Pictures!

Grandma's surprise birthday!

All of the "F" family cousins in our backyard! (notice Jacob's new hair cut!)

There were lots of bicycle exhibits. Jacob said he'd have to bring Grandpa Jim back here.

She didn't realized Mr. Bones was there at first. He startled her! LOL

It took some doing to get him to try this. Looked to much like a "carnival ride" to him. But once he did it, he liked it! LOL

This seat was hooked to a pulley and you pulled yourself up and down.

Look what Paul bought me at the fair! I've been wanting these forever :)

Be blessed!

September Already!

Let's see, Thursday while at the library, I saw a homeschool newsletter for the Treasure Valley area. So when we got home I emailed the contact lady. I'm now on the mailing list, so maybe we can find some activities with other homeschoolers to do. :) She also told me Friday morning, that it was Homeschool day at the Discovery Center of Idaho. We could all get in for $2.50 each. Paul was off for the long weekend, so we headed out there since it isn't far. It was very neat. There weren't alot of people(I suspect because of the holiday weekend), and we were able to move around to all the exhibits easily. There were so many hands on things to do. We sat through a demonstration on liquid nitrogen. That was very cool! Afterwards we walked across a little bridge and into a park that connects to the zoo. We didn't do the zoo, but the park was neat. There was a paddle boat rental place that we are going to try and go back to. We didn't have time to do it then.

Saturday, was very warm and we spent the day running errands(that we should have done on friday!) and cleaning house. Sunday, we overslept, Paul says he hit the snooze button a couple of times and I don't even remember hearing it. Yikes. We would have had to rush to get to the one we wanted to visit and then decided since it was a holiday weekend, we'd just wait until next Sunday. I will set my alarm as well! So we did yard work and such. Paul's brother and family drove up after their evening church service.

Monday, we all got up and after breakfast went to finish some school shopping my SIL wanted to do. We got home just in time for Paul's dad and stepmom, sister and niece and nephew to arrive. We bbq'd a huge lunch, sat and talked, walked around the mall, hit the 50% off sale at the thrift store, came back for pie and ice cream and surprised Grandma with singing and bday presents. Her bday was last wednesday and she was very surprised! I think she liked having all her grandchildren together as well! Everyone left for home monday evening since there was school/work the next day.

Today(tuesday) was our first day on our full school schedule. The kids did pretty well. Jacob has alot more writing with 7th grade. But he did very well and was determined to get it done. He also got to do a science experiment, which is always fun. Abby struggled a bit with sitting still long enough to get through everything, but she did do it. Paul started his first 10 hour workday today. We are excited to have him home for 3 day weekends every week!

There was finally some chatter on a local homeschool list I found. We are set to meet for a park day on Friday. Jacob is especially excited as there are at least 2 boys his age that are supposed to be there. Yay! He really wants to make some friends here.

Well, I have pics to post, so I will end this and try to get them to upload.

Be blessed!

Soccer update

Yippeee! They found a coach. She starts practice next week with her first game on the 6th of September. She is very excited to begin again :) Had to buy her new soccer cleats. She wears the same size shoe I do. Wow!

Today was just a normal day. We did venture out for toothpaste and a stop at the post office. Since we were in that direction and Jacob had seen a library sign the other day, we went ahead and found it. It was a very nice library and it's not too far away. I think we'll probably use this one often. Jacob found more Hardy Boys books and some books on military vehicles(he's been drawing pics of the different ones he knows about and making a book). Abby found some horse stories and then got Little Women on cd and On The Banks of Plum Creek(Little house on the Prairie) on cd. She loves to pop them in the cd player and just draw while listening. When we moved we put the second tv in our room(it's not hooked up, just stored for now, until we decide what to do with it). The one in the living room doesn't go on during the day. Just the rule and they are pretty used to it. We do turn it on if I see something interesting on one of the history channels or something. The other day we watched a very interesting biography of Bill Gates. Anyways, they haven't had too much trouble finding other things to do, instead of watching tv :)

Abby is healing nicely from her bicycle fall. Jacob made his first ebay transaction last friday and is eagerly anticipating the mailman each day waiting for a Lego train part.

Paul tried to hang the curtains in the living room last night and I bought the wrong size, so I will have to go back to Walmart for the right ones. I was concentrating so hard on finding the right length that I didn't pay attention to the width! LOL

Well it's time to get the kids in bed. So I will end this post.

Be blessed!

Wednesday, August 27th

Just thought I would pop in. No pics to share right now though.

Monday morning we started back with some math review and our bible devotions. It's going pretty good. Both of the kids retained most of what they learned last year. We are working a bit on the upper multiplication tables since they forgot some of those, but it seems to be coming back pretty quickly. Today, Abby reviewed division, and Jacob began division with remainders. He's catching on quick, FINALLY! He says if all he ever had to do was math, he would be find with that. LOL Big change from a few years ago. We'll start back on our full schedule load on Sept. 2nd.

Both have been reading alot. Abby has discovered the Beverly Cleary(which are bit under her reading level, but she wouldn't read them before, and is enjoying them) and Judy Blume books. SuperFudge is a current favorite. LOL Jacob is way into his Hardy Boys and Brian Jacques and eagerly anticipating the release of the newest Warrior's book next week. He earned a new book last week and is waiting for it to come out.

The house is totally unpacked and put away, finally! Though I do have all the filing cabinet stuff piled in front of it and not in it yet. I'm trying to talk Paul into one that is a bit bigger. We'll see what he says. I've purged it twice now, once right before we moved and again here. There are just so many important things to hold onto.

Abby had another huge spill on her bike the day before yesterday. Apparantly she got too close to her brother and collided. She's scraped from the top of her right shoulder all the way down the back of her arm, under her arm all the way down to her hip and down her thigh to her knee. It took forever to get her cleaned up (and I cried too, cause it was hurting her to clean her up) and bandaged. She's still pretty sore, but they all are showing signs of healing though under her arm is still very much bruised as well. It hurts her the most besides the back side of her arm(which looked like she got a burn from Jacob's tire. Jacob didn't even fall, and is fine.

Paul has a four day weekend coming up for Labor day. If it's not too hot we promised the kids a ride along the river path. The complete loop is 17 miles. Not too sure we'll make it the whole way, but who knows?! Monday, some of Paul's family will be here for a bbq. We are looking forward to that.

We tried a church on sunday. We'll probably have to go back though. There was hardly anyone there, the pastor was on vacation and they had a special speaker(who was very good!). Guess that happens this time of the year.

Still waiting for soccer to start. Since we signed up so late, she's on a team without a coach. I don't think I know enough to coach and Paul goes to 10 hour days next week and will already be involved with Jacob's Boy Scout troop. So we'll see. They are giving it until tomorrow for someone to volunteer. If not they'll disband the team and try to place them on other teams. Which is fine for us. Normally, she would play with the closed neighborhood school, but since we homeschool and don't know very many people yet(and no one that plays soccer her age) I said I didn't mind her being on a different team in the area.

Well, that's about it for now.

Be blessed!

Western Idaho State Fair

Went to the fair today. Here is Jacob with the car he liked best. LOL The dealer actually obliged him and told him all about Hyundai's. He even told him to start out with something small, used and inexpensive and save up for something nicer from there. He also told him to buy his first car with his own money, don't let mom and dad buy it(like we would anyway!) that he would appreciate it and enjoy it much more getting it on his own. I liked that! It was neat that the guy spent time talking with him even though he knew he wasn't selling a car. I liked also that there was a huge fan blowing in the tent where the cars were. We hit 100 degrees again today.

Paul and Abby on one of the many rides they rode. Abby was ecstatic this year that she was finally tall enough to ride any ride she wanted. I went on a couple, but the physical symptoms of my anxiety crept up and I called it good after two! Jacob does not do rides, so we walked around and looked at what he wanted while the other two got their thrill fixes! LOL

Texas Longhorn. His horns were huge! I've never seen one in person before. He was quite content to just lay there as people walked by, you could even pet him if you wanted and could get past his horns!

It was a very fun day at the fair. Though I have to say it was much smaller than the one we are used to in Wa. (Evergreen State Fair). But cheaper here! LOL

Be blessed!

What not to do with a slurpee

The lid is off the cup....no you can't sit on the couch with it....Why?.......This is why!

LOL She laughed about it when I didn't yell at her :)

Mountain biking book

So Paul bought a book about mountain biking in Boise the other day. He and Jacob are getting excited to try some of the small easy trails out. I think I'll stick to the greenbelt and river trails for now though! Anyways, it's so full of information, like things to have on you, techniques, trail ettiquette and the like. Very interesting. But the thing I like the most(I've been reading it out loud earlier tonight) is all of the Boise and Idaho history that it has. Very, cool. Kind of like a spur of the moment Idaho state history lesson! And everyone was still listening in the end. COOL! LOL Just thought I'd share!

Be blessed!