Orchards

We took the girls to the orchards today to pick apples. It was a little more expensive than I felt it would be worth, other than the fact that you can't put a price on happy memories.

Minneapolis

We went to Minneapolis yesterday and spent the day at valley fair. The girls were just perfect.

They stayed with us the entire time, they didn't fight at all, and they didn't throw fits at all other than when we had to leave. There were several rides that we all could ride on together which I loved. When we went to the mall of america the last two years, I would have to stay with Andi while he went with Ashlyn on any rides other than the kiddie rides. We rode the scrambler, the octopus, a hot air balloon ride that you sit in a basket and it takes you up in the air and around and around, some ride that just went around in circles really fast,


and of course the Tilter. Then there was the rollercoaster for kids that they went on, the kiddie free fall ride called the frog hopper, and then your other basic kiddie rides.






We took them to an Imax show there as well on the Wild Ocean in africa. Andi fell asleep right away, and I'll have to admit, I slept for the firstt 15 minutes of it as well. Not because it was boring, I was just that tired! When it was time for lunch we thought we'd go to a little diner they had, rather than get food at the stands. What a mistake. I kept laying out napkins so the girls wouldn't touch the table! The food comes, and the cheese on the girls' cheeseburgers were plastic. It was melted, and still, all I had do was lift the corner and pull the entire thing off. When I did that, there was a hair underneath the cheese on Ashlyn's. Andy took it back, and they gave him another. Normally, the girls know if they don't eat what was given to them, they're not going to eat any sort of snack, however, when I saw the girls were nto wanting to eat them, I was glad. I told them they don't have to eat, we will get them a snack and explained that this was an exception to our normal rule because the place was disgusting!

While we were there, we also saw a child who apparently belonged to the most irresponsible parents to ever exist. While we were in line to get on the balloon ride, this little girl who was probably 5, maybe even 4 yet, tried getting on the ride. The man asked her where her parents were, she pointed to one of the rollercoasters in the distance and said "um..they're on a ride." My heart jumped. He told her she couldn't ride without her parents, and we got on the ride and he started it. I waited for him to go talk to her, and call security. He told her to stand on the other side of the gate. When she did, she wandered off to a stand where a girl was in charge of some game. I was about in tears. I couldn't believe this guy let that little girl take off again. I guess it just takes a woman to deal with these sorts of things because the woman was smart enough to know to keep her there by her until she could get security over there. When security took the girl I took that as the perfect chance to show the girls that that is a safe person to let them take their hands and guide them somewhere if they ever get lost at a place like that. I told them that instead of walking around looking for someone, to go to the nearest stand and tell a worker they are lost. Ashlyn was upset all night asking me if the girl found her mommy. I told her yes, and she got mad and said "You don't know that because you didn't see!"
After we had all the fun we could take at valleyfair, Andy picked up some fresh mini donuts at the bakery shop they had there and shared them with the girls, then we went to the gift shop and got the girls each something on our way out. After valley fair, we were all hungry so we went to a restaurant called Champs. Andi was given a balloon flower, and Ashlyn was given a horse. They had a great time! After that we went to target to get my film developed and picked up some things for the girls' school, and a gymnastics outfit for Ashlyn. We signed Ashlyn up for the ymca's gynastics program yesterday. She starts this wednesday at 6:15. She looks adorable in her outfit! :)

It's been a wonderful weekend, and today we are taking the girls to the orchards (for real this time!)

end of week one

We finished our first week of school, and the girls are making amazing progress. Ashlyn is understanding opposites which was something she had been having a hard time grasping until this week. Andi is starting to recognize letters, and LOVES it. Until this week she wanted nothing to do with learning! Now, several times a day, even when we're not doing school work anymore, she says "mommy, do my flash cards!" For fun, I gave her a work sheet that had four pictures of a girl that needed to be colored, and above them there was a pink shirt, a yellow shirt, blue pants, and purple pants. The directions said to color the pictures in all possible ways she could wear her outfit bsed on her options. Andi was done in no time. Was I surprised? Absolutely not. And yes, if you were wondering, her very first option was pink shirt and purple pants, even though those were the farthest away from eachother. Also, there was a picture that the girl had a purple purse and that is the one Andi put the purple pants and pink shirt on because she said they matched with her purse.

Tomorrow we are taking the girls to a theme park to enjoy our first weekend from school. We can all use it! :)

labor day

Today Andy took the girls to the park and to visit his grandparents (Johnson's and his grandpa Pieterick) and I got my house cleaned and made vegan lasagna. I didn't do anything special, but I enjoyed myself a lot. Tomorrow we start school and I'm anxious to see how that turns out. Until then, I'll end with a picture. :)

This crazy thing called life

Today Ashlyn wanted to do school work even though they didn't have to, so we worked some more on Ashlyn's reading. Her new words today were "Sad, dad bad had. Dad is sad." The look on her face when she finished made me feel happier than I could explain. Later, after supper we drove through culvers to get ice cream for the girls and took it to Riverview park. The girls finished their ice cream and we played. Andi even (somewhat) got over her fear of walking on the bridge. She even ran once, but then wonderful big sister Ashlyn (after seeing her dad do the same thing) shook the bridge and Andi became a bit hysterical. The girls also got to see a bat before we left. Something I got to see that the girls didn't yet was an ant shed its' wings. I'm hoping they'll get to see one if I take them out tomorrow.

My little girl is reading

During reading today, I got out hop on pop, which we havn't read in ages. Ashlyn recently learned the word "up", so I figured that book would be perfect for her. We spent hardly anytime at all before she was reading the first page on her own. "Up, pup, pup is up." When she got to the word "is", she spent some extra time trying to sound it out, but figured it out without any help other than "what sound does the letter 'i" make, and what sound does the letter 's' make and "now say it faster. " On to the next page. "Pup cup, pup in cup" and the next page "Cup, pup, cup on pup." We are so proud of her! I did all I could to keep from jumping out of my chair. After we finished with that, the girls and I went to the laundry mat. The girls thought this was an amazing trip! I guess it goes to show that it really doesn't take a lot to please a toddler.

The Royal Family of Target

Today was very productive and relaxing all in one! The girls sat at the table to do their school work, wrote a story and cleaned out the hamsters' cages. They are doing very well on their spanish, and I can't wait until next semester when I take my spanish class so I can teach them even more! They are also doing very well on their math. My favorite part of today though would definitely be writing their story, and watching Ashlyn illustrate it. Before I share the story, I have a few other pictures to share!

Vegan Sugar Cookies (yes, Andi needed to make a snow man).

Ashlyn telling daddy where the water is and where the United States is

The girls doing their worksheets

AND NOW...
I present to you, The Royal Family of Target!

Once upon a time in the city of Target, lived the royal Festival family. There was King Andy, Queen Hannah-Tannah, Prince Andrew and Princess Mary Mary.

One day, the Festival family all went to the store to get oatmeal, cereal, chicken nuggets, pizza and a camera for the king and another for the queen.

Then they went to the zoo. They saw a zebra, elephant and a monkey.

Then they had triangle taffy. Then, they all rode the horses. But then, Prince Andrew's horse was too big and broke the chain and ran away.

Prince Andrew jumped off the horse and landed on his belly and said, "Ouch." Princess Mary Mary put on her magic crown and took Prince Andrew's owies away.


Then they went back home and went to sleep to dream about their day.
And they all lived happily ever after

-the end

Roll with it baby

Our plans to go to the orchards were canceled when I realized that they don't start doing hay rides or let you pick your own apples until September 6th so we decided to do the orchards another weekend, and go rollerskating this weekend. Andrew and Ashlyn got rollerblades and Andi just tried the skates and I...well, I just didn't skate.

This was the first time the girls have ever been rollerskating and the first time they've ever seen a skating rink so they were pretty excited. The rink had a really neat set up and plenty to do for the ones who couldn't or didn't want to skate.
The girls' dad took Ashlyn first and although she obviously struggled being her first time on skates, she really impressed us, and I think if we had the rink to ourselves to work with her she would have gotten it down just fine.

Andi tried next, but she didn't make it far.

After that Andi tried a scooter. The didn't last long either.

They played a little bit on a ramp and slide they had in the middle, until Ashlyn decided to ride the scooter around while Andrew skated and I took Andi to play some games.

I've decided rather than having Ashlyn's birthday party in columbia we're going to have it here at the skating rink and let her have some other kids at the party hopefully! It will probably be full of boys since that's all we know! lol

Great day. =)

So this is what support feels like!

This past winter Ashlyn started getting very lonely and in need of friendship after we stopped babysitting for the little boy I had been watching for nearly a year, and the neighor kids moved away. I also began feeling alone and in need of someone other than my husband that shared some common ground with me. At this particular time, I happened to come across someone who was in the same situation as I was; her oldest son was lonely, and she was needing some support. We got together right away and met up at the children's musuem. It was so nice! However, after school started again we had a hard time coming up with a good time for both of us to meet up. Well, today we finally got together again at Riverview Park to let the kids play and have a picnic. She invited another mom to bring her homeschooled children as well. The kids had a great time and it was so nice feeling that sense of support again. Now, I suppose the word support probably has lost some of its' meaning, but the kind of support I seek is a feeling of 100% understanding and respect for my views that aren't commonly shared in our culture. Today the girls were very excited to learn they were with four other homeschoolers because they too need a feeling of support now and then. Ashlyn is starting to learn about common ground with people, and I think that will help her a little in understanding more about friendships in general. The girls enjoyed it and are looking forward to playing with the boys again. As for now, we are watching a movie before bedtime, and then in the morning it's off to the orchards. :)

Andy had a meeting today so the girls and I decided to make vegan snickerdoodles. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous since I havn't much luck with the few vegan cookies i've attempted to make in the past, but I thought it'd be fun to try either way especially since I had never made snickerdoodles before, and the girls had never tried them before. We made the cookies, and to my surprise they were really good so I thought I'd post the recipe. I didn't follow the recipe exactly the way it said, but I'll try to be as accurate as possible in my directions:



YOU'LL NEED:

1 cup vegan margarine1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar 1 tsp vanilla4 tbsp soy milk whipped with 2 tbsp cornstarch3 cups unbleached white flour1/2 tsp salt1 tsp baking powder1 tsp tapioca starch or cornstarch2 tbsp cinnamon4 tbsp granulated white sugar1 tbsp cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:
Cream margarine and sugar then add vanilla and soy milk/cornstarch mixture. In a smaller bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder and cornstarch then pour in the larger bowl with the wet ingrediants. In a seperate smaller dish, mix cinnamon, sugar and cocoa powder together. Roll dough into balls then roll each ball in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place on ungreased cookie sheet then press each ball flat with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 300 degrees for 12-14 minutes. They will seem like they are not done, but trust me, they will harden! Let cool and enjoy!

I'm so happy these turned out so well, but I'm also very excited to try it again to see how much I can perfect them and to try some other cookie recipes too. :D My husband is very picky and my biggest critic when it comes to vegan food and he approves, so I'm quite confident these are good for non-vegans as well! :)

Over all, today has been a great day. The girls got to help make the cookies, do dishes and cook supper. Yes...they are toddlers...they think this is a wonderful opportunity. =)

Nature Walk

With money tight for the next two weeks and summer coming to an end we're trying to make the most of our time right now. Today we wanted something we could do with the girls that we didn't have to pay to be able to do and that could also serve as some form of educational purpose for the girls as well. After some discussion we decided on Big Falls Park about 10 miles from us which has trails to walk along, rocks to climb, some beaches, and of course waterfalls. We took the girls to walk the trails and see the waterfalls. When we got there, we had Ashlyn listen for the water and lead us there by following the sound. She found the water in no time. We climbed around on the rocks for a while before heading back on the trails and on our way back up we saw a toad. We tried to catch it, but we were too slow. It was really nice being close to nature just the four of us.

There are times like today when I am reminded of Ashlyn's wealth of knowledge that seems to continue to grow on a daily basis. She has such a strong desire to learn which I hope will never end. Andi's curiosity is growing rapidly as well, and I believe will continue to grow as long as she sees her sister questioning how and why things work the way they do. They both have their own interests and styles of learning, but share the same overall goal: to discover and to learn.

At this point in the game we are introducing them to everything possible so they can decide for themselves what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what their greatest interests are. It's important that we have a balance of family activitives and shared experiences, and opportunities for the girls to be their own unique self.

Although we havn't officially started the school year yet, so far the girls are loving the school activities we've done, and say they can't wait until we get her classroom finished. I want them to understand that learning is not limited to sitting in a desk, nose burried in a book and so far I think Ashlyn in particular is really beginning to comprehend this idea, and I think it has made her appreciate homeschooling even more. This weekend we'll be going on a picnic with some other homeschoolers, and going to the orchards to pick apples, go on a hay ride, and run through a maze. Ashlyn's excited to know other homeschoolers and is looking forward to meeting more! It's been a great day, and we look forward to many more great days to come. =)

First Post

I have finally decided if everybody else is doing it, I guess I should too! So here I am with my own .blogspot.com address to write about journey as a mother, a wife and a student all while homeschooling our two daughters! This will be our first official year with our oldest who will be starting kindergarten this september so I'm anxious to see how it turns out. I have no doubt in my mind it will be a wonderful experience, but I am expecting things to possibly go differently than what I have planned and I am ready for any set backs that may come my way. I'm hoping this blog will help keep people posted and give a better understanding of what is important in my family. =) I look forward to writing!