Pinterest!

I've finally joined pinterest! I could waste so many hours on there! I'm still figuring out how to use it, and I'm annoyed by the automatic pins that were added when I joined (and not really sure how to get them off). My username is chasingcheerios, so stop by and give me some good ideas!

A Mailbox for the Girls

We recently put up a full sized mail box for the girls near our front steps, and they LOVE it!!!

O(5) checks it almost every time she walks by it, and when there is something in there, she screams with excitement! It's like Christmas (but she's really much more excited than I've ever seen her on Christmas morning!) every time! I don't want the excitement to wear off, so I only put things in there every few days.

Today, I put a box of Teddy Grahams in the mailbox (since it's "B" week, and we're reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt with BFIAR). Both girls were thrilled, and it was so much more exciting than me just getting the Teddy Grahams out of the pantry for a snack.

Our Prairie Girls

We took the girls to go camping and apple picking in the mountains last weekend, and we had a wonderful time. O(5) insisted on wearing her "old time" clothes because she said the only reason we came on this trip was to be Laura (Ingalls) :) O planned to be Rose Wilder since Rose grew up on an apple orchard (we spent the summer reading the 7 books of the Rose Years In the Land of the Big Red Apple (Little House), which is the primary reason I wanted to make this trip), but E(2) insisted that she was "Baby Carrie." There was no changing her mind, so O was "Laura," E was "Baby Carrie," and Elliott and I were "Ma and Pa." (although, we didn't dress up for our parts!)

This trip also coincided with E's "A" week, which I'll be posting about later :)

E's Birthday Cake

E(2) decided that she wanted a rice crispie treat birthday cake (after tasting and seeing pictures of my brother's 10 layer 5 tier rice crispie treat cake...my mom spoils all of us!). Luckily, my mom was still in the mood to make rice crispie treats, so she and the girls had a great time creating E's cake!

After they put the "cake" together, E, O, and their cousin decorated it. E said she wanted to decorate it with animals, so I printed a copy of her personalized paper doll and dressed it in a tiger outfit (she loves lions and tigers ever since she dreamt about them a couple of weeks ago). We also gathered all of her plastic animals to put on and around the "cake."

The bottom layer (made with fruity pebbles) is not pictured since it has her name on it. Everyone really enjoyed this "cake," and O says she wants her next cake to be a rice crispie treat cake, too!

Boat School

The girls and I have had fun having "boat school" this past week! I pack a bag of snacks, water bottles, and "school" activities, and we head to the boat for school. They LOVE this, and they'd rather do "boat school" than play on the beach!

E(1) LOVES to match, and she is constantly noticing things that match around her and exclaiming "they match!" I've set up several matching activities for her to feed into this new obsession :)


"They match!"


I was surprised by how well E(1) matched the phases of the moon. O(5) and I helped her a little bit, but she did most of it by herself.


While E matched, O practiced her handwriting.


Having "boat school" with my girls is one of the many reasons I want to homeschool...what can be better than spending your school day on a boat??? However, we have one more year before we are officially homeschooling. O begins school at her Montessori Preschool next week :(

Btw, the boat was beached, which is why the girls are not wearing life jackets. They ALWAYS wear their life jackets when we are out on the water.

Catching Up

Sorry about the lack of blog posts this weekend. We've been on vacation for the past 2 weeks, and I don't have any finished blog posts saved to post. The girls have been sick since we got home, and I have zero time or motivation to write new posts (although I have tons of things to write about). We didn't have a very good internet connection while on vacation, so I've been spending my minimal computer time uploading vacation pics to our private family blog.

To those of you who have emailed me within the last month, I'm sorry for my lack of response. The cultural exchange emails have gotten precedence, and I've not answered most other emails...there's just not enough time.

A lot of you have requested that I post pics of the cultural exchange box that I received, and Julie has given me permission to do so. Since, I'm not giving the girls the packages yet (it's a large part of their Christmas), I have to be sneaky about unpacking and photographing everything. I planned to do it while they napped this afternoon, but I fell asleep with them...maybe tomorrow :)

Here are some pics from our wonderful 2 weeks at the beach...

We always tie-dye while at the beach, and the girls are SO proud of their shirts!




My "old time" girl wore her mob cap on the beach. She so silly :)


2 girls and their kites. Getting both of their kites flying at the same time and running with them on the beach was one of my favorite moments.

I was very pleased with the pics from our beach photo shoot.






We went on kayaking adventures during our 1st beach week. At one point we were almost surrounded by a pod of dolphins. Lucky O(5) was even closer to them than we were, and she said that she loved seeing the calf with it's mama. She said she felt like she was in a dream. I loved hearing them blow...so cool.

O's Perfect Birthday

O(5) had the perfect birthday outing last weekend! My bff, EB, called Saturday morning and told us that the restaurant where she works was having an "Old Time Festival"!!! This was perfect for my history loving girl. Both girls dressed in their "old time" clothes and had a great time riding a horse, feeding goats and donkeys, grinding corn, etc. What a fun day!

O's Beautiful Mermaid Birthday Cake

O(4) started decorating her own birthday cakes when she turned 3 years old, and she LOVES doing this! I think it's one of her favorite things about having a birthday. When we were discussing ideas for her decorations a couple of months ago, I suggested using her personalized paper doll on the cake. She LOVED this idea and wanted her paper doll to be dressed as a mermaid.

O had fun choosing her decorations, and she had even more fun decorating her cake. She used green jelly beans for seaweed and Swedish fish, gummy octupuses, and chocolate rocks to make it look beachy. She said "I can't believe I have a BEACH cake!"

She was SO proud of her cake!

Sister Love

I have really loved watching the bond between my girls strengthen this summer as they spend all day and night together (since O is out of school, and they are now sharing a room). They love each other so much, and I love to watch their relationship grow.

Chasing Cheerios is on Facebook!

I've finally created a Chasing Cheerios facebook page! There's not much on there, but come on over and "like" me! I've seen links to fb pages on blogs, but I have no idea how to add it to my blog...if you know how to do this, please tell me!

Here's the link.

Let the Summer Begin!

O(4) has been out of school for the summer for 2 weeks, but I finally had my last day of work today! I love my job (as a School Psychologist), but I'm very excited to have the next 2 and a half months off! May (IEP season) is always stressful when you work in special education, and I'm glad to have made it through another year :)

I have lots of activities planned for my girls for the summer, but we'll spend the vast majority of our time playing outside (in the lake, on the beach, and on our playground) and reading aloud. I'm planning for us to spend our mornings outside, and then we'll come in at lunchtime (around 1ish) to do art, science, and Montessori activities. It usually crazy hot at that time of day, so it will be the perfect time to come in and cool off. We'll go back outside at the end of the day to play for a couple more hours. We're hoping to have a great summer, and I hope you will, too!

Apologies

I'm WAY behind on answering email, so if you've sent me an email with questions within the last couple of months and I haven't responded, PLEASE resend it! If I don't answer emails immediately, I often forget to go back and respond (I read them all, I just don't always have time to respond immediately and then I get distracted). I don't spend much time on the internet while the kids are awake, and they've been staying up later lately so my internet time is minimal. So, don't take it personally if I haven't responded to your questions :)

In Our 1st 10 Minutes of Summer Homeschool...

E counted to 10! Her articulation wasn't perfect, and she left out 4, but nobody expects perfection at 20 months old! Btw, I didn't teach her this. I usually only count to 3 with her!

Then, O(4) walked up to me and said 10 plus 11 equals 21. And all of this occured while I was checking email and facebook! Hmmm, homeschooling might be easier than I anticipated!

For Little House on the Prairie Fans

I posted yesterday that I'd found the entire Rose Years collection at the library, and I wanted to also tell you that there are books for the Martha Years (Laura's great-grandmother) Beyond the Heather Hills (Little House), the Charlotte years (Laura's grandmother)Little House by Boston Bay , and the Caroline years (Laura's mother) Down to the Bonny Glen (Martha Years). I didn't know about these books until just a few months ago, and I was SO excited to find out about them. We've only read one from each of the collections listed above as they are difficult to find at our local libraries, and we really enjoyed them. Happy reading!

A Happy Day!!!

What a great day this has been!!!

First, I signed my contract to work for 45 days next school year. (everyone else signed and turned in their contracts weeks ago, so I was a little nervous that I might not have a job next school year!)

Second, I went to the library and they had the entire Rose Years collection of books (this was thrilling since O LOVES the Little House books, and I've been checking the various libraries unsuccesfully for this set for months). The Rocky Ridge Collection: Little House on Rocky Ridge, Little Farm in the Ozarks, in the Land of the Big Red Apple, on the Other Side of the Hill (The Rocky Ridge Series , So4)

Third, I WON the science giveaway on the Montessori Print Shop blog! I almost never read blogs anymore, and I just happened to come across this giveaway when I was looking at the Montessori Print Shop's shop. I left a quick comment and thought that was the end of that. However, they emailed me today, and I won!!!

Finally, O had her last t-ball game, and she received a trophy. She was SO happy to "win" a trophy! She jumped up, cheered, and smiled and smiled. Both girls were extremely excited about the junk food that they ate at the banquet, too. One thing that is great about almost never letting your kids eat junk food is watching how excited they get when they get to have a special treat! What a wonderful day!!!

Comment Moderation

I've changed my blog settings again, so that you can comment on the blog now. I have it set so that I can publish (or not publish) the comments. Hopefully, this will keep the viagra spammers away :)

Covered from Head to Toe (almost)

I was so excited to recently find long sleeved swim shirts for my girls at a reasonable price (from Zuilly). I bought long sleeved swim shirts, skirts, and hats for them. We spend most of our time outside, so it's very important to keep these fair skinned girls covered as much as possible. Luckily, they don't mind at all (although O does occasionally ask if she can wear a one piece swim suit).

Changing Settings

I've changed the settings of this blog so that it will not accept comments. I'm really tired of ridiculous viagra spam, and I'd rather not have any comments at all than deal with a hundred viagra comment spread throughout the blog. I hope that if I block the comments for a while, the spammers will find someone else to bother and I'll be able to allow comments again. If you have questions or comments you can email me at chasingcheerios@gmail.com. Thanks!

Sprinkler Fun

My girls had a fantastic time running in the water from the sprinkler earlier this week. They were hesitant at first because the water was cold (it's well water), but they got used to it and loved every minute of it. I loved sitting on the swing while watching them run, laugh, and play. I loved how they held hands to walk up to the water. Such sweet sisters!

An O Quote

O(4), E, and I were sitting on my bed, and O was working on an embroidery sampler. She said "Mama, guess what?" I said "what?" and she said "Nothing is for sure whenever hope is gone." She really blows my mind on an almost daily basis :)