Surprise!

Last week, we were surprised with a visit from my sister and her family who were headed home from a wedding and decided to swing by our house for a few days. 

My boys just love that little man!

Hi! I'm one!

Family photo! (minus Dan... Someone has to work around here! Lol!)

Silly one

Gotta love coolmath-games.com :)

No Josiah!!!  Hahaha!

Soergels with AWANA

Hayride up to the pumpkin field

AWANA friends

Don't you just love fall?

Decisions, decisions...

Making dinner

 The boys were proud of themselves for making dinner on their own. 

The finished product. 

Color

Until we studied color last week, I had forgotten how fascinating colors are.  The boys made color wheels, mixing their own secondary colors.  They loved mixing a little more blue or a little more yellow until they got the exact green they wanted.  My lesson plans also included introducing pastels, but we did not get to do that.  Dan said, "That's ok, we're a bold color family anyway."  Haha!  We will fit in pastels this week. 



Color wheels



Celophane in primary colors clung to the doors.  The boys enjoyed combining two blues and one yellow, or two yellows and one red to make varying shades of secondaries.  Then they looked through their colors at the blue (or whatever color!) world outside. 

Phipps for Free!

The boys watching one of the tuba players from the River City Brass Band

 Nothing like getting four free tickets when you're already at a free concert.  :)  Our family will be attending a River City Brass concert sometime this season. 

 The boys loved touching and smelling so many plants and flowers. 

Jungle animals...

This flower smelled like chocolate!

Like the science center, Phipps was more crowded than normal but still enjoyable.  I couldn't help but think how nice it is to have big kids who have the endurance to walk all around for two hours, have fun, and learn some stuff, too. We went at our own pace, and stayed in the children's discovery garden for quite a while.  They played hide and seek with some other children and splashed around in the fountains.  Overall, a fun, relaxing afternoon. 

Birthday Weekend

Friday...

The Lighthouse had a dinner and silent auction gala in Butler.  We don't get this dressed up often!   The gala was a fun time to talk to lots of Lighthouse supporters and raised $6500+. 

Saturday...

Dan and I had lunch on the patio at Shiloh Grill on Mt. Washington.  This is remarkable, because Dan never wants to dine outside.  However, it was the absolutely perfect weather.  We shared a "Cheeses of Nazareth," a generous cheese, meat, and bread plate and shared pound cake for dessert.  Then we walked along Grandview Avenue seeing the spectacular view of the city.  We perused a book sale at the Carnegie Library before heading back to pick up the boys. 

Sunday...

After church and a delicious soup lunch, Dan, the boys, and I took advantage of free admission at the Carnegie Science Center.  I ran into a former student along with hundreds of other people.  Haha!  The boys didn't seem to mind the chaos and can't wait to go back on a less crowded day. 

Then we boarded the Gateway Clipper for a  relaxing sightseeing tour.  Sam was tired by this point, but Isaiah was interested in the tour guide's talk and asked lots of questions about the buildings and how the boat works and all sorts of things.  We enjoyed dinner at Chili's, and the day was rounded out with a Steeler win!  To top it all off, a blogger I read often notified me that I won a book about a single mom's adoption story.  Score! 

And so begins a new year...

AWANA part 2

Sam is unpredictable in his wild swings of independence and clinginess, so I wasn't sure how he would do without me.  He was excited to show off his favorite puppy for "Bring a Stuffed Animal" night.  He bounded into his Cubbies (3 years old -preschool) room, showing the leader his puppy and never looked back.  No tears.  No clinging.  :)  At the end of the night, Sam was wearing his Cubbie vest and had his Cubbie book.  He had said his verse like a champ.  Turns out, he's pretty good at memorizing.  But the best part (in the eyes of a three-year-old)?  The kids take turns bringing the stuffed Cubbie bear home for a week, and it's Sam's turn.  When I put Sam in bed and closed his door last night, he was so happy to be sleeping with Cubbie, he was giggling to himself. 
I stayed to help with Isaiah's Sparks (K-2) group last night.  First they had class time, where each child had to recite John 3:16 in order to get his/her vest, book 1, and bag at the end of the evening.  Then they headed into the gym with the other three Sparks teams to play some fun and fast-paced games.  Last was the story (explanation of John 3:16) and song time. 
Both Cubbies and Sparks have motivational reward patches for scripture memory and other things like bringing friends.  To adults, they seem like silly gimicks, but the kids really get into the patches.  And they're memorizing God's word at the same time. 

Soergel's

We've been studying and reading about farm animals this week.  So we went to Soergel's to look at their animals and have some fun.  I might need to attend the next meeting of NA (Nerds Anonymous) after standing there with our farm animal book, helping the boys identify what types of cows, sheep, goats, chickens, etc we were looking at.  :)  After the studying was done, the boys scampered all over the wooden tractor, pirate ship, train, etc.  Use up that energy, boys!  Then you should have seen Isaiah's face when he tried the sample of apple cider.  Priceless!  He LOVED it.  We went home with two gingerbread cookies, an apple cider doughnut (YUM!) and a half gallon of apple cider and fun memories. 


Sunflowers!





Playing on the tractor

 

Sam caught the bandit. :)

Beautiful Holstein calf

Natili's Pizza

Tonight we met up with some friends, Al from Catholic Charities, his wife and son, at Natili's new pizza restaurant in Butler.  The margherita pizza with giant tomato slices and just the right amount of fresh basil was divine.  The crust was remarkable: doughy, soft, light, and thick but not heavy or greasy.  I had a few bites of the boys' pepperoni pizza, and the sauce had a great flavor.  Natili's opened this third location earlier this year.  The owner uses his Italian grandmother's recipes.  He was in the pizza shop while we were there, came to our table, and inspected the bottom (yes the bottom!) of our crust to make sure it was just right.  We insisted that it was.  He eyed the boys' pizza and thought the crust looked a little thin.  You have to appreciate a man who demands excellence!  :)  Although Butler is pretty far away (or does it just seem far?!) Natili's pizza is worth the drive. 

Would you like this with your tea?

Over the past ten years, I've taught piano to varying combinations of a particular family's six children.  I have come to love and deeply respect this family.  I've modeled many of my own parenting/homeschooling/teaching styles after what I have observed at their home.  

They always offer me tea with something, usually a sweet yummy.  So far, the most unusual side they offered with my tea was peanut m&ms.  Until today...

The second-to-youngest, 8-year-old E, came into the living room.  With his hands behind his back and a smirk on his face that I should have noticed sooner, he said, "Mrs. Borchert, would you like this with your tea?" and produced a plate with a dead chipmunk on it.  Yes, you did just read that.  Apparently their cat had brought it as a gift which they felt compelled to pass on to me.  Three words.  This.  Is.  War.  My boys were helping me think of ways to um... retaliate.  To be continued...

AWANA

Kick-off night went off without a hitch.  Isaiah is in Sparks this year (K-2).  He found a few friends from last year/VBS and was happy as a peach.  I offered to stay and help with Cubbies tonight partly because I wasn't sure how Sam would do alone and partly because I will help the 2nd Tuesday of every month, which was tonight.  It worked out that I planned to stay because one of their regular volunteers couldn't be there .  Although Isaiah said Cubbies was more fun, he seemed to have a good time playing games, watching a video, and talking about what the Sparks year would be like.  Sam had a great time, and I was amazed at how grown-up he acted.  This was a big improvement over Bible school, where he cried, screamed, and pitched fits when he couldn't be with me.  But tonight I went to help with a different Cubbies group than the one he was assigned to, and he did fine.  He just smiled and waved to me from a distance.  No crying or anything.  I think he'll be ok if I'm not with him other weeks.  Since Dan has meetings at the LH the 2nd and 3rd Wed of every month, those are the weeks I'll help with AWANA.  I'm looking forward to having the 1st and 4th Wednesdays for some alone time for us.  COFFEE.  And conversation.  :) 

Kids are like travelbugs

Travelbug

According to geocaching.com, a travelbug is a "trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online." Good geocaching etiquette says that you don't keep a travelbug for more than two weeks. 

So tonight on the way to a geocaching site, Isaiah said, "Kids are like travel bugs.  You keep them for a while.  Then you let them go."  I said, "Let them go?"  His reply: "You know.  When they go to college."



3 reasons last night stunk

1. 1.  The weird weather.  It was cool yet damp, making the air conditioner pointless.  I was left wondering if I wanted a blanet on or not all night.  Now, that alone wouldn't have made it a bad night.  But add that to...
2. Sam waking up crying three times between about 3 and 4 am.  I ended up laying with him in his bed until the morning.  Didn't sleep much.  See, I found a tick on him on August 22 that looked like it had been there for a day or two.  I was able to get it out, but it left a bigger bite mark than the other ticks (4 or 5? I've lost track) he's had this summer.  So I've been monitoring his symptoms, and he's had some weird ones.  He had a fever on the two Thursdays following the Monday when I found the tick.  Sometimes he seems lethargic.  But then he'll bounce right back.  So last night when he said his head and belly hurt a lot, I was up googling tick-borne diseases.  Sam has such a high pain tolerance that it makes it difficult to know how sick he really is.  Ugh.  Now today he seems back to normal.  Who knows. 
3. While I was up googling encephalitis, I saw the first big spider of the fall.  And when I say big, I mean 2-3" in diameter.  These things are fat and hairy.  Yuck!  So poor Dan, who was 95% asleep, was trying to find and kill the thing at 4am. 

So that is why last night stunk.  And today Dan and I are having lunch with a Lighthouse board member and her husband.  Then we have a wedding rehearsal tonight.  If I can't squeeze in a nap this afternoon, I might have to send my stunt double. 

Appreciating differences

Me? I would color 17 chicks yellow and move on.  Not Isaiah.  He took his time making each of those 17 chicks unique.  First, there's the super villian chick.  Then the chick with a jackhammer on its head.  Then I'm not sure what.  Then the super hero, the space alien, and the dressed-up duck.  And on and on. 
I am not a creative person.  Isaiah is.  Although I don't understand creativity or what makes someone's brain think that way, I do appreciate it.  :)

Unique chicks

Homeschool days

Concentrated learning at a relaxed pace.  So far, that's how I would describe our homeschool days.  We're able to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time.  Science experiments and art projects can last as long or as short as the boys are interested.  Activities sometimes end up taking a different direction that I had expected, but that's part of the fun of learning together and letting the kids help direct their learning.  Today, after academics, we filled several glass jars with water, then combined food coloring in primary colors to form secondary colors.  When I was reading over the activity, I almost skipped it because it seemed too simple.  But after we made orange, green, and purple, the boys added more drops of color to make aqua, olive green, and root beer brown.  Isaiah delegated the stirring to Sam while Isaiah placed the drops of color in the water.  :)  Stained hands and one stained sweatshirt later, the project was finished.

CT Part 4: CT Science Center

While Katherine and kids went to visit some friends, we checked out the science center. Definitely two thumbs up. Don't touch the Lego-Stego!

CT Part 3: The Children's Museum in West Hartford

The boys and I were able to get free admission because we are members at the Pittsbugh Children's Museum! Both are reciprocal members of ATSC. The kids didn't seem to mind the crowds of kids all around. They had a great time! In the mouth of the whale

CT Part 2: Cousins in CT

I have no words for how adorable this picture is. :)

Bubble art

Isaiah enjoyed this super simple art project. We mixed paint with dish soap, then dipped a straw in the soap/paint mixture and blew through the straw. We caught the bubbles on heavy paper. (We used watercolor paper, but construction paper should work, too.)

First day of school

I've had Isaiah working on reading and handwriting throughout the summer. But we decided it was time for him to officially start kindergarten on August 29. We have quickly adopted a school routine that seems to be working for everyone. Although Isaiah covers academics, they're not that fun to take pictures of. :) So here are some shots of the 'fun' stuff we did on the first day of school.

CT Part 1: Getting there

The boys were ecstatic to be on their first airplane ride. They kept saying, "The buildings look like ants!"

Little pirates

Edinboro Family Camp

More family togetherness took place at Edinboro Family Camp. My cousin, Jenn, and her four kids came up from Cincinnati for a few days. Our families hadn't seen each other in a year, and it was great to let the kids spend some time with their second cousins. The cousins, minus the baby who was napping

Family visits in July

Family from all over gathered for my grandma's home's annual family picnic. The kids enjoyed cornhole games, a petting zoo, and great food. The boys with my cousin

Transitions

The last few weeks of summer have been packed with fun, and I have loads of pictures to share when I get a moment! But for now, we are transitioning to the fall. Don't these cool evenings call for bonfires and smores? During this, the last official week of summer, I'm working on lesson plans for my little kindergartener. Over the past two years, I've been following homeschool blogs, groups, and talking with real live homeschooling moms :) to get their opinions on everything from curriculum and scheduling to teaching different personality types. This past year we've been extremely relaxed with homeschooling for preschool, learning whatever we felt like it, whenever we felt like it. Now it's time to have a plan and be intentional about studying academics every day. So... on to the next adventure.

Pirate Party!

Most years I've gotten out of having a birthday party for Isaiah using the excuse of summer craziness. :) But this year he started talking about his birthday party months ago. Well, after camp and vacation, we finally squeezed it in. First, 200 water balloons

E is about to get beaned by one!

Brad saying, "Everyone go get Beth!" (His fiance... their wedding is Saturday!!)

Katie, wet but trying to stay out of it! Haha!

Gettin wet in the kiddie pool
L showed the little kids how to fly down the slip n slide.

Look! It's a water fountain!

Pinata time

Grabbing for candy

The pirate ship cake

Singing happy birthday

Munching on cake and ice cream

Excited for presents. What face is that, Dan?

Sweet friends