Celebrating Aliana's Birthday

Grammy, Roger & Noni came to visit for an extended weekend for Aliana's birthday.

Aliana got a princess cake, which means the cake was her dress.  Well I have to admit that I didn't make this cake.  After 6, YES 6 attempts, we resorted to a premade dome cake where I embellished it once we got home. I don't think I have ever tried as hard as I did for this one.  We think it's the oven.

Priceless face reaction. 

She couldn't believe that I was cutting her princess's dress.

Playing with Noni

We took Noni to the park to play since we knew it was going to rain the rest of the week.

Aliana yells, "Momma take a picture of me."

Noni had a bit of fun ;-)

Pecan Harvesting

Pecan harvesting...well sort of ;-)

We were so excited to find out about 2 months ago that all the trees that we have in the back are pecan trees.

So this day, we went out there looking for them to see if they really were edible.

Well, the teacher came out in me and this turned out to be a science & math lesson-hehe.

We paired up in groups, looked for as many as we could in the same amount of time, counted each bucket, weighed them per group and then figured out who quantifively had more, whose wieghed more and then did an experiement to figure out if the weight had anything to do with whether the pecan was ripe or dried up inside; in other words, the heavier pecan was ripe because of more moisture as to the lighter one who might be dried up - less moisture.

Counting

Weighing

hehe - I had them then count by two's to make the process go quicker (an excuse, maybe)

Harvesting time, we have to step on them heavy enough to pop the shell but light enou to not crush the plump nut.  By the end of this, we could tell if the nut was good or bad by the way the shell broke open.

Showing off all the ripe pecans we found; I bet it came close to 20.

Pecan harvesting can do this to a person.

Treasure under ground

Mark started cleaning up & digging in the back of the property.  At this pointed we discovered that all the extra building material that the construction workers had was dumped there 6 years ago, then covered with the planter's soil that they had used in the front; which then was coated heavily with weeds.  So this has been an ongoing project to recover as much as we can before the fence is started and so we can use them for future projects.

The kids have so much fun back there.

It will eventually become a treehouse area (on the right side by the trees) and fire pit (to the left of that).

Can you see them ;-)

I'm standing on my patio and they are in the middle of the two groups of trees.

So this is what we created one gorgeous day with Mark's pile of rocks.

We jumped into medieval times.  They became knights slaying a dragon, balancing on the lava rocks & getting to the volcano (in the middle) before it erupted.

I actually had fun building it and creating a creative scene.

Daddy gets to play

Mark took half the day off and spent it with us and trying to close on our current home (tons of paperwork).

We had a good day and a good Valentine's Day night.

Organization of Alphabet

With their curriculum they are to learn a different letter each week.  So to make it a little bit more exciting since they're already reading and know their letters, I have them organize pictures into different letter categories.  They really like it and Aliana needs to do it to.  She's working on the sounds to what the letters say.

They posed themselves ;-)

Valentine Crafts

The kids were to paste together their different colors and shapes of hearts, then thread their yarn around it and finally come up with something about love.  Each child came up with something different with NO help from me....really, I wanted to see where their mind and heart took them.  It was great to see the outcome.

Tony: I love you so much Lord that when I see you I will hug you.

Alex: Jesus Loves Me; I Love Jesus.

Aliana: God you fill my heart.  Seriously, she said that :-)

Then the next day we made Valentine Owls that said, "Whooooo loves you?"

They all cut and constructed their own bird while looking at a black & white product.  Very proud of their hand and eye coordination.

Bulbs

One of our science lessons talked about bulbs and how they grow.  Well we can grow a bulb right in water in the pantry.  This one I was excited to do just to see if it really would work.  And it did.

Here's the 1st day of the experiment.  We had to place the bulb in a dark place in water (our pantry).  The darkness resembles where the bulb would have been planted -  the ground.  Once the sprout comes through we are to put it in the sunlight, which would then resemble the spout braking through the ground.

See the little sprout coming through.

Exactly 7 days later.  I can't believe how fast a bulb grows.

I've got to take these suckers outside to the planters; there's nothing out there.

A Cold Day

Taking time to go outside even when it's cold.

I had us spinning so fast that I almost flew off.

Many Posts

Hi Family and Friends!

We have been busy and there are 6 new posts to catch up with what we've been doing.

You might have to click on "older posts" when you get to the bottom of the website to continue.  Some of the posts are long with videos...yay!

Happy Birthday Alex!

This was a surprise cake. 

He thought he was getting a green cake and we all lead him to believe he was right.  He wasn't allowed to see it during the development of it.  So when we starting signing "Happy Birthday" his reaction was great.

Thanks Uncle Scott, Aunt Stacy and Joey for the Cars Legos. 

They were fun to construct and play with.

Thanks Uncle Robby for the walkie talkies. 

Rob he could have cared less about the Wii game & remote after seeing your present :-)