Random...

I love doing crafts. Unfortunately, I don't have much time for that anymore. So when I can make a fast and fun little craft I do. Usually we use my craft stuff in homeschool to make crowns. Or zebras. Or  butterflies. We have a lot of fun with it. So here are some pictures I took of us getting some use out of my craft stuff.

Our teachers changed with the new school year at speech and occupational therapy. 

So we made these to give to our old teachers on the last day.

Lauren invited us to her birthday party. I made this really quick. I printed on colored paper then cut it to make the flag. Used a piece of white tissue paper. I didn't have any brown tissue paper for the bottom. And as usual I was running late and didn't want to stop to get any. So I had a cardboard box. I cut strips and pulled the front and back apart to make this really cool zigzag design. Add a gift card and free cup and you have yourself a birthday present. (Lauren if you are reading this…don't judge me :)

A couple of weeks ago in school we were learning about jewels. I had some crowns in my craft stuff and tons of jewels. So they glued them on. Added some yarn for them to wear it. Even today Jon had his on. It is so funny seeing them in it.

Today we are learning about butterflies. The boys traced their hand with their fingers together, cut it out, glued it down. I cut a butterfly body. Then they decorated their butterflies with glitter glue.

I know this has nothing to do with this post but I can't help myself. This week Wesley was scared. (really just wanted to sleep in our room). So we told him he could sleep in our room until he feel asleep then we were going to take him to his bed. When I went in to take him to his bed he was sleeping with one leg up…dead asleep. How do you do that???   :)

Fun times that I would not trade for anything. 

Renee Takes Dance

Again. A Crazy Week. I feel like I say that all the time. I am starting to question if that is the norm now days.

We have changed our schedule around and we are still trying to get in the swing of things. It is so hard changing a schedule that worked and finding a new one. The kids are in speech therapy and they had to change the schedule since school has started back. Now we take therapy in the mornings and in the afternoon we do homeschool. We use to do it in the morning so now we are having to adjust. And it isn't happening as fast as I would have hoped.

Anyway, Renee started dance. She really didn't want to take it. I told her she would love it and she should try it. She has a couple of friends signed up, Gray, Audrey, and Amelia. She kept saying "I wanna play basketball". I am trying so hard to make her a girl. :) For those of you that know me well know that I LOVE all things girly. And would like for her to share in that. We agreed that she would take it for a month and reevaluate and if she don't like it then she can play basketball. She has signed up for 2 classes; ballet and jazz. After ballet she came out with a huge smile. I asked her if she had fun and she said "YES". So I continued on to say "Do you want to keep taking dance" her response was short and to the point "Yes, I love it"... I knew she would.  :)

Gray

Renee

Audrey

Amelia

Gator Day and First day of School

Gator Day is a big event at our church. Since we live in Gainesville the college starting back school changes our whole town. Roads get busy. Mall is always packed. Restaurants are full. And sports will be played. :) Gator Day began as a welcome back to our college students from summer break. It has grown to become the launch of our church new year. On Gator Day we started 24 new Sunday school classes, changed all of our worship times, and added a second location. Mike is the worship leader for the new location.

The dress for morning services on Gator Day is more relaxed. Usually Mike would wear a suit and tie. I would wear a skirt or slacks. Kids in the same kind of attire. Although yesterday we all got to wear khaki's and polo's. All gator colored of course. Renee was in a dress but it was blue and had little cheer girls on the front. How could I pass that up. It was so cute. Of course Sunday mornings are crazy and I forgot to take a picture. :(

For the evening service it is always low key. We have a comedian in last night. The boys really wanted to wear there gator jerseys but I didn't want them to wear it in the morning so they wore them last night. Then Renee wore a little cheer top with some jeans. I did get a picture of that.

Justin is a friend of ours and he was in the bathroom Renee was waiting on. She told me she wanted to tell him she could hear him in the bathroom. So I got a video. I think we caught him a little of guard, what do you think?

Today is Renee's official first day of school. When we started homeschool with the boys in January, I went ahead and started her on the curriculum. We moved fast through it since they were older and were able to grasp it much easier. She would still try to draw the letters and like to cut and paste certain pages together but it was a little to fast pace for her to "get" it.

We teach the boys 2-3 days worth of work in one day. (We are trying to catch them up to the grade they are suppose to be in). Like I said, we started in January and they are almost done with Kindergarten. So we have done a whole years worth of work in about 7 months. They will start on 1st grade work soon. They are really excited about that.

Renee will not need to catch up so we will be able to spend a little more time on her work. This week we are learning the letter "S". Here is a video taken of her today during the craft portion of school.

Here is a video of last week during homeschool. The boys are on the letter "R". The curriculum we use has a lot of activities and different ways to learn the letters. One of the ways is with shaving cream. Well I can't stand a mess. So I taped foil to the table and let them play on that so it was an easy clean up. Remove tape, ball up, and throw away. How much easier could that be. Love it!!!

Hope you have a great Media Monday!

Happy Birthday to the Ricks Family

August 15, this Wednesday we will be celebrating one year as a family. WOW...it has flown by. It's so crazy to believe just a year ago we had no children. Laying in bed praying for the Lord to bless us. And here we are wrapping up our first year together. God is so good.

It honor of our family birthday I have some pictures of our first weekend together. And a few from recently so you can see how much things have changed.

THEN:

Renee the first night we met her.

Wesley the first night we met him.

Jon the first night we met him.

This was the first weekend they were in our home.

We had a campout in the living room in case they were scared.

Jon playing with his new dog "The Big One". We have 2 dogs, Lucy and Layla, they look a lot alike so the kids have problems with who is who. So they call Lucy "The Big One" and Layla "The Lil' One"

Renee playing doctor and looking in Papa Santa's ears.

Daddy and Renee.

The boys sitting on their new bunk beds. Playing with all the great stuff everyone got them.

Waiting to go outside and play in the water. Lucy and Layla waiting too.

First Sunday morning. Dressed and ready for what will begin a whole new life.

Our first Sunday lunch around the table.

NOW:

Making banana chips. Good thing we got to eat some before they were done because when they were finished they were gross. We will stick to fresh bananas. :)

Our family. 

I would like to take this time and tell everyone who has helped out in so many ways thank you. There is no way to ever pay you back for all the special things that you have done. All the many prayers. All the things that have been donated to us. We did not know what to expect as we embarked this new life together but we knew we had an army behind us. Thank you for all that you have done and still continue to do. May your prayers still be with us. :)

The last 6 photos were taken by Lyndsay at pinkcoffeephoto.com. If you ever need pictures taken she rocks. Plus she is really fun to hang out with. :) Thanks Lyndsay for the pics. We love them.

 I love to hear your comments. So post and let me know what you are thinking. :)

Winshape Camp

A few weeks ago the boys went to Winshape camp. It is the camp that Chick-fil-A puts on. It is awesome. They have several different studies you can do. Anything from weird science to digital photography.

Jon signed up for flag football, secret opps, and music. He enjoyed secret opps the best. They had them go all over the church taking part in secret operations. Wesley wanted to do net games, basketball, and weird science. Net games is with a volleyball net and they teach different games. Weird science is just that...the last day the planted a seed in a papertowel in a ziplock bag to watch it grow.

The camp was from 7:45a to 5p. It was a long day for them. Friday was family day. Mike, Renee and myself went to see what all they had done. It was fun we got to go into the different classes with them and watch them. It was a half day and they serve lunch...Chick-fil-A of course. :)

We had a great time. Here are some pictures/videos from Friday Family Fun Day.

This is Tom, our Recreational Minister. We were greeted by this every morning. Along with him blowing his whistle that is around his neck and him yelling "GOOD MORNING. WELCOME TO WINSHAPE, COME HAVE FUN!". For those of you that are not morning people like me, you understand. (I forgive you Tom, there are no hard feelings :)

Jon at flag football.

Renee wanted to play too.

Wesley and Renee playing against each other in basketball.

Winshape music class. They had to watch the teacher to see when to play loud and quite.

Here is a video of Wesley at Winshape camp playing basketball. 

When they spiked the ball he ran the wrong way. :)

Wesley playing basketball.

A view from Renee's eyes

I loaded the pictures into the computer from Renee's iPod. Here are a few.

This is how most of them turned out.

Here are some videos.