Top 11 of 2011

Thanks, Kelly for posting about this fun link up!




I'm going to go in chronological order.  This first one is from April.



Abby and her cousin Matthew are best friends.  I love that I captured a Matthew face.

This next picture was taken on our trip to Florida to see Dave's parents in April:



I had to include the one taken 5 years before, since it is the reason I love it!  This was taken at the same spot in the same restaurant.

Good Friday:



We all went to my Mom's to dye Easter eggs.  This is Abby and almost all of her cousins.

Abby's 7th birthday:



June



Abby and Kitty:



July 4th:



First day of school:



October:



This year's Christmas card picture:



Abby and Kako:



It's so fun to look back at pictures from the year.  Abby hasn't changed much, but right now she has a lose tooth on top.

Head to Naptime Momtog to participate in the Top 11 of 2011.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas!





For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:


Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

**The digital papers are from Fiona Jardine.**

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

We will be taking a bit of a break and will start back to homeschooling January 9th.

Christmas Countdown: Days 15-25

For days 1-7, click here.

For days 8-14, click here.

December 15

• Make Matthew's Lego ornament

Our church had an event right after Thanksgiving about Advent Conspiracy.  They had different stations and one of them  had ideas of gifts you can make or give to a loved one where you are giving more and spending less.  Of the many handmade ideas, one was of a Lego ornament.  It was basically a few Legos stacked up with a clear plastic up over them.  Kind of like a snow globe, without snow.

Anyway, Abby decided she had to make that for Matthew.  I changed up the materials a bit and this is what she made:



Abby wrote a special message to Matthew on the front and on the back she wrote, "I love you".  It's so cute and Matthew really liked it!

The ornament is a more flat ornament, than a globe ornament.  I figured it would take less Legos to fill it nicely.  These can be found at Michael's.

December 16

• Wrap Dad's presents

I wanted to be sure we got these wrapped while he was at work.  She did a pretty good job of wrapping this year.



That's Uma in a shopping bag.  She really likes to get in on the action. LOL!

Abby also helped me decorate the sugar cookies:

I had outlined all but one.  She did really good at outlining her cookie!

December 17

• Christmas party

 

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad's side of the family on Saturday.   I also put a miniature Reese's PB cup in her box for the day.

December 18

• Christmas party

Sunday was Christmas with my Mom's side of the family.

 

December 19

• Christmas Craft

 

I found the cupcake ornament kit at Michael's.  Abby made the cupcakes and then made a swing for Kitty with the ornament string and cardboard in the box.  Those Tinkertoys that Santa got her for Christmas 4 years ago are still used every single day!

December 20

• Read Christmas books by the fireplace

That was the plan, but my Mom and I decided to meet up at Kohl's on Tuesday evening.  She let Abby pick out things for me and Dave for Christmas.  It will be so funny to find out what she found.

December 21

I didn't have anything in the box today.  I had something planned and then it changed and I forgot to fill the box.  I just told Abby that what I had didn't fit in the box, which is true.  I gave her the book The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever and a Reese's Tree.

Here's what we have planned for the rest of the days until Christmas:

 December 22

• Decorate a gingerbread house with Dad

They have already made one, but we have another kit in the basement.  This one has 3 smaller houses to decorate.

December 23

•  Take a Christmas lights drive

Here's a few from the other night:

No, that's not our house.  It's sure pretty though.  Abby wanted me to take a picture of it and of those nativity scenes. 

December 24

• Christmas service at church and dinner with my family

There are 17 different services for Christmas at our church over 3 days.  We will go to the 1 p.m. on Saturday.  Dave works on the tech team at church, so he'll work the 3, 5 and 7 p.m.  Abby and I will be on our own for the evening, so we'll go out with my family for dinner!  I'm hoping for a decent bed time, so she gets lots of sleep before Christmas day.

December 25

• Mini Reese's PB Cup

...and presents!  We'll have Christmas together and then at noon, my family will come over to celebrate with us.  We do a Merry Jammy Christmas, where we wear our pajamas all day!

Head to Sugarplum Creations for more Christmas Countdown posts:



Have a great Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

This looks like a goofy pic, but there's a story behind it.  The other night while showering, I was thinking of something annoying a lady said to me while we were out.  I was obsessing over what I wish I would have said and how rude she was.  I grabbed the soap and noticed there was some on my finger.  I looked and there it was...a cute little soap heart.

It may sound hokey, but I felt like God was trying to tell me to let it go.

Now the funny part:  I thought it was so cute that I wanted to take a picture of it.  I finished my shower, using one hand to shave, wash my hair and grab the camera before I messed it up.  LOL!

Dave looked at me like I was nuts when I came out of the shower with my towel asking for the camera.  ROTF!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:


Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Christmas Countdown: Days 8-14

To see days 1-7, click here. 

December 8

• Make Christmas shaped pancakes for dinner

 

These are supposed to be a mitten and a Christmas tree.  I didn't realize that most of my cookie cutters were plastic and these were the only metal cutters I had.  Abby thought they were neat though.

December 9

•  Go to Grandma's house

It was already planned that my sister and I would have a day out, so that's what I put in Abby's countdown.  My Mom works full time, so Abby doesn't get to spend the day their often.  My Mom was off work and offered to watch the kids for Heather and I to go out.  We had so much fun!  The kids did too, there were toys everywhere when we got back.  LOL!

December 10

• Decorate a gingerbread house with Dad

This is something Dave and Abby do together each year.   Dave noted that every year, she helps a little bit more.


As you can see, they ran out of icing for the sides.   Dave did the design on the back, but Abby did the rest.

December 11

• Begin reading A Christmas Carol

I have a paperback version I bought years ago and I thought it would be fun for us to read together as a family.  I got about 5 pages in and that's it.  Abby didn't quite understand what was going on.  I hadn't read the book since 5th grade and had forgotten about how the language used is so much different than today's.  I love the movie and I also enjoy seeing it live when it is put on at the local theatre.  Dave and I wanted to take Abby this year, but we will wait until next year.  We're afraid she'll be too afraid of the ghost thing.  

December 12

• Christmas crafts with Matthew & Andy

 My sister Heather brought her boys over to make ornaments and hand print/footprint angels:



We also made some reindeer thumbprint ornaments as seen on Little Bit Funky.  Obviously, they would have looked better on lighter colored ornaments, but those are all we had.

December 13

• Mom's Birthday!  Go to dinner with Mom and Dad

We hardly ever go to dinner.  We go to lunch a lot during the week with Heather and her boys and also on the weekend, just the 3 of us.   So, I knew going out to dinner would be something special.  



That's my yummy little birthday cake we enjoyed after dinner.

December 14

• Make peppermint bark

 Everyone makes peppermint bark in a princess crown, right?  Abby hates the smell of mint and peppermint, but she enjoyed crushing them up.

Abby also colored week 2 of the Advent Coloring Book.  Of course, I forgot to get a picture of this.  We read the bible verse, John 14:6 while she colored.

Head to Sugarplum Creations for more Christmas Countdown posts!

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Pic

The 13th was my birthday!  Abby, Dave and I went out to dinner at Red Robin.  I love their nachos.  Or should I say loved their nachos.  They no longer make them the same way, so I went with a bacon cheddar burger.  It was good, but I missed the nachos.

Dave had stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and picked up a little chocolate cake and a little fruit tart for us to share after dinner.  They were so yummy!

He was using my camera and didn't put the flash on, so this is the best I could do with editing the picture.  It was mostly black.  LOL!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:

Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review: Decemeber 5-9

We've been having a lot of fun with our Christmas countdown.  You an see our activities from last week here.  I'll post days 9-15 on Thursday.

Math

Abby started lesson 21 in Math U See.

As you can see, Abby tried to pull a fast one on me and change a few from subtraction to addition.  I had her erase that and do the correct problems.

Social Studies

In Heritage Studies, Abby did lesson 36:  By Order of the King in which she learned about rules/laws and about William III.

Lesson 37 and 38 were about the French and Indian wars. 

For this notebook page, I read Abby questions and she was to color in the answers.  At the end, she saw that the answers were in the shape of an "E", for England.

This brought up taxes and then lead into lesson 39 about George Washington.

For this page, Abby colored in the squares that were true.  These spelled out HERO to describe George Washington.

Science

Abby finished up lesson 10 in Apologia Anatomy and Physiology.  She did an anatomy identification page and also a brain mini book.

I was really proud of Abby with this.  I hadn't read the words to her and she labeled "temporal lobe" and "spinal cord" correctly!  She wanted us to take turns, so I did "frontal lobe" and she did "nerves".  I then did "occipital lobe" and she did "parietal lobe".  Seriously, I might frame this.  LOL!

Language Arts

Abby did lesson 21 in A Reason For Handwriting.   For some reason, I forgot to get a pic of this.

She also did grammar worksheets on end punctuation and abbreviations.

Reading

She continued with Explode The Code, book 5.

 
We also finished reading Mike's Mystery and began Blue Bay Mystery in the Boxcar Children series.  We will continue to read these in order until Abby gets bored with them.  LOL!

Misc.

We kept busy this past week.  We ran errands on Monday and went to the mall with Heather and her boys on Tuesday.  We stayed home on Wednesday and Thursday and I cleaned house.  Friday, my Mom watched Heather's boys and Abby for Heather and I to do some Christmas shopping. 

We went to the Scholastic Book Fair, out to lunch, Target, Toys R Us, Kohl's, Family Christian Bookstore and Walgreens.

Isn't it amazing how much you can get done without little feet?

For some reason, it takes Abby forever to get into and out of her carseat.  I usually feel like I could be finished shopping by the time it takes her to get out.  LOL!

Christmas Countdown, Days 1-7

Our Christmas countdown has begun.  Here's our advent countdown:

I bought this at Target on clearance 3 or 4 years ago.  Not much fits in the little doors, but I've found that mini Reese's cups do and so do small strips of paper!  I have activities planned for each day. Some of the days also include a Reese's cup.

Here's what we've done so far:

December 1

• Help Mom put up outdoor Christmas lights

I had been watching the weather and it was going to be a perfect day for putting the lights out.  It was in the 50's.  Abby and I worked on it for a few hours and had it done in time to surprise Dave when he got home.

I wanted to take a picture of the lights, but I never got around to it.

December 2

• Watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn

That was the plan.  However, Thursday night we found Dave's doctor called to schedule an endoscopy on Friday morning.  I knew Abby and I would be sitting there and waiting, so I packed her school work and a gingerbread foam craft.

Thank goodness I did that.  She loved it.  It kept her busy for most of the waiting.  All of the old ladies walking by loved it too.  LOL!  Oh and Dave's test went well.  He has some inflammation in the stomach.  He is to continue with the Nexium.

Abby did so well while waiting.  It took a bit longer than we had thought it would, so afterwards we went to Burger King.  We got Abby a strawberry shake, since she was so good.  Nothing like a kids meal and a shake.  I had a nice Whopper Jr. meal with a Dr. Pepper.  YUM!

So, we ended up getting home later than we thought.  Abby was so funny, because Dave asked if she wanted to watch a Christmas movie and she said, "I'm too full to eat popcorn."  She thought she had to, since it was on her countdown.  LOL!  We did end up watching The Muppet Family Christmas.  It was Abby's first time seeing it and she loved it.

I almost forgot to mention that Abby also colored the cover page for an Advent Coloring Book.

December 3

• Winter Wonderland horse carriage ride

This is an event at a local park.  I've been before when I was a kid, but it was new for the kids.  My Mom and Dad's Christmas gift to us as a family each year is a wagon ride through Santa's Magical Kingdom.  This year, we decided to change it up and do Winter Wonderland.  We knew the kids would love the horse drawn carriage.  My Mom, Dad, younger sister Holly, older sister Heather and her husband and 2 boys all met there.  We had a 10 person carriage.  It was a nice ride and the weather was perfect.  We usually freeze, but not this year.

This isn't the best picture, but here's our horse:

We then all went back to my Mom and Dad's for a chili dinner.

December 4

• Bass Pro Christmas event

We did this last year and enjoyed it.  The weekends are starting to fill up, so I knew Sunday was the best day for it.  Luckily, Abby did not want to see Santa, because the line was throughout the whole store.  It was probably over an hour long.

Abby made a craft foam ornament, raced remote control cars, rode a wildlife carousel, and more!

December 5

• Play board games together by the fireplace

Abby loves to sit by the fireplace in the winter.  Dave and her set up a little village each year and play with it every night.

 

On this night, we played Strawberry Shortcake Memory and Candyland.

After school work, Abby colored week 1's Advent Coloring Book page.  Again, I forgot to get a pic.

I read the bible verse to her while she colored.

December 6

• Make gingerbread play dough

Who doesn't like yummy smelling play dough?   My sister, Holly was over and she helped us make the gingerbread play dough.  Abby and Holly enjoyed using the cookie cutters:



They wanted to save their creations, so I've left them out on the counter to dry.  They smell so good!  (Oh and sorry about Abby's crazy hair, she had just taken her bath and for some reason, I hadn't combed her hair yet.  LOL!)

December 7

• Read Mortimer's Christmas Manger and make a nativity craft

This is our favorite Christmas book.  After reading the book, we made a manger, using the instructions from We Talk Of Christ We Rejoice in Christ.



Seriously, isn't that cute?!  I didn't have moss, so I cut up pieces of sisal rope for the hay.

We also put up a clearance item from WM last year:

It's a wall decal set.  As you can see, Abby loved putting up the stars in the shape of a heart.  She made the heart have a smiley face as well. 

We've been having a great time with our Christmas countdown.  Abby looks forward to seeing what will come next.

To check out more fun Advent countdown activities and fun, head to:

Sugarplum Creations



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