We Stand on Guard for Thee

Canada is a very peaceful country. As judgemental as it may sound, we often see what happens in the USA and the rest of the world and think, it'll never happen here. We haven't had war on our soil since the 1800s. We've always been the Peace Keepers.

Monday and today, war was brought to Canada. 2 people killed 2 different military personnel and injured several others.

On Monday, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53 was struck by a car while walking through a parking lot with a fellow military member. WO Vincent had been a member of the Canadian military for 28 years.

Today, Corporal Nathan Cirrilo, 24, was gunned down while performing his duties as an Honour Guard at the National War Memorial. He joined cadets at 13 and then became a reservist. He leaves behind a 6 yr old son.

Both murders are thought to be tied to extremists (that were later killed by police). I don't care who did it. It's a disgusting, cowardly act. Canada will not be intimidated

My Last Baby

Ok, so I'm way late on this post.....

On June 23rd, my last little baby turned one year old! Of course, like my other kids, he's still just a baby to me. But in reality, I will never have a little bitty baby again *sniffle*

So now, I bomb you with baby pictures :D

Last baby bump pic

Seconds old

First mommy, daddy, baby pic

Already he's annoyed with mommy always having the camera in his face lol

Baby's first tan ;)

Happy Canada day!

First cloth bum!

Sibling snuggles

Cool Dude

It's amazing how much they grow in only 2 mths!

More sibling snuggles

I loooove this one. He did NOT want me to work!

This is the sweater that was made for me as a baby. Now all 4 of my children have worn it

First custom diaper. Go Sens Go!

4 mths old

Joshua's Sunshine Boy pic

All my babies

5 mths old

So cranky, he needed 3 soothers

He stuffed himself in my elbow, I figured he fell asleep. Nope, wide awake, staring at the floor

Ho Ho Ho!

Joshua's so impressed to be mauled by Olivia

First food. Totally suspicious of carrots

7 mths old and deciding that being a little baby is boring

Go Team Canada

8 mths old

Fierce destruction of a peanut butter sandwich

Sippy cups make great pillows

Joshua has some road rage issues

Mr. Drama King is 10 mths old

Walking everywhere like a pro at 10 mths

First experience with Jello

Dandelions!

Dirt is da bomb!

What happens when you have older sisters

Happy Birthday!!!

Fall 2014 Bucket List

Ok, so we kinda failed at our summer list. But we still had a fun summer so that counts, right!?

So we'll try again this fall.

Weekly Wrap Up

I've been slackin' over here! Not surprisingly, it's been crazy busy. With my business and getting back into the school routine, it's been pretty hectic!

Last Monday, Brianna did her final running race of the season. She knocked 2 minutes and 22 seconds off her last 5K time! She bikes a 10K for Terry Fox then is in off season training until next May

Olivia insisted on running with Brianna for a stretch

On Tuesday (first day of school for local public schools) our local homeschool group did our Not Back to School picnic. It was a small group, only 4 families, but I'm trying to get more activities going! The kids had a blast and Brianna even met with another girl her age (most of the homeschool kids in our area are much older or younger than her).

Brianna, 12, age-grade "7"

Olivia, 5, age-grade "K"

On Wednesday, the girls did their first real day of school. We decided to start slow with them only working in their new daily books for the week as it was only 3 days and Daddy was on vacation time so we had extra distractions!

This week, I did a homeschool assessment for a friend's daughter who is Gr. 1-2. It was great for me as it gave me a sneak peek into the next couple years with Olivia. We only started homeschooling with Brianna in Gr. 3, so I have only homework knowledge of Gr. 1 and 2.

Olivia seems to be loving doing school work every day. She does often complain about her arm hurting if we do too much (in her opinion) writing, but I think that's because she presses too hard with the pencil or crayon. Any ideas to get her to lighten up?

Olivia loved this graph from A Teaching Mommy

Brianna's excited about the new things we'll be doing this year, starting with Brave Writer's Poetry/Tea Time Tuesdays. We may do it a little different than Brave Writer at first, but Brianna expressed interest in learning about poetry when finding out that poems do no have to rhyme, so we're running with it!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Not Our School Area

This week in the iHomeschoolNetwork's Not Back to School Blog Hop is on school rooms or school places.

We have designated school areas. An area for working. An area for storage. Well, actually several of those.

They all look like a tornado went through them.

My big plans of organizing all the school stuff this summer went the way of the wind. In other words, I did squat.

So to save hubby from dying of embarrassment, I won't post our school area pictures right now.

Weekly Wrap Up

As summer winds down we tend to do more fun hands on stuff that doesn't really resemble school.

We watched Magic School Bus's "Gets Energized" and chatted for almost an hour about how various things worked. I had Brianna think about some things she needed electricity for and what she would do if she didn't have the power running through those items.

Olivia loves her Melissa and Doug alphabet stamps. After spelling Olivia, she had me write out her full name so she could copy it in stamps.

The girls had their Super Show for Park Leaders, a "year-end" talent show of sorts. All the parks in the city got together and put on a really cute show with all the kids. Our park was fairly disorganized this year, but they did pretty good for putting it together in only a few days! Olivia ended up not wanting to take part at the last minute, but Brianna had a blast

Brianna in the red dress

The girls decided to bake banana bread to take to the last day of Park Leaders. Olivia also created a "craft" that involved gluing sticks and leaves and flowers to paper to bring to their Park Leader. I missed getting a pic but it was cute to see her come up with her own idea.

Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap Up

We started something new. One of Brianna's oft excuses are "I didn't know where my work was." So I bought her a planner to write all her assignments in and a file folder system to keep all her work in. She likes this idea for the moment. I figured we'd start while we're still in the slower summer schedule as to ease into it.

It's permanent location will not be over the coat rack lol

Brianna learned to mow the lawn.

Our garden is doing fantastic.

Olivia planned and explained an intricate "secret plan"

The girls and I watched Magic School Bus's Get's a Bright Idea and read MSB's Makes a Rainbow and did some light travelling experiments with a worksheet I found. Going along with the topic of light, Brianna did a little research on Thomas Edison.

Brianna got all of her predictions correct

Olivia was fascinated with how the light bounced with the mirror

Brianna finished up Chapter 2 in math. Chapter 3 is decimals so she should fly through it!

The girls had a movie day and scavenger hunt with their Park Leaders program. Olivia's first all day program away from home!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers