My birthday was November 2nd. My dad and my mom both sent me some spending money so DH and I went out for dinner and a movie! The girl's stayed with DH's parents for a few hours. We were going to go to a restaurant called "The Ground Round." They have these chicken fajitas that are so good! But, by the time we got there, it was later than I expected and they were pretty busy. We decided to go into the mall and eat at the food court instead. They just opened a Charlie's Subs in there and they have the best steak and cheese hoagies! Yum! We ate and then as we were leaving there was all this fuss and chaos because I guess it was the day that Santa was arriving at the mall. We timed leaving just right, and headed out back where the movie theatre is.

We saw the movie "Fireproof." If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. You can read more about it here: http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/. It is a movie about marriage and the same people who wrote and produced "Facing the Giants" also wrote and produced this. It has Kirk Cameron in it and he does a great job.

A few days later I had a few dollars of my birthday money left so I stopped in a store we have out here called Ollie's. I am sure they have other items in this store besides books, but I'm not sure what they are because I rarely make it out of that section. They have a really great inspirational book and Bible section! I can spend hours in there - and they are all super cheap, too (which next to free is my favorite price!)

I spent under $8 - and here is what I got:

This is the CEV Daily Bible. I had been looking for a Bible reading Plan that included a small portion of Psalms and Proverbs with a longer passage, and this was perfect! Instead of having to flip all around and keep track of everything on a chart, you just find the date and read until the next date comes up. Each date has a OT passage, a NT passage and a portion of a psalm and a proverb. It is so easy to read and doesn't take longer than 10 -15 minutes, but it is a read through the Bible in a year format. I look forward to getting it out each morning!

Here is what the beginning of today's passages looked like. This is so perfect for me, because I have trouble getting started reading, and then stopping too. Feast or Famine!

Then the other book I got was this:

It is "My Personal Promise Bible for Mothers." I love this book! I keep it on my desk right next to my computer. It is divided into sections - Mother's reflect on God's___________(verses on specific topics), A mother struggles with _____________________, A Mother relies on God regarding her children's ____________________Personal Affirmations for day __________ (1 - 31). There are a few other sections too, but so many times something happens in the day - and I just want to reflect a few verses and don't know where to turn, or can't find what I am looking for in the few minutes that I have. I know I will be using this for encouragement a whole bunch!

Happy 34th Birthday to Me!

Today I made a game to help the kids remember the things they are learning  this year. First I took a piece of poster board and made a game board.

I made game squares for these subjects: math, Language, Science, History, and Art. Then I made a few for PE, some silly ones, and a few free points squares. I assigned point values to each square.

Then I made cards for each subject with questions on it from the unit assessments. Each time we get through a unit, I plan to add questions to the game. I will take some out as we go along, so they are answering the questions I think they need to be reviewing. Of course, I will always leave a lot in that they know for sure or it wouldn't be any fun! For PE, the cards say things like "Do 10 jumping jacks" or "Stand on 1 leg for 20 seconds." There's one that says, "recite the pledge of allegiance" and there are silly ones like "Make a funny face" or "Give someone a hug". A few squares have free points with no questions.

The little numbers in the corner help me to know if they are 3rd grade questions or 5th grade questions. I put the answers in the bottom corner. Here is a close-up of a 5th grade science card:

They roll a dice to see how many squares to advance during their turn. Then I take a card based on what square they land on and ask them a question. If they get it right, then they get the amount of points listed on that square. I got dd10 to be the scorekeeper to add a little extra math in there (shhh, don't tell!)

When someone gets to the finish line, then whoever has the most points wins! In our case, the prize was to pick out the dessert that  we will have with dinner the night of the Steelers game!

Then, the girls thought up a name for the game, and made a box to keep it in!

This year I heard of a great idea that we are going to do. At the beginning of the new school year, you make time capsules to seal and open on the last day of school. First, you need pringles or tennis ball cans - one for each member of your family. (Of course, we didn't have any on hand, so we are now eating our way through 4 cans of potato chips so we can start this project!). Inside each can you put things that represent you right now, for example a list of your favorite things, a sample of your handwriting, your goals for the year, a picture, etc. Then you find a safe place to keep it unti the very last day of school and then open it and see how much you've changed over the year! Don't forget to set a reminder on your phone or on your computer to open them up. I will add pics to this post once all the chips are gone and we can start filling up our cans!

Today we went to Barnes & Nobles to get FREE BOOKS! They had a summer reading program this year that the girls participated in. What you had to do was read 8 books over the summer. On their website, there was a log to print to keep track of the books, the authors, and what their favorite part of the book was. Today, we turned in the log and they got to pick a book as a reward.

DD10 picked an American Girl Mystery book. DD8 picked a book about a girl named Ruby who has 3 brothers. They were both pretty quiet on the way home :) DD10 has already almost finished hers.

Yesterday was our first day of the new school year! Sunday night we celebrated by going out for dinner and ice cream. We also picked up computer paper at Staples. Right now they have a BOGO sale (an online rebate - which reminds me I still need to do). So we were all set!

I woke up at 5:00 because my cell phone alarm was still set for DH (who had been working and getting up at 4:15 am) and I didn't take it upstairs with me like I usually do, so after 45 minutes, I heard it going off clipped to my purse downstairs in the mudroom! Once I got up and went down to shut it off, I decided I might as well start moving for the day, since I was planning on getting up at 6 anyway. So I got some laundry underway and started reorganizing my coupon book (which I plan to share in an upcoming post).

The girl's alarm was supposed to go off at 7, but they were both up AND dressed by then. Good thing, because it wasn't really set  for the right time, lol. We start school at 9:00, so everyone had plenty of time to get ready and do their morning chores. Daddy decided to go and get more supplies for our sidewalk project.

We started with math. DD10 made a poster with all the mulitplication facts. I worked on reivew with dd8. She did really well. Then we moved onto spelling, which was a pretest, and then they added the words to their personal dictionaries.

After spelling, dd10 worked on her history. She is studing American History before 1865 this year. DD8 reviewed the Greek and Roman civilizations and the Middle ages (1st and 2nd grade history). They both did some activities and then we took a break for lunch. Since daddy wasn't home, we had chicken - he hates it and we love it, so we eat a lot of it when he's not around :)

After lunch, we read some of The Hundred Dresses, which is a novel we are currently studying. Then we worked on some art (dd8 made her annual self-portrait) and science (dd10 learned about the water cycle and how a well works). We made a model of an aquifier.

After we finished with that, we ended the day with a little review of grammar.

All in all, a successful day :)