Bowles Life #3

Our weeks aren't really all that fascinating...still I guess sometimes we can find exciting things in even the mundane tasks right?!  Everything doesn't always have to be a party to be interesting....

Daddy - Jeremiah took Liam to the Daddy &Sons breakfast at school.  They had to dress in gear from their favorite team so Liam dressed up in his KU jersey and Hat, and daddy wore a KU hat.  They had a good time together.  On Friday Jeremiah had the day off so he took his car for an oil change and spent the day with the baby so I could run some errands and go to a homeschool Halloween party with the girls.  I really appreciate how much he helps me on his days off.  I'm sure he'd rather be relaxing! 

Mommy- I battled an icky cold most of the week which was no fun.  Ashlynne had a choir concert on the plaza and I had 3 hours to kill between dropping her off for rehearsals and the beginning of the concert. I wasn't going to drive all the way home to turn around and come right back I so went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.  Alone.  So much time to just be silent and think.  It was therapeutic and something I needed.  I stood in front of a Jackson Pollack painting and really felt something.  For the first time in my life it wasn't just paint thrown around all over the place.  I think I'm finally becoming an adult!!  I also saw a Picasso painting that had been painted on the exact day 74 years ago!  I don't know why but that gave me chills. 

Ashy- Ashlynne has been a busy girl between Allegro, the musical she is in, church, and cheer.  On Thursday she cheered for her last 8th grade Football game.  I'm not gonna lie I totally teared up when it was over. Sunday afternoon she had an Allegro concert at the Unity Temple on the Plaza.  What a beautiful building of worship and every choir that performed sounded like angels.  I was so proud of her. 

Bubba - Did you know we called Brinton Bubba until he was about 4?  We still refer to him as Bubba every now and then but we called him Bubba like it was his first name.  In fact his nursery leaders didn't realize his name was really Brinton....they thought he was Bubba.  I tell you this because I hate calling him Brit (his chosen nickname).  Leave that to his daddy.  He'll always be my Little Bubba.  He had a good week last week.  He went on a camp out for scouts, he's been chosen as the assistant chaplain for his group  and coordinates the spiritual thoughts and such.  He enjoys that a lot.

Lisey - Elise is getting a little taste of the busy life.  She spent most of last week at rehearsals and dress rehearsals for the musical she is in.  The musical's opening night is Halloween so she won't have the chance to dress up and trick or treat this year.  Luckily, we had the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday, she was so happy.  Elise decided to dress up like a Dia de Los Muertos (day of the dead) Sugar Skull.  Some people made comments that it was gory or weird.  Actually, Dia de Los Muertos is not gory at all.  It's considered a day of remembrance and celebration of your loved ones.  I love that she always wants to be original. 

Nanna - This week Julianna got a lot of play time.  We had a family friends 2 daughters staying with us all week and Julianna did a lot more playing that actual school work.  Every morning she'd ask me if she could have a "light day" meaning less work the day.  I tried really hard to keep her on a schedule...aargh!  In other new she did her back handspring without a spot on the wedge mat.  She was pretty excited about it.  

Liam- Liam has mastered all of his letter names and most of his letter sounds!  He is on his way!!! He is starting to really understand the phonics of words and how they are put together.  He has been spelling friends names and trying to write words using letter sounds.  In school they have behavior levels.  Level 3 is the highest and he tries really hard to remember his Level 3 rules and manners.  There is also Level 2 and the lowest Level 1.  Everyday when I pick him up from school he gets in the van and tells me what level he achieved that day.  One day last week he was trying to have me guess.  He said, "Mommy I it level Fffff" (making the F sound). Guess, mommy Guess!  It starts with Fffff (making the  F sound again) I asked...level 4? 5? There's no such thing.  He said "no mom level Ffffff....it's spelled F-R-E, I think!"  Haha!  Level THREE!!! That was the first time I realized he was really starting to make correlation between letter sounds and words.  Now I just need to teach him the "TH" sound.  

Aidy-Bug- Aidan is a terror and he watches far too much TV.  I really need to change that.  I try to involve him in "school" by giving him puzzles, games, coloring, blocks and even having him play some iPad games but all he wants to do is terrorize everyone.  Then I get frustrated, turn the TV on for an hour of uninterrupted teaching time and it turns into 2 hours. He is destructive and distracting and I'm sure he just desperately needs more of my attention.  I need to work on that.   

Camryn- Cammy turned 14 months last Friday.  She is becoming a little difficult and demanding.  She wants to be held all the time and nurse all the time and she throws tantrums.  *sigh* Baby of the family. She's exhausting.  Camryn loves Spaghettios.  I mean she really, really loves them.  Not the fancy Gerber kind either (we've tried she just snubs her nose at them).  She loves the 59cent Aldi's brand.  I'm sure that can't be that nutritious.  She also loves oatmeal, apple sauce, pasta, rice, potatoes, carrots, juice and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of.  She mostly eats what we eat.  She doesn't drink milk though.  Can't stand it.  I need to work on that too.  

Okay gotta go.  Camryn is awake and demanding I feed her.  

This weeks insta-pics....

 

Bowles Life #2

This week in the Casa de Bowles....

Daddy: Jeremiah went to work all week.  Jeremiah went to school on Wednesday night.  Jeremiah did pretty much the same stuff he does every week.  HAHA.  He is working on his Master of Science in Project Management in Engineering (or something like that) at KU, but is taking it slow with just one class a week this semester.  Monday nights he rushes home to pick up Brinton and Ashlynne, then he rushes them to cello lessons and youth choir lessons. I'm so grateful he takes over these chauffeuring duties on Monday nights so I can focus on the kids at home a bit and we aren't rushing all over.  I tried to take the job back from him but he really enjoys the time he gets to spend with the big kids while they drive.  Brinton's Cello lessons are 20 minutes across town, Ashlynne's youth choir is about 40 minutes away and he has to go back and forth between them--dropping off one, dropping off the other, running back to pick up one, and driving back the other way to pick up the other and then driving home....so they get a lot of time to just chat with each other. 

Mommy:  I made a fabulous crock pot chicken noodle soup today.  It made me feel so awesome to watch my kids silently gulp all their food down.  I thought to myself....either I starved them all day OR it was really that good.  Hopefully it was the latter.  Last week I home taught my kids, visit taught my friends, and took the kids by myself to Coco Keys (an indoor water park) Homeschool Day ($5 entry per person!).  I'm a champion.

Ashy:  Last week was parent teacher conference.  She made the Principal's Honor Roll again, which she has consistently done every term of middle school.  Ashlynne had 5 A's and 2 B's.  The B she got in Language Arts was an 89.5% so she was literally .5% away from an A.  Darn it!  I'm still proud of her grades, especially with all the things she is involved it.  Every one of her teachers spoke so highly of her.  It's always nice to hear great things about your kids.

Brit:  Brinton only takes Art and Orchestra at the middle school and he has an A in both.  His orchestra teacher says he is really doing well and making lots of great progress BUT he needs to practice more.  {The same thing his private teacher tells him}  His art teacher is continually impressed by his art skills.  She also has him in Sketch Club once a week and she says he is really good at using lots of different medias.  He continues to do well with K12. 

Lisey:  I conferenced with myself (you know since I'm her teacher )and decided that long division stinks and that teaching long division stinks and that my poor daughter is so frustrated with long division and BLAH!  She totally knows how to do it, however, she just needs to consistently get the answers right...one little misstep throws the whole problem off and it's very frustrating for her.  We are going to step away from it for a bit and focus on other parts of math.  Elise is getting AWESOME at making rainbow loom bracelets even though we don't own a rainbow loom.  She uses her fingers, forks, a crochet hook.  She made a ton of bracelets last week. She also like to make things out of duct tape.  She's is so crafty!

Nanna:  Julianna is doing well in school.  We haven't really hit any rough patches yet...crossing my fingers and bracing myself...  She is starting to make rainbow loom bracelets, too, rings and necklaces are her specialty.  Last week, we picked up a cute book called "Kiki: My Stylish Life"  at the book fair at the elementary school.  It's part of the Lotus Lane series.  She read the entire thing in a couple days.  Now she wants all of the books.  I love that I'm raising readers!!

Liam: I went to his very first parent teacher conference!  I still can't believe my boy is in Kindergarten.  One thing that made me laugh was that his teacher said that he is QUIET!  That boy is anything but quiet.  He is really good at math.  He loved having days off from school to just play with his friends.  It's so nice to live in a neighborhood with little boys that are also in his class. My door bell is constantly ringing for him.

AidanBug:  Last week we started chiropractic treatments for Aidan's allergies. So far we've identified and treated his Milk Allergy (which we already knew),  Eggs, Wheat and Other Grains.  He is so good for the Chiro, he wiggles a lot because he is Aidan and the ultimate wiggler, but he doesn't fight him at all and allows him to do all the adjustments he needs to do.  Getting closer and closer to being free of diapers every day....please pray for more consistency on both of our parts!

Cammy:  Camryn started walking and now she is running!  She is so fast now!  I've started calling her the terrorizer because she is into everything, terrorizing everything and everyone.   She is still night nursing...all night....allllllllll. night.  I got her crib ready so she could start sleeping in it.  I'm hilarious...she's not doing that any time soon. 

Photo Dump.  This weeks Insta Pics.

Bowles Life #1

Alert. Alert.  Lonnnnggggg Blog Post ahead.

 

I'm going to update at least once a week.  My kids just love being able to look back at this blog and see all of our fun memories.  I keep saying I'm going to start a scrapbook, but the truth is I just don't have the time and the days are just slipping by, the years are just going to so fast...I don't want to forget these days.  I have this wonderful blogging friend Diane who has 9 children and every week she writes up a little bit about what went on in their home that last week.  I am going to try this idea (with her permission) and see how it works for our family and our blog.  I'm sure this will be ridiculously boring to most people who read this blog.  Sorry.  It's about to get boring up in here....I promise they won't always be this long every week but I have to do some catching up!!

Dad: There really isn't much to report as far as Jeremiah goes.  Work as usual consumes a lot of his energy.  He is leading and conducting meetings pretty much all day long.  He makes it a point to call or contact me at least once a day just to let me know he is thinking of me.  Actually at the beginning of the year he made it his resolution to make sure to contact me once a day at lunch time.  He even set an alarm on his phone to go off to remind him.  With this newer position he is in he hasn't been able to make as many phone calls but he still will always send a text if nothing else.  He took all the kids (minus Camryn) camping on Friday night and on a bike ride on Saturday morning.  It was nice for me to have a little break for a bit. 

Mom:   I didn't really feel like I ever got a chance to sit down this last week.  There was homeschooling, and chauffeuring kids to school, music lessons, gymnastics, doctor appointments, homeschool coop classes, kindergarten field trip, an Allegro choir concert, a middle school musical, another musical rehearsal, serving in my church calling as activity day leader, cooking, cleaning, nursing, changing diapers.  It was a pretty normal week.  I was so exhausted that I opted not to go camping with the family and just hang out at home with the baby, a large bowl of chips with salsa, the couch and the TV remote.  I did nothing all night and day.  It was bliss....even though I felt a pinch guilty for not cleaning or organizing something while I had the chance.

Ashy:  Ash is almost as busy as I am!  She is involved in a million different things but still has all A's!  She is currently in Allegro con Moto, a KC Youth Choir and they had their first community performance last week.  She was also in the school musical School House Rocks, Jr. which she performed in last Wednesday and Thursday Night, with a matinee on Thursday as well.  On top of that she is also rehearsing for another musical Annie Get Your Gun at Mid-America Nazarene University which she'll perform at the end of October.  Lastly, she is still a cheerleader for her school and continues to take tumbling class.  She attended the trip to the KC Temple last week and she really looks forward to all the Youth Temple trips.  I'm so glad they do one every couple months. 

Brit: Brinton has decided he'd like to be called Britt like his great-grandfather who he was named after, instead of the nickname Brin which I gave him...it's been a hard adjustment on my part.  He is about 8 weeks into homeschooling.  He does k12 virtual school through Lawrence School District.  Basically it's public school at home but it TOTALLY works for him.  He has excelled so much, it's such a blessing!  He finishes his school day around noon, eats lunch, and then he heads up to the middle school for his Art class, Orchestra class and he gets to be an office aide until the end of the school day.  He was really struggling to get work done at school and homework done at home so this new change has been awesome for him.  He is totally excelling.  He attended the temple for the first time last Friday and it was such a wonderful experience for him.  He can't wait to go again.

Lisey:  Elise just loves homeschool.  She has a health class and a science class every other week with our homeschool group.  2 weeks ago they dissected a pig heart.  It was very exciting.  She takes gymnastics although it's really not her thing.  She isn't the most athletic kid but she enjoys herself so it makes her happy.  She excels at reading.  She has read Anne of Green Gables and Heidi, she is currently reading A Little Princess.  She is making good strides in math and I feel like she is finally mastering some of the things she was lacking.  She says reading is her favorite subject.  She is also in the musical Annie Get Your Gun and is just loving each and every rehearsal. 

Nanna: Julianna is an artist and dreamer and a socialite and much prefers drawing pictures for book reports over grammar.  Who doesn't?  She enjoys homeschool though and works really hard.  She is starting to learn cursive.  She can write her full name and has learned the letters A, B, C, & D.  She is really good at math.  She loves gymnastics and has gotten really quite good at cartwheels, round offs and is starting back handsprings (with a spot).  She had a girl scout meeting last week and just loves being a Brownie.  She is also in Activity Days now, she feels like such a big girl. 

Liam:  Liam had a field trip to the pumpkin patch last week.  He had so much fun.  He has been slow and steady at learning his letters.  Phonics doesn't come naturally to him but he has really started blossoming the last couple weeks.  I think he is more of a kinesthetic learner because when I make a game of letter learning, or bounce a ball while we learn or have him run and jump to find the letters he seems to retain them better.  I'm just saving that little bit of info for future reference just in case.  He lost his first tooth on Saturday morning, daddy lost the tooth on the way back from their camping trip.  We have notified the Tooth Fairy but our tooth fairy is awful and has been known to take weeks before coming over and leaving a reward....

AidanBug: Aidan is an adorable hurricane.  Is that possible? My goodness he gets into everything!  He still is not potty trained which is no fun for me.  He gets the concept but really doesn't feel like putting it into affect.   We took a family trip to walk around the temple last night.  It's his favorite place in the world.  He told me that the temple was beautiful and it sparkled and then he sang me "I love to see the temple."  It was sweet. 

Cammy:  Camryn points at things, she's finally started to wave (but never on command) and she says Mama and basically yells at me when she wants stuff.  She loves to eat...especially crayons and occasionally markers.  GREATEST NEWS EVER...Camryn can walk!  She has been crawling so funny since she learned how to crawl.  First it was an army crawl where she dragged her body behind her, then it was a crawl where she had one leg out to the side and propelled her self along like it was an oar.  She started taking steps right about a month ago but she would only take about 5-7 steps before falling over.  Never more than that.  So Friday we were out at the pumpkin patch with our homeschool group and one of the dads is a Chiropractor.  He gave her a little adjustment and I promise you that not 30 minutes later she was walking totally normal and she hasn't stopped since!!

So there you have it.  I'm going try to keep these weekly updates short and sweet from here on out....and now for the photo dump.

Insta Pics from this week: