Mother-daughter Book Club

Our internet has been out a lot of the last week.  Out on Sat.  Fixed on Monday afternoon.  Out again on Wed and then fixed again on Thur afternoon.  We've missed having it - and then a part of me thinks it is a nice break.  

Wanted to share about a couple of our book clubs.  We read Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise McGraw in November.  This has been my daughter's favorite book club book.  (Thanks Joe for the recommendation!)  I too found it to be a very interesting piece of historical fiction set in (no surprise) ancient Egypt.  

After discussing the book, we always enjoy yummy treats.  Just had to share a picture of these delicious cookies with caramel inside that warmed and became gooey when placed over a hot drink.  Yum!

When we hosted in December, we selected Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis.  Its a series of books written about Christian teens - some of whom are dragons.  It was an engaging story and is part of a series of (I think) eight books.  Rebecca has read all of them and is helping a friend to make a movie about the story.

We had fun coming up with the snack for this one!  Dragon claws aka rice krispy treats.

Dragons eggs - female (chocolate!)

Dragon scales (chips) and fresh leaf dip (spinach dip).

Toothpicks for the fruit served double duty as "sword practice".  And did you note the other dragon eggs?  The male ones?  They are meatballs.  LOL

Our January book title was The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez.  This is a story about "Operation Pedro Pan" which happened during Castro's takeover of Cuba.  This historical fiction takes place through the eyes of a young girl who watches the changes in her country.  She and her brother are then sent to the US and she wonders if things will ever be the same again.

We had delicious Cuban food!  Flan with a decorative red umbrella was such a fun touch!

Our February title was King Alfred's English:  A History of the Language We Speak and Why We Should be Glad We Do by Laurie White.  A fascinating book on the history of England and the way history affected the language we speak!  So many interesting things to learn such as why we spell "knife" with a K and why "A" is an "uppercase" letter and much, much more!  A really fun look at history!

 We enjoyed delicious homemade scones, tea and quiches.  A fun ending to our night!

This is really an enjoyable time.  We meet just once a month.  I have mentioned doing this to one of my boys and he is also very interested in starting up a club for boys.  Or maybe boys and girls since it would be a younger group?  I would love to hear from any of you that have done this.

Happy Reading!

Leslie

Krispy Kreme Run - and an overall fun week-end!

We had a wonderful week-end though I didn't get pictures of all of it.   Saturday morning was a busy one.  Roger and Christopher were running in the Krispy Kreme race.  Friends met at our house and we headed for the race.  (Rebecca didn't go in case you wonder why she isn't in the pictures as she had guitar lessons.)

This is Christopher's 3rd time running it and Roger's 2nd.  My boys have been very excited to go to this race ... since last year!  The weather was SO much better this year.  No rain (that came later in the day) and not too cold either.  For those new to this race, here is what happens.

Run 2.5 miles.
Eat 1 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts
Run 2.5 miles

We arrived in the mass of people and walked to the spot we met last year and thankfully found them.

 Christopher's friend Jameson, roommate Joe, Roger's co-worker Ray, Roger and Christopher.

 They worked through their boxes of doughnuts all going at varying speeds.

 We hung around, talked and watched the others at the race.  It is really a great place to people watch.

 Just had to say that Joe was amazing!  He downed those dozen doughnuts with a smile on his face.  We were stunned at how quickly he went through them and didn't seem fazed at all by eating them!  As my boys said ... "Joe is a beast".  (Had to share this with you Janey!)

 My boys loved talking to people while they were eating.  I had to call one back as I could see the runner (who won't be named) was getting ready to be sick.  My son later told me that he knew that, but wanted to see him throw up.  ???  What?

 Roger with friends Lindsay and Heath from our Bible study.

 My favorite part of the race is the costumes.  I wish I could have gotten more or better pictures of them, but here are a few for you to enjoy.

Gotta love the tricks for eating the doughnuts.  Smashing a stack of them together so that you have a giant flat group of 4 for example.  Not really sure how drenching them with water helped, but then again I'm not eating a dozen either!

 And then wringing them out.

 As you can imagine, this creates a giant mess!  Can you see the stack of empty boxes?  The runners that are "challengers" must take their empty box to present to show that they have eaten them all.  You can be a casual runner in the race and not eat all of them.

 As you might imagine, there were a few doughnuts left over at the end of the race.

This was the moment my boys had been waiting for.  Dreaming about.  Planning since last year!  LOL

 As I went to get the van and bring it closer, I heard rumors that even more were collected.  We came home with a LOT of doughnuts.

Thankfully the boys were persuaded to give a lot of them away!

There are the pictures of our week-end.  But I'll share just a bit more that went on.  Christopher and his girlfriend Taylor came over for lunch and ended up staying through dinner.  It was wonderful to meet her and we all enjoyed hanging out with her and playing games.  We hope to see her again soon!  :-)

On Sunday, Christopher, Joe and Jameson came over to watch the Super Bowl along with our friends the Troedssons.  It was a fun evening of food - lots of it, laughter and games (both football by the guys and Catchphrase for the girls).

I'm thankful for time to spend with friends and family.  This week-end was just a sweet time.  I'm blessed and grateful for the many blessings in my life.  Thank you God!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op - George Washington Carver #1

We had the best week-end - and I'll post more on that tomorrow.  It was filled with laughter, games, joy and just so much fun!  I look forward to sharing.  Since I need to upload some pictures - and also get some sleep, I'm going to share some pictures that are already on the computer.  :-)

New semester and a new book to go along with our Beyond Five in a Row studies.  For the first half of the semester, we will be studying George Washington Carver.  So many interesting topics to explore in the first four chapters of the book including a brief look at the Civil War.

 A discussion on the history of African-American choirs was very interesting, especially the personal family stories that were shared.

 Listening to - and trying to sing - "Lift Every Voice and Sing".

 Some of the books used as a reference for our studies.

 Doesn't this spread look delicious!  You can tell that our hostess has the gift of hospitality, can't you?!  Sweet potato chips, popcorn, edamame, crackers with peanut butter and the food right out of the book ... "corn dodgers".  Have you ever heard of these?  It was a food that GWC ate when he was a young boy traveling from one town to a another.  You start with cornbread.

 Then split it open to put in a piece of bacon or sausage.  These were yummy and well-received!

 Next was a botany lesson.  Lots of information to be digested!

 Learning about the parts of a cell.

 Comparing monocots and dicots.  Looking at a peanut to see if you could tell which category it falls into.

 Next learning about the parts of a flower.

 And then dissecting the flower into its individual parts.

 A form that can be used for placing each part of the flower as you disect it.

 We also learned about photosynthesis and how it works.

 To help illustrate the concept, the children each received an item that could be used to demonstrate one part of the process.  They had to figure out what each item represented and then get in order to show the process of photosynthesis.  Here is a song explaining  the process.

 The last component of the day was an art project.   Yes, this was a very full morning of learning!  George Washington Carver painted on rocks and other things he found in nature using paints he made from things found in nature.  The kids had the opportunity to paint rocks or pieces of wood with whatever they would like.  Some chose to paint flowers or other things from nature like George did.

 And others chose to paint things from Batman.  *grin*

 As always, I love seeing the creativity and the uniqueness of each project.

 This beautiful piece was made by adding paint to model magic.  She then formed the model magic into the flower and the hummingbird!  I love it!

As always, we spent a delightful morning learning, playing, laughing and creating with our friends!

Blessings
Leslie