End of Summer Fun!

School started early this year for us. We got get our days in cause the teacher is taking 2 weeks off in October. So one last hurrah before back to school.... We went bowling using our Kids Bowl Free Coupons that we signed up for the summer. We'll go again before the season is over. But we wanted to secure the opportunity before the busy-ness of school started up.

GI Joe meets Barbie

To some this would be shocking but when Big O Daddy O found out his first was a girl, HE GOT SCARED! Then he panicked and said, "Oh no! I gotta start saving for a wedding!"
He went to work and asked the GUYS, What do I do with a girl? ?

He works with a bunch of really good guys.

Their response, "whatever you would do with a boy."

They told him they took their daughters fishing and played ball with them, etc.

None of them told him about stockings with dresses and learning to dress the darling princess.

None of them told him about pink bedrooms.

Or about nail polish and the desire to do daddy's toes.

Or hair pretties and wanting to play beauty parlor.
Maybe that is why he shaved his head.

He has done with them what he would with boys.

Tackle time.

Playing outside.

Movies.

Bike riding.

The girls will talk sports with him (which is more than the wife does...LOL)

Camping

Horse back riding lessons

Swimming

Stuff, father-kid-daughter stuff

And I can tell you noone told him about this:

Little Princess is grinning ear to ear.... cause she sees me coming with the camera.
Yep! That's Big-O-DADDY-O in a pink bedroom with his daughter and
Barbie stuff on the floor ! ! !

It is a good thing he bought my (our) camera. He knows how much he spent on it.
So he didn't break it.
And he knew what would happen.
He groaned and said, " I know you are going to blog this...."
"I will never live it down!"

So now I have had my fun!
Now I will tell the story you don't see in the picture.

At work there is contest regarding the guys' physical fitness tests.
I guess there is a GI Joe being passed around.
BIG-O-DADDY-O's shop thought it would be funny to cross dress GI Joe in a bikini, before sending him on his way.
Someone said to BIG-O-DADDY-O, you got daughters and probably Barbies.
Can you bring in a bikini?
So in all honesty he wasn't necessarily playing Barbies, he was on assignment for work.
He was looking for a Bikini!
Oh...that doesn't sound much better does it. LOL

Boys and Dennis the Menace, so much is true

For the last 4 days, I have been trying to get Daddy's Buddy to shower. My kids are shower fans. Prefer the showers to baths. Who am I to argue as long as the job gets done. Well Daddy's Buddy has developed this negative attitude to showering. He doesn't want to miss anything. I send him off, he gets distracted..."can't do it! "
Tonight... " I CAAAAAAN'T, YOUUUUUUU'RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEE SO MEEEEEEEAN!" I DOOOON'T LIIIIIKE YOUUUUUUUUU! YOUUUUUUUUUU ARE SOOOOOO MEAN!
Then I go to check on him. He is hovering in a corner in the shower. He has turned the water on too hot. He never thought to holler for help. Fix the water. He is feeling good. Now he does NOT want to get out!
Finally out, I get a big hug and snuggles.
WHY! ! Why, can't the men in my life figure out I am all about their good and I am soooo usually right wbout things!

Being right is not all that it is cracked up to be......

Another Clark record broken in our household. The new record is 3 bones.
It really stinks being right sometimes.
We went to Pump It Up to have our free play time compliments of the summer reading program rewards. Getting out of the car was all we could manage. "I didn't know my finger was there.... If I did I wouldn't of shut the door...." It is so hard to not laugh with a statement like that.

Sure enough I heard the door, then I heard the cry and turned around. Securely stuck between the door and car door frame was Little Princess's middle finger. The door completely shut. She managed to open the door and the tears rolled. One look and I remembered last December. You can check out the scoop here and here.

Unfortunately, her pediatrician is no longer practicing. We have yet to meet her new doctor, a family practice doc. The office was in upheavel as the computer system was down and there was not much left for sympathy. Being the Mom I am, who won't take no for an answer when it comes to something like this, or the other answer...wait till 5:00 for immediate care. I called the pediatrician's office (where they know me and my kids and that I have experience with broken bones and cuts needing stitches. They know I am not likely to be over reacting.) and asked if there was anyway to get her in.... Yes! only an hour and half wait. Still have to go home and deposit kids with big sis and get the motrin. They had plenty of sympathy left to pour out on her even though the computers were down. Gotta love pediatricians. I sure hope our doc's office get the girls a woman pediatrician soon.

No pictures this time. She got her nails done yesterday with her cousin Tricia. So we can't see how beautiful her natural nail color is this time. But doc believes she will lose the nail on this one as well. It took her thumb almost 6 months to grow back all the way. One less finger nail to trim, I guess. She did ask me this afternoon to not talk with anyone about it. I giggled and said, "You can't hide it babe, the splint is BIG." "I know..." So with all the love and sensitivity I could muster, I asked, "Can I put it on my blog? "
And well......she said, "I guess."

Warms my Heart....

Little Princess asked if she could read her Bible for a few minutes.
Then she brought me her Bible and started reading.
Just warms my heart. Moments like those are too precious to miss or forget.

Delightful Suprises!

This year we are trying something new in our house.

We were blessed greatly when 4 years ago we received a call from a woman I barely knew.
She didn't live far from us. Our daughters were in the same homeschool book club. She had been praying and my name came to mind. She wanted to teach another girl alongside her daughter for a subject or two. The goal was to provide socialization, accountability and class setting experience. With babies all around and feeling like I was drowning a bit and some prayer, I agreed. She has become a blessed friend to have. I believe God's hand was in bringing us together. We encountered many things this last year and God used this special family to help point us in many right directions. Our daughters are good friends. A year or so into this arrangement, the younger brothers were given an opportunity to have play time. Just about the time God started speaking to my heart that the arrangement might need to change soon, she approached me and told me God was leading their family in a different direction. So last year, Fun Mom and I discovered Middle School English together.

Last semester, God started showing me other opportunities to share this blessing with a couple of other moms. One who has babies just like I had and another who was looking for a similar scenario for her oldest. Works out perfect one boy and one girl. So twice a week now, we have English class at home. One hour of 3rd grade English and an hour of play time. One hour of 4th grade English and an hour of play time. The only downside Fun Mom is getting older and we couldn't do the same for her. She did have fun playing with little ones. She even asked if she could borrow the camera to take pictures of Flutter Nutter playing Barbies. She thought that was very funny!

Our first day of English was amazing. We got through 3 lessons in both sessions. A small amount of homework. Everyone seemed very suprised at how much we were able to accomplish. Won't always be the case. But what an encouraging start!

The boys seemed to have fun, even though they both didn't really say much about. But both girls were thrilled. "It went so fast!" "This is fun!" "Thanks Mom, I really liked English." So I am encouraged. Flutter Nutter took a bat to the face during class, so I had to run up and love on him. He has a beautiful shiner. Maybe, pictures later? Meanwhile, the girls took the innitiative to proceed with the lesson. I checked their work and it was perfecto!

My only rule for them about the homework, is if it isn't done then play time will be reduced until we get our work done. I am soooo hoping that will be all the motivation needed.
But for now, I will rest in a day that went very well!

First day of School !

Today we started school.
We have an eighth, fourth, and third grader and a kindergartner and a get into everything, climb on your lap and take the pencils and laugh turkey.
We started the morning with lessons and when Big O Daddy O, finally resurfaced from the covers he went to go get our annual Krispy Kreme treats for the first day of school.
Suprisingly, things went really well. I was sick through late morning and lunch, stress of the last month caught up with me, but the kids kept plugging along.
Most everything got finished.
We celebrated by going swimming at the Y this afternoon.
1 Day done, 176 more to go!

~~ I got a lot of "why start on Wednesday? questions." Well I discovered not too far into my homeschooling venture, staying true to lesson plans that HAD to be Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri... all the time just didn't work for us. No flexibilty in it. This year, praying and pondering, I realized first days don't go well on Mondays for us. We have all the hullabub coming out of the weekend. So we had our crazy Monday/Tuesday. We started Wednesday. We are getting our feet wet, starting slow with 3 days and then a weekend. Instead of sticking to a M-T-W-H-F schedule (some things we do...like music lessons/spelling, etc.) I plugged everything into HomeSchool Tracker and we'll plug along. And LIFE is well, pretty much that way. Things just don't always happen on schedule or the day you specify. Just gotta roll with it. The beautiful thing is, IF we stay on track, some of our stuff will be done in April and the rest in early May. So, I have some wiggle room for sickness this year. That will be nice, it is a first for us. So we are just going to do what Homeschool Tracker tells us to do each day. Can't argue with a computer !