And just like that… January 18, 2010

my baby turned three.

Mikey was not excited about his birthday party for some reason. He didn’t want us to tell him happy birthday or talk about anything birthday related. He screamed the entire time we were getting him ready for his party and the drive over and for a few minutes once we got there. I really have no idea what got into him. But he eventually decided that it wasn’t so bad and he had fun.

The birthday boy. Oh wait…

The real birthday boy. This picture cracks me up. It totally sums up his third birthday. I wish it wasn’t blurry. Oh well, such is life.

Mikey wanted a green cake. These cakes pretty much looked horrible but they tasted pretty good. We won’t be using this cake man again.

Jack with his necktie shirt on.

I think Mikey was getting a “talking to” from his Granddad. That is serious business!

Phillip and Josh looking scary and like they probably shouldn’t be around small children.

Phillip with the scary blank stare.

Mikey enjoyed the opening presents part of the party.

Mikey smiled at this Mikey Mouse my mom got him for about half a second before he threw it. It was pretty funny.

Then he almost burned his face off on the candles on his cake. Dedee was the adult “in charge.” We didn’t sing “happy birthday” to him because that song makes him scream like he’s dying.

Christmas 2009 highlights #2 January 18, 2010

I’m so far behind on blogging! I’ve been so busy I just really haven’t had time. Here are a few more pictures from Christmas. Next stop…Mikey’s birthday party.

Phillip likes this cup.

My new pot that Aunt Gale gave me. It has already cooked gumbo and shrimp soup and it did a fine job!

Watch out!! Nana and Granddad got this Nerf dart thing for Jack. He was sort of okay with sharing it with his Uncle Josh and little brother.

Here we have our boys and my brother’s boys all sitting at the same time. As soon as I took this a couple of them ran away. That is a crazy bunch of boys right there!

The pig eats until he explodes. It’s pretty cool.

The four boys fighting in the dark with glow in the dark swords.

My mom with Garrett and Kyle.

My mom with her four youngest grandsons. My mom has SIX other grandkids and a great-grandson!!

And here’s one of my mom. Isn’t she cute? Don’t get mad, Mom.

75% off!! January 18, 2010

So I made our decision about next school year today because of a sale. Yep, that’s right. I went in our local school supply store because I heard everything was 75% off. I thought maybe I’d just grab a couple of things. Well, I ended up buying the bulk of our third grade supplies and stuff that we’ll use for fourth grade too. So I guess that seals the deal. We’ll be homeschooling for third grade. I would love to tell you that I spent hours in prayer and sought counsel from many wise and trusted friends, weighed the pros and cons and prayed some more. But I didn’t. A great sale made up my mind. Over $500 worth of stuff for $160. I did get some advise from friends too.

But I feel really great about next school year. This curriculum this year has kind of bogged us both down. Today we were able to really find some fun stuff. And Jack helped me pick a lot of it out. This is just some of the stuff we got:

- Science stuff including a magnet kit, big experiment kit, solar system kit, lots of books that Jack helped pick out.
- Geography and American history stuff that might actually interest us, including stuff about the president, mayor, and governor (Dedee!!)
- Handwriting without tears and handwriting without tears special paper
- Language arts, thinking skills, character building stuff
- Intro. Spanish stuff
- LOTS of math stuff!!
- Art books and some supplies
- A game about making wise purchases (such as buying everything you need @ 75% off!!)
- Some puzzles for Mikey

So I guess the main challenge I’ll have next year is that I’ll be sort of deciding what we learn and when. And I think I can handle that. We still need to buy some readers for next year but other than that, we’re pretty much set. Now…where in the world am I going to put all this stuff? I think I’ll put it in Phillip’s office. He won’t mind.