A full day

It's getting busy around here!!  We had two days worth of school work to do today, so Rachel and Ford's little brains were worn out by 9:30!!!  We made it through, though, and packed up to head to Target!  This is not a simple trip for us since it's 30 minutes away, but a snack and some Taylor Swift made the drive fly by.  Ruby finally got to use her money to buy herself an adorable leotard!  Racheland I snuck in some tights, leg Warner's, and ballet shoes for her birthday.  She will be such a diva at her birthday party.  Not to worry, though, I'm sure Webb will be all boy so the party should have quite the YinYang feeling :). Ballerinas on the floor, tough guys in the foam pit.
While we were at Target, I figured I better go ahead and get any essentials for Baby Baxter in case he decides to come early (I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Oh, you won't make it to Christmas!"...I am super determined to make it to the New Year!). We got a blue crib sheet and a super cute little outfit that sort of doubles as a winter coat that he can wear home from the hospital.  That ought to guarantee that it will be 60 degrees the day he's born!  We also swung into Michael's next door and got a frame to paint and out his name on that will sort of match everyone else's name sign.  Apparently, after six years they decide to stop carrying the same thing I've bought for every  kid!
By this time everyone was starving but had been so good, so we went to Costco and got some samples and a cup of frozen yogurt for each of us.  We came home and napped/rested, played with Papa, ate dinner, finalized some ideas for our letters to Santa, and even managed to practice a little violin.
I can't believe how fast these holidays and due date are coming, but there's nothing we can do to stop it, so we might as well get prepared!

Wrapping things up for the holidays

I am in finishing mode.  If yiu're a runner, you know what I mean.  The finish is in site and I've got energy left, so let's get there!!!  This week we are going to wrap up the Human Body.  We are going to start and finish our small unit on US Geography.  We are going to finish the first lesson of subtraction.  We are going to take on a couple of tall tales and be done with that section.  I am so excited that all of this can be finished up by Friday so that we can sit back, relax, and enjoy more than a week of vacation for our Thanksgiving Holiday.  I am planning to put my feet (with their fancy polished toes) up and let the swelling go down!  Thanks to my sweet friend, Amanda, I had an awesome pedicure and some good old-fashioned girl time yesterday.  Thanks to Dr. Ed and Lisa, our kids got some much needed attention on Saturday morning and an awesome playdate.  Thanks to my super husband (of 8 years tomorrow), I had a lot of time off my feet this weekend and actual time to rest.  Throw all that together with some nesting and we are cruising to the holidays.  I'm going to try to tackle some small things in the month of December for school, but let's face it, every school in America-public, private, charter, home, etc- will be in holiday mode after Thanksgiving.  It's time for making Christmas crafts, singing Christmas carols, and reading Christmas stories.  If I were teaching public school, we'd just substitute the word "holiday" for Christmas.  It's a great time to review and have fun without too much stress.  We have no idea what our Christmas break will be like, so there is no need to start any new big project.  We are going to desperately need a routine when January rolls around, so it's okay to loosen things up for a couple of weeks.  The major assignment of Ingram School for the month of December will be to keep Baxter from coming early!!!

Maybe I'm not so bad after all

I've been exhausted all week and feeling like I haven't been on my "A" game for school.  We're plugging right along and covering the basics, but there haven't been too many exciting extras!
So, this morning as I have a headache and a sore throat and Rachel is going back and forth with a fever and now Ford doesn't feel well, I just decided to turn on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for everyone so we could just relax on the couch.  I always feel bad about resorting to a show, but sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
Ford made me feel a lot better, though, when he said, "Mama, this episode has a lot of personification!"

On this week's episode of Ingram School...

We are almost through with all seven continents!  Rachel thought it was hysterical that we started Antarctica on the day that it was calling for snow here!  (Unfortunately, after waiting all day, we didn't get to see the five minutes of snow...must have been showering and brushing teeth before bed!)
Rachel started subtraction and really seemed to get it!  I guess when other people in the house are always taking things away from you, it makes sense :)
We began reading Fables yesterday and all of the kids like listening and talking about personification.  Every story we read after that, they had to point out the animals who were talking or wearing clothes!  Super cute!  Our first fable was "The Lion and the Mouse" and Ruby loved that someone small could help someone big.  She kept telling me all day how she was helping even though she was little!
There are zillions of ideas out there about the five senses, but honestly, we're being pretty boring and zooming right through them.  We did so much with them last year, so we're just reading a story about each sense and focusing on the organ associated with it.
Rachel signed up to read to a therapy dog at the library yesterday.  She did a great job sitting right down and reading three Biscuit books.  I was most proud of how she didn't need me to sit with her!!  Ruby and Ford and I just wandered around the children's room and checked out books.  For some reason, the subject of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came up this weekend and they really want to read it, so last night we started with the first three chapters.  Rachel and Ford loved it!!  Ruby could take it or leave it...she's not so good with a book that isn't full of pictures!
We will finish up the continents this week, finish up the five senses, read the rest of the "required" fables, and try to get a good grasp on subtraction.  Coming up next week, it's time to start talking turkey!  I'm hoping to do lots of fun crafts and spend time talking more about what we're thankful for while still getting in some good math and reading before the Thanksgiving holiday.  To wrap up the Human Body, we're supposed to talk about taking care of our bodies including eating healthy. Ni guess we could all use that reminder before we have a week full of stuffing, cakes, pies, and more!

Roller Coaster World

Ingram School could easily be compared to an amusement park on any given day!  It has been such a week of ups and downs and extremes that I feel like I'm just going from one ride to the next.  We even have a feel of Epcot these days while we work our way through the continents.  Rachel and Ruby love reading stories about the animals that live in Australia like kangaroos, koalas, wombats, and today there were even dingoes!!  We started the human body in science this week which is a lot of review since the goals are to learn about the five senses and how to eat healthy and take care of your body.  Those are things all three kids are familar with.  Ruby is cranking out capital letters these days with little help like H, L, F, E, P, B, R, Y, and V (sometimes U).  Ford doesn't want to be on that level any more so he has fully committed himself to learning lower case letters and only writes his name in lower case now!  Rachel can't be outdone, so she really wants to know when she can start cursive.  Where does this competitiveness come from?!?!  Ford loves doing his math in which he is still counting blocks and shading blocks.  Rachel finishes up addition facts and starts subtraction (!) next week.  She couldn't be more thrilled!  I've been trying to do more crafty things but my patience doesn't hold out for long these days.  However, today's weather was so beautiful that after doing our work we went to the park for recess and then had a paint party at the picnic table.  Thank goodness for washable paint or I might not have been able to handle it.  Ruby basically laid across the poster board at one point and Rachel took the sponge to her face, but I let it go and even enjoyed it!  We ended up with an awesome abstract painting that they all worked on and a portrait of (surprise!) Thomas, Percy, and Edward in the mud.  Ford did the trains and mud.  Rachel painted a beautiful landscape in the background with a sun and a flower (but not a sunflower).  Ruby immersed herself in sticks, sponges, dot markers, and every.single.paintbrush on the abstract piece.  They were very proud of their work and were great helpers when it was time to clean up.  And here's the best part:  no one whined or complained when it was time to clean up!!!  Merr Christmas to me!!  Everyone is resting now.  Rachel even got under her covers to rest because she starts tennis today (everyone's favorite winter sport!).  I'm excited that she'll get to be with kids her age and get some exercise.  Basically, we're just trucking along on this ride for 8 more weeks until Baxter comes with a new ride for our family to experience!!