One last photo before I really must go sew Shortcake's stocking. :) We usually run up to our local Ace Hardware (I know, really romantic!) for our Christmas tree. Here we are with our tree. I love making memories!

School in December

We're taking school pretty easy in December. The two big boys each have a clip board with a few items listed on their to-do lists. Mostly we're wrapping up phonics, some math, handwriting, and reading. We're keeping ourselves busy with baking, crafting, more reading, math stations, our Europe review, wrapping presents, and Christmas prep. This will bring us to the end of our second semester! And, thanks to MACHE and HSLDA I no longer have to send in a report card for Agent H - that makes me a happy girl!

Christmas Lights Award

This is not my original idea, just another wonderful idea someone out there wrote about on the wonderful internet to inspire us all to have a little fun. I bring you . . . the Christmas Light Awards! We piled the kids (in their PJs) and picnic dinners into the car and headed out looking at Christmas lights. Each kid picked out the house that they thought was decorated the most fabulous and presented that homeowner with a decorated movie size box of candy (dollar store variety). The first home we picked out belonged to an adorable grandpa and grandma who were thrilled and had to send us on our way with some yummy homemade Christmas cookies. The other homes were just as surprised and happy to be singled out. It was one of those things where you don't know who was blessed more - us or them.

After handing out our awards, we went to the drive-thru nativity in New Brighton, which was wonderful. Short but wonderful! I hope we've created another Christmas tradition.












Why post a picture of them all posed when this one shows nicely what life is really like?

And just because they will want to remember. The first photo is Agent E's house, second is Agent H's, the third is The General's.







































In case you've wondered who that is driving around with the Christmas lights in their van - well yes - that would be us. That's my husband's little Christmas fun!

Agent E is loosing teeth

Agent E lost not one, but TWO teeth in one day (Nov 30). On top of that it was the first time he had lost a tooth . . . teeth . . . something like that. Yeah for my Ebug (I had to let that slip cause even at five he's still my little Ebug.)

The General's Secret

Today The General hunted me down to tell me a special secret. He came up to me and put his hands around my ear, then cupped his ear up to mine and proceeded to whisper his secret into the air. I still don't know what the secret was. My ear was muffled by his hands and I was trying not to giggle. I love you little fella!

Advent books

We get to open one each day. Each red & white package contains a different Christmas book to read. It's going to have to be a tradition - the kids adore it! Here are some of the titles included in our stash (some were books I had requested from the library, some were last minute thrift store finds, some salvaged from my childhood, and many are gifts from over the years.


The Legand of the Christmas Tree

Little Benjamin and the First Christmas
Usborne's Farmyard Tales Christmas
The Littlest Angel
The Little Fir Tree

Barbar and Father Christmas
The Legand of the Christmas Stocking

Mooseltoe
Legends of the Faith: Issue 4

The Littlest Magi

The Donkey's Christmas Song

The Little Mouse's Wonderful Journey

Three Presents for Baby Jesus

Cranberry Christmas
The First Night
The Little Matchgirl

The last ten or so are still wrapped up but I think they include a book about The Chrismas Carol, a chapter marked from Uncle Wiggily, and a chapter marked from James Harriots Treasury for Children. I'll try to post them once they are opened.

Update:
The Pine Tree Parable
Raggedy Ann and Andy Help Santa Claus
Diane Goode's American Christmas
Bright Star Shining: Poems for Christmas

Expedition Earth: Italy

Here we come Italy! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

Ciao! Oh I loved studying Italy!

We painted (okay drew because I didn't want to clean up dripped paint) like Michelangelo. Papers taped to the underside of the kitchen table.

















Learned about different noodle shapes.











We ate our Italian meal to the sound of an Opera (Pavarotti I think).











We read about Pompei and about volcanoes. Here we are putting the final ingredients in our volcano cake. . .
















We watched Roman Holiday (love, love!), played Mario Cart and said lots of "Momma Mia!", read Tony and the Pizza Champions, watched Youtube videos of tossing pizza crusts and the building of the Colosseum, found age appropiate pictures of the Sistine Chapel (not so easy!), and The General even joined in with a little craft of his own from No Time for Flashcards. Thank you Kristie for that tip! I really have no idea what the spoon is about. :)











Here is the link to my Pinterest board for Italy.

The Life of a 3 Year Old

Stocking up for possible impromtu art inspiration, hopefully not on any walls.
















Changing the TP roll. I guess he was thinking ahead . . .?












Where did he go?
















Oh there he is! Yes . . . inside. With the pillow. And some toys. And a snack. Quietly. For over 10 minutes. He looks a little toasty!
















Potty graduate! He's been trained for awhile now (okay we still have accidents during naptime on occasion) but I just forgot to have the traditional party. A certificate of completion and some star shaped milk cake!























Stopping by to give sissy a quick smooch!
















Oh and about two months ago I clipped the ends of his nuks. He wouldn't have anything more to do with them. Yeah!