This and that update

It seems like I have blocks of time that I can sit down and blog about everything ... :)

Hadden's birthday:
Monday was Hadden's 6th birthday! I can't believe my youngest is already 6!!!


Here he is on his last day of 5 - we let him open Savannah's gift to him, because neither of them could wait :) She made him a nice drawing, a long braid, and chose a prize for him for her memory verse (a set of markers).


The boy LOVES cars! Anything cars. We got him a pine car kit for Christmas last year and he enjoyed putting it together, so we got him another one for his birthday. "Can we work on my pine car now?" is heard a lot around our house. We also got him a model car that he can change the wheels on and a set of play airplanes. Do you think we should try and broaden his interests??? We do! But, what can you say? He just loves them and pays very close attention to details. It shocks me when he tells me of a particular car that he has in storage and knows the color, the wheel colors, whether or not it has a tail fin, etc.

We took him to McWane Science Center in B'ham for his birthday and met up with our friends (who also lavished gifts on him from the movie "Cars"). We had a nice time. The McWane Center offered free passes to evacuees from the Gulf Coast (for Gustav), which I thought was a very nice thing for them to do.


Sorry - this picture is just to prove that the eel is actually alive and not just a robotic creature :) Every time prior to this time, the eel has been in the exact same position - I mean exact same. Looking out of the rock, head tilted slightly to his/her right, breathing at a steady pace. We have been there quite a few times and that was all s/he would do. We started to wonder if it was actually real. This time, s/he surprised us by coming completely out of the rock, swimming for about 2 seconds and diving right back in. I didn't manage to get my camera out of my pocket in time to catch it swimming. I didn't see any cords attached, either :).

House progress:
One whole wall is formed and ready to go ... almost. We just have to cut the rebar and then tie it in on the widest side of the concrete area. We have all the parts ready to go for the second wall, but need to find a couple of hours of daylight to get them put up.


Here is my handsome hubby showing the handiwork. Looks great, honey!


Here are our little "form holders" - they are standing in the doorway, but can't get out!


In all seriousness, we actually needed their help. This part of the form doesn't have any insulation in it and therefore did not have a threaded rod to hold the form in place. John thought even though there won't be concrete in this section, we would be better off if we made sure it stayed where it should. So, we needed something or someone small enough to get down into the form to hold the pvc brace while he threaded the rod through it. (don't tell them, but we actually took the middle one out so that they would each have a job :)

In an effort to keep them interested and excited in this whole house project, we decided to give them each a board to paint. They knew that the board would not be visible after the wall is complete, but they had fun painting anyway.


Here they are with their boards put in place.


Then, they decided it would be fun to help, so we put them to work putting on the "straps" and pvc tubes.

Homeschool progress:
Some days are great - some are less great. Welcome to homeschooling :)

I don't like my decision for math for Hadden. He has a math-bent mind and I didn't want to skip the easier stuff for him because I really wanted him to be solid in the basics. Unfortunately, he is not really challenged and whizzes through it. So, I decided to just test him out of the chapters that are too easy and hitting on the highlights that I think he might need a little more attention in (math facts, for example).

Savannah doesn't like math as well, so I am trying to help her to enjoy it and to not be afraid of it. She can think mathematically fairly well, but not when it comes to putting it on paper. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

We are also doing a co-op class with a few other families on Wednesday mornings. We are studying Astronomy and it is great fun. Laura is doing a great job teaching them some difficult concepts and I am having fun learning, too! If I ever remember to take my camera, I will put up some pictures from our time together.

Have a super day!
Shirley

Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."