October 2012 Already

Its been busy. We are at the farm every Friday morning.

Saturday mornings are soccer games.  Alexandra's team is called the Sharks.  They play 3v3 so they can play a little more easily.  She has had a lot of fun and improved immensely over the last month.

Hannah's first real hair cut

 Stuck in the mud on the farm.

 Lunch with friends at Canes.

 Oh yeah and we also do lessons. :) I thought she looked very studious here.

 "Recess"

 She can spend hours beading.  She has made many things including jewelry and little creatures.

 

 American Heritage girls.  We are going camping soon.

 My 30th birthday at Chuy's.  I should have taken a picture at the lovely party I was given.  It was so beautiful to be surrounded by by friends and family!

 Road trip to Hondo to see my cousin play volleyball.

 Alexandra's 5 year checkup- practically perfect in every way.

 Alexandra is the teacher now!

 Couldn't quite get Hannah to pose for this shot :)

 Trip to Emma Long State Park with Grandad.

 Feast of St. Francis of Assisi blessing of animals.

 Playing with cousins at McDonalds after a soccer game.

 Gattiland for Grandad's birthday.

 Tour of Blue Baker

 Followed by playing at the park at the Arboretum.

 Another beautiful morning at the farm.  Boy are we enjoying fall- it was so nice and cool that morning.

 We try to go to daily mass at least once a week.  Afterwards the girls enjoy praying (and playing) at the walking rosary at St. Margaret Mary's.

 This past weekend we went to The Fall Festival at the Y.  That evening Alexandra and I hear Mozart's Requiem at St. Williams.

So that pretty much covers September and October.  Tomorrow we will complete week 16 of our 32 week syllabus.  Alexandra has finished much of the work in our syllabus so we will start first grade math soon.  She is already reading easy readers and writes very well.  She loves to write letters to people.  Her newest hobby is writing books, mostly about butterflies.  I am excited about the spring semester- hopefully we can do a garden and start doing a preschool curriculum with Hannah. Since she will be 3!

Hannah's latest news is that she is potty trained!  A couple of days ago she showed an interest in wearing her panties and suddenly she was going all the time.  Even number two!  You can imagine how excited I was!  Hannah is getting plenty of candy as reward :)  I am pretty sure that was what motivates her.  She is also talking more and more clearly.  She loves to sing and pretend to be a kitty.  She will play pretend with her little people for great lengths of time happily making her people talk and play. 

This is their newest game in case you didn't see it on Facebook.

Snails

http://instagr.am/p/Q4vzQXxWO0/

Summer 2012 coming to a close

We have been keeping busy this summer!  We go to the pool a lot, the library, and every Friday morning we are volunteering at Pioneer Farms (A living history Park).  Our role there is to feed the animals.  It's a pretty big job but we enjoy it so much! Especially Peanut Butter the cat, the chickens, and just being out there in"the country" (in the middle of Austin).
We are officially in week 6 of school and so far its going well.  I am following a Mother of Divine Grace syllabus written by someone with more experience than me so that gives me confidence.  I have read a book by her and liked her ideas about classical curriculum and it is a Catholic curriculum.  Meaning we read books about saints during our "literature" time (sometimes) and do a craft or two.  Alexandra is progressing well, and I find it is a good motivator for her to focus on our lesson that we won't be going out or playing till we are done.
We are still enjoying our reading time together even though the summer reading program is over :). 

Also we had a shower at the end of July for my brother and his fiance. 
Our good friends have moved to California, so we had a nice visit with them before they left and got to spend some time with Kinsley.

This fall should be quite busy so I'm glad we went ahead and began school.  Sept 10 I will begin teaching Kindermusik Wednesday mornings and both the girls will take Kindermusik on Tuesdays.  Alexandra will be taking Young Child 1 - where she will learn to play the glockenspiel and begin reading music!!!
Also I am hoping to put her in soccer and maybe American Heritage Girls too... that might be too much... so we'll see.
So soon we will have many updates to make. I hope I remember my camera!

Portraits Summer 2012

Boy I am good at creative titles, eh?

Update and Alexandra's 5th Birthday Party

This is the girls Kindergym recital on Mother's Day.  They were so sweet.

Wow time flies when you are having fun!  If you follow me on Facebook you will see many pics and updates but i haven't made it over here to update.

May was the end of Preschool at St. Margaret Mary's and graduation :)

David and I also attended a Catholic Homeschool Conference in San Antonio which proved to be very encouraging and enlightening while the girls got to spend a couple of days with Grandmommy and Grandad.We spent the first week of June at the pool and reading to get prizes at the library Summer reading program.  

Then the second week at VBS.  Then we were blessed to have Daddy stay home with us for a few days.  Then we went to South Padre the last week in June.

Then on July 4th David's parents came for Alexandra's 5th birthday event!!!

Wednesday was the big 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood where we went swimming, got treats, a tattoo, and played in the bouncy house.  Thursday we met Daddy for lunch downtown and went to the pool.  Friday we went to Pioneer Farms to feed the animals (now a weekly commitment)  went to the movies to see Brave and then to County Line for Alexandra's favorite- ribs of the bone (beef ribs).  She and Hannah also enjoy the turtles .

Saturday was the big birthday party.  It was at my parent's pool so everyone swam for a while then we went in for pizza and cake (as well as crudites and Caesar salad).  

What a turn out!  We had 5 aunts and uncles, 1 girlfriend, 1 fiance, a great aunt and and great uncle, 1 cousin, 2 second cousins, 4 grandparents, 10 friends, 1 sister and 2 parents.  It was great!  

And Alexandra had a wonderful time.

Since she is now 5 we decided to go ahead and start our homeschooling curriculum.  We are using the Mother of Divine Grace Kindergarten Curriculum this year.  She will be learning poetry, reading, writing, counting adding, art, and of course... music!  And lot's of reading- her to me and me to her.  So far she is loving it, 3 days :).  She wakes me up first thing in the morning, "Get up, Mom, it's time for school!"

I am hoping to either finish the first 8 weeks of school then take 4 weeks off, or do 16 weeks then take off all of November and December.  We'll see how we feel in September :)  It may be too nice to stay in, or we may be on a roll and want to just keep going.  

After our first day of school, Alexandra told Daddy we had snack time and there were two Bibles.  Well, that was true but she left out a lot!

Also just so you know, she is reading (up to book 8 of Bob books :)) and writing well (more cofortable with uppercase than lower) and knows all her numbers to 20 and can do some basic adding.  She enjoys working on work books!  I don't know how long it will last but we have been doing workbooks since January and she still likes it! :)  You should see her with scissors!  She likes to color My Little Ponies and cut them out :)  Ok, enough bragging :)  I am proud of my little five year old kindergardener.

Alexandra's Art Gallery

Many afternoons during Hannah's nap time I will let Alexandra do some freestyle art.  I just give her the paper and pastels or paint (or colors and pages) and she does her thing.  Here are some things she has done and her explanations.

This one was for her friend Samantha. It's a flower. This was created with pastels.

 This one is pastels too.  A flower mountain she says.

For her friend Anastasia, she would think it looks funny.  There is a happy crown and a happy bear.  There is a red and yellow sun.  And many moons. There is also a brown butterfly.  This one was painted.

Pastels.  A birthday pie cake.

Pastels the rainbow.

 Pastels flowers.

Coloring :)

THis is a picture of our family with our ages and a big sun. ( Mine says 92 instead of 29).

 Painting of a dolphin that eats fish and penguins.

 I can't figure out how to turn this.  This is a beach.  The happy faces are Jesus Samantha and God.

Alexandra made at school.  She says this is the state flower.

Hannah's coloring.

Hannah's coloring.

 This is a different kind of moon. It's a beach.

Painted hearts says I love Jaclyn.

Alexandra catching a butterfly.

This one she made at school.