One afternoon

I was folding laundry in the living room one afternoon while Caleb and Madeline watched some Tennis Channel.  I stopped and picked up my camera to capture the two of them engaged in some serious tennis viewing when Havi woke up from her nap and joined them.

There was a lot of giggling going on as Havi played with her brother's socks.  It made my heart smile.  

It's moments like these that fill our days and are worth slowing down and capturing.  Nothing extraordinary, breathtaking or magical.  A simple afternoon doing some chores...and enjoying the laughter of my children.  These are the days.

A time to read

Well, it seems like I can't get my act together these days.  I had wanted to share these photos before we went out of town, but that obviously didn't happen.  We actually just returned from a 5 day trip to New York City!  We had an absolute blast with only one major mishap, which was thankfully short lived.  I'll get into all the details in another post, and I will be sure to share some of the many photos I took.

For now, I'll get back to the reason for this post....a time to read.  As you can see, I took these photos of the dumplings at our old house in my favorite-y favorite room to photograph them in.  We loved to read in this room because of all the natural light.  Sometimes we would get distracted when looking out at the oak tree and all the birds that would visit our yard.  And sometimes Madeline had her own way of distracting her sweet brother, too.  Good thing he doesn't mind.

Although I'm going to miss the light in that room terribly, I'm thankful that our school area in our new house has good light too.  It's not as bright as our old living room, but it's brighter than our old school room.  And it's large enough that we now have a little sofa in there (which was last used in Madeline's old bedroom.)  We love to sit on it and read for school now, although we've actually done very little school here since moving (because we actually haven't been home!)  Oh well.  Ya gotta love the flexibility homeschooling offers.  Anyway, I'll be back with more photos to share.  I promise.

A case of the giggles

The other day, as I was putting Madeline down for a nap, I had an "ah ha" moment.  

I was pulling her curtains closed when I noticed all the light streaming in.

So the nap was delayed.

And instead, I asked the dumplings if I could possibly snap a photo or two, 

as I'm attempting to improve my indoor shooting.

Madeline was interested in other things, 

but I did manage this one shot.

{That big, bright, pink thingy behind her  is her princess tent.}

Caleb thought it would be fun to make faces at me.

Look at his stink eye! lol

Great, now that we got that out of the way and know the lighting is fine,

what happened next?

Well, they hopped on Madeline's bed and snuggled.

Then they got a major case of the giggles.

They love to 

tickle each other, 

squish each other, 

and giggle uncontrollably.

{And yes, Caleb's tongue is blue, courtesy of a jolly rancher he just enjoyed.}

Madeline thought it would be funny to sit on her brother.

Apparently Caleb thought so too.

Ah, these two.

They have so much fun together.

Rolling around on one of their beds in a fit of laughter is an almost daily occurrence.

It warms my heart to hear and see it.

  Linking to:
Favorite Photo Friday  Photo Friday Link Party  Shoot.Edit.Submit.

Sunday Snapshot: Never the same again

You may be wondering what I mean by today's title. 

I would be referring to Caleb's precious smile.

You see, last night this precious boy finally lost his first tooth!

Yes, at 7 years of age.  Finally.

If you look closely, you can see how loose that tooth is.

And the photos in this series are some of his last photos with all those precious, little baby teeth.

As you will see, the kids indulged me the other day and let me snap away.

Just a brother and sister,

hanging out and having fun.

Showing some love

Being cute

Watching the planes

Looking sweet

And often full of the giggles

Some time next year, God willing, this sibling group of two will become a group of three.

Yesterday we met with our social worker, Shay, for our first home study visit..  

She was really sweet, and the kids loved her and her spinning tops!

They were so cute answering her questions.

She hopes to have our home study finished by mid May.

These photos were taken with my Nikon D700, 85mm 1.4
Settings: f 1.6, ISO 200-400, shutter speed 1/8000.

Anyway, I think next up on my agenda is 

to capture some fun photos of my precious boy and his new smile!

To join in the Sunday Snapshot fun, head over to Stefanie's blog.

Homeschooling update: Expanding

I've been meaning to do a homeschool update for a while.  We've just been so busy that I haven't found the time.  The following principle sums up our latest happenings.

“The question is not—how much does the youth know when he has finished his education—but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”

In order to expand the number of things Caleb cares about, we have added classical music/composer study to our curriculum.  Before jumping in to the Ambleside Online composer study schedule, I thought I would first introduce the genre of classical music.  We began with listening to Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.  The kids really love it and usually ask for it right after we sing our hymn at breakfast.

We've also been listening to Carnival of the Animals composed by Camille Saint-Saens and The Nutcracker by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, additionally playing them as background music while doing copywork and such.  This has been such a delight, not only for the kidlets, but for me as well.  The kids particularly love to act out Peter and the Wolf.  It's such a joy to see.  Perhaps I'll have to get them doing so on video.

Speaking of videos....a typical narration for Caleb takes place at the computer.  He narrates as I type.  However, I have been videotaping his narrations from The Trumpet of the Swan.  Here's how Chapter 14 went.

Generally speaking, Madeline isn't this distracting. She's gotten so much better at waiting until the end of Caleb's narration before speaking to me.  The both of them were just a wee bit giddy that day.

On to nature study...

Since we do most of our schooling four days a week, we set aside Fridays for nature study, errands, doctors appointments and such.  It seems that every Friday as I drive over the causeway (across the river) to run errands, I spot a Great Blue Heron hanging out along the shore in the same area.  I am constantly scanning the shoreline as I drive now instead of just occasionally.  However, no sooner do I spot it, then we drive past, and it's too late for the kids to see.  

Yesterday was no different.  However, upon returning home, I spotted both a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret and determined that the kids were going to see one of these birds.  We parked in a recreational area, got out, and started walking along the shore.  As we turned a corner (we had walked out onto a point), we practically walked right into the Great Blue Heron.  I was so glad the kids finally got to see one.  (It had been several years since Caleb had seen one, which he has regularly reminded me about lately. lol)  Anyway, we saw it just in time because as we looked out on the river (thanks to another onlooker), a sheet of rain was coming our way.  That was pretty cool to witness.

Because we school year round, we just continue on to the next thing once we've completed the current year's work.  So we'll be starting up fourth grade math and third grade grammar next week.  This past week, Caleb finished reading Stuart Little by E. B While and has since started reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  He thoroughly enjoyed it when I read it aloud to him not too long ago, and he has the same enjoyment while reading it aloud to me!  It's precious.

So back to science/natural history...

As you can see, we have been studying birds a great deal lately.  We now have two bird feeders hanging from our oak trees, one in the front yard and one in the back.  Next thing we need to add are a few bird baths.  I've managed to capture a few birds with my camera.  So I will be putting together a little post on that.  

Anyway, what I love about learning at home is seeing Caleb question the world around him.  Last night as I put him to bed, he was thinking about Louis, the trumpeter swan and asked me how birds fly.  Thankfully, our science curriculum has a lesson on this physics principle, so I will be able to lead Caleb to his own understanding of how birds fly. Love it!

I have so much more that I want to blog about.  I surely hope to find some time in the next few weeks.  Monday Madeline will be celebrating her 4th birthday.  It's hard to believe.  She was just 19 months at referral.  Time has passed so quickly.  It really needs to slow down.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'm sure I'll be back to share some birthday fun!

Sunday Snapshot: An amusing time!

Ok. So, remember all those photos I took in October? Um, yeah. Tons. And the time to edit them? Non-existent. So what did I do? I used minimal editing on all of them so I could get them up here to share. Then life happened. Yep. Back to the hustle and bustle of every day.

Anyway, I thought I would share a few photos from our trip to Disney World last month for Patrick's birthday. We don't typical "do" Disney on his birthday. However, this year Caleb's Gotcha Day fell on a Saturday and conflicted with his baseball game. Still, we didn't want to miss out on our Disney trip. So we saved the T Rex Restaurant for his Gotcha Day and hit up the Big Mouse a little earlier.

We don't hurry over there in the morning. So we typically arrive in time for lunch. We usually catch the Dream Along with Mickey Show.

Then we'll head over to Pinocchio's Village for some lunch. Caleb started getting a bit hungry while he waited for Patrick to come back with his food.

The kids really enjoy playing with all the fun stuff there is at the Winnie the Pooh ride. It just might be more fun than the actual ride.

We ALWAYS hit the Raceway. Caleb has become quite the little driver. And well, Madeline surprised me by giving up the wheel this time.

We inevitably stop for an afternoon snack, like ice cream or a smoothie in Tomorrowland, as this is where we spend most of our time.

And just to be sure the thrill and excitement of amusement parks didn't end, this past weekend we had the chance to attend our local state fair. We only stayed for a little bit, but boy, did we pack in a lot of fun. This was our first time going. So I was pleasantly surprised at how many kiddie rides there were. Caleb and Madeline had an absolute blast. It was non-stop laughter from the two of them. We dined on carnival food of corn dogs and chicken-on-a-stick. Yummy. Madeline spotted the kiddie roller coaster and begged to go on. Patrick has been hesitant until this point to let her ride a roller coaster because she's so young. But he finally relented. I rode with her, and from the first turn, she never stopped laughing! She loved it! My own stomach hurt so bad from laughing the entire time. As soon as she stepped off, she said "That was so much fun!"

One thing that we all had a chance to do together was the slide. The slide was my mom's favorite carnival "ride". I had a chance to capture this little race between Daddy and the kidlets on video. To say that we all had a fun-filled night would be an understatement.





To check out more Sunday Snapshots, head on over to Stefanie's blog.