Tour de Texas: South Houston

A Tale of Two Friends (x2):

When we moved to Florida, Aubree was three months old.  Our first friends in our new ward, Matt and Sarah, also had a little girl, Rachel.  Rachel is one month older than Aubree.  Despite being babies, Aubree and Rachel became friends.  It seems ludicrous to think of now, but I have memories (and picture-proof!) of them playing and talking together.  

Unfortunately, our friends moved across the country shortly after Aubree's first birthday.  Since then, Aubree and Rachel have seen each other twice - once when they were 20 months old and once when they were 3.  Both times they immediately reconnected.  Now that they're five, I was curious to see how their reunion would play out.  Would they be more reserved?  Would they still get along?

After our long day of travel, we walked into Sarah's home around 7 pm.  Before we'd traversed the 6 feet from the front door to the staircase, Aubree and Rachel were holding hands, chatting, and giggling.  They spent the following week attached at the hip: staying up way too late talking, sharing stories from their favorite books, playing games, making new memories.  Those two girls are eerily similar, yet different enough to keep things interesting.  They encourage and inspire each other to be better.  Long lost friends.  Kindred spirits. 

 Ditto (ditto, DITTO!) for their mommas.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Sarah and Matt.  They opened their home to us, and despite the fact that we doubled the number of kids and tripled the noise-level, they were nothing but gracious.  

A few of our days we opted to stay at home and enjoy each other's company.  Since our kids all had built in playmates, it made for easy entertaining.  Aubree and Rachel were never short on ideas of new things to do or talk about (even at 10 pm when they were supposed to be sleeping).  Bryce and Mikey (also 3 years old) occasionally played together, but took a little bit longer to warm up to each other.  Bryce was thrilled with the assortment of new toys and quickly attached himself to a large fire-truck.  Thane took advantage of the fact that since their baby, Nate (the easiest baby ever!), is still too young to crawl, their house is not yet baby-proof.  Thane's favorite destination was the "technology corner."  Those Wii remotes and keyboards were irresistible!

Other days we packed up to see some of Houston's attractions.  One of our favorite stops was the Houston Children's Museum.  I've been to quite a few Children's Museums, but this was - hands-down - the very best. 

One morning we took a short drive to Galveston and spent the morning at the beach.  I didn't take my camera (kicking myself...), but it was wonderful!  I hadn't realized just how much I miss going to the beach.  Apparently, it's been too long since we've visited because we started back at square-one with Bryce.  He didn't want to have anything to do with going in the water.  By the end of our morning, he was happily sitting and playing in the water, but never ventured far from my side (that's typical, if we'd gone back the next day he would've been playing with no concerns).  

Thane, on the other hand, thought the beach was the best thing ever.  He was furious that I wouldn't let him play totally independently and couldn't seem to understand why he couldn't go in the deeper water with the big girls (who were little fish in the warm water).  I spent a good portion of the morning wiping sand and rocks out of Thane's mouth.  Yum.

On Saturday, some of our other Florida friends, the Millers (who recently moved to Texas, too), drove down for a mini-reunion.  When we added their 5 kids to the mix, it was nothing short of (semi-controlled) chaos.  Megan, the oldest (10) did a great job of directing the play of the younger kids.  They discovered a play cleaning set and spent a tremendous amount of time vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, and "cleaning" the house. I think I'd like to hire Megan to direct play at my house too!

We had hours of fun playing and reminiscing, topped off by a scrumptious barbecue grill-out (must use correct southern terminology...).

The time to say good-bye came WAY too soon. I'm already trying to plot and figure out when we can see them again.

Tour de Texas: Getting There

When I heard the news that my youngest Graff cousin, Eric, was getting married it seemed like the perfect excuse opportunity to take a trip to Texas.  In addition to visiting Family (Eric and his family had a house on the same ranch as my family growing up, so they're more like extended siblings than cousins), I couldn't resist the siren call of some of my most favorite people who also reside in Texas.  Besides, I rationalized, if I'm going to spend the money to buy plane tickets and go through the hassle of traveling, you better believe I'm going to stay for more than a weekend!

Unfortunately, Mark couldn't take two full weeks off of work (somebody's got to pay for all our gallivanting!), so that meant I had to take the kids on the plane alone.  In anticipation, I employed my best coping strategy - denial.  I didn't think about it more than absolutely necessary until we got to the airport and by that time there was nothing to do but plow through.  Bryce, however, thought about it enough for all of us.  He was thrilled with the prospect of flying on an airplane again and spoke of little else the entire preceding weekend.

By the end of a full day of travel, we were exhausted and slightly frazzled (okay, so maybe that was just me), but we survived and arrived in Houston (our inaugural stop) intact.  There were 3 different 10 minute periods where I seriously questioned my sanity in thinking I could take on such a venture, but that's not too bad considering how long we were out.  The first period occurred on our first flight (we had a layover in Albuquerque).  All three kids chose the same moment to meltdown.  I thought, "Albuquerque is a nice place.  I have a friend in Albuquerque.  I'm getting off the plane in Albuquerque and staying!"

I stuffed my backpack and Aubree's backpack with things I thought the kids would find fun and entertaining en route.  In the end, they didn't touch 80% of it.  Snacks saved the day.  Of course, none of the kids slept at all, which meant that when we  reached the most difficult part of the trip (getting our luggage and our rental car), Bryce was hitting his I'm-too-tired-to-obey-or-be-kind point and Thane was a pick-me-up-no-put-me-down-NO-pick-me-up mess.  

I somehow managed to load 3 suitcases and 3 car seats on a luggage cart while simultaneously pushing Thane in a stroller, and made our way to the rental car line.  When I finally got to speak with an agent, Thane was screaming in the stroller, Bryce was pulling on my arm begging to use the bathroom, and Aubree was keeping watch over our huge pile-o-stuff trying to keep the top-perched car seat from tumbling down (again).  As the agent talked and talked and gave sales pitch after sales pitch, I had to resist the seemingly overwhelming urge to throttle her.

Once past that hurdle, we made our way (slowly) to the rental car shuttle.  The driver dropped us and our gear off in front of the office.  "Where," I asked, afraid of the answer, "can we find our car?"  

"Over there," he answered, pointing to a row of cars along a far-away fence line.  I know Houston is hot and humid, but I just about melted into a puddle at that point.  Thankfully he took pity on my plight and had someone drive the car over to me. 

In the end, it was ALL worth it.  We had such an amazing time visiting friends and family in Texas.  Some women go to special retreats and conferences* to find inspiration and "get recharged."  I go visit my friends and family. 

*note - I have nothing against those types of conferences and retreats, I think they're great.

Summer School Plans

I really meant to get this post written a couple weeks ago, but apparently blogging was a lower priority than packing and preparing for our big Texas vacation (from which we just returned ... it's next in the blogging line-up).

So, in a nut-shell, we will be doing "summer school."  Why? 

Why not?  Around here, school is generally fun.  When my kids have a routine and we have school things planned, they seem to get along better and never complain about being bored.  Why change what works?  Also, by schooling year round, we can take breaks whenever we want throughout the year without worrying about getting "behind."

School will, however, have a slightly different flavor.  Summer here in Washington is the time to get outside and stay outside; it's breathtakingly beautiful.  I plan to get out as often as possible.  We've got some fun hikes and a trip to Yellowstone planned.  We've begun Nature Journals where Aubree and Bryce can draw pictures and write about what they encounter on their outdoor escapades.  If we still lived in Florida, I might make summer our "serious school" time (since it's miserable outside) and go lighter in the winter months. 

For our indoor school, we're going to "visit" different countries.  During our Five in a Row studies, we "visited" China, Japan, Ireland, Canada, France, and England.  Learning about the different countries was one of our favorite activities, so we're extending the idea into summer.  We'll be heavy on the literature (lots of picture books as well as non-fiction information books), and do some drawing, crafts, and/or cooking.  We'll also make a lapbook for each place we visit. Since it's summer, I plan to take a slower pace, so we will take two or three weeks on each country.

We'll be learning about:

*Australia (almost done)

*Mexico

*USA (with an emphasis on Montana, since we'll be visiting Yellowstone)

*Russia

*Africa (yes, I realize this is a continent.  We'll be focusing on Africa most of August - just in time for my brother, Ian, to leave on his LDS mission to Accra, Ghana).

Aubree and I will be doing a little bit of math, mostly time and money concepts.

And, of course, no Winters Family school would be complete without reading.  Lots and lots of reading.  I've got some fun read-alouds lined up.

Let the summer fun begin continue!

**Did I mention that Washington is BEAUTIFUL right now??  Who wants to come visit?

One!

Thane had a birthday, shout Hurray!  The first birthday is such a joyous occasion.  The first year is great, but it's also hard for me.  Once my kids turn one I feel like we've usually hit our stride - we understand each other and have some semblance of routine.  I love it when they start to communicate and when their personalities start to shine through.  This is an amazing and fun stage - learning something new everyday. 

The other morning Thane woke up and immediately started jabbering.  That's not uncommon, but this particular morning he had suddenly developed the "ssss" and "ffff" sounds and delighted in showing off his new skill.  Later that day the "ssss" sound progressed to "ssshhh" and became his first official word (besides "Mom" and "Dad") to designate "shoe." Love it! 

First birthdays, though highly anticipated and welcomed, are usually a low-key event in our household.  We paid extra attention to Thane and sang to him all day long, but I don't think he cared one way or the other.  We had SCOOP in the afternoon and I felt guilty because that meant he missed his nap.  

Luckily, a it was a GORGEOUS day (the first 70+ degree day this year) and a friend suggested an impromptu dinner picnic at the park.  It was the perfect ending to Thane's special day.  I packed up some birthday cupcakes and we shared them with friends (I wanted to make Thane a birthday cake, but couldn't decide on a theme.  "What does Thane really like?" I asked myself.  Socks.  Shoes.  Cups.  None of those seemed like good cake choices, so I went the easy route). At the park, Thane got to swing, eat rocks and sticks, and steal toys and assorted goodies from the other babies.  What could be better? 

Aubree and Bryce did all they could to make sure Thane had a good day.  Aubree instructed Bryce that he wasn't allowed to hurt Thane all day.  They both told everyone they saw that it was Thane's birthday.  If he cried, they immediately rushed to his side insisting that he couldn't be sad on his birthday.  Super cute.

And speaking of cute, we got Thane's first birthday pictures taken.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Kinder-pletion

Aubree "finished" kindergarten last week.  To say she was thrilled would be a tremendous understatement.  "Mom!!" she enthused, "You should make a shirt for me that says 'First Grader!'"

"Uh," I halted, "how about we make a sign?"

"Great!" she announced, "then you can take a picture and put it on your BLOG!" And she scooted off to grab paper and markers.  (The "5" is to indicate that she's 5 years old and is in first grade.  She thinks that's pretty neat.)

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Now is the time for some accountability; a chance to reflect back on the year and consider what worked and what didn't.  

Our primary curriculum was Five in a Row and it was perfect.  Just the right blend of structure and flexibility.  Both Aubree and I enjoyed doing the weekly lapbooks and now have a great record of all the books and topics we studied this past year.  

For math, I signed Aubree up for Dreambox Learning, a game-based internet program.  She usually played 3 times a week for 30 minutes a time.  With all the changes of the last 8 months, it was nice to have something she could do independently.  I think she learned a ton as well.  We quit doing Dreambox at the end of March because she'd finished the kindergarten and 1st grade levels and was getting bored of playing.  

For Handwriting we used the Handwriting without Tears kindergarten workbook.  Very simple and effective.  I've noticed significant improvements in her handwriting over the last year.  When we finished HWT, I found a Starfall journal that a friend gave Aubree.  The journal has fun and engaging writing prompts.  Aubree loved it.  She finished this book as well (anyone know where to find similar books?).

We did a lot of reading.  Aubree's a voracious reader, but we also found many great read-alouds (sometimes me, sometimes Mark, we even roped in Grandpa Winters when he came to visit).  Here were some of our favorites:

*My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

*The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum)- then watched the movie

*Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Dahl) - then watched the movie

*The Ordinary Princess ( Kaye)

* Because of Winn-Dixie (deCamillo) - then watched the movie

*Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

*James and the Giant Peach (Dahl) 

*Tale of Desperaux (deCamillo) 

*Ramona and Beezus - then watched the movie. (This read-aloud was pure torture for Aubree.  She couldn't stand to wait for me to read.  She begged and begged, "please, please can I read it on my own?" We finally came to an agreement: If she would be patient and wait for me to read it to her, she could read the rest of the series on her own.  She loved the Ramona books.)

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So, those are the things that worked well.  What didn't pan out?  

Weekly cooking classes? - never even got started.
Drawing lessons? - another good idea that never made it past the idea stage. 

Starting each morning with circle time/devotional? - I still think it's a great idea, we just haven't gotten that organized yet.  

Involving Bryce? - Not as much as I would have liked.  Usually Aubree and I did school in the afternoons when both boys were napping.  Bryce is three now...it's time to include him more.  

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This post is getting long (and tomorrow is Thane's 1st birthday [!!!!!!!!] and I still have things I need to do to get ready), so I'll hold off writing about our plans for the summer and beyond until later this weekend.
In summary, though, it's been a great year.  I think homeschooling is wonderful.

Onward and Upward

Guess what Thane can do?

I LOVE it when my kids learn to walk.  Thane was on track to be my earliest crawler and my latest walker, but he edged out Bryce by about 2 weeks.  Thane's been working diligently on his walking skills for a long time.  He is an extremely self-motivated and persistent kid.  About a week ago something clicked for him and since then he's been improving rapidly.  He prefers walking, but can only get 7 or 8 steps before falling. 

You know what he learned to do before he learned to walk?

Yep, climb.  The little monkey climbs up everything these days.  He keeps a careful eye on Aubree and Bryce to get new ideas of things to scale.  He has no fear (except for the hair clippers - those terrify him).

He'll be one in a week.  One!  Hurrah for Thane.

Domesticity

            Alternate Title: "I'm Trying to be Like Holly"

Lately I've been wanting/trying to make more of our food from "scratch."  I don't consider myself particularly gifted in the kitchen, but I think there are a lot of things I could make more affordably and healthier. 

One week I went to buy bread at the grocery store and couldn't find an acceptable loaf that cost less than $3.  That must be my threshold because since that day I've been making our own bread.  For Mother's Day I got a gift that can help with bread making and other "from scratch" endeavors:

 I really don't know what I'm doing yet, but the prospects are thrilling.  

I've tried a few other homemade experiments with varying results: wheat crackers were passable, graham crackers were a flop, granola bars were scrumptious.  I aspire to learn homemade yogurt.  The other day I thought, "Since Mark loves to have chocolate milk, I wonder if I can find a recipe for chocolate syrup?"  Sweet success!

So here's my question: What (relatively simple) things do you make from scratch?  Will you share the recipe and or/link?  In addition to helping me in my personal quest, you'll also be helping me plan an upcoming Relief Society Midweek activity on making foods from scratch.  I've got a list of ideas started, but would greatly appreciate any suggestions, especially if they're "tried and true."  Thanks in advance!