Good Monday Morning!

Hello All!!

I hope you had as beautiful a weekend as we did!!  Fall is in full swing here in the Northeast and the leaves are a fallin!!

We had a fun, family filled weekend that was also very productive.  With children, our lives are in a constant state of flux.  Last fall, Kendall decided she wanted to pack away all of her American Girl dolls and accessories.  She was finding that she was not playing with them and they were taking up an incredible amount of real estate in her room that she wanted to re purpose for other things.

Silently it broke my heart as she lovingly placed items into the plastic storage bins as it seemed to signify the end of a piece of her childhood that she'd enjoyed for so long.  But, that is part of growing up so I embraced her choice and helped her pack.  Fast forward to yesterday when she asked to go in the attic to retrieve her dolls and some of their things.  She and Ty have been playing with them non-stop since yesterday.

That is a classic example of our state of flux.  It happens with all of the children in a variety of ways - all.the.time.  It keeps us on our toes for sure!!

The older children and Ian went to a lacrosse game with their grandparents, aunt and uncle on Saturday morning and then I met them all once Ari woke up for some visit time.

Yes, they are going as Little Red and The Big Bad Wolf!  (or as Ty calls himself The Little Good Wolf!)

snuggled down at Grandma and Popeye's!

His favorite game - playing with beads!  

Reading and playing!

yum!!

Reading some new books from Auntie and Grandma!

lol!!  What a face!

Sunday, Kendall and I took a morning walk with Ari and Katie and then we headed to Barnes and Noble (our second home!) to pick up a couple of books for this week's lessons.  Once Ari woke from his nap, we all went to a local reservation where we take pictures every year and we've been doing it since Kendall was born!  We used to go here long before we had children and walk our dog Billy. It's a beautiful spot with so many different areas to take great pictures.  I marvel at how grown up our children look year to year and I love that I have the photos from the same spots each year to be able to compare.  

My girls joining me on my morning walk!

morning snacks!

a quick trip to Barnes & Noble!

family photo shoot

Our Monday started pretty usual.  I skipped my morning walk as it was pitch black out (and freezing) and I plan to do it later today with the children.  

Rebecca joining us for morning yoga!

We are starting our unit on the beginning of life - Evolution Revolution!  We are focusing on how single cell organisms formed after the Earth began and then we will focus on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution.  The children are excited as am I!!

tree pose

We did our morning yoga stretches, pledge and calendar review.  Then we started out with some basic wet watercolor techniques to get everyone warmed up for the day.  After this we did our handwriting and grammar lessons.

tricky words!!!

her handwriting

learning palette

We then moved onto the Learning Palette and Learning Wrap-up for math.  Kendall continues to work on multiplication while Ty is working on basic multiplication along with addition and subtraction.

heading into gym class!

a quick glimpse!

Ari took a great morning nap today and thankfully did not sleep all the way through his gym class! We've not been able to go in weeks as I refuse to wake him up unless it's absolutely necessary to do so.  But today we made it!!  YAY!!  The children brought their chapter books and enjoyed D.E.A.R. time while Ari ran and ran and ran some more!

hi Daddy!!!

We took a family walk when we got back and then had lunch together.  One of my very favorite parts of being a homeschool family is having the luxury to eat our lunches together.

family walk!

her fashion is PHENOMENAL!

he's getting very brave!!

After lunch and our walk the kids had hot chocolate and treats!!  A fine way to end a cold walk!

Katie photo-bomb!

my lunch of apple and monkey salad!! (banana, unsweetened coconut, peanut butter and peanuts), and coffee

This afternoon was filled with reading about the beginning of life.  We snuggled on the couch and read and read.  

Kendall has decided that she's homeschooling Sarah, Rebecca and Saige!

Tonight will be a relatively relaxing one.  Kendall has her sewing class so Ty and I will just hang out!  See you all tomorrow!!