First Day of School 2020

We started out our first day of school for this year with pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes. This year is a little bit heavier than others because four of the five are now in school and Natalie can be quite the handful. We are also adding Latin into the older boys' studies. I have letter of the week crafts and books planned for Trevor and Heidi will do them along with him just for fun. I've talked to the boys about helping them with these if I need to work one-on-one with one of them- we'll see how that goes.

Heidi was very excited to help me make the first day of school signs yesterday and got a little carried away drawing pictures on hers (and telling me an elaborate story about them). Hers says she want to be a vet, although it looks a bit like "yeti" with her additions ;)

Leif still has his head in the clouds with his love of outerspace and clarified to me that he wants to be a geologist that works in space.

Asher flip-flops between his love of technology and his love of farming (mostly for the machines)

Trevor loves when I read to him and I'm pretty sure he'll meet his aspiration of being big ;)

As you can tell by the marks all over her sign, Natalie wasn't keen on sitting still and holding her sign, but we finally got this photo.

We're excited for the new school year to start and are so glad that we get to all be home together homeschooling- especially this year!
 

Heidi loses her first tooth

Heidi lost her first tooth a few days ago. She jarred her teeth top and bottom teeth together about a week earlier and it made her bottom tooth loose. I was a little worried about it, but we figured she should be losing that tooth in the next year anyway. We had her be careful with it, but while she was eating popcorn with her brothers, Asher noticed that it was missing. She couldn't find it anywhere and we suppose she swallowed it :) She is very proud of having lost a tooth and tells everyone she talks to about it!

 

Lake Simcoe

Lake Simcoe is the lake closest to our house, so it's about a five minute drive to this park area with lake access. A friend from church has invited us and another family a couple times, so all the kids have had lots of fun playing in the water, eating snacks, and running around. 

The water was pretty shallow for quite a ways out, but the kids loved being in the boats or floaties.

Someone was cleaning up all the deadwood from some trees they just took down and all the boys enjoyed standing around watching it burn. Trevor was especially enthralled and was having a detailed conversation with the guy managing the fire. I didn't hear what he was saying though.

Trevor and Natalie got paddled around by all the older girls.

Natalie hung out with my friend and me reading books and helping herself to as many snacks as she could get.

Asher and Leif enjoyed the kayak the most and now want us to buy one- not a bad idea actually with how many lakes there are around here.

 

Eighteen Months!

Our baby girl is a year and a half old! She has become quite the personality in our family and is fun to be around. She is also mischievous as she goes around digging in cupboards and emptying drawers or shelves, turning on the bathtub (and sometimes getting in fully clothed), unraveling toilet paper rolls, and all the other typical toddler explorations. 

Her verbal abilities are exploding and she's about where Heidi was at this age. She uses the sentence "I want _________" all day long, filling it in with a variety of desires. She also mimics the things that we say quite often, but not just in a parroting way- she usually mimics when its most appropriate to do so. This gives her a huge repertoire of words, although she doesn't use them all consistently. That said, her favorite word is still "no" and she uses that response to almost any question. If she says it in a happy way it actually means yes, if she is crying or upset when she says it, then it really means no. Other words that she uses most consistently are everyone in the family's names, water, milk, ball, shoe (she is a shoe fanatic!), down, nose, bum, book, here, hello, go, bubbles, tickle, bye, oops, mine . . . and I'm sure others I can't think of right now. Natalie can point to about 20 body parts when you ask, although she has to be in the right mood to do so. She's also very good about following one-step directions. 

Natalie has become more attached to her blankie and stuffed animals, which is very typical at this age. I try to keep her blankie and two favorite animals (a koala and teddy bear) in her crib where they will stay clean and be ready for nap or bedtime. Until recently she didn't care much about them until I took her into her room for sleep, but more and more, she insists on bringing them out with her when she gets up or she pulls them out later. She especially loves to wrap up in her blankie and roll around on the ground squealing- its the cutest thing. She also insists on me wrapping her blankie around her while I snuggle and sing to her before nap or bedtime. Sometimes she wants one or both of her stuffed animals too, but usually not. 

Natalie has started to really enjoy having books read to her. Her favorite books are Dear Zoo (a book with animals hidden under flaps that she gets to lift up) and a book that asks lots of questions to which the answer is always "no" and she loves to yell the answer. 

She has also become more independent lately. Sometimes I loose her because she is off wandering around by herself. She still wants to be carried around or wants to be me most of the time, but she's starting to break away a bit. She is growing up so fast, but we are so glad she's ours!

Here are some photos of her at a year and a half: