Cambelle's First Day of Kindergarten!

Cambelle Started Kindergarten this week! She absolutely LOVES it and we are having such a special time together. I am really happy with our curriculum choice of "My Father's World". The first 2 weeks is a creation unit. This is a picture of 2 of the pages we made from day 1 and 2 of creation. She gets to do lots of coloring, cutting, pasting and games and feels very confident that she is every bit as smart as big brother and sister were! She really wants to learn to read now that big sister Lauren can! She is determined to show me she can do it. I just want her to stay 4 yrs old!!!!! My kids are getting to be KIDS instead of toddlers and Sydney tells me all the time that she is "Not baby. Sydney BIG!" Part of me is happy to have a mobile family that I only have to buckle one in and out of a car seat (the rest can do their own)...but partly it is sad. All my babies are getting big! So far...Jace is the musician, Lauren is the artist, Cambelle is the dancer...and Sydney is the star of the show-any show, any where, any time - she wants to be in the center of it!

Apple Picking Time!

We went apple picking at Centennial Farms in Augusta, MO. The kids took a hayride out to the orchard to pick some apples. Then, they brought us back to show us how they sort and store the apples in a big walk-in cooler. Next, we learned about bees and why they are so important to apple farms and got to taste some apple butter. Then, we headed out to the field where they had a tree that had been grafted from one of the apple trees originally planted by "Johnny Appleseed" and learned about cider. Last, the kids ran around in the playground and maze to looked in at some of the animals.

Sydney - Uh Oh!!!

Sydney had a day of "uh-oh's". First she found some scissors and cut her finger. We got our medicine basket out to fix up her thumb, then we got busy playing and went back downstairs to play. She has learned to open doors now, though and she sneaked back upstairs. She got a chair from the table, dragged it to the counter and climbed up to see what she could get in to. She found ex-lax, which looks like chocolate and had about 6-10 squares of it before we found her! Most things are in childproof bottles or packaging, but not that! She was fine after about 5-6 diaper changes! Oh my! I have to keep my eyes peeled all the time with this kid!

Preying Mantis Sighting...

We went to grandma and grandpas this weekend. We ate watermelon from their garden and spotted a preying mantis lurking in the yard...Can you see him?