More Teeth or Should I say Less?

What a great week!  We just got back from a week long beach trip with my family.  I will be posting about our trip thoughout the week so check back.

I just wanted to pop on here and say that we are back, safe and sound and slightly tan.

Though we were all sure that Hunter would lose his super loose front top tooth at the beach, the little sucker held tight until after we got home today.

While eating a pop tart, it fell out.  The new tooth has already started pusing though.  About 40 minutes later, Ashton and Hunter were wrestling on the bed when Ash kicked Hunter in the face which resulted in the other semi-loose tooth to fall out.  Ashton was upset at first until Hunter started dancing around the house that he was now going to get 2 presents.... Needless to say, I had to make a quick Wal Mart run for a toothfairy gift that is good enough for not one, but two teeth!

As I mentioned yesterday, my baby brother graduated from college today.

My other brother and his family arrived safely from California and were able to come to Nolan's graduation too. It has been 10 months seen I have seen Zach and his family.

Needless to say, it was a great evening. 

Chad's parents were able to keep the boys (Chad was working) so I was able to conquer the graduation child-free.

Here are some of the pics from my evening.  Anna and her boys didn't make it long so no pics of them.

The Ceremony

Nolan is about to shake hands with the guy in black with the blue thing around his neck.

Walking back to his seat (with the white "thing")

Doing one last CLEMSO----N Fight Tigers Fight Tigers Fight Fight Fight

Family shot

Mom and Dad with baby Nolan

The siblings!  Look how tall my brothers are?!?!  Keep in mind that I am almost 6 feet!

Nolan in front of the Paw. 

The Ceremony of Changing the Class Ring. 
My brothers were very persistent that I needed to take pictures of this "ceremony."

Zach taking off Nolan's ring

Zach turns the ring around

and places it back on Nolan's hand... is this just a Clemson thing or is this what you do once you graduate?

My Gift to Nolan vs Zach's gift to Nolan
My gift- 4 bags of Great Value pizza crust (.50 a bag), a pizza roller (Pampered Chef so overpriced but works great for rolling dough), and a jar of Ragu pizza sauce (notice Ragu, not the offbrand).  It was meant to be a funny gift, didnt know it was this funny though.

Opening his pizza sauce. 

Opening his pizza crust and pizza roller

A nice, expensive Keurig coffee maker with a value pack of the packet thingies....

Zach and Anna win this time. 

Question:  How on earth am I supposed to top that? 

Answer:  I can't, so pizza crust will have to do  :)

I can't wait to try this out at the beach!  Yum

 Outtakes.
Anytime we are with  my family there will be some family pictures that must of course be posted.

What you say?

hahaha, typical Mantis picture

Goofy

Zach was quite photogenic unfortunately- the only super funny picture of him I  mistakinly deleted!

 

No comment

Ridiculous fail!

 Congrats again Nolan on a great college college career!  You are truly an amazing man and as I said in the card, I am proud to call you not only a brother but a friend!

 

"Muffins for Mom"

Ashton's pre-school had a "Muffins for Mom" breakfast this morning.

The 3 and 4 year olds sang two little songs in honor the moms... again, I am going to try and upload this but here are the pictures.

Ashton waiting to sing

Singing away

with motions

In other news.
1- Shepherd can FINALLY maneuver the power wheels.  He is no Jeff Gordon as far as driving goes but at least he can keep his foot on the pedal and steer at the same time... and he LOVES it. 

Shepherd in action

2- Hunter is about to lose his first top tooth.  It is hard to see in this picture but it is VERY loose... hopefully it will come out at the beach because just looking at it is driving me crazy.  You'll notice his hair is not crazy long any more either.  With his loose tooth, shaggy hair, and the skin tag on his nose that I have clipped 3 times (it keeps coming back and yes, I am taking him to the dermatoligist to have it removed this time) and he's been looking a mess.  So, the one things I could control- the hair- had to go. And thankfully, it brought him out of "hot mess" status to "still needs some work" status... haha... brutal honesty, gotta love it!

My sweet boy with those baby blue eyes.

3- Lastly, my baby brother graduates from Clemson tomorrow...  crazy to think that Nolie is all grown up. 

It Feels Like Christmas!

***EDIT- If a post on home school curriculum is boring to you, then you may just want to skip over this one... you were warned!  :)

Obviously not talking about the weather which is 15 degrees above average... and I love it!!!
Nope, I am talking about this beauty that was sitting by my front door this afternoon.

I have been tracking her arrival numerous times over the last four days.

It is our curriculum for next year.  After a lot of prayer, we decided to go with Heart of Dakota.  (Anna, I dont think Rainbow Resources carries this... at least I did not see it on the website).

I ran into Heart of Dakota 3 years ago.  At that point, we had just moved here and I was looking for something to do with mainly Hunter where Ashton could tag along (I was pregnant with Shep).  Hunt was 4, Ash was 2.  I dont know how it happened but the preschool manual, Little Hands to Heaven, from Heart of Dakota landed in my home.  And I was and still am in love with it!  The age is 2 years to 5 years and the lessons last between 20 to 50 minutes each day.  I will be using this manual and Bible for Ashton and Shepherd this coming year.

The next manual from HOD (Heart of Dakota) is Little Hearts for His Glory.  After reviewing their placement chart, I felt confident that Hunter had  mastered those skills so I decided to place him in  Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  Here is a breakdown of the material we will be using next year.

From left to right
- Top Row- 4 History books (American Patriots and Pioneers, Stories of Pilgrims, and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days and and an adult Bible (not pictured)), The Beginner's Bible, Singapore Math 1A and 1B
- Bottom Row- Beyond Little Hands for His Glory Teacher's Manual, God's Wonderful World (Science)

These are the books that I will be reading to Hunter/ Ashton for storytime.  There were numerous options, I have narrowed it down to these... I think.  I only had to buy 2 of them as the rest I was able to get from the library. 
Top Row- Squanto (Biography), The Sword in the Tree (Adventure), Little House in the Big Woods (Historical Fiction), Who Stole the Wizard of Oz (Mystery),
Middle Row- Charlotte's Web (Fantasy), Mr. Popper's Penguins (Humor), The Apple and the Arrow (Folk Tales)
Bottom Row- If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon (Non Fiction), Mountain Born (Realistic Fiction)

If anyone has a suggestion for a good book that fits in one of these genres, please suggest.  I am hoping we will be able to do more than one for each genre. 

With this manual, you have to place your child in phonic, emegering reader, independent reader.  Hunter places nicely in emergent reader though we have already starting reviewing phonics in preperation for these books.  These are the books that are placed into the curriculum. Though it doesnt look like a lot for a whole year, they are all chapter books.  Plus, we will add easy reads throughout the week outside of the HOD curriculum.
These books are in the order of which we will read this. All but 4 of these I will be able to get from the library.
Top Row- The Beginner's Bible (first 9 units use the Bible), Owl at Home, Frog and Toad All Year, Frog and Toad are Friends
Middle Row- Wagon Wheels, Amelia Bedelia, Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express, Prairie School, First Flight
Bottom Row- Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Tornado, Animal Adventure, The Bear on Hemlock Mountain, The Courage of Sarah Noble.

Here is an example of the 2nd book that Hunter will read versus the last book... kind of makes me nervous that by this time next year he should be on the bottom book.

Thats it!  After comparing countless curiculum and narrowing it down to My Father's World and Heart of Dakota.  I just truly have a peace about HOD. An added benefit is that I was able to get all this for right under $160 which is pretty awesome for curriculum--- I will be keeping the library jumping though.

 Expect critiques and praises as we trek through!

Also, here are the links for Little Hands to Heaven and Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory on the Heart of Dakota webpage.

Happy Bday GrandmaDean

Without a doubt, I have the best grandma in the world and my boys have the best great grandma in the world!

 

You can see the benefit of prayer when you look at the way her and my GrandpaGordie have covered our family in it.  She is selfless, funny, and happy--- really everything I strive to be.  The ultimate compliment is when someone says that you act like GrandmaDean.

GrandmaDean, we just wanted you to know that we are thinking about you on your b-day and that you are sooo loved!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

me, GrandmaDean and mom--- 3 rather beautiful generations (hahaha)

Ashton's 1/2

As most know, I LOVE 1/2 birthdays.  And yesterday Ashton turned 4 1/2!  Ashton also loves any kind of birthday- 1/2 of whole. 

 To "celebrate" his 1/2 bday, we took a field trip with his pre-school. We went to Welcome Ranch to ride horses and see farm animals. Though we did the trip, the weather was awful. What was supposed to be 80 degrees was a very cold and windy and WET 65 degrees. Noone was dressed appropriately, the horses were spooked, and it was just cold. Thankfully, the boys were troopers and I think they had fun.

Riding Freddie together

Shep on Tator

Ash riding Freddie solo

Patiently waiting in line

Ashton with the fire hose.

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I made Ashton a cake last night. I will admit that I think of myself of a decent cook/ baker. However, somehow this poor boxed cake mix just did not turn out. The middle was not done and then I totally flopped it trying to hide that the middle was not cooked by covering it with icing.

I will show the good side first. I am begging for my cake baking friends/ family to not laugh too hard.  (Just a side note, if you want to see some a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e cakes, check out Angela's website- she is good- too bad she doesnt live nearby  --- Olivia, you are good too but since you went all private blog on me then I cant show off your work :)

Most know that I have this great phobia of failure and let's face it... This is Failure with a capital F! 

 hahaha, I cant believe I just actually showed this.   And before you ask... both of these pictures are before we ate any of it!  To make matters even worse, this cake was not one of those "it may be ugly but it is delicious" type cakes... no this cake was ugly and average in taste.  Oh, that word... average, it is almost as awful as failure.  Ok, back to what this post if really about- ASHTON and 4 1/2!!!

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To make up for the bad weather and the even worse cake, I took Ash and Shep to Chuck E Cheese for an hour of play today.  Ashton LOVES the rat and would stay all day if you just kept handing him tokens. 

Then to the mall for a quick lunch and then to his new favorite store... The Apple store to play with ipads and ipods. (He asks every single day when he turns 5 so that he can get his ipod touch.)

How is that a 2 year old can manipulate this thing better than me

 

Ashton is sooo excited to get his ipod touch in October- is it ridiculous to get 5 year old a $200 ipod?

He then picked a Mexican place for dinner where he got his ritualistic cheese dip and chips.   We finished up the evening by redboxing a Captain America movie (rated PG-13--- just a side note, is it inappropriate to let small kids watch a PG-13 movie?!?!  I struggled with it for a bit but finally gave in.  Thankfully, in this movie, the language was not bad at all.  I guess it was PG-13 for the fighting scenes which, in my opinion, were not all the bad either--- anyway, just curious where other parents fall on this one?)

So, as we normally do--- the birthday celebrations went over 1 day.  But Ashton and I would not have it any other way.

And this is Ashton in true form!  I do want to pinch him

Ashton, kiddo, you are a mess!  You are mean and then so kind.  stengy and then selfless.  Emotional and then collected.  Wild and then subdued.  Hands off and then cover me with kisses.  And I wouldn't change one thing about you.
You are my helper and my talker.  You will talk my ears off when we are in the car, or in the house, or outside.
You weigh right at 35 lbs, so still my skinny boy. 
You make me laugh with the things you say.  For example, you named your purple lizard, Jesus.  You adore Hunter and fight with Shepherd.
You used to be a huge daddy's boy, but I think daddy and me are about tied now... which makes me happy! :) 
I love you SmAsh!