Yuppy Girl hauls in a Lunker!

I am not much of a fishing person. I am what Phil Robertson would call a "Yuppy Girl." Not that I mind fishing, camping, or hiking...its just that I have only been camping and fishing like 2 times in my life so I end up feeling a little out of my element in the outdoors. Not to mention that bugs have a major attraction to my skin. So when Josh asked if I wanted to go fishing at his grandpas with the boys I thought, "That would be a great thing for you and the boys to do!" He encouraged me to go saying that I should and would regret it if I didn't with the boys. So, I decided to go. And so here is our fishing trip in pictures....

As you can see, even a "yuppy girl" can end up catching a big one! We had a great time and I'm so glad that I went. Lots of memories as you can see and the boys had a blast. Glad I didn't miss it! =)

Funny Ryan Story

Ok, Ryan has grown up listening to a large variety of music... classical, 80s, old country music, christian rap, christian praise and worship..and the list goes on and on. Josh and I have pretty different tastes in music so I guess that's why. There is one song that Ryan loves called "Louisiana Saturday Night." It's an OLD country song that goes like this:

                  "Well you get down the fiddle, and you get down the bow
                    Take off your shoes and you throw 'em on the floor
                    Dance in the kitchen till the mornin' light
                           Louisiana Saturday night!"

It's a funny song. Well, he's been singing it lately but only one part of the song OVER and OVER. It seems to have gotten stuck in his head. I wouldn't have thought a thing about it except that particular part of the song is this:

"When the kin folk leave and the kids get fed, me and my woman gonna slip off to bed"...and then it goes on to say "Have a little fun when we turn out the lights... Louisiana Saturday Night!"

 Ryan kept singing over and over again "Me and my woman gonna slip off to bed" and then laughing.  I ignored it for a while, but after several days of hearing it I began to wonder why that part of the song seemed to be so interesting to him! The kid is 4 but catches things super quick and is pretty perceptive for his age. Could he possibly understand what the song was talking about?? The more I thought about it, the more I wondered and the more I wondered the more concerned I got! lol - So I finally stopped ignoring it and asked him!

Me - Ryan, why do you keep singing that part of the song over and over again?
R - Cause it's funny mom. They slip off the bed. They fall off.  (laughing) It's funny.
Me - (laughing) You're right Ryan. That is funny.

 It just shows you that they, even though perceptive, are thinking completely different things than we think they are.  lol

Preschool Plants!

Plants! We did plant activities for two weeks and still didn't finish all of it! It was so much fun. It wore me completely out though, because we haven't picked back up since! lol =) This week I am planning to do some patriotic stuff with them for the 4th.  Here are a few pictures from our plant unit!

Little artist!

In this picture, we were pretending to be a seed growing into a plant. It was really funny!

Regular phonics work

Scott decided to join him for some cutting practice. (a beautiful moment!)

Tracing practice!

Plant sort!

Seed groups and skip counting by 5s.

We planted bean seeds and they finally came up around 5 days later.

It was exciting to watch them grow!

Play doh patterns

Cereal box puzzle for print awareness

Took him a few minutes!

Addition number sentences with my help.

Loved this book! Definitely want to get it again in the Fall.  It shows the whole cycle of the seed to the pumpkin and then back again. 

This was another really good one like the one above.

This book had beautiful illustrations and showed how the seeds from one flower can make dozens.

And of course this one had to be read!

This one was a really heart warming story about a tree and how it became part of a family.

All the books came from the OF library and they were all really good to base most of our plant learning off of. All the other activities were from confessionsofahomeschooler.com and 1plus1plus1equals1.net. It was so much fun, my fav. theme yet! Thankful for these precious memories!

Grandfather Mountain!

Saturday we got the opportunity to go to Grandfather Mountain! I haven't been since I was a young child and Josh had never been so it was a treat and a blessing to us. It was great family time and an awesome experience for Ryan and Scott as well!

             Ryan kept asking if there was a "Grandmother Mountain". I'm sure there is somewhere??

The kids learned about what a habitat is.

They also learned about how animals in habitats all need water, food, and shelter.

After the lesson they got to play a game where half the group pretended to be deer, and the other half pretended to be food, water, or shelter. It was sort of like a tag game to show how animals are dependent on natural resources.

We saw three bears. (It was nice to see them behind a fence instead of our back yard)!

Josh showing off his "Otter" personality. =)

Watching the Otters swim and play!

Mildred the grandfather Mtn. mascot 

Holding Mildred's paws

On the bridge! It was so windy!

It was a little scary, but really cool!

Funny pose with Mere!

Family pic after we crossed the bridge.

Josh and Ryan went out to the farthest point together.

Scott didn't like the wind.

Awesome weather the whole day.

"Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted; 

his majesty is above earth and heaven."

Psalm 148:13

Back across

Amazing!

1 Mile above sea level at this point.

Ready to hit the road.

Rock candy in hand!

Showing some tired eyes here. Ryan got up at 5:45 a.m.

And some cousin fun in Boone to top the day off.

We were pretty loud! =)

What a fun day and what a gift! Praise the Lord for all he has created and the beauty we get to enjoy in his creation daily.