Christmas Sheets

After the squeal of delight upon opening his new sheets.

The boys and I all got new sheets for Christmas this year. Excitement was running high.  Bryce recieved "How to Train your Dragon," Micah "Mario Cart Wii," and Matthew "Cars," mine are micro pulsh and oh so soft.  All the boys are tucked in with thier new sheets and mine are waitng for me.

A 32 Degree Day in December

The boys had a blast playing in the snow this afternoon.

Matthew helped daddy shovel by putting more snow on the side walk and drive way!

A snow ball fight broke out. Some how I was a target even though I wasn't playing - just taking pictures. Micah attacked Derek and he returned the attack by throwing snow by the shovel full. The boys thought is was great and so did Lucy.

Of course much snow was eaten.

All three boys wore the hats they recieved from Santa when we visited Bentleyville last week in Duluth.

3 Days in Duluth

Last week, we spent 3 days in Duluth with my mom and dad. It was a wonderful time of being together. We stayed at the Edgewater and spent at least 2 hours each day at The Edge Waterpark.

The vortex pool was a favorite along with all the falling water and the slides. Bryce spent a lot of time on the lazy river with Grandpa. Matthew loved to play catch in the pool while Micah was going in circles in the Vortex pool. The hot tub was also popular as we all got chilly from time to time.

On Tuesday, we went to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The boys loved going to the movie. That evening we went to Bentleyville. The lights were beautiful. We all visited with Santa and the boys recieved new stocking caps.

I hope the boys have lasting memories of the time we were able to spend with Grandma and Grandpa. It seems like time is one of those things that we just take for granted and it is precious. I long to build lots of memories of my boys with both sets of grandparents - I know I have many.

Cookie Decorating

It's Christmas time and that means cut out Cookies. I found Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix this year. It has made my cookie baking go so much better. You don't have to chill the dough and it rolls out beautifully. Today, the boys and I decorated most of the cookies - I forgot to buy another bag of powdered sugar and we ran out of frosting. Opps!  Micah and Bryce were thrilled to be able to decorate cookies, so Matthew had to join them too. Matthew wasn't so sure at first as he knew the cookies weren't safe for him, but in the end he had fun and was able to participate with us. I am so happy to be able to have fun with my boys and creating great family traditions. We ended up with 3 cookie sheets of decorated cookies with more to be done :)

Building a Roman Road

While we are studing Ancient Rome, the boys and I are reading City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction by David MacAulay. The boys are enjoying about all the different process of planning out a city. Tonight, they made a Roman Road that we had for dessert.  The cake is the earth, dug out to make way for mint curbstones,  chocolate chip rocks, carmel sand, and of course marshmallow stones. Then the sides were frosted green for the grass. It was fun build a road with them and tell them that we used the same process for laying our patio this summer. They were impressed that we used a process developed in Ancient Rome.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Playing with Fire

The boys painted cardboard wreaths first then we melted the wax. Matthew had lots of fun melting the candle wax onto dryer lint to make Nana fire starters. It was a fun day of crafts for all.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Derek has decided to train the boys from a young age to play with fire.

The Last Week of So...

I have not been good about blogging the last week or so.  Here are some of the happenings in our house.


Matthew learned about serving others at Awana Cubbies. To help him with this concept, he made our family placemats and set the table for dinner. His table setting skills need so work as he is a little unconventional.

From 2010-11-09 Dog Park, Matthew's New School Book

Matthew was also the recipient of a package this week. Great Aunt Lucy sent Matthew a new school book. He is very excited to have a book to work on while his brothers do school. Thank you, Great Aunt Lucy.

From 2010-11-09 Dog Park, Matthew's New School Book

From 2010-11-09 Dog Park, Matthew's New School Book

Lucy also had a first this week, a trip to the dog park. She loved being able to play with all the other dogs and running on the trails. The boys thought the trails and the piles of wood chips, where they played beaver dam.

From 2010-11-09 Dog Park, Matthew's New School Book

From 2010-11-09 Dog Park, Matthew's New School Book

Cub Scout Fun Day

Today has been a day of Scouting. We started our morning by delivering fliers for the Scouting Drive to help our local food shelf. With the help of 5 scouts and 4 parents we delivered 266 fliers in 1.5 hours. Then we all headed out to Carpenter Nature Center. The boys had fun learning about animals and doing a scavenger hunt. Our boys are learning that Scouting is about having fun and learning to help others.  All in all it was a great morning.

Halloween

Halloween, a day to be goofy, scary, have fun and eat lots of candy. The boys did all three this year. Our family spends the weekend before or on Halloween at the Cabin. We carve pumpkins.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

This year we bobbed for apples. It was a roit to watch. The boys thought it was a really fun game. They convinced Grandma to try :)

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

The kids also all get to put on their costumes. Unfortunately, we did not get a good shot of all the kids. The boys had lots of fun playing in their costumes, while trying to scare each other.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

We ended the weekend with Trick or Treating. Matthew thought it was great to go get candy. The boys loved being able to yell "Trick or Treat" at each house.

Lollipops

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Matthew is enjoying his newest treats. I was able to make them just in time for trick or treating. :)

Pumpkin Cleaning

Derek and the boys cleaned our pumpkins on Tuesday night. Complete consintration was given to cutting the top.   

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Complete disgust was expressed at cleaning out the guts. 

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Three pumpkins are cleaned and waiting to be carved this weekend.

Matthew's Interview with Fox 9 News

Wordless Wednesday

From 2010-10-22 Harvest Moon Festival

Harvest Moon Festival

On Friday, the boys and I went on a field trip for school. The Dakota County Fairgrounds had a Harvest Moon Festival.  On the fairgrounds is a town set up for the early 1900's. The boys had lots of fun learning how things were done around the time Great- Grandma was born.

The boys were busy moving from one activity to the next for 3 hours. Here is a sampling of the the things they did.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From Scrapbook Pages

From Scrapbook Pages

I am sure that I will be sharing more of the pictures from this fun outing in the days to come.  There are so many pictures and some that I just love but I have to decide how to crop them:)

Last Couple of Weeks

Life has been busy but so good. The boys are working hard in school. Loving Scouts, AWANA and waiting for Family Faith night to start.

Matthew loved playing soccer this fall and learned so much.

From Scrapbook Pages

Bryce's first den meeting of this year was at our house. The boys made bannock and hot dogs over the fire and ended the night singing around the camp fire.  It was fun to see all the boys running around the yard playing soccer and just having fun.

From Scrapbook Pages

Matthew is on the News!

Tonight, Matthew's story was featured on the 10 o'clock new on NBC affiliate KARE 11. 


It was an amazing exprience. I am honored to be able to share his story, hopeful that someone will be helped by our struggle. Matthew enjoys life, food limitations and all.

Marshmallows

This weekend I made Matthew marshmallows. He was very excited that he was able to lick the batter, a job that is usually for his brothers and not him. It was fun to watch him attack the mixer blade from our kitchenaid.

From Scrapbook Pages

Matthew is thrilled that he has marshmallows for treats and I am thrilled to be able to make them for him.

YMCA Soccer

The boys have enjoyed working on their soccer skills while playing in the YMCA program.  It is a small program but works well with our schedule. The boys are working hard and having fun. It is amazing to see how much they have improved just from the spring.  Matthew has also started playing this fall. He only gets to play in one game at the end of the season otherwise he has practices. He thinks it is pretty neat to be able to play like his brothers, well at least once he is there:) The swings are a good option for him too.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Wordless Wednesday - Working Hard

From 2010-09-25 Raptor Release, School, Matthew Sleeping

From 2010-09-25 Raptor Release, School, Matthew Sleeping

Interesting Article - Raising Boys That Read

How to Raise Boys That Read

I found this article to be very true to my thinking. I have worked hard at researching what books are truely good literature for our boys to read. Do they read "twaddle"? At times, YES, books they think would be interesting. Are these the types of books they keep going back to? NO.  I have found that assigning a wide variety of great literature for school has really helped especially Bryce at this point, to pick good books for his free reading time. In my mind, choosing to read good books is just as important as the ability to read good books.

Currently, Bryce is still loving to read all things science related and the Harry Potter series. He loves his Magic School Bus books, but he also loves to go into the non-fiction section and pick books out on different science topics. Micah is currently working  his way through the Magic Tree House series. Is this great literature maybe not, but he is reading chapter books that are at his level and learning so much history.

The boys have read many good books in the last few years. Here are some of the earlier readers they have really enjoyed. (Series) Amelia Bedilia, Nate the Great, Frog and Toad, (Individual Books) The Great Balloon Race, Buffalo Bill, Praire School, First Flight, and so many more that I can not remember them all.

Over the summer, I started to explore the world of audio books. Due to weekly appointments, we are spending more time in the car and I am just not great at doing Read Alouds during the day. We still read aloud to our boys but the discovery of audio books has been wonderful. We are currently listening to Peter Pan, I love that even Matthew will ask for the audio books. I feel better knowing that we can listen to great literature while we are in the car and it takes some of presure I have put on myself for not doing more read alouds.

My boys love books and I hope that will be a life long love for all three.

Celebrating 97 Years

From 2010-09-18 Grandma's 97th Birthday

Great - Grandma turned 97 years old on September 17, 2010. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Banana Muffins

From 2010-09-17 Matthew Muffins

Matthew enjoyed eating Banan Muffins for lunch today. I am so thankful for Kids With Food Allergies. The recipes available at this site, through membership, have been indispensible as Matthew trials foods and finding new ways to make the foods that he does have.  Today, I took a recipe for sweet potato muffins and pretty much changed everything to make the banana muffins, but I was only able to do this because I had some idea of how much flours vs 'wet' ingredients to add.


Over this last week, I have come to realize that having a child with food allergies is both a privledge and challenge.  I have known the challenge part for some time but the privledge well that is new to me. This week Matthew has started going to Awana, where gets a snack, and Homeschool Co-op, also with snack time. Wow has this been hard. I am so protective of who serves Matthew and what he gets. He only has 10 ingredients in his diet that we know are safe. So protective I guess comes with the territory.  God has used Matthew this week to stretch me.  I have to trust his teachers, I have to trust Matthew and most of all I have to trust God. God will watch over his child that he has given me the privledge to raise.  As Matthew grows, he needs to be able to experience groups and being with peers just like his brothers. I see that God is going to use Matthew to continue to teach me to trust others and to trust him in ways that I currently think are impossible.  For our God is good and gives us good things. I know Matthew will learn to manage his allergies just as we have. He will learn to caustiously trail new foods and when to question the foods being offered. The challenge for me will to be allow him to grow in his independance, by providing safe places for him to do so. He can be and will be a boy who participates fully in life despite his food challenges!

Now for the recipe - so I remember and for any one else who wants to try Matthew's Banana Muffins
1 mashed banana ~1/2 cup
3 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil
1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Potato Starch
1-2 Tablespoons Sugar - depending on taste
2 teaspoons - Corn Free Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract - I used vanilla powder.

Mix the banana and oil well. Add dry ingredients, mix well. Make sure the oven is to tempurature. Once the baking powder is wet it starts to react and you want to get it into the oven as quickly as possible.

Fill 6-8 mini muffin cups 3/4 full.  I did not grease the pan and the muffins popped right out after cooling for a few minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Enjoy - I know Matthew did and I am sure he will again in the future.

Co-op

Today was our first day attending Aces Homeschool Co-op. Wonderful, simply wonderful.  All three boys were able to be in class for 4 hours with peers. All came home telling me of the things they learned. Soon they will all have freinds and be asking to go on playdates.  The Aces communty is very welcoming and focused on raising families, allowing fathers to be the leaders and praying for each other. I am excited to see what God has in store for our family this year.

Itasca State Park

Vacation!  Our family took the first week of September to spend in the northern woods of Minnesota. We went from wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandles to pants and sweatshirts over night. It was wonderful camping weather, cool in the evening and beautiful during the day. On our first night, we celebrated PopPop's 65th birthday. The boys were thrilled to be able to share a cake with their PopPop. Our days were filled with adventures of all kinds. On Saturday and Sunday, the boys were able to attend Jr. Park Naturalist classes. It was fun learning about animal prints and being able to touch the animal pelts. Both Bryce and Micah earned thier Jr. Park Naturalist Hardwoods patch, and Bryce also earned his Pinewoods patch.

God showed his provisions for our family to me. Derek recieved a wonderful gift of a telescope from a co-worker who is down sizing. I planned to start an Astronomy Unit Study when we returned. The skies most nights were very clear and we were able to see the Milky Way. The boys had fun looking through the telescope and their interest in the sky was peeked.

From Scrapbook Pages

Monday, morning Bryce was able to earn his Fishing Belt Loop. This meet talking about fishing requlations, baiting his own hook and fishing. Unfortuantely, we caught no fish but it was a fun trip anyway. Bryce is learning to love fishing just like his Daddy and PopPop.

From Scrapbook Pages

On Monday afternoon a storm was a brewing. We knew the rain was coming, so Daddy and PopPop hung tarps to keep the rain from getting our table wet, they did a great job too. Well, the boys they found the bag of extra ropes. Pure entertainment.

From Scrapbook Pages

Tuesday was quite cool. The rain had ended, however the wind stuck around for most of the day. It was a good day for a short adventure to the headwaters of the Mississippi.

From Scrapbook Pages

Wednesday was a day of big adventure. We drove Wilderness Drive and stopped at many of the sites. The largest White Pine, the tallest Red Pine, trees that have been burned in forest fires yet are still growing tall, and huge trees that were down. It was fun to learn about all the different trees and how forests grow and recover from forest fires.

From Scrapbook Pages

Our week of vacation was fun and relaxing. Now we are back to school and work but the memories will be with us for a lifetime. Camping a great way to grow as a family and enjoy all of God's creation.

Two Wheeler

Bryce has been working hard all summer to learn how to balance. First on his scooter and then on a bike. Today, it all paid off!!


Great Job Bryce!!!!



Look at his concentration.

From 2010-09-01 Bryce Learns to Ride a Two Wheeler

Riding is hard work. We are very proud of you Bryce! You worked hard and you did it.

From 2010-09-01 Bryce Learns to Ride a Two Wheeler

School by the River

The flexibility of homeschooling is amazing - school any where at any time.  Today, we attempted to do school at Fort Snelling State Park, however, mom didn't look at the map closely enough. Instead, we drove around being able to see the tops of the trees but not the river. We saw the park but couldn't figure out how to get there. Tried to hike in - took the wrong trail and found out it would have been 2 miles.  Finally, I found a river park in St. Paul along the Mississippi.  The boys didn't care what park we were at, they just wanted to go on the hike mommy had promised them.  After walking a short distance, we found a path of the main trial, time for a "rabbit trail." The boys thought this path was great once they saw where it lead.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

After throwing rocks for awhile, we headed back up the trail to start our school work for the day. Currently, the boys are working on earning ther Jr. Naturalist Hardwood Patches through the MN State Parks.  This has been a fun book to work on throughout the summer and has really helped the boys open their eyes to all that is in the woods.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Once we were done with one section, we moved back towards the van to an open area. Each boy picked a tree, examined it, discribed it and created drawings of their trees. The boys worked hard and took this very seriously.  As they finished, I took the opportunity to take some individual pictures of boys. I am working hard to make sure that I get pictures of each of the boys on a regular basis. I find that as they get older I don't take as many pictures and I want to. By taking pictures now, I am able to start capturing parts of thier personalities.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Favorite Homeschooling Websites

Now that we are a few weeks into our new school year and many others are gearing up for theirs many people have been posting thier favorite websites. I thought it would be interesting to see what I come up with. Many times I go to a site, bookmark and then never return there. Of course, I usually go through my sites and find some that would have been helpful over the last few months.  These are the sites that I do go to on a regular basis.

1) http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/
I love to read the curriculum formus. I don't post much but I am always looking at what others are using. I don't change what we are using very often but it is always interesting to look at what else is out there. Many ideas for our days have come from these forums and some new curriculum options too.

2) http://www.veritaspress.com/
Book lists, oh how I love book lists. This site has given me many great ideas of books I have never heard of for Bryce to read independantly.

3) http://www.sonlight.com/
Another great site to look at the book lists. I actually think this is a great looking curriulum, just to much reading for our family.

4) http://heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php
Another book list, only this time for the emergent reader. I have use Hooked on Phonics to teach both Bryce and Micah to read. When they finish that, we then work through this list. I think it is wonderful because the boys started reading Level 2 books and finish reading short chapter books. I have found the transtion of longer books with pictures to short chapter books, a hard transition to make and this list has helped in many, many ways.

5) http://www.abookintime.com/ancients/ancientworld.html
One more booklist site, this is what you get when you are a planner. Lots of lists, then you can find enough quality, reviewed books in the local library.

6) http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
Great FREE lapbooks and unit studies.

7) http://www.learningpage.com/main/home.html
You do need to create an account for this site but it is free. I like to use the Theme Sheets. In fact, we are going to do a space unit in Sept and almost everything will come from this site.

8) http://www.worksheetworks.com/
Great site to be able create free worksheets. I really like that I am able to create different math sheets for review for the boys.

9) http://donnayoung.org/index.htm
I have found the schedules here the most useable for our family. Although, I don't seem to stick to them for long.

10) http://www.fun4thebrain.com/index.html
When I do let the kids online, they are set up here for games that are past the preschool age.

11) www.pbskids.org
My boys favorite site, they love to play games with their TV pals.

Cabin Weekend

For the first time this summer, we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin. Bryce caught the only fish. Lucy jumped off the dock. She didn't seem to mind swimming but only joined us the one time. Micah and Matthew had fun digging in the "sandbox" otherwise known as the fire pit to us adults.  Derek and I enjoyed lots of time to enjoy the kids and relax. It is amazing how just getting away to the cabin puts everyone in a good mood.

Philistine Warriors

We are currently studing Ancient Israel. Bryce is absulutly loving learning Old Testament history.

Yesterday, the boys made Philistine Warrior Helmets.


Brcye listening to Derek read.

From Philistine Warriors

Matthew as Goliath

From Philistine Warriors

From Philistine Warriors