Out of the mouth of babes

We were walking from the car to the Children's museum in the Woodlands on Saturday. The Woodlands Town Center where the Children's Museum is located is across the street from the Cynthia Wood Mitchel Pavillion where there are major concerts held. There were stream of grungy looking teens wandering towards the Pavillion, police and officials everywhere, redirected traffic etc. At one point while we were walking the music started. It was loud and pounding, hard rock. It brought me back to my youth - times I was on my way to all day rock concerts like U2 and Simple minds. Then the vocalist started to scream his heart felt words and Lily said 'There is the sound of a monster'. How precious. She didn't hear music... out of the context of a concert, through innocent ears it really did sound like a monster roaring.

The girls this morning.  

Lily in her sporty outfit her cousin Maya sent her from Ireland. 

Matthew reading at the Woodlands Children's Museum. 

Mark adn Lily making egg rolls at a friends house. They tasted yummy! 

Lily building a tower at the Woodlands Children's Museum this summer. 

Lily preparing a birthday party she hosted for her friend Ellie.  

Matthew in his Dublin soccer shirt. 

Laura intently watching a baby Spanish video we got from the library this week. 

Little Laura almost 17 months 

Butterfly Lily and her brother this morning.  

This is the sign that Matthew and I made for Father's Day in June.  

Back to school

We started back to school 2 weeks ago. Matthew started second grade. Last school year we did all work in the afternoons, this year we have some subjects in the morning with Lily. So far this has made our afternoon time a little more leisurely. This is taking some getting use to as I am use to working under pressure.

Matthew is doing all Veritas Press courses for 2nd grade, except in Spanish we use Power Glide, for Math we use Math U See and for Greek we use 'Hey Andrew, Teach me some Greek'. Besides these his subjects are literature, Bible, history, Latin, art, spelling, grammar and free reading. It sounds like a lot, but when you break it down and do a little each day it only takes about 3-4 hours a day. The rest of the time he plays with his sisters, we run errands, he reads, plays sword fights with his dad. He also does 2 classes of karate and one of gymnastics.

Lily has taken to school so well. She is doing Bible (I read and she colors), Math - learning to write her numbers, Art with Matthew and Phonics, Veritas Press Phonics Museum. She only does about an hour a day in all. Some days we do extra art and crafts and some days she sits in on Matthew's school. She thinks it is normal to do school with mommy and is so proud she is a big girl.

It is a little hard in the morning with Laura. She doesn't like to be left out of things, but she has a habit of drawing on the floor or table if she gets hold of a marker. She does not like to be told no, an issue that we are slowly working on. But she is a tough one. Her will is strong and she likes attention. I am trying to show her more attention than I have in the past. She loves to be read to . But she has some books she likes and others she will hit out of your hand if you try to read them. The other night she put her first 2 words together 'Mommy read'. How can I resist that? She has a bright mind, it just needs a little attention and guidance.