Just in case...

you didn't know why we call Princess TD "princess," here's the all the proof you need:

Only "princesses" need to sleep with an eye mask made from a Little Mermaid costume for her bears!

Crazy Busy

Things have been crazy and busy around our house this last couple of weeks.

Princess TD lost her first tooth! We had a very busy day with our homeschool park day, grocery shopping, AHG and then for me, ladies Bible study. So, as a special treat, I took Princess TD and Little TD to the doughnut store for breakfast. OK, really we were out of milk and at our house you can't have breakfast without milk! So we sit down to eat our doughnuts, and on the third or fourth bite, Princess TD has this strange look on her face, and I just know when I see her reach into her mouth, that she lost her tooth! She was thrilled and very proud to be catching up to all of her friends who have lost teeth!





Poor girl...she's just like her mommy...her adult tooth came in behind her baby tooth, and it really doesn't look like she lost it! The tooth next to it is doing the same thing. I am just very thankful that we didn't have to get the teeth pulled (I did).

Princess TD has also joined American Heritage Girls (AHG). This is a Christian based scouting organization. She is so excited to start earning badges. I just hope I can keep up with everything she wants to do. She is a Tenderfoot and will be in this level until she completes 3rd grade. It is a great bunch of girls and they are homeschooled as well. The leaders are great and I think we will all make some good friends in the group.





We took a field trip with our homeschool group to Dewberry Farms.


We had a great time and learned a lot about pumpkins and how they grow. Our guide was farmer Dewberry himself. I enjoyed listening to him talk about the area when he purchased the 100 acres and how he created the "farm" for kids. He explained to the curious homeschoolers about how the pumpkins grow from the flowers, showed us the start of pumpkins and pointed out the babies for us to avoid stepping on.



We all enjoyed the hayride....despite the looks on the faces!

I just had to take this picture of Justin looking out of the wagon. He was so excited and mesmerized by everything he saw on our ride. It was just so precious!

This past weekend we walked with our dear friends the DeCarlo family in the Houston Buddy Walk. the Buddy Walk is held to raise money and awareness about Down syndrome. We had a great time and got to see many friends we haven't seen in a while. It was so great to see all the people in blue supporting the families of those in red (the participants with Down syndrome wore red shirts). It was very emotional to say the least!

Princess TD was so happy to see her friend, S, again!

The TD fam after the walk. Thanks to Mrs. C for taking this great picture!

Halloween Camping

This year we decided to go camping with some friends for Halloween weekend. The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect for camping! We went to Jellystone Park in Waller, Texas. It was so much fun and geared for kids. We didn't let our kids run free, but they still had a great time. I do think they would have had a great time no matter where we went camping!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We stayed until Monday, so Sunday afternoon was very quiet. By late afternoon, we were one of 3 or so campers left in the park. At that point, all of the flies and bees in the park figured out we were the only campers hanging out outside and swarmed us! It was so bad that we had to spend a couple of hours inside so they would all go away! We even went so far as to put a cup full of kool-aid on the next campsites table to draw them away. It didn't work and then a park worker came by and cleaned it up...I felt kind of bad about that!

We had to change our our wrist bands after Sunday at Noon. On the way to the office, I rode with one of the workers. We talked a bit and he and his family lived at the campground. He worked there to spend more time with his family (he was a truck driver). His 15 year old son was the one who played Yogi for the kids. Guess what? He is homeschooled! Yogi Bear is homeschooled! Princess TD was a lot more interested in talking to Yogi once she found out he was homeschooled like her!

This was the weekend of the fall time change. It really throws you off when you are somewhere that you don't actually have to BE somewhere! Sunday evening, it got dark, we got the kids cleaned up and ready for bed. We decided we'd let them stay up a "little late" and watch a movie before going to sleep. We got them all set in bed watching their movie. Mr. TD and I settled down on the couch, talking about what we should do until the movie was over. Thinking they might fall asleep early since it had been an active day, and it was getting late, I looked at my watch (which I wasn't wearing) and saw that it was 6:30 pm! Yes, we put our kids to bed at 6:30!!! Needless to say, that explained why Mr. TD and I weren't tired! The kids stayed awake for the whole movie and then went to sleep at their normal time!

All in all, it was a great time! Our family enjoyed the time together and the time of relaxation!

School Update

School is going so well. Both kids love school and they love doing it together! Sometimes this causes a distraction when Little TD is doing something that Princess TD deems as "more fun" than what she is doing, but we manage to work through it and get it done.

Little TD is doing great! He is having a blast learning his letters and numbers. He is still using both his right and his left hand for everything. He just switches back and forth depending on which hand is easier to use for the particular task. I am beginning to think more and more that he will be ambidextrous. He is moving at a bit of a slower pace. I don't want to finish this program too early. It is my intention to move him toward a Kindergarten level for the next school year, but I don't want to start him too early, since he will be early to begin with. He loves learning and that is what I want to encourage. We will move forward as he is ready. He loves to pretend he's not paying attention. We have a little rhyme that we do every week. He loves to make me think he's not paying attention when I do the rhyme, but by the end of the week, he's saying it with me! Little turkey!

Princess TD is doing great. She is reading up a storm! Her favorite thing to read is her young readers edition of the NIV Bible. I am not going to complain about that, however, she is not good at marking the place where she stops. She sent us looking for the "part she was reading that said, 'Praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord all my life." Well, we had to look through her edition to find it, but we did. This is her favorite passage right now:

Psalm 146:1-2

"Praise the Lord.
I will praise the Lord.
I will praise the Lord all my life.
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Her favorite subject is history right now. She loves learning about the Pilgrims and their trek to America. She also loves science and math. Math has gotten a bit harder for her, but she is still doing well. We are about to start Singapore 1B which is the second book in the level 1. I don't know what level this compares to at the public school level. I have heard some say that it is more toward the first part of 2nd grade. It has been too long for me to remember! Her least favorite thing to do is copywork. We are studying various forms of poetry and she is assigned to copy some of the lines. I was having her do 3-4 lines and she was fighting me every step of the way. I cut it back to 2 lines, and have added copying her memory verse for the week, and so far she has given up fighting me. She loves learning too, and of course I want to continue to encourage that!

I love watching them learn and grow. It is such a blessing to be able to homeschool them. Here are a few pictures of our latest projects.

Make a Smilebox slideshow