because i want to remember

Ditto:

I LOVE the new Ditto stuff from Hampton Arts that is coming out!

I am using a Ditto book for my Project Life book this year!

Mine is one I bought last year and I just LOVE IT!

 

this is my cover. I just used Kraft paper and rounded edges, AC foam thickers and butterfly punch w/ pp.

I had so much fun! I am going to find time this weekend to actually work on the inside and will post

when I am done!

to go Facebook and "like" Hampton ARts page and they are having a give away for DITTO!

You will LOVE this product!

hampton arts

happy scrapping!

reading machine:

Ava has been a reading machine this year, here is the list she has finished so far:

 

1. Henry Reed Inc.
2. Arby Jenkins by Sharon Hambrick
3. Stuart's Run to Faith
4. Trouble At Silver Pines Inn
5. Island of the Blue Dolphins
6. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
7. Just so Stories By Rudyard Kipling
8. Louis Braille
9. Call it Courage (didn't quite finish the last chapter yet)
10. Kite Fights by Linda Sue Parks (LOVED IT)
11. Mandie Collection( I read this to them, finished Volume 3 & 4)
12. The Rat Catchers Son
13. Meet Marie Grace--AG book
14. Star of LIght by Patricia St. John
15. Beat the STory Drum Pum Pum
16. Marie Grace and the orphans
17. The Land that I lost
18. Journey to Jo'burg by Beverly Naidoo
19. Harriet the Spy (in progress now)
20. there were also a bunch we started for school (Sonlight) that we haven't finished in the Read Alouds, so we need to go back to those. This is all since August and they are all pretty long chapter books.

 

I am so HAPPY that Ava loves to read so much! I hope she keeps this up! We have about 75 books sitting on the living room school table waiting for her!

what sisters do:

sisters have tea parties:

 

 

sisters snuggle on the couch:

 

 

sisters eat cookies at the counter:

 

sisters leave a snowy outfit mess when they come inside after playing in the snow:

 

but most importantly, sisters have DANCE PARTIES!

 

I love that these two spend so much time together, yet still get along. I know Ava misses Savannah when

she is at public school & just can't wait for her to get home. I think the separation is good for them

to find themselves a little bit more. It's just VERY hard because they are so very close. Most people

that see them together say that they are a bit like TWINS, that they are really bonded & connected

in that special way....I love that. I love that they are so bonded and it's noticeable to others how

much they love & care for each other. I pray this is always the case....

 

life in instagram:

 ava taking some pictures of the snow, in her jammies & slippers.

 

 

math time for ava....she's doing pretty well.

 

a photo shoot of her doll in the snow. she was DYING for it to snow so she could get out there and do a photo shoot. she truly is my clone.

 

showing me the picture she took!

reading time: we are reading Arby Jenkins, Mighty Mustang. she already read it, but we are reading it and doing a vocabulary packet with it for fluency.

 

sitting at her desk, having hot cocoa while she works. in her jammies. she has quite the good life.

 

doing her dolls hair while I read....

 

a typical day in the life of ava, age 10.

organizing around here:

so far I have done:

 

laundry room, back hall closet and started on the basement.

 

 

we are anticipating on moving in the next couple of years (if it all pans out the way we would like) and

I do not want to leave this clutter for when we move!

I joined my friend becky & a bunch of her friends in the 30 bags in 30 days clean out.

I have not done it every day, but I did at least 6 bags of clutter out, so that's progress. I am super

super good at getting rid of clothes, books and things we don't use at the time, so I don't have all that

much to get rid of, it's more of an organization. especially the basement. that could take me 2 months!

12 on the 12th.

 

 

 

every month on the 12th, I will be taking photos all day long from when we wake up until we go to

bed, to document a full day in our life. at the end of the year, they will all be scrapbooked into one

scrapbook! so excited about this project! I have seen others taking the pictures on the 12th, but

never have heard of anyone scrapbooking them. I figured what is the sense  in taking them, if they

aren't going to be scrapped or explained. Here are the ones I took at exact times of day:

 

7am--hate to even wake her up.

 

 

8am--breakfast, waffles.

 

9am--Spanish Rosetta Stone on the computer

 

 

10am--math

 

 

11am--photoshoot of her doll, while I make lunch

 

 

 

12 noon--teacher store, we had to get Ava a vocabulary book, her Spelling book was too easy and she just wasn't learning enough vocabulary this year!

 

 

1pm hot cocoa while she works on some school stuff.

 

2pm--Ava already read this book, but we are  now reading aloud & asking questions, going over vocabulary together and doing projects that go with it. I got the Arby Jenkins Booklink from BJU Press and it's amazing!

 

 

3pm--picking up savannah. we were getting a little snowstorm, 4-5 inches.

 

 

4pm--snow play, the girls could not WAIT to get outside!

 

 

5pm--dinner. savannah made mac n' cheese & chicken patties...not a normal dinner around here, but she is practicing her cooking skills that she learned in her class at school!

 

 

6pm--the dreaded homework time..always has math. ugh. for the most part, savannah is on her own with her work and does very well.  I am so proud of her with how she has adjusted and seemed to have grown up overnight and takes responsibility!

 

 

7pm--dance party, don't mind me. we are a bunch of dorks, having a good time.

 

 

8pm snuggle time with my girl. I love that she often will just climb into my lap and want me to hold her. I hope that never stops, but I imagine one day soon it will..and I will miss it.

 

 

eight fifty four: this one is thrown in because how could I not put it in here? michael took a bite of our dog's chicken strip (I know gross right) and the girls asked, "how was it?" instead of answering them, he got down on the floor and barked, like it had turned him into a dog. I love when he's fun and playful and so do they. Ava got down and pretended to be a dog with him and piper was going CRAZY!

 

9pm--after getting everyone riled up, we went straight upstairs and climbed into bed to read our Mandie Collection Series, we LOVE this series. I will be so sad when it's over!

 

I'm so happy that I am doing this project. I love my life and I love documenting it!

 

Layouts:

some scrappy layouts from the past few weeks!

one of my other goals is to scrapbook more this year. I will probably be going back and getting

lots of older  projects done!

 

 

 

this last one was a scraplift of someone elses' layout. can't remember whose!

sorry for the poor quality of these pictures!

taken with my iphone. too lazy to take with my camera lately!

 

first big snow!

yay, finally had snow!

and my girls have been out in it almost every day since!

it's almost melting already!

 

(he was barking at me to throw his ball)

 

( I went in the nice warm house, but they looked TOO CUTE out my office window)

 

piper LOVES it outside, he loves running after the girls, chasing and barking like a mad man....

I love seeing the girls out there, they look so happy. brings me back some good childhood memories.

except for we had  a LOT more snow back then (upper Michigan snows)....

 

iphone pakosta style:

1. a very tired girl that doesn't like waking up early to bring her big sister to school.

 

2. two very happy girls that got blizzards after school, just because!

 

3. one very happy dog and one tricky 10 year old: she put a treat on her hat to make him sit still.

 

4. 3 studies/books that I have had for quite awhile now, that I keep saying I am going to do. I am now

promised myself that I will finish them all by the end of 2012. the Women one might take me 2 years,

there is A LOT to read and tons of questions, but I LOVE IT! I have also been reading my Bible and plan

to get through the entire Bible by the end of the year, using the YOU VERSION app. for iphone, LOVE IT~

 

5. just a photo of savannah that makes me ridiculously happy, probably because she's so happy in it and

I rarely get photos of my girl anymore, now that she is gone all day long. I miss her.

 

 

6. cereal (cheerios with banana) and a teddy bear w/ a blankie make it easier being awake early.

 

7. Ava's make believe animal: boxfloprazor: box, shaped like a box, flo cause it eats flowers, p cause it's

poisonous and razor because look at those razor ears~ too funny! it totally cracked me UP!

 

8. writing. I have Ava write out a reading response report after every book she reads.

 

9. Savannah had to write a report and she chose Sea Turtles. She also had to somehow create one.

she chose clay. she spent HOURS on this and etched in the shell with my paper piercer, then painted

it the next day.....I hope she gets an A because she sure worked VERY hard!

 

10. we got to go inside her school (normally we just drop her off at the door), but she needed help

with her bag & turtle because she didn't want it to break~! she's a lightweight, she can barely carry

her books in her bag as it is. she's TINY. only 68 pounds at 12 years old, most kids her age are 80-100lbs.

she's getting TALLER though!

 

ava's days:

Ava's days go something like this:

 

wake up at 7:20 to drive savannah to school.

she just stays in her jammie's since it's 2 miles up the street and we just hop into the car

right in the garage (she does put a coat on or wrap in a blankie).

come home & eat breakfast (cereal, waffles, yogurt & fruit)

read for 1 hour, Spanish for 20 minutes on the computer

( I usually work out and shower or do Bible reading during this free time for me)

LA, Math, Spelling/Vocabulary/Reading + work sheets

 

Lunch break anywhere from 11:30 or 12:30, it varies

 

on her lunch break Ava usually does a photo shoot of her dolls or makes a stop-motion video or plays

with her dolls or a game on my phone.....

then we head back to work:

History, Science, Writing (I make her write about the books she has read or journal writing),

and Bible....we do these subjects on the couch where it's very cozy, my favorite part of the day.

unless of course she has a Science experiment or needs to do map work or computer stuff.....

I am loving how in the middle of the day Ava might pick up a book and read poetry or look up

something on the computer to learn more about it. that's my favorite part of homeschooling, when

we get lost on a tangent of learning!

and YES< she was drinking a bottle, she didn't feel well so I put some Emergen-C into organge juice into

a bottle, that way I could be sure she drank it all up. (she had wanted me to buy the bottle for her dolls

a few years ago, but secretly, I think she really wanted to drink from it--better that than still be

nursing from me! ha ha)