Summer Reading at the Library!

The girls are in full swing reading for our library's summer reading program! 

What have they been reading? 

Izzie just completed #52 Magic Tree House, Soccer on Sunday.  She's been patiently waiting for our library to receive it and was thrilled for it to be the first book she completed for the summer reading program.

We've been reading Poppy as a family read aloud.  It's a great book!  We didn't realize it's a trilogy and Poppy is the second book.  There other two are on our list to read this summer.  

Mac found a super cute series that she has fallen in love with...Mercy Watson.  We've read 5 out of the 6 books.  Unfortunately, our library doesn't have the missing one! 

New Favorite Recipes

My girls are extremely picky eaters, so this winter I've been experimenting with new recipes.  The following are super simple to make, delicious, and have my girls asking for seconds! 

 

Penne Rosa

 

Low-Carb Cheesy Garlic Rolls 

Low-Carb No-Bake Cheesecake





 

**I added mini-chocolate morals instead of a topping.**

 

School Room 2013-2014

This will be our third year homeschooling, as we started at the beginning with preschool.  At the beginning, I was determined to have an "official" schoolroom.  I spent the entire summer converting our garage into the schoolroom.  I was thrilled with it!  Each little area had it's own function.  Izzie roamed around from station to station completing her daily assignments.  I sat at my desk and watched her and when she needed help, she would come to my desk and I would help.  It modeled school, the type of school I was accustomed too.  

We continued this way until it became too cold to work in the schoolroom.  That winter we spent a lot of time at the dining room table or snuggled up on the couch.  I actually enjoyed the more intimate setting a lot better.   It was simple.  It was cozy.  It was nice having Izzie beside me.  We completely forgot about the schoolroom.  That was until the following summer.  Again, I decided I needed the schoolroom.  I liked having a designated space for all the school stuff, instead of having it scattered around the dining room and living room.  And, it didn't help seeing all the amazing schoolrooms floating around on Pinterest.  So, once again, we spent the summer reorganizing the garage, as it had become a messy storage area during the winter months. 

 The story continued...we stayed in the schoolroom until it became too cold, then we moved back to the dining room table.  Again, it was so much better.  I felt so much closer to the girls. Yes, the random clusters of school supplies scattered around, did drive me a little crazy, and this wasn't my original vision of our "dream" homeschool room...it was better!  

So, this summer....the story ended.  The schoolroom, which we now officially refer to as the garage is a mess once again and it will probably stay that way because I have no intention of cleaning and reorganizing it to become the schoolroom.  We have created our own vision of what our homeschooling schoolroom should look like...  introducing our schoolroom for 2013-2014.

 

Simple, cozy, absolute perfection for our family!

 

Be sure to hop over to the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop to see other schoolrooms! 

SNOW?!

I had big plans this week for Spring Break! Being snowed in was NOT one of them!

However, we're enjoying a lot of snuggle time and hot cocoa.

No longer living among the dinosaurs...

That's right!  We're coming out of the Jurassic Period! 

And, zooming into the 21st century! 

I finally created a Facebook page for Izzie, Mac and Me!  

If you're as excited as I am, click the Facebook button and "like" the page!

Thanks so much! 

Yard Sale Finds...

Well, it's been a slow few weeks and I haven't been out to many sales due to traveling over the weekends.  However, I was able to gobble up a couple puzzles...

Melissa and Doug Rainforest Puzzle for $1. 

Melissa and Doug Noah's Ark Puzzle for $1.  

Unfortunately, this one is missing one piece, but it's gorgeous! 

The girls love working puzzles and these are really challenging, even for me!  

HEAV Conference!

I'm back from an amazing trip to our state's HUGE homeschooling conference!  My head is exploding with so much information!  I was able to look at all the different curricula available and thoroughly enjoyed shopping at the used curriculum sale!

 My best buddy during the conference! 

I can't wait to start planning for next year!  

I'll be sharing my curricula choices soon!

Yard Sale Finds!

My latest finds...how I love this time of year!

 

 I have no will power when I see books, especially good books!   I couldn't resist...they were only 50 cents each!  If you haven't read these, they are a must! 

Caps For Sale

Wake Up, Big Barn!

Eating The Alphabet

Asleep In The Stable

Wooden puzzles...$1 each. 

This puzzle book for just $1.  There are 6 different puzzles representing different biomes. 

A crazy massive amount of Polly Pocket junk accessories for $3.  Do you see all those itsy bitsy pieces in the bucket that will soon be inside my vacuum cleaner?  However, the girls played with these all afternoon without a peep!  

Mr. Potato family for $3.  These were on my summer shopping list for Coop this fall!  I was hoping to find enough potato heads for each child in class!  I now have a total of 9...goal achieved!

These are two of my favorite games!!  I can't believe I found them for only $1 each! 

Taboo 

Mad Gab

These are so much fun!! 

Finally, some clothes for Izzie! 

 Gymboree shirts for only 25 cents each! 

 

 Adorable Gymboree dress for $1. 

 

 All 7 pieces above were 50 cents each!

 Cute 3-piece outfit for $1.  

One happy camper with my finds from the weekend!  

Total spent:  $19.75

Yard Sale Finds!

It's that time of year again...yard sale season!  I absolutely love waking up before dawn on Saturdays, grabbing a huge mug of coffee and my perfectly mapped out list of yard sales, and slipping out of the house, while everyone else is peacefully still asleep!  

Here are my finds from this weekend!

 4 Melissa and Doug puzzles for 25 cents each!  Yelp, I paid only $1 for all 4 puzzles! 

 I have never heard of this game before, but it looked really interesting,so I grabbed it up for $1.  I peeped inside the box and there were a lot of pieces, so I took my chance that nothing was missing...

 I was thrilled when I got home and discovered that ALL the pieces where there! 

 Brand new Hieroglphic stamp set for $1. This will be perfect when we study Egypt.

This box immediately caught my eye...we're going to be studying different countries next year, so ideas started to flood my head with all the different ways I could incorporate the box...I was even more tickled, when I opened it up...

A cute little teddy bear with different outfits from a variety of countries!  Perfect for $5. 

FREE puzzle!  Yelp, I arrived when they were packing up, so everything was free! 

The best find of the morning...

  My girls were thrilled with the tool bench set!  They have played with it for hours this weekend! 

  Paid only $5 for it!! 

 A very successful morning out and one (actually two) very happy little girls.

Not too shabby for only spending $13. 

Wordless Wednesday: Morning At The Park