Danae is 6!

Danae is six today! I spent a little bit of time this morning going through old photos so I could post a picture from every year on my Facebook status. Those one year old pictures got to me. Time moves so fast!

We are planning a Princess and Knight birthday party (with much help from Pinterest). Pictures to come soon of that fun. Both kids are super excited about their party.

Danae's birthday always reminds me of those months of trying to get pregnant, of wondering whether it would ever happen. When you can't get pregnant with your first baby you really do get to wondering if you can get pregnant at all. This miracle that was coming so easily to those around me wasn't happening to me.

And then it did, miracle of God and modern medicine! :) Two pink lines on a pregnancy test resulted in a sweet squishy baby girl who has become my frills and pink loving 6 year old girly girl.

I'm so thankful for her. Gotta go find her and hug her happy birthday again!

My cake adventure

The kids' birthdays are 2 weeks apart so we have done joint parties for the last 4 years. I've always ordered their cakes, but this year I'm trying to save some money and I'm doing it myself. My friend Carrie in Iowa has helped me out with some pointers and I have been practicing. The party isn't until the 14th, but I want to be sure I can do this. And if I can't, I want time to order cakes!

Danae is going to have a cupcake cake in the shape of a princess dress and David's is going to be a shield. I'm working on the shield today. I'm intimidated by the whole process, but hopefully I'll come up with something that doesn't look like an 8 year old did it!

I'm so glad for Pinterest for ideas!

We went to Chicago!

Last weekend, our family went to Chicago and met up with my mommy friends. We went to Legoland and Build A Bear and swam at the hotel. It was a really nice get-away. The kids made their first Build A Bears. Danae made a Hello Kitty and David made a puppy. He bought a Spiderman costume for his. It was a fun thing to do.

Legoland was amazing. I can't believe all of the things they can build with legos! The kids enjoyed the rides, the movie, and building cars they could race.

I loved the time with my mommy friends. We "see" each other online every day, but having real time together in real life is wonderful!

If it doesn't move, laminate it!

I have an office supply obsession. As a child in a store with my mom, I didn't ask to go look at the toys. No. I asked to go look at the office supplies. You could find me drooling over stationary when I was 12. I was a strange child.

I think I might be a stranger adult. But that's another post.

I own a laminator. It's a simple one that I bought when Amazon had it on it's Deal of the Day. Actually, I bought three of them - one for me, one for the church, and one for a friend. Share the office equipment love!

Today I laminated and laminated and laminated. I bought Danae the All About Reading curriculum at the beginning of the year, but I didn't buy the folder games. David is showing some interest in reading so when I ordered him a workbook, I went ahead and got the folder games as well. So that they last through all of the wear and tear of my littles, I had to break out the laminator. Twist my arm.

So today I laminated 10 folder games and we played two of the games - they're fun!

And I got to use my laminator and my paper cutter and my tiny sharp scissors. It was a good day.

I'm ready for Spring too, small people

My kids are still at the age where they think I have control over everything. This morning David asked me to "turn off the sun" because it was shining in the window on his face. I told him I couldn't, but that I could move the blinds. That seemed to work for him.

And Danae has been complaining endlessly (working on that complaining thing) about how cold it is. She is ready for it to, "be hot every day" so she can play outdoors. Believe me, I'm ready too children!!

Houston, we have readers!

It is so fun to watch your children learn! I know homeschooling isn't for everyone and I know if you don't homeschool, you still get to watch your children learn. But to be with Danae and David every day and watch that lightbulb moment several times a week is such a huge blessing to me.

We are about 3/4 of the way through our school year and are planning to finish up at the very end of May. So 3 months to go! I'm excited about finishing out the year because a break will be very welcome, but it's been an awesome school year.

Danae's biggest progress has been in reading. At the beginning of the school year, she was refusing to blend at all. I really believe this was a developmental thing. She just wasn't ready to take those sounds that she had known for 3 years and blend them. It seemed silly to me that she couldn't do it, but she just couldn't do it. And no prodding from me was going to force her into it. It was just going to cause frustration. I had wise advice to not push her and so I didn't. We kept doing lessons, but I kept them fun and short. And then one day in October, c-a-t was suddenly "cat." Amazing stuff!

Since then, she's slowly progressed through her reading curriculum and we have added in some site word work as well. She's doing really well!

Enter David.

Yesterday, David wanted to do "letter school," as he called it, like Danae was doing. I said okay and got out some letters. He identified them (s, a, m, p) and their sounds. And then proceeded to sound out the word "map" and "sap" and "Sam." He's three people. Kids are so so so different!! You hear that from everyone, but my kids are living proof.

So now both of my children are working on reading! Fun stuff!

My house is CLEAN

I do not claim to be Suzy Homemaker. There was a time (pre kids) where I had my house all perfect all the time. There was only me to mess it up. Even when Lucas and I got married, there were only two of us to mess it up. Yes, the dishes and laundry had to be done, the bathroom had to be cleaned, I ran the vacuum every now and then, and dusted before we had company. But there were no toys to pick up before I vacuumed, my bathroom never had anything but bathroom things in it before I began to clean, and the laundry situation was not nearly as mountainous as it is now. Kids just add some extra work to the mix.

So, since I've had children...and daycare children...and homeschooling...and life...I've become sort of lazy about cleaning. It's so gosh darn overwhelming sometimes! I keep up with the basics - it's not like we're living in absolute filth - but I also don't have it spic and span all the time.

Enter a combination of homemade cleaners and hosting Friday Night In.

My mommy friends and I get together once a month on a Friday night for dinner. We all bring part of the meal and our families. It's chaos, but so much fun! Our husbands are getting to know each other and the kids have fun leaving mass toy chaos in their wake.

It's my day to host. Today.

I've been cleaning for a week and a half, all while trying out all of my Pinterest homemade cleaner recipes. I do not think my house has been this clean since the last time my in-laws visited. That was when David turned 1. He's now nearly 4.

Part of me is just super happy to have a clean house. It looks great! The other part of me is sad that it's not going to stay this clean, because I've met my family and I know my lack of enthusiasm about cleaning.

Now that I have reported that my house is clean, I must go deal with my very long to do list that must be accomplished by 5:30pm tonight!