What a week and a half!

I feel as though I have just finished running a week and a half long marathon!  Usually our home life is a bit less chaotic, a little more structured and with a whole lot less running...but, with the warm weather has come new activities to both enjoy and try to keep up with.  Last week started with two--yes, two--days of dance pictures for Addison.  May not sound like much, but getting a 6 year old into costume and full hair and makeup is no laughing matter......but I love it!

Addie and her friend Abby deciding which "pose" they like best

For tap--"You've Got A Friend In Me"

Waiting, and waiting, and waiting.....

For jazz--"Car Wash"

Her favorite....with a "bump" and a side bun just like the big girls have!

For acro--"Freeze Frame"

The rest of our week was filled with a little bit of school (and sketching salt-water fish at PetCo!!!), trip to the library, "Gizmo's" 18 mo doctor appt, dance (of course), plenty of baseball and book club!

The fun didn't end there though--Saturday both of the boys had their first ball games.  Tristan is playing his first year of kid pitch with Team Vipers and Kaelan is on his first year of machine pitch! 

Tristan also had team pictures bright and early Saturday morning!  Aren't they handsome... Most of his team has been together since kindergarten and it is amazing how grown up they have all become..way too fast.

As soon as the games were done we were off to Holden, MO to see my youngest brother-in-law graduate from high school.  I got the wonderful joy of driving as Dustin was coming off of a double and was going on only about 2 hours of sleep.  Thankfully the kids were all tired out from the busy morning and slept most of the 4 1/2 hours there. 

Dustin and my brother-in-law Zach..who just so happens to be a super talented artist!!

My dad has always told me that time goes by so quickly once you have kids.  I see this in my daily life but was so impressed with the fleeting nature of time over the weekend. I have known Zach since he was 6...and now here he is all grown up and graduated and off on grand adventures.  To think: in 8 short years Tristan will be at this same place in his life...oh, time slow down!

The kids enjoyed time at Grandma and Grandpa's house chasing the dogs and cats, crawling under a fence to get to the horses (Yikes!) and collecting tree frogs as "pets."

Kaelan and his "pet"

"Gizmo" and Sonny--the horse.

We got home from our trip Monday morning only to leave an hour and a half later for homeschool group! 

And we're off.....

Our dear friends the Rush's came in this week so the time between dance and fingerprints and baseball has been spent with Heather and Ben.

Boys will be boys......

Tristan, Kaelan and Ben "battling" in the backyard

Today included a trip to the zoo with 17 kiddos and 6 moms--all long-time friends of Heather and her family! More fun for the kids than the mommas I would have to say! 

And that has been our week and a half...although busy, I love summer, my family, my friends and my extraordinary ordinary life!

Summer Book Lists 2012

It is official--it is summertime for the Turner household!!!  For us as homeschoolers that really just means that we switch gears a bit, put away the workbooks and get our hands dirty with science, go on adventures with a stack of really good books, watch our garden grow and perfect our crafty art skills! Instead of letting the summer get away from us and me moaning about all of the good books we should have read over the summer I decided to be proactive and make a summer reading list for each of the 3 big kids. 





One of my favorite blogs: http://alicia-lafamille.blogspot.com/ had a great idea for how to keep track of each of her kids summer reading accomplishments so I just modified it slightly, printed it up, punched some holes and now we are all set to go!

Tristan's Summer 2012 Book List

(age 10)

“The Potato Chip Puzzles” by Eric Berlin
“Brixton Brothers” by Mac Barnett
“Room One” by Andrew Clement
“General Butterfingers” by John Reynolds Gardiner
“Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major” by Ronald Kidd
“Case of the Deadly Desperado:Western Mysteries” by Caroline Laurence
“Call of the Wild” by Jack London
“Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch” by Donald Sobel
“Boy: Tales of Childhood” by Ronald Dahl
“Going Solo” by Ronald Dahl
“Boys of Wartime: Daniel at the Siege of Boston-1776” by Laurie Calkhoven
“Boys of Wartime: Will at the Battle of Gettysburg-1863” by Laurie Calkhoven
“Tales of a 4^th Grade Nothing” by Judy Bloom
“James and the Giant Peach” by Ronald Dahl
“Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen
“War Horse” by Michael Morpurgo
“Bud, Not Buddy” by Christopher Paul Curtis
“Watership Down” by Richard Adams
“Wolves of Willoughby Chase” by Joan Aiken
“Belly Up” by Stuart Gibbs
“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Holes” by Louis Sachan
“The Trumpet of the Swan” by E B White
“Enders Game” by Orson Scott Card
“Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls
“The Indian in the Cupboard” by Lynne Reid Banks
“The Black Stallion” by Walter Farley
“Little Britches” by Ralph Moody
“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L'Engle
“My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Ronald Dahl
“Old Yeller” by Fred Gipson

Kaelan's Summer 2012 Book List

(age 9)

• “Big Red” by Jim Kjelgaard
• “A Bear Called Paddington” by Michael Bond
• “Danny and the Dinosaur” by Syd Hoff
• “Lentil” by Robert McCloskey
• “One Morning in Maine” by Robert McCloskey
• “The Reluctant Dragon”by Kenneth Grahame
• “The Story of Dr. Dolittle” by Hugh Lofting
• “Owls in the Family” by Farley Mowat
• “The Case of the Gasping Garbage” by Michele Torrey
• “It Could Always Be Worse” by Margot Zemach
• “Mrs Piggle Wiggle” by Betty MacDonald
• “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf
• “Be Nice to Spiders” by Margaret Bloy Graham
• “Morris the Moose” by B Wiseman
• “The Frog and Toad Treasury” by Arnold Lobel
• “L is for Lincoln” by Kathy-jo Wargin
• “Harry Series” by Margaret Bloy Graham
  • “Harry the Dirty Dog”
  • “Harry and the Lady Next Door”
  • “Harry by the Sea”
  • “No Roses for Harry”
• “Billy and Blaze” Series by C W Anderson
  • “Billy and Blaze”
  • “Blaze and Thunderbolt”
  • “Blaze Finds the Trail”
• “Nate the Great” Series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
  • “Nate the Great”
  • “Nate the Great Goes Undercover”
  • “Nate the Great and the Monster Mess”
  • “Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed”
• “Freddy the Detective” Series by Walter R Brooks
  • “Freddy the Detective”
  • “Freddy Goes Camping”
  • “Freddy and the Ignormous”
  • “Freddy's Perilous Adventure”
  
  

Addison's Summer 2012 Book List

(age 6)

• “James Herriots Treasury for Children” by James Herriot
• “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” by Judi Barrett
• “My Father's Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• “The Hundred Dresses” by Eleanor Estes
• “In Grandma's Attic” by Arleta Richardson
• “Custard the Dragon” by Ogden Nash
• “There's No Such Thing as a Dragon” by Jack Kent
• “Things I Like” by Margaret Wise Brown
• “Babar the King” by Jean De Brunhoff
• “Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans
• “Much Bigger Than Martin” by Steven Kellogg
• “The Gateway to Storyland” Collection by Watty Piper
• “The Emperor's New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson
• “Thumbelina” by Hans Christian Anderson
• “It's Absolutely True” by Hans Christian Anderson
• “Curious George” by H A Rey
• “Harry the Dirty Dog” by Gene Zion
• “Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina
• “Where Have You Been” by Margaret Wise Brown
• “The Little Island” by Margaret Wise Brown
• “The Good Little Bad Little Pig” by Margaret Wise Brown
• “The Moon Shines Down” by Margaret Wise Brown
• “Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey
• “The Man Who Lost His Head” by Robert McCloskey
• “Betsy, Tacy” by Maud Hart Lovelace
• “Betsy, Tacy and Tibb” by Maud Hart Lovelace
• “Toot and Puddle” by Holly Hobbie
• “Flicka, Ricka, Dicka” Series by Maj Lindman
  • “Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the New Dotted Dress”
  • “Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Strawberries
  • “Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Bake a Cake
• “Pippi” Series by Astrid Lindgren
• “Pippi Longstocking”
• “Pippi Goes on Board”
• “Pippi in the South Seas”

Some of these books are like old friends to me and some I have never heard of.  The lists are a hodgepodge of books from my childhood, Sonlight summer reading lists, Veritas Press book recommendations, ideas from various blogs and some good ol' classics.  As today was library day anyway we took the opportunity to check out a couple from their lists already.  Tristan is already solving puzzles with the kids in "The Potato Chip Puzzles" and has declared it a "very good book" by chapter 3! Ah, to be a kid in summer where an extraordinary adventure is only a page a way!



Welcome

I have tried this whole blogging thing before, with no real success.  Maybe because I had no purpose, maybe because I wasn't committed, or maybe I was just waiting for a million followers--who knows, yet here I go again.  This time I have a purpose, I am going to try to be committed and if no one follows this...ever...then I am ok with that.  So, here goes................
My name is Cristalle and I have been married to my best friend for almost 10 years now!  We have 4 beautiful children and we are foster parents (more on that story later.)  Our family has just finished our 3rd year of homeschooling and love learning together. 
I am starting this blog in order to chronicle our ordinary and extraordinary lives--rainy days with books, field trips with friends, grand vacations, milestone birthdays, what we are learning, my favorite recipes and more.  I am in love with loving my family and I don't want to forget all of these everyday moments in the search for the ones I "should" be recording.