A Late Night Sewing Adventure

Shortly before we moved from Mississippi I got some fun fabric from a store that was closing and bumped the prices on everything to 70% off! Several of the fabrics I got were for the purpose of making Mackenzie some summer dresses. Sadly, now that summer is officially over (though summer-like weather will stick...almost literally with the humidity here...around for a couple more months) I'm just now endeavoring to actually sew a dress for her.

The endeavor actually began because I opened my mouth in front of Mackenzie about a tutorial I came across for an "easy" dress and said something about making it so she could wear it to church (the next day)...oops. Now I really had to follow through!

It took longer than I thought it would, which is normal for the first time you try something, and longer than the tutorial said it would. I don't remember what time I began but I didn't finish the dress till after midnight...ugh.

I think it turned out ok though, and Mackenzie was so excited to see it when she woke up. She loved it, so it was worth the effort and late night!


Mackenzie and I worked together on a matching purse.


I added some fun stitching across the top.


Here she is sporting the dress and purse together!

A Saturday Adventure

Since we now live in a small town with one little/overpriced grocery store, we "like" to take adventures to nearby (bigger) towns to do our weekly grocery shopping. Also, since we now live in a small town with one little/rundown park, we like to make a family day out of it. This Saturday we went to Vicksburg, MS. Yes, we crossed the border back over into Mississippi to go grocery shopping. "Why?" you ask. Well, (1)it's the nearest Kroger...which means it's the nearest place with good produce, (2)there's also a Walmart down the road from the Kroger so we can hit up both...Walmart for paper/household products and Kroger for produce, (3)it's only 30 minutes away...30 minutes the other way would be Monroe which we like to do sometimes as Sam's Club is there, (4)sales tax is much lower in MS, and (5)we get to let the kids play at the great Riverfront Park that's right on the Mississippi River!

The kids had lots of fun running, jumping, sliding, climbing, and playing with the other kids at the park. Brad and I had lots of fun playing around on the playground equipment a bit and sitting on the bench visiting.






Here Brad and the kids are sampling the video games at Walmart...great fun!


This time on our Saturday adventure to Vicksburg we got to try out the new Mexican restaurant "El Sombrero." It was a very nice restaurant (very clean bathrooms...rare in Mississippi restaurants...neat architecture and decorations) but the food was not excellent (good enough though that we'd go again and just order different items from the menu).

Irick Academy week 3

Mackenzie asked if she could have a school uniform so she wouldn't have to figure out what to wear everyday. She already had the white polo and the khaki skirt.


I was trying to sneak up on her when she was reading...you can tell by her smile that she knew I was there.


No, they are not sporting their best studious poses...they are trying to think of what silly faces to make for the next shot.


Not their silliest faces, but very cute ones...

Telephone!

Mackenzie decided to try out this little "experiment" making "telephones." Daddy helped and used the drill to make the holes in the plastic cups. It was great fun!

Irick Academy Week 2

Week 2 of Irick Academy was interrupted by the flu and colds/coughs. Week 3 got off to a slow start because of recovering from said illnesses. We did manage to still have productive and successful school weeks though and I am very thankful for that.


In an attempt to provide more activities for Cam while I do school with Mackenzie I made up some "Activity Bags" (gallon size Ziploc bags filled with items for an activity in which he can sit and do with little or no help).


I let him pick out some fabric (he chose flames)and made him an "Activity Blanket" on which he can do his Activity Bags. Here he has been cutting up straws and can then string them on pipe cleaners and shoe strings.


Here are some pictures of Mackenzie doing some History study:
after reading about a place she finds it on the map in an atlas,


locates it on the globe,


locates it on the wall map, and writes important dates/events on the timeline. (You can see the bracelet that Cam made for Mackenzie with the straws and pipe cleaner...he loves his "ditter")

Fighting the Flu

Cam woke up with a fever (101.4)the day before yesterday and when it was worse (102.something) yesterday I took him to the clinic here in town. He was feeling terrible by the time we were there, waiting to see the doctor. He was super brave and didn't even flinch when they stuck the needle in his arm to draw blood. He did not, however, at all appreciate the long q-tip stuck at the back of his throat or up his nose...poor guy. They made him wear a mask, (there were lots of kids that day around the clinic wearing the masks) which he hated. The results came back and they said...the flu/H1N1...because it's not the time of year for the "seasonal flu." So, he's taking medicine around the clock, watching a lot of t.v., eating popsicles, and drinking Gatorade.

Mackenzie started feeling bad yesterday afternoon, beginning with a bad headache, accompanied by some coughing. By bed time she had a fever (100.something) as well. She still felt terrible and had a fever this morning, so once again I headed to the clinic with sick child in tow. Again through the whole process of needle in arm for drawing blood, q-tip to back of throat and up nose, all for which Mackenzie tried to be as brave as she could, but did not at all appreciate either. Results came back negative...no flu! Sinus infection.

Over the last few days I have been coughing some and getting a little bit of a fever (99.something) at night time. I felt very discouraged when Mackenzie started getting sick too and I thought for sure we were all going to come down with the flu. After her appointment today and negative flu test I felt encouraged that maybe I'm just fighting a sinus infection/cold as well.

So, LOTS of vitamin C for the Irick family! And rest...the kids are in Quiet Time...I should take advantage of this and get myself to my own quiet time rest!

Irick Academy Week 1

Week one went well. It was definitely a more jam-packed week than we've had since we moved here, but it was a light week compared to some of the weeks ahead of us. It was perfect for starting out this school year.

Below are some pictures for a little sampling of what we did in school last week:

The kids doing leap frogs during P.E.


We began the study of the human body this week


The schedule for Tue. up on the fridge


Cam spent some time sorting and counting using dinosaurs




A fun week!

First Day of School

Mackenzie and Cam standing in front of our school bookshelf, holding a couple of their school books.


We started "Irick Academy" today! I know, it's Labor Day. It's supposed to be a day off. We had already (as I mentioned in the post about the busy week ahead) planned out the lessons for the week and if we didn't do any school today that would have thrown our whole week off...not a good way to start off the school year. So, we decided to do a half day. It went well and enthusiasm only waned once or twice (of course, the night before a big day, even though I was exhausted, I had a hard time falling asleep because my mind was swimming in thoughts of the next day's activities, and Cam, even though he's slept by himself in his own room since we've moved here, woke up around midnight and again on the hour for the rest of the night, intent on not sleeping in his room and wanting to sleep with us, so my enthusiasm may have waned once or twice due to tiredness).

We were invited to the pastor's home for lunch and a ride out on "the lake" (Poverty Point Lake). We finished up enough of school to feel like it was a successful half day and enjoyed a great lunch and a wonderful boat ride on the lake. Mackenzie got to drive, yes drive, a golf cart! She also got to drive, yes drive, the boat! Cam got to sit on a lap and steer the wheel! Cam also tried riding a bike with no training wheels and actually stayed upright for a few seconds! I so wished I had my camera! Some great "firsts" for both the kids!

So, for our first day of the 2009-2010 Irick Academy school year we had a fantastic day!

Small town fun...

When you live in a small town, like we do here in Delhi, LA, your fun comes in interesting packages. Here are a couple pictures of our fun a couple weekends ago when we made the 30 minute trek to Monroe. The Pecanland Mall has a very large merry-go-round that the kids had been wanting to ride on. They were ecstatic when they "finally" got the opportunity to take that ride!

Cam chose to ride the eagle on the bottom level and Daddy rode alongside him!


Mackenzie's choice was a white horse on the top level and said it was a little scary at when it first started moving but then it was super fun!

Big Week Ahead!

Tomorrow will be the first day of Irick Academy! We've planned and scheduled each day from 7:00am to 8:00pm down to the minute almost. I am not much of a routine kind of person by nature, but Mackenzie seems to do much better with a routine and homeschooling requires routine (especially now that she's in 5th grade), therefore we have a detailed routine mapped out and hopefully we'll be able to follow it successfully. It's going to be a full week! I'll post more soon!