Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Magazine Christmas Tree

I wanted to share this awesomely cool Christmas decoration idea with you! Mayden started this at Girl Scouts this year and brought it home to finish. It's basically just folding pages of a magazine until you get a tree shape and then decorating it. for real directions go here.





It made the perfect centerpiece for our table this year! I think we'll make more in varying sizes next year.... so fun!


Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas 2011 & year end review

Halloween was my last post so I'm thinking its about time for a new post :o)

We've all been extremely busy over the last few months (and year, really) but that's a good thing right? Have you been keeping track of things over at Adia Speer Photography? That's where I've been hanging out a lot lately.

sooooo to sum things up:
Homeschooling = fantastic! met lots of homeschooling friends in the area this year and that helps more than you know! May is writing well and reading even better. She's able to read level 2 books pretty easily which is wonderful! Cameron is finally coming along with his speech and color recognition!
Knitting = learned how to make hats and I love it. excited to get more creative with it.
Sewing = on the back burner due to knitting
Reading = I'm in the middle of two wonderful series. The Hunger Games & Twilight... both teen fiction but both really page turners.
Photography = I learn more and more everyday. I feel like my skills are always improving and I'm focusing on perfecting my post production of images. The biz is really taking off and I'm ready to turn it into a legitimate small business next month. Never in a million years thought I'd be a small business owner but here I go! Stay tuned for a complete ASP makeover soon.





find more Christmas pictures here

Friday, November 4, 2011

Halloween 2011

trick-or-treat!


so we have little bo peep, her sheep, an ice cream man & pippi longstocking. 



they made out well.... to say the least!


May's favorites: Tootsie pops & gobstoppers 
Cam's favorites: lollipops, whoopers & startburst


Friday, October 7, 2011

Paetyn Anne is here!

well, she's been here for a few days and I'm just not putting some info up. busy isn't even the word for what i've been lately. busy is good i guess, but i think i'm going to need to cut back on work soon because i'm missing out on life a little and i hate that!

Paetyn Anne Wallace
October 4th @ 3:10pm
6lbs 10oz 19.5 inches long
VBAC!

{perfection}





Saturday, September 24, 2011

Pumpkin (week 8)

the pumpkin came off the vine and into the loving hands of it's maker. he scrubbed and scrubbed that pumpkin 'till it shined!




and here it sits with batman. i'm guessing this pumpkin will turn into a jack-o-lantern just like that, some time next month!



#14 of 101- things you gotta do

#14. Ride a Train!

I'd been wanting to take my little train loving Camo to this train for over a year. We recently met new homeschooling friends who have a 4 year old train loving boy too! I mentioned that we should take them and BAM we were there within a week... i guess i needed that extra push!





Monday, September 19, 2011

pumpkin (week 7)

it's just about pickin' time!! I gave up on all the other vines and mowed them down.



syllables & subtraction

last week we tackled subtraction (with an abacus) which of course she loves!



we also worked on word syllables and she picked up on it right away. i have a distinct memory of my music teacher teach us syllables in class. one of the few memories of learning in elementary school. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

first week of first grade

we started a new school year last week, which brought a new weekday schedule. 2 things I learned last year were that it's near impossible to focus on any traditional schooling with Mayden when Cam is around. impossible. the second thing I learned is that I really like weekends off. when I first envisioned our homeschool lives I didn't really see a difference between education and life. and really truly & honestly (especially at this age)  it's true. however, Mayden and I seem to thrive in a routine and she (so far) likes the idea of school so we've created a weekday schedule for schooling this year. time makes me feel 10,000X better about slacking off on the weekends!

so M-F, 9-11am May and I are left alone to do all things "school". we read (mostly she reads to me), do math worksheets ("I love math because it's like a game to me" she said last week -- surely she is NOT my child!) and I've started having her look up one word in the Children's Dictionary that I pick out and she writes out the first sentence of the definition. so far we've done an A, B & C word... and next week we'll continue. 2 days a week we take our show on the road to the library.

 here she was first in line on the first day last week



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after our 2 hours of reading/writing/talking/math ect in the morning we collect Cameron and do some sort of planned activity in the afternoon. pirate map making, cookie baking, playground time, hiking, swimming, soccer ect



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we were lucky enough to find two other families in our area with homeschooled kids who are about the same age as ours.


 after a summer of fun we recently decided to try implementing a 'science club' and meet each week to "do science". the kids seem to love it .... 



although sometimes it's just more fun to play in mud together!


Saturday, September 10, 2011

pumpkin (week 6)



pumpkin (week 5 and 2 days)

a little late... today's picture coming next!





the other side.... we have ORANGE!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Vacation 2011: the beach

ahhh the beach, one of the most peaceful places on earth.... well, that is until the kids wake up. i woke up to see the sunrise over the ocean and it was worth every second of lost sleep. breathtaking! 



Cameron prefers the sand

while Mayden is my waterbug. thanks to my mom she picked up boogie boarding this year... i see lots of fun in her future!






Wednesday, September 7, 2011

eggs!

We have our first egg!... truth be told, we had out first egg weeks ago and i'm just now blogging about it.




for the first few weeks we were only getting one egg every 2-3 days but now we're consistently getting one egg a day and sometimes 3 a day. so it seems that 3 of the 5 ladies are laying and eventually we should be getting 5 eggs a day! -- send over your eggcellent recipes today! 




Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Vacation 2011: The place

2 years ago we stayed in Ocean City, NJ at a little tiny place that worked for just the 4 of us. this year we added 3.5 people and were able to get a bigger/nicer place!






more photos here: click me
and more details coming to the blog soon!