Mickey Mouse Birthday Bash!

Since Atlie has been a little baby she has loved Mickey Mouse.  Because of that, we decided to go with that theme for her second birthday... and she was super-excited about it!

We had the party at the neighborhood park and had lots of friends and family come.  Everyone had lots of fun, especially Atlie since she got to be the center of attention. :)

Can I just say, "I love Pinterest!".  I'm not obsessed, but I do enjoy getting on occasionally and finding ideas, especially when I have a particular project in mind.  There were so many great and easy to make components for the party.  I think one of my favorite was the Mickey Mouse cupcakes:

I also found these easy to make Mickey ear hats...

and favor bags and center piece.

Besides all the attention, I think Atlie's favorite thing about the party was the life size Mickey balloon... and it almost didn't happen due to a helium shortage.  Who knew, right?  Fortunately, after much looking and calling, Branyon found the only store in about a 50 mile radius that had helium.  Seeing how happy Atlie was, made it worth all the searching!

66 Books of the Bible

One of my biggest goals this year in school is for Branna to learn more about the Bible.  We've always done something Bible related each year, but I wanted to ramp it up some.  The My Father's World curriculum is very Bible focused, which is definitely helpful to attain my goal.

Since the beginning of the year, we've also been working on learning all 66 books of the Bible.  By our 3rd week of school, Branna was familiar with all the books and we recorded this video. 

 However, what is even more impressive is after we got done recording, I wanted to see if she could do it without looking at the chart... and she did!  Then, we took it a step further and I had her say all the books instead of singing.  Once again, she did it!  I was quite proud and so was she. :)

Ant Farm

During our first week of school, one of the ways we were supposed to enjoy God's creation was to explore things outdoors that were close to the ground.  The curriculum also suggested purchasing an ant farm.  Living in Texas, I really thought that we wouldn't have any problem finding large ants (they needed to be large so that couldn't climb out of the air hole in the ant farm), but after several days of looking in various places with no luck, we broke down and ordered ants.
The ants arrived earlier this week.  Branna was super excited... I'm still getting used to having ants in the house.  It's rather startling to be cooking dinner and see out of the corner of your eye something crawling on the cabinet.
It is pretty neat to see how hard they work, though.  After only a few hours, they had burrowed out several tunnels and transported alot of dirt out from their mound.  Watching them, I am reminded of Proverbs 6:6:

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

God's creation truly is amazing!

As I mentioned early, Branna was thrilled when the ants finally arrived.  However, that almost didn't happen due to a "mishap".  Someone (who will remain anonymous) that was helping her get the ants into the mound read the instructions wrong and put the ants in the freezer instead of the refrigerator for a brief time.  (This was to help slow them down for an easier transition.)  After a scare of seeing them balled up and not moving, the ants eventually thawed and most survived.

After observing the ants for a while, I thought it would be fun for Branna to make a short video of what she had learned.  This is what she said:

Flag Football

Branna started flag football!  This is her second time to play an organized sport and even though she was familiar with soccer from playing last spring and enjoyed it, she was insistent to play football this fall.  I was a little worried that she would get on the field and be clueless.  But, she actually did really good!  I don't know much about football, so in my book, running in the direction that you're supposed to is super.  Branna did all that and more. 

The hand-off...

and she actually made it pretty far down the field...

...before the biggest boy on both teams tagged her!

Of course, Atlie watched the entire game with the utmost concentration. (Haha!)

I think Branna must have seen other players in this stance (or maybe from watching football with Daddy)

And she even got the ball again at the end of the game!  She was so excited, as you can see from her expression, but almost right after this picture was taken, her flags were taken... by her own team mate. :(

Now, we're talking 4 and 5 year olds, but over all the first game went pretty smoothly.  Her coach is great and gave each of the kids a turn playing the different positions.  I felt like he also gave Branna really good direction.  We're all looking forward to seeing and playing more football this season!

"First" Day of School

It doesn't seem possible that this year could actually be when Branna starts kindergarten.  I think some of it may be that we've done "school" for the last couple of years.  More than anything, I think it's that I can't believe that she's 5 and can officially enter school.
Our family has decided to homeschool, so this year was also a big deal in that respect.  Like I mentioned earlier, we've unofficially had school for the last 2 years, but this is the year that we've been working towards and preparing for.
I'm excited about our curriculum choice (My Father's World) and the fact that we actually have a room devoted just for school.  The curriculum is very straightforward, which is great for me especially this year due to having a very active 2 year old and expecting a baby in a couple of months.  A good portion of our school time is being devoted to "calendar time" which is pretty much a hands of application of the date, the days of school, surveying the weather, & the Bible.  I really liked the setup from 1+1+1 and is where I got most of my printables.

I took a picture of our school room the night before school started to show what it looked like before the girls got to it and it turned it upside down.  Surprisingly, we've done very good at keeping it organized & tidy.... I can't say that much for the rest of the house.

On the first day of school, Daddy took Branna for a special breakfast at McDonald's.  Every morning following, they do some aspect of her school before Daddy goes to work.  Branna has enjoyed learning more about coins, exploring God's creation outside, and setting up an ant farm.

(Branna is showing what she drew in her Daily Daddy Notebook.  I think this was the day they talked about things close to the ground.)

It's been our tradition to get Branna a new book as first day of school gift.  This year, we got her Green Eggs and Ham.  It's been fun since we can read it together now.

This year, Atlie got join in the fun and got her own book.  She loves the How Do Dinosaurs... collection, so we got her How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms.

My biggest challenge so far has been trying to keep Atlie occupied while we're working.  So far, we've done pretty good.  I have special "toys" that are just for the school room so that she can look forward to using those each day for a few hours.  She enjoys drawing at her desk, sorting through letter puzzles,  looking through books and really loves finding anything that can made into a huge mess by scattering it across the floor.

And, finally, after a long morning, the girls enjoyed some relaxing "downtime".  (This pictures was taken between the moments right after they spent running around the living room Usain Bolt style and right before they used the bean bags as sleds off the couch.)

Where to begin???  I honestly can't believe that I've let so much time go between blog posts.  I think of a great topic to write about at least several times a week and before I know it, I've forgotten to do it... again.

We've had so much happen since my last post till now:
We've moved! (we're all very excited to be out of the small 3rd story apartment)
We've gotten a dog!

Both girls have accomplished so much:
Branna played an organized sport for the first time (soccer)...

...Is reading on her own very well

Atlie is putting 2 and 3 words together, started potty training on her own, and loves to sings

AND...
We're expecting a new little sister!

Maybe now that I've gotten somewhat caught up with the last 6 months, I won't feel so overwhelmed about our blog and will get back to it like I would like to!

School and Pinterest

I've known about Pinterest for a while now, but didn't really take much time to look into it... until my mom kept mentioning how neat it was and that I should really check into it.  Now, I feel like it's one of the best tools I've come across!  I love that I can organize my internet finds and best of all collect so many great ideas, especially for homeschool.

This week at school, we've used alot of Pinterest ideas.  On top of our regular curriculum we've built apple cars:

played parking lot sight words (using Dolch Sight word flash cards)

and sight word graphing. Inspired by a fellow pinner's idea, I made Branna a worksheet that utilizes multiple subject skills by recognizing sight words and then graphing the number of each of the words found.

I feel like my school motivation has been kicked up a notch with all these great ideas!  I can't wait to share more of what we're doing and accomplishing.

Atlie at 14-15 Months

These last couple months have been a whirlwind and I haven't been recording your accomplishments like I should have... and you have been doing so much, too!

You're independent streak has really kicked into high gear.  You want to be a big girl and get frustrated at your limitations.  It's fun to see you problem solve and accomplish the tasks before you.  One of your best tools is climbing.  Unlike your sister, if you can find a way to get on top of something you will.  One day, when I left you sitting in a chair at the table, I heard Branna say that you were on the table.  I walked in to see you running across it!
It can be hard to be so little, but want to do big girl things, especially when you see Branna being able to do so much!

You're saying so many words know and even putting two words together.  You also recognize letters of the alphabet and can identify a few specific letters and numbers.  One of my favorite things that you've started saying is your name.  You pronounce it: Aayy-eee

I know so many fun things are coming in the next few months and I can't wait to see all your new accomplishments!

Christmas 2011

So I'm only a month late getting this posted!Between the holidays, travelling Branyon's graduation/vacation, and moving, it's been busy and I haven't had much opportunity to be on the computer, but I still wanted to do it to have it to look back on.

Branna sporting her Rudolph Nose at the Annual Christmas Party

Making candy houses

Christmas Eve Morning

  

A new pair of red boots (and they light up!)

Atlie- Lover of Berries

Within the last few weeks, Atlie has discovered what has been missing from her life: berries.  She can't get enough of them.  Here is the video to prove it.  (She's signing and saying "berry".)