Last snow...I hope

Last week Brennan and Brody got to play in the snow-they had a lot of fun:)

They tried the jeep out in the snow, but it's not quite "all terrain" so they didn't get too far:)

Weekend together:)

Casey went out of town for a bachelor party in Nashville, TN this weekend so Brennan and I spent the weekend together:) Not that we don't spend most every other day together, but I let him sleep with me-he was so excited! Again, not that he doesn't crawl in bed with me every night, but the fact that he was allowed to go to sleep there made it that much better:)

Friday afternoon we went to see The Croods in 3D. I had free movie tickets that were expiring so I wanted to use them up. It was the first day of the showing and the day the tickets were expiring so it was perfect. I think that's the first 3D movie I've seen in a theater. It was very very cute! Highly recommended! After that we went to my moms house for dinner, homemade cod-yum. Saturday we did some shopping and had dinner at my dads for his birthday-Happy Birthday Dad!

Today-we got more snow. Like the most snow we have gotten all winter. And it is still snowing. So when Casey got home we snuggled on the couch for a little bit and then they went out to play.

I am personally way over winter. I mean I was over it 2 months ago and now it seems like there is no end. I feel like I am not going to fully recover from everything I have going on until it gets warmer so I am ready! I am definitely better though. I saw my ear, nose and throat doctor a week ago and he wanted to do sinus surgery-no thanks, option 2 please. So he changed my antibiotics (I am on 2 hefty ones now for 2 weeks) and he is having me use some decongestants to try to drain/dry everything out. It is working, but I still have some congestion and am just not completely better.  I have one more week of antibiotics (although I don't really think they are doing much) and decongestants and then I am done. I am not taking any more medication. I feel like I have tried everything and I cannot possibly take any more antibiotics and I feel like I have cleared up enough that surgery isn't needed anymore. So I guess we will see.

They like to have snow ball fights.

They also built a snow fort:)

I took this through the side lights of our front door.

All day today Brennan was asking when daddy would be home, he missed him so much! 

♥ these boys

Randomness

We have been pretty busy lately and that combined with my ongoing illness is my excuse for lack of posts.

Last week, Brody's little brother Grady came with us for the day. We went on an Easter Egg hunt at Eckerts-you can watch the video here:) 

 Then we immediately left from there and went to story time-so fun:) This day was shark/sea animal themed and it was adorable!! I have a video of one of the adorable song/dances, but for some reason I am not able to post any videos-I am sure it's user error. The song is Baby Shark by The Learning Station and can be found here. Cute cute cute! They basically did the same motions as in the video:)

Unfortunately, I had to work that night so we had to end the day a little early. I think we jam packed a lot of fun in the time we had, especially ending with McDonald's happy meals and mini ice cream cones:)

Here are Brennan and Brody celebrating St Patrick's Day with their mugs one day last week too:)

They made little leprechaun traps-love them:) We didn't catch any leprechauns, but he did manage to sneak in and turn our milk green! 

The boys are so funny when we were making these-Brody said "It's just a fairytale" and Brennan could not believe we were using glitter for the ladder-I mean how is he going to climb a ladder made of glitter?? I guess I should have planned for something a little more substantial:)

We also went to the St Patrick's Day parade this weekend. The kids had fun, but I think we were all ready to get out of the cold! We made this sign to have the kids hold for a little boy named Brandt who is battling cancer. There is a facebook page here if you would like to "like" it-he is really encouraged by all of the pictures people post showing their support! 

As for me, I still capture the beauty my girls bring me whenever I can♥

Excited about Elephants!

Brennan took another zoo class Monday-Excited about Elephants!:)

They made these adorable ears and trunk.

Then they got to visit the elephants:)

Brennan had fun comparing his footprints to the elephants footprints.

It was freezing outside so we didn't want to walk around a lot. The Insectarium was on the way out and we always love the butterflies!

Things got a little silly in there:)

We got lucky, on the way out there were some volunteers that had different animal fur.

Checking out the paws:)

Games

One thing I love about homeschooling is playing an educational game that is fun and kids don't even know they're learning! Brennan has a ton of games and a lot of them are educational. 

Brennan has a lot of toys and I have a hard time finding toys for him now. Not that I am bragging that he has every toy, but I can't get any more cars, dinosaurs, action figures, sea animals-he has too many as it is! He does play with most of them (and it seems like as soon as I find something I think I can get rid of he starts playing with it again) I don't really care to buy that stuff anyway unless it is something he really wants. I bought a groupon for Zoobooks because he loves animals so much and that was going to be his Easter present along with a clear bird feeder for the window. I hadn't ordered the subscription yet when Casey's grandma sent a card saying she ordered him National Geographic for Kids-love it. I was actually between that and Zoobooks, but found the groupon and it sealed the deal. I looked back at my groupon for the Zoobooks and it never expires-bonus. I was then stuck with finding another gift for him for Easter-not dinosaurs, action figures, stuffed animals or cars. I get newsfeed on facebook from a group called "Hip Homeschool Moms" and they always post questions from parents looking for programs. It's awesome because you have tons of different people chiming in on what they think is best and then you can get ideas. Anyway, someone asked about geography lessons for K/1st grade level. Eeek-I don't have any lessons for that, should I?? We have a map hanging and we talk about the states, etc but I do want him to know more about the different countries and cultures. Then I start worrying 'Am I doing enough?' I know that kindergarteners don't have to know about geography yet, but that's the thing about homeschool-you can teach what you want and it's never too early to learn something. The more you hear it, the more you retain. I would be pretty embarrassed to admit my lack of knowledge in the  geography/history department. I know every mom does, but I really do just want Brennan to know as much as possible-I think I especially focus on the things I feel "dumb" about.

 So at first I started looking into some of the books/lessons that were recommended and through reading the reviews I found these games. So to ease my fears a little I bought a couple of games that had good reviews. 

Mission accomplished-educational and Easter present done:)

Can't wait to get them-and play them!

Dedicated Storytimers

Story Time at the library started last week, but since we were out of town, we missed it. This morning I was so excited to take the boys and then it started to snow and I saw some fleeting warning one the local news about bad weather.  I really hated to miss again so I decided to go for it and figured we could turn around if the roads seemed bad. 

The room was full so I guess I wasn't too crazy for getting out.

We love this story time! These ladies are awesome! They read 3 books and in between each on there is a song and dance so the kids don't get too antsy sitting and listening to stories the whole time. Then there is a puppet show at the end.

Talking about the puppet show:)

When we came home, the boys had their own stories to read and...

a puppet show to go with it:)

They also got new puppets from the library.

We listened to the story Brave and talked about the characters, setting, problems in the story and how they were solved. Then the boys drew a picture of their own problem and solution.

This was kind of random, but I found and thought it would be good for some cutting skills so I had them do this living/non-living worksheet. One picture was a teddy bear and Brennan insisted that it should go under living, he said "even though I know it's a teddy bear"

I think Bear might have something to do with this. I mean he does play games with us, go one vacation with us and pretty much everything else.

So that's that-teddy bears are living.

Sight word Candy Land-they love this! There are a few cards with no words and we always have to point out that they are the boring cards:)

Boggle Jr

Number Bingo

They like to watch a show at the end of the day before Brody goes home and popcorn is the most popular snack choice-waiting for it to finish.

They are always really good, but today they did exceptionally well with putting forth effort in writing, reading and getting dressed the first time I asked so they got a few of these. They get SO excited when they get one!