Katherine and Mom start Joy School!

The day after Katherine's preschool started, we started Joy School. I prefer Joy School for 3 year olds, but unfortunately we couldn't find enough friends to do it with us. I will not lie, this bothered me a lot because we were able to do it with the other 3 kids and I wanted to offer Katherine the same experience. We were lucky to find some friends who wanted to do a preschool co-op once a week though and we think that will be really fun too.

The plan is that we will do Joyschool at home 1-2 days a week. Because Katherine is the only student, we go through things pretty quickly.

The first unit is the Joy of the Body!

We have learned a lot about our bodies and are really pleased with them and all the amazing things that they can do. 

We have only done 3 lessons so far, but have had a lot of fun doing them together! It is a bit of preparation and work for just 1 kid, but she is worth it! I love her so much and am thankful to be able to spend my days with her.

This is a picture of a body that she drew on her 1st day of Joyschool. 

 It has a face, eyes(with iris and pupils which was unique), nose, mouth, arms, legs, feet, 10 fingers and hair. She usually only scribbles, so this was a pretty cool picture and I was proud of her effort.

These were from Thursday, I believe. We played a game. When the music started she was to pick up a nickel and walk and put it into a bowl in front of her. It was so easy!

 Then we tried to do it without eyes- it was hard to find the nickel to pick up and hard to drop it into the bowl.

Without ears she couldn't even start because she couldn't hear the music.

 Without fingers, she couldn't pick up the nickel very well. (She actually got it with her foot, but it took a lot of work.)

 Without feet, it was so hard to get to the bowl. I think she learned just how useful her body was with this game.

Later, I hid a popcorn machine behind this tub. She had to use her senses to figure out what it was.

At first she was stumped.

 But she started to smell and hear the popcorn!

 We ate it for snack.

We made a smelling collage too.

 And had a lot of fun with taste testing things!

We are thankful for our bodies and for our senses!

We will have 3 more lessons about the body and then will move on to the Joy of the Earth! I love teaching preschoolers!

Katherine starts Preschool

I wasn't able to take many pictures when I was teaching, but these are a couple pictures that one of the other moms, Jessie, took and posted on facebook. As you can see, we have 4 precious girls in our co-op this year! Each one has special gifts and is unique. I love how this picture shows some of these different personalities.

 

 First day of preschool picture!

Next we played play dough to warm up to each other. 

We learned the letter, number, shape, and color of the day. 

We did a craft, read some books, had a snack, sang some songs, and did stations. 

We ended our day with outdoor freeplay time. 

It was a good first day. I think we will enjoy it and learn a lot together!

Back to Ballet

Victoria sure was happy to go back to ballet this year! She loves it! She has another awesome teacher and feels like she is going to push her to do her best.

I love dancing and miss dance classes, bur I sure am glad that my daughter gets to feel the joy of dance!

ODU game date night

After the party, we tidied up a bit, grabbed a pizza for a fast dinner, and headed out without the kids.

Danny and I have been pretty busy since school started back and were really glad to have a date night to have time to talk. Danny received the tickets because his friend, Chuck, has a friend who is a coach at NCState. ODU was playing NCState and the NCState coach left our names/tickets at will call. It was a nice gift! Thanks, Chuck! We had fun walking around campus together, returning books to the library, looking at the moon through awesome telescopes that an astrology club had outside, watching the cheerleaders and the band, and watching the game. Fun date night.

Grant's Skylanders Birthday Party

 Grant really wanted a Skylander's party this year. I do not know much about Skylanders, so had to do some research and copied a lot from pinterest. We basically played a game for every element. The boys wore a necklace, that was a passport of sorts. We planned to punch holes for every completion, but the hole puncher got jammed and it seemed to take too long anyway. Christian, Victoria, and her friend, Lauren, helped a ton!  I think Grant and his friends had a great time!

Dino-rang toss

 Finding a ghost for the undead element

 They made potions(drinks) for the magic element

 They had to find Hotdog's treasure for the fire element.

 The treasure was a bowl of "fireworks" or Poppers!

 Grant had donuts instead of cake!

 I don't think anyone was too sad about that.

 Grant opened some really awesome presents! Thanks for being so generous, friends!

 Grant is really lucky to have some really nice friends! I am thankful!

Next, they tried to stomp on each other's "sheep" balloons.

 There was a lot of time left for free play afterward! I had 2 other games planned, but they involved water and mess and the kids seemed happy just playing outside!

 While they played on the swing set and trampoline, Christian and Katherine, hid "gold coins" in the front yard. I could not find gold coins, so went to buy Rolos, but the store was out, so I bought butterscotches instead. Grant laughed and put on his old man voice. "Would you like a piece of hard candy? Sonnyboy?"

 Christian, as a leader, explained the rules.

 They didn't seem to mind the old man candy.

 Lastly, they went upstairs to play and to check out the Skylander's video game.

FYI. Grant and Christian combined birthday money and gift cards to buy a new Skylanders game!

TJ and Ashley's Wedding!

Very special day for the Soderholm family! Congrats, TJ and Ashley! You make a great couple!

Trying Again!

WHAT COULD
YOU DO BETTER?
“What could you
do better for your
children and your
children’s children
than to record the
story of your life, your triumphs over
adversity, your recovery after a fall,
your progress when all seemed black,
your rejoicing when you had finally
achieved?”
President Spencer W. Kimball


It may or may not be a secret that I have struggled on and off with some pretty bad depression since moving to Carrollton. My mental health has been a struggle for nearly 3 years,  but this summer was really good and I am feeling a lot more back to normal! My life has been and is great! I really am very blessed. Great things have happened all around me. I knew it! I could see it! I only couldn't feel it. I know a lot of people do not understand and I am glad that you can't understand. I am just glad that I am able to feel joy more fully again. I don't know how my mind was fixed, but I sure am glad that things are looking brighter. Now, I am going to go back and try to catch up the best I can! I am nearly 2 years behind, so wish me luck! It will be mainly pictures!

Grant's 7th birthday

Grant's birthday was the 3rd day of school! He woke up bright and early because he wanted to go on a treasure hunt for his presents when dad was home. (Danny has classes on Thursday nights from 5-10. I failed to mention previously that he is working on his doctorate at ODU. Yes, I think we may have established that we are super crazy.)

Grant was really happy to find his presents!

We had donuts for breakfast. Love the bedhead!

 Grant went to school and had a good day. Katherine and I brought him Chick-fil-A for lunch and visited with him and his friends at lunch! Then, he played outside and with his new toys after school.

 Katherine found some of V's makeup.

 We had haystacks for dinner as Grant requested.

 We don't have any activities on Thursday nights, so there was extra play time!

 And a German chocolate cake.

 This picture shows part of Grant's funny personality.

Love our awesome 7 year old!