Backyard

This is why we bought this house over so many others that we looked it. It was one of the few that had some trees for shade in the backyard. I think we will miss the  MD shade a lot come UT summer :) These little trees will help a little. Jackson found a nest up in one of the trees that still had some robin egg shells in it. That was pretty exciting for all of them.
Maggie made it outside to help with the leaf pile :)

Crazy Fall weather

These pics were taken two days apart. The snowy day came first..... it obviously didn't last long. It was sunny and dry enough 2 days later to play in the leaves. The boys had a lot of fun with that pile. I'm not sure what the girls were up to....... This is pretty typical for Utah weather or maybe it's typical for Fall anywhere. The temps and precipitation vary a lot from day to day.
We had to dig though a number of boxes to find their snow stuff. We managed to get everyone suitable dressed and out they went to play. They made a few snowmen but didn't last long without sleds. We now have sleds but no snow. There is a little hill in our backyard that should keep them busy between trips to the larger hills.

School out and about

This is school. It's not at home :) When we moved into our house we had some trouble getting the internet connected. When you school online - that's a bit of a problem. While we could do a lot of the kids work without the internet, they have classes that they do live with their teachers each week. Enter free WiFi hotspots...... we frequented quite a few McDonald's that week. I don't think the kids minded that very much. Hailey was kind of annoyed that she had to do school when there was a play area RIGHT THERE!! Now everything is up and running at the house and we are back to home-school as usual..... well, most of us are. Hailey started at the local elementary school about two weeks ago. That had been the plan all along. We (I) almost enjoyed homeschooling enough that she could have stayed home - she didn't want to. She didn't really like having 'school on the computer' as she called it. It was really hard for her to not be face to face with her teachers when doing lessons and she knew that the plan was for her to go into the regular school when we moved. She loves her new class and teacher so it's a good move for now. It was really hard to fit her Kingergarten stuff in amongst the other kids lessons.

House

Just two days before Halloween, we moved into our new house.
(we moved into our last BC house the day before Halloween in 2006 - pretty crazy) We were very grateful that we made it out of the apartment in time. It gets stressful when the end of the month is coming up and you have to move but the house hasn't closed..... yikes. Enjoy the one and only picture of the clean kitchen :) It no longer looks like that. All the kids were out riding bikes in the street as soon as we had them unloaded. There isn't very much traffic so the kids are excited to have so much more space to ride, ride ride.
It feels really, really good to be out of the apartment. Most of you have heard me say that this is not my favorite house but I would choose it over an apartment anyday!
We have been here for about three weeks now. We have gotten a lot of the unpacking done - it's quite hard when I homeschool during the day. Now we have a lot of organizing to do. I am excited to plan, organize and decorate. I will probably like the house more as we go.

Drug free week

 

 

 

A lot of schools do fun activities to celebrate drug free week and the kids online school was no different. However, there wasn't a school or classroom to show off their craziness too.... they did get a lot of attention when we were out and about though. They loved it. That lack of attention/interaction daily is the hardest part of homeschooling. We are working on getting together with more people though - that should help.
We did get to send in the pics and their teachers shared them with everyone during class connect (a lot like skype). They liked that.
It was fun to do their hair. It's always interesting to mix their ideas with my capabilities. I have to tone down some of the craziness so it can be done :)
They had crazy hair day, crazy sock day, and pajama day.
Caleb wouldn't look at me for a good pic.......


A lot of schools do fun activities for drug free week and the kids online school is no different :) The different part was not having a school/classroom to see your crazy stuff! They got a lot of attention when we out and about though.

Pumpkin patch

Soon - to - be - pie pumpkins
The kids loved running out through the field to pick their own pumpkin!

There were so many activities for them to do! I loved the hay bale slide. That had all kinds of potential in my mind..... too bad we just have a nice, grass yard.... but Grandma and Grandpa have some good space for something like that :) They all liked the short corn maze. I was happy that you really couldn't go the wrong way in the kids version. Last time I did a corn maze it took a REALLY LONG time.
There was a corn box to play in, an animal train to ride on, tire swings to try, funny pictures to take...... the kids loved all of it. They also enjoyed getting to meet a few kids from their online school face to face.

Pumpkin

We went to a Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago on a field trip with the kids online school. We went out on a wagon ride and picked pumpkins. Maggie needed to do a pumpkin project for school so we decided to make pumpkin pie from the real pumpkins. It was pretty fun and turned out delicious :) It was also surprisingly easy. We did two pumpkins which gave us 6 cups of puree. That made 2 pies, cookies, bread, pancakes and french toast!!