The Circus!

We went to the circus and saw so many things! We saw clowns and thy were so funny. They were looking for one clown and a superhero car appered and superheros came out. The clown they were looking for was also in there and he came out last. We also saw trapeze artists they also did a triple summersalt! We also saw women who can squeez into a small cube ancome out again. (Did I mention there were three women?) Is that cool or what? And also there was a man who could lift four times his own weight! (Another cool or what!) And also somebody had skin of steel. He could walk on really hard nails. And there were also elephants. One could even paint! We had so much fun. Then at the end we saw a really awsome train! (Not a real one, but how awsome would it be if it WAS a real train?)

Cupcakes!

Today we went to Gigi's cupcakes and picked out some special valentines day cupcakes. I got a strawberry SHORTcake. (Get it? Strawberry SHORT cake!) Then we went home and had our valentines day party. We had club sandwiches, lemonade, and our cupcakes!

- Princess Peach

Shots!

Today we had to get shots. We went in the doctors office and got our number, waited and then we had to go to the shot place. We ALL got shots. I went last. It hurt a little and I got a lollipop when I was done! I didn't like it one bit. Then we went home and were all better!

- Princess Peach

(Mommy Edit: We all received PPD test today. One of many things we're doing before our next PCS!)

The Duck Pond

Yesterday we went to the duck pond and fed ducks some cheerios. When we were done doing that, we went to the bridge to feed fish. There were so many fish. Big ones, little ones, and some rare fish. And catfish! My favorite fish was the albino fish. It is one of the rare fishes. The pond also sometimes has geese. I think I saw a swan. It was white with a yellow-orange beak.

- Princess Peach

What we did on our summer vacation

Ahh... another summer filled with adventures and fun. This year was exceptional, and we topped it off with a 4-day roadtrip across the states. Since this is Princess Peach's blog, I'll let her write about her favorites later and just post some fun photos for now!

-Princess Peach's Mommy

Looking forward to Fifth Grade!

It's been awhile since our last update, but Princess Peach is doing awesome. She has finished fourth grade with the exception of a few math lessons!

She's super excited about this summer and we've planned two trips this year! Our first will take us to the beautiful Tybee Island in Georgia! Everyone is looking forward to sandcastles, dolphins, and warm Atlantic waters! Princess Peach applied for a camp put on by the military and we will know next month if she made it or not. If not, we plan to go visit our wonderful family in New Mexico. Picture deserts and cactus. Yes, there.

I love planning out Princess Peach's homeschooling, and this year is no different. We're going to start the year off with a good review, then jump right into the following subjects:

Math, Science/Health, Language Arts, History & Geography, P.E., Bible, Art, Music, Home Ec., Sewing, Technology, and Spanish! Some are daily, others are once weekly, so we plan to balance our lessons. Friday every week should be Princess Peach's blog day, so hopefully now we're set with a new digital camera, we'll have more to update!

-Princess Peach's Mommy

Robots!

Robots are coming in 2025! Robots are helping us every day. Where are they you might wonder? They are in the kitchen, laundry room and other places. Robot Nao can help you pick up toys and play hide-and-seek and many more activities! Robot Nexi can help a group of people clean up a park or an abandoned lot! Robot RIBA a robot shaped like a teddy bear that works at a hospital can help patient get out of bed and into his or her wheelchair. I love robots!

-Princess Peach

Eggs for breakfast!

Today I made eggs. They were fun to make too! First we got the ingredients to make scrambled eggs. Then we cracked the eggs into a bowl and mixed them up in a bowl then put some butter in the pan. Then we dumped the eggs in the pan and mixed them all up. Then you add the salt and pepper. Then serve with toast and butter and voila! You have made eggs!

-Princess Peach

Tornado!

At 4:30p.m. a tornado started behind our backyard. It was scary until I learned that it was going away from us! We even saw it form! It was awesome!

-Princess Peach

(Mommy Note: We did not take these beautiful photos and should we ever see a tornado THISCLOSE to our home, we'd be hiding! The storm system had just gone beyond our home and we were blue skies and sunshine when this tornado formed about 3 miles from our house! The kids all got to see their first tornado... before they jumped in the tub!)

Winter in the Mushroom Kingdom

We're back! The months between October and now have just been jam PACKED with so much FUN.. and other things.. that we haven't been on to blog much. That's okay, though, because we have a photo packed update!


November:

Princess Peach's Girl Scout troop marched in the Veteran's Day Parade and made a great Thanksgiving feast the following week. The troop had a bake off and.. *drum roll* PRINCESS PEACH WON!!! Her delicious pumpkin pie came in tops over the other desserts and she won a cute, heart-shaped cookie cutter. She was SO happy!



December:

This month was tons of fun. We adventured out in the coooooold weather and decorated cupcakes at Maggie Moo's, went to the Festival of Lights at the botanical gardens, did a lot of great shopping and had our first southern snow! Christmas was great this year and we even stayed up on New Years.




-Princess Peach's Mommy

Lemonade

We made lemonade today. We squeeze lemons in to the pitcher then take out the seeds. And then add the sugar and mix it all up. Then we tried it. It was sour. We like lemonade!

-Princess Peach

Peeling Carrots

Today I peeled carrots. My Daddy helped me peel carrots. He said to hold the carrot at the end and peel away from you so you don't cut yourself. Then you cut off the ends and cut in half two times. Then you serve with a little bit of ranch. It is very good.

-Princess Peach

Visiting Ohio

We visited Ohio last week. We had to get up early to get ready to go. We got dressed warmly, then we piled into the car. It was chilly outside. So cold that we had to bring blankets to stay warm! And after 8 hours we were there. We stayed in a hotel called La Quinta. We stayed there for a few days. It was fun. Then we went home. I missed Alabama!

-Princess Peach

Camporee Fun

Today we went to camporee. First we made a totem pole out of boxes and paint. We stacked boxes on top of each other and taped them together and painted them. After totem poles we made a shelter to keep us warm and dry. We had: three bandannas, poster board, trash bags, rope, balloons. We found two trees and long sticks and put them on the trees. Then we took poster board and put it on the sticks on the trees. We also had a gross food challenge. It was disgusting! At the end of the day we went on a glow stick hunt. I found 9 glow sticks! My favorite part was... S,MORES! We cooked them over the fire. It was great! Then we went to sleep.

-Princess Peach

Huntsville Times

We went to a newspaper today! I learned that a typewriter is what reporters used to write newspapers in the olden days. Linotype is a big typewriter. Next we saw giant machine called a printer press. I also learned that it one person roll a 2,300 pound paper roll! It costs 800 dollars a roll! They make 65,000-70,000 papers a day. Next we saw a machine that made copies of advertisements. It can copy 12 advertisements at once!

-Princess Peach

Pumpkin Patch

We went on a hayride and got very big pumpkins. On the way back I learned that pumpkins start out as little flowers! After that we went to the country store and got candy! Then we went to the "corn crib". I jumped in the corn from the edge and got stuck! We also went on the playground. We went down the slide and on the swings. Then we went to the barn and pet animals.

-Princess Peach

Where did September go?

September has been a busy month. We're settled into our routine and everything is going great. In fact, I was surprised to find we're already at the END of September. This month absolutely flew by for us.

Princess Peach started working on a new song for her violin. Greensleeves! I remember playing that when I was a little musician.. ahh, the memories. Anyway, we started studying it today and hope to play for Daddy soon.

So what have we been doing? We've been spending a LOT of time in the kitchen and having fun with new foods. We decided as a family to move away from the traditional American fare and search for healthier options. They picked out a recipe for granola bars, which we made into bite size treats! Super yummy!


Oh, and we did NOT have Luigi mash the lentils for his peanut butter balls and sneak them in the recipe right in front of him. Really.. *coughcough*

Princess Peach read an article today about President Barack Obama addressing children and we set our very own goals for this year. Princess Peach will study for her spelling tests and work on her listening skills.

She has developed an amazing interest in all things science and we are planning to sign up for the Science Olympiad this year!

-Princess Peach's Mommy

Kool-Aid Play-Doh

Homemade play-doh is sooo easy to make. We are trying out different recipes for it and found a neat one that calls for Kool-Aid for coloring!

Princess Peach helped measure the ingredients for the recipe. We doubled the recipe, added the ingredients to the pan, gave it a little heat and a few quick stirs to get it all together...

Spoon it from the pan onto wax paper, knead it a little, let the kiddos give it a few good squishes...

Then put it in an airtight container to cool for a little bit in the fridge...

And finally when done, it's time to mold the dough! Whee!

Here is today's recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup salt
3 TBS oil
1 package of Koolaid (use the color of your choice)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until dough forms the consistency you want. Remove from heat and cool. Keep in airtight container, refrigerate until used.

-Princess Peach's Mommy

Our milk still goes MOO

I took Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi to a chicken and dairy farm today. We had beautiful weather, unlike our clothed shower as we ran into the museum for Princess Peach's science class. THAT is a different blog altogether.

We drove from our home in the Mushroom Kingdom to the countryside and found the cute, little farm. There is a shop, some animals and the cows are in the back. The farm is the same farm we buy our milk from at the Farmer's Market, so the kids were familiar with the milk.

Say cheese! The kiddos started off at the cheese squishing station. Princess Peach was given a small bag full of crumbly cheese, then a pinch of sugar was added in and the -squishing- began. Luigi did not say a single word until his entire bag of cheese had been devoured. I'll assume it was yummy because not one of them shared with Mommy.


Then it was off to the milk station. They decorated labels for their very own pint of milk, then we watched through a glass window while she put the milk in each one. Mario downed his within a minute, Luigi took a little longer and Princess Peach saved hers to take home.



"Shake, Shake, Shake, SHAKE YOUR BUTTER!" The kiddos were given little jars filled with cream and told to shake (and shake and shake and shake and shake) for five minutes until the cream separated into butter! Princess Peach shook hers up like a pro and we ended up with three little baggies of fresh, soft butter. We put it in the fridge to harden up and will sample it with dinner tonight.



And before we left for our home in the Mushroom Kingdom, we stopped to say hi to the cows. Do you know the cows your milk comes from? We do!


-Princess Peach's Mommy

The end of summer

We've been busy since school started last month. Too busy to even BLOG.. criminal, I know. Leaving the camera in the car a few weeks didn't help much, either.

Princess Peach is doing great with schoolwork. We start the day with violin theory, then we practice (and practice and practice) on violin and for choir. Princess Peach has been playing violin for two years now and still misses her Romanian teacher we had in Germany. Now that she has the basics down, I'm teaching her here at home. We love to go to the local symphony, too!




We study English next and are still finishing up with a review. Reading is one of Princess Peach's favorite hobbies and she has many books. She finished reading My Teacher Is An Alien by Bruce Coville last week.

Then we are on to Math! This is Princess Peach's least favorite subject, but she does well with it. We're finishing multiplication this week and beginning a study in division soon. She loves math games and likes to play Sudoku, too.

Social Studies this year is going to be packed with exciting studies! Princess Peach is taking a class on Medieval Histories and we're studying early U.S. History here at home. She is also working through maps and geography and will do U.S. States and Presidents next semester. She loves history.

We're beginning Spanish and thankfully we know a little ourselves! We've learned numbers through 100, colors, shapes, etc. Next we're going over the basic parts of speech. Princess Peach has a passion for languages and has learned some sign language and German, too.

Art. Princess Peach would happily sit at the table all day and do artwork. We are learning about famous artists and will be replicating "Van Gogh's Bedroom" this week. We'll be studying Vincent Van Gogh with help from library books and the Metropolitan Museum of Art site.

Princess Peach and the kitchen. The kitchen and Princess Peach. They are like Peanut Butter & Jelly. Milk & Cookies. You get the idea. We do so much together in the kitchen, so our study on Home Economics has been an absolute joy for both of us. She is learning kitchen basics, preparing meals, planning menus, and will learn about other aspects of running a household. She is taking up a sewing class, too, and already has plans to make her first pillow.

P.E. we are very sneaky at. We go to the park a lot, swimming, bowling, for long walks with Koko (our little terrier mix), to the soccer field. We get it in where we can. We have a Wii that Princess Peach looooves to play. She does really well at yoga and likes to do a lot of the balance games. She also has been doing a lot of jump rope this past week, too.

We are using a nice little Bible curriculum called Studying God's Word and are starting on Book E. This is an in depth study on each book of the Old Testament (excluding a few). We hope to finish Book E and F this semester and start up on Book G for 5th grade. Princess Peach also has a fun devotional book God & Me for Girls 6-9. It is a short lesson followed by an activity. We also are in an AWANA club and Princess Peach is working through her T&T Girls book and doing AMAZING at memorizing her verses. We are so proud of her!

Science is another favorite of Princess Peach. We finished up dinosaurs and are studying animals, life cycles, etc. She is also taking an astronomy class! She especially loves doing experiments.

Princess Peach does technology and should be blogging again soon. She's also having fun playing JumpStart for 4th-6th grade. We'll be learning how to compose e-mail later this week.

Girl Scouts started up a few weeks back and Princess Peach is in an awesome troop with five other scouts. We went bowling this week and are back to learning all about Girl Scouts next week so we can have an Investiture and Rededication ceremony in a few weeks. Time flies by SO fast with Girl Scouts!

Princess Peach's little brothers Mario and Luigi started preschool this month and LOVE their curriculum. They are doing a unit study on apples. Princess Peach has a lot of fun helping out with them and gets to be crafty with me as we cut, color, and paste projects with the boys! She is a wonderful helper.


-Princess Peach's Mommy