2018 year end review

As 2018 was winding down, I realized that the plans I had for blog posts never panned out and I just hadn't done ANY blogging in 2018.  As with most years, there were good and bad things, but while I tend to focus on the negative too easily I want to focus on all the good things we did this last year!

I did keep up with instagram though so there is that, but that is more for the moment and not for reflection.

January--
January started with a bang when we did a "Dr Who" themed new years party!  I posted lots of pictures on our instagram account @Sleimaniacs.

My oldest turned 12 this month and she had a cat themed party and got to go to a "Cat Cafe'" with a friend and pet all the cats!

Our chalk board design is with Astronomy, Birds, and Cats because those were some of the topics we wanted to study!

We did a "Doodle on the Moon" for our Astronomy study.

I got these toys that play the sound of the bird so we could begin to learn about the different birds around us.

For my oldest's Cat theme birthday we got this "Here Kitty Kitty" game.

One thing I had wanted to blog about was our "Coco Calligraphy" time!  Taken from the idea of Poetry Tea time, but changing it up.  It is basically fancy copy work/ art time with hot chocolate.

Coco Calligraphy time = fancy lettering and copy work

I also have these quote books from Usborne that we like to use.  Pick a page with your favorite quote and color it.

Or make a silly sentence and copy that!

My youngest (6 in this picture) chose a page from the quote book.

This is the one I did with them because I always join in with the fun of course.  

We also were studying the moon this month and did a print out (above) of the moon and put hand and foot prints on the moon!

Speaking of studying the moon we did a gluten free version of the fazes of the moon with oreo type cookies!  Of course after this for several months we would try to remember and name the type of moon we saw at night.

February --

I did a lot of knitting this month and of course because of Valentine's day we did our usual heart pizzas, but also added in some fun games!  One of the games was a matchmaking game for Jane Austen characters.  I also watched and read as many Jane Austen movies as I could.  It was a good month.  :)

Another big thing in February was watching the Olympics together!  

Lots of geography going on as we watched the Olympics!

We all also got to see some of the Olympics in virtual reality!

We made a lot of flags and labeled them.

A squirrel watching as well

One game I added was "Mystery Date" because I remember playing it as a kid at my Gramma's house and I think it is hilarious.  I mean, really, it is a ridiculous game!  

Early trip to the Arboretum

The youngest got a new hamster right before Christmas, but it takes a while to get them used to being handled and she was so excited when she could hold her sweet hamster and have a little buddy again!

March --
The beginning of March is my middle daughters birthday and she turned 10!

The theme for her birthday was bunnies and "The Mended Wood" - which goes with her favorite book series by S.D. Smith "The Green Ember" that has rabbits with swords.

AND she got to meet the author in PERSON when we went to the Great Homeschool convention.  Very exciting!

We went to the Arboretum quite a few times to enjoy all the spring flowers.

One huge new addition to our days was getting the game below "Bunny Kingdom" (for the bunny birthday) which has been the most popular games we have played all year!  The girls Grammy even is totally into it and everyone has been enjoying playing this all year long.  There is some good skills they are practicing as they play this as well!

Also at the Great Homeschool Convention, I got the girls (and myself) a "Read aloud revival" book bag each!  Since we go to the library every week this has been fun for everyone to use.

Taking pets on walks

My middle daughter decided that she wanted to be baptized this year!  

Continuing our observance and learning about butterflies whenever we see one!

I got this game for my birthday because it is so pretty!

I got some new art supplies for my birthday too, so of course everyone wanted to try them.

Making chocolate chip cookies is always popular!

My oldest might have more patience than I do to tackle this coloring puzzle!  First you have to put it together in black and white and then you color it.

April -
Lots of gardening this month!  I saw plants and I just had to add them to our little patio area.

Root Beer likes being under things

Roasting peeps!

Rainbow books

We started up our Herb Fairies course again, but it is tricky here because the plants we are supposed to be finding grow at different times than where the people who wrote the book live.  

We did a lot of gardening this year.  Each girl got to pick a pot and choose what plants to get for it.

We had a "Hundred days of school" party with cranes and balloons and watching 100 Studio Cs (with 100 tic tacks)

We also got this game "Zeus on the Loose" where the goal is to "climb Mt Olympus" by adding numbers until you get to 100!

New Floaty!

I found this frame by our dumpster here, and it appeared to be a frame for a coffee table that used to have a glass top (which wasn't around so I am thinking it had broken) WELL, I got an idea to line it with screen netting and fill it with dirt to make a big planter!  It works pretty well, but I feel like I should have doubled the lining.

My youngest has a little fairy garden in with the peppermint.

And the finished planter!  We did a lot of gardening this year.

The end of April is my youngest's birthday.  She turned 7 this year!  

The theme for this birthday was hamsters and little rodents.  So we all had "hamster ears" and enjoyed a lot of gardeny type activities.

We made mice snacks

Speaking of cute little rodents!  Carmel is so sweet. I love her expression in this picture.

Had a friend over quite a few times this Spring.

May --
Our main study choices this year included birds as I said.  So, when I got some bird feeders and they actually started coming to our garden it was so amazing and delightful for everyone.  We had a Blue Jay couple and a Cardinal couple that came consistently along with Sparrows and Mourning Doves.

A HUGE part of this year has been watching the birds come to our new feeders!  I had tried a few bird feeders before and no birds ever came and it was just a waste of money to get, but this year for some reason the birds decided they like it and we enjoyed seeing so many birds come and visit our little patio garden!

We took a lot of pictures of the birds as well and of course the flowers that we were growing.

So proud of her cherry tomato plant.  I think this produced two tomatoes all year, but whatever, it's fun to grow.

Our Cardinal buddy.  

June --
Lots of reading aloud like always.  Winding down parts of our school time to be replaced by other fun parts.

If we hide in the shade we can be outside for part of the morning.

I found a LOT of pictures of our pets when I was going through pictures for this!
Fluffy is on the left and Root Beer is on the right.

We had been playing Bunny Kingdom so much that I bought a second game and we painted the bunnies so that we could combine boards and play one giant epic version of bunny kingdom!  It actually works a bit better to do two separate games of three people than trying to combine, but anyway, now all six of us (including Youssef's Mom) can play and we don't have to team up or leave anyone out.

The Daddy playing Fate with the girls.

Another game we got for school is called "Photosynthesis" and you get points by growing and harvesting trees.

I started some art study time with us and my youngest made a lego version of Bob Ross after watching some of his shows on Netflix.  Art is always a good thing!

Her copy work page and the "Game of Chill"

This was the start to our art study course.

We started using "Picturing the Past" which is history as well as art study.

Right after I took the picture above I turned my ankle going down some stairs and couldn't walk on my foot at all.  The people at the arboretum wheeled me out to my car and my ankle hurt so much and was swelling in just one spot, so I thought it might be broken.  The Dr. said it wasn't, but this really laid me up for a while!  It also turned all sorts of colors.

When I had to keep my foot up, it was hard to do much.  The girls helped a LOT, but it definitely slowed some of my plans down.  So, I started thinking through how I wanted to change the cover on my bed, and for the throw pillows, I did some embroidery to match the new cover.  Having that slow time actually really helped me reflect on what I wanted, and every day I wake up to the bright orange flowers and am delighted again!

July --
VBS, fourth of July, and our Wedding anniversary are what I mostly remember from this month.

The younger two got to go to VBS at our church.  

Lots of swimming in the evenings on these super hot days.

When we go on a walk after dinner, a lot of the time someone will want to get their feet wet to cool off, and then they go in deeper.  And at some point ask if they can just go all the way in (in their clothes!) and I am all "whatever, it's easier than if we all went to get ready" - So a lot of fun memories are made in the spontaneous night swimming in shorts and a t-shirt.

The girls like going on walks with Daddy when he gets home

The moon.

For our 14th wedding anniversary this year we went to the museum and then a movie -"Ocean's 8" which was set in a museum!  So that was pretty neat to walk around a museum right before watching it.

I also got earrings and we had cheese cake!  We had cheese cake for our wedding so that is always fun.

Every morning the cats watched the birds come to the feeders.  It has been so delightful this year to not only learn about the birds, but watch the cats enjoying watching the birds and the girls laughing at the cats too!

I see a Blue Jay!

This is how the Bunny spends much of his time.

Tippy Toe getting a drink from the bird bath.

Several times we even saw a hawk in our tree near the feeders!  That was pretty amazing because it was so big compared to the birds we usually saw out there.

Every day a squirrel that lives somewhere up on our roof comes down for breakfast.  The girls have named her "Tippy Toe"

This is their personalities most of the time.  Fluffy is chill and Root Beer is anxious.

That red spot in the tree is a Cardinal!

Bunny tail.

The Cardinal couple

Watching a mourning dove

We even had humming birds come to our hummingbird feeders!  I had also tried this in years past and no one wanted to drink from the hummingbird feeders that I had at the time.

A hummingbird sitting on our outside lights.

Root Beer sleeps with one eye open.

I got this window hammock for the cats and they absolutely love it!

Fluffy sitting funny.

Squirrel!  

I know!  I see it!

So many blue jays!

This is the juvenile Cardinal that came with the Cardinal couple after their honey moon. 

If I fits, I sits.

We saw several Tufted Tit Mice, and they have the prettiest sound.  We always called them "Tuffties"

A hawk again!  Always amazing to see!

Youssef took time off work for several weeks  this month to try and get his work life in better balance.  Fluffy is trying to show him how to rest well in this picture I think.

My oldest has been reading a LOT this year.

Holding her bunny and doing her spelling book.  

Happy Hamster

I turned my balcony which is really too small for much of anything into a hummingbird/butterfly garden!  I have seen a few of both!  It's always exciting to sit and watch them so close when they can't see you at all.  There is a window film on this window and the one looking out to our bird feeders downstairs too, so they don't know we are watching.

Game time with Daddy

What should really have it's own blog post is our "Emoji Camp" based on my need to do some school planning for the coming year while wanting to have something fun for the girls to do.

Our chalk board turned into a feelings tree!

The idea with the wafers and the frosting is to draw a face on a cookie!

How are you feeling this morning?

The pieces on our table I made to be movable so the kids could make different faces with it.

We painted lanterns to look all emoji as well.

The girls made a Bob Ross emoji!

Doing this totally cracked me up!

Fluffy likes to be in things.  A little too small...

A little big...

Aww, just right.

Except for when she is trying to get into position to chase a bird.

Carolina Chickadee! 

Our bird stuff is always ready to look at.

The cats watch other wildlife from the window as well.

A lizard!

August -- 

In August we went to the Fort Worth Zoo, worked on our Fairy Tale project for the "Snow Queen" and learned about maps and did lots of swimming.

We went to the Fort worth zoo in August.  We hadn't been there before.

Giraffes 

So so hot!

What better way to study maps than to make them out of cakes!  This is from her favorite book "The Green Ember"

She and I did a relative map of the world.  Just going for the continents really.

My oldest chose a map from one of her favorite books

It's from the Wings of Fire series.

Bunny nose

All in the end of July and August we worked on some WINTER in the middle of summer because we were so hot.

To see more about our "Snow Queen" fairy tale project you can check out the previous blog post here.

Everyone dressed up as one of the seasons for our "Poetry tea time" at the end of this project.

The oldest and her best friend!

September --

In September we had a lot of comings and goings.  My Dad came a few times and Youssef had a business trip he went on.  We held down the fort and got ready for the visit from Gramma and their Uncle Jonathan for the end of the month.

The youngest helping out

Some school with the youngest.  

Watermelon salsa was a new thing we tried.  There aren't any tomatoes in this at all but it tasted amazing!

Youssef got this "Pandemic Legacy" game that we had fun working through and discovering the twists and turns of the story.

Trying to figure out my mom-school and organize it.

The 7 year old bought some rollerblades and used them a LOT.

Playing with the hamster!

The Cardinal couple wasn't coming around as much so it was fun to see this little guy visit us.

We went to a birthday party at a skating rink here and decided it was a fun thing to do a few times a month.

My Mom came the end of September!  She hasn't been for a visit here since my youngest (who is 7) was 4 months old!  So many places we wanted to show them so they could see what we have been doing all this time.

They came just in time to see all the pumpkins at the Arboretum and we got to go a few times.

Lots of walking and going places!  But we had a lot to squeeze in to the trip.

Magnolias 

My youngest was using the big camera for most of this.

It was pretty hot this day so the mist was much appreciated.

Tiny Frog

My Mom taught me how to make Cassava tortillas too!  Which I had been wanting to do for a while, but for whatever reason the idea of learning the new thing was stressing me out.  It really isn't hard at all to do, it was just something that felt intimidating to begin.  I really have to work up the courage for some things that you'd think shouldn't need courage to begin with, but anyway, it was nice having someone with me to show me so I could actually learn how to do them.

We also took the dart system to the zoo!  I hadn't navigated the Dart all by myself before, but we were totally fine. :)

We stayed at the elephants for a while so we could hear the talk about them.

Riding on the carousel is always a fun thing

Youssef took the kids to the "Game Museum" here which apparently was very worth while and educational.

They also wanted to show Uncle Jonathan the Cat Cafe' and so had a little trip there as well.

The whole time they were here, Jonathan worked at helping Root Beer calm down and be okay with him.  She is normally very VERY afraid of strangers and men in particular, so it was pretty amazing by the end that she actually let him pick her up.  It took quite a bit of doing though!

This was what my youngest was busy doing the whole time we were at the Arboretum.

October--
They were here for the beginning of October and Youssef's birthday.  He never remembers how old he is so we put his age all over the place when decorating.

Cheeeeeeeese fondue!

We took them to the Dallas Museum of Arts and to a special exhibit about machines in art.

My mom by the sheep painting.

By the lilies.

Me by the harps

Some of the paintings are so big!

We did a post card hunt and found them all!

I love this painting

She found her post card!

Jonathan's post card was in the special exhibit 

Picnic lunch!

We walked to the park downtown.

The berries on the holly berry tree that holds our bird feeders started to change color and looking more orange while they were here!

It wouldn't be real time with Youssef if you don't have an entire day of playing new games learning one after another till your brain is tired!  So that is what we did for their last weekend with us.

It rained quite a bit before they left, but I think we got most of the fun stuff in that we were wanting to do.  My Mom and I watched some old movies together that made us laugh because they were so ridiculous!  We also showed them the library we usually go to and our church and things like that.

My mom gave the girls a going away gift of a lego type pokemon character to build and so I got the idea to make a game to use those characters.  It's cooperative and plays a bit like "Wild Craft" which we really like.  We finished the game, but still need to play test it and make sure it all works well.

We also made ourselves feel better with cookies!

Another coco calligraphy time with painting

Just Chillin'

As I mentioned before, we went to this roller skating rink and realized what fun it was!  So about once a month we are trying to plan on going and getting lots of exercise and fun!

I joined in too!

The berries are getting darker!

Typical moment where everyone is doing their thing.  We got a subscription for each kid to get a "Kiwi Crate" and they have really been enjoying this!  It's a little trickier with the youngest since she needs more help than the other two.

Trip to the zoo on Halloween weekend means more opportunities to dress up!

The 10 year old changed her costume a few times, but the original one she wanted to be was a "Selkie" and we put this hood on the vest and everything to make it look like "The Song of the Sea" cartoon that she got the idea from.

Close up of her face paint.

My costume idea all started because I thought up how fun it would be to do a little petting zoo with the bunny for "Trunk or Treat" at our church.  My legs got super sore kneeling down so many times for 2 hours so little kids could pet the bunny, but everyone really seemed to love it!

My youngest might perhaps be the Door Mouse in our theme and she is with two of her friends.

November --

In comes Pumpkin everything!

I actually don't know how many pumpkin pies I made this season, but it was a lot!

Everyone wanted to carve a pumpkin this year so we did it.

We had a lot of Coco Calligraphy times this year!

One of the flowers on my tiny balcony. 

I have been trying to do water color painting more often.

I can't remember if I did this before or after the one above... I think before, but it isn't watercolor, it's the water color pens and also some colored pencil.  Because I love arranging flowers so sometimes do that in art.

I loved this toy as a kid and never got one so I bought them randomly for my girls.  They made up a whole back story about where the "cupcake fairies" came from and my oldest even wrote it down!

We made a "Hamster Hut" restaurant with fake money and ordering and everything for school one day.

Making the menu's 

Each girl as I said before got a Kiwi Crate this year, my oldest chose "Tinker" and middle chose the "Doodle" crate - well the youngest started out with the "Atlas" Crate and I have to say, it is really good!  We did the "Little Passport" with her at first and I wasn't impressed with that one.  It was just a bunch of work sheet type things and the level didn't always fit her level.  The Atlas crate though was enjoyable across the board and even had good little recipes to try. (The Little Passports did too, but they were complicated and couldn't be converted to gluten free.)

And the typical mess of our living space (above) because we are always here and doing things.

We started up "Life of Fred" again and have been enjoying the battery candles that I got.

The battery candles started because I got to thinking how cool it would be to have some for my room also the "romance" of it made me laugh.  Like, laugh way too hard and no one else would probably think this is funny at all.  Anyway, when I saw some for cheap at Aldi I got them and then I wanted more because the girls all wanted one for their room so I kept getting more when I found them on sale again!  They are so fun, but take a lot of dollar store batteries.  ;)

My 10 year old doesn't like math much so her bunny is helping her out.

Another Arboretum trip again!  This time to see the 12 days of Christmas like they have every year.

Checking out the tiny violas

Got to stop and smell the roses!

Roses seem to have two blooming/growing seasons here (like a lot of plants actually!) which is in the spring and in the autumn.  So while other places it's starting to freeze and plants are going dormant, here Autumn is when the roses will take off again.

Poetry teatime all Autumn style with my youngest's best friend.

December --
Of course there is a lot of decorating in December around here and lots of cheesy fondue and watching of Christmas movies and so on.  We also went to the Zoo Lights a few times and the beginning of December I was in choir at our church to do a Christmas concert.  It took a lot of my time to learn the songs so our school plan was thrown out the window for this month.  We did do a Literary project of at least reading through the "Christmas Carol" and watch different movie versions of it.

I moved "the stick" that has been hanging above our table for so long to above the bar area.

Now my youngest's school area is here and I think it will work out okay.  She has so much stuff though!

This actually didn't stay up very long (the 12 days of christmas part) but our pictures from each year did.

Our outdoor space looking all awesome and the cat is still at her favorite activity.  The Nature channel.

I started listening to lots of podcasts while doing dishes and making dinner.  Also, I love brussel sprouts.

Scootering through the crunchy leaves!

The girls are really into this book series that my oldest has started reading aloud to her little sister.  I don't know what they are reading here, but reading together has been a lovely thing this year.

And another day of reading aloud!

I painted some new art to go with the shower curtain that I got because I am THAT into decorating for Christmas!

Almost every December we buy an Amaryllis bulb so we can watch it grow and measure it's progress.  It's my way of getting some real life math into our holiday.  Everyone takes turns writing the date and measuring it.  They can grow an inch a day at times, so it is a really fun project for them to do! 

Playing with the pets outside since the weather is just right.

Tippy-Toe's favorite way to eat from the bird feeder is by hanging literally from her toes.   

The girls are always in a hurry to decorate the tree and this year it was all I could do to keep them from decorating before Thanksgiving!  Youssef was sick all Thanksgiving week and sleeping so he didn't get to join much in the tree trimming.

The girls each have their own fake tree to decorate for their part of the room along with a few knick-knacks as well.

More visits to the Arboretum, though there are less flowers and it's getting colder!

The younger two both learned a Christmas song (different ones) on their Ukuleles. 

I finished this sewing project this month (started it a few years ago.)

The cat helped of course with this project.

We got a new cage for the hamster because she is such a good little hamster.

The Cats seemed to like this new viewing system.

I think she likes it.

A Christmasy Poetry Teatime.

Bunny snuggles.This is his second Christmas with us and he looked so pretty with my 10 year old's new red shirt that we had to take a picture. Also his ears were cold so she was warming him up. She still loves all things bunny and draws all the time. She has advanced to drawing freehand now (she used to mostly trace) and especially likes drawing Pokemon characters with their appropriate labels. She likes to stay home and read and draw and focus on one thing at a time and go at a careful steady pace. She loves orange juice and sushi and making pancakes and getting away with staying in jammies or comfy clothes as much as possible. Favorite colors are black and purple so this red is *quite* festive from her normal look.

Matching mugs and messy hair. My 7 year old has been into playing holiday fluxx, loves all things tiny cute animals (like hamsters and mice) and favorite colors are greens and peach. She wants to do things WITH someone else. Especially active things like roller skating and jump roping. She likes music but doesn't like being heard so plays her ukulele and sings when no one is paying attention. She barely agreed to this selfy/usy

My oldest is 12 (almost 13) and about as tall as me now. She is a lot like her daddy in how she is easy to be around. Everyone likes her and she gets along with everyone. I used to worry more that she wouldn't stand up for herself than the usual difficulty with kids being strong willed. Her younger sisters have needed so much attention and refereeing that sometimes I feel like she slips past noticing. The thing though is that so often I wish I lived near my mom so we could hang out and watch movies and do projects and my oldest is totally into knitting and projects! She reminds me a lot of my mom too :) we are enjoying this book of knitting fairy tales and the projects they each have. She wants to make every project in the book. She still loves cats and blue and green. She wants to study astronomy more and has enjoyed learning about herbs and birds. She likes dragons and fantastic beasts and minecraft and all crafts and art supplies. Her dream for years has been to move back to Washington state or at least live in a house rather than an apartment. Everyone wants a place to have and ride bikes ;) she likes tea and coffee and has an ongoing project of baking cinnamon rolls (that are gluten free and different mixes and recipes. Taste testing is a tough job.) ;) A different dream of hers came true a year and a half ago when we saved a kitten. She loves playing games probably as much as her daddy (which is a LOT --as he has never reached his limit of playing games!) I feel like we are not as thankful for her as she deserves. I want her to know that she is seen and loved.

We did a lot of knitting this month.

An old game, but a good one.  Youssef and I used to play this all the time when she was a baby and recently she has wanted to play it with me!  So we pulled out the old game and are back into it for a while again.

We made gingerbread houses (which weren't edible) per my youngest's request.

Mostly everyone complained about how terrible they looked, but it was fine because they were watching a lot of "Nailed it" shows so didn't seem to mind that their creations turned out so terribly.

The Candy was what we had saved from Halloween!

More from the Arboretum!

The new lights and how we can see our three bird feeders and bird bath from this sliding door.

It's hard to see but in the center in the crook of the tree there is a bird head with a red top.  It's a woodpecker!  Not one we see all the time for sure, but it's so fun when we do see a unique bird.  This type of woodpecker came a couple times to the feeders this month!

Trip to the Dallas zoo for their "Zoo Lights" night!

The first time we went was the best as it wasn't too cold to enjoy.

This year we also enjoyed CHOCOLATE fondue!  Hello, so brilliant.

One of the gifts for Youssef that I got him for Christmas was elf ear ear-buds.  He was totally digging them. He played a lot of "Holiday Fluxx" as well as other games this month.

I knit a scarf for my youngest.

One of the new games we got for Christmas was "Sparkle Kitty" - highly recommend.  It is easy to learn and cute and totally works as a "school" game since you have to read the words aloud.

Another Christmas gift was "Fairy tale Fluxx" because we like Fluxx already and do so many Fairy tale projects a year that this seemed like a great addition!

My youngest got "Hamster Clan" for her game gift and it is pretty adorable.

The new game that Youssef got is a cooperative game called "The Big Book of Madness" -- which would be harder if you aren't good at cooperative games!  You really do have to work together in this one!

Lots of dress up and lots of roller blading

The yearly pose in front of the tree.  All the pets are included of course.

They got the girls and all of us all these Pokemon trading card game which everyone has gotten really into!

Ranin got a good picture of us all playing the Pokemon game over at Grammy's place.

My middle daughter especially loved this since she was already so into Pokemon.

We went again to the Zoo Lights with Youssef's Mom and bro (Jassem) and his wife (Ranin)

Ranin got a good picture of the four of them.

No Snow yet this winter, but the girls are hopeful.

And the sun sets on 2018

2018 was filled with lots of nature study and games, art and family fun days;  work and rest and family visits.  And it is ending even better than it started.  So, thanks 2018 for being mostly great and here's to 2019 and new adventures.