End of school pictures!

To celebrate all of our hard work during the school year, we had an open house with our homeschool group. The kids all brought examples of their work and put them on display for family and friends to see. (Just like open house at public school!)

Elise had been studying U.S. history this year, so her end of the year project was about Abraham Lincoln. She wrote a paper about his both his public and private life, completed a lapbook about him, and made this diorama of the cabin where he was born. It all turned out great! Isaac was interested in the King Cobra, so we learned as much about this snake as we could! He also completed a lapbook about King Cobras and made a diorama. He did not like to paper mache the snake; he doesn't like to get sticky and dirty. He did like to spray paint the snake, add salt dough to and paint the box. The plants he chose from our yard and we hot glued them in place (I tried to let him do this but he burned himself; I guess a little help is OK!) The project turned out fantastic!!
This year, first grade, Isaac will learn how to knit. We are starting with finger knitting. He is excited to learn because Elise and I knit.
This was his first attempt!

I just learned a simpler finger knitting technique that will be a better starting point! I am excited to teach him!

(The smile below looks a little fake to me,

I think he was a little frustrated with the knitting!)

Here is Elise knitting a backpack for a stuffed animal! She is a natural when it comes to anything creative!

We got out watercolor paints and sea salt.

I showed the kids how the salt affects the color of the paint as it dries. The pictures turned out fabulous, so I cut them into letters and we used them to write "ART" above our art gallery!

This was Joe's first time watercolor painting.

I think he had as much on himself as he did on the paper.

He had a blast!

Camille always enjoys painting!

Isaac had a hard time believing that it was OK for his paper to be so wet (important for the salt technique)! Once he got past the wetness factor he did some beautiful work. It is nice to see him developing his creativity into deliberate work, rather that just throwing paint down on the paper!

Chickens!!

Everything is ready for the chickens, which will arrive at the post office the next morning.
We got the call to come get the chicks! When we picked them up the mail carrier told us they had been chirping since they came in early that morning. As we drove home I thought this was a lot of noise for five little chicks. When we opened the box, this is what we saw! Twenty day old baby chicks! What a surprise!

Here are the chicks in their temporary home in the laundry room.

Twenty adorable little fluff balls!

This is Elise holding her favorite, Dolly(the names have changed!)

As a homeschool project, we weigh each chick every other day. Elise is creating a growth chart and will put it on a spread sheet when Brian gets back to teach her how. This is Dolly, she is a good sport. Isaac's chick, Dahlia, is a jumper so we moved the whole operation to the floor!

This is Charlotte(8 days old), Camille's favorite. It is really hard to get pictures of the chicks. They are terrified of the camera and run away! I am also using my dad's camera while Brian has ours in Haiti, it is very different than mine!

This is Dahlia(L) and Dolly(R). They are both 8 days old. You can see that they are starting to grow feathers on their wings. When they came, those weren't there, just fluff!

This is my favorite chick. She is a really pretty shade of brown, and is the least afraid of all the chicks. However, since we are only keeping three, she is going to my friend Karen's house(along with all the rest of the chicks). I will still get to visit her!

Another picture of Dolly!

Some Recent Pictures!

OK, this picture might be a little misleading!

Although Joseph is really close to sitting on his own, he still falls over. I was able to catch a quick picture before he leaned to the side and fell! But isn't he cute!! He will be so much happier when he can finally sit by himself!

Here is Camille dressed for ballet!

She participated in a parks and rec class near our house. Although she was OH SO CUTE, she isn't ready for this class. There was a lot of lag time as the teacher worked with other students, which made it hard to keep Camille's attention. We will try it again in the fall. I think what she really needs is a preschool hip-hop class...How funny would that be?

Isaac and I were working on the letters for all of our names.

(I know not to use capital letters in the middle of words, we just ran out of lowercase letters!)

This is Elise's science fair project!
Does salt or oil affect the rate of evaporation of water? Stay tuned, we will blog the results soon!

I took Joseph outside while I worked in the garden. It was really beautiful day, and we all enjoyed the sun!

Baby J & the little kids!

The newness has not yet worn off!

Isaac and Camille still can't keep their hands off Baby J. They just love him so much!

Luckily, Baby J. doesn't seem to mind all of the attention! Isaac is still the best one at getting Baby J. to laugh! They have a very special brother bond!

Camille has given more kisses to Baby J. than any baby has ever received anywhere at any time! We joke that he is the "most kissed baby", and I really do believe this to be true!
It won't be long, and he will be able to run away from all those kisses!

(Enjoy it while you can Camille!!)

Happy Birthday Camille!!

Doesn't she Look so grown up!

This December Camille turned 3!!
Friends Carver and Zane, cousins Tori and Tommy, as well as, Grandma and Papa T. came over for the party!
We celebrated with some Tinkerbell cupcakes and opened presents.

It was a great time!!

BANGS!!

OK, I will be the first to admit that the bangs are cute!

I just really liked her hair before. Before she took scissors and cut it herself! We are lucky, it was a pretty easy fix. We are also lucky that I was standing almost next to her when she did it, so I was able to stop her before she did even more damage! There is a section in the toward the middle of her head that is about an inch long, but I think it will all grow out just fine.

Camille is Walking!!

We are so excited because Camille(14months) is now walking!! She also seems much happier to be up and around. She is getting faster and more stable, so she will soon be able to keep up with Isaac, Elise and Aidan.

Here she is walking!! Sorry the pictures are sideways, I fixed this on my computer (or so I thought!!)

Papa K., I have officially learned my lesson about turning the camera!!

These two sure love each other!!Camille walking has also made Isaac so excited! He keeps pointing at her and telling me she is walking. He has also told several strangers in the store about his sisters amazing walking skills. He is such a typical two year old sometimes!