Bradley's Readings

Bradley has been reading for some time, but just the pre-reader phonic books with the short vowel sounds (Sam sat. Sam ran. Etc.). We went to the library last week and he picked out some more advanced books- books with long vowels, silent letters, the "real deal"- and he just started reading them! :) James and I were super impressed. I've heard that when reading "clicks," kids just start reading. He has been so excited, and I've found him reading to Ben, or sitting and reading by himself. So cute- way to go Brad!!

Our Weekly Adventures

This was a very productive, but fun week. We learned a lot, bought some new "stuff," and got outside and enjoyed the beautiful Central Coast weather (it did hit about 80 degrees one day, but pretty much stayed in the 70's the rest of the week- we LOVE it here!)

I'll start with our adventures:

We headed out to Avila Beach and walked the Bob Jones Trail with the kids on Wednesday morning (this is a 3 mile trail that leads to the ocean). It is so beautiful on the trail. I made it about half way and back which was pretty impressive for an 8 month pregnant gal! The boys, of course, geocached a bit and then we headed to Avila Barn for a picnic lunch. We've learned with our family of five that if we pack food, it saves a WHOLE lot of money. Avila Barn now serves sandwiches, but we checked out the prices and it is $9.95 per sandwich! They did look pretty good and came with a couple small sides, but our picnic basket full of goodies didn't cost near the $50 we would have shelled out at their deli and we left full and satisfied!

We then headed up to San Luis for my 34 week prenatal check up. Baby sounds great, head is down, all is well- she'll be ready to go in a little over 5 weeks! I spent a good chunk of the next morning making a master list of all the things I want to buy or do before she arrives. My wonderful husband was very open to all my ideas (including making a bunch of food ahead of time and freezing it, birth gifts for Savanna, Brad, and Ben, and steam cleaning the carpets!). We ordered everything we needed for our home birth (there are home birth kits online), and Savanna and I spent several hours on Saturday cooking up some wonderful food that will save nicely in the freezer until after Emma arrives! So far in the freezer we have:

• bean burritos and extra sides of cooked beans (Thank you Ariel for your help- you are terrific!)
• Turkey meatloaf and mini loaves
• Turkey pesto meatballs
• Almond/date/cinnamon cookies
• Almond butter fudge and carob rolls
• Walnut/Pecan "Lara" bars (kind of like nut-based granola bars)
• Veggie Burgers (I have never made veggie burgers from scratch-these turned out SO good!)

**I have seriously been neglecting my food blog, but several of these recipes came from a new site my sister introduced me to called http://www.weelicious.com/- great whole foods recipes. Most of the desserts are from some of my raw vegan books (and some of them I just made up).

We have four or five things planned to make the next two Saturdays, and then I think we'll have 3-4 weeks of grub saved to get us through the first month. All James will have to do is defrost, cook, or toss a salad- and we'll be good to go! :)

Hubby worked some overtime so I got some birth gifts too!

I have been asking for a new food processor for about 6 months. My old one started slowly melting due to over use. This is a 14 cup processor that can chop, slice, grate, and knead dough- seriously cool. I used it about 5 or 6 times just this week with all our food prep!

I have also been asking for some kind of chair or rocker for many months. All we have is a horrible futon that has been wreaking havoc on my back. James found this glider and ottoman for me and it is SO wonderful. I think I'm going live in this chair the next 5 weeks...and I'm sure I'll be using it a LOT after that as well. I love you, Babe! You are so wonderful!!

On the learning front, we had some HUGE milestones this week. Bradley has started to really read (I will post some of his readings next), AND he has learned to tie his shoes! Hey, these are BIG in my book, especially the shoe tying (Don't get me wrong the reading is super cool too, but it's impossible for me to bend down and tie his shoes these days). :) Ben is getting close too. He can do part of his shoes and just needs a little help with the bow.

We had a nice night with Savanna on Thursday (I forgot my camera, so sorry no pictures!) at the Stake Center. They had Girl's Camp Recognition where they showed us slide shows of what the girls did at camp, sang some of their camp songs, and gave out certificates for their achievements. It was fun to see all that she did- I didn't realize Girl's Camp was such a big deal. What a great opportunity for young girls to learn skills and build their testimonies and friendships.

July 13- July 18, 2010

Pregnancy and Family Fotos

These pictures were taken sometime around the end of May beginning of June- I was around 6 months pregnant. I usually don't go for pictures when I am pregnant, but my good friend Randa was moving to Texas and gave me this photo shoot as a shower gift! We met her down in Shell Beach one evening and she took pictures of the whole family. It was a really fun night, and the pictures turned out great (double chin and all)!

Here are a couple of our favorites:

Summer Vacation

Well, we don't really do summer vacation, per say. Our kids spend most of their time learning and doing the things that they love, so we don't need to take long breaks in our "schooling." But, since we do focus on learning and skills throughout the year, I have no reservations about taking it a bit easy now and then. This was one of those weeks. :)

Grandma Kathleen came for a visit. We enjoyed her company very much, and actually got out and did a bunch of stuff: movies, drive-in, trip to Morro Bay, James' soccer game, San Luis Farmer's Market, and James and I got out twice for some much needed dates!

Her last day here we packed up the kids and headed out to Morro Bay.

We stopped first at bird sanctuary located next to the Morro Bay Inn (Kathleen and her husband, Lynn, surprised James and I on our 5th wedding anniversary by booking us a waterfront room at this Inn and watching the children for a couple of days! They could sure do that again...hint hint!!). The kids weren't super impressed with the bird sanctuary...they were more interested in the one dead bird on the side of the parking lot. Even Savanna was trying to poke the poor thing with a stick! Oh, well. We moved on to the next event.

We then went to the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History. We've been there before, but it's a really neat place with incredible views and lots of exhibits about the estuary and marine life in the area. Their big exhibit right now is about otters. There is a family of otters that just had babies in a kelp bed right across from Morro Rock. They showed us a video and then after touring the museum, we drove over to the rock to see them.

Ben made a friend- not just the spider- there's another kid behind the puppet theater!

There he is!

Savanna likes the museum, but was over it after about 20 minutes (we ended up staying there close to an hour and half!). So to make me happy for my blog, here is Savanna pretending to be inspired by the museum exhibit- cheesy girl!!

These glasses make you see how an insect sees- I refused to put them on.

Here is the little otter family off of Morro Rock! We couldn't get much closer to them, but they sure looked comfortable!

The biggest highlight of our trip was not the dead bird (or the live birds), or the museum, or even the otters. It was the ground squirrels! These little guys were everywhere, and a man with peanuts let the kids help feed them. It was pretty cute.

After feeding the squirrels we headed off to one of our favorite joints on the Embarcadero, Hofbrau, for some fish n' chips and clam chowder!

THEN:

San Luis Obispo has an awesome Farmer's Market every Thursday evening. We couldn't believe how packed it was! There were tons of produce, flowers, food booths, firemen, bounce houses, bands- you name it. I loaded up on veggies and fruits for the week- my kind of fun. :) It was a very full day, but very fun.

We still had a chance to do some of learning/playing at home this week too. Grandma Kathleen loved joining us for our morning devotionals and she helped Savanna with her knitting quite a bit. The boys were able to play with their building sets, and we rearranged the living room AGAIN! Big surprise! I washed all of Emma's clothing, blankets, towels, etc. in some really expensive baby detergent (I'm sure that is just a ploy for new parents- not that I'm a new parent-but I figured I'd buy it the first time I wash her stuff and then I'll just use my natural soaps from TJs after that!). So overall, it was a productive, yet relaxing week!


Ben is taking after his brother and preparing some of his own meals...okay, it's always a pb & j with some fruits and veggies, but hey, a guy has to start somewhere!

The boys made us all necklaces for the week...I mean "chains" (Because real men don't wear necklaces. Just ask my husband).

We can't seem to inspire Savanna to do any sort of physical education. She just refuses, so I had her do my pregnancy yoga video with me today. It's like Yoga X minus a million- super easy. She only made it about 15 minutes and then had to start modifying the moves. Oh, man. I kicked her butt outside and made her run laps around our park while Bradley counted for her. You've got to be kidding me!!

She is studying events and people from 1900-1920 right now (her idea). This week she is reading about the Roosevelts, Babe Ruth, Henry Ford, and Post-Impressionism. She is most impressed with Eleanor Roosevelt- she read her entire biography today! The woman was amazing!

Bradley is writing his second book. His first one was about....umm...I'm not really sure, but he was super excited about it. This one is about robots (he helped me out by putting a picture of a robot on the cover)!

Ben is a master builder! He can build anything. ;)

Benjamin took this picture himself!

Then Bradley needed a turn with the camera- not too bad guys!

July 4th thru July 12th, 2010