It is that time of year again! It is getting cooler out and my kids have nothing to wear!
I have spent many hours the last two days shopping for my children. Last night, we went to a consignment store and after about two hours, we walked out with clothes for Megan and Christian. I found Megan a lot of shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, and a pair of pajamas. I also found Christian a few shirts and one pair of pants. We will go shopping in the attic for Courtney and then if she needs something, we will go shopping for her too!
Who gave permission for these two children to skip a size?? Megan ended last spring almost in a 12, so I thought we would start there. I was wrong! Every time she put on a pair of twelves, they were too short! They were not REALLY too short, but short enough that I knew they would not make it past the winter! I couldn't believe it, but I had go find size 14! The problem here was that they weren't skinny enough! We found two pairs though, so that should get her started AND should last her through the winter.
I had the same problem with Christian. He ended last spring just starting to get into a size 4 pants. I put them on this fall and again, too short! I tried size 5 and they were too large around his waist! I found one pair for him tough, so again, that should get us started.
Who made these skinny, tall children??? And who gave them permission to grow so much??
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
We are talking about DNA today in science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BZ3zx8b8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwibgNGe4aY
Kind of a tough topic for elementary kids, but we're going to do it anyway!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwibgNGe4aY
Kind of a tough topic for elementary kids, but we're going to do it anyway!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Teaching the next generation...
After talking to another mom about 9/11 the other day, I have some thoughts. She has kids the same age as my kids, one is in 6th grade and the other is in 2nd. I asked her if they learned about 9/11 in school. She looked at her older daughter and asked her and her daughter said, "No, it makes my teacher too sad, so he didn't teach us anything about it," I then asked the mom if they talked about it at home and she said no, it also makes her too sad. So in the end, her daughter (and I am assuming the younger one too), did not learn about 9/11 this year at all.
My questions is...how are we supposed to "never forgot" if we don't teach it on to the next generation??? How are we supposed to learn about the hate in this world and what we can do about it?? How do we learn that the god they were serving is NOT the God that we serve today?? I am very passionate about this and when the mom said that the kids didn't learn about it at all, I honestly felt sad for the kids.
I feel it as a great privilege to be able to teach my kids about 9/11. Is it sad? YES Was it a terrible thing to happen to our country?? YES Was it a day full of hatred? Absolutely! Was it easy to watch a video on the computer and watch Megan's eyes tear up? NO! But she needs to know what happened! We can not let this day go by every year and not teach our kids about it!
We had the great opportunity last year to visit Ground Zero with the kids. I think this year the pictures helped put it all into perspective for the kids, especially after we watched a video of the timeline of the day. We also watched short videos on how they made the memorial and short videos of how people survived as they escaped the towers.
May it truly be a day that NOBODY ever forgets!
My questions is...how are we supposed to "never forgot" if we don't teach it on to the next generation??? How are we supposed to learn about the hate in this world and what we can do about it?? How do we learn that the god they were serving is NOT the God that we serve today?? I am very passionate about this and when the mom said that the kids didn't learn about it at all, I honestly felt sad for the kids.
I feel it as a great privilege to be able to teach my kids about 9/11. Is it sad? YES Was it a terrible thing to happen to our country?? YES Was it a day full of hatred? Absolutely! Was it easy to watch a video on the computer and watch Megan's eyes tear up? NO! But she needs to know what happened! We can not let this day go by every year and not teach our kids about it!
We had the great opportunity last year to visit Ground Zero with the kids. I think this year the pictures helped put it all into perspective for the kids, especially after we watched a video of the timeline of the day. We also watched short videos on how they made the memorial and short videos of how people survived as they escaped the towers.
May it truly be a day that NOBODY ever forgets!
Saturday, September 13, 2014
3 Reasons why we went to Illinois/ Kentucky
We went on vacation last week for a couple of reasons, but the three main ones were for Megan, Courtney, and Christian. They wanted to see their very good friends that moved away in January! We missed them so much and it was great spending almost two weeks with them!
These pictures were taking right after we saw them for the first time. We were waiting to park the camper because it looked like it was going to storm out, so we went and got ice cream at the local ice cream shop!
Reason number 1:
Ana, Megan, and Kaelynn. Megan and Kaelynn are very close in age and I actually forgot how good these two got along. During our trip, they were together almost the entire time! They played together, wrote a play together, swam, laughed, hiked, explored, slept together, read books, played cards, etc. They just had a great time together!!
Reason #3: Erich and Christian. I thought these two got a long better than they did before they moved away, I think because they are both older now, they loved to play in the dirt, jump, skip, everything that little boys do!
I have so many pictures of these kids throughout the trip. Hopefully I will get around to posting more. In addition to seeing our friends though, we did do many activities, so I have lots of pictures of hiking trails, amazing rock formations, caves, campgrounds, and don't forget we saw the "Creation Museum" while we were in Kentucky. Fun, fun!!
These pictures were taking right after we saw them for the first time. We were waiting to park the camper because it looked like it was going to storm out, so we went and got ice cream at the local ice cream shop!
Reason number 1:
Ana, Megan, and Kaelynn. Megan and Kaelynn are very close in age and I actually forgot how good these two got along. During our trip, they were together almost the entire time! They played together, wrote a play together, swam, laughed, hiked, explored, slept together, read books, played cards, etc. They just had a great time together!!
Reason #2: I can't tell you how excited Courtney was to see Miki!! These two could giggle ALL DAY LONG! Since Miki moved away, I have not heard Courtney giggle much and about a week before we left, Courtney said, "I can't wait to see Miki, I want my giggles back!" And they GIGGLED the entire trip! They were truly inseparable the entire time!
Reason #3: Erich and Christian. I thought these two got a long better than they did before they moved away, I think because they are both older now, they loved to play in the dirt, jump, skip, everything that little boys do!
I have so many pictures of these kids throughout the trip. Hopefully I will get around to posting more. In addition to seeing our friends though, we did do many activities, so I have lots of pictures of hiking trails, amazing rock formations, caves, campgrounds, and don't forget we saw the "Creation Museum" while we were in Kentucky. Fun, fun!!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Back to School Tomorrow
We are hitting the books tomorrow, aka getting back to school. :)
I am not ready at all. I haven't had much time to look over their lessons, so I pretty much am going to do what I can.
But before we get school started, we need to discuss something in history that happened 13 years ago. September 11, 2001. I want my children to know what happened on 9/11 and I want them to understand why it happened. But how can you explain that terrible day to a 10 and 8 year old? Make it kid-friendly, in a way. We were at Ground Zero last year when we went to the east coast, so my kids have walked that ground, so they understand a little bit of it. We have talked about it every year and we are going to continue to talk about it.
We are going to use videos from history.com tomorrow to explain what happened. We might look at some pictures online too.
http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks/videos/911-timeline?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false
We might use this as a timeline if we need to:
http://www.english-online.at/history/9-11/9-11-terrorist-attacks.htm
I am not ready at all. I haven't had much time to look over their lessons, so I pretty much am going to do what I can.
But before we get school started, we need to discuss something in history that happened 13 years ago. September 11, 2001. I want my children to know what happened on 9/11 and I want them to understand why it happened. But how can you explain that terrible day to a 10 and 8 year old? Make it kid-friendly, in a way. We were at Ground Zero last year when we went to the east coast, so my kids have walked that ground, so they understand a little bit of it. We have talked about it every year and we are going to continue to talk about it.
We are going to use videos from history.com tomorrow to explain what happened. We might look at some pictures online too.
http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks/videos/911-timeline?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false
We might use this as a timeline if we need to:
http://www.english-online.at/history/9-11/9-11-terrorist-attacks.htm
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Campgrounds
After being home and sleeping in my own bed last night, I thought about all the different campgrounds we stayed at on our trip. I can remember each of them in my head, most of them were great, but there was one that I probably would not stay at again.
Here are the campgrounds in the order we stayed at them:
Rock Creek State Park, one hour east of Des Moines Iowa, 1 night
Illini State Park, Marseilles, Illinois, 4 nights
Hidden Paradise Campground, hour south of Indianapolis, Indiana, 3 nights (Labor Day Weekend)
Big Bone Lick State Park, 20 minutes south of Cincinnati, Ohio (technically in Kentucky), 2 nights
Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky (90 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee) 2 nights with NO electricity and 90 degree heat!
Ferne Clyffe State Park, southern tip of Illinois, 1 night
Riverside City Park Campground, Springfield, Illinois, 1 night (would not stay here again unless I had to!)
Mark Twain Cave Campground, Hannibal, Missouri, 1 night
I think state parks are the best way to go! You get what you need (electricity and water) and they are usually really nice! They are not expensive either; we usually paid $20 a night. We had a pool at Big Bone Lick State Park and really nice hiking trails and rock formations at Ferne Clyffe State Park. It's fun exploring new areas and talking to the locals. I would go back to many of these again.
Here are the campgrounds in the order we stayed at them:
Rock Creek State Park, one hour east of Des Moines Iowa, 1 night
Illini State Park, Marseilles, Illinois, 4 nights
Hidden Paradise Campground, hour south of Indianapolis, Indiana, 3 nights (Labor Day Weekend)
Big Bone Lick State Park, 20 minutes south of Cincinnati, Ohio (technically in Kentucky), 2 nights
Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky (90 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee) 2 nights with NO electricity and 90 degree heat!
Ferne Clyffe State Park, southern tip of Illinois, 1 night
Riverside City Park Campground, Springfield, Illinois, 1 night (would not stay here again unless I had to!)
Mark Twain Cave Campground, Hannibal, Missouri, 1 night
I think state parks are the best way to go! You get what you need (electricity and water) and they are usually really nice! They are not expensive either; we usually paid $20 a night. We had a pool at Big Bone Lick State Park and really nice hiking trails and rock formations at Ferne Clyffe State Park. It's fun exploring new areas and talking to the locals. I would go back to many of these again.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
We are back!!
Tonight, we arrived back home tonight from our vacation. Luckily, we didn't have to come home in the middle of it and got to spend as much time as we wanted to originally! We had a great time and spent a lot of time with some friends that we haven't seen in about nine months!
I could've blogged while we were gone, but we didn't have good internet connection some times and I don't think Matt took his laptop out of his bag once! I am uploading the pictures now, so maybe I can post my favorites here within the next couple of days!
In the end, we travelled through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and back to Nebraska. We travelled about 2500 miles and went through many, many gallons of gas! (Not as much as last year though!!) We stopped at many Redboxes along the way and the kids watched many movies as we travelled! We also listened to "Adventures in Odyssey." The kids were great travelers!
Today we left Hannibal, Missouri (the home of Mark Twain) and drove across Missouri to St. Joe and then up Interstate 29. Around 3:30 pm, we needed gas, so Matt pulled into the truck stop at the Nebraska City exit. He got gas and since we knew there was a huge storm in Omaha and it was heading our way, we decided to go over to Wendy's for some ice cream. We sat there awhile, looked at the radar, and Matt decided that it would be ok if we took off, so we climbed back into the camper and circled around the parking lot to get back on the road.
At this time, I checked my text messages and one of my friends told me that there was a huge storm coming our way and we needed to STAY PUT! Matt pulled up his radar again and sure enough, there was a huge storm coming. At this point, we drove over to the truck stop, parked the truck, and ran in there through the pouring rain. (I figured there would be much more in the truck stop for the kids to look at/ play with if we were stuck awhile!)
We weren't in there but ten minutes when Matt got a message over his phone saying there was a tornado warning in the area. I pulled a manager over to the side and asked him to verify it and what we needed to do. He said the plan was to go into the men's bathroom. About ten minutes later, everybody was in the men's bathroom because there was indeed a tornado warning!
We hung out in there for a little bit until the tornado warning cleared. Once it was all clear, we came out, but it was still raining sheets outside! It was incredible!! We stayed at the truck stuck probably another hour before we got back in our truck to come home. We pulled into the gas station at 3:30 pm and we left the truck stop about 5:45!
We continued to drive home and got home around 7 pm tonight. It is nice to be home!!
I love running water, internet, a washing machine, a big fridge, a couch that we can all sit on, counter space, a stove I don't have to light every time I want to use it, a microwave that will work whenever I need it, etc, etc, etc.
Travelling really does make you appreciate home!
I could've blogged while we were gone, but we didn't have good internet connection some times and I don't think Matt took his laptop out of his bag once! I am uploading the pictures now, so maybe I can post my favorites here within the next couple of days!
In the end, we travelled through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and back to Nebraska. We travelled about 2500 miles and went through many, many gallons of gas! (Not as much as last year though!!) We stopped at many Redboxes along the way and the kids watched many movies as we travelled! We also listened to "Adventures in Odyssey." The kids were great travelers!
Today we left Hannibal, Missouri (the home of Mark Twain) and drove across Missouri to St. Joe and then up Interstate 29. Around 3:30 pm, we needed gas, so Matt pulled into the truck stop at the Nebraska City exit. He got gas and since we knew there was a huge storm in Omaha and it was heading our way, we decided to go over to Wendy's for some ice cream. We sat there awhile, looked at the radar, and Matt decided that it would be ok if we took off, so we climbed back into the camper and circled around the parking lot to get back on the road.
At this time, I checked my text messages and one of my friends told me that there was a huge storm coming our way and we needed to STAY PUT! Matt pulled up his radar again and sure enough, there was a huge storm coming. At this point, we drove over to the truck stop, parked the truck, and ran in there through the pouring rain. (I figured there would be much more in the truck stop for the kids to look at/ play with if we were stuck awhile!)
We weren't in there but ten minutes when Matt got a message over his phone saying there was a tornado warning in the area. I pulled a manager over to the side and asked him to verify it and what we needed to do. He said the plan was to go into the men's bathroom. About ten minutes later, everybody was in the men's bathroom because there was indeed a tornado warning!
We hung out in there for a little bit until the tornado warning cleared. Once it was all clear, we came out, but it was still raining sheets outside! It was incredible!! We stayed at the truck stuck probably another hour before we got back in our truck to come home. We pulled into the gas station at 3:30 pm and we left the truck stop about 5:45!
We continued to drive home and got home around 7 pm tonight. It is nice to be home!!
I love running water, internet, a washing machine, a big fridge, a couch that we can all sit on, counter space, a stove I don't have to light every time I want to use it, a microwave that will work whenever I need it, etc, etc, etc.
Travelling really does make you appreciate home!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)