Saying good-bye

Aimee, Jim, and Trip are moving to Louisiana.  We did not have very much time with them, but they were really great friends and we will miss them very much!  We had a last hoorah at Jack's for lunch.  Aiden will miss his little buddy!

Thanksgiving in Forest Ranch

Okay, playing catch up here!  Been having 

technical difficulties with pics not loading.

We had a great time at the Annands' for Turkey Day! Cousin Breanna and boyfriend Chris brought Buttons (the bunny) and the kids had a great time "loving" on him! We played lots of Cribbage and dominoes and Sorry. Uncle Dave taught Aiden electrical circuits. Aunt Patti and Grandpa Tom played pranks on each other the entire weekend. Grandpa Tom secretly filled auntie's hood with artichoke leaves throughout the Thanksigiving meal. Mom, Aiden, and Liam picked and ate many raspberries (as they have not had a frost yet-unusual). We marveled at the beautiful red maple tree and fall foliage in Great-grandpa Bob's yard. Caleb's smoked turkey that he carefully tended all day tasted yummy! Aiden got to take a spin in Aunt Patti's Lightning McQueen speedster! A great weekend with LOTS of great food!

Happy Thanksgiving

Getting ready to head to Forest Ranch for the Turkey Day festivities tomorrow. We are loading up the kids, the dog, our BBQ smoker (to smoke the turkey), and a whole lot of gear to see great grandparents, grandparents, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and family friends. The cat and 5 chickens will stay home and hold down the fort.

Aiden and Liam made pine cone turkeys to celebrate the holiday. Liam decided he was ready to pluck his turkey!

Day Trip to Elkhorn Slough (pronounced slew)

Liam, Aiden, and mommy went to the slough for a big adventure! The boys got to feel molted snake skin ('feels like plastic' says Aiden) and match loose feathers with pictures of local birds in the visitor center. We then hiked down the Long Valley Loop where we found a wasp nest, sighted a true rat's nest in an oak tree (dusky-footed wood rat we are told) and 3 herons and lots of plovers. We heard 2 hawks shrieking overhead, but we did not get a good look at them. We also spotted several of the local plants we are learning about like coyote brush, poison hemlock, poison oak, and the very peculiar pickleweed (how does it survive in that salty marsh?). The best part was walking out on the boardwalk over the marshland. Aiden accidentally dropped his hat off the boardwalk but happily retreived it with a long stick. That little procedure led him to discover thousands of tiny seashells washed up in the marsh that he could fish out with his hat stick. Aiden found a 'family' of shells (mommy, daddy, brother, and baby). Liam's taste test revealed the seashells to be not so savory! After that, we took a cue from Liam and headed up to the picnic spot and ate lunches and goofed around on the grass. Liam also preferred looking for rocks with his hat in his mouth rather than atop his head! (: A great day was had by all.

Just Hanging Around

Digital Camera and Field Mice

Aiden is having a great month of poetry and drawing birds and reading and learning good sportsmanship in playing Sorry and dominoes with mom and dad. He just finished a very strong soccer season. The Redhawks (Aiden, Christian, Danny, and Chase) played so well together and really had a lot of fun together. Caleb was their coach and he did an outstanding job! Aiden is looking forward to next year's season already! Little Liam also got his exercise pushing his stroller out onto the soccer field during the games and honed his fine motor skills of collecting all the cones marking the perimeter of the field (during the games, of course)! He also enjoyed trying to sit and play with his toy car inside the net while the boys practiced kicking drills into the net (no fear!).

Ahh, so it is November 2008 and we have finally gone digital! Testing out mama's new camera was lots of fun tonight!

Where are the field mice? Big question inspired by Aiden's favorite poem "The Field Mouse" by William Sharp. Little Liam did not have the opportunity to add his input to the discussion as he was already in dreamland by then.

Dinner time conversation has escalated to new heights with Aiden's questions lately. For example: "How does a boat with heavy stuff float?" or "How far do you have to go before you leave our air and go into moon air?" Where is the handbook to prepare us for these questions!! Thank goodness for the internet! He is quickly learning that mom and dad don't know everything. We figure that no answer with a "let's look it up" is better than a guess or a wrong answer. Parenting is about the most humbling experience in the world! He knows SO much more than I did at his age. Both boys are so sharp and keep me on my toes for sure.

Wish I had some pics to share... my 35 mm is broken, but I hope to remedy that soon. I cut Liam's hair with the clippers and he looks like a little boy now! He is really close to saying many intelligible words as the jabbering is almost constant now. The poor thing; I really feel like he carries on whole conversations with me and I just don't get it! He gets across the essentials though with his sign language. I understand that all his snacks are "cados" (as in avo-cado). All birds are "chick" (for his first and favorite bird to learn-chicken). He says dog and cat and now up pretty well. He can follow 2-step directions and he knows 10 signs and uses them appropriately (thank you, please, up, help, eat, more, drink, cat, dog, all done). Aiden signed a lot and jabbered nonsensically and now he is a chatter box, so I expect the same with Liam.

That's the news for now. We have Friday afternoon park day pretty soon. Love to all!

Greetings from Prunetucky!

Wow, this blogging is pretty sophisticated; now I just need a digital camera! No recent pics, sorry! Soon, though!

Aiden started kindergarten last week and he feels so BIG now. Our curriculum: Living life mostly, reading On the Banks of Plum Creek, Robert Frost's poetry, the Bible with memory verses, and phonics-letter tiles and 3-letter words! We are adding in dominoes, card games, bean counting, cooking, other games for math. Nature journaling and science experiments each once a week. We learn 3 new ASL signs and Spanish every other day. Want to work in piano, folk song/classical music, and drawing, but mom needs to get her act together and work those in soon. Lots of craft projects (sock puppet pet) and a cricket house so far. Lots of bug and lizard collecting and playing in the garden.

Our philosophy for HSing is to learn in a relaxed and 'real' atmosphere. Develop a relationship with the natural world around us by close observation and asking lots of questions. Learning the abstract by first experiencing as much real life as possible. Learning to read and write and think by first hearing great literature and poetry. Being held accountable for information by retelling or narrating back what you have learned in your own words. Learning history from first-hand accounts as much as possible. Character building and a love for God with early development of good habits of respect, kindess, honesty, self-control, etc.

Little Liam enjoys sitting on my lap with his blanket, sucking on his middle and ring finger of his left hand during Aiden's reading time. Now that Aiden is more occupied with 'school' matters, Liam has become a bit more independent, (i.e. getting his own toys, thinking up his own uses for those toys, and getting into mischief too of course). He has 4 teeth (maybe more) coming in all at once now, so he has been a little crabby. He is obsessed with Ozzie's (our new cat) ears; he loves how Ozzie can bend them away from his outreached finger and flicks them in response to Liam's finger touch. Poor feline endures kids packing him around, pokes, prods, Ben (huge lab) chasing him. He chose us, but he had no idea what was in store for him, surely!

Anyway, both boys are sick now with colds and mom's work schedule has been crazy, so life the last few days has been not the greatest. Better days ahead for sure though. Praise God! My boss has agreed to let me reduce my hours and set my own schedule as of September 7th, so I can be wife and mommy and MT and still keep my sanity (what remains)!

Long post; subsequent posts will be shorter!