Menu Plan Monday

Tonight - Penne pasta with chicken sausage and marinara, green beans

Tuesday - Pancakes, bacon, fruit

Wednesday - Beef tips, rice, carrots

Thursday - Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, oven roasted potatoes, salad.

Friday - Glazed chicken breasts, rice pilaf, broccoli

Saturday - Hamburgers, hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, veggies and dip, fruit salad

Sunday - ?? I have to make lunch and bring something for church dinner.

Girls' Weekend

Molly and I went on a fun little "trip" this weekend for my birthday (we actually stayed pretty close to home, but in an area that felt like a different world). This is the only picture we took, which is from Friday night before we went out for dinner.
If we had taken any other pictures, they would have pictured us shopping, eating, talking, watching a movie, or reading. It was a fun weekend and great to get away for a little while!

Basketball Fun

On Thursday, we went to watch Dave play in a teachers vs. students fundraiser basketball game.
Alexa wasn't too sure about having her picture made with the cheerleaders.

They both definitely enjoyed getting snacks from the concession stand.

And Jordanna clapped and yelled and tried to do bodily injury to herself on the bleachers.

School Update

We took two days off of school this week, once for my birthday and once because I was gone for the day, and Dave was in charge. BUT, in the overall scheme of things we are plugging along quite well in my goals for this year. Caleb has about 10-11 pages left in his kindergarten phonics workbook. He is reading Level 1 readers and is starting to read for enjoyment as well as when I make him for school. He finished his kindergarten handwriting book and will certainly finish his 1st grade one before school is out this year. In math, he just completed lesson 20 out of 32 in his first grade math book. He really has learned and developed SO much this year.

Alexa is keeping busy as well. She loves tracing letters, gluing and cutting, and working on her "school pages" with Mommy. She has learned how to count to about 12, which is where she gets lost and starts making up numbers. She also can write her name and identify most letters.
Here she is playing with pattern blocks.
Together, we have been working on memorizing Catechism questions since we finished the Apostle's Creed. We're still learning a Bible verse and a hymn each week although we are going to take this coming week to review all of our verses. I have been encouraging the kids to pray out loud during our morning Bible time, and it has been interesting to see what comes out of their mouths. We've spent the last week and a half reading a selection of Aesop's Fables, and tomorrow we will be starting Pippi Longstocking. Overall, it's been a great school year so far.

Birthday Lunch

Some friends invited us over for lunch yesterday after story time at the library. It was another beautiful day, so the kids played outside for awhile.

Jordanna had fun in the sandbox.
The big kids loves playing with the wheelbarrow especially since we don't have one.


After play time, we went inside for birthday cake and hats.



We had a great time!

Park Day and Birthday Dinner

Tuesday morning, we met Molly and Stacy at the park for a picnic lunch. The weather was just perfect, comfortable but not hot.

Feeding the ducks
Molly with her bundle. I think Stacy's baby is in there, but I'm not entirely sure as he barely made a peep the whole time.
Cute Alexa
And Tuesday night, we met my parents at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Yum!

Crazy Caleb
Gramps playing with his phone
Jordanna was getting antsy, but she thought it was hilarious to put a straw in my mouth. It kept her entertained for a few minutes at least.
Alexa and Grammy
Caleb and Daddy
Jordanna sharing Gramps's cake

My Sweet Jordanna

Date Night...

...with my wonderful,
handsome,
goofy husband.

New Bedding

A certain little boy who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent managed to rip our comforter last week. In his defense, it had a small hole in it, which he made bigger. Anyway, the comforter was reversible, so I just flipped it over to the other side. But when I saw this duvet cover at Ikea today, I had to snatch it up. It was reasonably priced and matches the paint color and sheets we already had. Score!
Close up of the fabric

Just Keeping It Real

Lest you think I always have it together, here's what my house looked like about 1:00 today. We had a busy day today with home schooling, grocery shopping, and making a meal for a family with a new baby, and my house kinda exploded in the meantime.




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And this is what it looked like by 5:00. Yay for a clean house!