100 Things

Wow, I'm already past my 100th post! To celebrate, I am borrowing some of these ideas from Smockity Frocks.

100 Things About Us

10 Places I've Been

1. Big Island of Hawaii
2. Kauai
3. Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando & Fort Myers)
4. South Dakota
5. Wyoming (Devil's Tower)
6. Chicago, IL
7. Michigan (Sterling Heights area)
8. Tennessee
   
9. Kansas City, MO (Once, Dave surprised me with a weekend trip there just for ice cream!)
10. Branson, MO (seems lame to include it, since I'm from MO. However, so is my husband and he's been to Hong Kong but had never even been to Branson before he met me! LOL!)

Fire In The Hole at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO

10 Things I Enjoy

1. Chocolate
2. A clean house.
3. A clean car.
4. My computer
5. Sleeping in
6. Sleeping in the sun by the cats.
7. Target
8. Clean sheets
9. Opening the screen door when it's nice out.
10. The view of our backyard.

10 Things I Want To Do

1. Be totally debt free.
2. Go back to Kauai.
3. Go back to the Big Island of Hawaii.
4. Finish our basement.
5. Add a sun room.
6. Completely remodel the kitchen.
7. Buy new furniture (our couch and chair are extremely uncomfortable)
8. Get enclosed soffits and fascia, so our home is mostly maintenance free.
9. Have the interior of our house painted again. It's only been 4 years, but it didn't seem to hold up well.
10. Visit an Ikea store someday.

LOL about how #1 and the rest of them don't seem to go together!

10 Favorites

1. Color-Lilac
2. Snack-Chex Muddy Buddies (I don't use the margarine)
3. Drink-alcohol free Pina Colada's.
   
4. Food-It really depends. Sometimes I need a pizza and other times I really crave Nachos.
5. Season-Fall, we do a lot of activities in the Fall.
6. Weather-70 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze.
7. Books-Non-fiction and magazines
8. Song-Anything by Maroon 5.
   
9. Place-Sheraton Kauai
10. Holiday-Christmas
    

20 Random Things About Me

1. My Dad used to call me "Benny Bones". Benny, because he wanted a boy and Bones because I had a boney butt and it hurt when I sat on his lap.
2. I was also called, "Tweety" because of my chubby baby cheeks.
3. And also referred to lovingly as "Wendy Whiner".
4. I don't like my legs, so I don't wear dresses, skirts or shorts usually.
   
5. I bite my nails. Yes, I know it's gross.
6. I was once a Registered Dental Assistant. (I didn't work as one for very long, though)
7. My sister gives me highlights. It's way cheaper!
8. I've had the same haircut for way too long.
9. I took courses in Early Childhood Education.
10. and in Psychology.
    
11. and in Interior Design. Period Design Furnishings was my favorite!
12. I am scared to death of spiders.
13. and wasps
14. and bees
15. and all insects, really.
16. In fact, we spend quite a bit for a yearly pest control contract.
    
17. I hated school.
    
18. Well not elementary school, but after that it all went downhill from there until college.
19. I packed spices during a Spring break and a Christmas break. I still hate Cumin, because of that!
    
20. I have watched The Young and The Restless for as long as I remember.
    

10 Things Abby Enjoys

1. Kitty

1. 
2. Collecting erasers
3. and rocks
4. Going on walks.
5. Going to the park.
6. Target
7. Playing, anything.
   
8. Books
9. Peep and The Big Wide World
   1. 
10. The Science Center

1o Favorites of Abby

1. Color-Pink
2. Snack-Apples or bananas
3. Drink-Apple juice
4. Food-noodles
5. Season-Summer
6. Weather- Warm
   
7. Place-Branson
8. Song-She really likes listening to Maroon 5 in the car with me.
   
9. Activity-Playing
10. Holiday-Christmas

10 Things Dave Enjoys

1. RC Helicopters
2. Sleeping
3. Being outside
4. BBQ
5. Nice weather
6. Traveling
7. Roller Coasters
8. Playing with Abby
9. A good party.
10. Scuba diving.
    

10 Favorites of Dave

1. Color-the color of the ocean
2. Snack-Krunchers Chips
   
3. Drink-Mountain Dew
4. Food- Meat
   
5. Season-Spring
6. Weather-Warm
7. Place-Kona, Hawaii
   
8. Song-anything by Depeche Mode
9. Book-Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
10. Holiday-Christmas

Whew, that took some time! Sorry about some of the extra numbers floating around, adding pictures kind of messed things up a bit.

Thanks so much for reading my blog or I wouldn't have made it to 100 posts.

Math-U-See Blocks

I forgot to mention that both my sister and I bought the Math-U-See starter blocks set at the Homeschool Convention this past weekend.I was really surprised how much Abby enjoyed them and how quickly she learned some new concepts. She immediately caught on as was able to use them to count by 10's and even 100's!

She also was able to do some basic addition, subtraction and multiplication!


You can see in the above picture that she just put two 1o blocks together and said they equaled 20. Then, I flipped one over to represent that we were subtracting 10 from 20 and she said it equaled 10. I was so excited! These are awesome blocks!

Plus, she made her own Letters U See set: I talked to my sister and my 6 year old nephew, Matthew also loves the blocks and he was doing some math problems with them immediately as well. He also thought it was great that the blocks were named after him...Matthew-See. LOL!

We both highly recommend these blocks. We didn't purchase the curriculum to go with the blocks, as we wanted to see if it was something the kids would get into.

Do you use Math-U-See? I'd love to know what you and your children think about the workbooks.

A Book About Rabbits

Check out this adorable book Abby made today:


We were at my sister's house and she found this activity in an older Mailbox Preschool magazine. Abby put felt on the ears and tummy and used cotton balls and felt for the bunny's tail. Then Abby decided the bunny also needed ear muffs to stay warm. LOL!

Here's Matthew's rabbit book:


He decided he wanted plain paper to make his own rabbit book. He's so funny!

I had totally forgotten about Mailbox magazines. I really want to get the Kindergarten edition for next year.

Unplugged & Lost

Last Friday, I participated in Kimba, from A Soft Place to Land's Unplug party.

At midnight, I started to turn off the computer and decided to quickly read the workshop schedule for Saturday's Homeschool Expo that I would be attending with my sister. We had arranged to meet at my Mom's to drop off the kids and get to the workshop at 10:30. The only problem was, as I was reading the schedule I noticed that workshop started at 10, not 10:30! It was already 12:15 a.m. and I knew I couldn't call my sister. So, what did I do? I had to turn on the computer to email her. I knew she would be on the computer and luckily she was an we got it straightened out right away.

I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to not use the computer for 24 hours!

When I woke up the next morning, it was hard to leave the laptop closed. I usually open it and read my emails. However, I had to hurry and get ready to head to the convention.

When I came home, all I could think about was the email I got from my sister-in law I got the day before. See this beautiful quilt:

She made it for Dave and me for our wedding present almost 8 years ago. This was the first quilt she ever made. Her email said she was going to a quilt show on Saturday and wanted to take her first quilt to show some people. I said I'd go get it and leave it in between the doors, since I would be gone all day on Friday. However:

I went to the closet to get the quilt and it wasn't there!

I frantically searched my whole house and didn't find it. I even opened each box in the basement, even the newly organized Christmas bins I did this year. It's not in my house and I am just sick about it. The only thing I can think of is when I cleaned the closet out and got rid of some old coats, it somehow got into the bag for charity. I am so embarrassed and disgusted that this could happen.

I even wanted to turn on the computer and get on the charity site to see what they did with their donated items. I contemplated writing a Craigslist post about finding my lost quilt.

However, I knew these things wouldn't help. Most likely it's gone forever. I just hope that the person who has it loves it as much as we did.

I ended up staying up pretty late, watching Thursday and Friday's Young and The Restless shows that I missed and reading my papers from the Homeschool Expo.

At midnight, I turned on the computer, caught up on my email and visited a few blogs. After reading this post, I quickly came back to earth and realized there are much more important things to pray about, then a lost quilt.

So did you participate in the Unplug party? Click here to read how everyone else handled their 24 hours of being unplugged.

Random Picture Challenge

27th folder
or December 2007

27th picture

I picked the 27th folder, 27th picture. This is Abby in her ball pit on July 17, 2005. She was almost 14 months old. I remember the balls I got from our neighbor's garage sale for only $2! There were tons of them. They are in a Little Tikes inflatable turtle.

To participate in the Random Picture Challenge, head to 4 little men and girly twins.

Look What I Won

I am so excited that I won a 1 month subscription to the new Chic Chick Widget! Thank you Skip to My Lou!

See it over on the right sidebar.............>

Isn't it so cute!

I also want to thank gahome2mom from Loving Heart Designs for awarding me the Friends award!
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I just recently received this award so I will sit it out, but thank you for nominating me!

St. Louis Homeschool Expo

My sister and I had a great time at the Expo.

Our favorite speaker was Tom Clark. His workshop was titled, "Teaching Math Without a Plan, You've Got to be Kidding!

Tom Clark has over 30 years of experience in teaching math in public schools and writing math textbooks for major publishers. He was very entertaining. Basically, after teaching and writing these textbooks, he started to notice that things were wrong. The textbooks and schools were teaching math in a confusing way. He set out to find an easier way to teach math. He founded VideoText Interactive that brings math text to life through technology.

Heather and I loved how he explained math and the problems kids have with the way math is taught in schools. We actually learned a lot about ourselves! LOL!

He had a lot of great points, such as why is it thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc. instead of onety-three, onety-four, onety-five. And who came up with eleven and twelve?

His program starts with Pre-Algebra and he said you didn't really need a whole math curriculum for elementary math, which is counting, basic operations of numbers and the relationships of nymbers. However he did recommend both Math-U-See and RightStart for those that preferred to have a curriculum.

We then finished checking out all the vendor hall. There were lots of new companies and programs this year. I really liked the materials I saw from Real Science -4-Kids. Their concept is to teach children as young as kindergarten the core disciplines of chemistry, biology, physics and earth/science, so the children see how science relates to everyday life.

Their books were really colorfol and seemed easy to read. This was the first time we have heard of them, so I will search for more information and homeschool reviews online.

My sister is using Horizons for my nephew this year and decided to buy the Horizons Math workbook for next year. Matthew will be in first grade. He is already reading very well, so she is going to do a placement test to see what level he is at for reading, before purchasing a reading curriculum.The best part of going to a homeschooling convention is meeting new people. There are so many different type of homeschoolers: those that use mostly unit studies, unschoolers, bible based schoolers, etc. It is so fun to hear what works for others and to learn about how they homeschool in their familes.

I can't wait until the St. Louis Homeschool Expo 2010!

Hooked On Fridays: Homeschool Convention

I am posting this tonight, because I will be participating in Unplug Friday at A Soft Place To Land tomorrow. I will not be on the computer from midnight to midnight. It's going to be rough and I'm not sure how I'll survive. (nervously laughing)Anyway, I am hooked on Homeschool Conventions this week. Tonight I attended the St. Louis Homeschool Expo. The exhibit hall was opened this evening and was filled with various vendors. My sister and I had a great time picking up information and learning about new products.

I'm really like the Math-U-See materials, especially the starter blocks.

My sister purchased the a Flying the Skies lapbooking unit study set from Hands Of A Child. My nephew will love it!


Tomorrow, we will attend a few of the workshops. I will be back here on Saturday to tell you all about the convention!

What are you hooked on this week? To participate, head to Hooked On Houses.

Please Pray for Baby Stellan

Please pray for baby Stellan. He was diagnosed with heart problems when he was only 20 weeks along in the womb. Miraculously, he was born full term and completely healthy. (read his whole story here)

Unfortunately, not yet 5 month old, Stellan is back in the hospital with the same heart problems he was showing in the womb.

For the latest updates, go to his family blog: My Charming Kids.

For a prayer vigil, head to Praying For Stellan.

Also, a name gallery was set up for Stellan before he was born. Lauren at Knowing Norrah has started Stellan's Gallery: Part 2. Click the link for more information and to enter a picture. There are already over 70 pictures!

Today, we received the count and sort math manipulatives that we won over at ABC & 123. What great timing:
Abby and I spelled out Stellan with the jewels and then the buttons.

We are thinking of you baby Stellan!

Printing Practice

Matthew came over today, so I decided to try a new project with the kids.

Abby likes to write and is at the table writing a letter to someone at least twice a day. She also uses her chalkboard easel often. However, I am always looking for creative ways to work on her printing skills, to make them more legible.

So, I was very excited when I saw ABC & 123's post on Tuesday about Printing. As always, the post was filled with great ideas! I love the Wet, Dry, Try method that was suggested. I bought some sponges today to cut up. The Tic-Tac-Toe game is also a great idea and would be simple and easy to do. Note to self: Remember that next time we are in a waiting room!

Suddenly, reading the post reminded me of an activity I have seen before. Shaving Cream Letters! Since we don't have any shaving cream, I opted for sugar. I put a bit on a small plate for each child.

Then, I showed them how to make letters in the sugar and then shake the plate to erase them.

**The last 2 pics, show the word CAT**

We practiced letters, numbers and a few words, before Matthew decided to make Optimus Prime's head and Abby decided she would, "Make squiggles instead." LOL!

Be sure to visit ABC & 123 for today's post on Letter Identification.

For more ideas on reinforcing printing skills and letter identification, check out this list from Mrs. Alphabet.

Works For Me Wednesday: Label Cloud

Check out my label cloud in the left sidebar! Pretty neat, huh?

I saw one on another blog and wanted to make one, so I googled and googled until I found the right code!

Check out this post from phydeaux3. The instructions are very easy to follow. There are even tips on how to change the font colors and sizes to customize the look to your blog.

The link for the color chart on that post doesn't work, so use this color chart.

To see what works for everyone else this week, head over to We Are THAT Family.

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I'm thinking about changing the template for Our Nifty Notebook. I've been practicing with the codes on my old blog, so I don't mess up everything here and I'm starting to chicken out on the whole thing!

Change is hard for me. LOL! So, you may or may not see some changes here soon.

Outdoor Phonics & Nature Walk

Wow, today was a beautiful day! We took the Rocket Phonics materials outside to do our phonics lesson.
We then went for a nature walk and took pictures of SPRING! The Bradford Pears just bloomed last week. They are so pretty, but why do they have to smell like formaldehyde? Every Spring when they bloom, I am reminded of the time I was 6 months pregnant and attended a funeral. After the funeral, we headed to the cemetery for the burial. Being pregnant, my sense of smell was heightened. I was at the cemetery watching a burial and all I could smell was formaldehyde! I was getting sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I kept looking around to see if it was bothering anyone else, but no one seemed to notice. It wasn't until much later that I learned the smell was from the newly blooming Bradford Pears and not uh, something else.

Our nature walk turned out to be pretty fun. I was just expecting some flowers and trees, but this little guy really surprised us. I was walking and holding Abby's hand, when all of a sudden she stopped and I nearly tripped over her. He was running so fast! I'm surprised the picture turned out. I had to zoom in quite a bit.
We just looked up lizards of Missouri and found this article. I think it is a:

Five-lined Skink

Average total length is 6.5 inches. Often called the "blue-tailed" skink, this is Missouri's most common skink. It has five light lines from the head to the base of the tail. Adult females have brighter stripes than adult males.

During the breeding season in late spring, males have bright orange on their heads. Hatchlings and those under a year of age have brilliant cobalt-blue tails. Five-lined skinks live in forests statewide, except for the northwest corner.

Do you have lizards near you?

If The Shoe Fits...

I wanted to let everyone who read my Works For Me Wednesday post last week, that the ballet shoes worked! Abby had NO feet issues (I wish I could say the same for myself) and the shoes matched her dress so well!


This is my first time trying this, but I'm going to embed a slide show. Let's hope it works!

View Album

Get your own

The wedding was a lot of fun! Abby did pretty well for staying up so late. She is usually in bed by 8 p.m. and the wedding didn't start until 6 p.m. You can tell by the pictures that she was starting to get tired. Plus, the music was way too loud. You couldn't even hear someone talking 6 inches from you! It was so loud that it was distorted, but we still had fun. Somehow, I was able to keep baby Andrew asleep through most of it. Note the blanket over his ear! LOL!

Isn't it fun to see everyone dressed up? As Abby said, "Matthew looked so handsome!" The little girl with Abby is my cousin's (she's in the green dress) daughter, Lauryn. I almost typed niece, because we are so close. She was the cutest flower girl I've ever seen!

Ultimate Blog Party is Underway!

The 5 Minutes For Mom Ultimate Blog Party has begun! There are tons of different prizes to win this year!

My favorites are: (I had to update this list. Somehow, I only saw the first 80 prizes, there are tons more!)

#89- $100 gift card to Homegoods, from HG Open house

USC 26- $50 gift voucher to Hatley

INTL 49- Let's Get Ready For Kindergarten & First Grade, from Cedar Valley Publishing

USC 58- Handmade Retro Apron from Kati at Country Girl, City Life and Boojiboo

USC 65- Custom Halter from SweetTeaShoppe

#127- gift certificate for a year's membership to ListPlanIt

INTL 36- Custom Blog Design from Sara*s Pixel Studio

INTL 23- Blog Makeover from Busy Mama Blog Design

#19- $50 gift card to Target, from Shoot Me Now!

USC 30- A set of Flashcard Zoo Alphabet Cards

What a fun event! To check out all of the party links, head over to The Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

Um, I didn't introduce myself. How rude of me! I'm Jenny, a SAHM to Abby who will be 5 in May. My husband Dave and I will celebrate our 8 year anniversary this August. Where does the time go? This picture was just taken yesterday before we went to my cousin's wedding.

I started this blog as a place for me to document our homeschooling and family adventures. I have really enjoyed blogging and getting to "know" other bloggers. There are so many wonderful resources to be found on the internet!

Thanks for stopping by and nice to meet you!

Random Picture Challenge

This week's Random Picture Challenge from 4 little men and girly twins is:

3rd Folder
1st picture with the color BROWN

This is our house! We took this picture in July of 2004, before we had closed on it. I wish the yard still looked this nice. The man that lived here before us must have spent all of his time on it. You might not be able to tell, but the rocks are a reddish brown and the brick has brown accents. I actually hate brown, so this was all I could find with brown in it. LOL!

Hooked On Fridays: ABC & 123

This week, I am hooked on the ABC & 123 site.

Katie, at A Listmaker's Life and Katie, from Katie's Nesting Spot have put together this wonderful learning cooperative.

From the site:

ABC and 123 is a Learning Cooperative

A place to
…collect & borrow teaching tools
…share & receive inspiration
…explore & review professional resources
for
…those who love to learn & teach
…those with lots of time & those with limited time to invest in their children

Our goal is to COOPERATE with you, our friends & readers, to create a valuable LEARNING resource.

ABC & 123 has been a great resource for me. Our Nifty Notebook has been featured twice! Once for our Alphabet Photo Book and again for our Conversation Hearts Activity.

I also won Tuesday's giveaway for learning manipulatives.

So, if you haven't stopped by ABC & 123 yet, head there now! Check out the left sidebar for their upcoming monthly themes. I'm really looking forward to see the Easter ideas. Also, enter to win one of their great giveaways.

What are you Hooked On this week? Go to Hooked On Houses to join the party!

Our Backyard by Abby & An Interview

The other morning, Abby stood at her easel in the kitchen and drew a picture of our backyard. She told me she made the clouds purple, so I would like them better. LOL! I love how the robin has an orange belly! Those are musical notes above the blue bird. She even went back and added some dirt and grass at the bottom.

Here's our backyard:
We sometimes have up to a dozen deer at a time out there. We've also seen turkeys, turtles, tons of squirrels, birds and chipmunks. Awhile back, we bought The Backyard Birdsong Guide for Abby. It's a great audio book and Abby can now recognize many birds she hears. Plus, it has helped her learn to recognize numbers, since you have to read the number on the page and push the button until you get to the right button for the correct bird.

Now totally unrelated, but I came across a hilarious post over at A Listmaker's Life.

So here is my interview with Abby:

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
Listening

3. What makes mom sad?
Not listening
4. How does mom make you laugh?
Sing funny songs

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Me

6. How old is your mom?
29, she's right.

7. How tall is your mom?
5 inches (LOL)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Do something on the computer and play with me.

9. What does mom do when you're not around?
(This one confused her, because I'm always around!) She finally said, "Go with Dad."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Me (Gee, a little self-confident!)

11. What is mom really good at?
Playing with me.

12. What is mom not very good at?
Playing Branson. Only Matthew is good at playing Branson.

13. What does mom do for her job?
Take care of me.

14. What is mom's favorite food? Chicken (That would be very low on my list)

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Cause I love you.

16. How do you know mom loves you?
Because you are my best mommy ever in the whole wide world.

Too funny!