Happy Birthday to Me

Silly title...and so hard to type. Yes today is my birthday and I proudly turn 25, I mean 35.

Yes 35 years today I was born to a very happy 19 year old mommy. A mommy who wanted a baby so badly. A mommy who has dedicated her life from that day to her children. Even now, with all three of us out of the "nest" she still manages to put us first.

Yes, a very happy mommy and a VERY Blessed baby...

Dancing at the Fair

Emma performed two weeks ago at the Southern California Fair in Perris. She performed the same two dances she did at her recital last July. This time Nana and Nana Sue drove out for the show. Emma did a wonderful job and had absolutely no problems going on stage.


Tap dance - Baby Bumble Bee (Emma is on the left)

Ballet - Getting Ready for the Ball (Emma on the right)

We stayed for some rides after the show.

...and checked out some livestock. My Nana says this was her favorite part, watching Emma and her little friend holding hands and looking at the pigs. They both still have their tiaras on from their last dance. Easily titled "the two princesses and the pigs"... too cute.

Proud Teacher - Proud Mom

Just wanted to sharing a couple photos from a school day not too long ago.


Emma concentrating on stitching a lower case "a"

Zachary working on his weekly drawing page. Such an imagination!!

Finger painting apples on trees made from their hand tracings

Apple Picking - Part Two

Two weekends ago we returned to Oak Glen to go apple picking with Danny. He had missed our previous adventure this year since we went on a weekday. Boy was it crowded up there. We hit stopped traffic before we even got to Riley's Farm. We slowly ventured down the highway to Snowline only to find the line for apple cider donuts wrapped clear around the building! We decided to make due with apple tasting and an apple cider donut mix to take home. Then we drove on back to Los Rios Ranchos to pick apples. This time we got a 1/2 bushel box and picked away.


Zach and Dan with our 1/2 bushel box

Emma getting help with the high ones

Zachary's 1st attempt with mommy's camera (pretty good eh)

Emma and I hugging a redwood (we think)

NBA jump for that perfect apple

We really had a wonderful time. After picking apples we went across the road and the kids went on the pony rides and we got some lunch. It was nice to be out in the cool fall weather for the day. This is a family trip I would highly recommend to anyone in the area.

It seems some days are so hard to get through, while other days just seem to fall into place. It's been a very busy past month for me. Work alone has averaged over 40 hours a week. Add that to my mommy job, housekeeping (or lack thereof), teaching, being a wife, helping my grandparents, and other responsibilities... let's just say life has been chaotic.

I've been looking forward to this Thursday that had a void of anything to do on my "calendar". Well, today I was blessed with a day that felt more in order. By "in order" I mean I feel like I've had some successes. Today they were:

Schooling Kindergarten;
Working (still on the deadline);
Reading to Emma before nap (of course she didn't sleep, but she did stay in her room for over an hour);
Starting our next Little House book, The Long Winter, with Zach (he's been asking for at least two week, poor kid);
Sewing two skirts for Emma (something she's been asking for for over two weeks);
One and a half loads of laundry;
One load of dishes; and
blogging :).

My hubby just got home to start his weekend (loving his new 10 hour days/4 days a week!!), and he's mowing the lawn, yippee! And... I went grocery shopping earlier this week and have carne asada marinading in the fridge with avocados on the counter just waiting to be made into guacamole!! We are looking forward to a stay-at-home family weekend.

Here are Emma's new skirts. The butterfly one is made out of a soft flannel. I see tights and boots in it's future! She picked both the butterflies and the ladybug fabric (regular cotton). I still have one more to make out of the cutest strawberry fabric I found. I got the pattern free on-line here. I love the ribbon detail at the bottom hem of the skirts. I consider myself a beginning sewer, and I was able to make these two skirt in under two-hours (between faxes, phone calls, etc).



These are our new birthday crowns I made for the kids this year. I got this idea from my favorite blogger/author, Amanda Soule (aka, Soule Mama). She has an awesome book out called The Creative Family, which I love love love!! You can find her blog here. These "crowns" are made of wool felt and embroidered with the kids initials and some other fun stuff. There is elastic in the back, so hopefully they will last several years.





One more thing to share today... a passage that healed my heart yesterday:

From the end of the earth I will cry to You when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever, I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. - Psalm 61:2-4

Here's to the weekend!! Blessing!

Zach's New P.E. Class

Just one of the many advantages of homeschooling is getting to pick our own P.E. (physical education) classes. Emma has been taking dance since February and loves it. She performed in her first dance recital in July and has yet to get off the stage. She will be performing at our local farmers fair next weekend too.

Every week Zachary sits patiently through her one-hour class. Dan and I keep telling him he can choose something to do too. He had mentioned both soccer and BMX, but had not decided which he wanted to try. He didn't seem to be much in a hurry, so we didn't rush him.

Well, a couple weeks ago Zach decided he wanted to try out BMX after watching his buddy, Trenton, at our local BMX track. Danny got pretty excited and started looking for a bike for him right away. I suddenly did what any mommy of a five year old would do, I got nervous. Dan found a great bike at a great price on Craigslist and we pulled out Zach's quad gear to make sure it all fit well.

So Monday night, after getting suited up in an armor of gear, I sent my baby boy out with the "big" kids on the BMX track. Sounds scary huh... well I sent him out there with his daddy in tow. Dan followed Zach around the track over and over again. They both had a lot of fun and they both did great. It was so fun to watch my "baby" out there doing it on his own. Granted his dad was trailing behind him, but he had to peddle himself up and over all those hills. I think we are really going to enjoy getting to know BMX life and meeting new friends out at the track.

Here he is taking off, out the gate for the first time. Dan held him back so the big kids could go first and then let him go.

And here is "Team Noack". I'm sure the team will grow to three as soon as Emma gets rid of her training wheels : ). As for mom, I'm better off in the stands for now.

Raspberry Fields Forever

I couldn't resist the title. We had such a great morning last week up in Oak Glen. The kids and I met my girlfriend Laila and her son Ethan for some fun and apple picking. We have started our A-A-Apple unit in MFW and it just happened to coincide perfectly with apple season. We met at the petting zoo, but of course we didn't call first to see what time they opened and we were an hour early. I told Laila about an orchard that made homemade fresh apple cider donuts... and we were off. Snowline is the name of the orchard. They have a cider mill, which was also closed (I guess there are benefits to going up during the busy weekends). We decided to start the day off by picking raspberries. The kids each filled their own basket while watching out for the "bumbly bees". They did a great job of avoiding the prickles and found lots of berries. When we had finished picking we went back to the barn for the donuts... yum. I had been thinking of those warm cinnamon donuts since we had gone up there last year.

Snowline didn't have apple picking that day, so after our donuts, we drove off down to Riley's Farm. There we were told by a lovely woman, in full colonial dress, that we could take a hay ride up to the apple orchard to go picking. So we waited for the tractor and got on board for the short ride up the hill. The days pick were Gala apples and we hunted for the trees with red ribbons tied on (that is how they mark the trees with ripe apples). We were also reminded by the man on the hay ride to twist the apples until they fall off the branch. If you just pull an apple off its branch, another apple will not grow in that spot again. The kids did a great job again of filling up our bag with beautiful apples. They could even reach the apples this year all on their own.





We had a wonderful morning in the fresh air with great friends. We came home with a bounty of apples and raspberries, which we have just finished off today. I guess we had better make plans to up again before the apples are all gone until next year. I'm not sure I can wait another whole year before having any more of those donuts either : ).