Christmas 2015

Happy Birthday, Doug

First Grade and Pre-K, Weeks 17 & 18

We have finished up our first semester.  The last ancient history activity was pretending we were archaeologists excavating some ruins from after the fall of Rome.  The boys dug up pieces of pots that the barbarians had destroyed and tried to reassemble them.

Starting in January we will be studying life science.

Our helper.

The boys' art project gift for Nana.

Four Kids at Christmas Time

First Grade and Pre-K, Weeks 15 &16

Geography:
Learning about land forms.

Science:
Making ice cream.

Spelling:
Peter finished the first level of All About Spelling and has moved on to level 2.

History:
Learning all about Julius Caesar and ancient Rome.  We made mosaics "just like" the Romans.

Audrey Lynne meets Beatrice Audrey

First Grade and Pre-K, Week 14

History:
We have been studying ancient China.  One chapter was about building the Great Wall, so we decided to try our hand at building a Great Wall of Lunch.  The boys used ketchup mortar to build a wall with bread cubes and pieces of hot dog.  Pieces of pineapple played the role of Mongols threatening to invade the country.  While we built, we talked about how inauthentic this method was...the Chinese did not have many rocks to build with (much less hot dogs), so they built much of the wall by compressing dirt.

Art:

Park Day:
We met up with a home school group to go on a nature hike and visit a nature center.  Our friends Ian and Kate were there along with a couple dozen other kids ranging in age from itty, bitty baby (Audrey) up through tween ages.

Cute Baby:

Color Coding Food for Fun and Safety!!

Wednesdays are speech therapy days; we get home about 20 minutes before Spencer needs to go down for a nap, so I need to get lunch on the table ASAP.  To that end, I tend to have the boys' lunches pre-packed in the fridge ready to go.

Sandwiches are easy to make ahead of time, but since most gluten free breads are expensive and not all that good, I've had to find alternative, often less convenient, options.

Enter "GLUTEN FREE BREAD-FOR-ONE IN LESS THAN 90 SECONDS!".  It is simple, fast and produces really good, soft (slightly sticky) bread that can be used in a multitude of ways.  I've also had good luck making regular wheat bread with that recipe for the non-allergic boys.

The only problem is making 100% sure that I keep track of which bread is wheat-free for Elliot.  I LOVE that Elliot is able to eat something that is "the same" as his brothers', but I also need to make sure it is different enough to safely keep track of what I am serving to whom.

So I dyed it.  Actually, I added different food coloring (the boys' favorite colors) to all the breads so they would be clearly identifiable.

Then I sliced the breads, made them into sandwiches and packed the boys lunches.  They all thought colored sandwiches were very cool.

Jump, Elliot!!

Just like Big Brother

How I found Peter and Spencer when I peeked in early one morning.  Both laying on their bellies, wrapped in their blankets, reading their books.  Peter was reading Roxaboxen to Spencer with great accuracy and fluency - out of curiosity I looked it up and found the reading level to be 4.3.

Audrey at One Month Old

Audrey is a bit over 11 pounds and is wearing 3-6 month clothing!!  She is eating like a champ and is often sleeping one 5-6 hour chunk at night.  Unfortunately, every few nights she is not in the sleeping mood and instead fusses for hours.  She dislikes diaper changes, hates getting undressed and downright abhors bathes.  She is starting to purposefully smile sometimes which is, of course, adorable.

A Dragon Visits Cabela's