Best Santa EVER!

This is our first year to go see Santa... and when the kids found out that Santa was their Papa, they were ecstatic! ;) Miss Sass was a little unsure at first. After all, the last time she saw Papa he was clean-shaven. ;)

She warmed up to him though... however she hid her smile from me, of course. ;)

So, these are all straight out of the camera so they are far from perfect! But I wanted to share, so here they are. ;) This next one was fun... sort of a behind the scenes shot.

Drama Boy was so fun. He just loves the Santa story and he loves Papa even more! ;)

I really need to get a new lens... one with auto focus!!!

Then it was Mr. Cool's turn. He thought the whole thing was a blast and just told Santa everything! Lol

I think my Daddy makes a pretty good Santa. ;)

How was your trip to see Santa?

What Is Virtual School?

Okay, I wanted to do an update on this sooner, but life got so busy! ;) We will not be attending public schools this year after all... After advice from a few reliable sources and another assessment for Mr. Cool, we have decided that our kids will attend a virtual school this year. We have enjoyed the example lessons...

Our official 1st day will be August 30th, giving us more time to prepare. I'm excited about it and I think it will be a nice change from the homeschooling we were doing the last couple years. So, what exactly is virtual school? Our lessons are prepared and ready each day for each subject. We follow an over all lesson plan that helps us stay in line with the course material that they are supposed to learn over the year. We will have enough time left over each day to do some extra activities or additional lessons if we decide to. This will give us the opportunity to spend time on areas that need extra attention or to study things that are not covered in the state curriculum. This should be fun and I look forward to sharing some of our experiences! ;)

Sesame Street eBooks Review

I was invited by Impelsys to review the new Sesame Street eBooks. I will be using the service for the next few weeks and will put up a review on this and my hair blog. I'm excited about this and so are my kiddos! ;)

"Elmo loves his eBooks! Elmo can choose from so many stories, and sometimes Elmo can even hear a friend reading to him! Elmo loves that he can read his favorite eBooks wherever Elmo's mommy or daddy can go online!"

Healthy Lunch 101 ;)

This is another simple bento lunch. The kids LOVED this one! ;)

Champagne grapes, mango, blackberries, cherries, blueberries, and pineapple chunks.

Cabbage (the kids liked it, surprisingly) broccoli and cauliflower. On top was some ranch dip, sweet pickle, olive, baby corn, and a few croutons. I made this the night before and then added some chicken the next morning. This was a definite hit! ;)

Beach Fun - I HEART Faces

I have been wanting to do these photo challenges more, so I decided to just enter this week... even though this picture is a little older. ;) We went on a cruise last fall and this was taken at Grand Cayman. We were just a little out into the water. This is my brother getting ready to snorkel and being his normal goofy self. ;)

Check out the other great entries:

Lunchtime Again

Another bento lunch. This one is really simple and took hardly any time to prepare.

On the bottom was bismati rice with roasted black sesame seeds and a touch of braggs (soy sauce alternative).

A few veggies with dip, olives, pickles... yum. ;) I added a few extra veggies later.

And then we had some fruit: nectarines, cherries, golden & fugi apples.

The kids really like this meal! They asked for more, though so I think I need to make sure there is meat in every lunch. ;)

Wordless Wednesday... Real Dad, Real Hero

Tina from Little Tots/Big Ideas posted this beautiful video today and it left me wordless...