I am excited! I have been working on our curriculum for next school year. I found the Pathway Readers we are going to use on vegsource.com for a great price! I got both 3rd grade readers with brand new workbooks and the 4th grade reader, brand new workbook and TE for $23! Woo-Hoo! I also found the TE's for the 3rd grade books on vegsource for $4. So we are all set for reading! Yeah!

The weather the past few days has been really unpredictable - lots of storms and tornadoes around Texas! We saw these clouds outside and thought it looked something like a toasted Marshmallow. You know those really good ones that have been burned on the outside...ummmm...I think I want to toast a marshmallow! LOL

Here's Daddy's porch redoing project. He had to jack up the corner of the porch so he can replace the corner boards. After he jacked it up using the ladder and a cinder block - we got the cedar pole stuck in place. Now he just has to get the old board replaced and the underpinning put around the bottom. We are also going to paint the porch.

Here is the other end of the porch - the front board had been sitting on the ground so it rotten out and the boards were sinking with out any support. So Daddy dug it out and put cinder blocks under the porch to support it and replaced the front board. It is much better now. The underpinning with make it look all uniform and pretty.

Here's a close-up. Good Job Daddy!

Daddy, the boys and I went up to Lowe's last Saturday for their Earth Day celebration. We got a bag filled with goodies while we were there and had lots of fun!

The boys each build a window birdhouse, we got 4 samples of laundry soap, some candies and five baby trees! We also got another reusable bag and lots of good coupons! Woo-Hoo!

In Red's story time class they read stories about animals and got to stamp with animal stamps. Red got a blue zebra. Here you can see the zebras and the wrestlers! LOL - He drew in wrestlers so they could keep the zebras in line. Funny kiddo!

In Bug's drawing class they were working on drawing trains this last week. He just lOvEs that class! Check out this good drawing!

Here is another - check out all that detail - man!

This cute little guy showed up in our yard one afternoon - Bug just fell in love with him. We called him "Sam" while he was here. I think he lives around here....somewhere....we've seen him up the road before. I hope his owner gets him a collar and tag. He sure is cute. We are hoping to get the fence fixed in the next few weeks so we can get another dog - Bug really wants one to "play" with. Poor Lady - she's just so old and doesn't get around too well these days. Every now and then she gets a wild hair and will play chase the ball or play with the water hose - but Bug really wants a dog who will run wild with him. Daddy started on the porch redo so hopefully the fence is next.

One of our Meals on Wheels clients celebrated her 83rd birthday last Thursday. We found out that she was planning on being at home alone that day, so we decided to make her a card and take her a cupcake for her birthday.

Here is the front of her card.

Red decorated her card and when I asked him what he wanted to write in it he came up with this "I wish you get a wish you wish". What a guy!

For our soldier cards this month the boys and I decided to decorate eggs to include with the cards - we also put in some easter grass. Here are some of their decorated eggs. Pretty!

Red was talking about Eskimos this last week and how God loves them. He colored the Eskimo boy, sled and dogs and put them together. Fun! He was very excited to find "Corn on the Cob" yellow in his color box - so the entire set ended up being "Corn on the Cob"! LOL

At Cowboy Church the kid's Sunday School classes adopted a little girl from France, her name is Dodo. The classes have been collecting money to send her. She wrote a letter to the kids a few weeks back so Bug wrote a note back to her. "It says I hope you stay healthy." What a sweet boy. He also drew her a picture as well.

Hubby broke out his new mower for the first time this season...he said mowing season is open now. LOL It is so dry around here that he had huge dust clouds going everywhere.

Here is my man after the dust mowing escapade. LOL

Here he is behind the barn - the light is reflecting off all that dust! Ewww!

Well I attempted to get it all into one blog, but that didn't work. LOL - I remember (too late) that I had pics from my camera that I hadn't downloaded. :) So here goes, another update!

Here is some of Red's latest work. I am really proud of him. He is one of those kids that gets really mad if he doesn't do it just perfect. So we have been working on that. He often just won't try again - just would rather thrown down the pencil and give up - than make another attempt. So we've been working on that - he is coming right along with his writing and I am so proud. He seems to slowly be warming up to "trying again" rather than just throwing in the towel (or pencil int his case). Although he still gets quite frustrated, I am really seeing some maturing going on.

I mentioned in my last update how much Bug loves Ms. Dena's drawing class at ECCHO - well he has been so excited about it that I decided to look for some drawing books at paperbackswap.com. I came across this Drawing Reptiles book and order it - he was just ecstatic when it came in. I have to admit, I had not realized just how much he likes to draw.

He immediately went to work and just draws all the time now! So I looked up another and came up with the dog one - which I knew he'd get a kick out off because Bug is a dog lover to the MAX!

Here is some of his drawings he's done:

Boston Terrier

Dachshund

German Shepherd (like our Ladybug!)

Bulldog & Boxer

And from the reptiles book:

sea turtle

alligator

snake

crocodile

Below you will see an update on the garden. It's all planted now, although it's hard to see since the plants are so small yet. Hubby is putting in the last of the veggies there - red cabbage. The boys have been working hard with Daddy out there - tilling, weeding, hauling rocks (and more rocks), planting, watering. Science has taken root in the garden this spring. I love seeing my Hubby get into the whole "teaching spirit". I got some great pics of him with the boys and the neighbor boy planting peppers and tomatoes. It was awesome. I do believe my Hubby has a Montessori style heart or perhaps he's watched me do it so often that it's just taken root. He used the three part lesson to teach the boys how to plant the plants correctly in the ground. It was so cool to see them in action. I show you, you show me, now recall what you just did. I love it! Hubby just finished up the hoses today, so I think it's all in place. Now just to keep the birds away so they plants can grow big and strong! He laid soaker hoses throughout the garden - we are hoping this will prove to be a more direct - less water wasting - watering tactic.

Here's another art project Bug came up with. We found several bags of precut Texas shapes in the garage last weekend when we had our garage sale. I had brought one in thinking we'd come up with something to include in our Texas Geography Boxes. Well Bug found them on the shelf and decided he wanted to paint some for ornaments, so paint he did. We didn't have white, so he used silver in it's place. I haven't added the strings yet as they weren't quite dry. I think these will be a great addition to our boxes!