Liv's Month in Review! June 8 - July 18, 2014

I got severely behind on my Weeks in Review, so I am going to settle with a Month in Review.

 Sean turned 9 June 22nd.  We had a party for him while we were visiting family in Missouri and then again when we got home.  Sean got a guitar from his papa and grandma and has been enjoying his guitar lessons! :)

 While visiting family in Missouri I took pictures of the kids.  My In-Laws have a nice, big yard!  Fun for pictures :)

Chloe Avanelle 5 years old

Sean Donovan 9 years old

Lilyana Mary 3 years old

 Eleanor Olivia 7 years old

  On July 3rd we took a little family trip to the zoo.  It was such a nice day!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day :)

 July 4th I made some pies, hot fudge sauce, and homemade ice cream.  My parents came over that evening and brought some yummy snacks.  It was a nice night.  We watched fireworks from our back deck :)

 I recently got my hair cut.  Here is a before and after.

 The girls and I had fun painting our nails with some SinfulColors nail polish that we got from Influenster for me to review :)

 Here are my Ruth bumps from weeks 22 - 27.  In Baby news I had an anatomy scan at 24 weeks.  Ruth was measuring about a week behind, but otherwise looks good and healthy.  My due date remains the same because we are sure on dates and I have a history of carrying small and having small babies.  I had my glucose test at 26 weeks and that came back normal with no concerns.

We chose to have an elective 3D/4D scan on Tuesday.  It was pretty cool to see her! :)  I think she is beautiful!  She weighs about 1 pound 14 ounces and still measuring about a week behind.  Both her foot and her femur measure almost 2 inches long.  We got to see her do some practice breathing.  She also stuck out her tongue, smiled slightly, wrinkled her forehead and frowned, and put her cord on her face!  Looks like she is going to have some hair and might be a thumb or finger sucker since she had her hands and arms by her face the whole time!  We got a stack of printed pictures, a CD of all 80+ pictures, and a DVD of the scan that is about 30 minutes long.  Here are my favorites out of all the pictures.

 Wednesday we officially started school back up.  It was nice to take a break, but my plan is to try to do school all year and take a little time off in the summer.  I'm also wanting to get a head start so we can take some time off in October when Ruth is born.  Sean and Eleanor are doing Heart of Dakota again this year.  Bigger Hearts for His Glory.  They are doing a lot of it together, but of course have different math and reading.  Sean is also doing cursive, but we are continuing to work on Eleanor's handwriting before rushing into cursive as I don't feel she is quite ready yet.  They are both using the same English/language arts this year.  I love that they are close enough in age that we can combine some things.  I don't think any of it is "too easy" or "too hard" for either child and extra review never hurts.  Here is what we are doing so far.  This is our little school bookshelf in the dining room so we don't have to constantly run up and down the stairs.

 Sean and Eleanor both have a Poetry notebook for copying poems and rhymes that we read throughout the year.

 They also each have an English notebook to use for writing, language arts, spelling, and copying Bible verses.

 We are using sketch books for their science notebooking.

 Index cards will be used for keeping vocabulary words in alphabetical order.  They will be learning new words and writing their definitions.

  Paper folders are going to be used for our timelines this year.  I love that they can be folded up when not in use rather than taking up extra space on the walls.

 Chloe and Lily are also working on school this year in a more full time fashion!  They are really enjoying it so far.  We are doing Heart of Dakota with them as well.  Little Hands to Heaven.  I am also using some My Father's World Kindergarten for a little extra if/when I feel it's needed.  We will be using some of our own books and educational toys, puzzles, and games as well as borrowing books, educational DVD's, and toys from the library to supplement if/when I feel it's necessary.  The main focus this year is alphabet, counting, shapes, colors, patterns, and writing letters and numbers and learning to draw basic shapes.

 These are the educational toys, puzzles, and games that we have at home.  Plenty to keep them busy and so many ways to play with the counting bears, stringing beads, and shapes stacker board.

  We also have some flash cards and a counting flip book that are really handy and they seem to enjoy.  I especially like the Same or Different cards because they really have to use their critical thinking skills!  There are so many answers and reasons the pictures can be the same or different, so it's neat to me to see what they think is the same or different and why they think that.