Step One...Done!

I finished the piecing part of my first quilt today! I'm so excited! I was nervous about some of my fabric selections, but I think it turned out nicely after all. The cutting and piecing went more quickly than I expected, which was nice. I started it on Monday, and worked on it for a little while each evening after the boys went to bed. Jeremy had a lot of computer work to do, so he would set up on one side of the table, and I would sew at the other side. Does that count as quality time? LOL!

Ironing all the seams was the hardest part...mostly because I HATE to iron!! But I have to admit it was far more satisfying to iron this than to iron a shirt or something. Now I just have to figure out how to quilt it. The tutorial directions are very specific on the piecing part, but then it just says "baste, quilt, and bind" for the last step after piecing...not super informative for someone who has never quilted before, but I'm determined to figure it out! I plan on getting started after we get back from our trip to Texas, so the beginning of September or so.

Here's as much of the top as I could get in a picture...


And a bit more of a close-up. The colors are lighter/brighter in real life...this is the best I could get at night with the dining room overhead light.

Pretties!

Welcome to my new obsession with all things pink! I know I don't usually blog about crafty-type stuff. I haven't really had much time lately for crafts, and haven't been all that inspired to do so, either. Well, our expected little bundle of pink joy is certainly supplying the inspiration to craft, which is nice since it kind of offsets the other things she is supplying--such as nausea, exhaustion, and those lovely little kicks on my bladder. I've been scouring the web for cute girly things I can make for her...lets just say the list is getting long!

The first thing on my list is a cute quilt. Here are some of the fabrics I chose:


I have NO IDEA what I'm doing, so we'll see how it all turns out! I'm using a tutorial for a quilt that my friend Annalia mentioned on her blog (yes, Lia, the zig zag that you, your sister, and your mom have all blogged about!) The alternating stripes and backing are a light lime-y green print with little butterflies...I love pink and green together. Hopefully it will turn out cute! I'll post pictures of the top when I get it done in the next few days!

The only one of my boys who seems to care that I'm a bit obsessed with sewing for his little sister, who hasn't even made her appearance yet, is Joey. I think there's a little jealousy going on already! For Christmas this past year I made all 4 of the older boys tied fleece blankets. Joey's is a sweet baby monkey print. He LOVES monkeys, and loves his blankie...until now. Now he wants me to make HIM a quilt. I reminded him that he has his own monkey blankie, to which he replied "I don't LIKE my monkey blankie!!!" Ah, the fickleness of three!

On a completely unrelated note, here's one (of many, I'm sure) reason why 3-year-old boys really shouldn't wear lip stick:



And another reason why I should find a better place to keep my make-up bag! He is awfully cute, though!! :)

Back to School!

We are almost done with our first week of school for this new year, and it looks like we will survive! I'm always excited to start a new school year, but usually a bit nervous as well. It can be challenging to get back in the swing of things after the relative freedom of a summer break, and this year the break has been longer than usual.

The boys usually move through their curriculum more quickly than suggested, and we just start the next level as they finish the previous one, rather than waiting for the next year. Well, with the double-doozy combo of pregnancy exhaustion and morning sickness, we just stopped doing certain subjects as they finished the current grade level, rather than moving on. So for several months now, their course load has been getting lighter and lighter, then we took about a month off completely for summer.

In light of all that, I was VERY concerned there would be all-out mutiny when we hit the books this week...but the boys have done phenomenally well!! We did have some convincing to do with Jordan, who is now officially a 1st grader and not accustomed to lots of school work, but otherwise, the boys have been responsible and eager to learn. Yay!!! What a relief!

We're still in the process of ironing out our routine--figuring out what order is best for our subjects, and how to juggle three different grade levels--as well as a preschooler and toddler!! I'm doing myself a favor and only trying to come up with a routine; i.e. just doing things in a particular order and not worrying about scheduling times yet. That's just too hard for me to accomplish while pregnant! My plan is to school up until baby arrives (she's due around Thanksgiving) then take off from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. I'll still have the boys do math worksheets and read daily, just to keep in practice, but we won't resume our full curriculum until the first week of January. Hopefully I will be getting some sleep again by then! :)

So for anyone who's interested, here is what we're studying this year:

Joshua:
Math--Math-U-See Epsilon (fractions)
Grammar--Rod & Staff English 4
Spelling--Spelling Power
Logic--Mind Benders warm-ups and level A, followed by A Case of Red Herrings
Reading--various literature, and selections to go along with history and science studies

Jonathan:
Math--Math-U-See Delta (division)
Grammar--Rod & Staff English 3
Spelling--Spelling Power
Reading--various

Joshua and Jonathan:
History--1600-1850...using Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World right now, trying to decide if I want to go ahead and get Story of the World 3 (we used 1 and 2 previously)
Science--chemistry...Adventures with Atoms and Molecules--starting in September
Latin--STILL finishing up Prima Latina, then moving on to Latina Christiana 1
English From the Roots Up book 1 for Latin and Greek root words
Bible--reading 3 chapters a day (chronologically) and scripture memory
Writing--book reports, letters, etc. and Writing Strands 3

Jordan:
Math--Math-U-See Alpha (addition)
Grammar--First Language Lessons
Reading/Phonics--finishing up Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Adding in History/Science/etc. sometime in September...trying not to overwhelm him all at once!!

All three:
Art projects--various
Some sort of music appreciation done weekly or so...still fleshing that one out!

Whew!! Looking at those lists, it looks like a ton of work. But it really isn't too bad...several of those subjects are done on alternating days, and a few of them don't really take very long to do. We're also still trying to figure out what to do about piano lessons for Joshua and Jonathan since our piano teacher is going off to college this year. I'll probably just do it myself for the fall, and maybe put them in lessons somewhere in the spring...I don't think I want to be shuttling them around to lessons in late pregnancy or with a newborn!

So those are our plans so far! We're looking forward to having a great year!!

Shopping Fun!!

Just a little shopping for great clearance deals at Macy's...aren't they adorable? :) :) :)







Can't wait to get to use them in about 4 more months!! (Okay, so the summery dress won't be useful until next summer, lol!)

"Light-up Bees" and Other Summer Evening Fun

One of our new favorite summer evening pastimes is chasing and catching lightning bugs (or light-up bees, as Joey calls them) at Riverside Park. We've been going out almost every evening after dinner to play at the park and catch bugs. Not only is it a fun and educational activity (home school science credit, anyone?) but it also has the extremely important added benefit of allowing the boys to run off any excess energy before bedtime. Gotta love tired boys!!

Jordan and Joseph...


Jordan's catch...


Look what I caught!


I tried so hard to get a picture of one actually lighting up...this is as close as I got!


Joey managed to have one land on his face...


Joshua trying to help Jordan catch a bug flying just out of reach!


Happy Josiah!


Joshua introducing Josiah to lightning bugs...


Unfortunately for the boys, I'm a mean mommy who doesn't feel any need whatsoever to bring critters into the apartment, so they have to let them all go before we come home. Of course, I tell them that it's for the bugs' sakes...they don't want to be separated from their families, after all, blah blah blah... So far it's working, although I do still get occasional tears from Jordan--seems he wants some lightning bugs for pets!

Now the youngest member of our clan, social butterfly that he is, has a different favorite summer evening pastime. We often let him stay up a little bit later than his brothers, so he can have alone time with mommy and daddy, and a short period to crawl around without being trampled by his big brothers. He LOVES to stand on the couch, leaning over the back, and look out the window. Sometimes we'll open the window, and he'll "talk" (too bad he doesn't speak a word of English) to all the passers-by, especially the ones walking dogs.

A few nights ago we raised the screen (our screens slide up and down in the frames much like the windows do) and let him sit in the window sill, with his little legs hanging through the burglar bars. He really enjoyed that! He'd call out to people as they passed by, and they'd do a double take then come to visit with the baby in the window! A few even introduced their dogs to Josiah, which he loved! Of course I had to take some pictures:






And one from the inside...


We did lose the paci out the window a few times and have to go retrieve (and wash!!!) it, which is why I went outside in the first place. Then it just seemed natural to snap a few pictures the next time! Apparently not only does Josiah need to learn some English to add to his vocabulary, but he needs to learn to talk without spitting his paci out into the street at the same time! :)

Exploring Long Island

Yes, we are still alive...

Since I haven't posted anything here for at least the last, oh, three months or so, I figured it was high time I let everyone know that yes, we are still around! And what better way to do that than posting an insane number of photos of all my boys? We took a three-day weekend a couple weeks ago to explore eastern Long Island. We had a very relaxing time away from the big city, and the boys really REALLY enjoyed the beaches!

A swan and her little cygnet on the river next to our hotel enjoyed eating crumbs from the boys' breakfasts.


Don't ever let your five-year-old drive...you might just end up in the water!! No, seriously, we're on a ferry going from the northern fork of L.I. to a quaint little place called Shelter Island.


Joey standing up through the sunroof...


Docking on the other side...little boys had to scramble back to their carseats/boosters at this point!


Much to the chagrin of several little boys, we didn't actually go swimming at a beach until the 2nd day (we had walked on a couple the first day, but that apparently just isn't the same!) This is at Cooper Beach in South Hampton. It is a very nice beach...very clean compared to what we were used to in Texas. However, the water is C.O.L.D.!!! They had a white board at the entrance listing various pertinent information...including the fact that the water temp. was 57 degrees. Brrrrrr!!!!

That didn't stop the J-boys from jumping right in!


Josiah testing the sand...


and finding it to his liking!


He was a very busy boy exploring the beach while Daddy and his brothers jumped around in the waves!


Joey playing tag with the waves...


And he's off! He wanted to get close to the water, but wanted no part of it actually touching him.


A wet, very happy Jordan!





Taking a break for a few minutes...


The bigger boys finally got out of the water long enough to play with Josiah in the sand...





Joey sitting in a hole dug by Joshua...


They really, really wanted to stop playing so that Mommy could gather them together for a photo session. Can't you tell by the expressions on their precious little faces how excited they were? Even Josiah looks like he's mad at me!!


Joshua in his hole...


Joshua decided his hole would be a "baby-trap"...looks like it worked!


Joshua and Jonathan working hard to make the hole even deeper. While it appears that Josiah is diligently helping, he is actually pushing the sand back in.


What's a trip to the beach without being buried in the sand by Daddy?








Josiah loves playing in the sandboxes at the playgrounds at home. I think he thought he was in sandbox heaven here!


Silly Jordan trying to go into the hole head first!


Josiah in the "baby trap" again...right after I took this picture, he put his face down between his hands and proceeded to take a big "bite" of the sand. He promptly regretted that move.


Josiah and Mommy...


Exploring one of his brothers' sand-caked aqua socks...


After leaving the beach, we drove around South Hampton looking at all the ginormous houses. This one is still under construction. We're going to buy it as soon as we have a few million saved up for a down payment. I think we will all fit in it quite nicely. And don't worry about me being able to keep it clean...behind/off to the side of the house (and not visible in the photo) is a separate "tiny" house (like only 2500 sq. ft. or so) for the maids' quarters.


Our last morning in the hotel...


Josiah loves bananas...and can polish one off in less than 2 minutes.


Kix and cartoons...it doesn't get much better than this...if you're a little boy, anyway.


The last day we drove all the way out to the tip of Long Island and visited the Montauk Point lighthouse. The boys loved this!


Our boys are drawn to any sort of rock big enough to climb on...


Even Josiah!





Joshua, Jonathan, Jordan, Joey, and Daddy all climbed up to the top of the tower. Josiah wasn't tall enough, so I stayed behind with him.








Joey at the top!





On the rocky beach outside the lighthouse...


The boys had fun finding rocks to climb on that would be surrounded with water as the waves came in...





Daddy and Josiah...


Jordan and Joseph...


The lighthouse in the background...


Joshua...


Josiah was very excited about the waves!





We enjoyed our "mini vacation" and look forward to going again sometime! And maybe, just maybe, I'll come here again and post about it! :)