Thursday, August 10, 2006

Geocaching

We went geocaching with Chrysinda and her kids on Tuesday. I just realized I hadn't posted about it yet! We decided to only search for one of the two since it was so hot.

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Chrys' kids are the one in the front and the one in the hat. The other three are mine. They were all so pooped!

If anyone is ever interested in doing this, I have a helpful hint for beginners.....you can "cheat" by entering the way points (coordinates) into Google Earth (download for free here: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html) and you can see within 10-20 feet where the cache is hidden in relation to land marks, buildings, etc.! We didn't do that today, so it took us about 15 or 20 minutes to find this little metal tin, and we were practically sitting on it! LOL! Just when everyone was about to give up, Chrsyinda found it! Then we *barely* made it back to the van, and we went for pizza. It was a fun day! :)

Friday, August 4, 2006

A Day in the Life of Unschoolers!

7:21 - Jacob wakes up
7:43 - He pours his own water from a gallon jug into a 44 ounce cup, and didn't spill any! Well, it splashed a little.
7:44 - The water incident finally persuaded a tired Mommy to get up
8:00 - outside to play

8:36 - inside for something to eat....oranges!


8:55 - didn't want any more orange but still acts hungry
8:59 - I just turned around and noticed Jonathan on my bed.....he's awake....sort of!

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9:00 - time for Mom's show: Little House on the Prairie :)
9:15 - Jacob is going for a 3rd attempt to wake up Sissy....didn't work
9:18 - Jacob is begging me to go "bye-bye", but we don't have the van today
9:36 - Jayla finally wakes up and wants to eat the rest of Mommy's cantaloupe
9:39 - I gave Jacob his pacifier (don't tell Daddy!) because I can't listen to him fuss anymore. He doesn't want anything I offer, so I can't figure out what he wants! The pacifier satisfies him, and he goes off to play. I guess that's all he wanted since he hasn't been without it for very long (about a week).
10:10 - the kids have been in and out of their bedroom all morning, but now they are in there with the door shut straightening up (a.k.a. playing hard and making a bigger mess)
10:14 - I'm about done with the rest of the cantaloupe that Jayla couldn't finish, so I am about to go into their room and help them clean.....and play! :)








10:42 - they're eating a whole bag of black grapes between the 3 of them while listening to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack (again!)
11:05 - they're about done with the grapes, but Jonathan just came and told me that Jayla threw some up in the air and it was "raining" grapes! Oh, boy.
11:16 - they have all the grapes cleaned up and are playing and dancing to the keyboard music. I'm going to let them do this as long as they can stand it, and then it's nap/quiet time!
11:20 - I just saw our dog walking across the front yard! Jonathan is going to get her back in the fence again.
11:21 - Jayla just informed me that we have an emergency. "There is a yellow jacket in our bedroom!" It's just a dirt dauber.
11:43 - I just got chewed out (it felt that way anyway) by another home school mom who is very much for workbooks. She doesn't like the quote in my signature line in my emails, and she was very offended by it. Sorry, but I'm not deleting/changing it any time soon! (I am pretty sure this person will not read my blog, but if so, oh well. I didn't mention her name.)
11:53 - We're catching the end of Mustard Pancakes. It's almost nap time!
12:12 - Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is a fun show, but he is so mellow.....I think we'll go to sleep while he's on.
4:10 - Jonathan tries to look like Spiderman by climbing his feet up the wall. I think he got the idea off the Tyson commercial. LOL!


6:34 - The kids have just been playing all afternoon. They are now outside waiting for Daddy to get home.
7:05 - I just went to the store, so now the kids are chowing down on some bread.....a rare treat for them (they eat mostly fruit)
7:35 - Jacob got himself out of the bathtub and ran to us wet and naked. LOL!
8:40 - All of the kids have had baths and have been playing, wrestling with Daddy, etc. Now they are all pretending to be snapping turtles using laundry baskets and plastic tubs. They're definitely getting sleepy!

Jayla was under the basket that Jacob was sitting on!



9:00 - I'm sending the kids to bed to read. It will probably be at least an hour before they are all three asleep.
9:13 - I told Jacob (21 months old) to say "yes sir" to Daddy, and he saluted him! ROFLMBO!
9:15 - We're still working on getting the kids to bed. They have a few things to pick up off the floor before they get to read.
9:24 - Jonathan is getting training on foot massages....I think Daddy is getting the better end of the deal here.


This is only a fraction of what the kids did today. They also read books, got into a couple of spats, played computer games and more. The computer games are always fun. They played Arthur's Sand Castle game where you have to go through a maze to get a bucket of water and catch sand in a bucket and fill it up several times. Then you have to choose the correct bricks you need to build the castle you have chosen and make each brick using one bucket of sand and one bucket of water. Then you build the castle. It's really a cute game, and Jonathan is very good at it. He gets his wagon overflowing with bricks before he builds. I think he just really likes to make bricks! LOL! Jayla does okay with it, but she still needs a little help. Jonathan is more than happy to help her. Another game they love is Treasures of the Nile. It is from VBS a couple of years ago. There is a large variety of activities/games to do, and they love it all.

So we didn't really do anything *special* today, but we did enjoy each other and had a great day. This was somewhat of a typical day, but we usually do a bit more. I was tied up on the computer most of the day with financial stuff. We're about to get cable internet, so hopefully I'll be able to post like this more often! :) I got a few pictures of Jayla that I just didn't put on here. She has this goofy, fake smile now, so I'll just have to take more of her to get some better pictures or just post her with her fake smile. LOL!