Clark has been saying and doing lots of fun things lately.
On Saturday morning when I was putting something in the van to leave on an errand Clark came outside and called to me from the front porch. "Mommy, you didn't give me a hug and a kiss." I said wait right there and I'll give you one in a minute. When I started back towards him to give him his hug and kiss he took off running back into the house with a silly grin. I finally caught up to him in the living room and delivered my hugs and kisses to my giggling boy.
March 7th:
I brought our airplane activity box downstairs. I had put some foam airplanes in it that Jeff had gotten at the store and played with a few times. Clark was so excited about the "new" airplanes in his box that he almost couldn't get the box open.
February 28th:
I'm in the kitchen and Clark comes in from the backyard. Standing by the door he says, "Look at this, Mommy." I look up and he is looking at something in his hand. I asked, "What do you have Clarky" He replied, "A bu-ug." I said, "Oh! You should take it back outside. Bugs don't come in the house."
February 27th:
Clark came in from the backyard and shoved some dandelions in my face. "Here's flowers for you Mommy." As soon as a took them he ran back out the door. He's so sweet.
A Bonus from Felicity on February 17th:
We couldn't find Felicity's backpack. I told her again to go look for and find her backpack. She goes in the living room and I hear her say, "It's behind Mommy's blue chair." I said, "Well, go get it and put it away." She says, "It's heavy." I say, "What's in it." Lissie says, "Nothing." Then she walks around the corning carrying her "heavy" backpack. Her hand was empty. She says, "It's invisible."
I did finally find it in the van. The older child who was sent to look for it didn't look very well.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
A Day at the Races
This entry to my blog is written by Jeff (my wonderful husband).
This past Saturday we ran our Shape-N-Race event (aka pinewood derby) for the Christian Service Brigade at Denton Bible Church. In CSB Shape-N-Race, we have 7 divisions, with three award categories and one overall trophy for each division. Each division represents one of the age groups in Brigade plus one for the sisters of the boys and one for the dads. The divisions are Tadpoles (pre-K - K), Treeclimbers (1st - 2nd), Builders (3rd - 4th), Sentinels (5th - 6th), Battalion (7th and up), Powder Puff (girls division), and Open Class (Dads and other family members). The award categories include design, craftsmanship, and speed. Design ranks cars based on the overall concept, looking for uniqueness and ingenuity. Craftsmanship grades the car on how thoroughly the design is executed, looking for good construction, fit, and finish. Speed is determined by the track. Our family entrants to the race had a very successful run Saturday with trophy finishes in all three divisions entered.
First we had Kent in the Builders division, who raced an orange and blue car dubbed 'the Bronco. His car took second place in the design category, first in the craftsmanship category, and first in speed. I should point out that the design was entirely thought up, sketched, and marked by Kent. I did the cutting, as I am not yet comfortable with him using the power tools. He sanded, painted, polished everything, and I helped him install the axles, since it is a bit tricky to get them set straight. At check in, he decided he wanted to add some more graphite to his wheels so I showed him how, and went about other things. He added graphite on his own and checked his car in. I am telling you all of this just to say how proud I am that Kent put the effort in to producing a winning entry. Yeah the paint job was a bit sloppy, and the car could have been sanded more, but the car was at least 90% his work, and he won the overall trophy definitively. I had no expectations for that outcome and am still amazed.
The second surprise of the day was Felicity's entry. She just wanted a pink car, so I showed her some different designs and this was what she picked. Her class is allowed to weigh up to 32 ounces, but her car was around 8 ounces (if I remember correctly). She ended up first place in the design category, and first place in speed. Two blue ribbons were enough to win the trophy. Again, not the expected result...partly because she was competing against her sisters:
Katy is the resident artist in our household, so she came up with the idea of a duck car all on her own. She basically told me how she wanted to put it together, and I helped build it. She did all of the painting on her own including color choices. Her car ended up earning a third place ribbon for speed. I guess that duck had quite the doggy paddle skills, especially since it was the lightest car we entered.
I expected Kaomi's VW Van to be fastest, because it was the heaviest of the girls cars at just under one pound. It's obviously not only about weight, because her car wasn't the fastest. She knew right from the start what she wanted to make, and we did have fun shaping and painting the car together. She did get a third place ribbon for craftsmanship and she also placed fourth in speed, but there’s no ribbon for that.
Clarky had a football car. I suggested the idea, but since it was football season at the time, he really liked the idea at the time. Since I was working with poplar hardwood, it was fairly challenging to make the football shape. I had to borrow a belt sander from my dad in order to get it done. Clark helped with some of the painting and Su did the rest. It turned out well enough to earn Clark second place ribbons for both design and craftsmanship.
Lastly, I had been thinking of making a replica of our family van for an entry into the open class race for myself. A few weeks ago, I found myself basically finished with all the other cars and I had a really nice Texas Saturday with temperatures in the upper 60s. Since I didn’t need to work on the other cars, i decided to rough out my van concept. I had it done and even detail shaping done that afternoon, so i was even able to finish the van in the next couple weeks before the race. I carefully painted it to match the full size version as much as possible, and added weight to get it to 22 ounces. My van was awarded first place for craftsmanship. I have a friend that always enters a school bus in the race and every year, so my goal was to beat his bus. Unfortunately, his 32 ounce bus was still just fast enough to edge me out, so I ended up getting second place in speed. It was really close though, with the bus winning most heats by less than two-tenths of a second. My first and second place finishes were just enough to edge Clarky’s football out for the overall win and the trophy.
So, we entered a total of 6 cars, and we walked away with eleven ribbons, and three division trophies. Not ever going to be able to top this one!
This past Saturday we ran our Shape-N-Race event (aka pinewood derby) for the Christian Service Brigade at Denton Bible Church. In CSB Shape-N-Race, we have 7 divisions, with three award categories and one overall trophy for each division. Each division represents one of the age groups in Brigade plus one for the sisters of the boys and one for the dads. The divisions are Tadpoles (pre-K - K), Treeclimbers (1st - 2nd), Builders (3rd - 4th), Sentinels (5th - 6th), Battalion (7th and up), Powder Puff (girls division), and Open Class (Dads and other family members). The award categories include design, craftsmanship, and speed. Design ranks cars based on the overall concept, looking for uniqueness and ingenuity. Craftsmanship grades the car on how thoroughly the design is executed, looking for good construction, fit, and finish. Speed is determined by the track. Our family entrants to the race had a very successful run Saturday with trophy finishes in all three divisions entered.
First we had Kent in the Builders division, who raced an orange and blue car dubbed 'the Bronco. His car took second place in the design category, first in the craftsmanship category, and first in speed. I should point out that the design was entirely thought up, sketched, and marked by Kent. I did the cutting, as I am not yet comfortable with him using the power tools. He sanded, painted, polished everything, and I helped him install the axles, since it is a bit tricky to get them set straight. At check in, he decided he wanted to add some more graphite to his wheels so I showed him how, and went about other things. He added graphite on his own and checked his car in. I am telling you all of this just to say how proud I am that Kent put the effort in to producing a winning entry. Yeah the paint job was a bit sloppy, and the car could have been sanded more, but the car was at least 90% his work, and he won the overall trophy definitively. I had no expectations for that outcome and am still amazed.
The second surprise of the day was Felicity's entry. She just wanted a pink car, so I showed her some different designs and this was what she picked. Her class is allowed to weigh up to 32 ounces, but her car was around 8 ounces (if I remember correctly). She ended up first place in the design category, and first place in speed. Two blue ribbons were enough to win the trophy. Again, not the expected result...partly because she was competing against her sisters:
Katy is the resident artist in our household, so she came up with the idea of a duck car all on her own. She basically told me how she wanted to put it together, and I helped build it. She did all of the painting on her own including color choices. Her car ended up earning a third place ribbon for speed. I guess that duck had quite the doggy paddle skills, especially since it was the lightest car we entered.
I expected Kaomi's VW Van to be fastest, because it was the heaviest of the girls cars at just under one pound. It's obviously not only about weight, because her car wasn't the fastest. She knew right from the start what she wanted to make, and we did have fun shaping and painting the car together. She did get a third place ribbon for craftsmanship and she also placed fourth in speed, but there’s no ribbon for that.
Clarky had a football car. I suggested the idea, but since it was football season at the time, he really liked the idea at the time. Since I was working with poplar hardwood, it was fairly challenging to make the football shape. I had to borrow a belt sander from my dad in order to get it done. Clark helped with some of the painting and Su did the rest. It turned out well enough to earn Clark second place ribbons for both design and craftsmanship.
Lastly, I had been thinking of making a replica of our family van for an entry into the open class race for myself. A few weeks ago, I found myself basically finished with all the other cars and I had a really nice Texas Saturday with temperatures in the upper 60s. Since I didn’t need to work on the other cars, i decided to rough out my van concept. I had it done and even detail shaping done that afternoon, so i was even able to finish the van in the next couple weeks before the race. I carefully painted it to match the full size version as much as possible, and added weight to get it to 22 ounces. My van was awarded first place for craftsmanship. I have a friend that always enters a school bus in the race and every year, so my goal was to beat his bus. Unfortunately, his 32 ounce bus was still just fast enough to edge me out, so I ended up getting second place in speed. It was really close though, with the bus winning most heats by less than two-tenths of a second. My first and second place finishes were just enough to edge Clarky’s football out for the overall win and the trophy.
So, we entered a total of 6 cars, and we walked away with eleven ribbons, and three division trophies. Not ever going to be able to top this one!
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Review of K5 Learning
Over the last 6 weeks Katy and Kaomi have been using K5 Learning as a supplement to their homeschool days. They were excited to have a free trial for this program and to get to have some computer time for school.
They began by taking a placement assessment that would put them into the program at their own levels. I found this valuable to make sure they were working toward their full potential in the program and not working on something that was too easy for them.
They enjoyed getting to use something different to help them learn and they looked forward to their computer time each day throughout the last several weeks. They enjoyed working through the math and reading lessons at their own pace and I liked being able to keep tabs on how much they were doing.
I liked that I could choose a lesson for them to take that corresponded with something we were learning and give it to them as an assignment that they would complete.
I found that I could put Kaomi's spelling words into the spelling program and she could work on practicing them on my computer. Even though she enjoyed practicing her words on the computer it did not improve her spelling test scores. We still had to have plenty of time practicing writing the words on her own for practice.
They both enjoyed practicing math facts and playing the math games on their own time as well.
I liked that I could look at reports to see what lessons they had taken and the progress they were making from where they began to where they finished at the end of their six week free trial.
You can sign up for a free trial here or check out some sample lessons here.
The girls enjoyed trying out K5 Learning, but I didn't really see what they were learning online follow through in their classwork. Maybe I would see that more if they used the program for a longer time.
K5 Learning isn't something we will subscribe to as the cost is more than we would spend on something like this for our homeschooling family. I see where the subscription cost might be fair to someone who wants to supplement their child's learning in a way that the parent can monitor what is being learned.
*The only thing about the teaching on the program that I didn't care for was the strategy for reading tricky words that was being taught. It said to look at the first or last sound of the word and use the context of the rest of the words to guess what the word might be. All the words that I saw used in the lessons about this were words that have phonics rules (e.i. cloud) and if the child is being taught phonics they wouldn't have any trouble reading them.
**K5 Learning provided us with a 6 week free trial of this program for an honest review on my blog. If you sign up through one of the links here you will be supporting my blog financially.
They began by taking a placement assessment that would put them into the program at their own levels. I found this valuable to make sure they were working toward their full potential in the program and not working on something that was too easy for them.
They enjoyed getting to use something different to help them learn and they looked forward to their computer time each day throughout the last several weeks. They enjoyed working through the math and reading lessons at their own pace and I liked being able to keep tabs on how much they were doing.
I liked that I could choose a lesson for them to take that corresponded with something we were learning and give it to them as an assignment that they would complete.
I found that I could put Kaomi's spelling words into the spelling program and she could work on practicing them on my computer. Even though she enjoyed practicing her words on the computer it did not improve her spelling test scores. We still had to have plenty of time practicing writing the words on her own for practice.
They both enjoyed practicing math facts and playing the math games on their own time as well.
I liked that I could look at reports to see what lessons they had taken and the progress they were making from where they began to where they finished at the end of their six week free trial.
You can sign up for a free trial here or check out some sample lessons here.
The girls enjoyed trying out K5 Learning, but I didn't really see what they were learning online follow through in their classwork. Maybe I would see that more if they used the program for a longer time.
K5 Learning isn't something we will subscribe to as the cost is more than we would spend on something like this for our homeschooling family. I see where the subscription cost might be fair to someone who wants to supplement their child's learning in a way that the parent can monitor what is being learned.
*The only thing about the teaching on the program that I didn't care for was the strategy for reading tricky words that was being taught. It said to look at the first or last sound of the word and use the context of the rest of the words to guess what the word might be. All the words that I saw used in the lessons about this were words that have phonics rules (e.i. cloud) and if the child is being taught phonics they wouldn't have any trouble reading them.
**K5 Learning provided us with a 6 week free trial of this program for an honest review on my blog. If you sign up through one of the links here you will be supporting my blog financially.
Friday, February 28, 2014
An Evening with Lissie
Tonight Jeff took Kent, Katy, Kaomi, and Clark to check in the cars for the CSB race tomorrow. Lissie and Quinn got to stay home we me. Lissie was a little dissapointed to not get to go, but she was also excited to stay home and do something special with Mommy. First, we went for a short walk. As we were walking Felicity commented on how bright the stars were and then she shouted out, "I see O Lion's belt." She saw the constellation Orion's belt and was so excited. It is fun to see the things that she picked up from the older kids study of the constellations in science earlier this year. When we got home from our walk she got ready for bed and got to choose something to watch from Netflix. While I fed Quinn she watched "Clifford". When the tv was off it was almost time for bed, so we snuggled and I read her some library books that she wanted me to read to her. Then I tucked her into bed and made sure she had enough stuffed animals to keep her company since the older girls weren't there. I left her with the night light on and she was looking very sleepy.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Suanna's Birthday -2014
On my birthday, Katy and Kaomi made a special place setting for me and Katy gave me some bread for me to have toast.
I picked out a special outfit for Quinn.
Kent oversaw everyone playing with playdoh and cleaned up afterwards, while I talked to my dad on the phone.
Clark made a project for me, because he wasn't allowed to go upstairs.
Kent helped with Quinn.
I read stories to everyone and played Nertz with Kent, Katy, and Kaomi during quiet time. Then the older kids had quiet time, too. Jeff came home early from work to surprise me.
Katy found the idea for my octopus cake in a magazine at the doctor's office. She and Jeff banned me from the kitchen while they assembled it.
We all went for a walk around the neighborhood and Jeff surprised me by taking us all out to dinner at Miguelitos.
When we came home everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and then gave me presents that they had picked out with Jeff at the store and made by themselves.
Here is my octopus cupcake.
They made me feel special all day long.
Clark made a project for me, because he wasn't allowed to go upstairs.
Katy found the idea for my octopus cake in a magazine at the doctor's office. She and Jeff banned me from the kitchen while they assembled it.
We all went for a walk around the neighborhood and Jeff surprised me by taking us all out to dinner at Miguelitos.
When we came home everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and then gave me presents that they had picked out with Jeff at the store and made by themselves.
Here is my octopus cupcake.
God's Wonders: Snow and Water
Earlier this month, in less than 7 days we had real snowflakes big enough for Kent to catch with his tongue and hot sunny days warm enough to play outside with water.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
What's been going on? -Jan/Feb. 2014
These are some of the highlights of our school from the last month.
Candy Bar Math for Kaomi:
Working 100 piece puzzles:
An outing in the snow:
Adventures with static electricity:
New Pictures for my school art wall:
Linked with:
Candy Bar Math for Kaomi:
Quinn Sporting an outfit from Auntie Cat and practicing his standing skills:
Working 100 piece puzzles:
An outing in the snow:
Adventures with static electricity:
New Pictures for my school art wall:
Linked with:
Friday, February 14, 2014
Felicity's 4th Birthday
Felicity turned 4 yesterday.
Felicity had a pony theme for her 4th birthday. She had a pony cup and napkin at her place of honor. She had waffles with blueberry syrup for breakfast. The kids all worked on a craft where they colored and scene and then added My Little Pony stickers into it. For lunch we had grilled cheese and root beer. In the afternoon, Mr. Senseman came over to wish her a happy birthday and brought her a card and some cupcakes. The kids all gave him birthday pictures and when Jeff came home from work Felicity took a present over to him. It was his birthday, too. He turned 80. Then we went outside to play. They rode their ponies.
For dinner we had chicken nugets with srawberries and salad. I made Felicity's plate extra special.
Then Grammy and Riley (the dog) came over. We sang happy birthday and then she opened her presents.
Lissie's last present was to follow a trail of glow sticks. They led her upstairs to the girls room. When she saw some of her animals in their room she was a little upset, until we explained that she got to move upstairs and this was her new bed.
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| Special Place Setting |
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| Happy 4th birthday, Felicity! |
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| Felicity on her "new" bed in the girls room. |
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| Frozen Doll, Anna, from Grammy |
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| Felicity's 4th birthday cake. |
Monday, February 3, 2014
A Little Dissapointed about Football
The boys were all wearing orange and blue, the girls had orange hair bows and blue in their clothes and Jeff and I were even sporting the Broncos colors for the day yesterday. The excitement and anticipation was high as the favorite team of a couple people in our family have made it to the super bowl. Over the last week the kids, including Quinn, had been practicing saying, "Go Broncos." We even bought a Broncos super bowl balloon at the grocery store, and Quinn was afraid of it. We enjoyed getting together with some of Jeff's family for a party with plenty of orange and blue food. While we were disappointed at their loss last night, we will hope for another good year for favorite football teams next season.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Recipe Stash - Savory Sweet Potato Kugel
I've been bookmarking online recipes for a long time. Some of them I have tried, but many of them just sounded good and I have never tried them. This year one of my goals is to try at least one recipe from my bookmarked list each month.
Earlier this month I had two very large garnet yams in my pantry that I wanted to use. I found this recipe that I had bookmarked and we tried it.
Savory Sweet Potato Kugel : I used 2 very large garnet yams, 1 cup ground beef, 1/3 cup chopped onion, 1 cup corn, 2 eggs, and about 1 and 1/2 cups cheddar cheese. It completely filled my 9X13 pan. Click the recipe title to see the actual recipe.
It was good. Most of the kids liked it and Jeff even said he would eat it again if I served it. This is one recipe that will stay in my list, since we get a couple sweet potatoes a year and I like to serve them to my family members at least once, but several of them don't like plain sweet potatoes like I do. The Savory Sweet Potato Kugel leftovers were good reheated in a frying pan with some butter. I also saved the sweet potato water like the author of the recipe suggested and cooked rice with a few raisins for my breakfast the next day. It was very good and didn't need any sweetening.
Earlier this month I had two very large garnet yams in my pantry that I wanted to use. I found this recipe that I had bookmarked and we tried it.
Savory Sweet Potato Kugel : I used 2 very large garnet yams, 1 cup ground beef, 1/3 cup chopped onion, 1 cup corn, 2 eggs, and about 1 and 1/2 cups cheddar cheese. It completely filled my 9X13 pan. Click the recipe title to see the actual recipe.
It was good. Most of the kids liked it and Jeff even said he would eat it again if I served it. This is one recipe that will stay in my list, since we get a couple sweet potatoes a year and I like to serve them to my family members at least once, but several of them don't like plain sweet potatoes like I do. The Savory Sweet Potato Kugel leftovers were good reheated in a frying pan with some butter. I also saved the sweet potato water like the author of the recipe suggested and cooked rice with a few raisins for my breakfast the next day. It was very good and didn't need any sweetening.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Quinn's 1st Birthday
Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!
Can you believe it has been a whole year since Quinn was born?
Yesterday he had his usual breakfast of cheerios.
We went to church in the morning and Quinn took a nap in the afternoon, waking up in time to go outside and enjoy the warm weather. It was over 70 degrees and we wanted to make the most of the nice day before another cold front came through overnight. For supper Quinn had winter squash and crackers, while the rest of us had chicken nuggets and fresh tropical fruit salad.
After supper we sang happy birthday and ate cake. We had a choice of cupcakes or gluten free brownies with strawberries and whipped cream. The kids chose cupcakes and Jeff and I ate the brownies.
After we had cake and Quinn had a bath it was time for presents. Quinn wasn't interested. He wanted to play with a ball that he found on the floor instead, even though Jeff tried to entice him to check out his presents by rattling them and making them make noise.
He finally came over to check out his presents and he thought maybe they would taste good.
He was ready for bed by the time he finished getting his presents.
Can you believe it has been a whole year since Quinn was born?
Yesterday he had his usual breakfast of cheerios.
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| Happy 1st Birthday, Quinn! |
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| Fresh Tropical Fruit Salad |
After supper we sang happy birthday and ate cake. We had a choice of cupcakes or gluten free brownies with strawberries and whipped cream. The kids chose cupcakes and Jeff and I ate the brownies.
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| Quinn decided cake is good. |
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| I ate it all, Mom. |
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