Surprise!!

We had a surprise party for Conner's 10th birthday last weekend. I never considered the challenges that come with planning a surprise party for a child that I homeschool. He is with me so often that much of my planning and executing took place in the evenings...and late into the evening on a few occasions.

I thought of several options for his 10th party. Normally he is involved with the planning, but since it was a surprise, I went with what I thought he would really enjoy.

"Camp Conner" was the theme with camping food, camp t-shirts, a mocked up 'camp ground' (inside since it's March and unpredictable), a campground-looking cake, and a camp out with the kids from the party sleeping over in the basement...in a tent and sleepingbags.

Here are some photos of the evening..
'The camp ground'
A picture of Conner with each of his cakes from his 1st birthday to his 9th

The 'campers'

My friend Carrie had the idea of making camp t-shirts like you often get when going to summer camp or something. I loved the idea and made these for each of the kids...The cake...

I saved his candles from his other cakes and used one from each year (plus a new one for this year) to make the 10 candles for the cake. You can sort of see them in this photo...
Dodgeball and other games...

In the morning (early morning since they came upstairs at 5:15 ready for the day) they watched a movie and had a camp-like breakfast of eggs and bacon. I added sweet rolls, not typically found at camp-outs, because they are one of Conner's favorites. As a side note, if you are looking for an amazing sweet roll you make at home, get Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls from the freezer section. I like them as well as, if not better than, anything I've purchased from a bakery. They are delicious!

A special thanks to my parents for coming down and helping with the set up and clean up and for sleeping right above 7 boys who were up very early. Another special thanks to the Beth and Pete. Beth helped me set up, decorate and took tons of pictures. Pete, thanks for helping with the games!

My next post will be about the celebrations with my family, his actual birthday and with Mark's family. Nothing like dragging it out.

Guess Who's Coming to Our House...

Conner, Hayden and Millie are very excited about the little one that will soon be joining our family.
A new puppy!! We have been talking about getting a dog for quite some time now and the time is fast approaching. We have put a deposit on a puppy - a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. We had never heard of it before either. We've been researching dogs for quite awhile hoping to find a dog similar to a lab without all the shedding. Here's the kids holding a toy from each of them for the new puppy.


The mother is due March 24th and we can't wait. The puppy will come home the third week of May. We're still talking about names, but so far we all like Bella. Any other cute girl dog names you've heard lately?

Here are a few photos of the breed. These are all from the breeder we've chosen. The mother is the one on the left. These dogs are a bit scruffier than any breed we've owned, but I love what I'm reading about their personality, intelligence and lack of shedding!!

So, so, so cute!!

A Trip to the Hill

My kids really enjoy the sledding hill by the lake on campus. It's steep enough, but not too steep (as you're making your way back up). I enjoyed today too...from the van...sitting with my friends...while we watched our kids sled, eat snow, wrestle in the snow, and make snow angels.

The two pictures I captured (from my annoying, barely working camera).


The snowflakes were incredible today. Like, take your breath away, stand in awe of God, incredible. They were especially intricate. I had on a black coat and just couldn't get enough of watching them fall and land on my sleeve, appreciating the variety and detail. Then, you look all around at how many have fallen to make inches and inches of snow. Wow. And when the sun hits the fallen snow and sparkles like diamonds, another wow.

I am one of the rare people who likes winter. I actually love all the seasons. I look forward to each change. I will admit, winter gets very long and I want a quick and warm transition to spring. But if winter is here, I want snow. I like bundling up with hot chocolate and getting 'snowed in' every once in awhile. I love the beauty snow brings to everything and how it clings to the trees. Growing up we used to snowmobile and ski quite a bit. I don't love being cold-at all. So, as I mentioned I watched my kids sled from the van, I enjoy it in spurts.

Other than sledding, the kids played a bit of Wii and we sat down and watched Dreamer. That is a great movie. I forgot it was inspired by a true story. Of course I cried. It's still snowing so I expect schools will be canceled tomorrow. Not homeschool-lucky for my kids... :)

Off to watch The Office re-runs or last night's episode of The Bachelor. Even though I know who is chosen, I still watch it. Is that sick or what?

Saturdays...

Mark and I are not morning people. We like to sleep in. Saturday for us usually means waking up around 9:30 or so (especially in the winter). Somewhat pathetic...I know.

These days, however, we have our boys playing Upwards basketball, which means most Saturday mornings start with a 9:00 am basketball game. The boys are really enjoying it and, despite having to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning (did I mention we're late night people?), we have liked starting our Saturdays this way.

This is our first experience with basketball, and they seem to like it. The program is very well done with a weekly memory verse and devotion during each practice and game. They have magnetic holders for the verse cards-nice- and a reversible jersey so they always were the same jersey and just switch it depending on if they are the home or away team.

I've included two short clips of the boys playing... Conner's first...



Here's one of Hayden..

If you have boys...

If you have boys, you can relate to the moment I had today.

I was doing a phonics lesson with Hayden.  He's learning the /or/ and /ar/ sounds like in the words sort and car respectively.  He was supposed to write a word that rhymed with the words 'part' and 'art' after I told him the first letter.

So, I said /ch/ and he wrote the word chart.  I said /d/ and he wrote the word dart.  I said /sm/, he wrote smart. 

I thought he should also review the /or/ sound (was not in the curriculum), so I said the word rhymes with 'sort' and it starts with /f/. 

Obviously he should have written fort, but he still had /ar/ on the brain.  I see what he's written and I said, what should you have written? 

He says, fort. 

I said, is that what you wrote? 

He sounds out F-AR-T and starts laughing so hard.  I hear Conner start to laugh from the kitchen table and they laughed for nearly 3 minutes straight. 

Hayden gets this giggle that cracks me up, so we're all laughing about the word fart.  Why is that so funny to little boys (and big boys too I might add)? 

Hayden kept telling the story that he was supposed to write fort, but wrote fart and then they both would laugh all over again.

It was great to laugh together today.  It seems lately homeschooling has brought about more tears than laughter. 

:)

Brrr....Snow...

It was cold, but they had fun.

 

Christmas

As I reflect on Christmas this year, I'm thankful that we have families who are followers of Jesus.  Christmas is celebrated because our Savior came.  We sang happy birthday to Jesus at both grandparents' houses.  We certainly have many fun traditions and the cousins have fun talking about Santa and such, but we get to celebrate His birth with loved ones who love Him.

Anyway, my camera is on the fritz (as mentioned in previous post), so my pictures are few and pretty crappy.  Thankfully my mom and sister-in-law took pictures on Christmas day at my Grandma's house, because I have none!

Here are a few from Christmas with my family...

A few from Mark's family Christmas...

 

 Poppy and Jacob always read the Christmas story from a book...

 

I'm looking forward to a new year.  2010.  Is it really possible?  I remember worrying about it turning 2000 and all the hype of Y2K.  I was pregnant and feared I wouldn't be able to deliver in the hospital (and actually had a discussion with my doctor sharing this concern...I'm sure he thought I was nuts).  I stored up some food in the basement.  In some ways that seems like more than a decade ago, but it has been a decade.

Wow.