Field Trip to Corn Maze

Today we went on a field trip with other homeschoolers. We had a great time!

Ryan, Gabrielle, George and Arianna waiting to get started.

They are listening to directions on how to go through the corn maze.

Arianna is excited because she and Calli worked together and found the letter N.

Calli punching the letter S off her card.

The girls in the lead. They took turns leading.

Our small group that was looking for the letters.

Arianna and Gabrielle on the hay ride.

The kids were like monkeys on this truck.

Making necklaces

We recently made necklaces out of fruit cheerios. Thanks Dina for the great idea!

Arianna made patterns with the colors. Ryan took turns eating them and putting on his necklace. This was a great activity to build hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

The best part was eating them afterward we were done!

Ari and her buddy

Arianna has 2 favorite dogs-Athena and Pandora. I have no idea why they are her favorite. The other day,we checked on Ari before going to bed and this is what we saw. Arianna and Athena sacked out. Yes our dogs lay under the blankets too. Arianna had given Athena her baby doll blanket to lay under.

Our First Five Children

Many of you know we have 5 dachshunds. I thought I would share the story of how that came to be. Truth is that if you really know me it is no surprise that I have a lot of pets. I wasn't allowed to have but one dog growing up. However I loved my Grandparents house for many reasons but mainly because they lived on a farm with many animals. It was common to have 3-4 dogs and 3-4 cats and any given moment. We always joked that the word on the street was that Mema accepted all strays. I have always loved animals and always wanted to be a vet.

Anyway back to my current family. Right after we got married, Chris and I got one male dachshund. We chose a dachshund for it's size and tenacity because we lived in an apartment. We named him Apollos (after a learned man in the Bible). Apollo loved to play with toys and he loved us. However when we left him during the day for work, he would become very down and depressed. It would take hours each evening for him to become happy again. Very shortly, we decided to get him a companion. We took him with us to a breeder and let Apollo see their new litter of pups. Well everyone backed down to Apollo but this sweet tiny black female dachshund. So we took her home and named her Athena (goddess of wisdom). Apollo was much happier with his new friend. They were great buddies. This is a picture taken right after we got Athena.

Well we moved to a house near the end of that year. Athena went into heat. We did not want to breed them yet so we kept Athena in britches. One day they had to go out potty and I took off the britches and let them out. I was washing dishes and looked out the kitchen window. The rest is history:)

Athena gave birth to 4 puppies. We named them Lydia, Hezekiah, Pandora and Goliath, We gave Hezekiah away to friends. Lydia and Goliath were promised to another one of our friends. Well that friend lost his job and was not able to take the pups. So we ended up keeping three of the four puppies. Then we got way too attached to give them away. In a lot of ways we wish we still had Hezekiah. What would be the difference in six dogs? Five dogs is not recommended (vet bills are outrageous) but we love each of them very dearly!

Here are all five our dogs lined up on the stairs. For some reason, they like to lay on the stairway.

Last week the kids and I bought some toys at the dollar store for the pups. They haven't gotten new toys in forever because immediately they try to get the squeaker out and tear out the stuffing. So they have a lot of de-stuffed toys in their basket. The dogs were so excited to have new toys. It was like Christmas morning.

Apollo was very proudof his new toy.

Ryan loves playing with them when they have toys. This is Ryan and Lydia playing tug-o-war.

Even Athena enjoyed her little bunny!

Pandora playing with her pink toy that Ari picked out.