Great Beginnings...

We began our trip with SUCH enthusiasm!  Who's up for a five hour drive?  Oh wait...that is actually a short trip for this family!!!

 

 

 

 

That was Then, This is Now

Two years ago we decided to take a family trip up to Mall of America.  We all had a blast and vowed to do it again someday!

 

Well, that someday was the past couple of days!  This time, even John was big enough to enjoy the fun!

 

So, over the next few days I will amuse all of my loyal, devoted readers with photos and stories of our second Mall of America visit.  :)

Oh, how momma loves a good sentence diagram!!!

 

I See London, I See France...

I can only imagine how much this sweet, little girl has already changed since we went home in June.

Here are some pictures of London while we visited though.

 

 

 

 

And one picture of all four of the grandkids.  Yes, this was seriously the best we could get of four wiggle worms.  :)

Taking a Break

What do we do when we are not busy learning around here?

 

A little bit of ipad.

 

 

 

A little bit of camera fun (ALL of these pictures were taken by the girls...minus the first two).

 

 

Don't forget the picture of your feet?

 

And, well, I won't show you pictures of the messes the kids tend to make around the house.  {Sigh!}

I Mustache You a Question

Aren't these kids just hilarious?

 

 

 

 

 

I Turned My Back for ONE Minute...

When I turned back around...this is what I found.  Oh my!
 

 

 

 

1 Week Down, 33 To Go

 

We have officially finished week #1 of school!  I have to start by telling you that I was soooo nervous about teaching this year.  Seriously, the only thing keeping me from putting Libby in school was the fact that Chris works second shift.  Alas, all that worrying was for...NOTHING!!!  For me, it is actually EASIER to teach two little girls.  I think partially because I have one less child flailing for attention.

I have been SO pleased with the girls progress in just one week.  I can tell that both of them have already learned and I am expecting great things from this school year.  I have also enjoyed observing their personality differences.  Mind you, I have ALWAYS known that they were as different as night and day, but for the better part of the past year I have regrouped them as "boy vs. girls".  It has been so refreshing to see these precious girls and their differences.

Libby has always loved to sit and listen to me read while doing art.  She would do that all day if I would let her.  It got to the point last year where I was simply frustrated teaching her because my lips were numb from reading.  As for math though?  Although she is good at math, she HATES it with an ever living passion!!!  It is like pulling teeth to get her math done.  Always has been!

Then, there is Grace.  As soon as I pull out a book for either Bible or Geography she starts screaming, "I want math!  More math!  PLEASE MORE MATH!!!"  The first day of school she just walked off as I started to read.  I asked where she was going and she informed me that she didn't want to hang around for this part so she was going to play.  Ummm...no!

I am really looking forward to seeing how the year progresses and am thankful that all of the nightmares in my head were exactly that...in my head.  :)

"I'M A MONKEY AND I CLIMB IT!" ---By Grace Tucker

We've always called Grace our little monkey, because she has always been the most physically active of anyone in our family, and she has some serious motor skills!  Today, I came downstairs to find her climbing (unprompted) up and down our 9ft jackposts in our basement!  She's an amazing 5 yr. old!!!  Look out Cirque du Soleil!!!

 

Better Late than Never...Right?

In June...yes, I said in June, we went home (Bellefontaine) for a visit.  While we were there we met up with one of my best friends, Shawna, and her daughter at COSI.  This is a LOVELY thing for me!  I absolutely adored COSI as a kid and would love to live close enough for a membership.  The kids had a blast and didn't want to go home when it was time. 

 

 

 

This is her absolute FAVORITE shirt, by the way.  She wears it over almost all of her shirts...even in the hot weather!

 

 

Johnny loved playing with these building blocks!

 

 

We took the opportunity to do a worm lab.  We put some worms in water that had a sleeping pill in it, some in water that had caffeine in it and then had our water that was our control group.  The kids had fun hypothesising and testing to see what happened to all of the worms.  :)

   

And who doesn't enjoy a good ol' electrostatic van de graaff?
(Yes, I looked that word up.)