Posted by Cindy on April 19, 2008
I know, you’re tired of hearing how wonderful our co-op is! But seriously, it is. Friday night was our annual competition night. The children choose from all sorts of competitions to enter – music, art, cooking, Bible memorization, science fair, construction, knitting/crochet/sewing, spelling bee – and maybe even more.
Here are a few pictures from the night. Mahayla entered knitting, science fair, cooking – pies, and art – painting, crafts and printing. Caleb entered wood construction, cooking – cakes, and art – printing and crafts. We’ll have a fun ceremony in a couple of weeks where the kids will find out if they placed. Pretty ribbons and certificates are given to all winners and participants. They make for a nice addition to a yearly portfolio.
Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2007
I know I gush often about our Keepers At Home Group, but it really is a wonderful thing! Yesterday we took a break from “practical” stuff to party!
Each of the girls was asked to prepare a dish and bring the recipe. (We’re putting the recipes together in a little booklet for them.) After reading the Christmas story together and snacking on the delicious goodies, each of the moms had prepared a fun game.
Besides a rather unfortunate incident with the girls’ brothers who were playing outside with stick swords, the day was great fun. Yes, Caleb was involved, but it really was an accident. Hopefully, a bit more ice and a little more time will heal the giant goose egg under the other boy’s eye. Caleb was very worried about him and didn’t think twice about apologizing. (Hey, that’s a pretty big step for him!) Here’s what I overheard Caleb say after ice had been on the goose egg for about 20 minutes….”Can you open your eye? How many fingers am I holding up?” T, if you’re reading this – we hope your eye is better!
Anyway, back to the party. Mahayla prepared a very yummy cheesball and Caleb made a chocolate fondue with marshmallows for dipping.
I missed out on most of the games because of the unfortunate incident, but here’s a picture from the gift wrapping relay.
We’re officially on Christmas break! I had planned to school lightly through Friday, but sometimes life just calls for a change of plans. 
Merry Christmas!
Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2007
Just recently, our local 4-H agent, Lois, started a Homeschool 4-H Club. Can I just tell you how awesome it is???
We decided early on that we wanted it to be hands-on, meaningful and service oriented. Forget the meeting minutes and officers and such! Well, we met for our first meeting this week and it exceeded every expectation I had!
The children were asked to bring ingredients to make their favorite Christmas cookie. They each got to be “Emeril” as they demonstrated their recipe to the rest of the group. After a cookie tasting party, they loaded up the leftovers and we delivered them to our local fire stations as a Christmas gift. What fun!!
Next month – making lap quilts.
Posted by Cindy on August 20, 2007
Look what I woke up to this morning!! Mahayla found an old time alarm clock in the basement that she wanted to try out. It woke her, or should I say EVERYBODY, up at 6:20 this morning. While Eli and I snoozed on, she put her Betty Crocker cookbook to good use and brought warm cinnamon struesel muffins with grape juice right to my bedside. Yummy!
Posted by Cindy on August 14, 2007
We jumped on the bandwagon today. Several of my blogging friends have followed Jamin’s instructions for making a solar oven, and it looked like so much fun that we had to try it, too!
It was fun! And easy! A pizza box, some aluminum foil, pencils, tape and sun are all you need to make the oven. Today was the perfect day to try out some solar s’mores with our good friends. A little swimming while the s’mores sat in the sun made the wait more bearable! (Not my pool – wishful thinking by my kids, though!)
The chocolate was a little runny, but that didn’t seem to matter!
