Lucy's first day of preschool

Lucy had her first day of 2-days-a-week preschool today. She was nervous. She cried at drop-off but I think had a good time overall. I'm trying to keep my bad comments to myself regarding her attitude.

OK I'm back. With a few hours removed from the bad attitude, I can now write some more comments. :) This evening, Lucy told me the following about her day:

- she painted on a big piece of paper (not just tiny) and got lots of paint on her hands
- she made a friend named Kara (I wonder if her name is actually Kiera) and played with her on the playground, pretending to make cakes and using a sequin Lucy found as a candle
- she played dress-ups with Kara, and there were two purple dresses with sparkles
- it was pretty crowded on the playground
- she swung on the swing all by herself

I think she loved it and am hopeful she won't cry at drop-off on Tuesday.

Second time's a charm

I am proud to announce that Levi is now potty trained. Woo hooooo!!! We started (again) on Monday, with barely any success. Tuesday was only marginally better (still pretty bad). But on Wednesday, something clicked. I think it was because I let him play around the house with only a shirt on; the different feeling of having no underwear or diaper made him notice what was going on, and he ended up going to the bathroom about every 3 minutes for over an hour. That certainly was enough practice. He had only one accident on Thursday and no accidents on Friday (well, no wet accidents anyway). Poor boy's system still needs to kick into gear for the "other" kind of practice (is that TMI? Sorry). Yay Levi!

Reflections on the week

This was a great first week of homeschooling. I love the prep/planning but can see that I might get burnt out after a few months, so we'll see what I end up tweaking. Nate loves the work so far--mostly because there is nothing too hard yet. I foresee some problems arising when we get into more difficult work (in math, for example), because he gets very frustrated if he doesn't understand something right away.



The other children have stayed happily occupied (for the most part) during any times I've been working with Nate. It helps that the work goes by so fast! Today, the day I had the most planned (I filled 8 of those workbox boxes), still took less than 2 hours--and that even included his Friday chore as one of the boxes. Today Levi and Lucy got a little impatient during school time, having exhausted the coloring activity I provided and knowing we were going swimming afterward, but overall I am so happy with how everything is going.



The more I think about it, the more thrilled I am with our homeschooling setup!

One down

Today was our first day of homeschooling, and it went very well. In fact, it went very quickly--maybe too quickly for Nate's liking. I hadn't planned too much since I wanted to ease into the new routine, but even what I had planned didn't take as long as I thought it would. Nate ended up doing two lessons from his math book, the first lesson in the English/grammar book, read one chapter from the fiction book he's reading, and completed one worksheet I created on vowels and consonants. Tomorrow I'm also adding a couple of things from other subjects (we are going to make a flower/leaf press for science; begin talking about liberty and freedom before doing some U.S. history; and start learning about the instrument groups in the orchestra for music). Yay for an easy start!

Vanilla

N&L

Another cute picture from the zoo. Love my boys.

Videos from the visit

Levi with Mimi and me



and Lucy putting on a show for Grandpa

Visit

We had a great time with Daddy and Mama here! Nate's favorite activities were using his new binoculars while going on bird walks with Grandpa and playing Wedgits with Grandpa. Mama and Daddy gave Lucy a "real" digital camera that she loves. And they gave Levi some new cars, which--really--are the only perfect gift for him. :)






We all went to the San Diego Zoo on Friday. It took a while to get there, since we missed the train we planned on taking (Jon and I weren't prepared that morning). But we did eventually take the Coaster train from Oceanside to SD, then a trolley, and then a bus. The kids loved it! The zoo highlights were the warthogs (a mama and her crazy, acting-like-puppies babies), lions, and the sky train.

















M&D left this morning and we miss them!

In the works

I posted on the homeschooling blog about the workbox system I set up for homeschooling. I'm excited about it.

Now I'm still trying to decide when to have our official "start." The traditional day-after-Labor-Day start would be September 6. Or I could wait until the following week, when Lucy's Tuesday-Thursday preschool, AWANA, and CBS all start. That will be a crazy adjustment week either way!

In other news, Mama and Daddy are coming this week! Yay! We're planning a day trip down to San Diego, including a train ride that I'm sure the kids will love.

Scavenger hunts

This morning, Nate said, "I want to write clues and tape them up--just like we did at Mimi and Grandpa's. Remember?" It's funny that he remembers that, because I think it was at least a couple of years ago. I had to help him with the concept of how the clues lead to one another (clue #2 will be at the location clue #1 directs you to), and I think he finally got it.

Clue 1 was "Find the big green wedgit."

Clue 2: "Find the 2 box!"

Clue 3: "Find the purse"

Clue 4: "Find the PS2" (Playstation 2)
















I have to add a cute post-script. A few days after I posted this, Nate told me about an email he had written to Jon. He said, "I wrote 'Hi Daddy' and lots of loud things." Those "loud things" he referred to were exclamation points. Love it.

Shapes with Levi

My favorite pronunciations:

diamond = "diamint"
octagon = "ockagon"

This is what I've been trying...

...yesterday and today.




After about 15 accidents and no successes (I would call a success either 1) being able to empty his bladder in the toilet and remain dry for a period afterward or 2) a recognition of the urge to go and then successfully making it to the bathroom), I'm going to give it a break for a couple of weeks and try again. :)

Camping 2011

This year, we ventured to Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo county--about a 4-hour drive (but really more like 5+ hours because of traffic and because Jon drove his company's big truck carrying all of the camping families' large items). We left on Sunday after church and arrived in the evening to the beautiful lake. Neil had reserved a really great group campsite, which, after having seen most of the campgrounds, we decided was the best campsite in the area! All of us (7 families in all) were in the same large space, right next to the lake, with a large blacktop/parking lot for the kids to ride bikes (and which stayed empty the whole time!), a playground a short walk away, and plenty of space for the kids to play and explore.





The weather was cooler than I had expected, mostly because of how windy it was. So we never did swim in the lake, choosing instead to stay warm by the fire in the mornings and evenings and taking a couple of day trips. Funny side story: Lucy wanted to wear her summer/sleeveless pajamas each night, even though I'd also brought some warm pj's for her. (Fine, I said.) One night, I woke up to hear her sleep talking: "I'm CHILLY," she noted. I got up and saw that she was sleeping on top of her sleeping bag, completely out in the freezing air. (It was really cold at night--I was still cold even inside my sleeping bag.) Her goose bumps had goose bumps. I put her back in her sleeping bag (amidst her sleeping protests).

Even though we didn't go in the lake, the kids had plenty of fun running around with sticks, riding bikes, and even getting splashed with water balloons:



Another difference from beach camping was all the cool wildlife we saw: wild turkeys, quail, deer, cranes, a groundhog, a skunk (who made a few unwelcome visits to our campsite), bats, millions of bugs (but no bites!), and lots of varieties of bird (wish Mama and Daddy were there to identify them).

The parents huddled around the fire each evening and talked late into the night. John Topartzer, a relative "newcomer," mentioned on the last night that he had never been around a group of people that so often randomly broke into song. :)

On our first full day there, we all went to Oceano Beach near Pismo, which is the only beach in California you can drive your car on.



It started off cloudy and cool, but the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. Levi loved exploring the dunes... and then he konked out in the car.




On our second day, Jon, Nate, Lucy, Levi, and I took a little trip to Pismo Beach. We walked on the pier and even rented one of those multi-person bike cart things. Jon and I got our workout for the week on that thing. :)




On the last full day, we spent the morning and lunch time around the campsite, and then we tried out the water park on the Lake Lopez campground (it was like 50 yards from our site). Even though it was windy, buggy, and chilly at our tent, the trees and hills surrounding the water park made it warmer and much less windy. The water was very cold, but the kids didn't mind--they had a BLAST, especially Nate.





Thursday we packed up and headed home. Lucy and Nate loved riding in the Isuzu with Jon (they rode up to camping in there too). Levi and I rode in comfort in the Durango.



Now we're home and I'm on laundry load number 8!

Lucy video

Here's Lucy doing a little song and dance. (She had been doing it with much more enthusiasm before I got out the camera.)

Weezer

On Thursday, August 4, we went to a concert held at the OC Fair with Neil and Casey. It was Neil's favorite band, Weezer. We went a couple of hours early so we could eat as much fair food as possible (including funnel cake, a huge barbecued turkey leg, chocolate-covered stuff, wine tasting, but--oddly enough--nothing deep fried). The concert itself was fun. There were no opening bands, which I loved because that meant I wasn't already tired by the time the headlining band came on. It was a GREAT concert and a great time with sweet friends.

Phew!

Boy, am I glad this past week is over! Like I mentioned, I had extra work to do for my job. Even an extra hour a day adds up to a LOT when there are three children to take care of, feed, dress, referee, and field questions/needs from all day. But this week was an extra two to three hours a day. Insane! Now I know why full-time, work-from-home moms have nannies. And now I know why I would never want to work full time. :)

Today we are packing and preparing for camping! I've set up a couple of blog posts to post while we're gone, so Nannie you can have something to read when you check the blog. Love you!

Extremely busy

I've been swamped with extra work from my Long Beach job this week and last. (The full-time proofreader has been out for over a week, and I've been covering a lot of her work from home.) No time to post on the blog!

But I had to come on the blog today to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my handsome, wonderful, humble, gentle, funny, smart husband. :)