School- Week 5&6

We have been so busy that I have not posted anything about school! In week 5, we studied Arctic animals. Tiffany and Hayden came over on Friday. We played Arctic animal bingo. Tiffany brought over a ton of books from the library along with a fact file containing lots of cool facts on these animals. I learned a lot myself. In Spanish, the kids learned body parts. We also played a game where they got to shoot the basketball if they knew the correct Spanish term for each body part. My Spanish is greatly improving!

We studied Noah's Ark this week too. The girls made a model of the ark along with clay animals. Here is a picture of some of the animals lined up two by two. Kinley played with the m and dismantled the giraffes and tigers. Here is what is left of them!

For week 6, we studied the weather. Madison has been keeping a weather journal. She has decided there are too many hot days. I couldn't agree more. We also made a rain gauge which has sat empty for a week now.

Each week they write a story in class. They take the story through the editing process and publish the book at the end of the week. This is Maddie's favorite. She writes the story all on her own, sounding out all the words. Here is her story this week before we edited it:

"One day I pickd my mom a flaer(flower). I bot (bought) her a nuw dres and jelry. I mad a cak. Happy Birthday Mom. I love you."

Not bad for a five year old! She has learned how to spell birthday from all the handmade cards she makes everyone.

Kinley is loving preschool. She is studying squares and the letter B. She is constantly searching for both. I never realized how many squares there are in our everyday lives! (: I'll try to do better about keeping up my posts!

Short Career

Well... Sweet lil' Kinley wanted to to play soccer and ballet this Fall. Along with Preschool, it was really too much. I knew that when I signed her up. But I thought I would give her a chance.

So we tried ballet class for the month along with a few soccer practices. It was crazy! We were at the Y for three hours on Mondays and two hours on Tuesdays. Kinley was not enjoying herself, neither were the rest of us. So.. we decided to wait on soccer with Kinley and exchange Kinley's ballet class for a gymnastic class at the same time as Maddie's class. We will see if it works, if not that is okay. I just want her to have fun and enjoy being a kid. She seems to enjoy just hanging out on the playscape playing with her friends during Maddie's soccer practice. So this is what we will do until she begs me to begin another new activity.

I did get some cute shots of my little sweetie in her short career of soccer and ballet that I wanted to share. Here are a few:

Dancing in class

Stretching before classListening to her teacher

You can see how nervous this made her.
Looking out over the field
This was her favorite position.

She informed me that we will have soccer lessons at home from now on.

What can I say, She's my little home body!

Cade in overalls

Here are a few sweet pictures of my baby boy at out the barn. He is wearing my favorite. Overalls and no shirt. You can tell he is having a ball. My friend Tanya took these the weekend of Hurrican Ike.
You can click on this link for some more great photos:
http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Caden

Daddy/Daughter Dinner

Westover has a special Daddy/Daughter dinner to honor Fathers and Daughters. The girls were so excited to spend this special evening with their daddy. The event was held at The Plantation House in Pflugerville. They had a nice meal and a special Daddy /daughter dance. After their night of fun, Rob took the girls on a road trip to Centerville. So Mr. Cade and I have some free time on our hands. I might actually catch-up on my blogging! Don't they look stunning?

My birthday

My birthday is on September 11th. Yes on 9-11. When someone official asks for my date of birth, they give me a shake of the head telling me how sorry that are for my unfortunate circumstance. It is really not that bad. However, since 2001 it is hard to have a "happy" birthday because if all of the horrible memories of the day that forever changed all of us. This year I was determined to enjoy my birthday. I continued to meditate on the scripture:"This is the day, the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."

So, this year I celebrated #33 in style. The night before my birthday, Madison told Rob that she wanted to make me a carrot cake, get me a new dress and lots of jewelry! I am not much of a jewelry/dress person but I do love my carrot cake. Rob worried all day about how to make a carrot cake. The Lord provided through Mimi who just happen to have too many carrots and decided to try baking a carrot cake for the first time. She brought the cake over without even knowing Rob's dilemma.

Rob and the girls made me a homemade pizza and sang me "Happy Birthday". Here I am in the "party hat" they made me wear.

Yes, it is a wedding veil! What better way to spend my day, then with my four favorite people!

A few days later, I got to really celebrate when my sweet dear mother-in-law kept the kids while I spent four glorious hours at the day spa. Rob met me with flowers and took me to the Cool River restaurant where we splurged on the best dinner I have had in a while!

So this year, I refused to let satan rob the joy of my birthday. Many thanks to my wonderful family, for this September 11th was a day to treasure all year long.

More of our Trip to Port A

I thought I would post a few more of my favorites from our trip. The condo we stayed at was great. It had four pools and really nice rooms. Here are some pictures:

The kids in the girls' bedroom watching movies.

Caden and Abbie at the restraunt.

Maddie wanted me to post a picture of the fish she colored from the menu.

Me and the kids in the mouth of the shark
Uncle Reg and the girls

Kinley and Aunt Andrea at the pool

Uncle Reg and Maddie. Gotta love his pink cap!

Me and the kids in the pool

Beach Baby

Our kids have been looking forward to going to the beach all summer with their cousin Abbie. We headed up to Port Aransas on Sunday and we stayed in a condo through Wednesday. It was a great trip. We always enjoy time with Reg and Andrea. The highlight of our trip were the days we spent on the beach. Maddie woke up early and gathered her sand pails and gear.

Here she is headed down the boardwalk to the beach.

The girls were thrilled to play with Abbie.

Here is my crazy brother-in-law practicing his cartwheel!

Rob put Maddie on his shoulders and waded out deep. He gave each of the kids a ride.

Some of our coolest treasures were the sand dollars. Reg and Rob waded out to a sand bar and found a ton of hermit crabs and sand dollars. The sand dollars were still alive. Maddie loved watching the little hairs move on them.

The girls LOVED jumping waves. I think this was Aunt Andrea's favorite part too. She spent a lot of time carrying Kinley out into the deep part that I could not reach!

The girls scoured the shore for seashells and any other treasures they could find.

They also built tunnels and sandcastles with Uncle Reg.

Our last trip to the beach was when Kinley was 16 months old so she did not remember much. This was a whole new experience for her and she loved it!

This was Caden's first trip to the beach. He was enthralled with the waves. Every time we set him down, he crawled full force into the waves. I spent the whole time reeling him back onto the shore. The waves would wash over him and he would keep going, squinting because of all of the salt in his eyes. So.. the only pictures I got of him are of his back because that was all we saw of him while we were by the ocean.

This is my favorite of my lil' Beach Baby!

It is amazing to look over these pictures and think about the great time we had at the beach just a week ago. Then to turn on the television and see all of the wreckage on a beach just a hundred miles east of this one. It is hard for our simple human minds to comprehend. When I find myself asking why this week. This scripture keeps playing in my head:

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55: 8-9.

It brings me great comfort to know that I do not have to have it all figured out. God is in control. My job is trust him and to savor each day as a gift from him. This special trip with our family is one of those gifts we plan to savor for a long time!

Children's Museum- Week 4

This week in school the kids focused on the five senses. We decided to visit the The Austin Children's Museum's newest exhibit called "Play It By Ear". It has a lot of information on learning about sound. The kids loved it. Andrea and Abbie joined us for our day of fun.

The kids really enjoyed the exhibit but I still think their favorite part of the museum is the Austin City Limits section and the Creative center upstairs. Here are a few pictures of our local band members.

Madison on Lead guitar

Kinley trying to figure out how to hold the guitar

Our dangerous Duo.

We had a great time. We spent most of this week at the beach. It was the perfect location to talk about the five senses! I will have a seperate blog about that adventure soon!

We also talked about money this week in math. Tiffany and Hayden came over on Friday and we set up a grocery store in our living room.

The kids had a great time taking turns playing the roles of shopper, clerk, and bagger. We gave them real money to do their shopping along with their own grocery cart. It was pretty cute to see them counting out their change to purchase their items.

Wow! We had a busy week!

Pioneer Farm- week 3

This week in school we studied about farm animals. We took a group of kids from Madison's class to Pioneer Farms. It is a really neat place. The kids got to tour some old pioneer houses. I think they were most impressed with the small one room house that once was home to thirteen kids! They had several fun activities forus to do. We made bean bags out of bird seed.



There were several characters dressed like pioneers that taught the children about the ways of farm life in years past. Madison was full of questions. She sat talking to this lady for about fifteen minutes about how they would prepare their meals each day.
My camera battery died on me so I did not get a lot of pictures. It was a full day at the farm. Visiting the farm animals, playing in a tipi, touring the old general store, climbing trees and having a picnic were just a few of the fun things that we did that day.
Here is one last picture at the farm of Kinley in a tree.



We had just finished reading one of the Little House books. The girls were amazed to see the actual lifestyle of how Mary and Laura lived in the book. We finished up our week making corn husk dolls like the ones the girls in the book played with each day. The girls ate this up. These have been their toys of choice all week. Kids really do appreciate the simple things.

Here are their dolls Mary and Laura.

I have to share one final story! Although we have read the story a hundred times, we studied Adam and Eve this week. Whenever we discussed their punishment for disobedience, Maddie's response was "The boys got off easy." She did not think it was fair that they only had to work the land while the females were cursed with difficult childbirth and being submissive. She doesn't even know the half of it yet but she has that much figured out! We have not discussed "Where babies come from yet" but she has already informed us that she is choosing to adopt! Hahaha

Kinley's First Day at Preschool

Kinley has started preschool at High Hopes this Fall. Ever since Madison started to school she has been preparing, getting out a lunch box and back pack, asking questions about her teacher, and conjuring up plans with her bestest friend, Abbie.
I was really a little sad to see her go. I have really enjoyed our special time together while Madison is at school. She is such a joy.
Two days before school started, we had a meet the teacher day at the school. We had to make a special request that she was in the same class as cousin Abbie. Here are the two of them waiting to meet Mrs. Josie.

On the morning of her first day, we read the book The Kissing Hand. I drew Kinley a picture of my hand and put a little heart in the middle saying Mommy loves you, I slipped the note into her lunch box.
As we were dropping her off, she tells me that she no longer wants to go to school but stay at home with me. She informed Rob and I that she was never going to get married but live with us forever. She told us that she likes taking care of us. Here is a picture of Rob and our forever committed roommate outside her classroom:
She survived her first day. She told me that she only had to put her hand to her cheek twice to remember me when she felt homesick. When she came home she hung my lunchbox note in her room, telling me it was her most precious treasure. Poor thing is just as sentimental and tender hearted as her mother! At least we know we will be taken care of when we are old!

Jungle Jim-school week 2

This week at school the kids are continuing to study Creation. We painted a picture of our favorite day of creation. Kinley painted God making the sky and Madison painted Him making animals.

Our theme for Science and Social Studies was the Rain forest. We did some fun activities at home but the highlight of the week was a visit with Jungle Jim. He was awesome. He brought his exhibit over to our friend's school room.

He had tons of reptiles, arthropods, and other animals. Spiders, snakes, frogs, and a chinchilla to name a few.

I brought my niece Abbie along with us. She and Kinley had a great time together. They enjoyed the animals but I think they liked just being together best.

Madison loves science and animals so she hung on his every word. She is not afraid of anything and was the first to hold the tarantula, a milk snake, and touch any other animal Jungle Jim would allow. You can just see her soaking up every word in this picture! Look how close she is to this snake. I missed the picture opp. of her holding it!

Kinley and Abbie were very brave too. They both touched one of the snakes and the newt. They enjoyed holding the chinchilla best. He was the cutest little animal. The kids are now begging for one as a pet.

It was a great hands-on experience. We all learned something from this presentation. We have had another great week at The Billingsley household!