Homemade Pretzels...

Lent 3-

Today DD pulled out "make homemade pretzels" for our Lent activity. The twisted shape suggests "arms crossed in prayer"...

I googled several recipes (I have never made pretzels before, but I love Auntie Anne's =)

So here is the one I went with. Laura , the blog owner, put step-by-step instructions in with pictures and they turned out great... I saved what we didn't eat in Food Saver bags and put them in the freezer... Laura said they freeze well and just need a little reheating in the oven... We will definitely save this recipe to use again...  

Betray...

Lent 2 -

Explain what "betray" means. We did this and discussed how we can be faithful to God but also to our family and friends on a daily basis...

We talked about Adam and Eve and how they betrayed God in the garden and how Judas was a betrayer...

It turned out to be a great bible lesson for us...

Alleluia...

Lent 1 -

Our first task was to discuss the meaning of Alleluia and to sing a song...

So we talked about it over breakfast before going to co-op and sang "If your happy and you know it" and replaced "Amen" with "Alleluia".... It worked out great...

 

Our time with Lent...

When I grew up, we didn't celebrate Lent (or alot of other hings either) but my husband and I decided a couple of years ago that we were going to do things differently than our parents had when it came to our faith and raising our children.

I got this great E-book from Currclick on Lent Activities for 2009.

I love it... It has so many great things... I just printed it out, read the Lent details to the kids and then cut the activities into strips and placed them in a glass bowl on our kitchen table... Then we will take one out each day and hopefully complete it.

You can find the e-book to download for FREE here...

 

Ash Wdenesday...

For Ash Wednesday, we sat down and did some reseach on the computer...

We discussed that for Christians, the marking on the forehead with ash marks the commitment to Jesus Christ and God. That they wanted to show God that they were sorry for the wrong things they had done in the past year.

There is a wonderful site that explains it for kids here.  

Shrove Tuesday...

We are participating in Lent this year and I found this great website about Shrove Tuesday... It explains all about it and made it easy to explain to the kids.. You can check it out here. 

To celebrate, we took the kids to IHOP for their "FREE" pancake day... We had a great time and what a way to kick start our celebration of Lent.

Parents Observation Day at Gymnastic class..

Today was the day that we got to watch the girls tumble and twirl...

They were so funny... They were all excited and did a great job... DH came by afer work and watched with us... DD was excited that he was able to come by...

They turned cartwheels, worked on their tumbling, practiced their new routine for their recital, did backbends, stretches, and had fun... Of course the girls bickered over who would go first and where they would be in line... Little girls are so much more emotional than little boys... I am amazed at the difference in personalities and abilities to play together...  

 Bridges and Back Bends!!!   Just an arch away...

BEST FRIENDS!!!

 

We are really blessed to have a facility so close to us and so reasonably priced... You can check it out here.

Valentines Day 2009

This year we decided to make our Valentines... We needed 60 for our co-op and then another 12 for our karate class, and then we decided to make Valentine's fo the kids in our group at church... So, all in all, we made 120 Valentines...

 

I took my Sizzix and the heart plates and cut out 240 different color hearts, then the kids wrote "TO A SWEETHEART" on each one of the big hearts and signed their names on the back... we then used the hole punch to make 2 holes in the big heart  and stuck a PIXIE STIX through it to make an arrow and then glued the little heart onthe end for the arrow tip... They turned out great, but turned out to be an all-day job...  =)

My DD's Birthday....

Yes, the princess had a birthday... She turned 6...

We celebrated together as a family this year instead of having a party... She got to help make her cake and iced it and put the sprinkles on all by herself...

She had her favorite meal and her daddy brought her flowers, which of course thrilled her...

I made some cupcakes to take and share with her friends at lunch at co-op... and then we went on the weekend to Chuckie Cheese and her and her brother played and had so much fun...

 

YUMMY CUPCAKES!!

These are the cupakes I made to share with friends at co-op for DD's birthday.. They were yummy and we had them as dessert after lunch...

I make the buttercream frosting using this "no-fail" recipe:

2lbs powdered sugar

1 cup Crisco

1/2 c. water

1/2 tsp. salt (dissolve in water)

1tsp. vanilla flavoring (use real vanilla)

1/2 tsp. butter extract (or you can use almond if you prefer that flavor)

I mix it in my stand mixer (it is hard on hand mixers) and then use a gel color to color it... It turns out great everytime...

God's beautiful work...

I looked outside this afternoon in the back yard and this is what I saw... Beautiful fluffy white clouds... More examples of God's awesome wonder and work...

 

CLOUDS AND MORE BEAUTIFUL CLOUDS

Homeschool Rules:

1. I promise to pay attention during school.

2. I promise noto complain about the lessons.

3.I promise never to yell, hit, or pinch.

4. I promise to not have temper tantrums.

5. I promise to always be a good and set an example.

BECAUSE I AM THE HOMESCHOOL TEACHER!!!

 

TUBING... What a blast!!

We went tubing today for the first time!!!

It was so much fun... It was a great way to finish our time with "The Big Snow" by Berta and Elmer Hadler...

DH came up with the idea as a way to actually get to play in snow since we have had very little this year...After doing some checking we found out that an area ski resort  had tubing and that it was affordable for our budget...

So I loaded up the kids, we picked dad up at work, and off we went for an afternoon of fun.. and it was great!!!

You don't have to have any special clothes, but if it had been colder, we could have rented ski clothes reasonably, so a coat, gloves, and a boggan were the standard fair...

There is an escalator to carry you and the tube up the hillside and then for 2 hrs. you get to go down it... so, up and down we went all afternoon...and then topped the evening off by having dinner out...