Becca and Preston's Visit Part I

Preston had to fly to NC to take his boards for dental school.  Becca and baby Colby (according to my kids his name is "Baby Colby" not "Colby") flew along for a visit.  It was so fun visiting with all of them, but let's be honest, Colby was the star of the show.

We spent a lot of time at my parents' house and the kids made these play dough jack-o-lanterns.

We did other fun things as well like getting Sunni Skies ice cream.  We were happy to celebrate Preston passing his boards although, unfortunately, not everyone who flew here from Loma Linda with him passed.

We decided to visit a park from our childhood: Shelley Lake.  It's been years since I've been there!

When Lily and Skyler don't have enough muscles to help Thad get a drink, Daddy always comes to save the day.

Lily's a little bit.... ahem.... feminine.

A Bojangles picnic is the best kind of picnic.

 Ben's hiding spot when he was playing hide and go seek.  By himself, apparently.  :)

  

My last hand-holder.

Let my crying session begin.

I love these photos of Ben and Preston coming to Colby's rescue when he started getting fussy and needed to be swaddled.

Is there anything better in the world than watching dads taking care of their kiddos?  I think not.  Ben and Preston for the co-swaddling gold medal.

Ben, apparently, still has bottle feeding down.

Ella got to see her precious turtles.

It wouldn't have been a trip anywhere without a dramatic excursion taking Ella to the bathroom.  She chose Becca to take her potty (a true compliment to Becca) and unfortunately the bathroom they went to was terrible, so they ran back and I ran Ella up to the other bathroom.  Thank you Aunt Becca for your patience.  We love it when "Uncle and Preston" come to visit.  ;)  Especially when they bring their adorable baby.

Our Public Bathroom Connoisseur

I don't know about y'all, but whenever I see my kids in their natural state I think to myself Aww, how cute are they?!  Then I pull out the camera and they automatically go What is the most unnatural face/pose I can make so that Mom has to retry this 10 times?

I think it's time that I talk about one of Ella's biggest obsessions.

Public bathrooms.

Yes.

She is a bit of a public bathroom connoisseur.  Any time we go anywhere, even if it's for 2 minutes, she has to check out their bathroom.  You can imagine how fun it is to take Ella shopping, especially when it's to more than one store.  And while Lily and Skyler were the exact opposite and were terrified to use public bathrooms for years, I now realize that this end of the deal isn't so convenient either.

Ella has a ranking system.  She knows which places have the best bathrooms and so she will plan our trips accordingly.  You might be asking yourself, "What makes one bathroom better than another according to a 3 year-old bathroom lover?"  Well, I'm glad you asked!  Let me tell you all about it!

1) The smaller the potty and lower the sink, the better.  Our stake center has a toddler sized bathroom attached to the nursery.  Whenever Ella stays in there when I'm doing zumba, she asks to go to the bathroom about every 2 minutes just so she can re-live the experience.

2)  The smaller the stall, the better.  Who wouldn't want to watch their mom try to hold a wiggly one year-old in a 2 square foot area while doing your business?

3)  Paper towels are better than fans.  Unless, of course, it's another day and then obviously fans are better than paper towels.  Duh.  Try and keep up.

4)  The soap.  Is it liquid soap or foam?  Does it smell good or just... soapy?  Ella could tell you all about it.

5)  Is there a full length mirror to check yourself out in?  If no, deduct points.  Add points if it's not blocked by a trash can.

6)  How complicated is the stall lock for a 3 year-old?  The more complicated the better the challenge and the more mom's eyes start twitching from not being allowed to help.

I could tell you more but I'll leave it at this.  Ella really loves bathrooms.  Really, reeeeeaaally loves them.  Just yesterday when I took her to use ours she started hugging the toilet bowl before I could stop her -- I'm talking face completely smushed up against the toilet kind of hugging.  And wouldn't you know it, all that angelic hair fell in the toilet and got wet.  

(I might have had a mini panic attack)

Here's to hoping that Ella finds a new obsession (any obsession!) and soon!

Goalie

I took Skyler to his first few soccer practices and games and then Ben's been taking him to them ever since.  But I went this past weekend and was so impressed by what improvements Skyler's made in just a few weeks!

 

Team Impact!

(Naturally it was picture day for all the soccer teams, and naturally I had forgotten to wash Skyler's jersey the previous week, and naturally he had lost his black soccer socks that are part of his uniform.  Naturally.)

(I felt a little better when I saw all the kids throwing dirt and grass at each other right before it was their turn to get their pictures taken)

Coach Geoff is a tower compared to these 6 year-olds and so naturally he is beheaded in most of my pictures.

I don't know about the other teams, but on Skyler's being the goalie is the most coveted position.  Heck, I'd want it for the no running part alone.  Skyler is always dying to be goalie and when Coach Geoff put him in, he was thrilled!  I love watching Skyler and his teammate's progression in the next 3 pictures.

Skyler prevented 5 goals in just a few minutes.  I was so proud of him!

(And unlike the last game he played goalie, he didn't have to block any balls with his face!)

 Getting ready for a goal kick

Skyler did such a great job playing goalie on Saturday that his coach kept him in for probably 45 minutes.  Skyler was in heaven.  He is still up in the air as to whether he wants to continue soccer in the spring or go back to baseball.  We shall see!

The Munching Slider-ider Meat Eaters

In school we've been learning a lot about money.  Both Lily and Skyler learned about money in Kindergarten and so it was still pretty fresh with Skyler but Lily had to re-learn almost everything.  Lily is finally at the stage where she does "stacking" addition and subtraction.  With 3 weeks of working on these two things, I thought it would be a fun idea to put these skills to real use.  (After all, one of my goals as their teacher is to show them first hand how their lessons can be used in real life instead of just having to say, "You need to remember this for the test.")

We agreed that creating a restaurant for our family and Nanni and Papa would be a lot of fun.  Lily and Skyler combined their preferred restaurant names together and called it "The Munching Slider-ider Meat Eaters."  I thought that was ironic considering the entire menu except for one item was vegetarian. The kids helped Ben make the sign and they helped me create the menu and prices.  I think Ella's dinner came out to be the cheapest at around $55.  Too bad I wasn't earning tips on these bills....

Writing down their selections on their menus

Lily, Skyler, and I got to sit down and eat with them after they had been served their first two courses.

After dessert it was time for math.  Lily had to add up each bill, collect their money, and do more math to figure out the change.  Skyler helped with the last part.  I love this genuine picture of Lily's confusion.

Ben was naughty and ordered both desserts instead of just one.  So I gave him a slice of cake and about a tablespoon of ice cream.  In true Ben fashion he retaliated and had to have a word with the chef.  And when I say that "he had a word with the chef" I actually mean that he took over the kitchen until he had a substantial serving of ice cream.  :P

I think the night was a success!  The kids can't wait to do serve Grandmum and Pop Pop when they're home from their mission in a year!

Another Homeschooling Post

I had to add another one of the kids' "engagement shots" because they crack me up.

Sorry (but not sorry) to do another homeschooling post.  I fully realize that most people don't care, but since this is a huge transition in our family life, I want to record it all, especially considering this is my journal.

Homeschooling has become much easier and much more normal now.  We don't even have 3 full weeks under our belts yet and it's already going well.  I wasn't expecting it to fall into place so quickly, but I'm grateful for it.

One of the first days was terrible.  The kids were losing their patience with me, and I was losing my patience with them.  We finished school around dinner time which is RIDICULOUS.  Homeschooling takes so much less time than public schooling because you get to move at the pace of one kid instead of 20+ and you don't have to do all the "fluff" that is basically time filler.  We still do quiet time during naptime (which is when they do their reading) and this one particular terrible day I made myself take a nap so that I could have a fresh start afterward with the kids.

The spirit often speaks to me in that time between being awake and being asleep (probably because my house is usually chaotic and loud and this is one of my rare moments of peace), and on this particular day I was told something that made everything worth it:  You would be spending as much time helping them with their homework if they were still in public school.  But at least now you get to do it according to your own schedule and the kids still have time to play, have hobbies, practice dance and sports, and still have down time.  You don't have to do homework with them while trying to make dinner, while waiting for Ben to get home, while getting them ready for sports/dance, while also trying to console the babies.

After I realized that, yes, our homeschooling takes barely more time to do than the amount of time I would be spending with them on their public school homework this year, I have come to appreciate homeschooling so much more.

The kids started Classical Conversations this week.  To sum it up it is a homeschooling co-op that is Christian based.  We meet at this adorably quaint Presbyterian church 15 minutes away where the kids have school for 3 hours.  Skyler is in a class of 5 boys (ages 6-9) and Lily is in a class of 5 girls (also ages 6-9).  Ella and Thad go to the nursery and I become a teacher assistant.  They study history, geography, Latin, English, math, science, art, and scripture.  It is more or less an Honors course for homeschoolers who choose to learn classically rather than traditionally.  When we decided to homeschool, Ben and I both agreed that the kids would need social outlets and this was a perfect solution for it.  If CC proves to be a little intense, we are fortunate enough to have several other options in our area.  But for now, I feel strongly impressed that CC is what we are supposed to be doing.

My least favorite thing: explaining one concept countless times while I know Lily/Skyler isn't paying attention to me.  Fortunately for them, I, too, was homeschooled and I have several memories of doing the same thing to my dad while he taught me algebra and he never once lost his patience with me so I know I have to do the same to them.

My favorite thing:  Not just seeing my kids more but actually being present in their lives more.  Seeing what they're most interested in learning about.  Finding out, in more depth, what areas they are gifted in.  I thought I knew my kids well, but I can now see that their teachers have been privileged to see a side of them I didn't know.

The kids' least favorite things:  When the pencil sharpener isn't plugged in (heaven help me they get so mad), that they actually have to practice their spelling words each day, when Thad decides it's a good time to climb on the table while they're doing their work (I still haven't quite figured out how to separate the babies from school), and not being allowed to play outside until all work is completed.

The kids' favorite things:  Going to the library and choosing out tons of books to study from (I think we currently have something around 40 library books in our house), watching lots of educational youtube videos, that they get to choose what they want me to teach them about for science, that they get better lunches than what was limited to their lunchboxes, that they can do some work assignments together upstairs by themselves.

Overall, I have to say I'm extremely proud of Lily and Skyler.  Lily is handling chapter books like a champ and just spent $20 of her own money yesterday on buying new books.  Skyler is advanced at math (his math schedule is only 8 weeks behind Lily's and they study from the same textbook).  He often finds the solution before I finish reading him the problem.  Honestly, I feel so much more purpose in my life now that I truly get to steer my children in the direction that Ben and I feel is right.  After dreading all the sacrifices I would be making, I could have never imagined that overall, the biggest feeling I've experienced is freedom.