This is the Beans....Gina loves movies sooooo much...I finally yanked the DVD player out of the wall and ....problem solved! But looking at the cases of the movies is just as appealing...

So this is the famous 'Bumpy Castle' - as Gina calls it. We got the Jumpy, no, 'Bumpy' Castle for Gina and Marys birthday this summer (we also had a Bumpy Slide). Gina has talked about the Bumpy Castle literally every day since! Every day we hear something like,"I wanna go on the Bumpy Castle", or "The Bumpy Castle was fun!" or "Un-na-na-na Bumpy Castle Momma..." (Gina style).

We saw a Bumpy Castle in the park the other day and it sparked much excitement for the Beans! Poor Beans...The Bumpy Castle was the highlight of her life...she just wants another fix! At about $90 an hour - its a pretty expensive habit we just can't afford... : (

Leia's 6 week pictures

Little more organized....

So I stayed up REAL late last night till 2 am fixing up the 'schoolroom'. Strangely, so did Travis. He was up all night researching stars in different galaxies on the wikipedia. I have never seen him up so late.

So today we had a better morning - Gina had her own basket of stuff to rummage around in - scissors (of course) crayons, blocks, paper, puzzles etc....

Jane is on auto pilot with her work...It will be good to get her some more challenging work soon.

Mary on the other hand....seems to have forgotten everything from Kindergarten over the summer (my fault, I know). Slightly frustrating - when they forget what the letter 'e' says... so we worked on some reading and basic adding. I'm hoping she understands 0 + any number = 0 after today.

The big fun today was water coloring ! Man, they loved it! I painted with them and Mary is a super artist. We hung our masterpieces on the wall with some sticky-tack (which must be kept hidden because it is like miniature play-dough).

The kitchen is definitely becoming a workspace - not a showcase (was it ever?)

First Day of Homeschool

Ok... I've done it! I have a blog now for my very own narcissistic tendencies! So here goes.....

First day of home school was Monday...I have no curriculum yet (still in transit UPS ) But since I have conveniently neglected my children's summer school work, I have plenty to work from till it gets here. I am not very organized yet - and don't think I ever will be enough. It feels like I'm flying by the seat of my pants - or robe. The first day went like this:
Me - no shower, Baby crying all morning, Cant find the 'fat pencil' sharpener for Luke so I'm out in the garage - baby in tow -hunting for a chisel to sharpen it, Chiseling pencil over trash, Had to rescue a poor bloody black bird 2 times from our murderous cat - threw it over the fence - baby in tow, Poopie baby, Cant find the rattle, Marys tired after 1/2 an hour, Luke is frustrated with scissor cutting, Kids finally happy to be coloring and glittering Christmas worksheets, Gina happily makes a big cutting mess chopping up any spare paper on the table with pinking shears. My mind is blank about the rest of the day.
I literally did everything one-armed all day. Leia was up for 12 straight hours.