IT'S SUMMER!!! (Daniel)

School is out!! It's time to try to cram in all the fun you've been wanting to have all winter!(but couldn't because of school)And how better to start it than movie at the theater and a birthday party the next day!(Which happens to be Saturday the best day of the week...otherwise known here as cartoon day!) Ahhhhh......makes you want to sit down with a good book and soak it in! I plan on spending whole DAYS doing things like building Lego's, playing video games, or reading a book!
~Daniel

School's Out! (Bridget)

Whether we're ready or not, school is finished for the year. I went to the Kindergarten Celebration at Molly's school today. It's hard to believe she's not in Kindergarten anymore. I'd be really sad but I know Ethan is just around the corner. Molly showed no sadness whatsoever as she informed a friend this afternoon that today was her first day of 1st grade!! Who needs summer? I know, I certainly do.
I'm very glad that summer is here because I just wasn't able to get the things done around the house that I really need to do while doing school and keeping up with an actively crawling baby. I'm sure I won't get all the things done that I want to get done because of said crawling baby even during summer break but I'll definitely have more time than I had.
On the other hand, I always feel a twinge of regret when summer rolls around because I never feel like we've gotten enough "school" accomplished during the year. There are words the kids can't spell and books we never read and Matt might not know all his times tables cold.... I have to remind myself of the things we did accomplish. We added another member to our family and folded him right into the midst of us. We've all commented that we can't imagine life without him now. The kids have been especially great about giving him lots of love and attention. We've read lots of classics, both individually and as a a group and have been touched by some very special people within those classics. We've learned about honor, perseverance and other positive character traits through them. Father, Mother and Ralph from the Little Britches series have really moved us and made us want to be better people. I find myself thinking about how Mother would react when I'm faced with a trying situation. I think we've learned that education doesn't end when the school year ends but that we should be pursuing our interests and setting new goals continuously. We'll continue to read throughout the summer and our shelves are stocked with new enticing books for those lazy days in the sun.

NEW 4-WHEELER!!! (Nicholas)

We got a new four wheeler!! It is black and silver and goes really fast! Yesterday we went to show it off to our dad's friends and we ended up driving it all around creation (not that I had a problem with that)at high speed. We also plan to go hunting as soon as possible so it should be fun!

4-Wheeler! (Daniel)

We bought a new 4-wheeler! My dad and I went down to Anchorage yesterday to get it. Boy, is it COOL! It is really big(the kind that can fit two people)and it is silver. We're going to have a lot of fun on that this summer!

Warning: TJEd May be Dangerous to Your Health!!

I spent hours and hours organizing my bookshelves on Saturday. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea - to make more room on the shelves by grouping books of the same subject in tubs, like unit studies. I stacked and I piled and I went and bought tubs. By midnight, I had the shelves all nicely organized with classics. I'm not sure whether it was last night or this morning that I noticed the bottom shelf had fallen and was resting comfortably on the books below it. Okay, that was frustrating but not that bad. I tried to lift the shelf and put the pegs back in... big mistake. The shelf above it fell on my hand. Still not that bad, just a tiny cut and a few choice words. What happened next, I'm not entirely sure, but a chain of events occurred in which all but the very top shelf cascaded down onto my head and then books ended up all over the floor. See picture. I had to apologize to Matthew and Ethan for the hissy fit that followed. :( Fellow homeschoolers, this is what happens when you have too darn many books!!! Now I'm faced with taking every book out and trying to find pegs that fit tighter so this never happens again!

Happy May Day! (Bridget)

It's hard to believe that it's May and we still have snow on the ground. We had a very depressing snowfall on Tuesday but it turned to rain in the afternoon so it's basically gone but we still have some from before. The kids are demolishing the snow hill and kind of having a race with the neighbor girls who are demolishing their snowhill.
We went to the IDEA Curriculum Fair Monday and again on Tuesday and I came away with about $700 less allotment for next year. I mostly bought lots of Jim Weiss CDs, Teaching Textbooks Math for all 3 boys, some books, and some TJEd CDs and booklets. I wish I had gone to some of the workshops, but I didn't want to try to work around Ethan's naps and feedings so I didn't even bother. Next year!
Well, Matthew is itching to bid on a Lego Set on Ebay so I'd better go.

The Fields of Home (Daniel)

The Ralph Moody books are always very good, but I think tis one was the best! the basic story is, Ralph gets in trouble in Medford and has to go away to his grandfather's farm in Maine. Grandfather lives with a woman named Millie and a dog named Old Bess. He is very stubborn and he hates machines. Ralph has a hard time convincing him that machines are the only way to keep all his fields plowed!
On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this book a 10!!YOU should read this book!
~Daniel