Who wouldn't....

Who wouldn't want to spend all day with these three?

Alexie's 1yr Owl Birthday Party

I had so much fun planning for this party. Maybe a little to much. I might've been a little OCD and gone a little overboard. Just a little. After this crazy insane month it was a nice distraction. And hey the first birthday party is way more for the mom then for the kid right :)

Pinterest was of great help in planning this party! So many ideas! I found Alexie's bedding a year and a half ago and I fell in love with the owl's on her quilt. Pottery Barn kids must've started something big because Owl's seem quite popular these days. I decided to stick with her bedroom theme and make it her first birthday party theme as well!

First up decorations! I kept seeing these one year photo banners on etsy and pinterest and just thought they were so cute. Not cute enough to buy, but cute enough to try to make myself :) Chris left town for a few days prior to her party so I took my free nights to put this all together. Again this was fun for me. Therapeutic. I know I'm weird.







I also made little owl pinata bags using my neighbor's different sized circle punches. Thanks so much Suz! Made the process SO much easier! I used pink eyes for the girls bags and Orange for the boys.



I copied these cupcakes straight off of pinterest. I used strawberry frosting to make them pink instead of chocolate. And I just might've ate a ton of the oreo's other halves while I made them...


My friend Ruth made this super cute Owl cake for Alexie! Thanks again Ruth!! Your talent never ceases to amaze me!


Yes I did. I am now one of "those" moms.




An Owl craft.






Pinata time!


I'm not sure when they stopped selling the good ole' fashioned hit the pinata with a bat. But it seems like pinata's these days are "pull strings". I don't get it really. Where's the fun in pulling a string? But it was an owl. It was cute. It worked. Well only sort of worked. Once all the strings were pulled the candy still wasn't falling out effectively. The kids wondered.... NOW can we hit it?


A little Papa D love.


The birthday girl getting ready for cake




She kept trying to go for the lit candle!






Thank you to all the family that came! We are seriously blessed with the best extended family! I am so glad it worked out for so many of you from out of town to make it as well. We had a blast celebrating Alexie with you all!

Birthday Morning- Tradition Continues

We started Alexie's first birthday morning as we do every Daukas kid birthday morning. Waking up to balloons. It's a tradition my parents started with my brother and I. I have great memories of waking up and looking around to see if my parents had remembered and sure enough there they were. Balloons.



After we sang "Happy Birthday", Chris lead the kids in praying over Alexie and thanking God for her life. It was so sweet.



Next up... Her owl birthday party!

Walking

It's official. The week of a step here and there is now full on walking.





Watch out Mama here I come!

Taylor's First Concert

As many of you know Crowder band is finishing up their final tour ever. Chris and I saw them in concert 7 years ago and had so much fun. When I saw Gungor was touring with them I knew we had to try to swing it. It's quite often hard for Chris and I to swing anything that involves a babysitter these days but my parents graciously drove out here so we could go. Taylor LOVES Gungor and Crowder so we thought what better first concert for her to attend? Another family from our church was going and Taylor is friends with the daughter. We knew she'd not only enjoy going with us but it would be a bonus to have a friend there.

We decided to not tell her till we were in the car. Partly not wanting to tempt Trevor. As in typical Taylor fashion she was BEYOND excited. The concert was general admission. Chris and I didn't really have the time to stand in line for an hour but our friends did. They were some of the first in line and got us some floor seat wristbands but we kind of needed to get to get there before the doors open. And when I say we barely made it... I mean like Taylor & I were running, they were the next to walk inside and we were able to squeeze in with them and grab our bands. I'm sure that made everyone around them happy :) But hey it's a christian concert right!?!

The concert came at a perfect time in Chris and I's life. It was definitely one of those "we need to escape life and go see a concert" type night. In all fairness we have many of those nights but this time we actually had a concert to go to. Convenient.

















Taylor's new dream is to become a professional singer.... you could see the dreaming in her eyes that night as she saw artists come and go off the stage. Heck you could see the dreaming in my eyes that night as well. I whispered to Chris at one point, "Let's leave this all behind and hit the road to tour." I guess some dreams never die, even once accepted it will never be a reality :)

What an awesome night! Check out Gungor if you haven't already.  Crowder was amazing as always but I am eager to see a whole night of Gungor!

1st Day of School

So I'm a little late for the "first day of school" post. But we did indeed start school. Another year of homeschool. I went into it kicking and screaming... somewhat literally. The result of my tantrum was quite worth it. I figured I usually end up at some point in the year kicking and screaming so might as well get it out of the way in the beginning :) My fit lead me to change my curriculum all together.  I have a close friend who is doing Tapestry of Grace with her girls who are Taylor's age. In my mind I was going to wait till Rylee was in first grade to begin such a program but I just wasn't satisfied with what I had.   I knew that somehow I had to have T, T & R studying the same subjects as much as possible if I was going to make it through sane.  I took a very fast crash course in Tapestry, found the curriculum used, the Lower Grammar books were offered up for me to borrow (PRAISE GOD) and I went ahead and purchased all the upper grammar books for Taylor. Let me just say this was the BEST DECISION EVER! We are on week 8 and loving every minute. It's just so rich! Taylor gets deeper into the subjects with her reading while I stay mostly on the surface with Trevor & Rylee but I don't feel like I have my hands all over the place. Each week, all three kids study the same thing. For instance, we just finished up learning about the vikings and onto the crusaders. I like Tapestry because it takes what I love about the classical approach and using living books approach and combines it all together. Once you learn how to read through the teacher's manual it's really easy to lesson plan for the week. In addition, unbeknownst to me, there are three other families in our church that are doing the same year in Tapestry. We are combining together to do a big medieval feast to celebrate the end of unit 1 in mid-november. Let the costume making begin.

So keeping in first day of school tradition I made pancakes for the kids. I found these awesome pancake molds 75% off at Williams Sonoma and knew they'd make my star wars loving kids happy. Here's what the pictures looks like. Beautiful fluffy pancakes.



My, *ahem*, second attempt at making these. Which took up ALL of my pancake batter. Here kids.... here's one pancake for you all to share. I think Chris was waiting for is this a "laugh it off moment" or is this a "she's going to cry". I wasn't too sure which one it would be myself. I was a little fragile those early days of starting school. Thankfully I had grace to laugh.



Just to keep myself humble... here was my first attempt. Who knew the pancake would get terribly stuck in the mold. Nice. Now you can laugh at me too.


It was ironic how much my pancakes reflect my efforts in homeschooling. I start out with this great, glorious picture of what school will look like. The reality is more like my second picture. A faithful attempt. I'm doing good if I can keep it from looking like the last picture :) It was good for me. Kill all my expectations of what we can accomplish on day one and aim for faithfulness. Looking back at the past couple months I can say that's what we done... faithful. So here are my students.

Reading at a 2nd grade level, Rylee. I love this kid. She's all kindergartner with her ability to still still and focus, or lack there of, but boy once she does is this girl smart. She can read like none of the others have been able to this early on! What a blessing. So basically kindergarten is over for her and everything else this year is extra :) Takes the pressure off of mom.



My math whiz kid, Trevor. Starting the first grade. I'm super pleased with how well his reading skills have progressed! I think he is feeling the challenge of having his younger sister reading so well. Nothing like getting some competition for a boy :) He is super smart in Math! Working on a third grade math book right now. He so impresses me with his ability to remember and work with numbers. Didn't get that from me that's for sure. That's ALL Chris.


And Taylor. The reader, writer, singer, loves mysteries, Taylor. She is eating up her new Tapestry program. Devouring every book given to her.


There they are. My three school beauties. Some days I love them, some days they make me cry... but all in all I wouldn't trade teaching them at home for anything.





After school was over we took them to the Peoria Space Challenger Center. We are studying astronomy this year for science so this was a way to kick it off! Nothing like a field trip on the first day of school.















For those of you who are interested in school type stuff we are using Tapestry of Grace, Year 2 for history/literature/worldview/church history
Apologia Astronomy for Science- LOVE IT!
First Language Lessons for T & R
Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading for T & R
A Reason for Handwriting for T & R
Taylor is using IEW for writing. They have a Medieval ages writing curriculum that goes nicely with our Tapestry.
Trev & Tay are using Teaching Textbooks for Math and Rylee is using Horizons K

Pictures of our salt map, scrolls, castles, knight drawings, and solar system to come :)

Happy Birthday Alexie

Oh my sweet baby Alexie.... how can it be true? How can you be one already?!?! You have brought your mama and family pure joy this year. I tear up thinking about how much love I have in my heart for you. How your very presence has INCREASED my joy for your brother and sisters. Seeing them love on you, make you laugh, care for you makes my heart soar. And oh how you love them!! You love your mama too :) You show it by crying anytime someone tries to take you out of my arms. You are on the verge of walking, a few steps here and there. A whole new world is going to open up to you this year. I praise God that in his goodness, even when I thought we would not have anymore children, he surprised us with you! You are loved.































Happy Birthday Alexie Jane!