Summer Adventure #1

Today we began our summer adventures! The kiddos are so excited to not have any school for the next 2 months - little do they know, Mommy is tricking them and they are doing plenty of school!

After Wesley finished his final speech lesson this morning, we headed over to Bertz-Tiger Point Preserve to do some exploring. While there, the kiddos learned about the Timucuan Indians. They learned about how they used the St. John's river. They laughed as they practiced saying the names of their Chiefs. They enjoyed having conversations, but only using a certain sound that mommy told them - just like the Timucuan's did with the English when they first arrived.

The kiddos also learned about plants and animals. We learned to identify poison ivy and various spiders, along with different shells.

However, I think the all time favorite activity was capturing the baby frogs! As we were walking towards the van, Hannah noticed these little creatures jumping through the grass. As she got closer, she realized what they were and the collecting of frogs began! At one point, Lil'Robert had 7 in his hands! They all had a great time - we had frog races and jumping contests. We even had a competition to see whose frog could stay in their hand the longest with the palm open (Hannah's won!) As our time at the preserve ended, the kiddos begged to keep their newest pets. Poor Wesley even cried as he wanted to be a daddy to his froggies, since he has never been a daddy before!

All in all, I think today was very positive! We had a great first Summer Adventure and will continue discussing information for the remainder of the week!

 

Mother's Day 2013

Today was incredible! Today was exhausting. Today was a Mother's Day that I will forever remember...

Around 11:45 last night, my head finally hit the pillow. Prior to that a certain 8 year old could not fall asleep.  During his in and out of his bed, he woke a certain 6 year old who became too scared to lay down by herself. {Now, let me back up a bit and say that all 3 kiddos, for the past 3 months, have been sleeping in the same room. The boys in their beds with Hannah on a crib mattress under Robert's loft bed.} This resulted in Robert making his home in Hannah's horse bed while Hannah made a pallet on the floor...

After almost 30minutes of snuggling with Lil' Robert, he was finally asleep. As I tried to sneak out of the room, Hannah woke. I laid with her on the floor for nearly an hour and, of course, every. single. time. that I tried to leave, she would wake up, cry, and beg to snuggle longer. I would lay back down, only to repeat the scenario a few minutes later! OYE! Eventually, I gave her my Kindle and told her to read the horse books and I would return to snuggle in a bit...

This worked until 1:15 am when I was awoken by a finger poking me in the forehead! Once again, she woke and was scared. In came her blanket and pillow so that she could make a pallet next to me bed. Back to slumber land she went until 6am...

At some point after 3, Wesley came running and screaming into my room. He needed his mommy 'nuggles'! I pulled him in bed between daddy and I and we all fell back asleep!

As soon as the clock strikes 6am, Miss Hannah woke and needed food! I tried to convince her to lay down that it was not wake up time, but this did not go over well. Tears quickly followed and before I knew it, Lil' Robert, Hannah, Wesley, and I were wide awake and starting the day. Breakfast was served to the 3 kiddos and they were told to sit quietly and eat - Mommy wanted to lay down again!

This worked for a very little bit - maybe 5 minutes - until I was back out here breaking up another fight! So our day started out early and abruptly - but with PLENTY of Happy Mother Day's thrown between the arguments!

Just before 8, we woke daddy so that we could get ready for the nursery. As I was in the bathroom getting ready, daddy, Lil' Robert, Hannah, and Wesley presented me with a beautiful picture. (see top of post)

The rest of the day was spent at the nursery, watching as the police pulled over speeders in San Marco, taking (or attempting to take) naps, Mass (where daddy and I both received Holy Communion with Lil' Robert AND he received the Precious Blood for the first time ever!), and dinner with Grandma...

It was an absolutely fabulous day full of little things from my children at every turn. I truly think this might be the first year that they understood the value of today!

Musical Beds...

I went to bed at 11:00...

At 12:00, I woke to Daddy coming to bed...

At 12:42, I woke to a 4 year old crawling in bed with me. After he settled and realized he was not getting chocolate milk, I was able to fall back asleep...

At 1:54, I woke to my almost 6 year old trying to crawl in bed with me. It was quite the ordeal when I explained that she was not able to get into my bed because her brother was already in there. She finally gave in and made a pallet on the floor. Minutes later, the aforementioned 4 year old decided he wanted out of my bed and onto the pallet. When this decision was made the almost six year old began to sob because the 4 year old touched her covers. The situation was resolved and all fell asleep...

At 3:10, the 4 year old crawled back into bed with me. However, when he crawled into bed, he messed up the covers and this required me to crawl out of bed for a 3rd time in 4 hours. After a few minutes he settled and I was able to fall back into an exhausted slumber...

At 4:40, an almost 8 year old, came into my room. He looked at my bed, tried to crawl in. When he realized this would not work, an attitude kicked in that required Daddy's intervention. He finally settled on a pallet on Daddy's side of the bed...

At 6:25 all were up and ready for the day...

One day I will miss this; until then, I will remain exhausted and enjoy these fleeting moments of their childhood...

Shower Spelling

After a good bit of trial and error, I finally found something that the kiddos enjoy for practicing spelling words...

I bought 4 packages of foam letters and put them in a bucket. I then had each kiddo put on a swim suit and hop - with not knowing why - in the shower -->

Once in there, I informed them of the rules:  I will call out a word and whoever 'writes' the word correctly first wins. If there is fighting or screaming, you must sit out for 2 words. The first to get 10 words, in a row, correct, wins! What they win is up to the initiator of the game... ME!

 Even Wesley had fun trying to figure out how to spell words... He was quite good at finding 'W', 'A', and a few others!

Each kiddo had a great time and really practiced new words. I enjoyed every second of hearing their laughs and giggles - especially since they had NO idea that they were learning new information... in their little minds, they were just playing and having fun!

 

Just A Bit Busy....

Well, once again, I do great updating friends and family on our family happenings and then for some reason, I stop. I think this time however, I have an excuse. Are you ready for it?!?!? Okay, well......

We have been busy! Our homeschooling studies are taking longer than they have in the past 3 years - and yes I know, this year I am teaching a 1st and 2nd grader while also teaching/entertaining/keeping away a full of life 3 year old who thinks (and knows) that he is just hilarious. It is a job these days. I hope that satisfies as a good enough reason for all. If not, well, come spend a day here, handle all of the homeschooling and entertainment needs ON TOP OF all of the daily household chores....

To give you a better understanding of our day, I will let you into our typical daily routine, Monday - Friday, with VERY few days, or even weeks, off.... We are trying to 'train' the kiddos to not leave their beds until 7a. Somedays this works, most days it does not, so they end up snuggling on the couch with mommy - they *quietly* watch cartoons while I close my eyes until 7! At 7, we start the process of getting daddy out the door, but only after I have at least 1 cup of coffee. Once daddy leaves, between 7:45 and 8, our day really begins. I make breakfast for the kiddos and while they are eating, I am reading them the morning prayers and Bible verses from our Magnificat. After breakfast, we do chores. As soon as those are done and checked off of the list, we will begin school. In the morning, Robert and Hannah do their handwriting work solo while I do a bit of 'work' with Wesley. Once they are done, we move onto the mommy supervised subjects: Spelling, Language/English, and Reading. Typically after these are done, they are antsy because we have been working for 1.5-2hrs, so outside we go. Most days we go for a bike ride around the block a few times. Lately though, they have preferred the backyard. Whichever they choose is fine with me, as long as they are happy...and done with the 4 morning subjects! Around 11:45, I attempt to serve lunch. I say attempt because there is always the I like this, not that - this is nasty - I will eat if you let me skip nap - etc ~ UGH! Once lunch has ended, we enter my favorite time of the day.... nap/rest/reading time!!! Welsey MUST nap. Hannah, must read for 30min and is not allowed out of her room until 2pm. Robert must read for 30min and then he can play on the computer, do puzzles, anything that is quiet and he can do solo. I clean, start dinner IF I am cooking, sit for a few if I can, fold laundry, and prepare for science, math, and Religion. Once they are all up and fed... again.... I will do math. This is a 1:1 subject. So while I am working with Hannah, Robert is working with Wesley - teaching him colors, shapes, songs, etc. Then they switch and I work with Robert. After math comes science. To simplify things this year, I am starting with 1st grade science for both. Once that is done, we will go to second, and so on. Finally, our last subject for the day is religion. This includes a story every week from their children's Bible, with review questions all week. They also have a religion text and activity book that we use. Once school is done and we put all of our school marterials. Around 5:30 I serve the kiddos dinner. Then bath/showers, playing with Daddy, watching Figure It Out at 7, and then reading a book to mommy while snuggling in bed. Once they are out, I set about cleaning up from dinner. Doing some more laundry. Getting lessons for the morning. Hopefully taking a shower. Saying hello to my best friend and thanking him for all he does so that I am able to stay home and teach our beauties. He is such a great man... . Hopefully before midnight I will make it to bed where I say a quick prayer thanking God for the day and begging him to not let anyone have nightmares - this last part almost always is answered for 2/3's of the kiddos.... I will pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow for just a few hours before life starts all over again....

So, like I said previously, I hope that you realize this is not just an excuse. When I say life is busy, it is! And this is just a day where we have no doctor appointments, homeschooling field trips, the kiddos weekly run club, or Adoration that I try to squeeze in at least once a week. But, although our life is crazy and some days I feel like I cant breathe, it is a life I would not trade for anything! And without the hard work of my true love, this crazy, hectic, wonderfully blessed life, would not be possible.

On a different note, I realize more and more every day, what a great life God has grantI re me - even with all of its challenges that have come my way these past 3.5yrs, there is nothing I would change.... Well, 1 thing - to have my family about 590miles closer! If there is one thing I have learned in these past 3.5yrs, with all that has happened with me, with trusting God, and going from 2 to 1 incomes, and then on top of all that, our decision to beginin our homeschooling adventure, I have learned that it truly takes a village to raise children. Honeslty,I believe we would be completely lost of it were not for all of our incredible friends who are there in a moments notice, no questions asked. Who don't offer help just to sound nice, but rather because they rnd truly care. And our family who is only a phone call away at all times, no matter where they are....

Baseball's Never Been Hotter Than The Jacksonville Suns!

Today, we met up with our homeschool group, HomeGrown Homeschoolers, for a field trip/behind the scenes tour of the Jacksonville Suns Stadium! To say that we were excited is quite the understatement :-)

At first, we tried to keep the trip a secret and let it be a huge surprise for them today, BUT I needed some bribery for nap yesterday and told Ms. Hannah. Now, she was under STRICT orders to not tell a soul, but evidently, she is not ready for secrets.... not only did she not take a nap, she also told both brothers within minutes of me telling her. Ugh!

As usual with the Riker Family, we were running late, but luckily, this is common among home schooling families, and well, families in general, so we had plenty of time to spare. This would have been great, but it was a 90* October day - with no breeze. Another UGH!

Before the tour started, we took a group shot of all the kiddos - go figure, my midgets would stand in the very back where they were only visible from side angles!

 After the group photo, the tour began - at first it was the boring stuff, but after a bit in the fabulous Florida heat, we made it to the dugout, followed by the indoor batting/pitching/practice area, followed by the Suns weight room and locker room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this, we made our way to the main level, right behind home plate.

 

 

 

 

The kiddos were quite anxious to get to the third floor and after daddy finished taking pictures, we were off. The third floor held the press box (where there was an actual hole in the wall where a ball came flying through the open window and hit the wall - the announcer leaned to the left and kept talking as if nothing happened the entire time!), the crew room for the video guys and scoreboard people, and the suites where you pay too much money to sit in an air conditioned room and watch baseball!

 Once this was over, the tour was over, and it was time for lunch - Capri Suns, chips, and hot dogs - what more could a group of hot, sweaty, hungry kiddos ask for?!

 

After lunch and a few more pictures.....

 

....it was time to head down the stairs and get home....

.... but Wesley wanted to try and buy some tickets first!

As we were driving home, we saw the Jaguars practicing and as we continued towards the Hart Bridge, we noticed that the road was closed and there were many marines and combat vehicles. Curious, we pulled into a parking lot to watch, only to see a few Marines sitting inside of a tank. We pulled all of the kiddos out of the van and walked over to see what was going on. These gentleman told us that they were setting up the vehicles to show off for the Marine Corps Half-Marathon in the morning, but would LOVE to open up the other tank and give us a private tour!

We were able to watch as they lowered the gate, which was pretty cool. Who would have known that lowering a gate was a two man job?! We were able to see him climb into the drivers seat, instead of opening a door - the kiddos thought that was SO neat! He allowed all of us to walk inside, ask tons of questions, and then he even let the kiddos try on the bullet proof vests and helmets! This poor marine, was in full fatigues, and sat in the fabulous, non-breezy, 90* blazing sun....

 

 

We said our thank yous goodbyes and decided that since we had already skipped nap for the day, that we would take the kiddos to Adoration since it was on the way home. Let me just say, I am so very impressed with each of my children. They were so very respectful. The behaved so nicely. There was not a single poor choice made. Lil' Robert for the first time ever, instead of genuflecting in front of the Blessed Sacrament, he laid down prostrate - this brought tears to my eyes as he is going to be receiving this beautiful Sacrament in May of '13.

Once we left the chapel, we walked over to the Rectory to see Grandma, since we had not seen her in a few weeks because of the missions trip to Jamaica, but she was nowhere to be seen. We waited, Robert recited his entire Act of Contrition, Wesley acted like Wesley, and Hannah sat perfectly still. Finally after a good bit, we packed up and left!

 It was an incredibly adventurous morning! We all had a great time as a family and made some very, very precious memories!