This week is all about Letter E, Elephants, Number 2 and Triangles. 

I see some improvement in the pronunciation of the Pledge. Timmy was able to start saying some of it by himself. Timmy knows all his months and days of the week and Grace has most of her days of the week down.

This week instead of using the kitchen table I’m trying to see if they focus better using their kid desks. They are very interested in what the other one is doing and it can be distracting.

Our circle routine takes up much of the morning with the calendar, weather, songs and then Timmys notebook pages.

We read We are in a Book because the main character is an elephant so it was fitting. Such a funny book too.

We did the block lettering with our color cubes. 

 
They each made memory bracelets. It has the number 2, letter E and a triangle on it. I think that’s a cute idea.

We played with Legos and measured how high we could build it. 

 
And right now they are making mud pies and I’m babysitting.  

Tuesday we laced, traced and bingo dotted Letter E. 

    
   
We did some more castle building. 

 
Timmy has really come a long way with cutting.  

   
Gracie was very proud of her color matching puzzle skills. 

Timmy asked to do bug counting. I bought two big dice and lots of plastic bugs. They roll the die and tell me how many bugs they get and then we count them all up to see who got the most. They love it. Grace really loves it as is seen in her frog kissing picture.  
  
Right now they are outside playing pretend chef I think. Timmy has an apron on and says, “Grace would you like to join me in the kitchen?” 

Later we watched some YouTube videos on elephants. Then we did some ABC mouse work. I’m struggling with technology use. Just one day of working it into our homeschool and he is begging for it everyday. It’s very frustrating. I’m keeping it at once a week until I see better behavior when I put it away. It definitely has its positives because we got watch elephants play at the San Diego zoo. Something we will never be able to do in person.

 On Wednesday we cut and pasted an elephant together. And Grace colored my very sad attempt at an elephant  
   

Timmy seperated upper case E’s onto a mama elephant and the lower case E’s onto a baby elephant. He did this all by himself. We did the letter paper poking. We also did prewriting sheets.

This activity I was excited about. Both kids liked it. 

  
Patterns are something new to Timmy so I helped.

   
They love these little plastic bugs. So here I had them place the right amount of bugs on each number page. 

On Thirsday we started by washing our babies like elephants do. Such an easy fun activity. Straws, a bowl of water and a plastic animal.  
    

Grace thinks those dots are for coloring but check her perfect pencil grip!
  

We laced our elephants.  

We used cheerios to graph the elephants in each box. Grace mostly just ate hers.
    

We mixed black and white to make grey for our elephant craft.
    
  

Then they put on one of Daddy’s long socks and pretended to be elephants. I challenged them to clean the playroom with their elephant trunks but the room looks messier now.

 And we had some music time. Now they are in the tub playing with foam letters. Alphabet overload over here.
 

This week was so successful. Everyday they were asking for more school. I was so thrilled. We finished all of our school work by Thursday. So Friday has so far been all pretend play. My house is a total mess but it’s worth all the small conversation I get to listen to. My favorite part of the week was both my kids snuggled next to me while I read to them Charlotte’s Web. 

Our curriculum is from: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Yesterday my family was asked to bring up the bread and wine during mass. And they wanted Timmy to hold the bread… I was sooo nervous that he would drop it. But he didn’t. I nearly cried. How beautiful it is to walk with my husband, Grace by our side and Timmy in front of us holding the Bread of Life. 

I am so happy we have found this church family. Everyone there adores my children. People we don’t even know come up to me to tell me how Grace or Timmy made their day. I’m referred to as the mom of the curly haired blonde boy. 

I’m sure Tim wouldn’t appreciate this but after communion, when we go back to our seats to pray… I don’t. I just stare at my man, kneeled down, hands folded, eyes shut. I wish I could take a picture. Watching him speak to God is for sure the most beautiful thing. 

This Sunday happened to be Moms Only Beach Day! So after church all my girlfriends loaded up and headed to the water. How blessed we are that our husbands understand the need for us to have this down time. Not one complaint from any of the men. 

It was a beautiful day, start to finish. 

I’m so excited to be back at homeschooling. There’s something about fresh school supplies that make me happy. And my new favorite thing: laminating! Makes everything so official looking.

We are using Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I adore her, especially her Homeschooling 101 book. 

This is her website. I don’t write this blog for an audience but I want to make sure I give credit where it is due. 

http://store.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/index.php?main_page&zenid=cm4t3irkb37d6c27mb3co5o0t2

We started each day with the Pledge of Alliegence. And it was so precious. We took turns each day on who would have the job of holding the flag and hearing them mispronounce all the new words of the pledge was so cute. 

  Grace is going thru a phase and wants to wear Timmy’s clothes. I’m not thrilled about it but I have to pick my battles. 
Next we did our bible verse, calendar and weather. 

   
    
    
  Timmy took this last picture himself. He really loves the camera. Says his little guy is only wearing sunscreen 😂. 

Gracie joined in when she wanted. She wants to be big so I just let her choose what she wants to be a part of. We colored a Letter A page. Timmy is very serious about staying in the lines and Grace not so much.

  
They love Playdoh. I gave them a Letter A stamp, cookie cutters and a plastic knife. Easily their favorite thing, if only it wasn’t so messy. I bought this playdoh at Dollar Tree, $1 for a 4 pack and it’s very comparable to the name brand and much easier to throw away when it gets gross 😉.

I wrote all the letters on a white board and he had to match the magnetic letter to it and then put it in the leap frog to hear it’s sound. This was a big hit.  
I used a car window marker and wrote the letter A on my sliders. Then gave them a water spray bottle and paper towel and told them to clean up. They love cleaning.   
 We practiced cutting. I was so surprised how well they both did. I forgot to get Timmy left handed scissors but these still worked.  
   
 I’m probably just gonna keep repeating myself about how great they are at everything. Lol. But really they were so good at lacing cards.  
  
We did an apple shape matching puzzle.

  
And a color matching one. These are too easy for Timmy but perfect for Grace. 

Making block letters they liked. I found these color cubes in the dollar section at Target.

I love that he always has his tongue out when he’s concentrating, just like his mama.

 This was serious work and a little hard for him. He had to match the lower case and upper case. He was so proud when he was done.

 He was really proud of this sorting puzzle even tho it was all wrong 😂.

 Mommy helped.

 With this they had to poke a toothpick through the letter outline. They both did it by themselves. Again mama was amazed.

  
 This week we read Ten Apples Up on Top because it worked perfect with our Apple theme. They had so much fun trying to act out the book. I plan on starting Before Five in a Row in January as a literature supplement for Grace once I get a good groove with Letter of the Week curriculum.

  

For this activity Timmy had to count the seeds on the apple and glue on the correct number.

   
Here he had to cut out the apples and paste them on the apple tree. Honestly I didn’t think he could do this and he DID! I forget that he’s getting so big 😢.

    
Looks perfect to me!

  Uh this face 😍 it’s so great when he gets so excited to figure out something new.  
Some pre-writing work.

 & perfect do-a-dot.

I think the week went pretty well. We did take Thursday off to spend with Max. The highlight for me was when I showed them the Letter A flash card and Grace yelled out A!!! We also learned number 1 and circle. 

I did have a small set back. On the first day when I told them it was time for school and we sat down at the table Timmy asked why he wasn’t at a red school and where were all his friends. My heart broke a little. However even if our intentions weren’t to homeschool he would not yet be in preschool. So I’m glad I’m starting early so that this will be normal for him once kindergarten starts in 2 years.

Homeschool is on my heart but I realize that maybe it won’t be what’s best for my kids. I do pray hard that it is. Here’s an example why. Tonight we had some friends over. Timmy wanted the ring on Mr. Chris’ hand and I said you will get one when you get married. Timmy was like what!! and looking at me all crazy. And then said, “Can I marry Jesus and get a ring?” Melt. This is our top reason for wanting to homeschool. I want to do my best keep that little boys love for Jesus alive. It is a blessing that we can start our school day with the Bible. 

Hmmm I wish it was the last day of summer. I’m so ready for chilly weather and pumpkin everything. In Florida summer doesn’t end until mid January 😳 so we just crank that ac down, light a pumpkin candle and pretend. 

So yeah I really did light that candle this morning lol but yesterday was a gorgeous summer day. It had a kind of twisted ending but none the less awesome summer fun.

Our neighbors invited us for jetskiing so we jumped on the chance. Tim loves water sports. That was kinda his thing back in his younger days. Water skiing is his favorite. Weird thing is he’s not at all a beach guy, hates it. Basically if you give him anything with speed he’s in. Ever since I had kids, I’m more like slower the better 👍.

The kids had a blast. We had the perfect set up too and there really wasn’t anyone else around. It felt like we were on an island vacation. 

   
 I am obsessed with Janie and Jack bathing suits. Luckily so is Gracies godmother because otherwise Walmart suits would be more our style. Seriously this flamingo one is adorable!
   I screamed the whole time.  
  Timmy wants one now of course. You can tell by that smile he was in heaven.  
 Grace is a beach babe. She has no fear of the water. I sounded like a psycho trying to reel her back in but she could care less. See you later mom. I’m really trying to work on not passing my fears on to my children butttt I’m not doing a great job lol. The ocean freaks me. So beautiful and so dangerous.   
  I love this daddy daughter moment.  
  Daddy took them tubing. That’s more my speed. 

Such an awesome end to our summer days. 

Bedtime has been so hard since we got back from vacation. We’ve decided to let them sleep together in Gracies room because they’ve been saying they are afraid of ghosts {something they learned from their older cousins 👎}. 

Tonight Grace was beside herself in tears and Timmy says “Grace it’s okay I’m here with you. Do you want to hear my Jesus song?”

& he starts singing Here I Am Lord and me and Tim just tear up. He is the sweetest.

When I went in later to check on them they were snuggled up in the same sleeping bag.

We have a new favorite song in this house. It’s BINGO but probably not the lyrics you are used too… “Old McDonald had a farm and Mingo was his Mango, B I N G O, B I N G O!” Makes me laugh every time. And they sing it loud.

Hearing this. “Come on Grace you want to go play?” “Yea!!” These two play so beautifully. 

Lite Brite is a big deal over here lately. Even Madison wants to play. 

   
This was Grace today. That’s my shirt she is wearing. I found her pulling things down in my closet. And that’s a baby doll pacifier. Only thing missing is her new pink boots that according to Grace go with everything. 

Timmy has decided he’s too big for baths. He told me today that he is an adult and adults don’t take baths. He also says he doesn’t want to use soap because he likes the stink on him. So I had to “buy” special stinky soap for him.

I love when we are driving and Timmy randomly points out a cloud that looks like a helicopter or a pancake.

So this is the conversation between Timmy and Grace: I’m going to spank just your bottom! No I’m gonna spank your bottom! No! Yes! No! Apparently we are pro spanking.

And this.. I’m a dinosaur. No Grace you’re a princess! Oh yea I am a princess!

While Daddy works in Jersey we are spending time with family on Long Island. We are staying with my cousin and her 4 kids. I knew she was a little nervous about entertaining us for a week but little did she know all we needed was a couch and coffee. My kids and her kids were in heaven playing with each other. I rarely heard from my kids the entire trip. The played hard and slept soundly. Even their enormous dog was in the mix. 

 
The first day I drove by my childhood house. Isn’t it cute?

Then I drove by my grandmas old house and took the kids to the park we use to play at and lucky them the ice cream man stopped by. I don’t know why we don’t have ice cream trucks by us. 

These powerwheels were a huge hit. The boys for sure think they are race car drivers. 

One day we took them to Adventureland. Best place ever if you’re a kid. I went every summer when I lived there.   

   
I even took them on the haunted house and they weren’t scared. 

Timmys first big boy water ride!  
Later we visited my great Aunt Lorraine & Grandpa Uncle Mike {Timmy added the Grandpa part lol}. Nicest people ever. The kids swam, we barbecued and then played with their pet lizard. Grace was in love, Timmy not so much. 

 
The next day we had a graduation party for my cousin Caroline. I was the only one there with kids. I had that feeling of being on display and of course my kids were not the best behaved. Timmy was running up and down the stairs and around the house, around the tent. He was a boy on a mission. I was a nervous wreck.  

    
 
The rest of the trip we just hung out. My favorite thing is just watching my kids have fun so I was so happy to sit back, relax and take in the view.

Grace giving Gabby a massage.   
Boys teaching Timmy about video games 😁

 
Uncle Chris taking Timmy in his monster truck.   
Watching puppies play. 

We took a drive to Port Jeff and got ice cream and the kids played on the shore. 

 Timmy was obsessed with Christopher. 

 & Uncle Chris! 

Target & Starbucks. Where moms find peace.  

 We took our kids to visit our Great Grandmas grave. Each kid gave her their favorite color butterfly. And then we got hit with the most powerful sprinkler ever created. Apparently it was watering day. Me and Keri were convinced that was Nanny telling us to bathe our children because honestly there was not a lot of that happening since they were playing so much and passing out every day.   

We are going to miss them soooo much!!!!               
  

“Mommy why are we driving backwards?” That’s just how they do it in Jersey Timmy… The trip back to New Jersey was the most miserable thing ever! It took 7.5 hours to drive 8 miles! That’s not a typo. 8 MILES. After that I am not ready to hit the road again to go back home.

We were about an hour from home and we were feeling a little delirious. Tim turned up the 80’s music and we all started jamming out like Rock stars. In the middle of it all something told me to remember this moment. 

We are at it again, road trip round 3! This time only 16.5 hours. And while that’s shorter than the 19 hour trip to Kansas, this time Daddy is coming… which ultimately means add some {a lot} of extra time. I love that man but timely anything is not him. 

I was so proud that we were actually on the road by 5am! Major victory in my book as far as my husband goes. Traveling is hard for us because I’m a very organized on time list crazy kind of gal. Tim is more of a lets stop at every rest area and get a cold drink even though the car is packed with water and soda. Anyway that’s not the point. The point is we get half way here and a car goes by with shirts hanging in the window and Tim gasps. He proceeds to tell me he forgot ALL his shirts. Really!? He only had to pack for himself. I’m thinking there was a method to his madness because we spent a good amount of time updating his wardrobe when we got to the city.

The trip really isn’t about family vacation. It’s a business trip turned mini vacay. I have lots of family on the island and Tim has a client in Newark so while he’s working I’m going to visit family. 

We did come up a few days early to go to the city. And it was amazing!

We bought tickets for One World Trade. The memorial museum is right there but we opted to skip it since we lived it and thought it would make more sense to do that when the kids are old enough to learn about it. Plus I really didn’t want to be sad. 

One World Trade is beautiful, something you have to see for yourself. The elevator takes you to the 102nd floor in less than 60 seconds traveling 27 miles per hour. It’s crazy. The inside walls of the elevator tell the story of how NYC was built from the very beginning to now in like a virtual tour. So cool. Then you get to see all the breathtaking views. 

  
Timmy really enjoyed this part. Grace was not interested at all and slept the whole time.

Timmy on top of the world! 

    
 
He was quick to break out his binoculars. 

 
My husband loves it here. He is in his element. He used to work in the towers in his earlier career days so this place is close to his heart. 

This picture sums up the beauty to me. The building looks like it goes straight to heaven.  

 
There are no words to describe the memorial pools.  

 
I don’t know if it’s on purpose but probably it is. The material they used to inscribe the names of the people lost reflects the sky so that it looks like the names are written in heaven when you take a photo. 

 
I looked up the names of the people in this picture because I felt the need to.

Kathy N. Mazza was a port authority police officer, the first female pa officer for both NJ & NY. Survivors said she used her 9mm to shoot out glass walls so that they could escape. She was in the stairwell when the building collapsed.

Walwyn Stuart Jr. was also port authority police because he thought it was a safer job than his previous undercover narcotics division. He changed jobs when his baby girl was born. When his wife called his office that day the secretary said he was safe and that he was helping with the evacuation. He was never seen again. His daughter turned one on September 28th.

Antonio Jose Rodrigues was port authority police for Time Square but was sent to World Trade to help. He went down to the basement level to get oxygen tanks when the towers fell. He had a 7 and 4 year old. His wife said this in her story.. they had big dreams for the future and now she doesn’t dream big anymore. She is grateful for simpler things like her kids walking through the front door safe after school. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then we visited Saint Peters and Saint Patrick’s Cathedrals. So incredibly beautiful. Something I’ve always wanted to see.  

    
    
    
 
After we had lunch and then headed to the American Girl Store!! The final piece to Gracie’s birthday. Her gift from us was a Bitty Baby. She was instantly in love! I could have bought the whole store. 

    
    
 
We really had an awesome day. Only mistake was wearing new shoes and not knowing where handicap subway entrances were. Carrying a double stroller up stairs at 5pm against the rush of angry people = not fun.

We were also excited to take Timmy on a real train. He’s always wanted to go on one. He was so happy. 

   
Anytime my whole family can spend time together is so great. Tim works so much I miss him. 

My little girl is almost two. Two. It’s unbelievable. I miss babies but this age is so fun! Gracie’s birthday has turned into a birthday month really. We are going to be in NY on her actual birthday so I wanted to do something small at home to celebrate. 

My best friend and I have little girls 3 months apart so I thought how fun to celebrate them turning two with just the two of them. 

We gathered all the supplies for the perfect tea party. We had crowns, tutus, jewelry and the sweetest girliest tea set from my grandma.

I have to give credit to my friend for a picture perfect black board. It was absolutely precious watching them sip tea and clink their little cups. We were dying and snapping away.  

    
    
    
    
    
 
Then they went for a little swim and we all shared some virgin margaritas. 

    
    
 
We’ve been friends since the fifth grade. Almost 20 years! Crazy that we are living these extremely blessed lives, full of all the little girl dreams we had. We were just talking today about how we really have to be thankful that what we have is what we always prayed for.

I call her Aunt but we are not actually related. My grandma had us calling all her friends Aunt & Uncle growing up. This one was special tho. I just loved her. She was so kind and gentle; Always helping out my mom with us kids. 

One memory that really stuck with me was her helping me write Santa letters around Christmas time sitting in my moms kitchen. She’s the kind of woman that when you come over she’s putting out a spread for Kings and Queens. 

I named my little Grace after her and since we would be passing by her house when we went to Kansas we stopped in so that she could meet Grace. It was so special.

First thing Timmy noticed was a huge canister of lollypops that she put together for him. And for Grace she had a little box. Inside was her confirmation cross. She had passed it to her daughter for her confirmation but since she didn’t have any children, as a family, they decided to pass it down to Grace. Instant tears. 

Update* I am heartbroken to share that Aunt Grace passed away 4 weeks after we visited her. What a blessing that we were able to see her when she was feeling well and that I have these precious photos now to one day show my children. 

I got this text from her daughter and I want to keep it with this post so that when Grace gets older she can understand how much Aunt Grace adored her. 

May God rest her soul and bring her right home to Uncle Bill. Something tells me she had quite the welcoming.