Birthday Girl

My Olivia turned 10! That's double digits!  I can't believe I have a daughter that old!  She is such a sweet girl with so many talents- she's good at most things she tries.

 Another thing that I love about homeschooling is that we can play the whole day when a kid has a birthday- especially if it falls on a Friday (we take Friday off)  This lucky girls birthday landed on a Friday so we partied all day long!  She is really into Hawaiian things so she got a Ukelele and...

Spent the day shopping for clothes, eating lunch at Nordstrom cafe and went surfing. We went to Flowrider in Ogden- what a cool place!

 Both girls were so excited to try the boogie board or the surf board

 But Jayda was finished after one try (I think it went a little fast)

 Olivia was way into it- she got really good at the boogie board

 and tried really hard at the surfing- I think she'll get the hang of it next time.

 We had her dinner of choice: honey baked ham and funeral potatoes.

 And of course, Grandpas cream cake for dessert.

She also got to have a friend late-over with a few of her best friends- birthdays are awesome!

Getting ready for a wedding...

My little brother just got married.  We had so much fun getting ready for the big day.  The girls painted picture frames to go on the tables for the reception.

 We had a fun shower at my house with family and friends

 The bride and groom got some great stuff to start their life together.

We got to see some people we love and got to catch up.  I love weddings!

Horsing around

The kids and I went on a lovely horse ride with my mom, Nana.

The girls traded off steering Shadow, my mom rode Senator, and Sim and I rode on Maize.

 We discovered that, while we thought Simeon was over his horse allergy, we were wrong.  This poor kid had a pretty miserable time- this is a picture of the beginning of the swelling of the eyes- it got really bad later.

 We stopped and made a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

I love that we get to do these fun things and enjoy the outdoors just down the street from our house.  And I love that my mom will take us with her on her horses.  Next time, I think I'll have to pre-medicate Simeon so he's not so miserable.  The girls, however, were in heaven.

Boondocks

UHEA, the Utah Home Educators Association, had a retreat at Boondocks in Kaysville.  It was awesome!  The kids loved the race cars, and I got to ride with Sim

 Bumper boats were a little intense and I got soaked

 lots of driving

 bowling, lazer tag and pizza.

What a great way to spend a Saturday!

A Puzzling Day

One day in November, I couldn't keep the kids off the floor.  For art they learned about floor painting and practiced on their own "tile"

 then later, they brought out a bunch of puzzles and put them all together- Olivia did most of them, but everybody helped a little.  This is one of the reasons I love this room with no rugs or carpet- the kids can build with blocks and legos, put puzzles together and even color on the floor.

knitting with t-shirts

I saw a great idea on Pinterest where they used old t-shirts as yarn and knitted with it.  I decided I had plenty of old t-shirts lying around and the girls needed a bathmat-so viola- t-shirt bathmat.

 It was really easy and is super absorbent and fits perfectly in their bathroom.

Pumpkinland- Preschool Pals

We have been doing a little preschool group for Sim this year and it is so fun.  We go on lots of field trips and I only have the kids about once a month or so.  It's a great trade.  Around Halloween we went to Pumpkinland- I had never been there and the kids really loved it.

 Corn maze!

There was a lot to do there and the kids got to pick out a pumpkin- so they were happy.