Happy Birthday, Grandma!

In honor of Grandma's birthday, the girls wrote about her in their journals today.

I love Grandma and her snuggles!

I love Grandma!

(Jocelyn and Grandma playing Princess Yahtzee together.)

Hurricane Irene!

We got home this afternoon to evaluate the damage from Hurricane Irene. The yard was a mess, and we had some water damage in the living room and dining room, but we are so thankful that it wasn't anything worse. We also discovered that we were one of the few houses in our area that didn't have power.

Madison reporting on Hurricane Irene and the damage to our home!

Baby Stella

We are so thankful for the opportunity to watch Jocelyn's niece grow up by following her new blog Stella Maria.

Fun with Aunt Sandy!

This morning Aunt Sandy took us to a local playground to let the girls run around and play. The weather here in Charlotte, NC is fine. It is a little windy, but we haven't had any rain.

Aunt Sandy brought some bread for us to feed the ducks and geese.

The girls had to hold the bread over their heads because the geese were so aggressive and tried to take the bread right out of their hands.

The geese were attacking each other to get the bread. This poor goose was one ugly duckling. ;)

We enjoyed stopping at Chick-fil-a for lunch and then a quick trip to Target to get some zoo animals.

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon building a zoo.

Traveling Homeschool!

Thankfully even with all of the craziness of this week, we were able to get our school work done.

I guess this is one of the advantages of homeschooling. You can do it anywhere.

Evacuating!

The girls and I spent the morning securing the house and packing up our essentials to evacuate. The girls each got to pack one bag of their toys to take with them.

Hurricane Irene's projected path is right over our area.

Since there are only two tunnels you can take to get out of town, the girls and I decided to beat the traffic and drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, this afternoon.

We are going to wait out the storm here at Nana and Pop's house while they are on vacation. We are praying for everyone and everything in Hurricane Irene's path. The girls and I definitely had a hard time leaving our house, not knowing how we will find it when we return. Thankfully we are safe and God is in control.

Sand and Shaving Cream!

Jocelyn has been working on the letter S this week, so we wrote our letters in sand!

Madison practiced her spelling words in sand!

Silly in Shaving Cream!

Our 1st Earth"shake"!

Today the girls and I experienced our first earthquake. Clay's first earthquake was in Afghanistan when he was deployed. The girls and I were at home when the earthquake happened. I was in the living room. Madison was in the school room, and Jocelyn was in the playroom. As soon as it started, I ran to get the girls. When I got them, I quickly realized that I had no clue where to go with them. Luckily, the shaking stopped. I immediately got online to see if it really was an earthquake. Who would have thought we would be getting an earthquake in Virginia? Madison was pretty scared, and Jocelyn just wanted to know what an earth"shake" was. ;)

Making Boats!

This week in history the girls are learning about Christopher Columbus, so we decided to make the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

Jocelyn enjoyed making boats out of egg cartons, clay, toothpicks and paper.

Madison liked teaching her sister how to make boats, since she did this project last year.

The girls are ready to race their boats.

Racing across the ocean blue in 1492!

It was a close race, but Madison won this time.

Ice Painting!

The girls couldn't wait to "Ice Paint" today!

We made paint ice pops by freezing equal parts of paint and water.

The girls got into their old swimsuits and started painting the easel paper I taped to the fence.

Ice Painting is a wonderful summer activity!

The ice paint pops started melting as soon as we went outside!

Heart!

Serious about their artwork!

Another Heart!

Jocelyn's finished ice painting!

Our Abstract Ice Painting Masterpiece!

Mayonnaise, Mustard, and Marshmallows!

Mayonnaise and Mustard Mm's!

The girls enjoyed stamping their letters with marshmallows!

Marshmallow Print Mm's!

Gyotaku (Japanese Fish Print)

Today the girls made their own Gyotaku (Japanese Fish Print).

(Click here to see the one Madison made last year.)

They labeled all the parts of the fish on their Gyotaku.

We took them to the local fish market last night to pick out their fish.

Jocelyn thought the fish was stinky and slimy!

The girls enjoyed painting all the different parts of the fish.

Jocelyn's fish is painted and ready to make a print.

Jocelyn's fish print!

Madison's fish print!

They both enjoyed labeling the parts of the fish.

Doubles Rap and more!

Today we made Noodle Nn's!

Madison used the noodles to spell her spelling words.

Jocelyn practiced spelling words with the Word Whammer!

Madison loves this app on the iPad that allows her to record herself reading stories and replay them. Today she recorded The Ugly Duckling.

Madison was thrilled to meet her goal of doing 25 addition facts in 1 minute!

She has been working very hard to learn her doubles addition facts. She loves singing the...

Doubles Rap

It's the doubles baby, let's go, let's go!

It's the doubles, baby and we start with zero!

0 + 0 = 0, Oh!

1 + 1 = 2, Ooooooh!

2 + 2 = 4, More!

3 + 3 = 6, Kicks!

4 + 4 = 8, That's Great!

5 + 5 = 10, Again!

6 + 6 = 12, That's Swell!

7 + 7 = 14, Let's Lean!

8 + 8 = 16, You're a Queen!

9 + 9 = 18, Jellybean!

10 + 10 = 20, That's Plenty!

Jocelyn asked me to take a video of her counting by 10's and reading words, so that she could show everyone on the blog how much she is learning in Kindergarten. What a little cutie! Hope you enjoy her video.

Nuudles, Mammals & Dice!

Today Jocelyn was excited to make Nuudle Nn's.

She made a capital N and a lowercase n, by dipping the Nuudles into water and sticking them together.

I love how she decided to make a pattern. ;)

Madison took her spelling pre-test today and only missed one word, so she practiced spelling "drift" with Nuudles.

We have been studying mammals. So for journal I asked the girls about their favorite mammal.

Madison wrote:

My favorite mammal is a horse.

Jocelyn wrote:

My favorite mammal is a whale.

We played Count and Color in Math Center.

The girls love throwing the jumbo dice down the stairs and adding them up.