In 1492 Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

It was History projects again and this Fall the kids had to make a replica of a Christopher Columbus ship out of recyclable materials labeling 9 different parts of a ship. Projects are all Luke's arena and this is what they came up with. Blake if you want to know one day why there were more pictures of Bailey it was because you didn't want to take pictures that morning and Bailey did. 
 

Bailey's 8th Birthday Party

I literally can't fathom that my first born is about to be 8!?!?!?! Bailey wanted a dragons & American girl doll party, which I could not figure out, so we settled on dragons, specifically How to Train Your Dragon. She also loves all things animals, so we hired Tim Cole the reptile man to do a little reptile show, which was awesome! We invited her school class and their families and we played capture the dragon, feed toothless a fish (think pin the tail on a donkey) and touched a lot of reptiles. It was probably one of Luke & I's favorite parties to date, but most importantly we had one happy girl. Here are the pictures:

 The cake was AMAZING! We had a neighborhood girl do it and it turned out perfect!

This is what Hiccup does in the movie after feeding Toothless. 

 

The kids helped with some of the decorating.

We love our Aunt Tori and are once again glad she is in Austin!

 

We love our Nana too! That big dragon, Rainbow" was probably a favorite present.

This was from capture the dragon!

From the reptile show!!!

The birthday girl got to hold this big guy and if you look below he wrapped himself around her, which was scary fun.

She also got to hold this monitor lizard & python below!

 

Happy party day B!

Homeschool Prep & Post School Pictures

So this is what my Monday and Wednesday night look like-  a glass of tea, a sweet treat, two lesson plans, & books as I start prepping for 2nd & Kinder. Right now it is taking me an hour and a half, but I am hoping to speed that up as we go and get in a rhythm.

This is what my house looks like on Tuesdays & Thursdays. My table is just a touch too small, so my organization skills are lacking as I move from the carpet in Kinder to table in 2nd and shift stuff up and down and back to table for Kinder then carpet for 2nd.

And it is just not my homeschool room- this is the bomb that exploded in my kitchen as I go full throttle 8 am-4 pm to get it all done.

Two things I added this year are kinesthetic sand, which the kids call "medical sand" and magna tiles for the kid getting a break. They can only use them on homeschool days and they play with them for hours and hours and hours!

One more from another angle.

Hear me that the days are long, but I do enjoy it and it is worth it even if I have to relinquish the control over what my house looks like at the end of the day. 

What's been fun is to realize how much the kids pick up on each other's work. So here is Blair's version of the first part of the Lord's prayer in Latin.

Blair & Mommy Trip

For most of my visits with my family I am wrangling 4 kids and don't get to really have quality time even though I do get to be in their presence, so I snuck away away and met up with Blair who Gigi had grabbed earlier in the week. We got to see my mom & dad. I also wanted to see my dad's store and brother's market in action. I got to take my Nana lunch and plus it was Tara's birthday, so we got some after work yogurt to celebrate! And now my cup runneth over! I got a break from our busy life in Austin and remembered kinda what it felt like to be in a small town because I got recognized for being a Tackett. 

Standing in front of Tara's new store.

Pa's cows

Blair's new hat

At the new store!

My brother telling me about the some of his research and products.

Blair got her nails done in Santo colors.

My mom had Blair try on her mom's dress from 75 years ago.

Some after church pictures.

Meanwhile at home, Blake lost his first tooth and didn't realize it, so probably swallowed it. : (