Where Are YOU?!

I'm here, I'm here, I promise! Sorry for the disappearance and delay, but we have been on the road with our lessons lately. Valentine's Day weekend had us in Chicago taking in sites, good food and also scoping out suburban eateries and shops. I truly love living within a spitting distance of busses, trains and planes to big cities and exotic destinations. 

Heart shaped foods abound all day and it was so fun to celebrate with the children. My parents took the kids Friday night, so we could celebrate with friends in the evening and then spend the morning together, the rest of the weekend was with them!

Sushi doesn't quite have that romantic sound to it, but it was an awesome lunch and the kids love ordering things that just sound wierd.

Monday brought us home to a fossil lesson set up in our home. Our homeschool group borrows trunks from the natural history museum, all with different themes, and I put together a coordinating lesson and activities. These work out so fun and have gotten a pretty good turn out so far!

We took off minutes after the last person left our home and headed up north for some fun in the waterpark capital of the world! We are having an absolute blast getting together as a family and just BEING! 

We had to mapquest a local church for our vacation spot but we found it and it was gorgeous and so welcoming. It's Ash wednesday, so we got some funny looks and comments at MagiQuest after breakfast when we went to go play! 

Waterparks abound and the kids do them from open til close and could probably continue to do them if they were 24-7! My goodness, where do they get their energy from? 

My level 7 Magis absolutely love Magiquest and it is worth every dollar spent. Okay, I admit, we love it too...we all have wands and love to play with them. Now THIS is a workout. They have locations all over the US, get to one ASAP! We are hitting up the one in Ohio next month! So this is where I have disappeared to, heading home tomorrow evening or sooo....maybe....record cold temps reaching -30* when we get back...so maybe the balmy 87* of the waterpark could sway me to stay! I will have some tips and reviews coming up this week along with adding links to everything, but this was just a break and it's time to do the Howlin' Tornado!

Enjoy every single minute my friends!

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Random Round Up!

Saturday has come and gone, why is it like that with the days we look forward to most? Oh what a Saturday we had, complete with Doctors, Dentists and Firemen...what?! Yes, my children (all 3!) got stranded in an elevator! All was well in the end but it was terrifying for them and I may have had a mild heart attack listening to their screams. They were only going for a drink of water while I made follow up appointments (no cavities for anyone, yay!!) and lo and behold the fountain was broken, so they got no water and a day to remember!! Anyway, this photo was taken for a boy that was so proud of his first fruit salad that he diced and chopped all on his own. What age do you give your children knives and an all access pass to the kitchen as long as you are in there with them? My little Roman there is 7!

With Christmas decorations going away, I am taking advantage of this time to rearrage some items in my living room and I wanted to find space to incorporate some of the vintage Singer Sewing machine drawers that I have from my grandmothers machine. I only have 1 set of drawers on the machine, which is serving as an entryway table in our foyer (sounds grander than it actually is) and I have 3 drawers waiting for new homes! 1 went on our mantel of the fireplace and this one is holding books in the bookshelf and I quite like it!

In Our Little Catholic Homeschool, I never talked about our Advent wreath, so before I forget I wanted to share a photo of what we had out for the season. All our advent books and Christmas books get tucked into this bin along with our wreath and candles. It is all felt and perfect for little hands, what I love even more, is that even though the kids are older they can play with it and I don't have any fear of them burning themselves or even worse...when it's time to light the first one, I am not scrambling to find candles! Our wreath heads to the classroom where it will stay out for anyone that wants to look at it or play with it but the books get boxed away for the season.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Thoughtful Thursday...

Here it is Thursday already and I have rudely left you all hanging! We have been out of town on a marathon field trip, shopping, visiting and driving spree. Our homeschool group has left the local area to hit up big cities and take classes, tours and a variety of other things. We are finally headed home tomorrow to prepare for our big Winter Wonderland party!

Traveling does not stop the learning, it just has us bring it on the road with us. One thing I love to bring is a floor mat of the USA that allows the kids to play on it and then we made up popsicle stick states on one side an abbreviations on the other. Pick an abbreviation and find it's state. It's large enough for all 3 kids to fit on the mat but portable enough that it all folds into a gallon size ziploc bag. We also have USA puzzles in a variety of types so that when they build them, they are not bored by what they are doing! We LOVE State Learning as you can see HERE!

As I sit here enjoying my cuppa, I always seem to notice that no matter how old my children get, they seem to always gravitate towards the same toys. Yes, interest in cooler and more mechanical things will always arise but when told to bring things when we go out of town, I realize that the basics of books,crayons, pencils and paper always make it and if we are there for an extended time, blocks and cars make the list too. These tree branch blocks my husband made them always seem to be along for a ride and their montessori style sound and color blocks as well. They are 7,8, & 9 and yet they are still my babies...

LEGOLAND is one of our very favorite homeschool hot spots. They have great classes, awesome employees and their customer service before you even arrive is top-notch. The kids always have such a blast at these classes that I decided to mention the latest one to our homeschool group and many people made the 1.5 hour trek with us and what fun we all had! LEGOLAND Schaumburg is out of this world in our book!

Crazy Charlie is up to his old antics as he too comes with us when we travel! Sometimes he is already in the hotel room when we arrive and sometimes we arrives at our destination some time the next day. Silly elf made a swing of the Ceiling fan! Good thing no one turned it on!! See what else Charlie has been up to in 2014 HERE!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

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