Party with the Boy Scouts

DS recently had his Boy Scout Christmas Party... Here is a picture from his party...

 

Gymnastics Recital..

DD recently had her gymnastics recital... She was so excited...

The costumes they wore were just white tee's (which had bells painted on them by their instructors) and red or green shorts... They were sooooo cute!!

They turned cartwheels, did backbends, and forward rolls... the finale was a pyramid with several girls doing splits and backbends... DD is on the top of the pyramid...

After the recital, her brother gave her flowers which she definitely loved!!

 

What to do with a costume...

Ok... DD has a ballet/tap recital costume from several years past that I have been keeping because it was :

1. adorable

2. a great memory for her

3. it cost too much to get rid of...

So, I have hung it in her room on a padded silk hanger beneath a shelf with her birthday dolls... What do you think?

December Little Hands Art group...

This month we studied Nadir Afonso... A Portugese artist known as the creator of "Kinetic Art"... We learned about his education in architecture and his conversion to his art career (his first love) ad how he is still painting today in his 80's... We looked at several examples of his work involving his "Cityscape" series and how over the years his art had become more abstract...

  Aliados Square   Moscow

We did our own versions of his watercolor work... Here is some pictures of our group and their work...

 

Our week with Gingerbread Baby

This week we have been working on Jan Brett's "Gingerbread Baby"... We have had a great time visiting Austria, Germany and the Alps...We worked on measruements and fractions...We discussed spices and wher they come from...and the highlight of our week was making GINGERBREAD COOKIES using a recipe without molasses which turned out great...and they were YUMMY!!!

Performance Night...

Tonight was "Performance Night" for our co-op...DS take piano lessons there so this was his time for his recital... He did great...I was such a proud momma!!!

Our First Snow...

Yes!!!!

We have snow... Granted it is not much but it is the first snow and on Dec. 1st too...

The kids were almost as excited as I was ....

We took a walk outside, threw a few snowballs, and made snow cream...YUMMY!!!

Here is the recipe we used:

Basic Recipe                                                          

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
large bowl of snow (about 3 quarts)

Blend milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream consistency.

My Lil' Pilgrims..

A time for counting our blessings...

So much of the time we take for granted all the wonderful things we have been blessed with... I have more blessings than I can count and try to thank the Great God above for all that he has given me and my family...

I hope that in the coming year, that I, my children, and my wonderful DH take time to thank God and to trupy appreciate all that we have... Healthy lives, lots of family, and the opportunity to worship freely...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Autumn and the Leaf Man...

We had a great time with fall, trees, and leaves this year... We did them last year, but DD really was to young to get much from them... I have a wonderful book called the "Kids's Nature Book, 365 indoor/outdoor activities and experiences"... It has an activity for every day and it was really put to good use this year...

We also did a science experiment on why leaves change color and chromatography that you can find here that was great... Both kids loved it and I had fun too...

 

 

Madeline...

It seems like every year we do Madeline... DD loves this story and both kids seem to learn a little more each year we do it... So at her request, we did it again... Here's a look at our notebook for our "trip" to France with Madeline...

Our time in China...

We are sorta ecelectic in our homeschool... We use a variety of curriculum and I pick and choose things to put together for us... So we have been using FIAR, "Galloping the Globe" and HSS for alot of the units we do... So when we did China we had a great time with Ping and Pandas and alot of other resources... Here is a look at our completed notebook...

 

Chocolate Biscotti...

DDs Keepers class had to make cookies as one of their tasks to earn a badge... She was given "International Cookies"... So I dug out theEmeril Cookbook " There's a Chef in My World"...

It had a great recipe for Chocolate Biscotti... and we also had a great short history lesson as Biscotti was one of the things that Columbus took with him on his journey to the New World...

Here's that recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix for 30 seconds on low speed to combine. Add the hazelnuts and chocolate chips and mix well. 
In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla. On low speed, pour the eggs into the dry ingredients and mix just to form a soft dough.  
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece under your palms into a 14-inch cylinder about 2 inches in diameter. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets, placing 2 logs on each baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. 
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the logs are lightly browned and firm. Let cool completely on the baking sheets on wire racks. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F. 
Transfer one of the cooled logs to a cutting board. With a heavy sharp knife, cut the log into 3/4-inch-thick slices. If sliced crosswise, each log will average 24 small cookies. If cut on an angle, each log will yield about 16 large pieces. Repeat with the remaining logs. Spread the cookies on the parchment-lined sheets.
 
Bake the cookies for 30 minutes, turning halfway through baking, until crisp. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.
 
Place the white chocolate in the top of a double boiler or metal bowl over simmering water and melt, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Dip each cooled cookie halfway down into the melted chocolate, scraping off the excess chocolate against the rim of the bowl. Place the dipped cookies on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper and let cool until the chocolate sets.
 
Yield: about 64 large or 96 small cookies

Disney on Ice...

"Disney on Ice" .... One of our favorite things to see... We try and go every year... We go during the school showing when the tickets are reasonable and you can get great seats... This year DH took off work and went with us... Our seats were right on the ice and we had a great time... The theme was "The Incredibles Save Disney World" so there was something for every Disney lover, from Pirates to Princesses to Mickey and Minnie... It was so much fun!!!  

 

Earth Science

This semester I have been teaching Earth Science for 1-3 grades at our co-op on Thursdays... It has been a BIG class (21 students) but it has been fun... We did an experiment making a cloud in a bottle and then made some shaving cream clouds... We used the Evan Moore Giant Science Book and Weather Wizkids ... Here are some pictures of our time with clouds...