Back 2 School

Well, we are back to school around here. I am slightly mourning my lack of a summer break but I am so excited for all the things we will be learning this year. I have fallen more in love with learning than ever. I'm enjoying each and every subject now and that makes for such a better experience. I sound like such a dork sometimes when I get excited about the new things I am learning but I don't care. I'm a homeschooling mom and I like it! I am so grateful that God chose to put our family on this path. It might not be for everyone but it is, for sure, for me!

Adia was asked to fill out a short interview for the first day of her CC class and I thought her answers were really cute. So I am copying her answers in here and I am asking the little ones the same questions. I want to document this.

Adia Paige - 12 years old

7th Grade - Challenge A

Interview from Adia's first day... I stole this from her planner.

When do you feel happiest? When I'm riding my horse, playing volleyball or with my papa.

What makes you sad? Injustice towards children and women.

Have you ever been really scared? Yes, when I found out my cousin had cancer, it went away and then we found out it came back way worse... he's now in heaven with Jesus!

What is your favorite subject? History!!!!

Do you have a food that you absolutely love? Sushi and Brazilian food.

What did you do on your last birthday? I went shopping, went to a steak house and spent the night at a hotel with my Papa.

Have you done anything fun this summer? I rafted the Grand Canyon

If you could travel any where in the world, where would you go? The Galapagos Islands.

What Bible verse means the most to you? Matthew 28:19 & Colossians 3

Avery Taylor - 8 years old

3rd Grade

What is your favorite subject? Art and History because History helps you learn about back then and I just like to draw and am just really good at it so I like it. Oh and I like learning John in Latin.

What do you like least? Math and Latin Grammar.

How do you think you will do this year? Really good.

When do you feel happiest? When I am doing art with anyone I know.

What makes you sad? Knowing that there are people dying in the world and that there are kids in Africa whos parents died of AIDS.

Have you ever been really scared? When I was in the cavern in Shasta. I thought something was going to be collapsing on me.

Do you have a food that you absolutely love? I like Icing on the Cupcakes coconut cupcake and my moms lava cakes.

Have you done anything fun this summer? Arts Camp at church and summer camp with the high schoolers.

If you could travel any where in the world, where would you go? To France cause I like being fancy and France is fancy.

What Bible story means the most to you? Noah's Ark because God saved Noah's family.

Kenyon Kyle - 6 years

1st grade

What is your favorite subject? History Sentences.

What do you like least? Latin Conjugations

How do you think you will do this year? Good.

When do you feel happiest? Free time at CC.

What makes you sad? When Adia fights me or gets mad at me.

Have you ever been really scared? Yes. Nope. I've never been scared.

Do you have a food that you absolutely love? Fish, and apples, yummy!

Have you done anything fun this summer? Starting soccer.

If you could travel any where in the world, where would you go? China cause I have friends there.

What Bible story means the most to you? Adam and Ever because they were the first people on Earth and they were the first ones to do sin.

Adison Faith - 4 years

Kindergarten

What is your favorite subject? History Sentences and the songs.

What do you like least? Writing, spelling and math.

How do you think you will do this year? Good because I like doing school.

When do you feel happiest? When I play with my friends and my toys.

What makes you sad? When people like punch me and push me on the cement. That's what Avery did today.

Have you ever been really scared? Yes. When I had a bad dreams. One dream there was a big swimming pool and there were sharks and Avery and Kenyon were in there and they were tossing a ball around and then someone shot the ball far away.

Do you have a food that you absolutely love? Sugar stuff.

Have you done anything fun this summer? Going to Shasta and Arts Camp and that's all.

If you could travel any where in the world, where would you go? Mexico. I really want to go there.

What Bible story means the most to you? Kenyon's Bible and your Bible and Avery's.

Kaden John - 3 years

Just taggin along

When do you feel happiest?

Dinosaurs

Do you have a food that you absolutely love?

Cereal and pasta and cheese and chicken and am I still sick mom? am I?

What do you NOT like? Giraffes

What makes you sad? Elephant

Have you ever been really scared? Yes. I had a rattle snake who killed me. It did. My rattle snake is in the bush. I do have one. It's in the garage. I do.

Have you done anything fun this summer? Play at the park.

If you could travel any where in the world, where would you go? To that forest (pointing at his picture and I tell him it's the bush in our front yard and he says "yes, I want to see it")

What Bible story means the most to you? Kenyon's

Do you want to tell me anything else about you while you are 3? Go to CC. Giraffe.

How big are you now? As big as my thumbs. All my fingers are big.

How strong are you? This strong (flexing).

What is your best trick? Ummm.. a front flip. I did it when I was taking a nap. I was asleep and now I'm awake.

More shots from day 1!

I have a feeling this is going to be our best year ever!

Avery's Art Party

She's ready to party!

Due to the fact that we spent a week out of town and arrived the night before the party.

This is what the house looked like before we left for Tahoe.

A close up of the favors.

When the guests starting arriving, I started painting faces.

It was actually really fun for me.

One of my models.

Then an art teacher came and did an art class with the kids.

Avery and her designed the picture ahead of time and they all turned out SO GOOD!

Danielle and Adia even got in on the action.

After that we had dinner and birthday cake!

The girls got "artsy" and decorated cupcakes

We made this fun garland for above the cupcake table.

I really liked how it turned out.

And, of course, there were presents!

Then we puff painted the shirts we wore for the art class.

And lastly we took a fun group shot, said good-bye and then I took a long, much needed nap!

But let's not forget the real birthday.... for both birthday babies!

5 days after Avery's party... We woke up to a Toy Story table full of donuts!

Kaden got most of the attention on the 21st. He thought it was his party day.

Then we had a pretty normal school day and picked up the celebrating again when dad came home from work, I mean, when dad got off the river.

Big Sister worked hard decorating a "Buzz Cake"

- I bought plain chocolate cake and had her fancy it up.

The twins had a great time opening gifts! Avery's favorite was her new Razor 360. Kaden got mostly Toy Story gifts and his favorites seem to be the 2 stuffed Buzz and Woody dolls sent from Aunt Stacey.

Avery thought it was important they sliced the cake together for a photo opp. I LOVE it!

Of course they loved having family join in on the fun. Thanks for stopping by guys and adding to the joy!

Happy 8th Birthday Avery!

and

Happy 3rd Birthday Kaden!

YOU ARE SO LOVED!!!!

Poor Little Guy

One of these days he's really going to regret all the modeling he did for his sisters. But as of now... he LOVES when they dress him up and call him a princess.

Seriously, this poor little boy has no chance.

Big Boy - Big Job!

How is it possible I am potty training a baby for the

5th and FINAL time???

I am excited to be done with diapers soon and totally sad that it's getting official that my babies aren't babies anymore. But that is what I am doing so here are some pics. So far we are doing okay on the pee thing - not so great on the poops! Although getting sprayed with the hose is not fun so hopefully that will turn around soon.

It all started with the ring of the door bell. Somehow we all already knew it was for Kaden and we all followed him to the door.

Where he found a present just for him.

It was a Zebra, wearing a pull up, asking Kaden to please help him learn to go potty in the toilet like a big boy so he can wear big boy underwear. (Cute side note: Adison still sleeps with her Potty Piggy that she succesfully potty trained when she was 2) Of course we had to check his pull up right away and the darn Zebra already went poop and pee which cracked Kaden up!

So Kaden taught him how to go in the toilet (with all his siblings help) over the next few hours and soon they were both wearing underwear and going together... I wish I had a picture of the potty chart that both the Zebra and Kaden earned stickers for.

If you are wondering how a Zebra goes potty in the toilet the trick is having a syringe with yellow water and some pepper on hand.

Well, that was 2 days ago and we are still going potty every 20-30 minutes around here. Kaden isn't doing as well as Adison but he is doing good enough and for that I am so glad! He doesn't have accidents but he rarely says he has to go... he just goes when I take him. Here is the Big Boy taking care of business.

Oh and as I am typing this Kaden just came out of his room wearing his brothers boxers telling me he is a princess... not sure why he thinks this or what he is talking about but I had to grab the camera again. (gotta love the rush editing to cover his manhood huh?)


Did I mention I can't wait until the weekend when daddy is here to help me! Oh and being a 5th kid has some major perks... you have never seen such a large cheering crowd for every drop of pee this little boy has... SO CUTE!!!!

Baby Kaden is 2!

Kaden John is 2!

(Oh no!)

Talking - not too much. he can say a bit but chooses to keep his words to himself.

Favorite Activities - his all time favorite is riding his razor followed by a close second which is swinging. Whenever we go anywhere with his scooter he draws a crowd by how good at it he is. In fact last weekend some man we don't know was snapping pictures of him on the razor and later came up and quized me about him.

Potty Training - We began it a bit ago due to the fact that Kaden takes off his own poopy diapers at times and even tries to flush them but we quickly learned it is more work than I am willing to give it right now.

Favorite People - He is such a mommies boy right now and I LOVE it! He thinks his brother is the funniest person ever. He adores his dad, Adia and Avery and if I'm not there will let any of them rock him to sleep or kiss his wounds. And as for him and Adison. Well he doesn't enjoy her constant mothering but they are the best of buddies a bit of the time! :)

Foods: Kaden is proving to be a spoiled little baby and can be very picky at times. Peanut butter trails are all over my house right now becasuse of his obsession with it. Other than that pasta, sugar anything, cheese, cereal and pizza seem to be his favorites!

Sleeping: Well he has been in a big boy bed for some time now. He takes his naps and goes to bed well but about 99% of the time he ends up cuddling with mom by 3am. I don't have the heart to send him back because he is my last baby and he's the last one I get to do this with.

Here he is with his favorite bday gift this year!

I'm including this picture because it shows him outside where he is happiest, you can see his razor on the edge of the lawn and his favorite little ducks who we have spent the last month raising.

You can see the joy this swing brings him every single day! Sometimes for hours!

And here he is crying because he snapped himself with the hat.

Happy Birthday KJB!

Mommy Loves you so much!

Crazy Kaden

Here is my little man in action... he is so coordinated. It's amazing how much the little ones learn just by watching. Isn't he cute!

Big Boys

For Kenyon's birthday he got a new bed. Last night he and Kaden both slept on it for the first time. I cannot believe Kaden is already in a big boy bed. It's starting to really feel like I don't have a baby anymore. BTW - the small door on the side of the bed opens and leads to a hideout that Kenyon is so excited about! Fun stuff!

Clarification

Just to clarify the whole "fence training" comment from a couple posts ago....

We were all in the backyard having fun when I realized all 5 of the kids are playing on the play structure and I wanted a picture. My kids all (except Kaden) love having their picture taken and think they can pose photos really well. After the slide picture the big girls climb on the fence and ask me to put Adison up there to take a picture with them. Then, of course, Kenyon jumps up and wants Kaden up there too. So we give in and kyle holds Kaden's hand so we can get a picture. Then, because we are kind of weird and Kenyon really could climb the fence when he was barely 2, I thought it would be funny to have a picture of them up there together.

Kaden was only on the fence for less than a minute - there was no training and it was just for a picture my son really wanted. So yes, we are kind of crazy, but not that crazy!

And if you want to know why I am doing this it is because my retarded sister really believed that I was putting him up there to teach him how to walk on a fence and she was annoyed with me... come on Stacey! Are we really that bad??? Wait - please don't answer that!

Kenyon Creativity & A Little Middleton Madness

I've decided to start sharing some of my sons creative ideas to give you all a giggle and me a release. This boy is too much!

Today I walk out of my room to find Kenyon sitting on a large dry erase board at the top of the stairs (where you see Kaden asleep - I'll save that story for another day).

As I walk towards him I see him smiling so big as he goes sliding down. He picks up the board which is taller than him (as if it's a snowboard) and with a BIG smile on his face says "mom, can I please not be in trouble since you have never said I can't do this and because it is REALLY FUN!" To that I replied "sure., but if you do it again you will be in big trouble" after all - that was a great reason not to be in trouble right? Plus, it was a very creative idea don't you think?

And here are a few pictures to make you smile or just to help you think we are OUT OF CONTROL!

Notice the extra ropes tied all over our playset... only a few near death experiences with those so far!
And here Kaden is jumping to dad after his lesson on walking the fence - a skill Kenyon posessed at about 2 years of age. You can see Kenyon is about to push his pansy brother who is nervous to jump to dad... "come on Kaden, you are 17 months old - it's time to be a big boy and jump". Which he did with no help from brother... yeah for me and my two adreneline junkies huh? And if you count dad I guess I have 3.

Oh and quickly on a more positive note - Kenyon (4 years) can now read 3 letter words... see he's not that dumb!