I'm the Queen Now!

Big Sister recently used a wrapping paper roll as a play gun.  She aimed it at me and pretended to shoot me!  I asked her if she really just shot her mother.  She told me, "No, no!  I'm just pretending that you're the queen, and I just shot you so I'm the queen now."  Like that's so much better...

Benton

Last week after Big Sister and I finished up our day at CC, we all headed up to Benton for the week.  John and my dad worked up in the Tennessee offices this week, so my mom, the littles and I decided to tag along.  While they were working on Thursday, my mom, the littles and I drove down to Ikea to pick up a few things for the kids rooms (we're redoing their rooms for Christmas).  Friday night John and I took the kids to meet up with my cousin and her boys at a fun indoor play place in Cleveland.  Saturday morning we went for a hike to Benton Falls before heading home.  There was lots of playing, crafting and a bit of school work going on in between all of the other activities : )

Silly boy wanted to wear his sister's apron and sombrero!

Big Sister (who often refuses to smile nicely for a photo!) and her cousin

     

Little Bud is always on the move...

Hiking with these two can be a bit of a challenge

Benton Falls

driving back down the mountain after the hike

Rawls Reunion

Last weekend the kids and I flew down to Orlando with Aunt Jamie for the first ever Florida Rawls Reunion.  It was a super quick trip, but we visited with lots of family members that we don't see often enough.  The reunion was in Apopka, which is where my dad grew up.  Hopefully we'll be able to go down again when we can spend a bit more time so that Papa can show Big Sister and Little Bud all of his old stomping grounds.  I always loved visiting Apopka as a kid, hearing all the fun stories about when my dad was growing up; having 8 kids in the family made their lives extra exciting :)

up, up and away!

You never know who you might see at the Orlando airport ; )

This little guy was TIRED on Friday morning, traveling late = extra nap time

playing at the park

Blast from the past!  We had fun looking through family pictures at the reunion!

Some of the cousins with PawPaw.  I was super fashionable ; )

Siblings (minus Aunt Alicia, who wasn't able to make it)

Cousins!

making the best of being stuck in the hotel : )

All cleaned up and ready to watch Alabama beat LSU ; )

Back at the airport...almost as fun as Disney!

(Big Sister would strongly disagree!)

watching 2 shows at once

anything that keeps littles happy on an airplane goes!

back on the ground in Birmingham

Daddy surprised Big Sister and Little Bud with awesome new hats!!

CC History

Each week Big Sister learns a new history sentence at Classical Conversations (CC).  I'm amazed at how much information fits inside of her little head!  The Classical method of learning works off of the idea that young children (preschool/kindergarten/early elementary age) have the ability to absorb and memorize vast amounts of information and down the line they can apply that information into the bigger educational picture.  At this point, we're focused on memorizing facts.  As Big Sister gets older, we'll dig deeper into the facts that we're only memorizing now (of course, if she expresses an interest in any of the facts that we're learning now, we take the time to research and learn more).  I have to say that I'm having fun learning with her too :)

Each week I put all of our new information up on our Classical Conversations board.

We memorize 7 timeline facts each week (the timeline cards are on top of the board).  

There's a fun song and hand motions that go along with the timeline.

These are 2 of her history sentences from recent weeks.

I usually try to have color/activity sheets for each fact/person/country of the sentence,

so she can focus on learning a small part each day, and by the end of the week, 

she usually has the whole thing memorized!

...and yes, we sometimes do our school work in pajamas ; )

Old Baker Farm

Every fall since Big Sister was a baby, we've taken her to the pumpkin patch at Old Baker Farm (John and I even visited a few times before Big Sister came along).  Little Bud joined in on the fun last year :)  It's a family tradition that I look forward to every year.  We usually go early in October, but this year the weather was so warm, that we waited until the end of the month. When we got out to the pumpkin patch we discovered that all of the pumpkins that were grown in Old Baker farm patch were long gone.  Their pumpkins are usually so unique, and there's just something extra special about picking a pumpkin off the vine.  We were a bit disappointed about that, but otherwise we had a great time.  The kids rode the pedal tractors, played in the cotton jump, checked out the animals in the petting zoo, climbed the hay tower, rode the horse swings, picked cotton and took the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.

cotton jump

Notice Big Sister's pink boots - Papa and Grams brought her a pair back

from their motorcycle trip.  They bought them at Wall Drug, 

the same place that we got hers last year on our trip (she recently outgrew that pair).

my sweet little loves :)

If we photoshopped Big Sister from the first picture and Little Bud 

from the second, we'd have one decent picture of both kids.  

It seems like they never look at the camera or smile at the same time!

she LOVES having her picture taken ;)

Big Sister attempting to "hold" Little Bud on the hay ride; he was a little squirmy!

she made it to the top!