And here is the 2nd half of January

Other than some posts on co-ops that I will do separately, this will about wrap up January.  :D  And the big post on college decisions!

Here is a peek into the second half of our January.  We met for book club and discussed The Amateur Cracksman.  It is a story about a "gentleman thief".

 And look at the spread we enjoyed after our talk!!!

 Rebecca is still talking about the yummy sandwiches!  It was a delightful evening with friends.

 We also enjoyed having Christopher and some of his friends over on MLK, Jr Day.  They came for lunch and it was great having them here!  Such a fabulous group of friends!

 Our whole family really loves spending time with them and are thankful that they are close enough - and willing - to come over.

 It was a gorgeous day and we spent time playing outside after eating.

It always warms my mama's heart to see people enjoying Eliana.

Look at the delight on her face!  (She often prays for these two friends too!)

This is a fun game that Christopher got for Christmas - Poleish.  The object is to knock the bottle off of the pole with a frisbee.  

You play in pairs.  Each takes turns trying to knock off the pole while the other team tries to catch the bottle and the frisbee.  Its a lot of fun.

And Ultimate.  Fun for all ages.  Two teams and each tries to get the frisbee to their side/driveway.

And then the weather changed.  Just like that.  We hardly EVER get any snow, but finally we did.  And we enjoyed it greatly!!!

 It wasn't much (the first time), but it was enough to sled and play on.

 Eliana just loved sledding.  And yes, she is holding a fly swatter.  Not one that is used for anything other than her toy.  LOL

 Not quite enough snow left for snowboarding.

 Fun Daddy!

 A race sounds like fun, right?

Love seeing the teens having a great time out in the snow!

 This was a fun day for everyone!

Sadly, it melted to quickly.  Little did we know that there was more coming!

 We enjoyed a trip to Defy Gravity.  This is a fabulous indoor trampoline site nearby.  My whole family loves it!    There are trampolines to jump on.

A foam pit to jump into.

An area to play dodge ball is also fun.

 And its great exercise too.

 Just thought I'd share a funny photo.  If any of you remember some of my cooking posts from last year, here is another one of boys in the kitchen.  I had the crockpot on and cooking dinner.  One of the boys decided to make something on the burner in front of the crockpot.  Yes, the big burner.  I was in another room and then smelled an awful smell - burning plastic!

I asked what the smell was and was told that a noodle had hit the burner.  I assured them that this was not a food smell and went into the kitchen.  To my surprise, one of the boys was cooking on this burner and did not notice the melted knob or smell and another was standing beside him cooking on a different burner.  LOL

So, I'm in the market for a new crockpot and hope to make a decision on one soon.  I really miss mine!

We also started back with our co-op.  Last semester was Shakespeare and this semester is Robin Hood!  We had planned to do 2 books this semester (similar to our Beyond FIAR co-op days), but we have missed 2 of our co-ops due to snow/ice so we instead are going to spend the entire semester going leisurely through this book instead.  I think its a great idea and am looking forward to enjoying this book and the many fabulous topics in it!

We started out talking about the history of the time period in which this story takes place and also the legends surrounding Robin Hood.  (And watched a great video about this.)  We also learned about Maid Marion who is not in the original story at all!

We also learned about different types of measurements that were used in the middle ages.  The students learned terms that were used for measurements in that time period as well as what the "standards" were for each measurement.  

We found that there could be great variance depending on who was being measured.  

 Going outside for some larger measurements.

 And having some fun seeing how far they could pull a "load" the same distance that was measured for horses (I think).  They had a blast doing this!

 They took turns piling on and also pulling.  Lots of laughs here.

 We also watched a neat video on outlaws of this time period.  This is a part of a series if you want to see more.  And as has become custom, we ended the day with an amazing spread for lunch.  YUM!  Always a treat to come to this co-op and I always learn something fun and new.

This year is off to a great start.  Some of our plans have gone awry and there have been surprises too.  In the midst of it all, I am reminded that none of this surprises God and He is in control.  He is good.

Blessings to you!

Leslie

Random January happenings for the first half of the month

Well, I took a month off without really meaning too.  Life has just been busy.  I'll see what I can catch up on this week and hopefully get a bit caught up.  We'll see.  This post was already written - and not posted.  I need to post college news.  

Here is the first half of January. 

We started the year with a traditional meal - collards, country ham and hoppin' john.  YUM!

Sweet picture of Eliana with one of her friends.  They had a play date and it was fun for me to see her enjoying playing WITH her friend.

Love seeing my children enjoying each other.  (Not that they don't also bicker, but I don't take pictures of those moments.)  The younger boys really love the opportunity to have time with Christopher.

Its a little dark, but a sweet picture nonetheless.  :)

Our first field trip of the year was to Marbles/Imax.  Marbles is a fabulous children's museum in Raleigh.  So many great things to enjoy there!

They have themed areas throughout the museum so that you can imagine and delight in a number of things.

The younger children went to Marbles while the older ones had a lab and saw an Imax movie on the Artic experience.  The younger children learned about 3 celebrations in different countries.  They talked about the food, the costumes, the music and the fun associated with each of them.

It was hands-on which made it a lot of fun.

The dragon for the Chinese New Year involved a lot of the children!  Daniel is holding the head of the dragon!

After the class, we just explored on our own.  We enjoyed all of this, but its really hard to stay with your friends during this type of outing.

The pizza parlor is one of my favorite spots.  Love those two cute cooks too!

Daniel likes collecting money.

Vehicles to drive and more.

We ended up leaving earlier than I had planned because Eliana told me she wanted to go home.  She seemed tired and I was afraid that perhaps she might be coming down with something.  (She wasn't.)  Thankfully, a friend offered to let  Daniel stay with them so he could enjoy Marbles to the fullest!

Some of the older students after going to the Imax movie.

 The kids had a lot of fun picking out gifts for their Daddy to celebrate his birthday.  :)

 For the record, I did not put all of those candles on his cake.

This is a picture of my gift to Roger.  I like how it turned out and its fun to have more pictures up on the wall of my favorite people.  :-)  

In order to finish the gift, I took a lot of photos trying to get a good one of each person.  Some were done at night - in a street light - and still turned out great.  And a bonus one of my girls.  Love it!

I also love seeing Eliana with a camera.  She also loves to take pictures.  She often gets good ones too because most people will smile for her and not try to hide or look away.  She has been taking pictures for several years now.  I often find her shots on my camera even when I don't know that she has been taking them.  LOL  She has always liked taking pictures of herself too.  

I can't believe its March already!  The time is going too quickly.  Will try to post more soon on some of our co-op happenings, field trips, a snow day and college news!

Blessings
Leslie

Field Trip to Cirque de Vol

We went on a fabulous field trip to a local Cirque de Vol to learn more about the arts of a traditional cirque theatre.  You can find out more about them here.  It was more than just watching them perform though.  They also told us their stories which made the time really special.  

Like this man who finished high school but didn't really know what he wanted to do.  He spent several years traveling around the country and eventually becoming a part of a circus group.  He became good at juggling and was fascinated by juggling as it is all math.  He is now working on a PhD in some field of math that was really impressive - but I don't remember exactly what it was.  (Clearly not my field, right!)  

We were able to see a variety of performers who each shared their skills, told their story of how they came to be involved in this art and also took questions from the group.  They did this performance just for our group!  

The aerial silks are fascinating!

We saw a hooping demonstration too.  This is similar to a hula hoop but of a heavier weigh so that they can do much more with it.

Another story we heard was from this gal who was in a prestigious business position which she left to do something she loves.  She also shared that this jobs gives her the flexibility to help care for a loved one that she would not have had with a traditional job.

My little sassy one loved the poses that were struck when the performers were on the silks.  One of my friends caught this pose.

More hooping.  She was able to twirl this hoop around the bun on her head!  Truly amazing skills these performers have!

Here are 4 of the performers that we saw.

And a picture of our group at the end of the show.

If anyone is local, this group offers a lot of classes for both adults and children.

We loved this morning outing where we were able to experience an old world, European circus type of performance.  What a treat that there are so many great things to do in our area!

I hope you are enjoying your week!

Blessings
Leslie

Before FIAR co-op: Goodnight Moon

This is a catch-up post, but its still really appropriate for any time of the year, right?  Our co-op group met to have fun with the classic children's book Goodnight Moon.  What a delight to walk into a room remade ... into the "great green room".  Look at the pictures on the wall.

 And the red balloon!

 So many fun details from the story captured in the decorations!  It was so much fun.

 We started with a devotional and reading of the story.  Then it was time for some games.  One of the first ones involved a big pile of mittens and gloves.  Each child took a turn looking through the pile to find a matching pair.

 My youngest silly one found a pair of mittens and then put them on ... her feet!  LOL

One of the pictures on the wall is of a cow jumping over the moon.  We took time to read the entire poem that this came from and then had the children act out some of the fun parts of the rhyme - like the cow jumping over the moon.  

We also played a memory game using pictures from the story.

The children all do a wonderful job waiting and taking turns.  Some of them were really good at remembering where the cards were too!

Then it was snack time.  Yum!

The "moon cheese" were the round balls (you can see them on the table below).

 The "mush" was rice pudding.

 Next, they learned more about the moon.  Daniel came with me this day and was a great helper.  Below they are talking about the different phases/shapes of the moon and what causes this.

 For craft time, they made their own moons.  They could cut the round plate into any of the moon shapes/phases that they wanted and glue it on the paper.  Then they painted it with glow in the dark paint!!!  Isn't that a fabulous idea!!!

 They also added stars to their pictures.  They turned out really cute!

 Our sweet hostess invited us all to stay for a delicious lunch and play time which was fun for everyone!

This is such a fun group and a precious group of moms and children.  I'm thankful to be a part of it and my heart is happy to see Eliana participating with them too!

Our next co-op will be on the ABC Bunny and I'll post more on that after we've met.  

Blessings,

Leslie