Ahhhh, summer.

Tomorrow is the first day of summer!  Yay!  So, I figured I'd share some things that we've done over the past couple of weeks (as well as some cute outfits).

We took a group field trip to a small local farm and look at the sweet little farm girl that I found there!  The girls had a great time.  They picked and ate blueberries, fed sheep and horses, milked goats and fed the babies.  Zion gathered eggs and diligently (and carefully) carried them in the little basket for the rest of the trip.  She was excited to bring these eggs home and have them for dinner.

Summer has provided us with much more time to spend with our friends.  There's nothing better than sweet friends, sprinklers, Popsicles and backyard picnics!

Then there's this.  This girl is the sweetest little human being.  And this frilly, sheer floral top (Guess - $.99 at Goodwill) is one that she LOVES!  Look at that face...

Ashni is discovering her love of accessories.  This fedora gets worn a lot.  She looks so grown up when she accessorizes.

My girls are plagued (ha) with long legs and super thin waists and my husband is plagued with his disdain for them showing too much skin.  This makes buying shorts difficult.  Bijou, on the other hand, is just the right size for her shorts to fit in the waist, but not be too short.  Yay!

pink shoes - Keds ($2.99 at Goodwill)

shorts - not sure of the brand ($1.49 at Goodwill)

tank top - Land's End (free, hand me down)

Total outfit - approx $4.50

Our annual Father's Day spread.  Every year on Father's Day, I make my husband a spinach, portobello and Gruyere quiche.  It only happens once a year and it is a huge hit every time.  This year, we also had roasted potatoes, cherries with fresh whipped cream (thanks Jena) and the girls squeezed two dozen oranges for juice

School, of course, continues over the summer.  Bijou has been working on adding two digit numbers with carrying and Zion is still working on her letter sounds.  She really wants to learn to read.

It's always fun to find pictures like this on my phone.  This is what happens when kids sneak and use your phone while you are getting dressed.  (Notice the stockpile of Girl Scout cookies in the background.)

The playground is a good (free) way to kill time between afternoon activities.  We spent a little time there this afternoon.  I love this lucha libre shirt (Boo Homes - $1.49 at Goodwill) that Bijou is wearing.  LOVE IT!

Zion at the monkey bars

desert boots - Crew Cuts ($2.99 at Goodwill)

trousers - Old Navy ($.99 at Goodwill)

popsicle tank - Gap ($.99 at Goodwill)

Total outfit - approx $5

This is what big sisters are for - to wear little sisters like hats! 

pink sneakers - Vans (previously featured)

shorts - Judith March ($2.49 at Goodwill)

t-shirt - Cherokee (free hand me down)

Total outfit (without shoes) - approx $2.50

We leave in two weeks to take Ashni to fence in the Summer National Championship in Ohio.  Jena leaves for France two days after.  We will go to St. Louis at the end of July to pick up my mother for a visit.  There will be field trips and play days and workshops to fill up all the rest of our long summer days. I'm looking forward to having a great and productive summer!

Keeping the wee one busy

We officially have a 6th grader, a 5th grader, a 1st/2nd grader and a preschooler in our house.  That means four different abilities, four different learning styles and four different personalities.  Zion is just getting to the stage where she wants to "work" like her older sisters.  I've made sure to provide lots of things that she can work on independently.  This way, she can keep busy while I give lessons to her older sisters.  She has been working with Cuisenaire rods for a while now.  She loves just playing with them and building towers.  She know that they represent certain numbers, but for the most part, she just enjoys playing with them.  For the past few days, we have been working on making numbers with the rods.  I write a couple of number on a piece of paper and she makes them.  We have been working on the teens.  She uses the pink ten rod and then adds the ones to make her number.  Once she had made all of the numbers with tens and ones, we replace the ones with the rod with the matching value (four ones cubes for a four rod, six cubes for a six rod, etc.).  She really enjoyed measuring the various rods with the little one cubes.

She also has been exploring tangrams.  Mainly, she has been making her own shapes and creations, but today she discovered that she can use to book and copy the shapes in the book.  This kept her busy for a good 30 minutes once she figured it out.  We have several sets of tangrams, so of course she had to make each puzzle with every color that we had.

And, apparently, pants are frowned upon in our house...

The little ladies doing some work

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the little girls doing some school work this morning.  Zion is really, REALLY good at coloring and loves coloring this same page of shapes almost everyday.  I'm really impressed with her ability to color neatly within the lines.

Bijou wanted to do some math this morning after her reading, so we pulled out the addition strip board and she worked on adding numbers to nine.

Back to life...

We are finally back to a regular week around here. Everyone is in good health, all of our guests have returned to their rightful homes and school has resumed. Unfortunately, after almost two full weeks of no school (thanks to illness and holidays) getting back into the swing of things is like pulling teeth (with tweezers!).


I decided to take yesterday to assess where we are academically. In hind sight, it would have been better to do that after everyone's brain had recharged from the extended vacation. But, we all know what they say about hind sight. Anyway, after a slow start and much frustration on my part, I know what we need to spend a little more time on and what area the girls are very strong in. Reading has always been an important factor in teaching the children and they continue to read well above their grade level. Math is also very important. We tend to struggle a bit with various aspects of math. One of the reasons we school 12 months out of the year is because my children tend to forget things if they are not regularly revisited. Math is a subject where things have to be revisited VERY often so that they stick. Assessing their math progress would have probably been easier if I'd done it at the end of the week instead of the beginning, but they both seem to be performing at grade level. I would like to see them work more independently in math, but everyone has to work at their own pace. I'm sure that they will improve with time.


I have also decided that I would like the girls to start reading some biographies. It's female pilot week in our house. Jena will be reading about Amelia Erhart and Ashni will read about Bessie Coleman. Next week, they will switch.


We are still discussing Mesopotamia in history. Yesterday the girls tried their had at cuneiform writing. We shaped sticks into our stylus and used play dough as our clay tablets. Today, we discussed the Code of Hammurabi and built a ziggurat from blocks. I would like to do an ancient Mesopotamian style feast when we get to the end of our lessons. We will see how that works out and what recipes I may be able to find.