A Little Occupied.

It's been a while since I've blogged and in my defense, I'm shouting "Life Happens!" But I do have some pictures to share to keep you updated on some of the things that have been keeping us busy.

School Lessons

Of course, our school lessons take precedence over much of our lives. Here we have Marco working on some map skills as he memorizes the continents and oceans of the world. This is part history and part geography and lots of fun! If only history and geography were our only subjects to study...but we still have math, science, reading, Latin, spelling, grammar, and all the rest!!

Family Fun Nights

So you wonder how we spend our weekends around here? Well, movie night is at the top of the list (In this case we were watching "Zoom"). So it's either blog the night away or spend some time with the hubby and kids with lots of popcorn and drinks. I think you know which won! But since we've been without cable for quite some time now, we all look forward to watching a movie together on our giant wall. It's a movie theater experience!

Vacation Time

We have been known to take a few days off here and there. This time we decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Perhaps this wasn't the most perfect family vacation....lots of walking, not many hands-on activities and little children don't mix too well with us. But we still learned a bunch and got to see some really neat things. Do I recommend at trip there? Ask hubby and he would say, "No!" Ask me and I say, "Try it with older kids." Ask the kids and they'll say, "Go to Disney World instead."

Field Trips

There's lots of opportunities to go on field trips around here. This time we settled on taking the kids to the apple orchard. Fun? Oh yes. The kids loved it!! Fun for mom? Not in 95 degree weather with a fussy baby. We'll try again next year and pray for cooler weather. Until then, I'm up to my eyeballs in apples! Any recipes??



American Girl Club
We are still going strong with American Girl Club. Isabella loves it and I love getting to do fun crafts with the girls. This time we hosted. Kaya was the inspiration for our corn husk dolls...a fun craft!



Birthday Fun
With 5 kids in the house, it's only a matter of time before it's birthday time for someone. This time we celebrated Anthony's 5th birthday!!! It was a blast and my little guy had a great time. He is a blessing to our family! And we all loved the cake too! Happy Birthday big guy!

Samantha. American Girl Club.

Isabella is going on week 3 of this round of American Girl Club. They are reading Samantha and we are enjoying it quite a bit! Today, the girls got to make gingerbread houses to go along with book 3 of the Samantha series. Isabella had a blast and I'm planning for next week's club (which I am hosting).

Take a look at the fun!!








And on another note, my family is visiting from Texas and I've been busy hanging out with them...which might explain fewer blog posts. But I am also diligently working on my homeschool plans, which I will be writing about shortly!!

American Girl Club. Josefina.

This spring, we became part of an American Girl Club with many of our co-op (and non-co-op) friends. It was a fun and perfect activity for Isabella, who is a giant American Girl fan. The club consisted of choosing a historical AG doll and reading her books (there are 6 in each series). We would then rotate hosting the AG club at our homes. The hostess would have a craft, game, snack, or other activity to go along with the book that was read for the week.

Our first AG doll that we picked was Josefina. It was a great time and I collected what we did each week in case anyone out there wants to start their own American Girl club!! Ideas were collected from the AG books, from Jamin's blog, and from our own brainstorming.

Week 1
Meet Josefina, Book 1
Made rebozos, flour tortillas, and salsa. Watched Fandango dancing on YouTube and discussed parts of the book, Welcome to Josefina's World - 1824.

Week 2
Josefina Learns a Lesson, Book 2
Made waist pouches, learned weaving with a cardboard loom, played a matching game, and ate goat cheese, chips, and grapes for a snack.

Week 3
Josefina's Surprise (A Christmas Story), Book 3
Made tissue paper flower garlands (ramilletes), bookmarks with quotes from the book, and went around the neighborhood for a pretend posada. Mexian hot chocolate, oranges, and Mexican cookies were served as a snack. Mantillas were shown and read a Mexican cinderella story by Tomie dePaola.

Week 4
Happy Birthday Josefina, Book 4
The craft for this meeting was planting seeds and the girls brought things to barter. A game of "find the button" was played and Mexican cookies with herb tea was the snack.

Week 5
Josefina Saves the Day, Book 5
The girls made a memory box and a journal book. What Can You do with a Rebozo? was read and the books were discussed. Snack was Mexican hot chocolate made by the girls and pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread).

Week 6
Changes for Josefina, Book 6
The activities for this meeting were making a 3-d map of the Santa Fe Trail, making handprint flowers, making necklaces (for girls and dolls), and making straw brooms. The girls also made bread and ate watermelon and cupcakes for a snack. House keeping was discussed and the straw brooms were used. There was also a discussion of the Santa Fe Trail.

End of Josefina Series Celebration.
We all met at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. The girls each got a picture to take home.

Next week we will start a new series of AG Club meetings. We will be reading all about Samantha. I will make sure to have my camera handy each week to take plenty of pictures so that I can post all about them.

Catching up.

Well, even though we've just recently moved...a lot has been happening in our lives. Family and friends keep bugging me that I haven't posted pictures, what's going on with the kids, etc. So I decided to make this post all about what's happened in the last month or so!! Get ready for a long picture post!


Best Friends Come Visit
Our awesome friends (if you remember from previous posts...they moved to Illinois last year) came over for a week to visit! It was great to see them again and to meet the newest member of their family, baby Nora. The kids had a blast and the grown-ups were all giddy to see each other after about 8 months.

Lots of hugs went around as friends were reunited!

The girls hanging out and playing together.

One last picture before our good friends leave.

Moving Day!
DH got his friends together and it was like a barn-raising event!! The men worked hard and every muscle was used. The kids got to hang out in the new house and explore it. And even through the weather that day was well into 92 degrees (never mind how much Gatorade we went through!), we celebrated with pizza and drinks.

Moving was a DIY project with friends. Here Dh parks in the driveway. Never mind the ugly grass, the previous owners left us a bit of work to do outdoors!

Laughing it up while resting.

Moving heavy furniture up the staircase was not easy!

Looking out the nursery window.

Baby Jimmy is growing like a weed!

Super Cheese!

Easter
We moved on a Good Friday, so it was a laid-back Easter this year. Super, early morning Mass means not having to dress up so much and avoiding the big crowds. Getting home back into our pajamas and play clothes while eating Krispy Kreme donuts was a treat...not to mention the excitement of the kids finding Easter baskets in their beds!

This was the scene early in the morning on Easter.

After returning home, it was time for Easter baskets!

Anthony loved his rabbit and goodies.

Isabella was the only one who left her Easter dress on.

Happy Birthday Marco!!
This was the year that Marco was to get his big birthday party. Unfortunately, his birthday came right at moving time. But he wasn't disappointed. A big party wasn't important to him. He just wanted some friends over to celebrate with him. Bike riding, cake, and even a pinata made his day special! My baby is now 8 years old!

Getting ready for pinata time!

Marco got the first hit and all the kids waited in anticipation for their turn.

Anthony did a good job whacking the pinata.

Finally, all the treats fall to the ground!

Happy Birthday!

American Girl Club
This week was our turn to host the American Girl Club. We are still reading up on Josefina's adventures. For crafts, we made memory boxes and books; snack were pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) and Mexican hot chocolate! Yum!!

Painting memory boxes.

Great girl fun!

AG Club is Isabella's highlight of the week!

American girls posing pretty on our front steps.

In the Mean Time...
We are still trying to get settled in. Boxes are almost everywhere and the garage is full of stuff left to unpack and put away. But the kids keep being kids, we keep working on crafts, and it's a happy house full of love for family, friends, and above all...God!

American Girl Club.

We just recently started an American Girl Club with all our ARCH friends. Isabella had been wanting to be a part of a girls only club for a while, so this little group is a perfect fit for her. A huge fan of American Girl, Isabella loves the dolls, accessories, stories, and shopping at their stores! I must admit, I love it too and feel wonderful that it is something we can share as mother and daughter.

The meetings started with the Josefina books. This Thursday, the girls read book 1 and got together for crafts and snacks. At the end of it all, they made a rebozo and tortillas. She had a wonderful time!! The meetings will continue on a weekly basis until all the Josefina books have been read...then it's on to the next American Girl!

I will have to take a picture of her completed project, which she loves wearing and is using to carry her Bitty Baby doll. Also, please note the new haircut on Isabella. She was very excited to look like her latest American Girl doll, Chrissa. Of course, she now wants to add Josefina to her collection!