Louisiana part 1- Mom's Yard and Cousins

The view from my Mom's yard. Beautiful lush green!

The kids loved playing in the huge yard. The wheelbarrow rides didn't last long though.

Yes, these kids are using shovels to fill up the wheelbarrow with water from the ditch. Why? I don't know.

Alex and Sabrina enjoyed having cousins to play with. In fact, Sabrina says she is going to move to Louisiana when she is 18 and have adventures with Grace.

My kids really loved their cousins' trampoline!

My parents pulled out the fire pit so the kids could roast marshmallows, which was a lot of fun.

We had a wonderful trip. It was such fun to watch the kids play with their cousins and interact with aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Marie-Anne

6 months behind...

I am six months behind in updating the blog. I am not even going to try to catch up, but here are a few highlights:

 

Several times we were able to let the kids climb a portable rock wall. We, parents, were also able to climb it once. While Alex likes it, Sabrina absolutely loves this and can hardly wait until she is 8 so she can climb the one at a local rec center.

The kids got to join some friends, Tessa and Sheldon, for a one day pony camp. They got to do farm chores, learn about animals, crafts, and pony rides.

Our very good friends; Angie, Mike, Cody, Sheldon, and Tessa moved out of state. We tried to do some fun things with them before they left. We were so sad to see them go and miss them very much.


We joined a homeschool group that meets weekly for park days or pool days. They also sometimes meet for other events.  Of course we did lots of other things too trips to museums, a factory tour with friends, park days, hiking, games....

Marie-Anne

Conference Jan 2016

My Mom was kind enough to fly out to watch the kids so Frank and I could go to Conference. Thank you!

Every morning and every night we had church services at the tent. The services were very timely and dealt with topics that were needed and encouraging to those of us in ministry.

Another nice thing about the Conference is the free time Frank and I have to spend together. We went hiking in the woods at Lynx Lake. It was a lot of fun hiking and playing in the snow.

We brought a few board games to play at the hotel.

On another day we went hiking at around Lynx Lake itself.

We also walked the path around the courthouse one day.

Of course, for me, no trip to Prescott is complete without a hike at Watson Lake.

We had a great time and learned a lot too.

Marie-Anne

Playing Catch-up - again

Wow, I am so far behind on the blog it is ridiculous. We are all doing good. I will play catch-up a little at a time.

games

On the morning before we left for conference, we played Gobblet Gobblers with the kids. It was fun.

Then we posed with our silly boy and messy haired girl before driving away.

Marie-Anne

Missonary from Bolivia

We were blessed to have a missionary family from Bolivia come to preach for us before the conference. The Dinn Family were sent to Bolivia from our mother church. It was great to see them again. We had them over for lunch after the service. We really enjoyed visiting with them.

Marie-Anne

Board Games with Nana

We had the privilege of introducing Mom to several new, to her, board games. I challenged her to one of my favorites; Battle Sheep.

Sabrina enjoyed introducing Nana to Rory's Story Cubes. The stories we come up with have been super silly.

We modified Monopoly Jr. to make it a five player game.

Frank and I introduced Mom to Ticket To Ride, which is another one of my favorites.

Sabrina had fun playing Niya with my Mom. I also bought Mom her own copy of this game as a late b-day gift.

We also modified Sequence States and Capitals to be a game five players could play.

We certainly enjoyed playing these games with Mom. We made some fun memories.

Marie-Anne

Jigsaw Puzzles with Nana

While my Mom was visiting I rediscovered how fun jigsaw puzzles are. My Mamaw had a card table that always had a 500 piece or 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle in progress on it. We would work on it together in the evenings sometimes. I found a box of 12 adult puzzles at the thrift store and my mom bought it for me. Later she got me more adult 100 piece puzzles, (for now I don't really have time or a place to work on more than that).

I chose to work on several of the 100 piece puzzles from the thrift store. My Mom was more adventurous and chose a 300 piece puzzle.

Long after I was done she was still hard at work. Sabrina did a 48 piece puzzle alongside her Nana.

Nana was still working on it when Alex joined her to work on a 100 piece puzzle.

Her perseverance paid off! Victory!

Marie-Anne

Read Alouds

Ten of our favorite read aloud chapter books are:

• Charlotte's Web
• Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH
• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (story from The Jungle Book)
• Caddie Woodlawn
• The Ordinary Princess
• The Little House in the Big Woods
• The Littles (series)
• Nim's Island
• Balto and the Great Race
• Milly Molly Mandy

Ten + read aloud chapter books that I plan to read this year are:

• Betsy-Tacy and Tib
• Henry Huggins (series)
• All of a Kind Family
• Lassie Come Home
• The Trumpet of the Swan
• Treasures From Grandma's Attic
• Pollyanna
• The Door in the Wall
• Little House on the Prairie
• Ramona (series)

I have read all of these books. Alex has read several and several others were read alouds for him. But now that Sabrina can enjoy them, he will get to hear them again. Others are new to both kids.

I have an ever growing list of books to read. I also budget money for more books every payday. We get most of our books from the library, thrift stores, or Amazon.

Marie-Anne

Discovery Children's Museum- with Nana

My Mom came to visit and to watch the kids while Frank and I attended the church Conference in Arizona. While she was here we visited the Discovery Children's Museum. My Mom got us a membership!

The kids had a lot of fun in the dramatic play area. They went back and forth from the castle to the pirate ship. We spent quite a long time in there.

The kids enjoyed watching the science demo.

Sabrina, the artist, was busy creating a masterpiece using various mediums.

Alex and Sabrina worked various jobs, including at this smoothie shop, where Nana and I were the customers.

Alex built a custom Lego racer and had fun testing it. He had to make several modifications before it successfully made it down the track.

We had a great time and look forward to going back again and again, once we get the membership cards in the mail. Thanks, Mom!

Marie-Anne

apartment playground

The kids got to play at the new playground at Ms. Sharon's apartment. (They were glad I was too early.) Needless to say they had a good time.

Marie-Anne

Benefits of Jigsaw Puzzles

For Christmas the kids each got a jigsaw puzzle in their stocking. It had been a while since I had them do any jigsaw puzzles. So, in the past week, I pulled out the jigsaw puzzles we own for them to do.

I had heard about therapy using jigsaw puzzles for dementia patients so I looked up benefits of jigsaw puzzles:

Jigsaw puzzles exercise both parts of the brain.

Lessens the chance of Alzheimer's, memory loss, and dementia
Increases concentration
Builds problem-solving strategies
Enhances visual perception
Hones fine motor skills
Stress reliever
Improves short-term memory
Children learn to achieve small goals as a means toward a larger goal...

I now know why jigsaw puzzles are so popular. They are sold in every store that has a toy department including dollar stores. As I said, we haven't done many jigsaw puzzles recently, therefore my kids have outgrown most of what we do have. I will be working towards building up a collection of more age appropriate jigsaw puzzles.

Marie-Anne

Burger King with Friends

The kids and I met my friend, Angie, and her kids at a nearby Burger King with a play place. The kids got to play and the adults got to visit. We all had a good time.

Marie-Anne

Date- Joe's Crab Shack

Ms. Sharon graciously volunteered to watch the kids so Frank and I could go on a date. We went out to eat a Joe's Crab Shack. The food was great and we really enjoyed spending time together without any interruptions.

Marie-Anne