backyard science

we have been blessed with some beautiful weather lately, so we took advantage of it a few days ago and had our science lesson outside. all my flowers in the back yard are blooming right now, attracting many different butterflies, bugs, and miscellaneous insects! i was just going to post the pictures, but then i though i'd actually educate myself and figure out what they all were!

samantha enjoyed exploring the tinier part of God's creation.

this critter is a type of beetle called a margined leatherwing. he enjoyed sucking something out of the marigolds. a couple of times we could only see the end of him because his "face" was buried down in the flower.

samantha was intrigued by the bees. she had recently watched a documentary on bees, so she was telling me all about them. "some are workers, there's a queen, and there's drones..." stuff i vaugly remember!

honey bee

bumble bee

we got a good view of this plains leopard frog when he jumped about 2 feet in the air!

i couldn't quite put my finger on what this is, but i believe it is a narcissus bulb fly. it appears to be a fly covered with gold hairs.


and now the butterflies! they were so pretty and interesting to watch fly around from one flower to the next. with, of course, a little break inbetween to bask in the sun!

pearl crescent

orange sulfer

buckeye

painted lady

did you know that butterflies and moths have a long tongue called a proboscis? i didn't! it is used like a drinking straw and when not in use it is coiled up as seen on this peck's skipper. you may need to click on the picture to see it close up!

isn't it amazing what you can learn from your backyard in a matter of minutes?!

learn all about bugs here!

gone

we listen to contemporary christian music on the radio about 99% of the time. so samantha knows tons of songs and she always sings along with them. (and sometimes without them!)

we went to target last night and as we were walking through the store she was singing part of a song called "gone" by switchfoot. these are the lyrics to the chorus:

"gone, like yesterday is gone, like history is gone, just try and prove me wrong, and pretend like you're immortal."

i wasn't paying much attention to her singing until she got to the last line, started posing, and sang, "and pretend like you're a model."

well i just HAVE to post this picture again!

f is for...

today in school we started learning the letter "f." after samantha read all of her "f" reading words (of which one was the word "far"), she wrote a sentence for me to read. this in turn was followed by about 5 minutes of giggling. i think the picture can explain itself!

wordless wednesday

not me! monday

inspired by the original not me mama!

here's what i did not do this past week

i did NOT bribe my daughter with ice cream to make her stop crying at sparks.

i did NOT let ryan eat his snack off of the living room floor since i knew it hadn't been vacuumed for about 2 weeks.

i did NOT watch 5 episodes of "i love lucy" with samantha instead of doing school for two consecutive days. nope, not me. i'm super duper stay on track homeschool mom.

i did NOT screen any of my calls or hang up right after picking up the phone just so i didn't have to hear it ring and ring. nope. not me... that would just be rude.

i did NOT put an almost full juice box (that samantha left out for hours) back in the fridge hoping that it hadn't already started fermenting.

i did NOT intentionally not wash some of ben's clothes to teach him to put them in the hamper. nope. not this wife who doesn't get annoyed picking up the dirty clothes lying on the floor right next to the hamper.

and...

i will NOT read everyone else's not me! monday posts today instead of doing laundry and dishes, vacuuming, and cleaning up the mess in the living room.

vocabulary of a 5 year old

samantha has always been a talker. and she has always been smart! but as of lately, she's been making up words that apparently she thinks are real words. i don't know if this is just so that she'll feel older or sound more grown up or what. but it's quite funny some of the things she says. here's some of her made up words and the context in which she used them.

hurtyish. painful. "i'm glad ryan didn't fall down the stairs because that would be hurtyish."

slippyish. liable to cause slipping. "i almost fell because it was a little slippyish."

kindful. kind. "mom you are so kindful to help me!"

make suring. being certain. "i was make suring that there wasn't anything on the stairs.

coolish. pleasantly cool. "i like being over here in the coolish (under the air vent) so i don't get hot in my clothes."

breasttaking. remarkable, astonishing. "isn't that a breasttaking view?" needless to say she was quite embarrassed when i told her what a breast was and that the correct word was breathtaking... lol

unsweetish. not sweet. "eww... this is unsweetish."

agoodness. another way to say 'oh my goodness.'

me - "samantha don't touch that (bowl of spaghettios) because it's hot."

sam - "oh. is it agoodness hot?"

me - "what???"

sam - "UH-GOOD-NE-SSSS"

me - "what does agoodness mean?"

sam - "like, 'oh my goodness that's hot!'"

in addition to her creatively made up words, samantha also gets meanings mixed up every now and then. here's a few examples that i can think of:

a couple weeks ago she was unloading the dishwasher and stated, "wow... the dishes are really familiar." i asked her what familiar means and she said, "just really dry and stuff!"

then one saturday she was a little bored and asked, "mom, can we do school today? 'cause i'm embarassed." so i asked if she meant bored and she said, "oh yea!!! THAT'S what i mean---bored!"

during school last week she was reading her words (she always says what the word means when she reads it) and she read the word "fall." she thought about it for a moment then all of a sudden it hit her and she yelled, "like FALL BALL!!!!! like at daddy's softball games when the guy yells 'fall ball' and they don't get a base hit!!!!!!!!" well at least daddy will be quite happy that she knows what a foul ball is! :-)

needless to say she keeps us entertained by her vocabulary!

sleepwalkin' samantha?

UPDATED: i asked samantha this morning if she remembered getting up last night, which she didn't. then i proceded to play out what took place and she was just giggling. she doesn't remember a thing!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i just had my first encounter with a sleepwalkin' samantha. i was downstairs in the kitchen and heard her get out of bed (which involved a 6 step climb down her ladder) so i went to see what she was doing. she met me at the top of the stairs and i asked her if she needed to go potty.

sam - "no"

me - "why did you get out of bed?" is she sleepwalking? her eyes are closed, but maybe the light from downstairs is too bright...

sam - "ummmm.... i don't know. i just wanted to tell you that i have enough room."

me - "enough room for what?"

sam - "for the class. there's more room now."

me - "what class?"

sam - "my sparks class..." (motions around her) "..right here"

she had an awful awful night at sparks (kids club at church) tonight. she was crying for most of the time there so i thought maybe she was dreaming about it or needed to talk about it some more. so i sat her on my lap and said
"need to talk about anything?"

sam - "sure!--what?"

me - "are you having any dreams or anything?"

sam - "no... i love you daddy... daddy... dad. dad."

daddy? i knew by now she was surely asleep!

me - "daddy?!?!??? samantha are you sleeping? look at me.." she opened her eyes as i asked her "who am i?"

sam - "mmooooommmmmmyyyy!"

after making sure (or make sure-ing in samantha language---that post to come later) that she was okay and didn't need to talk about any dreams or anything i took her to the bathroom to go potty. i assumed she was awake by now since she had opened her eyes, but when we got in the bathroom she walked over to the towels, not the toilet... so i got her over to the toilet and she pulled up her nightgown and sat on the potty---with her panties still on!!! thankfully i caught it in time and didn't have to clean up a mess! so was she still sleepwalking? i have no idea. can you sleep walk with your eyes open?
she's back in bed and will hopefully be there the rest of the night. although now i'm a little paranoid! :-)

basket 'o fun

if there was a huge laundry basket that adults could sit in, would we have as much fun as kids do?

look at those lopsided teeth.... and sister trying to pose in the background!

What A Difference One Day Makes

i got this email from my mom and dad tonight and thought it was neat.


What A Difference One Day Makes
In Memory of 9-11-01

On Monday we emailed jokes.
On Tuesday we did not.

On Monday we thought that we were secure.
On Tuesday we learned better.

On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes.
On Tuesday we relearned who our heroes are.

On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived.
On Tuesday we gave money away to people we had never met.

On Monday there were people fighting against praying in schools.
On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying.

On Monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room.
On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids.

On Monday people were upset that they had to wait 6 minutes in a fast food drive through line.
On Tuesday people didn't care about waiting up to 6 hours to give blood for the dying.

On Monday we waved our flags signifying our cultural diversity.
On Tuesday we waved only the American flag.

On Monday there were people trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed.
On Tuesday they were all holding hands.

On Monday we were men or women, black or white, old or young, rich or poor, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian.
On Tuesday we were Americans.

On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses.
On Tuesday grief stricken they sang 'God Bless America'.

On Monday the President was going to Florida to read to children.
On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children.

On Monday we had families.
On Tuesday we had orphans.

On Monday people went to work as usual.
On Tuesday they died.

On Monday people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property.
On Tuesday the same people all said 'God help us all' while thinking 'Thou shall not kill'.

It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place things into perspective, but it has. The lessons learned that week, the things we have taken for granted, the things that have been forgotten or overlooked, hopefully will never be forgotten again.

~ Author Unknown ~

my husband must be sick

i can't think of any other explanation. this morning ben cleaned the entire bathroom. at first i thought he was just going to clean the bathtub (for which i would have been so greatful) but then he went on to clean the sink and the toilet. then i heard the vacuum. i thought he was vacuuming the hallway, but no, he was vacuuming off the sides of the little boat shaped shelf that he had taken off the wall. then he cleaned all the trinkets on the shelf. THEN HE SCRUBBED THE FLOOR!!!!!!! i was actually going to get a bucket of water and clean it myself, but he said he would. i was not about to offer twice! haha! so he cleaned the floor and even scrubbed the floor register (which for the last six years we thought had a marbly texture. turns out it was dirt. we didn't even notice when we took it out to put tile on the floor.).

after that he vacuumed the whole house and even did the other registers and air vents. i didn't dare take a picture as i was afraid the flash of the camera might wake him up and snap him out of his cleaning mood! surely he must be sick...

how to take a bath (as demonstrated by ryan)

1. make sure the toys taste fresh.

2. get your hair squirted by sissy.

3. swim. and show off that cute little butt.

4. check out the overflow drain.

5. try to get out of the tub after mom lathers your hair.

6. have a goldfish (or nemo) snack.

7. check your reflection.

8. splash!

9. look cute.

10. indian war cry time.

11. more splashing!! and clean the floor at the same time.

12. try to get a drink of tub water.

13. cry because your mean mom got you OUT of the tub.

14. watch sissy get her daddy inspection.

15. pass the daddy inspection! (although if you don't pass, daddy probably won't give you another bath, and mom definately will not!)

1 week down, 35 (or so) to go

we have successfully made it through the first week of school. last tuesday, september 2nd, was our first day. it was totally unplanned since i didn't have her curriculum yet. however, she wanted to do some "homework" that day so i decided to start school. thanks to nicole, i found some great stuff online for her to do on tuesday and wednesday.

her curriculum arrived in the mail on thursday the 4th, so we've been in full stride since then. i hadn't planned on doing half of the stuff i'm doing with her, but she's so eager to learn and is enjoying everything.

she usually calls me "teacher" in school (her idea, not mine) and occasionally "mom." but the other day after completing a paper said, "how does this look mrs. kern?" lol... that one better not stick because i don't like being called mrs, especially by my own daughter!

i am really enjoying homeschooling. it's so fun to see your child excited about learning. the only thing i don't like is that there is SOOOOO much stuff online. i have spent the last week printing everything from activity pages, to crafts, to books, etc. i'm going to have to limit my looking at educational stuff online because i haven't gotten to bed before 2am this past week!

i don't have any pictures of samantha at "school" yet, so for now i'll leave you with her latest in fashion. thankfully, this phase died after the second day and thankfully we didn't have to go anywhere those two days!!

God is like a president.

....or so i was told by my 5 year old daughter last night.
we were driving in the car on the way to ben's softball game when samantha piped up and stated,

"mom, God is like a president, huh..."

"umm.... sure." i replied, not quite knowing what to say.

and then she quickly added, "except God takes care of us. a president doesn't take care of us."


and that was that. as fast as the conversation started, it had ended. she had nothing more to say on the subject, thankfully, because i really didn't feel like getting into a political discussion with her!!

i thought it was cute, though!