Just Another Raney Day

Where would you like to sit?

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

As a wedding gift, 8 years ago, we were given 2 nice fluffy floor pillows. One was a cream color, the other green. We like them well enough, the problem is though, with a 3 year old and 2 dogs that sit on anything you throw on the floor, the pillows were starting to look dirty. Realizing that I could not possibly wash the entire pillow, I tossed both pillows in the spare bedroom and there they sat for a while.

The other day, Cohen and I stopped off at Hancock Fabrics to get a seam ripper and I saw this really cute fabric on clearance. I decided that I wanted to recover those pillows!

This is what the pillow looked like before I recovered it.

The first thing I did was measure and measure and then measure again. I'm famous for messing up my sewing projects by cutting the fabric all wrong.

After I had everything measured, I laid out my fabric on my board (I don't know the technical term for this board, but if you do lots of sewing you need one, or something similar. It's basically a huge piece of cardboard with marking on it for inches, yards, and bias lines). This is the material I used for the back and sides of the pillow. It is a bit sturdier than the other material.

This is a shot of where I'm measuring to make sure the sides match the pillow back. These pillows will actually have 6 sides.

Closeup of the material and the board.

Next, I cut the material for the front of the pillow. As you can see, it has a much larger pattern to it. I wanted that big circle piece to be in the center of the front of the pillow, so I had to do some creative cutting. I basically mangled this piece of fabric so bad that I don't know if I will be able to use the scraps for anything ever again.

Instead of having to measure, align the circle, measure, align, then cut...I just used that first piece as a pattern for my second piece. I pinned the center together and cut around the outside. Worked out really well.

I wanted the pillows to open in the back (sort of like an envelope or the shams on my bed), so that I could take the covers off and wash them if they got dirty. This is the reason for the hem (for those that don't sew, you wouldn't typically hem a pillow).

I am terrible at making straight lines. This was the piece of the opening that would go under the other piece, so I don't think anyone will actually see my terrible sewing job. I posted this picture on Facebook, and got a few suggestions on how to fix the problem. I moved my machine to a stable surface and added a piece of painters tape as a guide. Things got much prettier after that.

After I finished the hem on the opening of the back of the pillow, I sewed the sides to the back.

And then I got tired of taking pictures. Ha! I have no idea what really happened, but I don't have any pictures of the cover without a pillow in it.

I'll just sum it up to say, after the sides and back are attached, you get to sew the front to the sides. After all the sides/front/back are attached, you may sew up the corners.

Here is the finished product. To get an idea of how big this is, the front measures about 25 inches across. In this picture you can see that I got that circle on the center of the front.

Here are the two pillows together. If you look really closely, you can see the opening at the top of the pillow on the bottom. That is where it opens to easily slip the pillow in and out for easy cleaning.

I'm excited about how it came out. I'm ready to sew up something else!

What books are you reading?

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

As you know, Cohen and I have spent a lot of time reading this year. The Sonlight Curriculum that we use is very heavy in reading and we both really enjoy it. I thought I would do a blog today on some of our favorite book collections. Any of these books would make excellent gifts, or they would be a great addition to your own book collection.

I'll start with our favorite collections of stories (these are books that have more than one story in them).

The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury is a great addition to any library. It has some of Cohen's favorite stories (Where the Wild Things Are, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). I love to give this one as a gift, because there are stories for everyone in here!

I also love to give Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Books. I don't own this one, but I would love to. We've checked out just about every book in this collection from the library.

Every child should have a collection of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. I have several copies of Mother Goose Books. Our favorite is the collection by Richard Scarry.

I would also suggest A Treasury of Mother Goose.

Cohen loves Fairy Tales too!! I love reading them, especially Rumpelstiltskin! We have several Fairy Tales books that were passed down from our families.

We have one called The Grosset Treasury of Nursery Tales (published in the 1970's) and we have one called 100 Classic Stories. I have also read some of the stories from The Random House Book of Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, and A First Book of Fairy Tales. I like all of these books.

The important thing to look for in a Fairy Tales book is to make sure they have some of your favorites. I love reading Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel to Cohen and then watching the movie that goes with the story. I also love reading The Emperor's New Clothes, Elves and the Shoemaker, and The Lion and the Mouse.

You also need to introduce your child to some Tall Tales. I love reading about Paul Bunyan, Davey Crockett or Johnny Appleseed. I would suggest you look into getting a copy of American Tall Tales.

I love collections by a particular author, such as Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever, The Berenstain Bears Show God's Love, and Make Way for McCloskey. I like books that teach a good lesson, such as The Children's Book of Virtues.

I love to read poetry to Cohen as well. He, however, does not love it. I try to save poetry for while he's eating lunch or taking a bath. That way I kind of have him trapped and he has to listen.

I love to read from A Child's Garden of Verses (we have an older copy of this book), Where the Sidewalk Ends, Poems and Prayers for the Very Young, and Don't Mess with Moses (this one was a gift from Nan and Pops and it is hilarious!).

I probably should have done this before Christmas, so that you could just buy all the kids on your list some of these great books. There's always next year. I hope that this helps you when you go to select a book from the bookstore.

What are some of your children's favorite story collections?

What do your clothes smell like?

2012-01-23T16:45:00.000-06:00

Last week I tried something I've never done before: I made my own laundry detergent. I saw this pin a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to try it out.

Source: whynotsew.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Here is a list of what you will need:
1 bar of soap (some folks suggested Fels Naptha, I used Dial)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of washing soda
a big pot (that holds more than 2 gallons)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon
2 empty gallon jugs/containers

I purchased all of the ingredients at Wal-Mart (they are all on the laundry aisle, except the dial soap). I don't remember exactly what it all costs, but I'm certain it was less than $6 for everything, and I have enough Borax and Washing Soda for a few more batches.

The first step is to grate the soap.

Next you add the soap to 1 gal water, melt soap.

Once the soap has melted add the washing soda and borax. Bring that mixture to a boil. Once it is boiling and all mixed together, turn off the heat and add 1 gal cold water.

Pour your soap mixture into your containers. I had a milk jug and an old fabric softener jug.

When it cools, it gets THICK! I didn't realize it would do this and I had some problems getting it to come out of the container at first. After shaking it up REALLY well, it works great now. I would suggest you just leave the mixture in the pot you used to cook it in, and let it cool completely. It might even separate a little, no big deal. Maybe leave it there overnight. In the morning, use your spoon to mix the laundry soap up really well, then add it to your containers. This way you don't have to try to shake the soap after it's in the container.

Use about 1/2 cup for each load.

My clothes are clean, and they smell good (sort of like the dial soap I used). Next time I will try a different soap scent to see how that works.

This would be great thing to have if you or one of your family members suffers from sensitive skin issues. Just use a cheap bar of bath soap made especially for sensitive skin.

I've never really used fabric softener for anything except our sheets. I know, sounds crazy, but I don't like that heavy perfume smell that most fabric softeners leave on your clothes (and when you start running or sweating, that smell is MAGNIFIED and it gets to be way too much). So this detergent is pretty much the only thing we use on our clothes now.

If you have any questions that I didn't answer, leave a comment. I'll do my best to respond to your questions.

What did you do on Christmas Day?

2012-01-23T09:16:00.000-06:00

Christmas day was super busy. Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, and our church did not cancel any of the services (due to the fact that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birthday...why not go to church and worship Him?). I'm happy they chose not to cancel. It gave us the chance to spend Christmas day with the people we consider our extended family.

In order to get everything done that day, we had to get up really early! Jace had to be at church around 7am, so that means opening presents and breakfast starts at 5am.

Cohen usually wakes up around 8am, so this is REALLY early for us. We don't have problems managing an early wake up time for race day, so why should it be any different on Jesus' birthday.

We are continuing with the tradition of Santa bringing only 3 gifts (want, body, spirit) to match with the gifts Jesus was given. Cohen's "want" for this year was a Mater Bubble Mower. I have no idea what made him want this particular toy so badly, but he did, so he got it.

We had to go outside to test it out!

The next gift Cohen opened was his gift for the "body." Santa brought him his first sleeping bag! I'm a terrible photographer, because if I was any good, I would have been positioned on the other side so you could see his big smile.

Next he moved on to his stocking (yes, he has more gifts to open, but we let him do whatever he wants).

For breakfast, Jace made homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch! They were VERY YUMMY!!

After eating, we all head to church. (Yes, for those still wondering, Cohen did not open all of his gifts. He opened 2. This just goes to show that you don't have to buy your kids hundreds of dollars worth of stuff I guess!).

When we got home from church, we let Lucy and Ella open their stockings. They both got some yummy treats!

Finally, Cohen opens his last gift from Santa. He got a VeggieTales Noah's Ark set (for the spirit).

For his ornament this year, we gave him a little red tricycle.

Then he finally opened our gift to him. He starts with the smaller gifts...and had no idea what it is.

Still, no clue.

Then he opens the big gift and figures it out....we got him a wii.

He was so excited, he jumped up to give Jace a hug.

And their heads totally collide! Too funny!!

After lunch, we celebrate Jesus' birthday with some brownies (to replace the burnt birthday cake). These brownies were AWFUL!! They weren't cooked all the way. I let Cohen add the sprinkles. Notice, he spread them out about as well as he did that reindeer food from the night before.

What did you do on Christmas Eve?

2012-01-21T19:33:00.001-06:00

Yes...I'm far from done with my Christmas posts. I'm going to do a little catching up today.

Christmas Eve was one of those days I remember vividly as a child. Jace does too. We both have wonderful memories of Christmas Eve celebrations as children. We both spent the evening before Christmas at our Grandparents home, with our cousins, aunts, uncles and many other family members and friends.

Years ago, we decided that we would like to spend Christmas morning at our own home. In order to do this, we can't really go to Cohen's grandparents homes the night before.

In an effort to make this a memorable day for Cohen, we had to create our own traditions. For several years now, we have begun our Christmas Eve celebrations by celebrating the real reason for Christmas. We meet with lots of our friends at our church to hear a Christmas message and take part in the candlelight service.

Last year we began the tradition of baking a birthday cake for Jesus.

You will not see any other pictures of that birthday cake. I burned it. It was bad. I was busy celebrating with our other traditions that I totally forgot I was baking a cake. A friend on facebook said "He's very forgiving...I think you're good." Thanks Micah for that reminder.

One of the traditions I always had as a child was popping fireworks the night before Christmas. We would build a fire near the driveway at my Grandparents house in Marion, LA and all the kids and most of the adults would sit around the fire and enjoy the fireworks. We built a fire in our chiminea.

This year, Cohen got to be more hands on with this than last year.

We also roasted marshmallows. I LOVE roasted marshmallows!! Cohen does too!!

Jace and Cohen made some yummy reindeer food. Cohen ~~carefully~~ sprinkled it in the yard.

We used some of the yummy cookies Missy gave us for Santa's treat. Cohen wrote his own name on the letter to Santa.

As you can see, at our house, Santa does not get a glass of milk. Nope. Cohen told us that Santa needs water to keep him healthy. Guess I say that a lot. Sorry Santa, you will have to enjoy your cookies with water.

Yes. Cohen thanked Santa for Jesus. I'm not sure he's getting the point here. I'm sure I can hear the comments now...."ooh, Jace and Emily are messing up that kid's Christian education." Maybe we are messing it up, but at least we are talking to him about Jesus during this time of year, and he understands that Jesus is the main reason for this holiday. Oh and HE'S 3! Get over it!

I allow Cohen to open one gift (that I select) just before going to bed on Christmas.

Shocking, I know. It's some cute pajamas!

Where does your cup go?

2012-01-17T11:23:00.000-06:00

I feel like I ask this question a MILLION times a day!! Cohen is too big for sippy cups, but he's too forgetful to remember to push his cup to the back of the table. That means I end up cleaning up a spilled drink about 4-5 times a day! It has to end!!!

Today I made a placemat to help with this. I kept thinking, I'll just put a sticker on the table so he will remember where is cup goes, but I don't want a sticker on my table! And then what happens if he chooses to sit in a different chair? More than one sticker, I don't think so.

Here is a picture of the placemat...

...and the back...

For Christmas, my mom and dad gave me a laminating machine! Now I'm a laminating fool! Did you know that if you laminate a piece of paper, it automatically becomes a dry erase board. That's the reason for the "The Story of Cohen's Day." He can use dry erase markers to draw pictures of things he did during the day while I'm cooking, fixing plate, cleaning up, etc.

We haven't actually used it yet, but I'll let you know how that goes.

UPDATE (1/18/2012): We used this new placemat twice yesterday and it worked GREAT! No spilled drinks! Yay!

Would you like to live in this house?

2012-01-14T12:08:00.001-06:00

Cohen received a really neat plastic Gingerbread House kid from his Uncle Ryan and Aunt Stephie for Christmas. I was super excited about this gift, because I love to make messes!! In addition to the house, they gave us a bag FULL of candy to use for decorations.

And here is the finished house.

Great thing about this house is after you clean it off, it's ready to be decorated again! Can't wait for Valentines Day candy to come out!!

Why do you need a washer?

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

For Christmas, my husband's brother and his wife gave me a metal stamping kit. I saw some cute crafts on Pinterest using metal stamping sets and I added it to my Amazon wish list thinking no one would really buy it. I have such a great family!!

I couldn't really wait to use it, so I took it out the day I got it and tried to make something crafty. Really, I just made a mess. Oh and you will get some strange looks if you ask your husband for a piece of wood, a hammer, and some washers.

Here I am at our Christmas party trying out my new stamping set.

Really I just made a great big mess of some washers that day, but I was still learning.

My skills have improved just a bit. I made this cute necklace for my niece for her birthday.

As you can see, it's not perfect, but it's getting better.

If you would like a necklace similar to this one, let me know. I'm planning to make a few for my Etsy store. Don't feel like you have to go through Etsy either, you can just e-mail me at Eraney03@gmail.com.

How are you doing with your Family Fun badges?

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Well, not good. We took a little break from this project and got behind, but I'm determined to catch up.

The 5th Family Fun badge was to Preserve Family Memories and while I've done lots of projects over the past few months to preserve our memories, Cohen has not been involved, and he's the one that needs to earn this badge...so I'm not letting him take credit for my work! We will come back to this badge later, but for now, we are skipping ahead to #6.

The 6th Family Fun badge is to Start a New Tradition. I'm happy they did this one around Christmas, because there are so many opportunities to start a new tradition around a holiday. One suggestion that they gave was to read a holiday story each night. Before the Christmas season began, I saw this same suggestion on Pinterest.

Source: oopseydaisyblog.com via Isa on Pinterest

I got online and ordered a few new and used books for our collection, and wrapped up some of the classics we had on hand. I had 25 books total. While I was out Christmas shopping one day, Mrs. Jan and Abbah wrapped all the books and got them ready for our new tradition.

I'm not going to list all 25 books, but I will list a few of our favorites.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (Cohen's absolute favorite!!)
The Hat by Jan Brett
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Santa Cows by Cooper Edens and Daniel Lane
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera
There were several versions of the real Christmas story scattered in there too. Some of those books I actually picked up from the dollar store, and they were pretty good.

For the 25th book, the book we read on Christmas day, I wrapped up the Bible. On Christmas day, Cohen opened it and Jace read the real Christmas story the way it was meant to be told.

I'm happy we started this tradition, and I hope we continue this for many years to come.

What starts with the letter M?

2012-01-11T08:30:00.000-06:00

Ok, moving right along to the letter M.

For the letter M we started off by learning about the country Mexico. We mademaracas out of paper cups, foil and rice. Cohen was super excited about this project!

They were so much fun to make. We both made one...this one is mine.

And here is Cohen putting the stickers on his maraca.

Next we attempted to make a Pinata.

I hung it up to dry for a few days. Then I realized that it was not working. The paper never really did stiffen up like it was supposed to and I ended up just throwing it away. It was fun while it lasted.

We also listened to some Mexican Music and danced with our Maraca. It was so much fun!! This video makes me laugh every time I watch it!!

In addition to Mexico, we also learned about Magnets. I guess I totally forgot to take pictures of us playing with magnets, but that was fun. Take my word for it.

I'm not listing our books for this week, because I totally forgot to write them down. Guess we were too busy playing with the magents to worry about documenting our books.

What starts with the letter L?

2012-01-10T12:34:00.001-06:00

Way back before Christmas, Cohen and I learned about the letter L.

We started off with a lion puzzle.

We did some ladybug math with Coke tops. Cohen drew a card, counted the objects on the card, and had to put the same number of "dots" on his ladybug.

He also drew a ladybug. Mine is on the bottom, Cohen's is on top. Looks pretty good, hu?

Then we moved on to learning about the Letter Carrier (or Mail Lady). Cohen and I visited our local post office. I needed to pick up some Christmas stamps for our Christmas card, and used this everyday chore as a learning experience. (And from Cohen's pose, there may be a huge monster coming out of the sky to attach him....or maybe it's really sunny).

After we left the post office, we came home and did some mail or color sorting.

Then we did name sorting.

The last thing we did that week was mail a letter. We discussed mailbox safety (which is what Cohen is practicing in the first shot), and when to raise the red flag. It was a lot of fun!

Now for the book list!!

A Nice Surprise by Richard Scarry
Mail for Husher Town by Mary Louise Cuneo and Pam Paparone
Here Comes the Mail by Gloria Skurzynski
A Strange Day by Iris van der Heide and Marijke ten Cate
Mailbox Magic by Nancy Poydar
Tortoise Brings the Mail by Dee Lillegard
Whatever Happened to the Pony Express? by Verla Kay, Barry Root and Kimberly Bulcken Root
Miss Spider's Abc Book by David Kirk
Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
Persephone the Ladybug by J. Moria Stephens
Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by Jacky Davis and David Soman
Rain Talk by Mary Serfozo
Listen, Buddy by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger
Mama's Bayou by Dianne De Las Casas and Holly Stone-Barker
The Listening Walk by Paul Showers and Aliki
Listen and Learn (Learning to Get Along, Book 2) by Cheri J. Meiners

What else did you make for Christmas (Part 2)?

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Now for the fun gifts I made for Mrs. Jan and my mom.

I saw a different version of this on Pinterest and figured it would work great for Jace's mom, Mrs. Jan (aka. Nan). She loves to hang up pictures of her favorite grandchild (ok...I can only say this for a couple more months. That "favorite" thing won't work after that when there's some adorable competition. This family definitely needs more babies!).

Materials:
Paper
Frame
Metal Clip
Spray adhesive
Spray paint

Instructions:
I started by spray painting the clip black. This is not necessary, if the silver metal clip matches your frame. Then I took the glass from the frame and sprayed it with the spray adhesive. I also sprayed the back of the cute fabric/paper (this is actually scrapbook paper that is like a stiff fabric...a little expensive, but totally worth it!). Put the paper on the glass and press down really well to make sure they stick to each other. I waited to cut the paper until after I attached it to the glass. The next step is to attach the clip to the frame. I just used some E6000 and it held really well.

Now for my mom's gift. I made her a chicken wire frame to hold some of her stuff at her house.

Materials:
Frame
Chicken Wire
Staple gun

Instructions:
Cut wire to fit frame, then attach wire to frame with staples.

I also made some cute paper covered clothes pins and fabric flowers.

I'm hoping to make some of these for my Etsy shop, so if you are interested in purchasing one of these, please e-mail me at eraney03@gmail.com. I can ship anywhere!

What else did you make for Christmas (Part 1)?

2012-01-08T14:45:00.001-06:00

I got really crafty this year for Christmas. As mentioned yesterday, I made some fun magnets for some of our friends and family.

Here they are all packaged up and ready to go.

I made these really cute coasters for Cohen's school teachers.

Materials:
4 Tiles (from Home Depot)
1 can chalkboard paint (also from Home Depot)
Felt pads for the bottom

Instructions:
Spray paint tiles, stick the felt pads on the bottom...and give them away.

They guys on the list are always hard to buy for, so I made them a key holder. These were for Cohen's Awana teachers.

Materials:
Wood Plaque (from Hobby Lobby)
Paper/Stickers (I got a Christian themed set from Hobby Lobby)
Modge Podge
Paint

Instructions:
Paint the wood plaque
Trace/measure paper for background and modge podge it to the wood plaque
Add stickers

I modge podged the letters and flat stickers so that they would stay. I also added some super glue to the back of the raised cross so it would stay as well.

After everything was dry, I got Jace to help me drill holes in the bottom of the plaque and I added some hooks. I totally forgot to take a finished picture...oops. In the pictures above you can see the white modge podge, but that dries totally clear.

Stay tuned...I'll share the fun crafty things I made for my mom and Mrs. Jan for Christmas.

Would you like one?

2012-01-06T12:16:00.000-06:00

So, as you all know, I've been a full-time stay-at-home mom since May 2010. What a blessing it has been to get to hang out everyday with the most wonderful little boy on the planet. I've really enjoyed my time with him, but as he is getting older, he needs me a little less everday. I'm finding myself getting bored during the day...so I decided I need a hobby!

For Christmas, I made some of my friends and family homemade gifts. I'll post pictures of some of this stuff later (mostly because I haven't finished all my Christmas parties yet). One of the things I made were magnets for the fridge.

I've recently purchased some higher quality materials and fun paper to make more. I'm super excited about my new crafting hobby. The problem is that I want to make fun stuff, but I don't want to keep it. So, I listed my first item on Etsy TODAY!

I'm selling a set of 4 of these cute bird magnets. They are super cute and VERY strong!

If you are interested, feel free to stop by my Etsy store or just e-mail me at eraney03@gmail.com. Of course, these make cute gifts, party favors, Valentines surprises, etc. If you want more than just 4, or you want a different color/theme just let me know. I'll offer discounts for larger purchases.

I'm still working on my skills...but I'm hoping to make some fun Russian themed magnets and jewelry to help fund our second adoption. For now, I'm just having some fun.

What is in this box?

2012-01-04T17:46:00.001-06:00

I know I should be posting some of my homeschool projects or something about our Christmas fun, but I'm skipping ahead....to TODAY!

I follow Amanda from Every Creative Endeavor on Twitter and today she posted a blog about how she used labels to help her get organized. I was inspired! Our playroom has been a total disaster for weeks now, and I was so lost as to where to start. Who knew all I needed was a little label inspiration!

Now, my labels are not nearly as fancy as hers, and I still have some work to do, but here you go.

The first picture is of the storage unit I have in our playroom/office. I got it over a year ago from Ikea and I purchased the green and white bins at Ikea as well, although they are supposed to go in a different storage system, but I like this one better. They work.

Also, I should mention, my son has a collection of pvc pipes (a gift from Nan and Pops). Don't worry, he's not smoking anything!

I simply printed some labels using Microsoft Publisher and a fun font I found online at Miss Tina's Fonts. I just taped the labels to the bins, because I want to be able to change them as the stuff inside (and Cohen's interests) change.

I still have some work to do. I should have purchased more of the big white bins when I was at Ikea, because as Cohen gets bigger, so do his toys. As you can see, the two plastic baskets on the top of the storage unit are overflowing.

I have lots of future plans for this area. The space around the map is supposed to be covered with pictures from our adventures. I printed off a few when I first hung up the map, and then never printed anymore afterwards. I will fix that very soon. I've got pictures loaded into walmart.com and I plan to print them with my next order.

So what do you think? Are you inspired by my labels? Ok, so maybe not, but visit Every Creative Endeavor and check out her labels.

How high can you jump?

2011-12-31T20:27:00.001-06:00

For Christmas, Jace's parents gave Cohen a trampoline. Of course, poor kid had to wait until we got home and put it together to play on it. When we got home later that day, Cohen and I took nice long naps, while Jace put together the new toy.

It was getting dark when we finally woke up, so we jumped for a few minutes then came inside. I was busy jumping and only took a picture of the finished product.

The next day, some of Cohen's friends, Stella and Cille, came to play for a while and they got to enjoy the new trampoline.

Of course, the trampoline was lots of fun....but as mentioned in an earlier post...kids really do love the simple things in life...such as a cardboard box.

The very next day, Ethan, Aaron and Molly came by to say hi. Cohen immediately told them about the trampoline, and the 4 of them went straight to the backyard and played. Aaron and Cohen had a wrestling match in the trampoline, and Ethan helped build a nice fort with the boxes and the dog house. They all had lots of fun! I know we will make lots more fun memories on the new trampoline.

What is one of your Christmas traditions?

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

After reading my good friend Iris' blog on one of their Christmas traditions and I thought I would just steal the idea from her and do my own blog on it.

Each year, Jace and I have exchanged an ornament for our tree for Christmas. Many years, this has been the only gift we give each other (If you know me well...you know how I am with gifts...I don't care much for them. I don't love to receive gifts. I'd rather you give them to someone who needs it.)

Here are all 8 of Jace's Christmas ornaments from me....

Not sure what started the penguin thing, but that's what he always gets. As you can see, the snow globe from 2003 is looking pretty sick. For those wondering, don't get snow globes if you want to keep it forever!

Now for mine...

As you can see, there are only 7. We are missing the one from 2003 (or maybe Jace didn't get me one that year and we actually didn't start this tradition until the second Christmas).

We have a few ornmanets from some of our favorite vacation spots (Biltmore Estate and Disney).

We've even passed the tradition on to Cohen. The rocking horse was actually purchased for him in Russia and we hung it on the tree the year we were waiting for him to come home. Every time I see that rocking horse I think of how tough that Christmas was for us, and then I remember how wonderful it is now that he's home.

The only tree in our home is our family tree, and that is where we proudly display these ornaments (along with many others that have been given to us over the years).

What do kids really want?

2011-12-24T12:26:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we stayed the night with Jace's family to celebrate Christmas with them. It was wonderful! On Friday night, we enjoyed a Siclari (my sis-in-law, Tricia's family) Christmas Tradition. They have what they call a "Decadent Dinner." This is basically an assortment of finger foods that you eat until your belly cannot possibly hold any more...then you eat more! Ok, so maybe that's not how it is supposed to be done, but I managed to finish my night with more food inside of me than I care to ever have again! I was so full! AND THEN I ATE SOME MORE! It was so yummy!!!

Check out that spread....

The menu:

Smoked Sausage
Ham
Salami
Turkey
Summer Sausage
Shrimp Sausage
Pork Sausage
Cream Cheese pinwheels
6 types of cheese
Strawberries
Grapes
Cucumber
Kiwi
Pineapple
3 types of crackers
Rolls
Cream Cheese bar with Pepper Jelly
Tomatoes
Celery
Broccoli
Carrots
Apples
Olives
Pears
Pickles

And that's for 6 adults and 1 child!

And that doesn't even include dessert!

After we ate, we rolled ourselves into the living room where we opened presents.

Cohen was very happy with all of his gifts!!

For those that don't know this, Amazon boxes come with what we call "poppers" and they are very fun to pop. Everytime a package would come to the door, Cohen would immediately being requesting the poppers. Uncle Awesome and Aunt Trix gave Cohen a box full for Christmas! He was super happy with those!

The next day, we all met up at Jace's cousin's house for another party with the extended family. Cohen got some really nice things at this party, but his favorite...the poppers and bubble wrap!

So if you are wondering, "What is it that kids really want these days?" The answer is bubble wrap, poppers and boxes (I have a future post on boxes!)

The weekend was a lot of fun! We can't wait to do it all again next year!!

Who do you sing for?

2011-12-23T14:07:00.000-06:00

Cohen's school had their annual Christmas program a week or so ago. The day of the program, Cohen's teacher pulled me to the side and asked me to talk to Cohen about his behavior on the stage. I sat with him when we got home and I asked him what he was doing on stage...his reply, "dancing, singing, playing with baby Jesus." So we had to have a talk about playing with baby Jesus, and how to stand still and sing the songs. He did an amazing job on stage! When he saw me, he waved at me....just melted my heart!

Here are a few pictures from the event.

"Who do you sing for?" Well we should all be singing praises to God for all the many wonderful things He has done for us!! I love this picture of my boy!

Cohen only goes to school one day a week...so the other kids had lots of extra time to practice. This is one of the cute faces Cohen made when he wasn't real sure what he was supposed to be singing.

And a couple of family shots.

Which picture did you use for your Christmas card?

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I posted some of the many wonderful pictures my sister-in-law, Tricia, took of my family. Well I have just a couple more to share with you.

I wanted to share a copy of our Christmas card.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!!

Do you know the Allen Family?

2011-12-21T22:17:00.000-06:00

About a month ago, my sisters and I decided that for our parents Christmas gift, we wanted to get them a picture of the entire family. It has been YEARS since we have had real pictures done of all 4 of us and our families.

We have had family pictures done TWICE with Jace's family since we came home with Cohen. It was way past time to do this with my family.

For the photos, we asked my wonderful sister-in-law, Tricia, to make the drive to North Louisiana to take the pictures for us. She graciously accepted our offer and she did an AMAZING job!!

We all met up in downtown Monroe, LA for the family pictures.

Allow me to introduce you to some of my favorite people on the planet...my family! (Left to Right: Charles, Mitch, Joani, Alyssa, Ana, Alvin, Jane, Greg, Emily, Cohen, Jace, Mitzi and Jamie).

Big Al (or Bigubal as the kids call him) and Meme with all 4 of their grandkids: Alyssa - 11, Ana - 9, Mitch - 5 (turned 6 two weeks after this photo was taken), and Cohen - 3.

Ok. I wanted to get a picture of the four of us from a few years ago. I searched and searched and I'm guessing that all the group pictures are stored away at my parents house somewhere. This is the only one I could find. We've changed a bit since then!

I'm guessing this picture was taken in 1989?? (Please excuse the quality, it's a scanned copy of a wallet size photo).

Why do we celebrate?

2011-12-17T10:00:00.000-06:00

Again this year, Jace and I are trying to do our best to remind Cohen of the REAL reason for Christmas...to celebrate Christ's birth. It's so hard in this super commercialized world!

As with other holidays, I decided to send a special card to Cohen's grandparents. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to teach Cohen a little more about Jesus.

Here is our fun card craft...A Manger Scene with Baby Jesus.

How was your second race?

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

As mentioned yesterday, Jace, Cohen and I did two races last weekend. The first was the Reindeer Run and Romp. The second....Celebration in the Oaks.

This is the third year we've done this race, but only the second for me to blog. Check out last years race here.

This is a 2 mile run/walk, so we decided to make Cohen ride part of the race. (and yes, that's our friend, Matt Safley, with an empty stroller. His kids had a ton of energy that day!).

A fuzzy running picture. GO COHEN GO!

Here he is running to the finish line.

After the race, we get to go to City Park Celebration in the Oaks. As a tradition, we rode the carousel. Look close, you can see Nan, our friend, Stella and her dad, Damon riding too!

And the Raney's group shot...in matching shirts! Oh how I LOVE matching shirts! (Cohen didn't get one for this race, because they didn't have kids sizes). Check out Cohen's face...I do love that kid!

We took a big group picture of EVERYONE we know that was at this race (there were like 40 of us). That picture was e-mailed to Damon, so I'm hoping he will post it to his blog very soon.

How was Cohen's first race?

2011-12-15T12:31:00.000-06:00

As you know, Jace and I like to run/bike/swim/whatever. We were thrilled to learn that there was a fun 1/2 mile race in New Orleans called the Reindeer Run and Romp and Egg Nog Jog. We signed up Cohen (and ourselves...mostly for the shirt).

Cohen was very excited about his first race. He kept reminding us that we were supposed to cheer for him and tell him to "stop" when he made it to the finish line.

Here he is...race number pinned on and ready to go!

GO COHEN GO!

He makes the craziest faces! This is his "I'm really focused on finishing this race" face.

We met up with some of our good friends, the Safley's, for this race.

Go Mattie Anne! I think Mattie Anne beat everyone (in our group anyway). She was fast! And didn't slow down or stop. That 1/2 mile was not nearly long enough for this distance runner.

Lyons had help from his grandma and dad. Go Lyons!

Go Evans!

Here we are finishing the race. Go Cohen!

Our finishing time: 8:35 (that's about a 17 min mile...not bad for a 3 year old).

Cohen getting his race metal.

Family pic in matching shirts.

They had face painting, music, and crafts for kids at the finish line. We made a tool box at the Home Depot booth.

Now for our son's TV debut. Fox News had a reporter on the scene of the race and she was asking if anyone would like to be interviewed. YES OF COURSE WE WOULD!!

To see the video GO HERE.

It was a great race! Check back tomorrow, because we actually did TWO races on this day. I'll post pictures from the second one tomorrow.

What do the Raney's do for fun?

2011-12-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

After Thanksgiving, Jace took a couple of days off of work to hang out with Cohen and me. We had a lot of fun! We started out at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. Since Jace's company gave us a free membership for a year (to the aquarium and the zoo) we figured it was time to take Cohen.

After we left the aquarium, we ate at Mothers in New Orleans, then headed to the Children's Museum. We are also members there, and Cohen always asks to go whenever we are in New Orleans. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the Museum, but it was loads of fun!

Our next stop was the "Climbing Park" as Cohen refers to it. It is a really nice climbing, jungle gym type area at City Park. We played here until it was almost dark (and very cold).

Next, we made some hot cocoa and watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on TV. We gathered up all the reindeer in the house for this movie!

It was a great day! Can't wait until Jace has another day off work so we can do it again!

Who is coming to town?

2011-12-12T15:50:00.001-06:00

Santa!!

I have many wonderful memories of going to visit Santa. I was going through some old pictures and found a few of me over the years with Old St. Nick.

I'm guessing this one was taken in 1983?

This one may be 1984 or 1985? Either way, I have two sisters....why are they not in this picture with me?

I love that my sister is wearing a costume in her Santa picture! I'm guessing we must have just come from a parade or something. This one may be 1985 or 1986 or maybe even 1987?

Ok...last one of me. I guess Mitzi finally decided that she could take a picture with Santa. And again with the costume, Joani? I guess you stayed very busy during the Christmas season.

This is a tradition we are trying to keep with Cohen. Here is Cohen with Santa last year.

And this year....

For those wondering...Cohen asked Santa for the following:

1. Mater with Bubbles
2. Cars with Buttons and a Steering Wheel
3. Buzz with Cars

What starts with the letter K?

2011-12-09T14:56:00.001-06:00

We had another fun week learning all about the letter "K."

We started off with Kindness. I love that this was included in our curriculum on the same week as the Monthly Online Writing Party for our Compassion child, and the Operation Christmas Child Shoebox drive was going on at our local church. This gave us lots of opportunities to learn about being kind to others.

We started off with writing a letter to Joanna. She is the little girl we sponsor through Compassion International. Cohen drew a picture for her, I wrote an uplifting letter, and we put it in an envelope, along with a family picture and stickers (I do this every time I write her just so she can have an idea of who we are).

After finishing our letter, we headed to the store to gather up goodies for our shoeboxes.

There were lots of teaching moments when we were at the store. I warned Cohen that we were only going to buy things for kids in other parts of the world that were not as blessed as him. Every time he picked up something in the store and said "Mommy, can I have this?" I had to remind him of our purpose. By the time we left, he was pulling candy off shelves saying "Mommy, I think those kids would like these."

Our next topic for discussion was Kitchen Safety. We learned all about the hazards that are in the kitchen and what to do with those hazards. Then we learned why it is important to have a clean kitchen. Cohen had an opportunity to help clean the kitchen.

Washing dishes....

Wiping off the counter....

Wiping off the table....

Then we had some fun painting with kitchen utensils.

I'm sorry, I didn't do such a great job keeping up with our books we read this week. They were due back at the library, and in an effort to not pay late fees on lots of books, I took them back without ever writing them down. Oh well, I'll do better with the letter "L".

We did read some Berenstain Bears when we were learning about kindness. If you didn't read that post, check it out here.

Do you love birds?

2011-12-02T11:08:00.001-06:00

It is no secret that I'm not a fan of birds of any kind. They just poop on everything and make a mess.

Cohen, however, loves to watch birds. Our neighbor has been feeding the neighborhood ducks for months now (much to my displeasure). Cohen loves to watch those ducks walk through the yard (pooping on everything, I'm sure).

He's also started watching the birds in the backyard. I do not love birds, therefore I'm not someone who is very knowledgable about birds. I have no idea what kind of birds we have in our backyard, and I have no desire to find out. I do love my child, and if he wants to watch the birds, then I will help him out.

A few weeks ago, I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a small bag of bird seed. I decided that Cohen and I would make little bird feeders one day.

We used old toilet paper rolls, peanut butter and bird seed. It's super easy...cover the toilet paper roll in peanut butter, then roll it in bird seed.

Cohen loved the bird seed, so I just let him play in it for a while. I've discovered that nearly anything can be cleaned up, so no reason to stop the messes. If anything, join in!

Here are the finished feeders hanging on the tree in the backyard. For those wondering, they lasted all of a week. The birds killed them, then once they hit the ground, the dogs enjoyed eating what was left. (Also, in this picture you can see that the hummingbird feeder is still hanging out there...not that there have ever been any hummingbirds in my yard, but it's still there if one wants to come by).

I saw a quote on pinterest that said "Please excuse the mess, my kid is making memories." This is a perfect example. My house may look like the inside of a messy bird feeder, but my kid had fun and that's all that really matters.

What begins with the letter J?

2011-12-01T14:40:00.001-06:00

Well, we finished the letter J the second week of November, so I really am bad at updating this blog. We had a lot of fun with this letter.

The weekend before we began the letter "J" was the Annual Valero Family Day. Cohen was actually with his grandparents that day (I'm really sad he missed it, because it was a great party, but I'm sure he had fun with Nan and Pops. We will make sure he can make it to the Family Day next year). Jace and I decided to stop by for just a minute, and good thing we did!! They gave all the families in attendance free zoo and aquarium memberships for a YEAR!

I was not planning to actually cash in on this membership for another week or so, because it just wasn't on the schedule. Well, the beauty of homeschooling is I can change the schedule any time I want! We loaded up about 10 books and headed to the zoo to learn about Jaguars and the Jungle.

In this picture, Cohen is pretending to be in the jungle. Too cute!

And here is Cohen with the jaguar. I LOVE our zoo's jaguar exhibit, because it looks like they are right next to each other...like there is no glass there at all. I love it!

You probably thought I was kidding about doing school at the zoo....well we did!! This particular assignment was to draw a picture of his favorite zoo animal. He drew a goat. (They have goats in the petting zoo area).

Then he colored a lion.

Overall it was a very fun day!!

Next on the agenda: Jellyfish!!

We did some directional drawings...my picture....(I know, it looks like an octapus, but I did my best).

...and Cohen's picture.

Then we made a jellyfish out of tulle and a coffee filter.

We also learned about Jelly, Jam, Jellybeans and JELLO!!

Yum! Who needs a spoon?

We also learned about Japan. We colored their flag and did a fun Japanese Cherry Tree craft.

It was another great week!

Now for our reading list:

Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to Nap by J.C. Phillipps
Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed by J.C. Phillipps
The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
The Zabajaba Jungle by William Steig
Junglewalk by Nancy Tafuri
Catching the Wild Waiyuuzee by Rita Williams-Garcia and Mike Reed
Starry Safari by Linda Ashman and Jeff Mack
Archie and the Pirates by Marc Rosenthal
Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen and Kevin Waldron
The Jungle Train by Bob Reese
Skippy Jon Jones by Judy Schachner
Skippy Jon Jones, Class Action by Judy Schachner
Jack and the Beanstalk (A Little Golden Book) by Stella Williams Nathan
Making Plum Jam by John W. Stewig
Jitterbug Jam by Barbara Jean Hicks and Alexis Deacon
Jamberry by Bruce Degen
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

What starts with the letter I?

2011-11-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

Wow. If you are reading the blog, you might be under the impression that the Raney school as ended. That is not the case. We are going strong, but my blogging is sadly way behind!

For the letter "I" our Animal Alphabet friend was an inchworm. We did some fun crafts with worms.

For this activity, Cohen was instructed to put the worms in order, largest to smallest.

We learned about Insects as well. We went on an insect walk. Cohen found an insect, and then proceeded to try to squish him with a leaf.

We did a little science experiment to see what food ants like best, peanut butter or a marshmallow. They preferred the peanut butter. This was a really neat lesson, because it taught Cohen why it is important to clean up our food items in the house. If we don't, ants will find it.

We learned about indians and Israel as well...but I didn't take any pictures of that.

Now for the reading list:

Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Wendy Straw
The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
Snug As a Bug by Michael Elsohn Ross and Sylvia Long
Hungry Hoppers: Grasshoppers in Your Backyard by Nancy Loewan
Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss
Dot & Jabber and the Big Bug Mystery by Ellen Stoll Walsh
The Best Bug Parade (MathStart 1) by Stuart J. Murphy and Holly Keller
Zigby and the Ant Invaders by Brian Paterson
Fox Song by Joseph Bruchac
Many Nations: An Alphabet of Native America by Joseph Bruchac and Robert F. Goetzl
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
Star Boy by Paul Goble
Mystic Horse by Paul Goble
This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed and Mark Buehner
Bugs (Let's Look Series) by Lorenz Books
Simon & Schuster Children's Guide to Insects and Spiders by Jinny Johnson
The story of the Milky Way: A Cherokee tale by Joseph Bruchac

Have you been crafty?

2011-11-26T19:37:00.001-06:00

I'm trying to embrace this whole "Stay at Home Mom" thing and become one of those crafty people who make fun things for every holiday.

I have been spending the last few months working on my crafting skills. I'm practicing for Christmas...I'm making most of the gifts this year.

It all started with Halloween. I do love this holiday. It's probably not my favorite, but I love the idea of dressing up and walking around begging for candy. To begin our Halloween celebration, Cohen and I made a cute little card. (Warning: Most of these ideas came from Pinterest! If you are not on Pinterest, what are you doing??). I'm going to do my best to give credit where credit is due, and post a Pinterest link for each item.

Here is the fun card I found on Pinterest.

Source: smalltc.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

And our attempt to recreate it.

Next...I wanted to put up some fun Halloween decorations. I've never actually decorated for this holiday before, but I figured if I found something cute and easy, I'd decorate. This is what I found.

Source: somedaycrafts.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Here is my attempt at recreating it. I did this during Cohen's naptime one day. It was very easy!!

We had a Young Adults/LSU party at our house in October, and I wanted to make something yummy for our guests. This is what I found on pinterest....

Source: cakeinfo.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Here is our attempt...

Cooking with Cohen is always an adventure. He thinks he must eat the entire time he's baking. I was concerned that we wouldn't have enough candy corn to top our pretzels.

The finished product. Maybe they weren't as cute as the ones in the picture, but they were fun to make and very tasty!

After all the Halloween fun, we couldn't wait for Thanksgiving. We made a cute Thanksgiving card with Cohen's handprint.

I found this cute printable. I used it to create our Thanksgiving Turkey.

Source: dimpleprints.com via Emily on Pinterest

Here is our turkey.

I actually had it hanging by the fireplace, but forgot to take a picture of it up there. Each night, as Cohen and I were saying our prayers, I would remind him to tell God "thank you" for something. Some nights he just repeated the same thing over and over again, but other nights he came up with new and creative things. My favorite on this list is "Meme's Health." The night before, I asked him to pray expecially for Meme because she was having some tests done the next day. He prayed for her that night, asked about her the next day, then thanked God for her good health that night (it was his idea...I didn't prompt that one).

So there you have it...our creative crafts for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Now you must patiently wait for our Christmas crafts.

Do you have any manners?

2011-11-18T12:28:00.001-06:00

This week we are on the letter "K." I know, I'm a bit behind on my blog posts...but I wanted to jump ahead to share this one thing with you.

We are learning about Kindness this week, and we've had lots of fun learning this important lesson. During our lessons, we read a Berenstain Bears book about Manners. Cohen and I LOVE the Berenstain Bears...and their books usually teach a good lesson.

The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

This particular book was on manners and how Mama Bear was so tired of all her family forgetting how to use their manners. She made a chart, with offences and penalties, for each time you forgot your manners you would have to do a chore. For example, on her chart if you forgot to say "please" or "thank you" you would have to sweep the front steps.

I decided to implement this idea at the Raney residence. Cohen and I have been working really hard on trying to be more polite, and nothing seems to be working. He still commands things, rather than ask politely. He rarely says "please" or "thank you" no matter how many time I try to remind him. I was getting pretty fusterated, because I didn't feel that poor manners was a good enough reason for time out. And if I chose to use time out as the punishment for poor manners, then would he really learn anything? Probably not.

So I made my own "Raney Family Politeness Plan."

Ok. I know that there are lots more things I could add to this list, and I really hope everything is spelled correctly...oh well...too late now.

If you are caught doing any of these things, you draw a penalty. Below is my list of penalties:

Do 10 Jumping jacks
Write your name 5 times
Run in place for 30 seconds
Today you get off with a WARNING! Congratulations!
Pickup 5 toys.
Hop on 1 foot for 10 seconds.
Put laundry in laundry room.
Wipe off table.
Give Mom or Dad a hug and promise to be more polite.
Draw a picture of something nice someone else has done for you.
Say 1 nice thing to someone else.
Choose 1 toy to give away to kids that don’t have much.
Listen to Mom or Dad’s music in the car next time we go somewhere.
Read a book to Mom or Dad.
Draw a picture of you doing something nice for someone else.
Pick up all shoes in living room and kitchen.

I know these penalties are really easy, but I have a 3 year old. I can't ask him to clean the attic or mop the kitchen. Maybe if you have an older child, get more creative. Instead of wiping off a table, make them do all the dishes. Just an idea.

I implemented this today, so we shall see how well it works. My goal is to have a more polite child who is grateful for the things others do for him.

Are you hungry?

2011-11-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

We had another wonderful time Trick or Treating in our lovely neighborhood once again this year.

If this looks a little like our hamburger from last year, you would be correct. As much as I tried to change his mind, Cohen would have no part in any other costume on Halloween Night. He wanted to be a hamburger...so he got his wish.

To try to make it look a little different this year, I spiked up his hair. So cute!

Our good friends, the Safley's, met us in our neighborhood and walked the block with us. Looks like Cohen is about to hit Lyons with that bucket...that kid is nuts!

Lyons is Aladdin.

His big sister, Mattie Anne, is Jasmine, and little brother, Evans, is Abu.

The first house we visited was our good friends The Millets!

Here are a couple of group shots of Cohen and all his friends.

We made our way around the neighborhood.

I love this picture...looks like someone was getting hungry, and that hamburger looked mighty tasty!

This lady dresses up every year as a witch. Cohen, Mattie Anne, and Lyons weren't real sure what to think at first, but when she started passing out candy, they were her best friend.

Here is Cohen with all his candy!! It was another great year! Can't wait to do it again next year...I wonder if Cohen will want to be a hamburger again?

What do you do when your parents are away?

2011-11-11T06:37:00.000-06:00

While Jace and I were out running a half-marathon, Cohen spent some time visiting with his Nan and Pops (Jace's parents).

Here are a few pictures from Cohen's fun weekend with Nan and Pops.

Cohen stayed a couple of nights with them, so of course he needed to brush his teeth.....

...and shave.

They took Cohen to a local pumpkin patch to pick out a rather large pumpkin. Looks like Cohen is doing most of the work.

Ah yes...and now he's resting on the giant pumpkin.

The one large pumpkin was not enough...he also got a small pumpkin too!

Nan and Pops also purchased Cohen a pop gun. He had a lot of fun playing with it at their house.

Looks like he had a lot of fun spending the weekend with Nan and Pops! Cohen is so blessed to have wonderful grandparents that love him very much!

How much time does it take to run 13.1 miles?

2011-11-10T14:03:00.000-06:00

Jace and I particpated in the 3rd Annual Jazz Half Marathon in New Orleans on October 29, 2011. This is the 3rd time we have run this particular race.

Here's a look back at our previous attempts...

October 2009

Jace and I ran the half-marathon together in 2009 (mostly because he didn't train). We both finished in 2:25:12. (This is also the same day we flew to Russia to meet the most wonderful little boy on the planet).

October 2010

Finishing Times:
Jace - 1:59:24
Emily - 2:22:19

October 2011

Finishing Times:
Jace - 1:54:43
Emily - 2:08:45

It was a great race once again. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Did Cohen smile for his school picture this year?

2011-11-09T15:48:00.000-06:00

Before reading any further...you need to see last year's school picture. You can clearly see his beautiful blue eyes, but there is no smile.

October 2010

Now for this years school picture....

October 2011

Isn't he the cutest kid ever! He's got a great smile!

To Family Members...

I'm printing them now so you can update the picture displayed in your home.

Did Cohen ever find a pumpkin?

2011-11-05T13:21:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we visited Mrs. Heathers Pumpkin Patch, with some of our best friends. This is our second year to visit Mrs. Heather's Pumpkin Patch, click here to see last years.

Here are a few pictures from our fun trip.

Our friends, the Pouricau's, met us in the parking lot. Isn't she looking so cute in her pumpkin shirt!

I love this picture of Cohen, but he looks like such a big kid, and not a toddler. Oh my boy is growing up!

It didn't take this beautiful little girl very long to select her pumpkin.

Cohen had other things to do. He spent lots of time climbing on the hay.

Then he played on the big red blob.

After all that fun, we headed over to where the pumpkins were hanging out, and took a few pictures there.

Oh those eyes. Have you ever seen such beautiful eyes!?

We packed our own lunch for the event, so we could stay longer. Shortly after eating lunch, all our friends were decorating pumpkins. Cohen immediately decided he needed to decorate a pumpkin. The only problem was, we spent hours at the pumpkin patch, but Cohen never picked his pumpkin. We headed back to the patch to get the perfect one.

Some of our friends were celebrating their birthday...so their mom's brought paint pens, stickers, glue and all sorts of fun things to decorate pumpkins. What a great idea!!

Here is Cohen with the two birthday girls, Talia and Sarah. Can you tell what's on his mind? OOHHH COOKIE!

After decorating pumpkins, we headed over to the petting zoo.

And a few family shots....look at those adorable Raneys!!

I hate that I didn't get pictures of all our friends, but check out Scarlett's blog for more fun photos of this event.

Did you earn your Family Night Fun badge?

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Of course we earned our next badge.

As many of you know, we are working our way through Family Fun Magazine's Badges of Fun. We are now on our fourth badge (we are actually about a month behind...so we have some catching up to do!!).

A week or so ago, Cohen, Jace and I spent some time together playing board games and then Cohen and I put together a Family Magnet.

I just drew a house on a sheet of cardstock using markers.

Cohen and I colored in the house with crayons.

Our finished house!

Here is the house with our pictures in it.

Cohen earned his next badge!

All that hard work is paying off!

How did you celebrate Cohen's Meetcha Day?

2011-11-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well, our day started out with a trip to see Dr. Jones.

Poor Cohen...he caught a case of the pink eye. He was supposed to go to school (Wednesday is his only day of the week to attend WeeCare), but the pink eye forced him to stay home with me. I hate that he was sick, but I love staying home with this guy!

Before going home, I had to treat him to one tiny little bit of sugar (because the mountain of Halloween candy is not nearly enough). Cohen picked donuts for his special breakfast. YUM!

Since he skipped school, and I didn't really feel like forcing a sick kid to do his homeschool work, I pulled out an ice cream sheet (left over from the letter I) and we practiced cutting. Cohen LOVES to use his sissors!

For dinner, I cooked some chicken and mac and cheese. Cohen got to eat on the special "Celebrate Plate" since it was his special day.

Is today a special Raney Day?

2011-11-02T20:59:00.000-05:00

Yes it is!!

Two years ago today, Jace and I met this wonderful little boy for the first time ever!

November 2, 2009

Happy Meetcha Day...Cohen Bogdan Raney!

October 31, 2011

What is your favorite season?

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

My favorite season is Fall. I love the cooler days and fun fall colors. This is the reason I wanted to get married in the month of October...it's one of my favorites!

The week that Cohen and I learned about Farms, we also learned about Fall.

Our first project was painting some fall leaves. I found this fun craft on Pinterest.

Source: whateverdeedeewants.com via Emily on Pinterest

Instead of just using construction paper for the leaves, I decided to pull out the easel and have Cohen paint swirls in orange, red and yellow.

During naptime, I took the paper and cut it into the shapes of leaves. Later we used tape to attach the leaves to ribbon and the ribbon to a construction paper circle. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here's a little closer shot of one of the leaves.

Later we sorted apples and leaves.

Then we worked on patterns with leaves, scarecrows, and apples. Cohen did great with this!!

Now for our reading list for the week...this includes the books we read for Farm and Fall.

Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Very Busy Spider, The by Eric Carle
The Barn Party by Nancy Tafuri
The Noisy Noisy Farm by Stephanie Stansbie and Veronica Vasylenko
Mrs. Huggins and Her Hen Hannah by Lydia Dabcovich
No Sleep for the Sheep! by Karen Beaumont and Jackie Urbanovic
Old McDonald Had a Farm by Wendy Straw
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen and Bernadette Watts
One Potato, Two Potato by Cynthia DeFelice and Andrea U'Ren
I Am a Bunny (A Golden Sturdy Book) by Ole Risom and Richard Scarry
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka
Little Red's Autumn Adventure by Sarah The Duchess of York Ferguson and Sam Williams
I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli and Nancy Hayashi
Way Down South by Rozanne Lanczak Williams and Jennifer B. Harris
The Monster Under My Bed by Suzanne Gruber and Stephanie McFetridge Britt
Fall by Nicola Baxter and Kim Woolley

What did Cohen do while you were in Dallas?

2011-10-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

As mentioned earlier, Cohen got to spend the weekend with Meme and Big Al (my parents) at their home in Farmerville, LA.

Not only did Cohen get to hang out with his grandparents, he also got to play with some of his favorite cousins!! Meme and Big Al were very brave and agreed to take all 4 grandkids (Alyssa - 11, Ana - 9, Mitch - 5, and Cohen - 3) for the weekend (my sister and her husband also took a vacation to Jackson, MS).

One of the best things about Meme and Big Al's house is they have lots of places to play. They have a huge rock mountain (ok, maybe "huge" is not the right word, but to Cohen, it was pretty big). The kids played here for hours.

Then they took a ride in the Ranger. I was assured that my child never actually rode in the Ranger while Alyssa and Ana were driving. I'm sure they are great drivers, I just don't trust my child to sit still and not distract the driver.

Here they are with the adult driver, Meme.

Meme decided to have a little Halloween party for the kids, and she invited Aunt Mitzi to come to the party.

They painted pumpkins.

Had some yummy snacks.

And did some face painting.

It looks like one of the kids painted Cohen's face. I think he's just adorable!

Thanks Meme and Big Al (and Aunt Mitzi, Alyssa, Ana, and Mitch) for entertaining my child for the weekend. He's ready to do it again, whenever you are!

Do you like to play in the mud?

2011-10-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yes. I do.

The real reason we decided to go to Dallas for our anniversary was because they were hosting a Muddy Buddy the weekend prior to our anniversary.

This is a very unique race. You do it in teams of 2. One person starts on the bike (me) and the other runs (Jace). About a mile into the race, the biker (me) drops the bike, does an obstacle, and starts to run. Once the runner (Jace) arrives at the place where you dropped the bike, he does a simliar obstacle, and takes off on the bike. You do this switcharoo thing about 3 more times. The race is a total of about 6 miles, but you each run about 3 and bike 3, so it's a pretty short race.

Jace and I came in 4th in our division (there were 23 teams in our division) with a final time of 55:20. Not too bad!

Here are a few pictures from the race.

Prior to the race, nice and clean.

We brought a disposable, waterproof camera with us...so some of the pictures are not real clear.

This is at the start...can you see me?

During the race, you actually passed each other (because the person on the bike was faster). This is one of those times I passed Jace.

Here's Jace on the top of one of the obstacles!

Here is a shot of the obstacle...it doesn't look like much, but you can't see the rope you have to climb up on the back of that thing! My arms were so sore the next day.

And the wall at the very end (just before the big mud pit).

Here I am coming over the wall.

Now....remember...we were running with a disposable camera. Well, the camera went through the mud pit with us, and like us, did not come out clean. We tried to wash it off, but the pictures are still real blurry...use your imagination.

The nice race folks had waterhoses setup for you to wash the mud off before you got back into your car. Well, we noticed that they were basically just pumping the water from the lake for the waterhoses, so we decided to just go for a swim. This is a shot of me trying to clean off my helmet in the lake. Again, sorry for the terrible shot, the camera did as well as it could for a disposable.

What else did you do while you were in Dallas?

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, while we were in Dallas, we purchased tickets to visit Six Flags Over Texas. I had been to this park several times when I was younger, but Jace had never been.

I took one picture of us in the park. I'm failing as a blogger, right?

It's just hard to take pictures of the two of us, when there's not another person to hold the camera.

This picture was taken prior to us riding Mr. Freeze. If you didn't know this already, Jace and I LOVE roller coasters. We enjoyed this ride, and the lines were not bad at the beginning of the day, that we ended up riding it two times in a row, and then coming back to it later (after riding Batman, the NEW Texas Giant, and the Titan).

AND as a special unexpected treat, we got to see some of our good friends from college, Keith and Lisa McGee and their little boy Liam. They were celebrating a "Big Brother" day at the park, and they left little Levi with Grandma. We saw them a few times while we were in the park, and it looked like Liam was having lots of fun. He did mention to me that he was upset that Batman was not there that day...I reminded him that he's probably out saving the world.

After we spent several hours riding roller coasters, we moved on to dinner. We had dinner at Midievel Times. Neither of us had ever been to one of these, so we were very excited. The entire time we were there, we just kept saying, "Cohen would love this." Next time Cohen will come with us!!

Notice, you have no utensils. You must eat everything with your hands. YUM!

We were on the red team...and OUR KNIGHT WON!! YAY!

I would highly recommend this for anyone...old or young, with or without your kids. You will thoroughly enjoy yourself!

Have you ever had a Fried Peanut Butter Pie?

2011-10-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

As mentioned earlier, Jace and I went to Dallas, TX for our annual anniversary trip. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and went out to eat that night at a very yummy resturant called Fearings.

It was WONDERFUL! If you are ever in Dallas, and looking for a nice place to eat, you really need to give this place a try.

For our appitizer we split a sampler of:

Griddled Jumbo Lump Crabcakes, Barbecued Duck Tamale and Two Bite Lobster Tacos with Avocado Relish

For our entre and dessert, Jace got:

Broken Arrow Ranch NilGai Antelope Glazed with D-1 Sauce

on Fried Green Tomatoes with Barbecued East Texas Field Peas and Elk Sausage/Broccoli ‘Casserole’

Chocolate, Cajeta

and Salted Peanut Ice Cream Cake with Mallow Fluff and Fried Peanut Butter Pies

I had:

Maple-Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin

on Brazos Valley Jalapeño Grits, Tangle of Greens and Butternut Squash Taquito

Chocolate Guinness Cake

with Orange Curd and Bailey's Ice Cream

It was all just amazing!! I must say my favorite thing we ate was the Fried Peanut Butter Pie. I convinced Jace to get the peanut butter dessert because I was afraid that it would have peanut chunks (and as much as I LOVE peanut butter, I don't like it chunky). It was like a little taste of heaven. Imagine a fried pastry filled with creamy peanut butter. Doesn't get much better than that.

Here is the only picture we took that night. The chairs were HUGE! And very comfy!

How many years does this make it?

2011-10-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

I still can't believe we've been married for 8 years!! I'm not old enough to be married that long, right? Don't answer that.

Each year for our anniversary, we have tried to take a little trip, some of them have been only a couple of nights, and others have been a week long trip....but with only one exception (#7), we took a trip each year, just the two of us.

If you and your spouse don't have this tradition, may I recommend it for you. It's so nice to get away from everything, just the two of you, and hang out.

For our 8th Anniversary, Jace and I loaded up the minivan, left Cohen with Meme and Big Al and headed over to Dallas, TX. Before I share all about our "Muddy" fun in Dallas, I wanted to share a few things from our past 8 years together.

Here's a list of the fun places we've been...and some old photos to go along with the memories.

Honeymoon - Ouray, CO - October 2003

I had a hard time finding one of the pictures from our honeymoon. We did have a digital camera way back then, but it looks like over the past 8 years, we have lost the digital copy of those pictures. I pulled this picture out of a scrapbook. This picture is actually from Silverton, CO.

1st - Houston, TX - October 2004
I have no pictures from this trip. I was not a blogger then, that's my only excuse.

2nd - Hot Springs, AR - October 2005

3rd - Orlando, FL - October 2006
On this trip, we visited the Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.

4th - Sandusky, OH - October 2007
We visited Cedar Point...I highly recommend this park for any roller coaster fans. Not the most kid friendly theme park, but for the adults, you won't find one much better!!

5th - Cruise from New York to Canada - October 2008
We left out of New York, NY and visited Boston, MA; Portland, OR; St. John, New Brunswick, Canada; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In the picture below, we are on the boat leaving out of New York. It was very foggy that day.

6th - Vladivostok, Russia - October 2009
So, Jace and I were a little preoccupied on this trip and totally forgot to take a picture of just the two of us. I do have this cute one to share...our first family picture!

7th - October 2010
This is the only year, so far, that we have not taken a trip. We only had a certain amount of vacation time for the year, and we managed to use all of it during the month of February (when we went back to Russia to get Cohen). Here is a shot of us, after running the Jazz Half Marathon last October.

8th - Dallas, TX - October 2011
This is just a little peak...check back later for more pictures. We went to Dallas to take part in the Muddy Buddy. Obviously, from our clean outfits, this is prior to the start of the race. Go Team Raney!

It's been a great 8 years!! I'm ready for 100 more just like this!

What lives on a farm?

2011-10-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, Cohen and I had a review week. Our curriculum told us to study farms, and in doing so, we reviewed all our Animal Alphabet Friends that live on farms (Aligator, Bee, Cow, Donkey, Fish, Goat, and Horse).

It was a fun week! I decided to study the farm only one day, and spend time the other days doing some fall crafts. I'll share those crafts later.

We started off by doing some simple puzzles of farm animals. Cohen got really fusterated with this puzzle because they wouldn't stay together. If you do it, maybe have your child glue the pieces to a sheet of construction paper. (If you would like to get your own copy of these wonderful printables, please visit 2TeachingMommies).

We sorted tractors, smallest to largest.

We also worked with our Unifix cubes. I gave Cohen a card that had a certain number of items on it. He was instructed to count the objects on the card, and put that same number of Unifix cubes on that paper. He did great!!

We did some pre-writing exercises too, but I forgot to take pictures of those. Check back later for our Fall fun and the weeks reading list.

Are you a crime fighter?

2011-10-23T21:24:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not talking about Batman or Superman...these folks are much braver than any comic book Superhero!

Recently our neighborhood took part in a national effort to end crime, called National Night Out Against Crime. The idea behind this night out, is to have the Police and neighborhoods work together to fight crime. Our night out was held on October 11, 2011 in our local neighborhood green space.

We met up with some of our favorite neighbors and walked over.

Cohen did not want to take a picture with Molly and Stella, but I took it anyway...those girls are so cute!

When we arrived at the green space, the folks from Bulls Corner were catering a yummy meal (I was not expecting to be served dinner...I was thinking I would go home later and cook something, but no need!).

Molly, Stella and Cohen enjoyed their food.

After hanging out with our neighbors for a little while, the police came by for a visit. They were so wonderful with the children!! We see these guys all the time driving through our neighborhood, keeping us safe. It was nice to actually shake hands with them and have the opportunity to thank them for all their hard work.

After shaking hands with everyone, they let the kids play with the lights and sirens in the police car. They LOVED this!!

What starts with the letter H?

2011-10-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

Ok. I'm really behind with my home school posts. I'm going to try to catch up.

Now on to the letter "H."

Our alphabet animal friend for the week was a horse. We read some books about horses, but we didn't actually do a horse craft.

We did do other crafts. We learned that there are four things you need for a healthy body: water, food, sleep and exercise. During that day, we managed to cover all four of those things.

Here is Cohen putting together a puzzle. I got this puzzle from pinterest via 2TeachingMommies. I really didn't know how Cohen would do with this. I've never really done a puzzle like this before with him. The idea is to cut up one page into long strips, and these strips have a number on the end. Then there is another page with only numbers. Cohen had to match up the numbers to complete the puzzle (of course for an older child, you could just cut off the numbers and make it more challenging).

I'm so proud of my boy! He did this all by himself!!

Next we learned about houses. I've been trying to make our craft time a fun learning time, as I hope you can see. For this craft, I cut out 6 windows and gave them all to Cohen, but his instructions were to only put 4 windows on the house. For some reason, I didn't take a finished picture of this one, but he did great!! He followed the directions and counted out the correct number of windows.

We did a craft very similar to this last year with some of our best friends. I tried to use the one we did this year as a review of his shapes.

We read Eric Carle's book A House for Hermit Crab and decorated our own hermit crab shell.

Our next lesson was on hummingbirds. These birds are just fascinating! We watched a National Geographic video on hummingbirds and learned all sorts of fun things. We decided to make them a hummingbird feeder (ok...I realize that it is the wrong season for this, but I don't care! It was a fun craft, and maybe it will survive until the spring). I'd love to share where we got this one, but I honestly don't remember. It's basically a deli meat container with holes in the top and a large X cut in the top to hold a water bottle.

Our Reading List for the week:

Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World's Smartest Horse by Emily Arnold McCully
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash: A Counting Adventure by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Hip and Hop, Don't Stop! by Jef CzekajThe Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood
Bella and Stella Come Home by Anika Denise and Christopher Denise
A House for Hermit Crab (World of Eric Carle) by Eric CarleHere Are My Hands by Bill Martin, John Archambault and Ted Rand
The Hummingbird's Gift by Stefan Czernecki, Timothy Rhodes, Juliana Reyes De Silva and Juan Hilario Silva
Snow Riders by Constance W. McGeorge and Mary Whyte
Harry & Hopper by Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood
The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Would you like to help Cohen give a goat?

2011-10-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

During the week when we were learning about the letter "G," Cohen and I read the book Give a Goat by Jan West Schrock and Aileen Darragh. If you have not yet read this book, go get it now and read through it. It's truly an inspiration for our project this week.

In Give a Goat there is a 5th grade class that learns about how other parts of the world are facing extreme poverty. Instead of just feeling sorry for the kids on the other side of the world, they decided they were going to help them. They did some research and found a charitable organization called Heifer International where you can actually give a goat to a family in another country. By doing this, you give that family a chance to get milk or cheese. Instead of giving the family a one time gift, you are actually giving them a chance to change their lives forever.

Cohen and I have decided that we want to support this organization too. For $120, you can send a goat to a needy family. Unfortunately, Cohen and I do not have $120 just yet, but we sent in our share of $10.

I'm writing this blog in hopes that 11 families will consider giving as well. It's only $10, and you can make a big difference to another family. Just think about it, and pray about it. Will you help Cohen give a goat? Go to the Heifer International Website, at heifer.org, once you are there you simply give a $10 share toward a goat.

I would like to encourage you again to go get this book! The St. John Parish Library has a copy, and I'm sure your library does too! Read it to your kids, and help them understand that we are so blessed, and we have a responsibility to pass those blessing on to others.

"For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." -Luke 12:48b

What starts with the letter G?

2011-10-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

Our animal alphabet friend for the week was a goat! We learned a lot about goats this week and we did a fun goat craft.

Tomorrow I'm going to show you a little more about how Cohen and I are giving back…and we could use your help.

For now, I will share a few pictures of what we did this week with the letter G.

We learned about gardening, and how it takes soil, water and sunshine to grow a plant. I wanted to take this opportunity to play with dirt in the kitchen. There are so many things you can learn from dirt. I gave Cohen some measuring spoons, a big bowl and some cups and let him play.

It made a HUGE mess...but it was worth it. Cohen had a lot of fun!

We also learned about grocery shopping. I had Cohen go through some magazines and find things that you could buy in a grocery store. After he found a few, we glued them to the letter "G."

And the last project I took pictures of for the week was some garbage sorting. I found this little game online. I think if you click the picture, you can go and print this for yourself.

Source: 2teachingmommies.com via Emily on Pinterest

Finally we had some fun with games, in honor of the letter G. We played Candyland and Memory.

It was another great week at the Raney school! Check back tomorrow for some fun giving opportunities.

Reading List:

The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Folk Tale Classics) by Paul Galdone*
Give a Goat by Jan West Schrock and Aileen Darragh
Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter
G is for Goat by Patricia PolaccoMy Garden by Kevin HenkesPlanting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Galbraith and Wendy Anderson Halperin
A Good Day by Kevin Henkes
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Caralyn Buehner*
G Is for One Gzonk!: An Alpha-number-bet Book by Tony DiTerlizzi
Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney
Edwin Speaks Up by April Stevens and Sophie Blackall
At the Supermarket by Anne Rockwell
Barn Dance! (Reading Rainbow) by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Ted Rand
Gus and the Baby Ghost by Jane Thayer and Seymour Fleishman
Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

*These are book suggestions. I own older copies of these classic fairy tales and they don't sell the copies that I own. Feel free to check out any of the versions for yourself. I'm sure they all tell basically the same story.

Is it a holdiay?

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's not a national holiday, but it is a fun Raney Day!

As of today, October 14, 2011, Cohen has lived with us for exactly 610 days. If you add it up, that is exactly the same amount of time he lived in Hospital #3 in Vladivostok, Russia. So as of today, he's lived with us longer! Yay!

I think it's just a neat milestone in our boy's life, and I feel the need to celebrate!

I can't wait to spend a million more days with this wonderful little boy!

In honor of this milestone....here is Cohen saying his pledge to the American flag.

How do you track your reading list?

2011-10-10T21:45:00.001-05:00

Since Cohen and I started homeschooling, I've come to the realization that I must be organized. My usual, unorganized, chaotic life has to have some order when it comes to my child's education.

Using some of the ideas I got online from blogs and pinterest, I have designed my own "Completed Book List" spreadsheet. It's not very fancy, but it works for what we need. I started with a simple list that only gave the Author and Title. Later I decided I better put a date, so that I could remember when we read these books. I've just recently added subject (mostly for blogging purposes) and rating. For now our rating system is a happy face, sad face, and one that's just in between. Later, I'd like for it to be a 5 star system, but Cohen doesn't really get that detailed right now.

Here is a copy of our "Completed Book List." I'm offering it in color or black and white. You will notice that it is a little off-centered. I punch holes in mine and they go in a binder. I'm trying to be organized....remember?

If you are interested in downloading a copy of this for your own use, please feel free. It's nothing fancy, I know, but it is a place to start.

Completed Book List Color
Completed Book List BW

Happy Reading!

What starts with the letter F?

2011-10-06T16:15:00.001-05:00

We are back on track with our homeschool blogs. Jace rescued the memory card from that hungry computer...so now I have pictures to share!

As with all the letters, we had a lot of fun with the letter "F."

Our Animal Alphabet friend for the week was a fish. One of my favorite books about fish is The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

We made our own Rainbow Fish.

It turned out so beautiful that I framed it and put it in our playroom.

We also read about the Forest, and then painted a tree in Autumn colors.

We moved on to learning about Flowers. I had intended to get seeds and plant them, then watch the grow, but Wal-mart did not have any flower seeds, and I wasn't in the mood to drive all over town for seeds. We settled for the only flower that Wal-mart had for sale....a mum. I do not love mums, but they are the best flower for planting this time of year, I guess.

After all that flower fun, we moved inside and created a fun flower craft using cupcake holders.

Later that same week, we learned about family. Cohen's first assignment was to draw a picture of his family. I LOVE crafts like this...where he can be totally creative, with no restrictions. I gave Cohen a recent picture of us, to use as a guide. Here we are....

When I asked him to show me where Daddy was in the picture, he said "Daddy has long legs and blue eyes." So Daddy is the two long lines and two blue dots. I'm not quite as long and lean...but I do have a head. The circle with two green dots is me, because I have green eyes. And that pink line and blue dot is Cohen, because pink is his favorite color, and his eyes are blue. Can you see it? Quite creative...I'm very impressed with it!

We moved on to the extended family....Grandparents. We did a fun glueing craft with the faces of Cohen, his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

On the final day of the letter "F", Cohen and I learned about Fire Safety. This is very important for kids his age. We reviewed what to do in case he saw a fire in the house, we practiced "Stop, Drop, and Roll," and we did a mock fire drill.

After all that fun, we did a small craft to build a road to help the fire truck reach the buring house.

Now for our reading list for the week...

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
A Walk in the Woods by Christin Couture
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (Classic Reprint) by Beatrix Potter
The Ogre and the Frog King by Grégoire Solotareff
Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert
Fall (Toppers: Seasons) by Nicola Baxter and Kim Woolley
The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain
My Daddy And Me by Amy Sklansky and Ard Hoyt
When I Go Camping With Grandma - Marion Dane Bauer and Allen Garns
God Found Us You (HarperBlessings) by Lisa Tawn Bergren and Laura J. Bryant
Mama Mama by Jean Marzollo
Just Grandma and Me (Little Critter) (Pictureback(R)) by Mercer Mayer
Just Grandpa and Me (Little Critter) (Look-Look) by Mercer Mayer
Mama, Coming and Going by Judith Caseley
The Ten Best Things About My Dad by Christine Loomis and Jackie Urbanovic
Your Daddy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett and David Walker
The Fire Fighter's Counting Book (Little Golden Book) by Polly Curren
Stop Drop and Roll (A Book about Fire Safety) by Margery Cuyler and Arthur Howard
At the Firehouse by Anne Rockwell

Where did my memory card go?

2011-10-05T11:52:00.000-05:00

So about a week or so ago, I went to load the latest pictures from our school fun on the computer. When I put the card into the slot on the computer, the computer opened up, showed his huge teeth and ate the entire card. Ok, that's not true. The card reader slipped and the card fell into the computer. I have added this to the "Honey-Do" List, but my wonderful husband has been super busy lately and has not yet had time to retrieve the card.

(HTPC = Home Theater PC)

For now, you will just have to wait to see our latest school adventures. Fear not, I have an older, smaller memory card I've been using the past couple of weeks, but I don't want to show you what we did for the letter "H" without showing you "G." You will just have to wait.

While you wait, I thought it would be fun to show you some of the other stuff we've been doing. I love taking pictures of Cohen, mostly because I feel like he is the cutest kid on the planet (I may be biased). For today, I will share a few of my favorite shots from the past month or so.

Hopefully some of our school stuff will make it on the blog very soon!

Did Cohen pick up that bunny all by himself?

2011-09-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Red Barn Farm visited Cohen's school this week. It was lots of fun going to see all the cute animals.

This is our second year to visit the Red Barn Farm, click here to see last year's post.

Here are a few pictures from our fun.

I was very excited to see a goat at the Red Barn Farm, because in our homeschool curriculum, we are on the letter G and we learned a lot about goats the day before this fun day.

And here is Cohen, holding the bunny he picked up all by himself! Such a sweet kid! I'm so happy I did not have to help him hold the bunny this year!

What fun M&M activity did you do?

2011-09-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in my blog yesterday, Cohen and I did a fun activity with M&M candy. I'm always looking for creative ways to teach Cohen....and anyone that knows Cohen will understandy why candy is really the best way to teach him. Cohen learns the most by eating!

I saw this cute pattern on Pinterest. I think it was actually designed for older kids, because it is a game where you roll the dice, and depending on what number you land, you get that color. I decided that might be a bit too advanced for Cohen, so I just had him match the colors.

Below is the picture from Pinterest (there should be a link at the bottom of the picture).

Source: shareandremember.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Here is Cohen's finished rainbow! (there were not enough yellow M&M's in our package to complete the yellow section, so he just used brown M&M's for that part).

He did a great job!! Next he got to eat the M&M's. He's asked to do this activity several times since. I love doing fun learning games that he loves too!

Did you earn your Learn Something New Badge?

2011-09-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

As you are probably all aware, Cohen and I have been working our way through Family Fun Magazine's Badges of Fun. The badge this month was the Learn Something New Badge.

We decided to play with the alphabet (since Cohen is learning about his letters in our homeschool program). Cohen and I made our own letter writing tray.

Prior to this learning experience, I purchased a set of 3 cheap cookie trays and spray painted all 3 with chalkboard paint. I love chalkboard paint!

I used the smaller tray and some chalk to draw the letters/shapes on my tray. Cohen used some moon sand to "draw" the letters/shapes. It really was a lot of fun!!

Here is a picture of Cohen's "C." (Note: prior to this activity...Cohen did an activity that involved M&M candy...that is why he has chocolate on the side of his face....check the blog later for info on that activity).

After all that hard work....he got his Learn Something New Badge!!

And we added it to our collection!

The next one is Family Night Fun badge....can't wait to do that one!!

How was Cohen's first day of WeeCare PreK3?

2011-09-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in a prior blog, Jace and I were torn between keeping Cohen home everyday with me and sending him to a preschool/mom's day out one day a week. We we decided to go ahead and sign him up for First Baptist Church's Wee Care Program and let him have the opportunity to play with other kids, one day a week. Last Wednesday was his first day.

To see how things went on his first day of Wee Care last year, check out this post.

He's grown just a bit....he looks so skinny in those old pictures!

Here are a few pictures from his first day this year.

I'm not sure what was going on here, but it sure is a funny face!

I told him that I wanted to take one picture on my phone to send to his dad and grandparents, but this is all I got (sorry about the quality...my phone does not take very good pictures).

This is him at the door of the school....peeking in to see if Mr. Eddie is in there. When we parked the car, Cohen immeditaly noticed that Mr. Eddie's truck was in the parking lot...so he was on a mission!

Cohen's cubbie at school.

A little later that day, I had the privilege to pick up these two beautiful little girls from their first day of school (they go to St. Timothy's...which is just up the road a bit from Cohen's school).

After lunch and a short nap, Molly, Stella, and I headed to Cohen's school to pick him up from his first day. Cohen is so lucky to have such wonderful friends!!

And one final shot...all the kids, in their car seats, in the minivan. Good thing we went with the van!! (Fear not parents of Molly and Stella....everyone was safely buckled in prior to leaving the parking lot).

I think all three kids will agree that it was a great first day of school!!

Have you ever been on Monkey Hill?

2011-09-13T15:59:00.000-05:00

On Labor Day, Jace, Cohen and I met up with some good friends of our, The Safley's, at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

We had lots of fun with the animals. I think we saw more animals on this visit to the zoo than all our other visits combined (mostly because Monkey Hill was really cold, and the Aztec ruins were a total mud pit).

Here are a few of the Safley's checking out the elephants.

From the elephants, we moved on to the petting zoo. Cohen loves this part of the zoo! I think he's convinced that the goats and sheep are just like Lucy and Ella...they are about the same size.

This goat was showing off his mad climbing skills! Cohen was very impressed.

I caught this picture from far away (the reason for the fuzziness....I zoomed in a bit so you can see that pig). Cohen is not supposed to stick his finger in there because the pig can bite. I guess he'll learn eventually.

Cohen tried to drag the animals around the petting zoo, just like he does Lucy and Ella at home. These animals were a lot more stubborn!

We moved on to the "kid trap." I'm not sure why I've never played on this before. It was kind of like a crab trap, only much bigger, for the kids.

Moving right along to Monkey Hill...Cohen's favorite part of the zoo. Mattie Anne loved running down the grassy hill right next to the waterfall. Oh if only we could all have a small bit of her energy!

Matt and Lyons visited the lion statue at the top of Monkey Hill.

This was Jace's first time down Monkey Hill...Cohen's a pro by now.

Matt may kill me later for this shot...but I had to post it. He rolled his pants up to play in the water and well I thought it was very much picture worthy!

It was a great trip! For the last picture....little Evans. He was a perfect little angel the entire time we were at the zoo! I can't wait until he's big enough to climb monkey hill with the rest of us...but for now, we will just enjoy his sweet company!