Pineapple Tree

Did you know you can plant the top of a pineapple and it will grow into a tree?

I tried it once and the whole thing just shriveled up and died.  I let Claire try it and this is what it looks like....

It really was just a little pineapple top once and it has grown over a foot so far.  I think she planted it about 6 months ago.  I just transplanted it into a bigger pot...really hoping that doesn't kill it!

When it started out it looked just like this...



This is the newest one she planted today.

We really like pineapple so it would make us very happy if these would grow and produce fruit!



First Day of School

Today is our first day back at school. We like to start in August and take May, June and July as our summer.   

The fact that I'm actually writing a blog about it DURING school shows that it is going well!  It probably also helps that I threatened Claire that if she didn't behave in school she couldn't go to gymnastics!! :)

Both have been using Saxon Math the last few years, but I switched both of them this year so I was a little nervous about that.  Saxon was moving a little fast for her so Claire is now doing Math U See.  She really likes it because it involves blocks.  She even said, "Wow!  This is like playing with Legos!"

I switched Nathan to Teaching Textbooks for Geometry.  He's pretty happy with it.  He said, "Hey, this is easy...it all makes sense!"  And the best part is all I have to do is grade his work!!

Hopefully, the rest of the day will continue to go as smoothly as Math class did!

If you homeschool, when are you starting school?

Last Week of Summer Vacation

This is our last week before we start school again. One of the things I wanted to do this summer was blog more...that did not happen! We had a busy summer and I think I got a lot done. I managed to paint our hallway and guest room...both things I didn't get done LAST summer.

We also went down to Corpus Christi...

And had a HUGE plumbing job done...

The kids went to VBS....

We even snuck in a trip to the zoo...

So, I guess I will have to say good-bye to summer and hello to school on Monday.  I'm spending this week tying up some loose ends and doing some fun stuff to get ready for our Disney cruise in September.  I can't wait for that!!

How was your summer??

Postcard Friendship Friday #85

We just got back from a trip to Corpus Christi.  Here is a postcard I picked up while we were down there.  My husband and I are both from that area, but we had never visited the USS Lexington before this trip.  The card is supposed to say USS LEXINGTON on the top, but for some reason my scanner wouldn't pick it up.  Maybe because it was in white.  I'm not sure, but here is the card...

 The ship is now a floating museum.  We toured almost all of it.  It is a very big ship!

Here are some pictures from the post office on board.  I thought they fit in nicely with this post.

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Wordless Wednesday

Thought this was a good post for "Wordless Wednesday".  When a stopped up toilet leads to this there really are no words!!

Wordless Wednesday is hosted by Angry Julie.

Pioneer School

My daughter is obsessed with the Little House books these days.  I couldn't be happier.  She is dyslexic and finding something for her to read that interets her is not easy!  When my son was in 3rd grade he read Little House in the Big Woods and I did "Pioneer School" for him and some of the kids in our homeschool group.  We are lucky to have an old school house here in town that is owned by the city.  It's in a little Heritage park and we rented it out.  My daughter was in 3rd grade this year and read Little House in the Big Woods (as well as every other Little House book she could get her hands on!) so I did Pioneer school again.  She LOVED it!!  Here are a few pics from the day.  I took tons of pictures but I didn't want to post a bunch of pictures of other people's children on my blog so I just have a few of my kids and me.

My kids before school started....

Nathan bought that coon skin cap a few weeks before and was happy to wear it to pioneer school.  He was one of my teen helpers that day.  He played the part well...him and another friend really got into their roles and were quite entertaining to a field trip that came through while we were there!

 Claire reading aloud in front of the class.  I still can't believe she volunteered to do that!

I was the Pioneer teacher so I dressed the part.  It was really hot!

The kids all had to dress the part too.



I found this when the kids went out for recess.  Misspelling or not, I loved that they actually LOVED school that day!



We also hand churned butter and ice cream.  Some of the moms sent up homemade bread and jellies so the kids got to try the butter on homemade bread!  The ice cream was a big hit too!



If your child is in love with the Little House books too check out this blog:  http://melissawiley.com/blog/2008/10/14/the-little-house-books-in-chronological-order/
It lists them all in order.  Claire is on the Caroline books right now, but oddly enough the last one is out of print and very hard to find.  It's going for $70 on amazon!!!  I'll do almost anything to encourage reading, but I'm not paying that!!!  We are suppose to be getting it from inter library loan from one of the 537 libraries in the country that have it.  We're still waiting for it to come in.

Monster Party!

Yesterday I co-hosted a baby shower for some good friends of ours.  The nursery is going to be done in a little monsters theme so we did a monster themed shower.  Here are some of the things we did.  It was pretty easy and turned out real cute so I thought I'd share.  These ideas would be great for a birthday party too!

Monster Cupcakes....

 I experimented with different tips.  I used a couple of different star tips and the hair/grass tip.  I think the hair/grass tip worked best and it was the easiest to do too!  (Those are the green monsters.)

This is an easy, cute idea...just use whatever veggies you want and make the dip the monster eyes.

Monster bread bowl for dip...

Pinwheels with googly eyes in the middle...

Googly eyes on bags full of popcorn.

This would make cute party favor bags for a birthday party too.

More googly eyes!

Just putting them on anything was easy, cute and helped carry the theme throughout the whole party.