady is all business 

Then we did the most important thing...

Oh yeah, he was there too. 

After playing and eating, the girls settled in for their naps and Clifford and I moved onto the next subject, Catholicism. 

We read about Moses receiving the 10 commandments and then made a short form list of them. Clifford helped me come up with picture ideas to represent the commandments. This was a nice peaceful time. 

Maria woke up and joined us for science. Which I have no pictures of today. I read them a couple books and stopped every few pages or so and asked them what they predicted would happen next. Clifford did great predicting, Maria did great repeating Clifford's predictions.

Finally, art (yes art). I don't have a curriculum yet (but I did just order one!). So I moseyed over to catholicicing.com and found a cute rosary hanger craft.  Great idea, I thought. 

Warning: the mess that follows is not for the faint (or OCD) of heart. 

I kept my inner panic to a dull scream... but the craft turned out pretty cute.

After our school day was complete Maria put a blanket on her head and told me, "take a picture, I'm a Mary."  I thought this was super adorable so of course I got my camera, snapped a shot- which included evidence of Clifford's refined photo bombing technique.

Kid's got skills

Aaaah!

Okay, so school starts tomorrow.

My list looks like this now...

• Make school shirts
• Gather materials for first month 
• Fill out lesson planner (almost done)
• Set up new school room (no comment)

I am an awesome procrastinator. But at least I got the shirts done!

Also a bunch of birds took over our yard...

 Little black dots= birds

After having an Alfred Hitchcock panic attack, I decided to get some pictures. Though it's tough to see in the photo, there are probably over 30 birds in our yard. I still have no idea why the bird convention happened.


Okay, back to homeschool...

We joined a preschool co-op that a friend of mine has graciously organized and lucky for us, the co-op is doing the catholicicing curriculum! Which, is the awesome curriculum we used last year for preschool (and planned on using this year again). Totally worked out. I love when that happens.

Then, I found out that Clifford got in to the 4-5 year old class offered once a week in the homeschool co-op we joined last year. So, we just got loads of busy over here.

Note to self: Do school in the summer so as to avoid start-of-fall-panic. 

That leaves us with 2.5 days a week of 4K and 1 "free" day. I'm really excited for our 4K curriculum, which includes-

•  Math (Saxon) 
• Reading (Little Angels Reader)
• Catholicism (Chats with God's Little Ones)
• Science (250 Preschool Science Activities)
• Art (TBD... yup, I know...) 

This is my first time trying out all of these books. Wish us luck!

Augusty

Basically, a whole bunch of August just happened...

We went to our local splash park. Turns out one of my kids isn't terrified of water sprinkling them. Which is an entire kid more than last summer (improvement!).

 Success! 

Luckily, there are three playgrounds next to the splash park. 

Too much excitement!

Besides taking a tour of our park system, I've been trying to get things organized around here for the start of the school year. 

I implemented a daily chore chart. 

So far the chart has acted like more of a "suggestion" chart. (And yes, I illustrated it... and yes that's the best I can draw).

But still on the list of things to do are-

• Make school shirts (I love this but it brings on the procrastinator in me) 
• Gather materials for the first month (I'm doing monthly this year, instead of weekly stuff gathering)
• Fill out lesson planner
• Set up new school room (this is school room #3, indecisive much?) 

In other news, Clifford has been honing in some new skills.

Most impressively is the pancake batter making skill.

Which comes in handy when I do this...

You'd think this is a thing you could only do once in life... apparently not. 

Clifford has also learned the art of funny face making while being photographed. 

Ya know, because getting a nice picture of the four kids wasn't hard enough. 

He has, however taken an interest in photography.

Hey look, it's me! 

Photo by Clifford. His favorite tree. 

So, that's what we've been up to.

Bye!

Kneelers

Approaching our last month of summer...

I didn't want to stay out of practice, so decided to do a craft that I found online with the kids.

They're portable kneelers for the kids!  Clifford and Maria enjoyed decorating theirs with markers and stickers.

The stickers I expected to fall off... but it turns out the marker also slides right off and on to all of our clothes... which Clifford thinks is fantastic.

 Clifford chose star and heart stickers.

 Maria's kneeler, decked out in smileys and automobiles.

The girls loved using these! 

 Maria helping Dolly pray with Emily. 

So, those are the pleasant things that happened this week. Maybe later I'll share about the bottle of vinegar that got dumped on our library books... or how I don't get to use the bathroom alone... or maybe I'll nap. 

I'll probably nap.