What's fall without some leaf piles?

We only have one smaller tree in our front yard so we can't make too much of a leaf pile, but the kids had fun. I think it was the next day when they were playing with the neighbor girl and started stealing leaves from another neighbor. Who I'm sure was all too willing to see them go. 

This picture just cracks me up for some reason. They got some decent air on this one.

Thanksgiving

Two pretty girls. I always thought there was a strong resemblance between Savannah and Belle.

Co-op field tirp to the Honey Farm

Our last meeting of the co-op for 2011 was to a honey farm. It was so interesting to see the honey being spun. Everyone had a great time learning about honey and then just spending time hanging out. Belle loved talking about how she liked the light honey better than the dark honey. Which we learned had to do with the bees diet and the season.

Playing Catch Up

Just trying to play catch up a little on the blog.

Camping at Whitewater State Park with the Freshour side.

 

I took these on the last day of co-op for the semester. I just thought they were cute portraits of the kids. The bottom picture is Ethan playing with the older boys. Ethan thought it was so cool that they included him in their game.

Wave your hands like you just don't mind!

I'm way behind in blogging. I've got several things I need to get up here. In the mean time here are some videos for you.

One I took today. Belle has gotten to skip counting with her math. We are in love with our math program (Math U See), but the skip counting has been giving Belle a hard time. Counting by 10s was the only one that came easy. MUS has a song cd that helps with skip counting but man it was a drag. Snore!!! I did a little youtube search and found this super fun song that has really helped Belle with her counting by 5s. It started clicking a little today!! I even found a cool School House Rocks video, although it was a little over her head. Please ignore the boy with his finger in his nose the whole time.



This video was just something I found when I was downloading my videos. It's from August. It's Ethan going through his letter sounds. He knows most of them thanks to Leapfrog Letter Factory. It's pretty cute even though I get kicked and jumped on.

Pumpkin Patch

Yep, got rid of the old template. It was ugly. I'll work on a cleaner design sooner or later. In the mean time it'll just be a template.

We made our annual trek to Appleworks. Here are some pictures.

Ethan is 3!!!

I cannot believe my baby is 3. Mr Ethan is one feisty and fearless little dude. We joke that he'll be a cliff jumping nudist. Ethan loves to climb and jump off anything and well he does love being naked too. He recently conquered the tricycle. His little legs finally grew long enough to really be able to pedal.

Lately Ethan has been all about dragons. Mostly from the movie How To Train Your Dragon. So of course he found several dragon toys in his presents.

We had a little party for him on sunday with our families.

  Had to throw in a picture of Coop. Look at those eyes!!

 Belle and Ethan with all their cousins.

He got a dragon costume. In this picture he is pretending that he is blowing fire. =)

co-op fun

We are part of a homeschool co-op this year. It's been a lot of fun and I think it's really nice for Belle to get out and be part of a "class".

During Science they'll watch Magic Schoolbus on my laptop.

Then they'll go back to class and do an experiment. In this case they were learning about germs and had used a special lotion and then washed their hands to show how important good hand washing is.

Ethan just chills in the nursery with the other toddlers.

Then once a semester we have a "Lit Day" where every family reads the same book and then one co-op class is devoted to some sort of activity about the book. This time it was the book "Gifted Hands, the Ben Carson Story. " And since Ben was a brain surgeon our class was devoted to the brain. We didn't actually read the book, although I tried. Belle just wasn't having it. We did however watch the movie together.

In one room the kids did Brain teasers, or in this case, played with Geo boards

The kids even got their own Dr name badges.

Here they made play doh brains.

And got to explore medical equipment. At first I couldn't understand Belle's reaction in this picture. Then I saw what was in Mary Jo's hands, a needle. Yep, that'll freak Belle out any day. Oh and how funny, the other kindergartener in the co-op is also named Belle. So in this picture we have Belle x2.

Here they learned about the parts of the brain and got a coloring
book.

These are not in order, but the kids started off learning about nutrition, food allergies and diabetes. A family in our co-op has some pretty severe food allergies along with diabetes. The kids got to eat a few snacks and learn about how our friend deals with her diabetes. Belle ate A carrot (one that I forced her to eat), an apple and a delicious banana muffin. Oh and drank some Crystal Light, thus leaving all the kids with red mustaches the rest of the day as you can see in the above pictures.

What did Ethan do? He played with his friends in the nursery. Here he is with Sammy. They are DOUBLE TROUBLE!!! One is as equally rotten as the next. We joke that they'll get married and be carefree spirits off having fun. Probably backpacking through Europe or something. =)

Belle and her horse

**I need to get a picture of Belle and her horse to go along with this post. Maybe I'll work on that. **

No, we didn't get Belle a horse. If we did, we'd surely be the best parents EVER. Nope Belle read the book "Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse" about a year ago. It's all about a girl who wants a horse for her birthday and does everything to prepare. The party comes and her dad gets her a bike. She ends up pretending the bike is a horse and they ride off into the sunset.

Ever since then Belle's bike has been her horse. It's name has changed several times. From Star to it's current name Spirit (after She-ra's horse, I believe), and probably a million in between. She'll pull her horse out of the stable (the garage) and talk to it as she rides. It's cute.

Yesterday we took off the training wheels. She's awfully excited to ride like a big girl. And Belle is doing great as long as she doesn't put too much thought into it. She rode about 20 or so feet today without me holding on. But before she even got started she gave her horse a pep talk. I couldn't understand what she was saying exactly, she was whipsering to her "horse". Then every time Belle would make an attempt at riding she'd repeat to herself "I believe in myself, I believe in myself" over and over. She's so funny!!

Maybe I'll be able to post some video soon of my big girl riding without training wheels.

In Ethan news, his legs have finally grown long enough for him to really be able to pedal his trike. So he's off and running as well.

Kindergarten interview

The yummiest food to eat is: Corn

My favorite show to watch is: Ruff Ruffman

I love when I get to read: books about horses

The best thing about school is: playing together

The worst thing about school is: reading

The coolest person on earth is: my mom

I'm really super good at: playing tag

My favorite colors are: purple & pink

The best place in the world to be is: Mamaw's house

When I grow up I want to be: a horse rider

If I could do one thing all day it would be: playing

I really, really do not like to eat: hamburger

My best friend is: Audrey Parkhurst

Jesus is: powerful

When I was little I used to: chew on things

3 words that tell about me: Isabella, ballerina, pretty

This year I hope to learn: ballet

Labor Day trip to W. Va.

Well it had been about 10yrs since I've been down to see the Richmond side of the family. We were able to get everyone together to go down this year for the Pack Family reunion on Labor Day. We all had a good time, but ended up leaving early because Sara's kids were not sleeping well and were cranky.

I was surprised how well the drive down and back went. Not too many problems or whining. We just might be able to make a road trip again.

Of course my kids know no stranger and quickly made friends. Even had someone ask (jokingly)where they were adopted from because no child of mine would be that social. Belle spent her time playing with cousins Torre and Ciara and Ethan spent most of his time just playing with Brody. Although Ethan did come up to me during the reunion and asked if he could go play with the big kids. I'm always amazed at how well my kids are in new situations. They'll just go off and make friends with someone.

Dad with his siblings and grandma Richmond

Cooper and his bare butt.

 

 Didn't take long before the boys were wrestling in the yard.

Ethan playing with Uncle Johnny.

Belle and Torre.

Our family with Grandma.

 

All the Richmond grandkids and great grandkids minus one.

Cooper and Brody joined in with the singing.

Getting the stinkeye from Ethan.