Week 52: 52 Weeks of Photos

The last post! I'm not sure if I'll keep doing this next year, maybe I'll change it up a little. I should decide soon...

I've wanted to rearrange our food storage for a while now. We have this odd room downstairs that was finished to be a bedroom, but it has two closets and one houses the furnace and water heater, and the window is stuck in an odd space in the room, and it's just not practical to sleep in. So it's food storage.

Week 51: 52 Weeks of Photos

When my youngest, N, was just a tiny toddler, my oldest, M, wore this Native American dress as a Halloween costume and wore N on her back (not the whole night, just for part). They were Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste. Today N wore the Native American costume and wore her doll in a child's mei tai (that I can't remember the brand of). Children really do grow up too fast!

Also, we love listening to Christmas music. This is one of our favorite versions of O Come, Emmanuel. It's played by The Piano Guys with Bible videos as the video. Enjoy!

Week 50: 52 Weeks of Photos

Please excuse the terrible picture, but when someone finishes their reading level early Saturday morning (she wanted to read the last story to Daddy), you pass things off right then! She was so excited to finish All About Reading Level 1 and start Level 2!

Week 49: 52 Weeks of Photos

I think she has two lessons left now. She's so excited!

Practicing letters with multiple sounds today. She's almost finished with All About Reading Level 1! @allaboutlearning #aar1

A photo posted by As We Bloom (@aswebloom) on Dec 1, 2016 at 8:39am PST

Week 46: 52 Weeks of Posts

I finally made some time to finish knitting a water bottle cover for my daughter.  This is the 5th I've knitted.  Someday maybe I'll write up what I've done (and take nice pictures...).  They are very easy. 

Week 45: 52 Weeks of Posts

Ever since he was small, my son has loved cooking.  Today while making dinner he showed me these extra long pieces of elbow pasta that he found and asked if I'd take a picture of them.

Week 44: 52 Weeks of Posts - Halloween Edition

My kids had a blast Monday.  They were so excited about the costumes they had prepared!

My oldest picked her soda fountain costume after seeing something my cousin reposted on Facebook.
My son designed his crayon box because he didn't have enough money to buy one.  I think his is much neater than a store bought costume!  He had a little help with the painting.
My two younger girls wore their eagle and bat dress ups and had a great time flying around the neighborhood.

Week 43: 52 Weeks of Posts

I skipped last week.  Sorry!!

All 4 of my kids are learning to play the piano.  It's hard for 4 kids to get practice time each day!  It seems like if your chores are done or your school work is done, someone else is already practicing.  I have a keyboard that I purchased as a teen and they are allowed to use it, but they have to use the piano 2 days in a row and the keyboard for only 1.  My oldest prefers piano only and I'm just fine with that! 

I caught this little gem last week.  I love how enthusiastic she is about learning, and how enthusiastic she is about her new hat.  She learned her first song with chords last week and has been practicing it a couple of times a day!

Week 41: 52 Weeks of Posts

Over a year ago I lost my camera remote.  I thought I had just misplaced it in my vehicle or jacket, but after searching everywhere I just could not find it.  I realized where it probably was, but it was a place far away from home and I didn't make it back there for over 6 months.  I asked at the location, but they had already cleaned out their lost and found.  So I ordered another.  It's fancier and in order to learn how to use it I had to practice a bit!  One thing to practice is ghost shots.  The kids always find this entertaining.  I'm happy that I can take family pictures again!

Week 40: 52 Weeks of Posts

The other day we woke up early to help clean our church.  We saw this outside!  It's not in these pictures, but from the church we saw that it was a triple rainbow.  The third one seemed to be behind and just below the lower arch.

Week 39: 52 Weeks of Photos

Last week we learned about Albrecht Dürer in art and watched a video about his paintings that only come out for display once every 10 years.  It was fascinating, and not just to the children!

Week 38: 52 Weeks of Photos

Does anyone have some extra time they'd let me have?  I want to finish this project, which is only 5-6 pages, but I just can't find the time!

Week 37: 52 Weeks of Photos

We collected these elderberries on our hike.  Now we will make them into syrup and tincture and store the extras in the freezer.  These are great for preventing cold and flu, or shortening the duration of the illness when you do get sick.  Fall is in the air, and that means winter is close behind!

Week 36: 52 Weeks of Photos

For Labor Day we went hiking.  It was a lot of fun!  My youngest woke up with a cold and awful cough, but she was determined to hike.  She was disappointed to discover that hiking does not mean  mountain climbing.  I guess we need some different gear...

Despite her cough she was determined!  But we did not make her hike the whole way, that would have been hard on her lungs.  The mountain air helped her a lot.  E (3rd grade) remarked that it was just like Clara in Heidi.  We brought the mei tai that I made many years ago and refuse to give up even though I have no babies.  I'm glad that I kept the one I made because I know how strong it is, and it worked wonderfully!

Week 35: 52 Weeks of Photos

We started doing teatime Tuesday late this summer.  It's an activity that Bravewriter, a writing curriculum that we do not use, suggests doing to expose children to poetry.  We already have some exposure to poetry, but more is always good. 

Here's our teatime from last week.  My son and daughter chose a birds theme.  They made walnut cream cheese sandwiches (because birds probably eat walnuts), dirt in a cup (pudding and crushed cookies with worms), and cucumbers.  We also had some mini cupcakes to celebrate back to school week. 

This week's teatime will involve a lot less sugar...

Look at this teapot... isn't it lovely?  I want it so much!

Week 34: 52 Weeks of Photos

I meant to get this posted yesterday, but it was the first day of school and a Monday too!  Happy back to school week!

Week 32: 52 Weeks of Photos

Recently we held a "girls night".  My intent was to introduce my teenager to makeup and allow her to experiment with guidance of a few favorite women.  We invited a couple of teenage friends too, and my younger girls had to participate!  There were Jamberrys and nail polish available, and we started the night with copycat Wisconsin Macaroni 'n Cheese.

We had to try ALL THE MAKEUP!  Especially the bold lipsticks.  I think we all learned something from each other, and it was fun to spend some time with so many friends.

I really don't now why my face looks like it's in a fun-house mirror.  Maybe the forward facing camera on my phone is wonky!

Week 31: 52 Weeks of Photos

Does anyone know what slides are anymore?  My parents recorded our childhood on slides.  My kids love looking at them (I do too!).  We were watching slides recently and one of my kids wanted to practice shadow puppets in between cubes.  My youngest thought it looked fun, but doesn't quite get the idea of shadow puppets, so she was making funny faces at the bright light on the wall, which was still just as fun for her and for her audience!

Week 30: 52 Weeks of Photos

Roar!!

Week 29: 52 Weeks of Photos

Oh my.... I can't even stand the cuteness!!  Last month my little guy moved from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  Here he is, his first and last month as a Cub Scout.

Interesting tidbit:  When he started Cub Scouts, we bought him this blue shirt that was a bit too big.  He's nearly outgrown it!  When I picked up his tan Boy Scout shirt, they had the same size shirt as the blue one.  I wasn't going to buy it because I bet he'll be too tall for it in 6 months.  So I bought the next size.  It fits ME, so of course it's too big for him.  Why are there no in between sizes?  Oh well, he'll grow into it in a year or two!