One Month Old

My little Noah,

In the blink of an eye a whole month has past. Some of the newness is wearing off, you've gained some weight and filled out some of your wrinkles :) We have started to settle into a routine and you are a sweet little guy! You are content most of the time and even let mommy get rest at night. The only thing that really seems to bother you is messy diapers, you appreciate being changed promptly. You are well loved by everyone here and recieve lots of daily kisses!

MAP Testing

Within the homeschooling community I've heard a lot of pro's and con's about having your kids tested. I'm still not sure how I feel. I don't really feel like I need to test them, I think they're doing ok. I do wonder, though, about how I am doing as their teacher. If they are tested and they do alright then that means I must at the least be an adequate teacher, right? Well, we bit the bullet this morning and my oldest two kids took the MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress). Now we just wait until next week to hear the results on how they did. I was glad that the test focused on math and reading only not on history, social studies, science etc. None of the questions were over controversial matters, thank goodness! They did seem to ask a significant amount of questions about syllables, more than I thought necessary. All of this really means nothing to me though until we get some results.

So, how about you? Do you test your kids?
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Outside fun in the sun

Apparently I've been MIA around here for a week! I guess that's what happens when Washington gets a bit of sunshine. It's rare so we are out enjoying it!

In a recent post I told you about a mini bike that my husband fixed up. The kids really like it but it has a downside...only one rider at time. So my Dh has been searching for a solution. He was thinking a go kart that would seat two, but he came across this mini car on Craigslist.

It's in rough condition, but with some elbow grease, a few new parts, and some modifications we're hoping it'll work out great. The plan is to make it with bench seats so it will seat a driver and four small passengers :)

Here the kids all pitched in to scrub it up a bit.

This little guy doesn't see the need for something gas powered, he's happy with Flinstone style!



Then we took a drive down to the beach to play.

It was fun and we came home with lots of sand :) (you know, in our shoes)

The kids spent some time playing around with a remote control truck....

and last but not least is our new friend....

We've learned three times, yes THREE times, this past week that if the door off our kitchen gets left open swallows will fly into our house. Twice I've found one of these guys flying around my kitchen and once there was one flying circles around in my bedroom. Funny you say? You know when you're walking outside and a bird is above you? What is your fear? That it will poop on you, right? Well, what do you think will happen to your bed when the bird is flying around??? Oh yeah, that part's NOT so funny!!

Do you have hobbies?

I have a few. I used to have more but I’m sure that all of you know that when you have kids it puts some limits on your life. One of the things I’ve tried to maintain is scrapbooking.

I may only pull the stuff out once or twice a year, but it’s something I’m not willing to give up. For each of my kids I’ve tried to accomplish a scrapbook of their first year of life. I pulled out the box of albums yesterday to look at a picture and realized that I’m behind.

Shocking right? Haha.

I’m about halfway through the first year of my fifth child. Looking at all the finished albums I felt all inspired and ready to pull out all the paper, stickers, etc to get caught up.

Then I remembered why I stopped halfway through an album.

No photos.

It’s not that we haven’t taken any pictures, they are just ALL on the computer.

Digital images.

Nothing I can put my hands on, cut out and make it look all neat. I’m sure it’ll take me awhile but today I’ve started uploading pictures to order prints. Hopefully in a couple of weeks when the pictures finally arrive I’ll still be inspired.