Tag Archives: Ace

These Kids Amaze Me

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Some quirks from my kids the past couple of months…

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Tuesday, we got new carpet installed in our bonus room (which is the school room, play room, library, craft room, and pile on daddy room).  After it was installed, Mark loaded up Ace for a trip to the “man” store to purchase some things to help finish off the room.  I asked him to get paint a shade darker than what was on my paint sample and handed it to him.  I needed a darker paint to paint the two steps that go down into the bonus room.  Ace and Mark came back soooo excited about this paint.  Only it’s two shades darker.  Because it was called “Cloak & Dagger.”  Not exactly how I choose paint.  I still have yet to see the color and I’m wondering if there is a reason for that.

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When Bryant showed us he was a “he” and not a “she.”  The sonographer scanned up to his face.  He had his hand by his head and waved it back and forth to us.  No joke.  Not sure we got it on video but it was absolutely adorable.  Our kids do crazy things when they get on camera…like Ceili Rain sucking her toes on the ultrasound.  I love it when Mark gets to feel the first kicks.

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Bryant also decided that since we got to see him, he’d also let us “feel” him.  I’ve been feeling him move for about two to three weeks now, but of course, it’s been my own little kick fest party.  Last night, as we got ready for bed, I told Mark that he was having a little dance going on and I could feel it with my hands.  Mark then was able to feel him.  I actually think he was kicking and punching.  I think his personality is going to fit very well into our little Characters.

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As our friend, Scott, was helping us move furniture in and out of the playroom after (he also helped us before the furniture install).  Liam woke up from his nap and came down to the bonus room.

“Uh, Mr. Scott.  Did you know we have Cooties?”

Fortunately, he had the Cooties game in his hands so there was little need for explanation there.

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Zoe’s memory is just a little scary…

Sitting at lunch discussing nutrition with her brothers (no joke) she spouts out that you need 2000 calories per day to maintain a healthy diet.

Liam’s eating part of a Three Musketeers bar (yes, I know it’s healthy) she says, “It’s a Three Musketeers bar.  A lighter way to enjoy chocolate!”

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What We’ve Been Up To: School Version

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So we’re in the ends of God’s Design for Animals.  The kids are thoroughly enjoying it.  We’ve made lots of models including these:

In case you can’t tell, it’s marshmallow arachnids!  We also enjoyed a little marshmallow snack too.  Who says Science is boring??

Spider & Scorpion
Josiah made his all by his self…it must have fallen in the nuclear waste!
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Snow Videos

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You’ve seen the pictures…and because I can’t bore you enough…here’s the videos!  Now, don’t freak and “x” me out.  There’s only three. I decided to not include the video where Mark decided to belch in the middle of my snow fight with Ace and Liam (you’ll miss Liam getting mad that I pelted him with snow and then wanting to throw snow at me).  Nor did I include the video where I was ranting about crazy drivers trying to drive fast (in our residential area) through the snow and slush when they are in the South.

Without further ado…what we look like in action when it snows!

Fowin’ Snow from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

Here’s my conversation with Josiah if you can’t understand him on the video.

“Siah, whatcha doin?”
“Frowin’ Snow”  scoops up a big ol’ handful and gets pelted by Liam and then Ace.  “At Acccce!”

Zoe and Ace were practicing their business skills selling snow novelties!

Future Business Leaders from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

This video is funny on at least two different levels.  First, Ceili Rain is so cute and when you say, “Yea!”  She’ll clap.  Mark got her to do it for the camera and was holding the camera and her at the same time.  Secondly, when Mark and I watched it last night, we realized how funny we sound when we talk “baby talk”  to her.  Mark is quite funny demonstrating this!  “Ahhh goo goo gaa gaa.”

Baby Talk and Clapping from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

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Let it Snow!

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Because this is the first snow my children have ever seen.

Because this is the first time we’ve had snow like this since we moved here (with the exception of like 1 to 2 inches when we first moved to this area…nine years ago).

I’m about to unload a lot of pictures!  Get ready to see some snow folks.  This is Zoe when it just started coming down around 2 p.m.

Mid afternoon in our backyard…the snow in our area never stopped until late that evening.
Josiah stood at the window watching it fall and stated, “Whoa.  Dat’s a lot!”
Around six o’clock at night!  The kids could not wait and frankly, we just knew it would melt before they could play in it the following day.  And yes, we made Ceili Rain get out in it too!  All through supper she was staring at the window trying to figure out why everything was changing colors(at least that’s what she said in babytalk).
The boys just had to snowball fight…they actually didn’t make snowballs but just scooped it up and threw it!
See??
The best I could do with the camera in the dark.  It was hard to get it to flash at the right focus…the snowflakes were falling pretty hard.
Yeah, I was cold, had a cold, and very wet!
The first snowman.  As stated earlier, the boys didn’t want to make a snowman…they just wanted to throw snow…so the snowman was made by Mark and Zoe.
We measured it at about 8 that night.  Almost at 4 inches.
Sunny’s first big snow too!  She wasn’t quite sure what to think.  Notice the see saw??
Insert Cei Rai cute picture break here…
She loved watching her brothers and sister in the snow.
The next morning it was still there!  All SIX inches of it!
It was beautiful too!
 

Of course, the kids had to get back out in it….

And the boys had to throw more snow.

And, after talking to Papa via Skype and seeing his Shriner’s snowman, had to try and build one bigger than his!

And we had to sit our little Snow Bunny* in the snow…

“Who you lookin’ at???”
Ceili Rain got to visit Zoe’s mini snowman that she made, “All by herself.”

*Yes, “Snow Bunny” has socks on her hands.  Being that we live in the South we don’t need to find mittens, thick coats, and thick snow clothes for our children.  This snowfall was the most our area has seen in over thirty years!  So, socks it was!  She didn’t seem to mind too much especially when the camera was pointed at her.
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Back to our Regularly Scheduled Program…

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Now that we are all “back to normal” (whatever normal is).  I’ll share pictures from Liam’s birthday party.  We went low key, as I’ve stated earlier, because our plans changed so quickly.  We asked him who he wanted over for his party and he chose Kristina and her family.  So them, with Super Wy and mom, we had ourselves a party.  Pirate themed, of course.  Zoe and I lucked out the morning of  the party and found some cute plates and napkins that were not the Pirates of the Carribean type pirates and picked up plates and napkins.  Legos helped serve as our “decoration” for the cake.  He loved it!
 
Mark’s our resident cake letter writer.
Okay, so he enjoyed sampling the icing too.

So did Josiah.
After cake, ice cream (which was Mayfield and I happened upon for like $2 at Kroger…I love deals like that), we loaded everyone up and headed to our resident Putt-Putt Center which is all of two minutes from our house.  Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy being in the city?  I don’t take our short car rides for granted people…and Liam with brother, dad, Jack (okay he didn’t make it all the way in), Laura, and their dad played Laser Tag.  Zoe was going in but changed her mind halfway through.  So, Tracy took her place (that’s Super Wy’s mom).

All suited up.  Not sure how he hefted that big thing around but he made it through.

Ace was pretty pumped as well.

Laura (in the background) all suited up!

This is what I got to do while Kristina changed a dirty diaper from Jumpin’ James!  They almost look like triplets, except Super Wy is supposed to be smaller since he’s only five months old!

Miss Meg Meg just chillin’

I caught Super Wy at the end of a smile.  He’s still adorable.
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Mark and the TP Saga

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Mark is volunteering with the Kindergarten Awana Sparks this year.  A couple of weeks ago, I believe all the leaders got together, laughed a maniacal laugh, and chose to reward children who said a lot of verses.  The reward:  toilet paper to TP the Awana leader of your choice.  Mark was one of the ones selected.  Looks good on him, no?!

Ace was so proud of his mummy daddy.

Ace’s friend K, was pretty pumped about getting Mr. Mark as well.
*These were taken with Mark’s phone so please excuse the quality but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post pictures of Mark and toilet paper!*
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Christmas with Ge & Granddaddy

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The Sunday after Christmas, Ge and Granddaddy came up for the afternoon.  Of course, more gifts and Ge and Granddaddy to play with was pretty exciting for the kids.
 
Liam trying to wait patiently to open gifts.
 
Zoe was excited to have a digital clock for her room…and one that changes colors no less.  Every time I go in to the girls’ room her clock is a different color.
 
Ace got more “boy” books.  Which is good, he’s finally gotten up enough courage to attempt to read a chapter book.  He picked Robin Hood.  So far, I think he’s enjoying it.  We just need to get him a book light so he can read at night.
 
I just had to post this, because of Granddaddy’s face.  I think it’s inherited…sticking out your tongue while trying to work on something….the kids and I all do it too.
 
This is one of those squishy toys.  Ace has named it “Meme” and is his sidekick in battle.
 
Ceili Rain wanted to play with the wrapping paper more than the presents! 
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Celebrating Christmas with Papa & Grandmere

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The kids were super pumped that Grandmere and Papa made a Christmas day appearance…not just the gifts but seeing the grandparents pretty much rocks for them!

Mark and I are thrilled that Ceili Rain is now going to someone else besides us.  She is enjoying visiting with her Papa & Grandmere more and more.

It stopped raining Christmas afternoon and Liam got to test out his new wheels…with a look of concentration.

Josiah got chaffeur service from Papa.

Zoe got a lot of one on one with Daddy as she learns to ride her big bike!

And Ceili Rain snuck in some snuggle time with Papa…before declaring herself ready to be back in Mama’s arms.

Getting ready to open gifts…closing eyes was a prereq…this year.
A big cool gift this year was a new video camera.  It’s like the Flip cameras in that it’s small and hd.  I LOVE it!  It’s small, easy to carry around, and holds a bunch of video thanks to the larger memory card Mark got me.  Oh, and it’s for both of us…not just me (so they say 🙂
Ceili Rain had to test out her new crinkly dolly toy.

Josiah got a book with a train in it. Surprised??  Nah!

Liam getting excited over his turn to open presents.

Ace checking out his new book.

Papa & Grandmere with their calendar.
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Uggghhhh and Homeschooling in the New Year

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I spent time, gathered and posted two different things for yesterday…all done on Tuesday.   And somehow they disappeared!  I’m so frustrated.  It was pictures of the kids with grandparents for Christmas.  So, look for those posts tomorrow.  However, since we’re starting back to school on Monday, I decided to update what we’ll be doing for the second part of the year!

Zoe:  Character Quality Language Arts Level Pre-A, Green Series.  This is a language arts series that has no frills but is straightforward in teaching grammar, writing, dictation, reviewing phonics, comprehension, reading, etc.  It’s going to be a tough couple of months as adjust from Abeka phonics and reading and spelling to this…however, I think it’s going to be the challenge Zoe’s been lacking.  At the end of this month, for example, she’ll be writing her first book report!  Not only is it great in teaching language arts, it’s also chock-ful of character traits in relationship to the Bible.  Yippee!  That’s more than a two-fer to me!

Ace: Will continue with K5 Phonics with Abeka although I’m struggling to make it more challenging.  He’ll finish it up early this year because of how much he’s taken off!  I can’t wait to see it.

Liam:  Is continuing with gross and fine motor skill building along with cognitive skills.  He’s also going to start K4 Phonics with Abeka again.  We tried it in August and he wasn’t quite ready.  So, we’ll try again and see how it goes.  He really is ready to start writing and we’ll probably work on that “informally” as well.

As for the rest of the subjects for Zoe and Ace:

Math:  Saxon Math 1…Zoe’s already figuring out multiplication facts but we still need to work on basic math such as the addition and subtraction of single and double digits.  As well as the $$ part of math…so, we’ll continue while she continues thinking about multiplication and we help her figure that out.  She’ll fly through the times tables when we get there.

History/Geography:  We’ll spend January covering Georgia history with a neat packet I got at the homeschool conference last year.  Then, because I noticed the kids had no clue how to locate, say, their HOME state, on a map, we are starting Geography.  This is where their group Christmas present will get a workout…a SmartGlobe from Oregon Scientific.  We’ll be using Beginning Geography workbooks from Evan Moor for this study!

Science:  Continuing with the most awesome Answers in Genesis God’s Design for Life.

We’re adding two new things this year.

Music:  My mom gave us a child’s 8 note set of handbells and so, the kids will be learning very simple music theory and music with those…they are thrilled with the gift and can’t wait to learn it.

Spanish:  We have recently befriended a new minister and his family that has come to our area.  They will be starting a Spanish speaking church plant which is much needed…there are few, if any, Protestant Spanish speaking churches in our area…and they are much needed. Their family is precious and they share much of the same values and beliefs we have (as far as family and the church goes)…Mark has remarked that he’d love to attend their church if we could only understand what he was saying!!!  Don’t freak out church friends…their services are in the afternoons and I’m not saying we’re really going to change churches 🙂  However, we’ve offered to help them but our services are pretty limited because of the language barrier…so, if we can overcome that, we’d be a much better help and we’d all be able to particpate in this ministry not just Mark and I.  And so, we are using Teach Them Spanish! to get started and probably something a little more intense once the kids (and us) pick up on it!

Looks pretty packed but it’s not too much.  Our music and Spanish will only be once a week so that should make it a little easier for us.  I’m looking forward to all the challenges that the rest of this school year will bring.  We’ll finish up with school the first part of June, pending any interruptions or family events.

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