Out of town

Last week, Ryan took a trip to New York so I packed up the kids (and the dog!) and headed to my parent's house. We were there from Wednesday to Sunday afternoon and had a great time! Jack met his other great-grandparents and went to his first football game! It was homecoming weekend for my brother's high school, so we took the kids to the homecoming parade (I saw my old band director!) and then I took Jack to the game the next night (which they totally won). We also met up with old friends and made some new friends, and I went to see movie Eclipse with my sister- finally! Beth and Luke played with my brother's train tracks, which were a huge hit. I think I know what Luke is getting for his birthday!!!

Ryan went up to New York for business and then drove down to DC to see his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew before flying back on Sunday evening. I have pics for that too but still need to upload them!

Old pics- revisited

We've had such a busy week! Monday was labor day and we saw out-of-town relatives while trying to stay dry from the crazy tropical storm! Tuesday we stayed home but Wednesday I took Beth to the doctor. She's been having chronic stomach pains for months now, despite some tests run in March that came back normal. He checked her out and said her stomach sounded "angry" from whatever she'd eaten at lunch- milk! So I asked them to draw some blood to check for food sensitivities, and I'm hoping we'll get those results back today. Wednesday afternoon we had some more out of town visitors- Luke's godparents and me and Ryan's good college friends! We had a lovely visit with them, dreaming up ways to get them back into Texas- preferably in our neighborhood! They stayed the night then left the next morning to continue their "tour" of the state and visit as much family as possible! After they left I took the kids out shopping because Luke's shoes are too small again (I just bought these!) and he's always complaining they're too tight. I think they fit him fine but, welll, when he's complaining and refuses to wear them, it means it's time for new shoes! Today we had our first home school group's monthly meeting, and boy was it HOT! Beth refused to participate because she was a huge grump, so I'm really hoping next time is a little cooler!

I don't have my pics from the week uploaded yet, so here are some old ones that I've recently modified using my favorite new website, picnik.com.

Shape Sorting

One of our "lessons" today was sorting three different shapes of pasta, then counting how many pieces they each had. This is, by far, one of their favorite activities we've ever done! Though Luke kept trying to eat the uncooked pasta, he understood that different shapes went in different categories. Beth is working on 1:1 recognition with objects still, so counting the shapes was a bit challenging for her, but perfectly so! Today we also read a the creation story from a Children's Bible I checked out from the library, Beth summarized the story back to me, then we made a booklet filled with pictures that she drew from the story (sun, moon, Eve, flowers, butterfly, the sea, and a tree). Earlier this week she made a similar booklet for Goodnight Moon (cat, moon, house, little old lady on a rocking chair). She really loves drawing, she gets that from her daddy!


I'm looking for a good Children's Bible, something with a few paragraphs per story, beautiful pictures, and a lot of stories (not just Noah's Ark and Christmas, you know?). Please send me your recs!