Happy Easter!!

Whoopee! We're Three!

Jason's mini-me Cade turned 3 today! The girls have been BEGGING for this day all week and were so excited to FINALLY be celebrating this very special birthday! Mel and Jay did an excellent party with the Cars theme....and the Cadester was full of all things 3 year olds say:) He was pretty funny!! Enjoy some of the pics from our day. FYI...Cade and Katie Mei are aunt and nephew...and for the next 2 months are both 3. AND they were both born on the 11th of their birth month. In fact...Katie, Kristin, Jason and Cade were all born on the 11th of their birth months. Makes it alot easer to remember when those birthdays keep coming at you!!

Things Are "Hoppin" Around Here!!

We're getting ready for Easter which for us is all about the celebration of the ressurection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Anticipation is building as I can happily announce 2 more days girlies!! Now...if they can keep their mom from hyperventiliating over the fact that they're playing with permanent dye......:) You just gotta know this group!! Those are REAL eggs girls!! REAL I SAY! Don't throw them at your sister!!!!!Don't crack them on your head!!! Geez!!!

Butterflies Please Come See Us!!

Last week one of our school projects was to put in a new butterfly garden. The Oreos took to this with great intensity which was fun to watch! They know all the names of the plants, and which ones are feeding plants and which are larva ones. So far we've seen a few butterflies and a few ladybugs 'in the neighborhood'...which makes the girls S-Q-U-E-A-L with delight! Leni wants to catch all of them and make them her personal pets...which we've had to put a damper on...but all in all...a great project to do with your kids! And...a funny. One of the best Florida butterfly plants is Lantana. It comes in all sorts of colors and spreads like crazy. Katie can't seem to grasp the name...so therefore calls it 'Hannah-tana'. Don't understand why she can say 'Hannah Montana' but can't say 'Lantana' but it sure is cute to hear her try!! Now we're off....back to diggin in the dirt! We have green beans to plant today!!

Jump On Jason Day!

My friend Tammi invited us over to their beach condo this weekend to have some R&R (using that term loosely!) and Jay and Mel came along for the fun. The girls always LOVE having Jason around to jump on...climb on...and basically use and abuse. He was great as always ...venturing out into the still freezing water to send little girls soaring on boogie boards and hopping waves. Here's a few pics from our day...still from my ever present phone camera because I left my good camera in the car and was too lazy to go get it. :) Katie is the only one of the girls who has never had Jason living with us physically in our house. He was married before she came along:) Therefore I don't know if she really connects the fact that he's her brother. At this point...what matters to her..is that he's Cade's dad and that means more toys combined with food and F-U-N! At the ripe old age of 3...what more do you need??!!

A Bird's Eye View of Our Humble Homeschool Day

First of all...I need to make apologies for the crappy phone photos I've been using lately. Not the greatest resolution, heh? It seems to be the quickest grab when I meet a fun photo op though...so... so be it. Here you will see 2 lovely princesses (a.k.a. the middle and one end of the Oreo Sisters) in a typical day of school for us. When Katie Mei is at pre-school we shake-rattle-and-roll on school which this day included 1. A study of Moses and the Ten Commandments (their interpretation as I ask questions is hysterical!! The 'thou shalt not commit adultery' brought some interesting questions today of which I was not ready for!) 2. Read aloud from "Little House On the Prairie". Today was screaming panthers and howling indians! Wide-eyed were these two!! (We're reading thru the series as well as 'The Boxcar Children') They are allowed to draw pics while we read aloud if they are drawing something about the story. They're comprehension has improved dramatically! 3. We wrote and illustrated a story about a baby duckling 4.Conquered odd/even numbers 5. Made patterns with our fav pattern blocks 6. Discussed our founding fathers and what makes this country great (hopefully to remain so...trying not to paint a grim future pic for these two hopeful babes!!) 7. Caught a lizard from under the fridge (this was extra credit) 8. Read "From Egg to Chick"...which brought more questions I was unprepared for.:) and we aren't even done yet!! Now back to telling time with digital and traditional clocks...then on to addition/subtraction of double digits. Hope this mom can keep up with these first graders!!

And...We're Back At the Dentist!

This tale is going to require some background. Last May, we discovered cavities in Miss Katie Mei's mouth. Lots of 'em. We had yet to have a child to have ANY cavities...so the blame went to poor prenatal care and lack of nutrition in the early months of life.(Surely it couldn't be anything her parents had overlooked??!! J/k as I kept asking myself...."Geez, have I forgotten to brush the child's teeth in my getting-everyone-ready-for-bed mode??) We went to the pediatric dentist who suggested I.V. sedation...and then doing all her cavities at once. Well....to make a long story short...Katie had a seizure under anesthesia. She quit breathing and turned blue. Yep, it was very scary and took me a long time to recover from. This particular dentist wanted to put her in the hospital to finish her treatment which we have adamantly shied away from. Fast forward to now. After getting some other opinions...and letting her (and me) get over her trauma, we ventured back into 'dentist territory' yesterday. Would you believe a miracle occured? The remaining cavities are still there...but are not very bad at all...and wonder of all wonders....this child sat in the chair as still as still can be, opened her mouth on command, let them take x-rays, and never made a peep.(This was NOT the case before!!) Our friend "Don the Dentist" who had up until now not wanted to take us on because of age/size....said..."Hey! We can do this pretty easily. She may not even have to have local anesthesia!" I about fell out of my chair! Whoo-hoo! AND there is no sign of any new activity in there! Double WHOO-HOO! God has been faithful! We'll keep you posted as this little China doll gets a mouth re-do in the coming weeks!