And the journey continues

We are working towards 100 days of school.  That is, on the 100th day of school, we are going to have a 100 Party.  Not quite sure what it will include just yet, but I'm going to let the kids plan it so it will be interesting and exciting, I'm positive!  To keep track of the days, we have a straw jar. The kids put one straw into the jar each day of school and then Abby writes the number on our "100 chart". I love this idea because it is a simple way to include math skills each day, especially as we group the "10's" together.   Today, we did day 35. THIRTY-FIVE, ya'll. That's only a few days past 1 month of school. Technically, we are on day 45 because we didn't do the straw thing for the first 10 days...but still...

On the one hand, I'm totally reminded that this journey is a marathon. We have a long way to go still.
But on the other hand, I'm amazed at all that we have been able to accomplish in a short amount of time.

One of the things I have really enjoyed just this week is my "coffee date" time with Abby.  Shout out to my friend Corinna for this idea!!!  I was having trouble getting Abby to enjoy trying to read.  If she doesn't think she can do it perfectly, she won't even try. So it has been a battle.  But, at Corinna's suggestion, we started reading one book while we drink hot chocolate. She reads a page. I read a page. Magic! And one-on-one time with my oldest!  I. Love. It.

In other news, Caedmon is really diggin' Batman right now. Last week it was Spiderman. He says everyday that he "hates" school...but he refuses to leave the table and insists on helping.  He is totally hands on, so he enjoys the baking type activities.  We have done a lot of that recently!

Caleb has 2 teeth now! Crazy, I know. He enjoys sitting in the highchair drooling and biting on things for...like...maybe 5 minutes at a time.

Oh, and PJ, my dear hubby, is a little lighter on his feet these days since having his appendix removed.  That set us back a week in school...but it was fun to learn all about the appendix (we have real life pictures!!) and to have the grandparents up for a week for a spontaneous (READ: help mommy stay sane) visit! 

So here are some pics from the last few weeks of school for us!


 L is for Leaf:

He loves to show me how brave he is. He was thrilled with himself to be able to climb up the outside of the swing set.

A is for Apple:

Counting, sorting, charting.

Tasting. Abby is thrilled as you can see.

 Making an apple pie. A first for me as well!

It was GOOD!  And we had a great book to go along with it!

Did you know that if you cut an apple horizontally there is a star in the middle?  We dried them and made ornaments.

N is for Nest:

I love her autobiography.

Nests to eat.

Nest of cute kids.

T is for Turtle:
This is still a work in progress...so not many pics. But these are cute sea turtle snacks, right? Not the "eggs" that were laid in the "sand" (icing and cinnamon/sugar)

Took Abby to an art exhibit and let her sketch her fav pieces.

Abby's political sign. If she is voted President, she offers a pet snail to everyone!

Making fossils using coffee grounds.

Early morning snuggles. (See how Caed is pinching Caleb's ear?  He will not stop playing with that poor baby's ears!)