Day 271 - Craft Day

Today the kids had Art Class at our kitchen table.  :)  Tyrus made a 3D Owl, Carsten colored a clown, and Alexis made a cute little elephant, and a few other things.  It was fun.

One of the poems Alexis has learned is called The Elephant:

"The elephant walks like this and that

He's very tall and he's very fat

He doesn't have fingers, but he does have toes

And goodness gracious, what a nose!"

She loved that she could stick her finger through the nose and wiggle it around like a trunk.  :)

Day 270 - Stand In

Well, I actually forgot to take a picture today... can you believe it?  So, since I needed some picture to put in, I decided to use these of Alexis that I took yesterday as we were waiting for Josh to get out of work.  I love her.

Day 269 - God's Princess Club

So a friend of mine from a neighboring church homeschools her kids as well and she's decided to begin a group just for girls.  Today was the first day, and my oh my was there a lot of pink!

The kids got to listen to an old version of Cinderella and then have a Tea Party.  It was great fun!

Day 268 - Building Up the Temple

The kids got a box of Lincoln Logs from our friends and decided to try them out today.  They had a blast trying to build this house! 

Day 267 - Stunning Chaps

My sweet, cute little nephews were sitting next to each other this morning at Sunday School.  They were both so adorable in their matching outfits, that I just had to snap a picture.  I couldn't get them to BOTH smile at me at the SAME time, however.  Oh, well.  They are still cute!

Day 266 - A Sweet Treat

We drove about an hour away this morning to meet with some other people from our church.  We're going to get started again in Bible Quizzing and this was a meeting to gain some more information about the ministry.  Afterwards, we stopped at A&W to have lunch!

Day 265 - Petting Zoo & Scarecrows

I promised the kids this morning that if we worked really hard at our school work this morning, that I'd take them somewhere really fun this afternoon.  They were all jazzed up about that and worked hard to complete everything that needed to be done.  After we got in the car, they begged me to tell them where we were going.  It was at this point that I announced we were going to the flower store.

"The flower store?!!"  The kids were shocked that that was the 'fun' place I'd chosen.  What they didn't know was that there was a petting zoo there, some cool trains and a "build-your-own-scarecrow event."  :)

My friend met us there with her kids and we had a great time!  The kids really enjoyed it, and it was a great way to end our school week. 

Day 264 - Repair Work

A few weeks ago, I went up to our laundry room only to realize that some how the washer had flooded out of the floor drain, and onto the floor of the laundry room.  If you didn't know, our laundry room is upstairs, so you know what that means - water damage came into the ceiling below in our livingroom.  Bummer.

A few days ago, Josh called our builder to get an idea of who we should call to repair both issues.  The lady said that they've seen this problem in quite a few other houses, and because of that, they'd send people out to fix it - at no cost to us!

Yesterday, a plummer came to put some sort of back flow preventer deal into the drain pipe and now it seems to be working, thankfully. No more laundry mat!  Today a drywaller came and repaired the messed up part in the ceiling. The kids thought both guys were really cool. I'm just thankful the drain is working now and the ceiling repair is done - all on our builder's dime.

Now that they area is fixed, you can't even tell any problem was there at all.  I forgot to take a picture of the "done" work, but it looks great now.  More kuddos to our builder!

Day 263 - Look at my work!

The kids seem to be enjoying homeschooling and are very proud of the work they've done!  Today, Tyrus was excited because he got a 100% on his first spelling test!  :)

Here are Alexis and Carsten showing off their newest pride peices!

Day 262 - The Egyptian Pyramids

My kids get to enjoy an every-other-week co-op meeting for Ancient History.  This week, we learned all about the ancient Egyptians and their customs of mummification and Pyramid building.  In their class, they got to make a really cool replica of a pyramid - out of cubes of sugar!  Check it out:

Alexis said the whole thing was edible - until they added the glue!  lol

Day 261 - Enjoying the Park

Gotta love these little people!

Day 260 - Smile

How can you look at these pictures and NOT smile?  That's my question to you.

Day 259 - Clean Up, Clean Up!

Everybody do your share!  Tonight, I put a little challenge forth to the kids to see who could pick up the MOST toys in their respective rooms in 15 minutes.  Carsten insisted he would be the winner and set out to clean it up!  A it later he called me and his dad to come and see.  Sure enough, he'd cleaned up:

But then, if you look a little closer, you'll notice this:

Little stinker piled all his toys on his bed!  Ha!

Day 258 - Track & Field Day

We had a light day today in terms of schooling, but this afternoon, we spent a lot of time outside.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for Field Day.  Tyrus and Alexis both competed with kids their own age and gender.  We laughed because Tyrus was with the Green Flag (boys 7 -8) and had on a green shirt, and Alexis was with the Purple Flag (girls 5 -6) and she had on a purple shirt!

They ran the 100 yard dash, did a long jump, sack race, ran the bases, did a crazy race, baton race, and a softball throw.  Afterwards, they all got participation ribbons.  Alexis was a bit miffed about not "winning" any of the races, but I tried to tell her she needed to giggle less and run harder.  :)  She did meet a little girl named Jess though and they became fast friends.

Day 257 - Learning to Read

Alexis got all of her assignments done early today, so I let her spend a little time on the computer as a reward.  She thought she was playing, but I knew she was learning.  :)  I set her up at http://www.starfall.com/ - a great site for kids her age.

While they were on the computer, I looked out and saw these odd birds again!  They came around some last year, but I hadn't seen them for awhile.  Just yesterday, the farmer harvested the corn, so I guess they're back again.

Day 256 - Family Trees

One thing we're doing this school year is an Ancient History Co-Op.  Every other Tuesday, the kids go and join up with other kids to learn about history not only in the world, but also Biblical history.  One of the first assignments in the class was to work on a Family Tree.  So, yesterday, I pulled out my picture box and the kids created their own versions. 

While they worked, we talked about each of the people in the pictures.  Tyrus remembered some of the people who are no longer with us, and Alexis didn't remember a lot.  She of course got very upset about that!  But, I tried to tell them what I knew and when they found out that their great-great-grandmother and grandfather had come over on a boat from Poland, their eyes lit right up!  :)  It was cool.

And here are the trees!  Alexis' is on the left, and Ty's is on the right.