Fun at Play Land

The girls have chores that we try to have them do every morning and night (we have a picture chart that they can "read") and they get stickers on their chore calendar when they complete them (am & pm). When they complete a whole weeks worth without missing any they get a special outing of their choosing. The first week they earned an outing they chose to go to McDonald's Play Land for dinner. As you can see, there wasn't a whole lot of eating going on but we all had lots of fun. 

Daddy even got in on the fun. He climbed up all the tubes and went down the slide with the girls. They thought that was the best. 

He's still a big kid at heart. :) 

Echo Hunting. . . . and donuts!

Last week Nathan was talking to Rosen after dinner about echos and having a hard time describing one so he had the wonderful idea of taking her on an "Echo Hunt". We all climbed into the van and headed over to the centennial trail where it goes under the Sullivan bridge. We had a grand time walking along yelling "echo!" every few minutes, disturbing cute couples on their romantic evening walks along the river. (Hopefully we weren't that bad) We found some echos under the bridge and Rosen thought that it was the coolest thing ever. On the way back to the car we stopped at the Krispy Kreme donut shop (we parked in their parking lot) and had a bit of dessert before heading home. (Mama thought THAT was the coolest) Family field trips are the best!

It's a GIRL! .... we think....

Last Tuesday we went in to see our midwife and she did an ultrasound and baby #3 appears to be a girl! :) Its just a best guess because she isn't very experienced at doing them (we usually go to inland imaging but this was free) she volunteers at iChoice and usually only does them for women considering abortion so she doesn't see much after 14 wks. But we got a pretty good look and it definitely looked like a girl. The baby looked really healthy and was squirming around and rubbing its face and that was fun to see. Looks like we're going to have a house full of girls! We feel so blessed! :)

Preschool Planning

Due to concerns with our upcoming move and finances I have decided to try my hand at home-schooling Rosen's preschool this year. I had enrolled her at a preschool at a local church here but I decided it would be best not to get her excited about going and then have to pull her out of it when we move to the west side. I'm afraid it will be hard enough moving to a new town without having to leave behind a new school full of new found friends. Plus, I have been praying about homeschooling our children (or at least trying it out) and had planned on starting with Kindergarten. As usuall, God had different plans for us and so I set out to find an affordable Christian curriculum that would be Bible based, comprehensive in covering the differnt subjects from a Biblical worldview, with a moderate amount of prep work for me. Well, as usual, God provided us with a curriculum that I am very excited about at a very reasonable price (I went to the Home School Book Store on the north side - they were sooo helpful). I actually think I am more excited about it than she is (she doesn't quite know what to expect). Please pray that God will give me the wisdom and knowledge to teach her in a way that she understands and enjoys. We will be starting up our "school" on Labor Day. :)

Our first Pet!

Well, Nathan is gone this weekend on a backpacking trip with the boys and so I was at a loss as to something special I could do with the girls that would be fun and educational (as well as cheap!). So I had the grand idea of getting Rosen her first fish! :) First we talked about how fish need to be cared for because they are real living animals. Rosen agreed to feed her fish regularly and to help me clean it's tank (actually its a vase I already had). So we made our trek down to Petco and she picked out a purple and red beta fish and some hot pink gravel to go in the vase. As for names, she has played with Pablo, Rocky, and Splasher but doesn't seem to have found "the one" just yet. I personally suggested Finny but she frowned at that so I think its a no go. I also trimmed off a shoot from my philodendron and stuck it in the vase as well. We'll see who lasts the longest, the fish or the plant. My money is on the plant. Now we just have to find a happy home for it. We tried the dining room table (so we al could see it and they would both get some sunlight) but I didn't think it was very safe (the kids are constantly bumping it). Now we are trying Rosen's room on top of her dresser. It is secured to the wall so it should be pretty safe there. I'm just worried that if I don't see enough of it that I'll forget to have her feed it. But it only needs fed 2-3x wk so it shouldn't be bad. I wonder what Nathan will think of it when he gets home! :)