HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the baby of the family is now 4! Although if you ask her she is still 3 beacuse she doesn't want to be four because four is stupid. Anyone who knows Avery has heard this all before. She always has opinion about everything. I am glad she doesn't want to grow up so she can be my baby a little longer. Avery loves life and always helps me to notice things I don't usually see such as little flowers everywhere and beautiful clouds. I am so happy God brought this precious angel into our life! In honor of Avery's fourth birthday here are four things I love about Avery:

1. Avery loves to laugh and brings joy to our lives!

2. Avery is so caring when someone is hurt or sick.

3. She loves to give compliments out to others. (about their hair or outfit or jewelry.)

4. She is very girly and loves to wear beautiful dresses, but also is not afraid to burp and get dirty!

So thank you Avery for bringing such joy and laughter to our lives! We love you!

Happy Birthday Zack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look how long those 10 fingers are!


Here is Zack's first picture as a 10 year old!


I cannot believe that a decade has passed since my baby boy was born. It doesn't seem like that much time has passed. He was such a delightful baby and has grown into such a sweet young man. He is so excited to grow up I only wish I could slow him down just a little bit. I am so glad I decided to home school him. I love the quality time we share and that he can tell me anything. I hope it continues through his teenage years. So in honor of my sweet boy's (now young man's) birthday here are ten things I love about Zack:





1. He is always up for hugs and kisses. (unless his friends are around)



2. He is the best big brother to his sisters.



3. He will help a friend in need.



4. He loves to go to church and learn about God.



5. He always compliments me on my cooking. (great future husband)



6. He LOVES animals.



7. He is very sensitive.



8. He is funny and likes to tell jokes.



9. He is so smart and always likes to learn about the things around him.



10. Zack is my first born and will always hold a special place in m heart!

I LOVE YOU ZACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fire Trucks and Snakes

Well a fire truck had to come to our house this morning. No there was no fire. There was a snake in our garage that wouldn't come out. I wasn't sure what kind it was so we had to call the fire department. Keith is not to fond of snakes so I knew he would not dig it out. They came pretty quickly and went right to work. They said it was a bull snake which is actually good because it keeps rattlers away. It was probably 3 feet long and was just a baby. Zack of course wanted to keep it!


The heros!

The girls watching from a safe place. (where Keith was originally)

The firemen going to work

Here he is!

It was a pretty snake.
So that was our science lesson for the day!

Yesterday the girls wanted to do an art project with the big paper. I decided to trace them out and then they painted them. They had a great time and Avery loved seeing how big she was!

Avery looking so big

Kaylee

Avery really took her time on her painting.

Kaylee made lots of dots on hers.

On Tuesday we went to Pheonix with some of our friends to a little water park. It was nice since it wasn't crowded and there was plenty to do. It was also over 100 that day!


Avery enjoyed the waterfall but she had to keep pulling her pants up.

Kaylee liked the slide since it was nice and slow!

The highlite of Zack's day was going off the high dive. He has always been a little scared but he braved it and had a blast!

Here he is going off!

Last night we got to do a special thing. One of Keith's cadets works at the movie theatre. We got to go to our own viewing of Kung Fu Panda before it even came out! The kids were so excited. We didn't go until 11 but it was so much fun. We even got to go upstairs and see how the run the movie through the projector. I couldn't believe that Avery made it through the whole movie. It was almost one. She was asleep in about 5 seconds when we got to the car.
It has been another busy week at our house and we have had a lot of fun!

Our first camping trip and a pirate ship?

A pirate ship in Arizona you ask? Well we went on a homeschool field trip today with our group. One of the mom's met a man who said he owns a pirate ship and does tours for free. S we called him up and decided to go for a trip. We really didn't know what to expect as I have never seen a pirate ship. I was thinking a wooden ship. This thing was so cool! There was so much detail you could spend an hour in there just looking at all the stuff. It was a smaller version of the real thing. There is even a captains quarters with a bed. At the end he took all of us outside and talked a little bit about pirates and what they did and also some of the names of their tools and things.



Here is Avery standing by the treasure.


The kids by the map (which the guy said they didn't call them maps they were charts)

Here is the whole gang with the captain

Captain Mike

A side of the ship

The map

The captains bed

Some of the kids in the captains quarters. The kids had a great time and it was nice to do something different!



Also this month we had our first family camping trip. I was the only one who had ever been camping before! It was a little different camping since of course here we were camping in the desert. It was blazing hot but we still had a good time. We all saw our first scorpion and also a few people saw a rattlesnake. This was a trip with Keith's work and we also got to go out on a boat for the day. I think that was everyone's favorite part.

Here is Avery sittting in the tube. She didn't actually ride in it but just wanted to sit!




Kaylee decided she would try a ride with dad but then ended up crying and wanted off!

Our family

This is the boat we went out on.

Here is Kaylee hanging off the back watching the tubers

Zack rode with another little boy and had fun. He never did fall off!

Here is how Princess Avery likes to ride on a boat

This is our new tent!

The kids all had a blast playing in the lake.


Zack of course dove right in (after we assured him there were no alligators in the lake!)


We have been having a great time enjoying the weather. We went to a local lake and I took pictures of the kids for their "school" photos. We have finished up school for the year but we will still work on lapbooks and we are going to make an animal notebook this summer.

Updates!

Zack finally had his first baseball game! He was so excited and was the starting pitcher. He did his max of 70 pitches and had to be swapped out. One inning he only threw 12 pitches! He managed to strike a few people out.




Here is Avery in her new floaty she picked up from a garage sale this weekend. She just had to try it out in the bathtub of course!

These are some pictures of the kids when they did their clean up for earth day. They all got shirts and wanted to wear them right away. They were all picking up a lot of trash (mostly glass) and even found a t-shirt someone threw out. Avery even picked some up although she liked to ride in the stroller and point stuff out to the others. She also of course had to pick a dandylion.





Zack also had his pinewood derby race. His car had a bum wheel and so his car didn't do too well in the race. He did have a good time though and then he received his bear patch and three arrow points. He has been doing such a good job in scouts and really enjoys all the boy time! He will move up next month to the weeblos. The next thing he is looking forward to is the father son campout on the 16th.





I will update again soon! On a home schooling note the older kids have both finished their math books for the year. We will probably finish up all schoolwork next week and then we will continue doing our lapbooks. We just did one on the coral reef and our next one is desert animals and then the state of Arizona. This summer we will be doing an animal notebook where we will do one animal a day and put them all in a binder.

Updates!

Yes we are swimming in April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!











Well we have just been keeping busy around here. The weather has been so nice it is hard to keep anyone indoors to do schoolwork. That is the joy of homeschooling! Zack has just finished his 4th grade math. Kaylee has two more lessons in here 1st grade math. She also only has 2 more lessons in her phonics book. I can't believe the progress we have made even starting late. Kaylee has also really taken off with her reading. I am so proud of how far the kids have come this year. Next year we will be adding Avery to the mix! I didn't focus too much this year. When she wanted to we did some work. She is only three! People take pre-school too seriously. We have also still been enjoying our lapbooks. Right now we are working on a butterfly one. Kaylee really thrives in learning this way. Our next one is on coral reefs.
The kids also finished up their swimming lessons. They all passed! Avery's teacher says she is awesome and got the forms down really easily. I was very impressed with all of them.
We also took another field trip with our homeschool group to the phoenix zoo. The kids had a great time as always!
This week is astonomy week and we have been doing thigs all week to celebrate. On Saturday we went to the astonomy club at the lake and we got to see saturn throught the telescope. It was so cool! You could even see the rings. We have went to a few things at the library also. On Saturday we will be getting up early to go to a park to clean up for earth day.
Zack's boy scout pinewood derby is tomorrow along woth his meeting where he will get his bear patch and a couple others. He is a little sad because he will be missing his first baseball game! I will try to post pictures of that!
Ashley