Stonewall Jackson and other Civil War sites

Stonewall Jackson is a big deal where we live.  On the drive home from Richmond, since we left Monday morning, we stopped on the way home and saw some historic sites.

Stonewall Jackson Shrine.  This is the house he was taken too after he was injured, where he died.

 Then we went to the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor's Center so the kids could get stamps in their National Park Passport books and we walked along the Sunken Road.

This stone wall is very old.

Virginia Capitol

A few weekends ago we went to Richmond to visit Mollie Doodle (and the cousins/aunt/uncle).  We have been studying Virginia history this year for Princess Sparkley's 4th grade curriculum, and just read about the capital moving from Jamestown to Williamsburg and finally to Richmond, so we decided to head to the capitol in between our cousins' basketball games. 

Little Guy didn't want me to take his picture, but he was laughing and being so cute as I tried to capture him.

And of course we saw Mollie Doodle.

Lego Madness

The boys' room has run out of flat surfaces on which to store Lego creations so we had them go through some the other day and took pictures of them before we dismantled them.  These are things that Little Guy or Buddy have built.

President's Day Book Club

We belong to a little homeschool book club that changes location and topic each month, meeting at a different family's home.  In early February we had a President's Day book club and talked about Lincoln and Washington.  They made hats, and they had a log cabin building contest.  One of the other moms took pictures.

Dogs

After Little Guy's dog themed birthday party, we were sitting around, not doing much, wondering how many stuffed dogs our family owned. So we gathered them up for a family picture.

Back Row (L to R): Barkers (B), Heart Doggy (B/LG*), Donut (B), M&M (LG), UPS (B), Bubble (LG), Grem (LG), Snoopy (LG), Santa Fe (B), Porkchop (PS/B**), Cuddles Jr. (LG), Finn (LG), Lavender (PS).
Front Row (L to R): Cuddles (N), Caramel (B), Mint (B), Fido (B), Sundae (PS), Spot (B), Spunky (PS), Curly (PS), Chocolate (LG), Candy (LG), Cupcake (PS).
The answer is 24.

* Heart Doggy was bought for baby Buddy who never cared much for it.  We got it back out for baby Little Guy and it's been part of his dog pack for awhile, but Buddy tends to try to steal the dogs that Little Guy owns that he thinks are cute, and Heart Doggy isn't one of Little Guy's favorites, so it changes allegiances frequently.

** We bought Porkchop when I was pregnant with Princess Sparkley but really, Buddy's the one who loves that dog and it lives in his bed.

The Sky

 We've been studying constellations, the moon and the sun for science lately, here are some of our projects.  I got all my ideas from Pinterest.

Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below) each chose six constellations they wanted to learn about.  We painted little pieces of paper, researched, created rough drafts, and then created this final project.  We used a hole punch to make the constellations, then glued them to a bright yellow sheet of cardstock and labeled them.  

We typed up information about the constellations and glued them on back.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).  I ended up doing a lot of Buddy's research, it was fun and he helped me decide what we wanted to include.

 Then we studied about the earth's rotation and seasons.  They had to glue these earths on so that the correct hemisphere was closest to the sun for the correct season drawn on the back corner.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).

 Then, with Oreos, we created the phases of the moon.

Little Guy is 28! In Dog Years.

For Buddy's 6th birthday, we had a dog-themed party.  We basically copied that party and just changed things up a little.

The invitation.  I used a similar invitation idea for Buddy's 4th birthday party. Each bone had party information on it.

The guests arrived (4 guests since he turned 4).  They decorated their good bags, made 

doggy headbands and collars. 

We read the board book, Doggies, by Sandra Boynton to decide what dog bark was going to be ours and practiced making all the dog sounds.

Then we had Doggy Obedience School where the "dogs" learned to sit, lay, speak, roll over, shake and fetch.  They were rewarded with a doggy treat (Scooby snack).

In action at Doggy Obedience School.

We read the book Dog's Colorful Day.  And my sweet husband drew Dog for me.

Our library story time in Kansas did this story and stuck colorful felt circles on a flannel board.  I thought it would be more fun to stick them on Dog.

I told the little kids they could put the dots in the right spots, or just wherever.  After the party, Princess Sparkley rearranged the spots so they were all in the right spot.

We had a little extra time, so we also read Dog's Noisy Day and the kids had to make all the animal sounds.  It was fun.

We also played Doggy, Doggy, whose got your bone?  Sorry, no pictures of that.
And then, since this was supposed to be a Chocolate Lab party, not just a dog party, we had Chocolate Lab cupcakes.

And the goodie bags:

Before going home, the kids got to adopt a dog.  For Buddy's party, I found some Beanie Babies on Ebay, I didn't have time to wait for shipping so these little pups are just from Dollar Tree.

And, it turns out I didn't have any lollipop sticks, so the kids just got peanut butter paw prints.

And frosting the cupcakes took FOREVER, so the doggy bone sugar cookies they got in their goodie bags never got frosted.

They also got Chex Puppy Chow (aka Muddy Buddies), some doggy stickers and a bouncy ball along with their adopted dog.

Little Guy got some great presents.  Legos, which he LOVES!!!  Buddy has already helped him build them all.  He got a super cute dog book called Chowder and a dog puzzle.  And one mom got a Webkinz Lil' Kinz Bulldog (since named Grem) and put it in a little felt bed and made it a collar and a blanket and included a little silicone bowl and a bag of "dog food" which were just chewy Lemonheads.  Super creative.  If we ever do a dog party again (although twice should probably be my limit) that's the sort of gift bag thing I'd like to send the kids home with.

Little Guy Turns 4!

We opened family presents in the afternoon.  He got some Legos, some books, some Cars 2 cars, a Cars 2 water bottle, a Webkinz Golden Retriever named Finn Ice Cream, etc.

Little Guy got this Angry Birds game he saw at his cousin's house after Christmas.  He loves Angry Birds (used to call them Mad Birds) but the actual app is sort of hard for his fine motor skills to execute properly.  This is perfect for him.

Grandma and Grandpa M sent this fun card.  When you open it, the beater turns around and the character in the card yells at you.  We pulled it out while he helped me make the sugar cookies he requested for his birthday "cake."

 Birthday Sugar Cookies!  Princess Sparkley helped color letters and tape them to toothpicks so we could write him a birthday message.

And the next day, his new Sunbeam teacher brought him a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!  And he ate the entire thing!

Bored? Throw a party for a stuffed animal.

The kids threw a party for Little Guy's dog Bubble in Little Guy's bed the other day.  All the stuffed animals were in attendance.

Scootering

Monday it snowed.  Today's high was near 60 so I got out the bikes and scooter and let the kids play out front.  The bikes had flat tires, so while I pumped them up, Princess Sparkley helped Little Guy figure out how to ride a scooter, then she filmed him.

First Snow

Monday (January 9) was our first snow of the year.  And really, the season.  There was a light snow that melted right away and didn't stick back in October, but we were in Pittsburgh for that one.  This storm was supposed to be rain.  It ended up snowing for several hours but didn't start sticking until later in the day and was mostly gone the next morning. 

We were grocery shopping at Target when Princess Sparkley spotted that it was snowing out the window and the kids all ran out to play in it for a second.  This happened about a month ago at church.  We could see through the foyer doors that it was lightly snowing, but it only lasted a couple minutes.  That time no one ran outside. 

Kids with the camera

So it turns out that almost this entire upload is pictures the kids have taken.

Styling Rapunzel's hair (photos by PS):

Lego/Book Bridge designed and built by Buddy (photos by PS): 

Pictures of Little Guy and other (by PS):

Little Guy figure out the camera

Little Guy stumbled upon the camera the other day and decided to take pictures of all his dogs and when he remembered, their bums.   Then he moved on to family members and other objects, including the rug. 

Little Guy's Birthday List

With help from Princess Sparkley (writing and spelling) and Mom (spelling), Little Guy wrote (!) out his bithday list today.  He was super proudof himself for soumding out ambulance.  In three weeks he turns four!

New Year's Eve

We were in Richmond for New Year's Eve last year as well and it involved banging pots and pans out on the street at midnight so this year, it was tradition.  Here the kids are with their cousins getting ready for the countdown.  We also went out and made S'mores.  Yum.  I love that the weather was warm enough to do this on December 31!

B's birthday: take two

We celebrated B's birthday a second time with family in Richmond.

New puppy relative

Our Richmond cousins got a Goldendoodle from Santa for Christmas so we went down to meet her for New Year's weekend.  Her name is Molly Doodle and she is adorable.

B's Birthday

B has a Chick Hicks themed birthday this year.  The first picture with a candle in a sandwich rather than a dessert is a breakfast sandwich we made him.  Then we decorated and invited our friends the Js over for brownies and ice cream with a peanut butter caramel sauce.  Mmmm. 

Princess Sparkley