Charlotte

My 3 year old.
Doesn't she look
 fun to
 home-
school?

(She loved this little goat by the way)...

Birthday Boys: farm themed party

Here are my birthday boys with  a Frivole rooster and with Pinky, a 2 week old baby pig who was the star of their "petting zoo" themed birthday.

From the Bookshelf

My twins with special needs turned 10 on July 6th. We waited to have thier party until this weekend so that the families we wanted to invite could attend schedule-wise. It was worth the wait. Since we would be having both boys and girls at this party, with guests ranging in age from 3-12, we decided on a mobile petting zoo theme. A good time was had by all.  The weeks prior to the party we talked about the various animals we knew would be coming, petting zoo manners, and baby animals, so come party day the boys were ready to participate in the appropriate way.  This book was a good one to introduce petting zoos and also being a level 1 DK reader, it is great for reading practice for 3 of my 4 homeschoolers.

From the bookshelf

This is a great series of books to teach fire safety, water safety and stranger danger to children.  My kids love them and it is a fun way to teach these important topics to kids, especially those with special needs.  In Once upon a Dragon, childrena re taught stranger safety via a boy and his dragon who end up in various fairytale stories. The other title we really enjoy in this series  is the fire safety book called "No Dragons for tea...fire safety for kids (and Dragons"). That one is a big hit with the boys and girls.












This book is a great little book to introduce body privacy in a non-scary way to little ones.  I love the little fish illustrations and my kids were able to understand the very important topic of this book:











TIP: When you are homeschooling, make sure you teach those important things outside of the standard curriculum, including fire and water safety, stranger danger, drug awareness, community safety, and social skills. Your kids need these every bit as much as reading, writing and math!

Girl Scout Camp

Audrey is at Camp Sombrero this week (Girl Scout Camp)--her first girl scout camping experience!  She leaves at 6:30 in the morning and we pick her up around 5pm each evening. She is having the time of her life...swimming, learning songs, making friends, you name it. Here she was getting ready to go her first day, this past Monday...she was SO excited!

Pool Time

We had an awesome time swimming today and Baby Brooke joined us and seemed to really enjoy herself.....even cried once when we took her OUT of the water. We waited till the sun was down and so the weather, temperature and water were perfect. What a fun summer day we all had. One day I will look back on these lazy summer days we spent as a family and smile.  I am so blessed.

Birthday Boys!

Happy 10th Birthday, Sean and Timothy. We love you a million!

Brooke and July

 First, I can't believe our sweet baby Brooke is two months old today already! What a blessing she has been and she has all of us just wrapped around her little fingers. Between Mommy, Daddy and all her big brothers and sisters, she does get lots of love!

Fourth of July found us enjoying a leisure weekend at home. We grilled out, swam in the pool (the pool slide is a big hit with the boys), watched movies, saw fireworks from our backyard and enjoyed some nice family time. Brian tended to his plants that are growing nicely,  I was able to get some crafting done and finish a couple of vintage themed baby albums.  Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

From the bookshelf

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July holiday weekend.  Here are a couple of my favorite titles to use when teaching little ones the meaning of this holiday.