Baseball

Millie had her last ball game last night. We have a party on Sunday where she will get her trophy and of course...pizza! I was surprised how well Reed behaved during her games. I can only hope he is as well behaved during her basketball games which start tonight.

The New Old Tractor

I never thought I would see the day. So many things are off about this latest purchase of my dad's. 1) He doesn't spend money (I get it honestly) 2) Our farm has nothing but Ford a.k.a. New Holland tractors...always has and I thought, always would 3) Dad just bought a new tractor last year.


So, when he called to tell me he bought a 1962ish 35 Massey Ferguson I was a little surprised. He bought it from his Uncle's auction so that did make a little more since, it was a memory for him but it was still a Massey. I guess it will go well with our 1962 Ford from back in the time when Fords were red.


When I went up last week with the kids, we went out to take a look at it. It was in one of the buildings so it was a little dark. Reed was hilarious, as soon as we went in, he started making motor sounds when he saw all the tractors.


Reed liked the Massey well enough but he was much more interested in the big New Holland behind him. Millie liked it but she too wanted to sit on the New Holland. I raised my kids right, they know their tractors.

Volcano

Millie has been working very hard on her reading skills. She has earned her second reward for learning her next set of flash card words, a volcano. She has been very interested in them lately and I found this kit at the local school supply school.

She got it all ready...

She mixed the plaster...


She filled the form with the plaster. My engineering skills kicked in and I taught her about slump and making sure to fill in lifts and we even used a 'rod' to help get the air out. There will be no spalling on this creation!

She took her time painting it, she had a specific color pattern we had to follow and we mixed colors together to get the colors she needed.


Ready for the explosion...


I was sure she was going to be disappointed because she kept talking about blowing the roof off and us all dying if the hot lava got us.

I was relieved when she was excited during the explosion. She had a blast and even some of our neighbors came over to watch the big show.

Reed was there but he didn't seem impressed. I think he just wanted something to eat.


We are working on our third set of words right now and at this rate, she will be through them in about 1 week. Unless a word is really spelled in an odd way, she can look at the word and figure it out really quick. Once she sees the word once, she nearly always remembers it. I enjoy sitting with her and having her read a book to me. I still have to help once in a while with a word but she can pretty much read any level 1 reader we give her.

Mr. Alligator

Please refer to this post because it still cracks me up. I wanted to resurrect it just in case anyone of you had not seen it.

Zoo Trip

We usually make it to the zoo several times a year but this is the first time we have been since Millie turned 3 and Reed was 1 month old. Reed did really well and Millie always has fun when she is with her friends. It is amazing how big they are all getting. Millie and I have been meeting with these kiddos since they turned 1!


Reed enjoyed picking flowers and chasing after the animals.




Millie and Lindsey had fun paling around for the morning. What cuties!

Millie's Word Train

We have been working on Millie's reading skills and we have run out of flash card words. She discovered yesterday that in her number flash cards that they have the number name written out on some of them...one through twenty. So while I was working and Reed was napping, she got out the cards and put them in order across the room by reading the number. I was very impressed because she only knew 2 number words, two and six because they were in her other set of flash cards. Once in a while she would get to one she could not sound out so she put it aside and when she was done, she looked at where she had spaces and by process of elimination, she figured out where they went.



When she was finished with that, she began building sheds for her trains.

I Love This Boy!

Reed and I had a very nice weekend while Rick and Millie were camping. I was dreading it figuring Reed would be a pain and I would be exhausted by the time they got back. I was very surprised to find that he was great. Without Millie around for him to hit and throw toys at, he had no problems. He actually let me work on the other side of the Reed barrier and make cards while he played with the tools, trains and anything else he managed to find of Millie's. I even decided to take him to church Saturday night by myself and he was fantastic.

Camping in the Cumberlands

Rick and Millie headed out this morning to meet his parents for a little hiking and camping trip. We have a rule that you have to be potty trained to camp so I got to stay home with Reed. I think they plan to hike about 6 miles in and then pitch a tent for the night. Millie has done a 7 mile hike already and walked all but about 2 miles of the total 14 mile 2 day trip. Hopefully she does as well this time because I don't think Rick plans to take the pack to carry her. Mostly because that means one of the hikers is not carrying their own pack and packing the gear for 4 people in 2 packs is not fun.

Rick took his camera so hopefully I will have some pictures to share when they get back tomorrow.