Emma's First Haircut

Getting started...

Snip, snip, snip...

Is she finished yet?

Emma decided to take a snip or two off her hair so I had to take her for her first official haircut. It was actually long overdue but I was afraid we would lose the curls. I was wrong! It's still curly and looks much better (except for the spot she cut...it'll grow back eventually:)

New Wheels

Hannah's new ride...a big girl bike with gears!

Brock's new ride...the Rockit...now known in our home as the BROCKit!

I didn't plan it but notice how Brock is playing basketball behind Hannah and Hannah is playing basketball behind Brock. We are happy to be outside in warm weather again!

How God Uses Glue

As the twins are getting ready for bed...

Emma: Mommy, how does God make people?

Mommy: I don't know, Emma. What do you think?

Emma: I tink he pours in da middle den puts the wid on top. (translation: I think He pours in the middle then puts the lid on top.)

Mommy: The lid? What's the lid?

Emma: Oh, our heads.

Mommy: Oh, I see. Well, how does He get our heads to stay on?

Emma: (thinking briefly, then getting big eyes) He uses glue!

Mommy: Interesting. Where does He put the glue?

Emma: (pointing between her eyes) Right der! (Right there!)

Mommy: That sounds like a lot of work.

Emma: It's alright. God can do it.

Guess we'll need to work on her theology as she gets older. :)

Have an awesome SONday!

Impress

Impress: to affect especially forcibly or deeply : gain the admiration or interest of ; to implant firmly in the mind or fix in the memory

To set the scene...I was standing at the kitchen sink preparing lunch. All 4 children were sitting at the table patiently waiting for lunch. Dad's location was unknown.

Brock: Mommy, what does impress mean?

Mommy: It means to make someone think you're really good at something. Like if you wanted to impress someone with your piano playing, you would play a song you know really well for them. Or if you wanted to impress someone with your handwriting, you would write the best you know how. Or if Mommy wanted to impress someone with her cooking,

Dad from the other side of the house: SHE WOULD GET DAD TO COOK!

Brock: Oh, I see. Now I get it.

And that was our vocabulary lesson for lunch.

Happy Easter!

We went to the Resurrection Egg Hunt at church Saturday morning. They all came home with way too much candy! For the older kids a few of the eggs had a "Golden Ticket" that was redeemable for a prize. When we got home, Brock said, "Mommy, what's this yellow paper that was in my egg?" Brock had a Golden Ticket! :) Our children's pastor graciously allowed Brock to claim his prize at Sunday School this morning.

We made Resurrection Cookies Saturday evening just before bedtime. Here's the oven...fingerprints and all... after the kids "sealed" it (i.e. taped it shut). That represented the tomb after Jesus' body was buried.

Sunday morning "the tomb" was open! Our cookies (on the good pan) were hollow.

Easter hugs to everyone!

Brock took this photo...we didn't have a tripod to get us all in one photo and there were no neighbors outside to take one for us.

HAPPY EASTER!! WE ARE THANKFUL THAT JESUS IS ALIVE!!

Grammy's Birthday Party

Grammy's birthday "party"

Grammy's birthday cake

Helping Grammy blow out the candles

While Grammy was here we celebrated her birthday which was actually 3 days before she arrived. We had her a cake ready for after dinner. It didn't last long but sure was good while it lasted!

The next day Grammy went to watch Brock and Hannah play soccer. That was her first time to see them play. They both had fun with Grammy there.

Making Tyropitakia: Cheese Pie Triangles

Concentrating on Mom's instructions...and hurrying before te phyllo dough sheets dried out!

The cheese mixture that went inside the phyllo dough sheets.

Getting ready to roll them into triangles.

Mom got really fast at rolling the triangles!

Ready for the oven.

Our contribution to the Greek foods feast.

We spent most of last Thursday afternoon making cheese triangles for our Unit Celebration that evening. The recipe wasn't the easiest I had ever seen but I thought we could handle it. I had never worked with phyllo dough sheets so it was definitely a learning experience.

We made half of the recipe without the parsley and half with it. As expected our kids liked the ones withOUT the parsley but I was glad they even tried it.

The kids (especially Hannah) had fun cooking and it was a fun way to end of study of Ancient Greece.

Out of Ancient Greece

The kids had their Unit 3 Celebration last Thursday evening for our homeschool co-op. After several weeks studying Ancient Greece, we're moving on to Rome now. They displayed all the crafts they had made for the past 8 or 9 weeks. They also chose one and told about it in front of the other kids and all the parents. (think...Sunday School room at church with 40 or so sets of eyes looking at you) Hannah was first and didn't know what to say or do. (She now knows that Mommy is a smart mommy when she says, "Hannah, let's practice before you are in front of people". She did have to learn it the hard way though.) All the others learned from her and did a great job. Brock said it just like we had practiced (notice the word PRACTICED) and didn't have a nervous breakdown doing it.

We also sampled Greek dishes that everyone brought. We made Cheese Triangles as our contribution. More on that at a later post...

The twins displayed their Bible Storybooks they have been making this year. We are not moving as quickly through the pages of history in the pre-school class so we've just finished learning about David and Goliath.

Everyone moved down the hall to our church's Children's Theatre for the oldest group of kids to perform a Greek play. They did an outstanding job and it was a real learning experience for the younger ones. It took me back to 8th grade English with Miss Redding...

Socially speaking it was an evening of coordinating outfits with friends for Hannah. Such fun memories!

We were back home a little after 9pm and all crawled in bed with visions of airplanes dancing in our heads...Grammy was coming the next day!

The Texas Quiz

Thank you for participating, your score is 50%!

Congratulations, you nudged above 33%. This shows you have interest in those thing immediately important to you, but are a little indifferent about periphery issues.

The new & improved Texas Trivia
Take More Quizzes

Okay, for all you Texans...see how much you really know about the Lone Star State! Take the test for yourself.

The Texas Quiz

It's hard to believe I've been away for 8 years now. As much as I enjoy all the new things to learn, see and do here in the East, there's still nothing like Texas History.

Thanks to my brother, Shawn, for sharing the quiz. (BTW, his score was the same as mine.)

Esther and the Feast of Purim

Queen Esther and Haman

You've gotta' love the beard! :)

A couple of weeks ago we read the book of Esther. At co-op H and B learned about the Feast of Purim. H is dressed as Queen Esther. B is dressed as Haman. They made "noise makers" so that they could make noise every time Haman's name was mentioned in the reading of the story. They also made hamantaschen with apricot preserves in the middle. It was a fun week of learning for all of us.

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day a day late this year. We had a fun time at our co-op party eating lots of sweet treats and exchanging valentines. (Oh yeh, we actually learned some today too.)

The moms and kids prepared some yummy treats! (Those are our sugar cookies that Hannah put the ring of HOMEMADE icing around the edge.)

Most the moms and kids.

Corinne and Emma took in all the excitement of their first Valentine party.

Look at us, Aunt Heather! We like our heart outfits. Thanks for sending them for our birthday.

Hannah and Brock's class looking at all their valentines.

Still in the Ancient World

We're halfway through Unit 3 with our co-op and I realized that I never posted any photos from Unit 2. We didn't have a Unit Celebration due to the holidays. However, the kids made lots of fun crafts and projects during the unit. Here are some photos to show you what they did.

Hannah is dressed in her warrior costume and Greek sandals. (She wasn't a happy camper while taking these photos. She's typically smiling:)

An upclose look at Hannah's projects...Chinese flag, soldier for Trojan horse, Mayan mask (Mom placed upside down by mistake for photo), harp and tambourine, Greek sandal, kite, weaving, and tile (see the "H"?)

Brock wearing his warrior costume and Greek sandals

An upclose look at Brock's projects...weaving, Mayan mask (upside down again), Greek sandals, tambourine, tile (see the "B"?), kite, soldier for Trojan horse and Chinese flag

We're having a wonderful time this year in co-op using our Tapestry of Grace curriculum. Hannah and Brock are in the same class and they have two wonderful teachers. The kids are learning so much! I'll try to do better of posting photos with their projects each week.

Our Fish Story

It all started in December when Aunt Debbie emailed and told us to pick some books off her website for the kids Christmas gifts. Two books they chose were about dogs and cats. I (Mom) did not pay attention to the exact content of the books. What could be so bad about books about dogs and cats?

Fast forward to the middle of January when the books arrived. The box was opened. All the books were removed and the kids started reading. Well, the dog book was about how to care for your pet dog. The cat book was about how to care for your pet cat. Once reading both books cover to cover, Hannah started asking for a pet dog. (Cats are out of the question. Allergies!) Now this is coming from a girl who has been known to scream when a dog is within 50 feet of her. The answer was a simple and "don't argue with me" NO!

Well, a few evenings later Dad was putting everyone to bed. While talking to Hannah at her bedside about her basketball game the next day, a deal was made. If Hannah scored 4 goals at her game, we would go IMMEDIATELY after the game to get her a goldfish. (In all the other games, one goal was her record.)

Yep, you guessed it! Not only did she score 4 goals, but she did it in the first half! Her fourth goal went in as the buzzer sounded for half-time.

After the game off we went to find a goldfish. Seeing that we didn't want to make a huge investment in an aquarium setup, we compromised with a Beta Fish (aka Japanese Fighter Fish). So meet the newest addition to our family...Goalie!

Catching up...and the twins are 3 now

Okay, I'm wwwwaaaaayyyyyyy behind with the events of our family so I'll catch up with photos.

Hannah is having a great time playing Upwards basketball.

Emma's 3 year old breakfast...coffee cake!

Corinne's 3 year old breakfast...coffee cake!

Our knight guarding Freeland castle.

Emma making door hangers with her princess friends.

Corinne making door hangers with her princess (and one prince) friends.

Opening all our gifts.

Hannah and Genevieve watching the opening of gifts.

Princesses Corinne and Emma

Corinne's royal dining table

Emma's royal dining table

Emma preparing to blow out her candle. Big breath and BLOW!

Yummy, yummy cake!

Corinne with her cake.

Oh yeh, this is good!

So if you haven't figured it out by now, the twins had a Princess Party this year. They had a good time.

There's lots more news but I have to get the photos uploaded so I'll stop for now. Check back soon for our "fish story".