Football? Already?

Over the weekend, we went out of town to visit my DH's brother and family. The kids were so excited. They always enjoy spending time with their cousins and everyone gets along great!

While visiting. we all attended the Spring football game for NC State so DH could scope out next year's recruits. Football really is never ending in this household LOL.....


Here are pics from the weekend.....

Drama Queen and her protegee

Future Recruits

We're the Red and White from State.......

Did you hear the stats on that new linebacker??????

So Proud!!!!!

Looking Good! But will they beat the TarHeels????

Wolfie and Head Coach Tom O'Brien

Time to Eat!

It really was a great weekend and the weather was perfect for football. It was so nice to see my two roomies from college and catch up. Thanks to my inlaws for putting us up and feeding us this weekend. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

He is risen........

Well, we are quickly approaching the end of our Easter celebration. This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday, and marks the end of the Easter Octave. I feel like I have acheived the goals that I set for our family at the beginning of Lent. Instead of giving up something, I resolved that our family should learn something new about our faith. I began with teaching the rosary to the children and we began to pray a decade at morning prayers. With the help of Holy Heroes, a website I found that sends out e-mails with links of their children teaching some aspect of Lent to your children, we achieved our goals and so much more. My children love these videos of kids their own age teaching them things about their faith, and we have all (including me) learned so much from these "adventures". The were so excited each day to see what the next adventure would be! This week we are concluding our Easter celebration (with the Holy Heroes help) and we have been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet and singing the Regina Caeli (even Wolfie is singing). One of my proudest moments was when Wolfie was complimented by the Bishop on how well he prayed the rosary when he attended Catholic Camporee with the Boy Scouts. What an honor! DH and I were so proud :)

Here are some photos of our Easter Celebration.........

Hearts and Trees: Let's Get Drawing....

Hearts and Trees: Let's Get Drawing....

I found this entry on another blog today and thought the author had great techniques for teaching drawing to kids so I decided to try the little linky thingy and it worked! There is even some instruction for creating a Van Gogh project that will fit perfectly for us as he is the artist study for this term at Ambleside Online. Check it out if you have a moment......

Nature Study

I have begun a transition in my method of teaching from a classical approach to more of a Charlotte Mason method of teaching. Although the classical method is very thorough, I didn't feel like the children were being challenged with any good literature choices. Charlotte Mason places her emphasis on learning from "Great Books"(classic works of literature) and Nature Study. I am especially keen on the narration factor of her curriculum where the student has to "narrate" the reading selection back to the teacher. I think this will prove beneficial for my Princess who is so challenged in her auditory abilities. I found a great website called Mater Ambilis which has a catholic curriculum all laid out for you and it's FREE! I'm very excited about it and have been hard at work planning, with glowering looks from DH because I have been infringing on his computer time :) Here are some photos of our recent nature study,

It was a very cold April morning. BRRR!

Gotta Love the Camo PJ's :)

Drama Queen making "bird notes" in her Natural Journal

Drama Queen's 5th Birthday went very well. We were very lucky that the weather turned out beautiful though it was a little windy. All in all the kids had a great time as you can see here

Even the big boys had fun!

A cake fit for a queen ;-)

Yummy!

Presents!

Drama Queen and Aunt Sara

Some just got plum tuckered out!

What's a party without a little Drama!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Henry and his Wifes

DH and I watched the movie "The Other Boleyn Girl" last night. It was about the romance between Henry the I or II(?) and Anne Boleyn. We are beginning to study Britain's history and the dark ages so I thought that this looked interesting. Their romance really did change the face of history because Henry excommunicated himself (and England) from the Catholic Church in order to marry Anne. Henry was married to Catherine, who was a devout Catholic from Spain, and was beloved among her people. However, she could not produce a son and Henry cannot get over this. He puts her on trial and ends up shipping her off to a convent and annuls the marriage in order to marry Anne. This is when the Church of England is founded. However, in the end he ends up going mad over the whole ordeal and beheads Anne. It was very interesting to see the interactions between the characters and how all that mattered was the advancement in stature of the Boleyn family. In the end the quote, "you reap what you sow", came to mind. It's a good movie with beautful scenery and gorgeous costumes but definitely NOT for children.

Well, I showed DH my blog when he got home tonight. He like it alot but didn't like being called the Big Bad Wolf so I changed it back to just DH. He thought it made him sound like a"meanie". I thought I was being creative (sigh). You know his whole obsession with the wolfpack and all......I meant it as the Big "Bad" (as in Michael Jackson "Bad" which is really tough, kwim?) Wolf. My son is looking at me like I'm crazy as I write this...he doesn't mind being called Wolfie though :)

Always on my Mind

Whew! I have been messing with this blog on and off for the past two days. I think I am becoming like the Big Bad Wolf with his facebook. I have added some graphics....Too cutesy? I'm going to leave it for now and look at it again later:)

We are having a little get together with the neighborhood children today for Drama Queen's B-day. It is actually on the 7th but her cousins are going to the beach so we are celebrating a little earlier. I will post pictures later. It's supposed to be windy here today, so I hope we don't get blown away!

My Side of the Mountain

DS had a project due for Grace Academy that I would like to share. His class has been reading "My Side of the Mountain" and he has really enjoyed it. It's a story about a boy who runs away from home and lives in the wild of the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York. He has to be very resourceful and find ways to provide for himself. I think DS finds this fascinating because of his involvement with boy scouts. He had to create a Diorama of one scene from the book. He chose the part where a hunter had killed a deer but was unable to locate his kill. The main character discovers the carcass and uses the hide to make a door to his treehouse. Only a boy would choose the scene involving the blood and gore ;-)!