Happy 5th Birthday Olivia

Oh my! I can't believe Olivia is 5. She was very excited about this birthday and kept reminding us each day as it drew closer "so we wouldn't forget". :) Don't worry, we didn't. The weekend started with a delivery of balloons from her Aunt DD and Uncle Rudy. She also received more balloons on the morning of her birthday from us. Olivia loves balloons! She got to take a friend to the local bounce place on Saturday morning. She got some sort of stomach bug after lunch that day but still had a good time. We stopped by a store dedicated to Hello Kitty at a mall nearby. By Sunday morning, her actual birthday, she seemed to have recovered pretty well, although her stamina isn't quite back even this afternoon.

Here is our Birthday Princess on her special morning. Be sure and check out our Princess lapbook in the previous post. We had a special breakfast of her choice, cinnamon rolls and yogurt drinks. Grandma and Grandpa drove up for the day. Our church family sang Happy Birthday to her and she enjoyed a pink cupcake (also per her request). Then she chose for us to go to Red Robin for lunch. There we met up with Nana, Pop-pop, and Uncle Greg.

And here is Hello Kitty. After lunch we went to Build a Bear to make her. Seems they are retiring this particular Hello Kitty and this was the last one on the shelf. Mommy and Daddy got very nervous there for a minute. :/ The story is that she wanted this kitty back at Christmas time but they had pulled her off the shelf for several weeks then. Thank you God for having one still waiting there for her. Then we came back to the house with Grandma and Grandpa to open a few more presents. Whew, what a day! Its been fun!

Princess Lapbook

Our Princess turns 5 today! She has an amazing personality; so obedient, kind, and loving. She enjoys laughter and smiles a ton. We have spent some time talking about how precious and loved she is by those of us who know her as well as her God, the King. And being her daughter makes her a princess. She will be loved by Him no matter what. We then spent a lot of time talking about what a princess does, how she acts and why. As the daughter of the King, she represents him to others around her. She is display the fruits of the Spirit, the characteristics of Love, to keep God's Word in her heart, and to display the character qualities that he admires. We also talked a very little bit about modesty.

Trying So Hard to Figure It Out

Promised Easter Pictures

Easter Lapbook

Here is Olivia's Easter Lapbook. We had a great couple of weeks leading up to easter reading the events of that time out of the bible and then learning about it more with our other books. We also did some special activities at home, like daily activities to get us excited about Easter and nightly devotions, a Palm Sunday parade, Passover meal/celebration, and then a family picnic/worship service on Easter morning. We did paint easter eggs this year and the kids got to go to an Easter egg hunt where Olivia passed up tons of eggs around her looking for a pink egg. :) We also got to enjoy seeing some extended family over the Easter weekend, including her cousin. I will post some of those pictures next time. We had a very blessed Easter!

The kiddos

These kiddos bring me such joy! They were outside on Saturday playing while JR cleaned up the backyard. Jeremy sent me the pics to my email where i found them that night at work. Oh how it made my heart glad. :)

30 weeks with Baby E

Me and My Body Lapbook

We had a great time with this unit study. There was so much to talk about. We will be able to expand on this for years to come. But for now, Olivia got an overview of how her body is made and what she can do with it and what she should do to take care of it. The books to read together were endless; and that was just one quick search at the library and some we already had on our shelves. Most of the minibooks we used for this lapbook came from homeschoolshare. The ones on feelings came from Carissa at 1+1+1=1. When we talked about feelings we also spent some time talking about how to talk to God about them. This has really helped Olivia to pray more spontaneously and like she is having a conversation with God. I would highly recommend the book "I talk to God about how I feel" by Stormie Omartian. The art projects were a lot of fun. It just so happened that our art curriculum had a "me project" that fit perfectly with our unit both in learning about herself but also about her senses. Olivia did the project on the right with her daddy and had a great time making the lifesize version of herself and placing her organs in the right spots. God has created us each so special and unique. I hope that Olivia has taken away from this unit just how much God loves her and knows her. Luke 12:7 Psalm 139

Winter Fun!

We usually don't get snow like this around here, so when we do, we have to enjoy it while it lasts.

Gabe was dying to go out in the snow.

Once out, he just wanted to eat it.

He wasn't any more adventurous than standing in the snow.

This is the first time Olivia has really enjoyed the snow.

We got a little last year and she was fine just walking in it, but this year she wanted to make snowballs and throw snow on me and on Sarah.

23 Weeks

Here's Rebecca and Baby E at 23 weeks along.

Olivia loves to give the baby kisses and say hello. :)

Olivia's Big Show 2010

Olivia finished up her semester of dance/gymnastics at the Little Gym and did a wonderful job on her routines at the Big Show.



Tap Routine
I love the kid in the background that looks like she's doing it with them.


Ballet


Uneven Bars
(If you turn your speakers up, you can hear her start to say, "No, i don't want to..." right before the instructor flips her around the bar. :)


Balance Beam


Medal Ceremony

Olivia's unit study/lapbook for the Winter

The idea for this study came from Olivia's great love to the "Bear" books by Karma Wilson. She can read the books along with me now. I would say she could read over half the words. It was very exciting for both her and I. We had a great time reading about animals and how they adapt to winter, when it is cold and food is scarce. We talked about hibernation, migration, and adaptation. We read about many animals but put the the ones she liked best on the cover.

We defined hibernation, migration, and adaptation. We looked at why animals need to do this. We talked about what happens to a hibernating animal and when they know to wake up. We talked about how bears are not considered true hibernators and what makes them different from other hibernating animals. We looked at some of the paths of a few migrating animals. Olivia likes to find places on the globe so this was exciting for her. We went over how animals prepare themselves in the fall time for the winter and then we touched on what they do as soon as they wake up in the spring time.

There were tons of books to read at the library. We also found some great websites online. One is a live camera watching a hibernating bear. We did some great activities like feeling our own heartbeats and breathing and then playing with a drum to simulate a hibernating animals heartbeat. We also pretended to hibernate and talked about what it would be like. Then we talked a little about how we, as humans deal with the colder winter weather.

A huge thanks to daddy for helping us with this lapbook. We had to make up many of our own mini books for this lapbook. Olivia's favorite animals were the bear of course and then the dormouse (also known as the hazel mouse).

New Ultrasound Pics

We had our big anatomy ultrasound today and things are looking great! There was some debate going into the appointment about whether to find out if it was a boy or a girl, but it turned out that the baby wasn't telling! :) the way it was positioned, the tech couldn't get a good look at the baby's bottom. It actually means that we have to have another one done in about a month so they can take a look at the lower spine.

As with our previous children, this one likes to keep its hand in front of its face. We did get this neat shot of the hand open, though, rather than a fist.

Coming May 2010...

Well, it's been killing us to keep it a secret for this long, but...

We're expecting baby #3! Our due date is May 28th, 2010, but if past history has any bearing on it, this one will be a couple weeks early, too.

There's a debate raging between Jeremy and I regarding whether to know if it's a boy or girl ahead of time...He wants to know. I want a surprise! :)

Merry Christmas!

Winter Fun

We got some snow over the weekend.

We ran outside to catch the first flakes that were falling. And Olivia was so excited.

Gabe liked the snow as long as I was holding him but was not so sure when I set him down. He did like to eat it.

Olivia made a Gingerbread House. Well, she had a lot of help from Jeremy and I. She had a good time decorating it and was very proud of our work.

Olivia and Jeremy made a snowman. Olivia thought the snow was very cold to be rolling into balls. She did enjoy putting on the gumballs for his face.

Gabe finally tried to walk a little in the snow.