The Glorious Flight

We have successfully finished our second full week of school and no one has died. Not even me. Although there were two days this week that I swear I had narcolepsy because every time I sat down to read to the kids or listen to them reading to me I would drop off to sleep and they would wake me up two paragraphs later. Are you in there mom? I don't know what my problem is but I am not getting over the fatigue and I am trying to accept that I may feel like this the whole pregnancy. And that would be fine because so far everything looks good and I really can't complain.

Back to the school stuff though. The first week we read Night of the Moonjellies and learned about the ocean and such. On Saturday we went to the zoo and got to touch stingrays and sharks at Stingray Bay, a temporary exhibit that you have to pay extra for. We splurged because it connected with our Five in a Row book and because we have never been. I probably won't ever take them again. It didn't really feel worth the $15 we paid for the family especially because Tucker couldn't even see what was going on. Man, everything I write seems to have a downcast mood to it. I'm blaming it on the weather.

This week was about a book called The Glorious Flight, and it is about airplanes. Specifically it is about Louis Bleriot, who was the first person to fly over the English Channel. He had no instruments of any kind and was lost in the fog for about ten minutes of the 37 minute flight. It is pretty miraculous actually. Melynn and I focused on Roman numerals (because that is how he named his planes), and we read about other famous pilots. We hope to go on a field trip to see Brother Steward's plane (he's in our ward) but that is dependent on his schedule and he's a busy guy. So, cross your fingers that we can do that and take lots of pictures. :)

We also learned about the Baroque period of music and listened to Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. I think my absolute favorite moment of the whole week was when we watched/listened to the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by Handel. There is something so spiritually moving when I listen to it and we had our own little singalong, at the top of our lungs, of course. It sounded pretty awesome as you can imagine. Thank you YouTube for having some amazing musical recordings! I think I will try to find a full performance of the Messiah to take the kids to this year. Or maybe next year, now that I'm thinking about it. I promised myself I wouldn't plan things for December. 

On Friday the kids busted out the paint and we let Tucker just go to town. His paper turned brown but he loved it. We had Vivaldi playing in the background and it was such an amazing homeschool moment I took a short video. All three kids, happy as can be, with amazing music and paint all at the same time! I love especially the look of intense concentration Tucker has as he paints his brown paper. As if dipping his brush in yellow and swirling it in creates something new and originally brown. He is a fascinating toddler to watch.

Our final project to go with The Glorious Flight was a reenactment of the flight across the English Channel. We have spectators set up on both sides and the video below will explain more about what they were to do. 

This was Melynn's reading lesson. She had to tape the words onto the correct places throughout the house. We tried to get a bunch all over her just to be silly. They had long a words like brain and veins and waist.

And this is just the family chilling out after dinner watching some of Finding Nemo.

Swimming Lessons

We were super lucky this year to get our kids in some swimming lessons. There is a lady that everybody takes their kids to that is really good but she never returned my calls in the spring, I'm assuming because she was already full. So...I just decided it wasn't going to happen this year. Then, a couple weeks ago, my friend Mandie told me that she was going to teach a two-week swim lesson and we jumped at the opportunity. It went pretty well for Emmett...Melynn was pretty afraid but she still had fun, so I'll call that success. Emmett can dive now and Melynn can float on her back. She does not put her face in the water yet so her swimming is not really there. Maybe next year she will conquer it.

Goodbye swimming lessons. See you next year, maybe.

Our Six Weeks of Skill Training

Josh and I are fans of a book called The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Browne Boyack. She is an LDS author and the premise of the book is that parenting is all about teaching your kids the skills they need to be successful as adults. She and her husband created The List which is a list of skills you need to master in order to live on your own. Things as easy as brushing your teeth to as hard as changing a tire (which would be hard for me but probably not hard for everybody). Anyway, each year during the summer we do skill training in an effort to help our kids progress and this year I really noticed a difference in how it helped me. Here are the skills we worked on for Emmett: load dishwasher, warm up canned food, run microwave, clean sinks, make and answer phone calls, brush teeth in the morning. Melynn's skills were: make bed, make own breakfast, make sandwiches, clean room, shower and wash her own hair, brush teeth in the morning, put clean laundry away.

As you can see they are all pretty basic skills and for the most part they both still need a lot of practice with one or two, but it was so handy to have Emmett wash the dishes every day after lunch and for Melynn to finally put away her own clothes. She was much more resistant to doing these things independently but after six weeks she at least knows how. She can pour her own cereal and milk (unless the jug is completely full) and if she needs a snack she can make a sandwich. Forming the habit of morning teeth brushing is still slow in coming. I don't know why that is so hard for them. I hate skipping my morning brushing.

I'm proud of both of them in putting up with all my nagging over the last six weeks and I hope that their new skills will help our house run more smoothly and that I won't feel like I am doing it all by myself. I think I will still be doing a lot of reminding for the next little while, but that's okay in the long run.

The First Week of School

We took pictures on the first day back in the swing of things and they turned out really cute. We are going through a serious transition, which I should have expected. I figure it will take us a week or two to get to normal on school. For now, I am just glad that we have been able to finish our work three days in a row. Success! I am suffering from a week-long headache and fatigue like crazy, but if I would take better care of myself I think all that would go away too. I need to go to sleep at 9:30, seriously. Why is that so hard to do?

This is Melynn's art project from yesterday. We are reading Night of the Moonjellies by Shasha and this was a suggestion I found online. You make puddles of color and then hold the paper upright and tap on the table to make the tentacles. She LOVED it. The other big blobbies are supposed to be bubbles and it was supposed to be paint splatters but she kind of went overboard on that part. Still looks really fun.

The 4th

We were pretty casual this year for celebrating. I was too tired from trying the potty training to even care much about what we did or didn't do on the 4th. Our city did their fireworks on Thursday, the 3rd, and we went to the carnival and enjoyed getting plenty of chigger bites while we watched the show. Then on the 4th we went to a BBQ hosted by the Marshall's and had fun eating and swimming and chatting. It was very nice. I was busy the rest of the weekend doing my last-minute preparations for school to start, including cleaning off my desk, which had been piled high for far too long with who knows what. It was a beast of a cleaning project and now that it has been tamed I really need to finish getting my stuff off of Josh's desk and clearing Emmett's little work space as well since flat surfaces attract paper clutter like magnets.

Video Experimentation

During our days of potty training Melynn got a hold of the camera and decided to do some videos. The first one just showed the back of Tucker's head as he watched Super Why. This one though has some experiments in it, like what happens when we turn the camera? What happens when I put my hand over the lens, etc.? It was too good not to remember. Plus it is funny to see Tucker running around pant-less (nothing shows, not even a bum cheek).

A Busy Saturday

Yesterday we packed our day with lots of things. Church cleaning early, then the Home Depot craft, then home for chores and helping watch some kids from the ward. It felt like we were on the go all day and I was pretty exhausted at the end of the day. The good news is that Josh took some AWESOME pictures on his phone and emailed them to me so I could put them on the blog. What a sweetie.

This first one is old...back from around Easter. But look they are all together and look happy about it!

At the Home Depot they each got to make a bug house for collecting insects. Just what we need around this house...more bugs. Here is Emmett staining his wood.

Here is Melynn holding a hammer.

This is not at Home Depot. This is one of Emmett's last games. One of the other parents brought a box full of kitties they were trying to sell. She got to hold one and loved it.

And here is Tucker at Home Depot. He now has his own apron too. Doesn't he look happy?

Father's Day and Graduation Party Pictures

I have pictures of Josh's Father's Day surprise and of the graduation party at Dr. Hodges house.

Father's Day was pretty lame because Josh had to work but we knew that ahead of time and planned a surprise for him. The kids decided to decorate his trunk so he could have a party at work. We put his gift inside too: a jar of Mike N Ike's (one of his favorites) with a label "Dad's Stache". He loved it.

I Hate Potty-Training

Josh and I have decided that potty training is the worst part of parenting. I would have to say that pregnancy is a close second. Tucker isn't catching on as quickly as I had hoped and I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Josh keeps rooting me on, telling me to stick to it and not give up. Easy for him to say, not being around all day through it all. But I'm trying to stay positive and I really do think Tucker is ready for this. So... onward we go!

The first day was pretty bad. He was pretty emotional about things, which surprised me. He wanted his blanket most of the day and I let him have it knowing he was going to pee on it. Which he did. And when I threw it into the washer he absolutely lost it. It was the worst tantrum I think he has ever thrown. He was hitting the washing machine and trying to pull it open (which didn't work because it locks--thank goodness) and the whole time  yelling, "Bwanky, bwanky!" It was pretty heart-breaking. It was clean by bed-time and he was fine after about 15 minutes of tantrum.

Day two was a little bit better. He had two good shots in the potty and was very happy to drink juice all day. Today is Day three and so far we have had no success. Oh well. I'm just glad I bought the carpet spot remover.

Poor Tucker. Doesn't he look so sad? It is hard to grow up, I guess.

Coach Pitch Champions

Emmett's final game was last night. It was the tournament championship and they won! Josh took some video of Emmett hitting and I got some team pictures. We are proud of how hard he worked and how obedient he was to his coach. He improved a lot, especially in batting. He played catcher most of the season and was quick on his feet. We were pretty sure that he would catch a foul ball but he never did. Then the last couple of games he has played center field. He hasn't seen very much action out there but he still did a good job paying attention.

A couple of the players are really sluggers. The kid 4th from the left is Hayden and he hit two home runs last night.

The whole team and the coaches. Head coach Blake is the one on the right. It sounds like he is coaching again next year so we will try to get on this team again.

A team cheer for the champions.

Champion shirts even!

Emmett and his friend, Matthew enjoying the post-game revelry.

I love that the other coach dumped water all over coach Blake during this picture. It was so funny.

In the first video, Emmett's hit went past short stop and he made it to first. In the second video, he hits a little bunt (not on purpose) but it caught the other team off guard enough that the kid on second made it home. I can't remember if Emmett got out on 1st or not. It didn't really matter if he did because they got the point they needed!