These are pictures from Malaya's 7th birthday party. She wanted to have it outside at the park nearby which seemed like a good idea. I wouldn't have to clean up the house before or after the party. However, it turned out to be a rather chilly day with a nice breeze. The kids had fun anyway and that's what's important!


This was Malaya and Sirena patiently waiting for the kids to arrive. We had to get to the park early to set up and decorate. This really test the girls patience.


When we got a good group of kids, we all went to the playground part of the park. There were swings and slides and other fun things for the kids to do to build up their appetites.


This was Malaya's birthday cake. The theme of the party was butterflies. The ladybugs were a special addition for Sirena since she loves ladybugs.


She blew out all the candles in one breath, without any help from Willie! Willie blew out Sirena's candles when she had her party so I had to remind him that he wasn't allowed to blow these candles!




Of course everyone loved the cake. It was super yummy!!


We also had bubbles for the kids to play with when we weren't at the playground. I think most of the solution ended up on the ground!



Here are the kids after the pinata was broken.

People often think that the girls might be lacking "social" skills. But I think it's evident from these pictures that they aren't hurting for friends. In fact, both Malaya and Sirena had declarations of love made to them at the party so I don't think I need to worry about them except to fend off the boys when they get older!

For the two of you who "follow" this blog, check out my new blog. It's different than this one but may be fun to check out now and again. I just posted a recipe to a fun and easy meal I made tonight.

We've been very busy this summer. This is Malaya at the VBS final program. What is she doing? Well, of course, she has joy like a fountain in her soul! What really shocked me about this was that she volunteered to go on stage and do the motions for the entire song. My super shy girl loved VBS!

The week after VBS, we took a mini-vacay to the Great Wolf Lodge. The girls had a much better time this year than last. They were both brave enough to go on the medium sized slides! We also tried the MagiQuest which was lots of fun too. We split into teams and raced each other through each quest. Needless to say, mommy and Sirena won every time :)

On Saturday we went geocaching again. It was a very hot day but we were out in the forest enjoying the shade. It was actually quite beautiful. Joey took this picture which sort of shows the trees and area we were hiking in.We found three caches that day. Here is one that we found in the trees. As you can see, sometime they are quite large. That makes them easier to find.

When we walked out of the trees, there was a police officer standing on the trail waiting for us. He said to me, "Hey. What are you doing back there?" Joey laughs at me because I got a little nervous by this. It's not normal to have police officers come up to you when you're not doing anything wrong. Anyway, I hesitated for a second and then decided to tell him the truth. Because geocaching is not illegal, right? So, I said, "we're geocaching." Then he said, "I just wanted to see if you would tell me the truth! I'm geocaching too." Ok, I let me breath out. He wasn't out to get us. We talked with him for a bit and then we all went on our way. We picked up our first travel bug and we placed our first one also. The one we picked up came from England. I can't wait to see where ours travels to. In the end, it was a fun time.

That afternoon, when we got home, Joey found this little critter behind our shed.

Do you know what it is? It's a possum. He seemed really cute and we wanted to catch him to remove from our property and release him somewhere else. It's unfortunate though because if you look real close in the picture, you can see blood on the wood and the wound in her side. She was probably attacked by Ko-Ko or Chloe (the dog we were baby-sitting last week). Joey still got her out and took her somewhere else but I'm pretty sure she died. It was super sad. They say that possums don't carry rabies and they are really not harmful. They have poor vision and will "play dead" when attacked. Overall, they seem like an ok animal to have around (at least they are better than mice).

We went to the beach again this weekend. Papa was here visiting and we wanted to do something fun with him. The weather forecast was for 70 degrees and mostly sunny. As you can tell in the pictures, it was not even partially sunny. It was cold, probably 60 degrees. We still had fun but will be sure to pack SEVERAL changes of clothes the next time so we won't be unprepared. Fortunately, I took several changes of clothes for Malaya and Sirena and they were pretty comfortable except when wet. Here are some of our pictures.




They built a sandcastle which was mostly a pile of sand with a moat around it. It served it's purpose which was to get the girls digging in the sand. I think they really like the feel and texture of the sand. Sirena could just sit and move the sand around all day long I think.

I don't know who took this picture of Papa but it wasn't me! It was probably Malaya. I think she did a pretty good job.
This last picture is mostly to show Ko-Ko and how she magically fit herself into a small space between both car seats. It was a pretty tight fit but she seemed comfortable.
I didn't take any pictures of our geocaching that day. I was super excited because we found 5 out of 6 caches that we looked for. The more you find, the more you want to go looking. It is a rather addictive activity. Really fun and I highly recommend the GeoMate Jr. It is really easy to use and seems pretty accurate, now that we've found a few and have tested it better. It comes preloaded with geocaches so you don't have to download any info to a GPS receiver. With the new update kit coming out soon, we'll be able to have the most up-to-date info for all our geocaching adventures. I really can't wait to go hunting again!

We have been working hard in our yard this week. The weather has been so awesome that we just had to get outside. The girls weren't too helpful with putting down the dirt and steer manure but really got involved when we started planting the flowers. I will have to take some pictures of what we've been doing because the planter around our deck looks so nice now after all of our hard work. So, here are my little helpers.

Here is Sabbath at our house! I couldn't resist taking this picture. Actually, none of them are really asleep. They were just resting after lunch but they looked so comfy. Now, how do I get rid of this underlined text?

What we really did Sabbath afternoon is go to a park and try geocaching again. This time, we had a GPS unit that is super easy to use. We looked for 4 caches but only found 2. I'm guessing we still have to gain an eye for where things are hidden. Sometimes you really have to look hard to find a cache. Here's a picture of the girls sharing a toy they found in the geocache. I haven't let them take anything before because you're supposed to replace whatever you take with something else. We haven't carried anything with us to put in the boxes. However, since we've found three caches so far and each time the girls get excited to see what's inside, I decided they could take something this time. They chose a rubber snake. The next time we go to that park, we'll have to put something back in the box. So, this picture is them standing on the tree that the cache was hidden in.

Today is the 4th of July and we've just had a great day. The weather has been awesome. Now, we're resting and cooling off until the sun goes down a little and we can light some fireworks. Hopefully we'll be able to stay awake until then!

Saturday our church didn't hold any services because it's campmeeting. So, we decided to take another trip to the beach. The weather was much nicer this time and we enjoyed it a lot more.


Sirena is in a little puddle on the beach. The water was super warm and she had so much fun jumping in and splashing. Of course her clothes were really wet and she had to change them. I think the the next time we'll take swim suits. Even though it's not really warm here, it will make things a lot cleaner.
Of course we took buckets and shovels to try to make castles. We never quite got the sand to stick together. But we did find someone else who did. We found these huge sand sculptures. This is a giant ice cream cone which is fitting for our family. Overall, it was a great fun day.


















Today we started our 4th of July crafting. We bought fun crowns and dingy boppers for the girls to wear to get in the spirit. Don't they look cute? They were cutting out red and blue stars to make into a mobile. We had to let them dry so tomorrow we'll put everything together and hang them from the light.

FEELING BETTER

Yesterday I was feeling pretty disorganized and a little discouraged. I decided to do something about it and made some resolutions. First of all, we are not going to start any new projects until we finish what we are currently working on. So, today we finished Malaya's "book about me," her -ace words and I think we've pretty much rapped up our space exploration for now. I only took one picture during school today. This is Sirena eating astronaut food.
We talked about gravity and how astronauts would eat since their food would float up off their plate. So, we made some chocolate pudding in a bag and called it astronaut food. Sirena liked it, of course. Malaya didn't really even want to try. I think I burned her a few days ago when we studied taste buds and I made her try unsweetened chocolate. They both learned that not everything "chocolate" tastes good!

I've already planned out most of our schooling next week. We're mostly going to be doing Fourth of July crafts. I'm learning that the easiest way for me to teach both girls at this point is to do joint activities. So I'm trying to think of things that both will want to and be able to do together. I've started decorating the dining room for next weekend. Over the next week, we will be adding our crafts to the decorations and should be decked out for the holiday. Maybe we should invite someone over for a party!

While we were waiting for Malaya to finish writing our address in her book, I looked across the room and saw a huge spider on the wall in the dining room.
In my opinion, if I can take a picture of it, it's too big! The last spider we found like this we kept in a bug cage and fed it insects over a few days. We then released it because it was sort of a pet by then. For all I know, this is the same one. It's just a "common house spider" but they are so big they still give you the creeps. I left this one alone for Joey to get rid of when he gets home. But, now it's gone. It was right next to the drapes and I'm afraid it's going to drop off them into my hair when I walk by.

Speaking of things in the hair... Poor Sirena was in the tree house this afternoon. She came inside and started saying, "I have bird poop. I have bird poop. I have bird poop." She speaks really well for her age but sometimes it takes a while to get the whole sentence out. Finally she said, "I have bird poop on my head." Right in the middle of the top of her head was bird poop. Poor thing. It was rather funny though.

Tomorrow we're going to the beach. The girls are super excited. We now have shovels and pails to play in the sand. Hopefully it won't be terribly cold but we'll be dressed appropriately this time. I'll post pictures later.

We have been using Sue Patrick's Workbox system format for our school day. Basically, I put one activity or assignment in a plastic shoe-box then put a number on that box. I put several of these boxes in order on a shoe rack. Then, the girls open box 1 and do the activity inside. When they are done they can move to box 2 and so on until all boxes are completed. Many people who use this system are concerned about where to store their shoe racks and boxes. Admittedly, they have half a dozen kids or so and I only have two. But I thought I'd post pictures of how we store and use our workbox system.

I didn't know if we would like this system so I put very minimal money into purchasing supplies. However, most of the stuff doesn't cost very much. A full day's work would have 12 boxes on a rack. I think I have about 15 boxes to split between the two girls so we haven't ever had a "full" day yet. I'll need to get some more shoe-boxes.

Sirena gets a shoe rack that we already had sitting in the garage storing shoes. Those shoes are now in a big pile on the floor but I like this rack for school better. At maximum capacity we would only be able to put 9 boxes on this rack but for her I think that's plenty for a few years. We store it in front of a window between two chairs so it's out of the way when not in use.

Malaya gets the official workbox shoe rack. I had to purchase this one from Target. It holds 12 boxes when at full capacity. Her's is stored in front of another window between two chairs also when not in use.
When we start our school day, I bring out the tables and chairs and shoe racks. They go right in the middle of our living room. Many people homeschool at kitchen and dining tables due to space issues. I am so thankful that we have the ability and the space to own childrens' tables. They are just the right size for little people. Both girls can put their feet on the floor and sit properly to do school work. This picture is Malaya's side with her table, chairs and shoe rack.
This is Sirena's side.
Some days the tables face each other. Some days they are arranged like a classroom with both girls facing the same direction. This last set-up actually helps with distractions. Malaya really likes to watch what Sirena does and will just zone out watching her instead of doing her work. But I don't like her to always feel excluded so we change it up every now and then.

This whole workbox system is supposed to allow us all (students and teacher) to get more things done in a shorter time frame, be more organized, and have more opportunities for fun learning. When I introduced my sister to the idea, she joined a Yahoo group and told me they had tons of good ideas of how to use the system. So, I joined because this was something I was interested in. There are SOOOOO many good ideas in this group. When I read what everyone else is doing, I get a lot of ideas but I also start to think about what we're NOT doing. I understand that it is a common habit of new homeschoolers to look around and compare themselves to others and then start to doubt their ability to teach their own children. I can see how that would happen. I don't think I'm doing that, yet. Instead, I'm starting to have ideas and wanting to do so many things. For the last couple weeks, we've had about 3 or 4 different units we've been working on. I realized quickly that this is not the best way to work. From now on, we'll only be working on 1 unit at a time. I need to learn how to reign it in and not get too carried away. We also want to have fun along the way!

Since I really am just starting to experiment with blogging, I decided to play around with things today. We've been sick this last week so there really isn't much to report about our lives. We're getting better. But, back to the topic of blogging. I decided that I wanted a super cute blog like everyone else has. I found a link to some free html templates. After closely examining them I can tell you, if someone didn't already make them, there's no way I could. Html is very complicated to me. What do all of those codes mean? I just really appreciate those computer geniuses out there who are willing to write a code and give it away so someone else can have a cute blog. I still need to play with how my pictures are displayed. And I also need some "followers." I don't really know what those are but since my new template has a place for "followers" I thought it would be cool to have some of them! Maybe if I had some, I'd be more motivated to write. And then my "followers" would have something to read. Ah, I see how it works.

Today the children's division put on the church service. The beginners and kindergarten classes sand two songs after the children's story. Here is Sirena trying to get to the front of the group. They were singing about Zaccheus.

Malaya was on the end and had all the room she needed to do her motions. I don't know why Sirena didn't stand next to Malaya but kids don't think that way. So, Malaya is doing the motions for the wise man/foolish man building their houses on rock/sand. They all did a really good job.


After lunch, we took Ko-Ko to an off leash dog park. We decided to try our hand at something called geocaching. To do it correctly, you need a handheld GPS device to which you enter the coordinates of a "cache." Then you go out and find it. We don't have a GPS device (yet) so we entered the coordinates into Google maps and got a satellite picture of the location. Then, we found that place and, after some hunting around, we found our first cache!
Joey says we cheated because we had a picture. But, I will argue that seeing a satellite picture is not neccisarily easier than having a GPS. We had to assume that where we were standing was the same place we were looking at in the picture. This one was pretty easy but I don't think we could do it this way for very long. I suspect we will be investing in a GPS device soon!

After the dog park, we went to the kids park. The playground is designed like a castle so the kids really like it. They played hard and now everyone is down for their Sabbath naps.