Karate Belts

Faith is in the Little Warrior's program.  It's a scaled down version of what the big kids learn.  She tells me often that she can protect me if anyone tries to hurt me.

Faith testing for her orange belt.

She was so excited that she passed.

Mr. Gerald is so good with the kids.

3 guys were getting tested for green belts & one for his orange belt.

:Will receiving his green belt.:

:New rank in the house:

Mr. Gerald work the boys hard.  They were all barely able to walk after their test.

Grant & Will ~ Green Belts

Valentine Crafts

God always meets our needs.  At times, He meets our wants as well.  We didn't have to make our teachers Valentine gifts, but we wanted to.  He provided an idea as well as the resources.  Money is tight & we didn't have a lot of money to spend.

We used Snapple bottles that we already had, printed off these labels & filled them with Smartie candies.

The teachers loved them.

For the men AWANA teachers:

My in-laws stock up on Dasani water.  Faith decided (on her own

to call Papa and ask if he could bring us a case.) We used card stock 

paper that we already had from Faith's B-Day party, found a fish template on the internet

for the tags & used some Kool-Aid packets that we had.  We printed off labels 

that said Fish Bait, attached it to the packets & tied it along with a straw onto

the bottles with ribbon.

 For the lady AWANA teacher:

We did the same as above, but found some Valentine wrapping paper at

Target in the dollar aisle.  We used some diet pink lemonade drink mix that we had.  Printed off

labels with Love Juice on them.

These were ideas that I found on the internet.  I apologize to the 2 blogs where I got these two ideas from.  I did not save the site so that I could give them credit.  

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Quilling

 

My friend, Melinda introduced us to Quilling.
We were blessed thatshe gave us some supplies to get started.
It's an old craft dating back to the 1600's.

My sister-in-law had a heart attack on Valentine's Day last year.  I wanted to make her

a card to celebrate her year since the attack.  This card started our love for quilling.

(For some reason, I can't get this picture to turn like it should) 

Here is one that I made for a friend for Valentine's Day.

 Another card.

The kids have picked up on this craft as well.  It is 

inexpensive, fast & fun.

The busy days of the 'lil Bucks, Part 1

This year has flown by.  Can't believe that it is February.  We have had several fun mini excursions.

We were able to buy a year's membership to the children's museum for 1/2 price.  What a blessing!

Will inside a giant boy's stomach, laying on an ice cream sandwich.

 Virtual volleyball.  Notice the 'lil Bucks on the left side of the screen.

Will, letting the skeletons out of the closet.

 

Faith, the fire girl.

This is Collin & Faith's favorite "exhibit". They get to go grocery shopping & then check out.

:Fireman Collin jumps into action:

I just love penguins.

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Faith & I adore our tea parties.  I posted about this quaint little restaurant before.  This time, we took our tea cups.  Our waitress thought it was such a great idea.  We got some looks.  I can't help but think that they wish they had tea cups too. :)

Faith "Ladies must have their pinkies up."

One of my favorite tea cups.  I found this cup at antique shop.  All 3 kids went with me last time & found great treasures also.

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 Our annual AWANA Grand Prix is always an event that we look forward to.  This year, the time slipped up on us & we didn't have time to make new ones.   Thankfully, the cars from last year were still in good shape.  

Will's car is on the left.  He was excited to win 1st place.

 

Will hanging out with friends.

 

Collin with his 3rd place camo car.

Faith still loves her watermelon car that got her 2nd place in Cubbies.

Co-Op Presentations

I love our co-op.  We have some really great kids as well as some really great moms.  Each week on child presents a Physicist.  Will & Collin present back - to - back weeks.

Will did his on Galileo Galilei.

We learned so much about Galileo. Will did a wonderful job presenting.    Click here for a fun short animated videos on Galileo.  Will's favorite Galileo invention was his thermometer.

Collin presented the next week on Benjamin Franklin.  This was his first time ever to present.  He was a little nervous, but did a great job.

Collin was a host of the game show "Your Life, Benjamin Franklin".  He was highlighting Benjamin's science discoveries.  Thankfully, we were only presenting on his science accomplishments & not the rest of his life's achievements.    When were half way finished with the research, (being the good home school mom that I am) I said that I wish he would stop inventing things. (I was tired of researching)  Collin cleverly said, "Mom, he did stop, he's dead."

Josh Wilson - Before The Morning (Slideshow With Lyrics)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Two snows in less than a month.  That is unheard of where we live.  Oh the fun we had.  Of course since we homeschool, we don't get off for snow days.  Our school was so fun, that the kids didn't even know we were doing school.

We have quite a few snow experiments going on in the kitchen. Writing our spelling words & math problems in the snow, calculating how far a snowball will go & then measuring it. Reading books about snow, researching snow vs. sleet.  Of course we had a lot of snowball fights, snow angels & flipping in the snow too.

 First, we discovered bird prints on our Welcome mat on the front steps.

 Will on a white blanket of snow.

Faith looked like a cute little Eskimo.

 Measuring the snow.  We had 4" when we measured here, 

but it was still snowing pretty good for a long time after this.  

We think we got 5 - 5 1/2 inches.

Collin causing an avalanche on Leia, our dog.

 Some of our math, a Venn diagram.

The kids enjoyed a Coke Snow Float.

 

We walked around the neighborhood so the kids could experience how it was many years ago, when they had to walk in the cold for miles & miles.  Half way around the block, I was beginning to regret this little experiment.   But it was fun.

After a snow fall, I love riding around looking at all the beautiful scenes.  We stopped by Target so the kids could climb a big snow mountain.

 

The boots we had were not water proof.  Poor Faith's feet were as pink as her jacket.  We stopped by Wal-mart to get the kids some rubber boots.  While we were there, we had fun with the sea gulls.  They were everywhere.

We also stopped at our local park.  After a little visit, Faith & I had to run by the house.  The boys & Daddy wanted to take a little adventure & walk to their grandparent's house which was just a little ways up the way.

The snow fun was not over yet.  We went to my sister-in-law's house for some snow sliding.  They had so much fun sliding with their cousins, Ashton & Nathan.

 

:Will snow sliding:

:Collin snow sliding:

Follow the pics to see how Faith's snow sliding went.

:Wipe out!:

Faith: "I'm okay!"

A Skating We Will Go

 I hadn't been skating in years.  Then with in a 2 month period, we go skating 2 times & ice skating.  This was the kid's first time doing both. 

 Will really picked it up & took off.  We don't have pictures

of Faith, but she did a great job too.

Once Collin got going, he was super on wheels.

We were treated to an birthday ice skating party by our friend, Audrey.  The kids had such a great time.  By the end of the day, everyone was able to let go of the side & skate, including me. (Sorry, not pictures)  It was so much fun.  Being from the south, I knew the ice was cold, but I forgot how cold it was in the room.  Buuurrr!!

Collin really loved it.  He was skating with out holding on in just about 30 min. 

Faith & one of our friends.  

Will was having so much fun.

 

Let's Eat Cake!