Our Day

It was a GOOD day today.

We started off with MOH. The kids colored their coloring page while I read Mystery of History aloud. We did a lot with the white board too.

Princess wanted me to take her picture. So I did.

Word problems at 2 years old?
This was part of our Zoology lesson.

I put up the new world map today. The kids were all over it.

She loves painting with her watercolor paints.

She's all smiles!

Time for a few chores!

Every day Sweet Pea has an hour with Princess. They do crafts, have a snack & play. They both look forward to it.

Elvis worked on his Zoology notebook journal. I think his favorite subject is science.

General Science, anyone?

Night School!

I started Elvis in his Basic Winston Grammar tonight. At first he wasn't too thrilled but a few minutes into the lesson & he was loving it! He even asked to do a second lesson. =0)

Princess kept herself entertained. And mama amused.

Peek-a-Boo

My little ham.

Handsome knight

Daddy & Princess had some snuggle time.

I wuv you, Daddy.

The girls had a quiz in Winston Grammar tonight.

I'm going to ace this, Mom!

I love days like this!

Silly Kitty

Josie is my snuggle kitty. She loves to follow me around in the morning & at bedtime. She's a lovey. Yesterday she came to my bed for her afternoon nap. Usually she curls up but yesterday she slept in some comical positions.

She looks like she's had one tough day, eh?


Soon she stretched out & turned upside down. I don't know how she slept on her head this way but it had me laughing.

Sound asleep.

A little freaky.

Wholesome entertainment!

Introducing the Eee-haa Family

Princess recently discovered her brother's old Toy Story toys. I picked these up several years ago at a couple of yard sales. The boys still play with them from time to time but Princess has adopted them as her own. She calls them "Eee-haas". Her pronunciation of "Yee-haa". I'm guessing she picked this up from us playing with her and having the characters call this out when they rode Bullseye. It brings a smile to my face every time I hear her call for them. ("Eee-haa, wheh arh you?" )
We have been trying to teach her the names of the characters. So far she can say, Jesse - ('Esse) & Woody - (Oh-dee) but she ALWAYS follows that with "Eee-haa". Therefore in our home they have been dubbed, "The Eee-haa Family". Lol! Don't you just love the world of a 2 year old?

Princess reading to her "Eee-haas" at naptime.

Aren't they sweet together?

First Day Traditions

We had our first day of the new school year about 2 weeks ago. I hope to get the pictures of our annual Back-to-School Treasure Hunt up soon. In the meantime here are photos of our traditional Walk-to-School we do every year on the first day. Daddy always leads them and it's something they look forward to. This was Princess' first year walking with a backpack on. Isn't she precious? I can't believe how quickly all our children are growing up.

Off they go!

Crossing the Street

It was a short walk this year as the heat index was 106.

Here they come!

Up the driveway & on their way to greet their teacher!

Soon after we had our special First-Day-of-School meal. This year it was a picnic lunch. Oh, so yummy! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, beans, corn on the cob & Kool-aid. A fun way to start off our 11th year! =0)

Awwww........

Can't you feel the love?

The expression on Princess' face cracks me up too.

Giveaway!

Hey, Friends! I was over at The Crafty Classroom (one of my favorite websites)and read about a fantastic giveaway! Hearts at Home is giving a away $100 to spend on curriculum in their store. YES! It's true! Visit the link above for The Crafty Classroom,(Click on The Crafty Classroom), to see how to enter. You only have until tomorrow night, Friday, July 29th to enter. The contest ends at midnight Pacific Time. Sorry for the late notice but I only found out today. Good luck to all who enter!

#homeschoolhttp://bit.ly/qN8VNu

Savings for School

Another Sunday afternoon of Back-to-School deals. Boy, I love it. I really do! It gives me a sense of satisfaction to fill up our school closet for the year for so little.
First we stopped by Staples. I had all the kids with me today since Dave was working. I have to say they did very well in the store and were a huge help. Sweet Pea even purchased some folders & a memory stick of her own. This is what I bought. A 7-pack of Zebra Z-grip retractable ball point pens (A free treat!), two 2-pks. of Bic White-Out (Great stuff!), two 2-pks. of Sharpie pens (Love these!) & 25 folders (Use these ALL the time!). Normally these would have cost me over $22. With my rebate I will have spent only $1.75. Savings? = A little over $20.

Our next stop was Office Depot. At first I wasn't going to stop but our visit to Staples was so quick I figured why not. Here I only bought was what on sale. I was very pleased that even though they had run out of the white board markers they were breaking up large packs & putting them in two's to offer more to customers. Now THAT'S good customer service! So I bought 6 white board markers & 3 pencil sharpeners. This was the maximum limit of each. The total would have been $11.94. I spent only 78 cents. A savings of $11.16 Nice!

Our last stop was Walgreens. I tried a different store this time. Though the cashier was very nice & helpful not one thing was priced correctly with the sale prices. It was hard to know which were the sale items. Definitely a pain. I kept sending Sweet Pea up to the cashier to check product & prices for us. She is a great help. After a lot of time we got out of there with all of this. I am still pleased with the savings. But I will definitely be going back to my store down the street.

Regular price total = $32.67 I paid = $8.31 Savings = $24.36

In the end that's $66.61 of school supplies for only $10.84. Who says it doesn't pay to shop the sales? Not me! Lol! =0)

Princess

Birthday Balloons

Elvis' birthday fell on a camp day this year. He was excited to spend the day at one of his favorite places & let everyone know it was his special day. When we went to pick him up at the end of the day I brought these balloons to surprise him with. He was grinning from ear to ear! It made him feel special to be celebrated in front of everyone. To top it off as we were walking to our van friends of ours stopped and sang 'Happy Birthday' to him at the top of their lungs. What great friends!

Planning for Princess

Here are a few more items I picked up for Princess' school time & Busy Box. Many of them I found at the Dollar Tree. I ADORE that place!
Wooden lacing beads, wooden magnetic numbers & wooden magnetic letters.

These are for her to play with in her Busy Box & water table.

These are to use with crafts & with her 1+1+1=1 activities.

For her Busy Box. I may even let her have them for bath time too. =)

These will be fun to use with paint.

PERFECT for her Busy Box! I had priced these & was thrilled to find one at Target for only $2! Dave laughed at my childish glee.

I bought this to use as her Busy Box. I bought Rubbermaid because I wanted something that would hold up to playtime & that had a tight, snap-on lid.

I have a few more items I found at the curriculum sale last Friday. I'll share those soon!

Homemade Ice Cream Cake

I decided to make an ice cream cake for Elvis' birthday party. My best friend, Megan makes a scrumptious one but Elvis thought it too sweet. Those words do not exist in my vocabulary but since it was his birthday I complied. Lol! I researched online & came up with a combination of Megan's recipe & and one online. Here is the result.
First we baked two 9x13 chocolate sheet cakes. This is one of them. It will be the base. We actually baked them the night before & froze them. It made them a lot easier to work with & saved on freezing time before the party.

Next I spread whipped topping on top of the base layer. Then I started to sprinkle crushed cookie crumbs on top. You can use Oreos but to fit in the budget I bought a similar brand at Aldi. I crushed the cookies by putting them in a Ziploc bag & then rolling over it with a rolling pin.

The next layer is ice cream. I cut chunks from a boxed 1/2 gallon of ice cream. I ended up using an entire 1/2 gallon & then one slice of another. The amount depends on how thick you want your layer to be. Like Megan, I recommend you splurge & use a quality ice cream. It really does make a big difference. We used Purity.

My little helper enjoyed licking the lid of the whipped topping container while she watched.

I forgot to take a picture, (I was in a hurry that morning b/c of the party), but I added another layer of cookie crumbs. Then it was time for the 2nd cake layer to be added. Before I did that I put globs of whipped topping in each corner. This helped to hold the top layer to the rest of the cake. After that I put a thick layer of whipped topping over the whole thing using it like a frosting. It was hard to get on the sides b/c of the hot weather. In the end it didn't really matter. Once it was all assembled we popped it in the chest freezer to await it's debut.

A very important step! Don't forget to let your sidekick get a lick of the spoon when you are done. This will make them very happy.

Princess & Bugsy were fascinated by the whole process. They waited patiently & were each rewarded with a spatula to lick.

Add a few sprinkles, a candle & some Star Wars figures and here is Elvis' birthday cake! We poured hot fudge sauce over each piece as it was served too. This treat was a HUGE hit with the kids & adults. Our kids are now all asking for the same treat on their birthdays! =0)

Let the Games Begin!

The Back-to-School sales have begun! YAY! Let the games begin! I went to Staples today as they had the most items on sale. I got all of this today. I found some added items I left out of my original photo and they are in the photo beneath the big one. They are all one purchase even though it's in two photos. Want to guess how much I paid?

Isn't this great? Okay, if you are wondering the total for all of this at the original prices would have been $115.98. That's not counting tax. Wow, eh? Now for what I paid. I paid $21.31. Yep. That's it. And that's not the best part. The computer copy paper is a rebate item. After the rebate it will only cost 25 cents a package. So after all is said & done I will have paid $9.83 our of pocket for all of these items. And that's including the 9.75% tax. =0)

WHOOT! WHOOT!