Demolition

We have watched a house down the street go through different stages of preparation for demolition. We saw them gut part of it, firefighters set it on fire & rip the roof apart for practice, different rescue dogs practice their craft, and even a company set up a decontamination unit around the house to run different scenarios . It was interesting to watch everyone practice their valuable skills. I loved that they used the house for something good before tearing it down. Everyone is thankful the city fought to remove this unpleasant and unusable house from our neighborhood. The site is now green area.

I took the kids down to watch the city tear it down. We sat across the street and an official asked us if we planned on getting closer because it wouldn't be a good idea. REALLY? We were about 6 plus ft behind the yellow rope. No sir, I am going to let the kids crawl under the rope to investigate the process closer. That answer stayed inside my head but not my daughter's. She said," No sir. Why would we plan on disobeying the police officer (he told all the onlookers to move back about 3ft from the rope) to get closer to the dangerous conditions and possible endanger ourselves or the workers?"  He just looked at her and said, "Oh, good point." and drove off. I was embarrassed that she spoke rudely to the official. That is not like her. Her reason was she didn't like to be spoken down to like she was an idiot. I was talking to my daughter, oh heck I should just call it what it was, I was lecturing (evil parenting nowadays) her about treating others how we would like to be treated when a construction worker came over to high five her for finally getting rid of the official. Apparently he was trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They think he just picked us as an easy target to boss around. I later told my kids that is still not a reason to be rude and he probably was just trying to make sure we were safe but didn't know how to say it.

I had an 12 yr old boy, 8 yr old girl, an almost 4 yr old boy, and a 1 year old girl with me. Who do you think enjoyed it the most? Yup, the 1 year old girl. She cheered each time something big came down. The other kids found it insteading but nothing like she did. They all thought it was neat that the crew was spraying water on the wood while the equipment tore down the wall. They jumped with fear when a guy almost lost his head when a huge side wall flip towards him instead of the way it was suppose to fall. We even walked down the next day to watch the removal of all the remains. I asked the kids to share what their favorite part of the house removal week with each other. Here is what they said. They liked watching big equipment destroy everything, watching the firefighters hack the roof with axes, and the guy almost losing his head. Nice kids.

 Down the street, about 3 houses away when we took this photo.

 On the corner, about 2 houses away.

Across the street, in the lawn of a neighbor's house.

Write to a Disney Character

Did you know that you could write to your favorite Disney Character and they will reply back?!?!?! This was exciting news in my home. My daughter decided right away that she need to draw a picture for Rapunzel. I think she created a cute drawing. There are two address, one for FL and on for CA. We are going to mail one for both but my daughter needs to decide which character needs a letter from her first. ;-) Here is the first one. I will let you know what she receives when it comes.

Yummy Gluten Free Pizza

We decided to give the new take and bake certified gluten free pizza from Donatos a try. They will deliver it or you can pick it up in their stores. Donatos also offers a lot different gluten free items in their stores. The two pizza smelled so yummy while they was baking in the oven that my two kids and the two kids I was babysitting kept asking if it was ready. :-) It tasted as good as it smelled. The kids asked for seconds and thirds. My kids love Donatos! This is the first gluten pizza we have ever had so we have nothing to compare it with but it was delicious. It tasted better than any frozen pizza from the supermarket. Here are some photos of the packaging. 

Smores & Meteor Showers

We decided to stay up all night to watch for meteors. The kidlets lasted until about 1am. We started off with a bonfire and smores. I will use ANY reason to have smores. Meteor Shower = smores, right? We saw a few of them but nothing like we thought we would see. The night wasn't a total loss because of the ghost stories the kids made up and because of the SMORES (I really like them)!!

 My son

  My daughter

Someone fell sleep.

A few weeks ago we watched the space station float by. That was totally awesome! It looked a like a huge star. It only lasted for 9 minutes but was worth it. My husband didn't agree that we needed to use the firepit for it. I know he knew I was using the whole watching the station as an excuse for smores. Darn man knows me too well! :-)

Check out this fun and educational game!!! I picked it up at a yard sale for a buck with hopes that it would help my younger child with spelling. Both my kids play it during lesson breaks without losing focus that it is still school time.  DICEcapades Word Pirates  is an easy game for kids to understand and follow the rules without an adult around. The kids spell words with letter dice while trying to block the other players. The pirate must walk on the words to the treasure for a win. It is that easy. There are a few of these for sale on Amazon. 

Front Door Sign

We have been schooling at home for over seven years. Family and friends still think we are available anytime of the day. They knock on our door and become upset when we do not answer. I am not going to stop a lesson to answer the door for an unexpected visitor during our school day. You can not randomly visit a child during a school day whether they school at home or at a brick and mortar school. My kids will lose focus when people interrupts our day. Focusing is a huge issue for my kids, which is one of the many reasons we school at home. I decide to post a sign on our door because NO ONE was listening when we asked them not to stop by during school time. Neighbors couldn't understand why we sometimes school during the late afternoons after taking a field trip during the name. One neighborhood girl would knock every 10 mins to play with my daughter. I tried a few different signs but people still knocked on the door, then the window, and finally would yell, "It's ME!" even when the knock asked people not to knock. :-) Here is a photo of last year's sign and this year's sign. Only one person from the power company knocked today to tell me that she saw our sign but want to knew if there was a better time to come back because she is selling a new service.  Silly lady, never knock on a door that you can hear kids and dogs behind and think the frazzled mum is going to be happy that you saw the sign but knocked anyway. She will probably never come back to this house or down our street again. Homeschool/Eschool families: I slide the sign into a clear pocket holder. The holder is taped on the door. It is easier to slide it in and out of holder than type the sign up everyday.

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