Home School Spirit Week

Our Governor proclaimed that this week is Indiana Home Education Week so we decided to do a little celebrating.  Emma has been wanting to bake something so on Monday she made a cake... all on her own, from a recipe book.  I only helped with the egg whites because she thought that part was rather gross.

 Her favorite part was decorating it!

 Great Job Emma!  It was YUMMY!

Of course we got some ice cream to go with it, so it was kind of like a birthday party.  

Today Emma wrote about home school:

Face first

I ran across these on my phone and had to post them...

Nathan having fun in the snow a couple of weeks ago...

Those we love

We are so blessed to have such great nieces and nephews.  Their pictures help us to keep them close in our thoughts every day!

Olympics

We LOVE the Winter Olympics!  

To add to the fun (and the learning) this time around we let each of our children pick a country (from a pre-selected list) to root for in addition to the United States.  Then we tracked their progress.

As we watched various events the kids would see their country's flag or athlete and immediately you could see their investment in the event.  It was fun!

Favorite events for the kids were:  ice skating, ice dancing, bobsleigh, and snowboarding.

Emma and Samuel made their own little skiing event in our yard:

Emma (and her doll) practiced her ice skating moves on roller skates around the house...

At the end we handed out home-maid metals!  Each of them got a silver for the U.S., plus a special metal according to how their country did.

Lucas did he best coloring ever on an Olympic coloring page.  He was very purposeful in his coloring.

Sick

Samuel had a fever Friday night and Saturday.  On Saturday he couldn't really wake up from his nap until he had slept quite a while longer.  He looked so adorable...

It sure is tough on Mommy's when the kids aren't feeling well.  The only good thing is that is usually means extra snuggle time.

Simplicity

For Brian...

7:52 Simplicity

Dino-Might!

Last week we took the kids to see a local performance called Dino Lights.  It was really cool!

 At the end they shined a spot light on each person involved so we could see how they made the different characters.

Treasure Island

A week ago I took Nathan and Emma to see some friends of ours perform in the musical Treasure Island. Everyone did a great job and we really enjoyed watching them!

Our Winter Baby

I haven't taken Lucas's three-year-old pictures yet mainly due to the awesome winter weather we've been having... and the fact that we will take them outside...

BUT, since he IS our winter baby, I did grab a couple of shots of him the other day with a snow covered backdrop.

He wanted to wear his sock monkey hat, so I couldn't resist this comparison:

Snow Play

Some favorite ways to play in the snow:

Pretend you are flying

 Be a Snow Bunny

 Make a snow picnic lunch

 Plow it

 Make a snowball for a snack

 Dig in it

 Make a mini snowman

SNOW PLAY IS OUR FAVORITE!

Star of the Show

by Emma

Celebrating love...

Poor Emma woke up with the stomach flu on Valentine's Day.  She was a trooper though.  

I painted a little love for her outside where she could see it through the window.

 It snowed much of the day and was a great day to just be home together.  Since she was sick we spread our celebrating over that day and the next so she could enjoy it also.

The hearts hanging from our ceiling are from a countdown to Valentine's Day that we did this month... the Patience picture went along with that... it included a daily scripture, activity/discussion and treat for the kiddos.  They really enjoyed it.  Also pictured are Lucas with his sucker lips, Emma's flower from Dad, the box the kids decorated to put Daddy's Valentine's in, a message I left for Brian on our front steps, a snowflake that fell that day, Lucas cuddling after nap, my flowers and goodies from Brian, and the kids snuggling with their Valentine huskies that I got for $85 OFF!

Making our traditional Valentine cookies:

 YUM!