Life with my Cowboys

Sunday we went on our first tweed ride, something I've been wanting to do ever since I started cycling. The ride was the first one in our area and was sponsored by Houndstooth Road , a bike shop that hosts a unique array of bicycles. I was a bit nervous, seeing as I'm almost in my third trimester and haven't gone on a ride in five months. Fortunately, it was a nice ride with only a few hills that killed my legs. I've never had the pleasure of going on a group ride before, and let me tell you, being among that many fellow bike enthusiasts was exhilarating! The weather was perfect for the ride, much cooler than the projected forecast, which made for a lovely autumn ride. We made two stops during the ride. The first was to Kavarna Coffee , which had some great local coffee from Dancing Goats that was complimentary to riders. This sweet picture of us was taken by local fashion photographer of Atlanta Street Fashion , he referred to it as our "shot ...

Had a great time at the cyclocross race this Saturday. It was Froggy's first race and he seemed to enjoy it. We picnicked in a prime viewing area, we could see part of the race behind us and the hurdles in front of us. Can't wait for the next race!

Today was an unschooling day. We have them every so often and they are always pleasant. Today's unschooling day was due to Froggy not waking up until 4PM. Monkey had already been in the classroom doing a few work boxes and by the time I came in, we just played a bunch of games together.  See our schedule? We totally only did three things today. The robot magnets were foam stickers from the dollar tree that I stuck onto advertisement magnets and cut them out. A new sticker sheet was what Monkey chose for one of his behavior prizes, and I decided to up it a bit and give him magnets. The puffy stickers were from Gwama , the red crayon doodle is the knight's castle.  Froggy enjoying his new sensory bin. He was careful for so long before he just had to dump them all out on the floor. He then  had a lovely lesson in cleaning up and not being able to play anymore until tomorrow.  We played our own version of Blokus over and over again. ...

Today was one of those days where I wanted to run away screaming. I don't have any pictures from today, but I saw a lot of faces like these today. And worse. Froggy, who is weaning, suddenly wanting to nurse. And crying during school time, like the entire time. Until I caved in for the sake of my ear drums not bursting. Monkey, in full Monday mode, not wanting to listen, constantly interrupting only to say something completely unrelated. I snapped more than once today. Not yelling, the scarier kind where I get real close to Monkey and tell him calmly how he is expected to behave in an even tone without raising my voice. I'm so thankful that I didn't yell, especially with crazy preggo hormones. And the day isn't over yet, there's still the bathroom to clean, laundry to fold and hang up, and a little Froggy to take to kindermusik. I don't care for Mondays.

This past week Froggy played more than anything, which is perfectly fine with me.  He enjoyed playing with the clothespins from his color matching basket. I love how he put them on the basket, he would play with the clothes pin, opening and closing, and then turn it around to secure it onto the basket. He played with our dress up bear, I think zipping is his current favorite, but he also enjoys attempting to button.  I gave him a coloring sheet for our poem this week and he decided he wanted to glue crepe paper on instead. He also did Monkey's Joseph craft.   I didn't take very many pictures last week because I did so much one on one school time with Monkey, taking pictures would have been a distraction.  I love how the boys have to inspect each other's daily boards, Monkey loves Froggy's day of creation wheels that I make almost as much as Froggy does. I made a fun phonics game from our Happy Phonics program. I took two egg cartons, pu...

  We just went one week with Monkey not cleaning up his toys. I caved in once to clean up enough to vacuum and again yesterday to clean the room. Normally, as soon as he's done playing, he cleans up without me having to prompt him. However, the past seven days he threw tantrums when I had to told him to clean up. Living with the mess was not fun. This photo was taken after I had cleaned up the majority that morning to vacuum, and yes, by the evening, it needed to be vacuumed again. One of our rules is that if you bring it out or spill it, you clean it up. Normally, even if he refuses one day, the next day he will tell me it's messy and clean up. Last week was not normal. I think he's learned he can't do this again though. No, we didn't take toys away, we had done that in the past and Monkey didn't even care because he can be entertained with anything, even just playing with his hands. What worked was Saturday night when he was picking out his behavior pr...