Carmel Apples and Pumpkin Pie

The kids are enjoying carmel apples and pumpkin pie! We read about the life cycle of a pumpkin last Thursday and then made pumpkin pie. Everyone in our house loves pumpkin, we eat pumpkin bread all week (year round). The apples that they are eating are the ones that we picked at the orchard. We like our apples with carmel, chocolate, sprinkles and marshmallows. We usually take out the stick and cut up our apples to eat them (we have a lot of wiggly teeth :)). Next we will be making apple pie!
Linz

Apple Picking

Friday we took the kids apple picking! We had a great time! We picked 12lbs of apples. Every year we go at the wrong time. The first year we went too late, the next year we went too early and this year we went later than last year but earlier than the year before and it was still wrong! I will just have to keep on top of it next year. Ladybug wants Gala, Stink Bug wants Granny Smith and I want those plus Macintosh. We picked Yellow Delicious this year. They are good too so we are happy. Time to make carmel apples --- yummmm!

Linz

Happy Birthday Wheel Bug!

Today Wheel Bug turned 4 years old! Wow! Time sure does fly by quick! He requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast and an ice cream sandwich cake. After lunch we went to Stink Bug's soccer game (he scored a goal and did a happy dance on the field ;)) and Wheel Bug and bro/sis all got slushies. We had plans to go to a local farm to visit the animals but it had rained earlier and the farm was too wet. So, we took the kids bowling. I did not realize how expensive bowling is. :? The kids had a great time! We then went home to enjoy cake and open presents. Wheel Bug got a knight and horse, Lego's, imaginext horse and cart, a rescue helicopter, $20 and a Playmobile Pirate Ship. He loved everyone of his gifts! Thank you to everyone that sent him a card or gift. We are so blessed to have Wheel Bug in our family. He is such a sweet boy! Happy Birthday Wheel Bug!
Linz

Birthday Bash

Last weekend we held a "Birthday Bash" for our fall birthday kids. Wheel Bug, water Bug, Stink Bug and Lightning Bug invited all of their friends (and family) to our house for cake, hot dogs, pinatas and face painting. We split the party into three age (we just let Water Bug crawl around) groups. Stink Bug's group had a Super Smash Brothers tournament -- we had two tvs set up with two game cubes. Lightning Bug's group made erasers out of eraser clay (they bake in the oven then you can use it as an eraser). Wheel Bug's group painted figurines then played pin the tail on the donkey. After each group was finished with their activity they went outside to hit the pinata. We started with the youngest group, and when they finished we brought out another, while the group that just hit jumped on the trampoline, ate hot dogs or got their face painted. This is the first time we have ever had a "Birthday Bash" or 80+ people at our house. It went well and everyone had a great time! We tried to keep the cost under $150 -- from plates to pinatas to food. We were so happy to have all of our friends over to our home before we move!

Linz

Successful Week!

We had a great first week of school! On Monday night someone from my church called and said that they would pick up June Bug for me (at 5:30am) for early morning seminary! WOW! It has been so nice not having to wake the kids at 5:00 am to take June Bug to class.

We have started each day with morning devotional -- song, prayer lesson/story from the scriptures and reciting the Articles of Faith.
Monday - our lesson was on Joseph and Potiphar's Wife and we discussed how we can be obedient
Tuesday - reviewed Monday's lesson and talked about how we can avoid temptation
Wednesday - read out of the Book of Moses and worked on memorizing a verse
Thursday - talked about men around us who are good examples of Fathers/Husbands, for the boys; what qualities do they see in them that they would like to develop, girls; what do they see in them that they would like in a future husband and how boys/men should treat girls/women

Each day we did math, grammar/writing and read. We also did history, geography (Arizona) and science. We played games, typed on the computer, looked up information on the web, went to the library, made bread, brainstormed ideas about projects they would like to do,wrote letters and used white out for the first time (and they thought that was COOL!). I thought we had a very successful week! The tv, game cube and computer play times were limited this week to an hour and half each day -- a very nice change from the summer. The kids have all been to bed on time and asleep on time:). I am looking forward to next week!

Well, I am off to go pack for a weekend at my Mom and Dad's.
Linz

Chasing Big Brother!

This is a picture of June Bug trying to get into our house -- he was being chased by Ladybug, Stink, Lightning, Jitter and Wheel Bug! The kids had me call June Bug downstairs (while they hid) to help me with something. When he entered the family room they all jumped out of their hiding places and threw balls at him. He screamed, AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! I was laughing so hard I could not take pictures. They then chased him all around the outside of the house and across the street. I was looking through the locked back door when he came up to it screaming, "MOM, LET ME IN.......AAAHHHHH!" I did get a picture of that! They made one fatal error -- they forgot to watch Wheel Bug and he left the front door wide open and June Bug came running in, up the stairs and into the bathroom. He remained locked in there for 10 minutes waiting for the kids to go away. I was on the phone with a friend and apologised for the noise. My friend told me no worries that she comes from a family of 11 so she understood! These are some of the moments when I love having seven kids -- when they run around like a pack calling to each other, laughing all together that it is so loud for them to hear me, when they gang up on their brother and work as a team to get him and when they do get him all the high fives I get as they walk by. I love my kids!

Linz

First "Official" Day of School

We officially started today! YAY!! We started at 9:20 (my goal was 9:00) with devotional, math, grammar, history, some practiced cursive writing and then we made bread. Water Bug and Wheel Bug did very good! June Bug is questioning almost every thing I say and comments on what the kids say. Hopefully this will be just a short phase cause I am already tired of it. Any suggestions? Tomorrow we start early morning seminary and I will be waking the kids up at 5:00am to get June Bug to the teacher's house. We will see how the rest of the week goes when they start waking up so early. Here are some pictures of our first day--enjoy!

Linz

Ten Reasons Why I Love To Homeschool!

1. When the school bus drives by my kids are still sleeping peacefully!
2. I get to see the expression on my child's face when he makes a circuit and the light bulb glows in Science class!
3. I get to cuddle in the middle of Math!
4. We get the library to ourselves because everyone is in school!
5. When my child has a bad day, I know why and don't have to try to pry it out of them.
6. Did I mention we get to sleep past the time the bus comes?!
7. We can "do" school in our PJs!
8. The museums are empty because everyone is in school!
9. I can teach my children what I want them to know and what I think is important!
10. Because of the hugs and kisses I get all day long!
11. Because there has never been or ever will be any school shootings at our school!

Oh was that 10.

The list could go on!

My pregnancies were very hard -- bed rest, going into labor early, leaving 4 kids in the hospital because they were premature, vomiting all or most of my pregnancies --all day, dehydration and more! I did not go through all that just to have them leave at 5 years old! I love my kids and no one knows them like I do! I am so grateful that we are able to do school at home. I am thankful for friends and family who support me! We will start our school in a week. We have been packing way too long and are looking forward to school!

Linz

Tubes

We took baby water Bug to the hospital today to get tubes in his ears. He has had on going ear infections for 5 weeks! He can not take any antibiotics because he has had an allergic reaction to all antibiotics so far! The last one was so severe that they told me he can not have any more antibiotics. What does that mean? What happens when he gets strep throat? He will get it too -- my kids always get strep. I had six kids with me that day, at the doctor's office, and had been in the room for an hour and forty minutes. I just wanted them to tell me what we needed to do so that I could take my pep squad home. I didn't ask too many questions, except the same one -- will the side effects to this or that drug be the same as Zithromax? He apparently could not understand me, what with all the cheers and tears going on behind me. The doctor was about to give him an injection of some drug when a nurse walked in and asked the magic question......"He has never had an allergic reaction to any medication before, right. Because......" UH YES!!! I had told the Dr. three times about his reactions. Anyway, the nurse took the medication away quickly (like I was about to grab the needle and stick my child) and said that the same ingredients are in that drug as the ones he had reactions to. We were sent to an ENT the next day and that doctor scheduled him to get tubes in a week. He needed to get tubes because he can't take any antibiotics and even if his ears did clear up on it's own this time he could still get infected again and that will give us time to figure out his allergies. When we move I will talk to another dr about his allergy issue.
We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 am and his surgery was done at 7:45am. We had to give baby a sedative so that I could had him over to the nurse. He was not about to go with someone other than mom. We did not want him to go to the OR screaming and the nurses to hold him down so that they could strap him in and put the gas mask on. I was so sad watching my baby walk away from me with someone else. He did great! All the nurses loved him and wanted to cuddle with him. We are at home now and he is a little bit grumpy but we are glad it's over and he is doing well!
Linz