Girls afternoon at the Ballet

Lily and I went to the Nutcracker Ballet on Saturday. We had been reading the story and listening to Tchaikovsky recently, so we were all prepared. It was really wonderful, the costumes and stage set were great. We took lots of pictures to remember our first trip to the Ballet together. Here is Lily beside a giant gingerbread house. She did not want her photo taken with the dancing mice or live soldiers!

We had lunch in the theatre before hand. We got a southwestern sandwich which we shared. Yummy!

Here is Lily with the Nutcracker she bought. She picked the one that had the most sparkles. She has decided to collect Nutcracker dolls!

Here is Lily in the theatre. We had front row seats. We had a great view. The show ws just long enough for her. She got a little tired just before the grand finale. Lily is a great companion. I look forward to many more years of doing girl things with her.

The latest Lily, Laura and Matthew photo

We were trying to get a picture for a Christmas card but Laura would not give up the blue bucket. This was the best photo.... needless to say we may not be sending out Christmas cards this year... cause what is a card without a photo of the kids?

More diners at Thanksgiving

We moved our sofas and set up tables in our living room so that everyone could eat together.

The kids played a game we found in a book about the pilgrims called 'Hide the Slipper'. The kids sit in a circle with one person in the middle. The middle person closes their eyes while the others hide the slipper behind their backs. When they open their eyes they need to guess who has the slipper. The kids discretly pass the slipper, or pretend to until the person in the middle guesses who has it. When they do the person holding the slipper goes in the middle.

Thanksgiving

We has 33 people over for Thanksgiving this year. All homeschoolers! Lot's of very well socialized kids running around having old fashioned fun. It was as it should be and the food was wonderful.

Homeschool difficulties part 2

Here is one of those things that makes homeschooling with little ones a little challenging: When I was in another room Laura got a tub of diaper cream and smeared it all over the wall in the hall and floor. Here she slipped in her own mess. I couldn't be too mad at her as the day before she had watched me paint a mural in a friends house. I guess she thought she would do her own mural!

Juggling 3 kids and homeschooling

Recently I have been feeling the pressure of the education of my younger kids. OK, I know they are only little, 3 ½ and 1 ½, but Matthew has had 100% of me through both of those ages. He is excelling in his schooling and I wonder how much my enrichment helped. I read endlessly to him, talked to him about all things, showed him flash cards, focused his attention on things when we were out and so much more than I do the girls.

I try to make myself feel better by noticing that Matthew had no one else to interact with, I had to do something with him to entertain him and education was more compelling than anything to both of us. Lily and even more Laura have their siblings to learn from and interact with. I also try to remember that I am 8 months pregnant! I have assigned work to go over with Matthew and I run out of steam to do stuff with the girls… but as Mark says ‘this is a season of our life’.

But I still feel pressure as I see time marching on and I still spend more time on Matthew’s education. We are addressing this: Mark is making a focused attempt to read our very best children’s storybooks to Lily this month and I have been trying to tell Laura the alphabet…. ‘that is a monkey… monkey begins with the letter m’.

With homeschooling there is no one to fall back on. No one to take over when you are tired and let you off the hook. But that very pressure is the motivation to try harder. These are my kids and I will pour in what I have. At least I don’t have a class of 30 strangers whom I can’t ‘really’ care about to fill up. I only have those precious babes that I birthed.

All in all I am pretty sure that high on my New Year’s resolutions, after deliver a healthy baby, will be read to Laura more!

The Cole girls

This was us on a hay ride. Lily, Laura, Shona and babygirl to be being squashed by Laura. Still no name and only 2 months to go.

The other week we went to a Civil War renactment. It was held near our town of Magnolia. It is an odd little world. We chatted to families who do this all over the country. They belong to regiments and own the clothing and tents that they sleep in. I bet many of the people who do it are homeschoolers.

Cool weather. Finally!

We are able to get out our sweaters in the mornings now. It warms up to high 70s by the afternoon, but it is in the 50s in the morning. I get my breakfast and eat outside with a book and a blanket. Pretty soon the kids join me. Here they all are keeping warm having just taken over my reading space!!!

Outdoor art class

The weather is so lovely we decided to take our sketching class outside. Lily and Laura have taken to visiting the horses that live up the road from us so we decided to go and draw them. Matthew did tons of sketches, each one focusing on a different part of the horse - the head, legs or even the fence. Lily didn't like how they kept moving so she took herself off to draw the flowers and grass. Actually she didn't much like pencil, she prefered to use crayons, my color girl. Laura ran up and down getting blades of grass to feed through the fence to the horses. Laura is my animal lover, she waves at the horses everytime we drive past. We need to find out the horses names.... back home in time for lunch. Spanish and grammar with Matthew after quiet time!

Matthew's horses

Here are some of the drawings that Matthew did of the horses in our onsite art class today. I love the knobbly knees of the horse.

Garden

Mark and Lily have been planting flowers around the place. Lily was perfectly named, she loves flowers and color.

Laura dresses up!

Even Laura like to dress up. She often struggles around the house in Lil's dress up shoes. Last week she went into the dress up box and arrived out with a dress. Here she is a the little fairy!

Princesses

Here is Lily with her best friend Ellie last week. As soon as they see each other they put on princess dresses, get handbags and apply make up. Girls will be girls! You just can't program this behavior, girls just go this way.

Miller Outdoor Theatre

I took the kids to Miller Outdoor Theatre last week to see a funny history of Texas. We had a picnic afterwards with some friends.

We have been busy recently homeschooling, painting, going to Houston to visit friends, having people over. I do get so tired now that I am 6 months pregnant. We are having another girl. No name yet, it has to fit in with Lily and Laura, but stand alone.

Here is another altered photo of Blue Bear. This picture hangs beside the kids toilet! 

I have recently been working on altering photos, something I learned in a workshop i CA this summer from artist Karen Michel. Here is one of Lily. I made her into a little fairy. 

So we fled Rita and went to visit the relatives in Tulsa. We had a great time. Here Matthew and Lily are making Grandma Marcia's dog Tiny go mad! 

Laura and Nana Joyce in Tulsa. 

Lily with her cousins. 

Here are the cousins working on a pose together. 

Below are some photos from Matthew;s 5th Star Wars birthday last Saturday.  

In between lots of free play we did some painting and made bouncy balls at the party. 

Lunch time.

Chips and pizza for lunch - very organic. 

Various groups of party kids taking a break from playing to eat some lunch. 

Some friends lounging at lunch.

Cake time!

The wacking of a pinata. 

The blowing out of the candles. Surrounded by friends and Lily of course. 

The liberals would love this one. Boys and weapons!