Well I really should be sleeping because I am tired, but for some reason blogging just seems more fun! LOL My Prep, Prep Preparation week has come to a close! LOL - I did get a lot done and am excited to say that we are ready for school to start on Monday! Well I amend that statement - I am ready for school to start on Monday! The boys maybe not so much...LOL

I went to the library Thursday morning before my MOW deliveries and did some cutting with the die cuts. I needed the saying for my class bb and I also needed some stuff for GA's.

Here is my bb all complete! Well except for that terrific work we'll be doing starting next week! Yeah!!!

I also made a sign for GA's. Our regular meeting room (starting this week) will be different from where we met last week so I thought this would help. Plus any new girls that come it will be a good road marker!

Well Bug's new swimsuit finally came in! It is a thermal suit that has the top/bottom connected. I had hoped it would help him stay warmer in the water. It didn't seem to help much. He was still freezing, but he stuck it out for about an hour. Mrs. Grace said he was doing wonderfully and really improving...so what do I do?

Another pic of Bug swimming like a fish!

The Tag Team Duo just cracks me up...at any random time you can walk out into the back yard and see them perched on top of the picnic table...they crack me up!

Today was our first ECCHO class of the semester/new school year.

Bug is very excited about all his classes. He is taking Chemistry for kids and enjoyed looking at "atoms" and eating his research this morning! What a great class! His second class is Creative Hearts. It is an art class and he is so excited. You can see in this picture his art creation from today. They discussed "collage" and used various items to talk abut themselves. I can't wait to see what all he comes home with! 3rd period was a rainy day games class and he enjoyed this one quite a bit. I went to watch Red's class part of the time, but while I was in they were playing Head's Up 7 Up....love that game! Bug was very excited! After lunch Bug has his PE class.

Red has a free play class 1st period with his friend Will then he comes to Camp Crafts with Dad and I. We discussed first aid kits today - what should go in them, certain scenarios and such. It's a big class 27 kids, but they did well and participated and were lively! Then Red goes to PE right before Lunch.

Well I guess I should sign off my eyeballs are falling asleep..and look at that it's only 12:16am. LOL Until next time friends, pray hard for rain and those working to control the Texas Wildfires! we-

Playing catch-up again! First May flew by and now here we are at the end of June! Oh my goodness! Well this post takes us all the way back to the first part of May. We went with some friends from ECCHO to a baseball game in Grand Prairie. The Grand Prairie Air Hogs vs. the Salt Dogs.

The kids had an absolute blast being with their friends, Seth, Aaron and Alyssa @ the game!

At one point they threw out t-shirts and Bug tried hard to catch one! I think he enjoyed the running more than the trying to catch though. LOL
Here is the mascot - he came around to visit all the fans in the stands! It was fun to meet him!
The mascot got the crowd cheering as the Airhogs finally scored a run! :) Although we really didn't care as we just enjoyed being with friends. We ate hot dogs, drank soda, popcorn and cotton candy! The kids were a mess, but they had so much fun it was totally worth it! Thank goodness for germx and baby wipes.

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 have a lot of pics posted on this one. We had a round of some weird fever/stomach virus go around our house and it threw me way off my little "schedule" I had recently worked out for myself. LOL But anyway I am going to try and catch up on my posts tonight!

We've had a busy spring already - not that life is ever slow around here! Between school, the garden, various reorganizing/rearranging projects, a garage sale, sickness and extracurricular activities it's been crazy. It doesn't look like it will slow down much either come April!

Here is one of Bug's latest creations...his name is Plank. Can you see his eyes (made from nails)? Funny. Bug loves to build and decided he wanted to make a man...so he did. ;)

Below you can see the bird nest a little brown sparrow built in one of the bike hats. What is funny is it hangs right next to the back door. I think it's some sort of house sparrow. She is small and brown with little dots on her back. I sneaked in to take a pic of her nest - I am just amazed at how birds manage to be so detailed without thumbs and fingers...I mean really! Well a week or so later I noticed she had laid eggs. So I sneaked a pic using the long lens. I promise to leave them alone now...well I am sure you will get a pic of the babies, but until then no more peaking! ;) I just can't resist I love them.

This is a funny one...can you tell what this is?

A few posts back I told ya'll about that crazy horn that Red came home with...the longhorn - well this is the inside...complete with it's own bird nest. LOL Another little sparrow thought this would make a perfect nursery to hatch her babies I guess. I had noticed her flying off when I opened the back door a few times and finally caught on to where she was coming from. We actually watched her build this over a few days, it was neat to peek in and see it come together. She has a nice little den in there now. I actually used a bungy to tie it to the top of the porch bench which is where it was sitting when she took up residence. (I mean really now what in the world was I supposed to do with this thing!!!) I was afraid that the horn might slip though and fearing the worst for the sweet little Momma I decided I had better tie it down for the season. No eggs yet...perhaps soon! :)

Here is some interesting pics from a recent math lesson. Bug and I were discussing lines of symmetry and used paint to demonstrate. The first set is the red and blue simple prints - I did the blue (Bug thought it turned out like a shell) and Bug did the red - which he thought was super cool since it looks like a heart. :) Then we used various colors to create a picture to see how it came out. We even tried writing our names to see what would happen - I think he enjoyed the "mirror" effect. It was a neat learning experience - complete with paint on the top bunk of the new beds. How brave am I? LOL

Oh I just had to share this one. Look at this awesome handwriting. Bug has really ta

ken off in his penmanship. He is being so much neater and cleaner these days, I am really proud!

These next few pics you will see are of our Tennessee geography box we received from our swap partners last week. I admit we haven't delved much into the whole geography lesson about Tennessee, but it's a great resource to use and we were very excited to get it in the mail. The boys especially liked the bubble wrap! Funny!

The box was really awesome and included some really cool stuff - a live iris (the state flower) hats, lots of brochures and literature about the state. Also Tennessee caps - the boys had to put these on right away! Our swap family also included a picture album which I thought was an awesome idea! It had so many cool pictures of places they had visited and things in Tennessee - I am going to steal this idea for our future boxes! They also included some real tree samples and seeds. And - I love this - a box of little Debbie snacks and a box of moon pies! Did you know that Moon Pies originally came from Chattanooga, TN (the town where our swap family lives). I didn't know that! And Little Debbie's are from Tennessee too!

Pictured next you will see some of Bug's latest

artwork from his ECCHO art class - they worked on animals and houses. He is becoming such a good little artist. I am so excited that he is finding something he really enjoys. He really like's Ms. Dena's drawing class. She draws up on a large white board at the front of the room and the kids draw at the table - I am impressed!

The House That Bug Drew...

Kitty Cat

Can you believe it's already mid-March? Wow! It has been a crazy busy week - more so than usual around our house! Daddy worked overtime three days this week, which was weird because he was gone more than usual. Bug had a really hard time with this - he is such a

Daddy's boy that he would literally wait at the window for him. Poor baby! We certainly kept busy though. We had choir, school, RA's, Meals on Wheels and ECCHO (home school co-op). Oh my! I am tired just thinking about all the running we did! And betwix all that we did some shopping with Daddy for a/c units for the boys bedroom and living room as well as the plants for the garden.

School went well this week - we got a lot done - I was very proud of the boys diligence and success.

For RA's Bug and I worked on a first aid kit. He is learning about what goes in a first aid kit and what each item is for. It was a pretty interesting experience. He kept shoving and I kept saying "No shoving" put it in neatly. He was not at all interested in the neatness factor, but he was very excited to be packing it by himself. He did a great job and I was really amazed at his knowledge of the various items. He even put in one of his own pocket knives. I am so excited about this RA's curriculum we are using the advancement (character studies) as well as the campcraft (what they go over during meetings). We've studied Loyalty, Friendship and courage so far, we are currently studying responsibility. Bug loves RA's and really enjoys going and learning all the camping and survivor skills with the other boys.

One of the boys "outside" projects was a fort. They built this down by the creek that runs down behind our house. It was quite a project! They got it all set up and standing between a couple of trees. It comes

complete with a back door and "gun holes". They had the best time building this.

Here you will see Bug's work from his drawing class at ECCHO. They were working on animals. Bug did a great job. He loves the class and is so excited to try out what he is learning. He loves art and really likes the idea of knowing he is learning to draw "for real". :) I believe he takes after his Granny Faye in the art dept. I certainly can't draw this well.

Here you see Bug's mouse.

And his turtle...it even had some fruit to eat!

And here is Bug's frog...I love it!

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