Savor The Days

Kinderbach Review

2012-02-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

Although I played piano for years and years when I was younger, I have struggled with trying to figure out how to teach piano to my children.

I first tried teaching my son on my own. I know chords, rhythm, and how to read sheet music. How hard can it be?

Well, that didn't work.

Then I bought a book to help me teach him. That didn't work either.

I gave up and figured we would probably have to pay big bucks and just go to a piano teacher's house once a week for both kids to learn to play.

But now I've tried Kinderbach and I think we can put that off for now.

Kinderbach is a fun and interactive video piano lesson curriculum recommended for ages 3-7. I have a 3 year old daughter and a 7 year old son and while they are on either extreme of the recommended ages, they are both learning and having fun.

The lessons are presented as fun videos. There are songs, hand motions, and dancing!

I use my lap top and set it up on our coffee table near the piano. In one of the early lessons, the kids were learning about rhythm and the video presenter asked them to copy her as she did various hand and body movements to follow the rhythm of a song. They both had a blast!

I love watching them laugh while they are learning!

There are bright colors and fun characters throughout the lessons. These are the Piano Pals pictured below. We have learned about their personalities and music appreciation as we have moved through the class. You can learn more about them too on the Piano Pals page.

In addition to the videos, there are also workbooks to download that correspond with the video lessons.

Here is a sample page from a workbook.

I love that Kinderbach isn't just reading from a book or just sitting at the piano. It is interactive and multi-sensory. It encourages the children to participate in a fun and exciting way and it can appeal to different kinds of learning styles.

But unlike a piano teacher, the Kinderbach membership cost covers both children and each can move through it at their own pace, go back and review or move ahead more quickly, as they need to. And the schedule is totally flexible around us and not stuck to a piano teacher's availability.

I'm so glad I found Kinderbach and I definitely plan to continue using it in our homeschool curriculum.

If you'd like to try Kinderbach in your home, be sure to check out the Kinderbach website and sign up for the free trial so you can be sure that it will work well for your family.

If you decide that you love it as much as I do then I have some good news! Kinderbach has generously offered a great coupon code for you. This coupon code gives 30% off any order - homeschool, classroom, online or DVDs. AND it is good for one year! Coupon Code: TOScrew2012

You can get Kinderbach in two version, online subscription or DVD. Both provide access to over 240 sessions along with accompanying activity workbooks that you can print as needed.

The online subscription is available in two payment options:
1 - $7.99 a month - Billed in a one time annual payment of $95.88 Great Value! Save 60%)
or
2 - $19.99 monthly subscription - Billed monthly for a year in 12 separate payments

The DVDs include the video lessons and come with a CD to download the workpages. They cost $40.45 for each level and there are 6 levels.

You may also want to follow Kinderbach on Facebook to keep up with the latest news and special offers.

Check out what other TOS Crew reviewers had to say about how awesome Kinderbach has been in their home.

Note: I received a free online subscription to Kinderbach in order to review the program. I was not compensated in any other way and my opinions here are entirely my own.

Marshmallow Shooters

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

How are these two pictures related???

Click over to Quirky Momma to find out about how to make your own Marshmallow Shooters!

Spelling Rules are DUM

2012-01-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

Nicholas is so bright and so eager to learn. But he gets hung up when it comes to spelling.

It's hard to teach spelling. There are so many rules to learn but even when you know the rules you have to also know all of the exceptions. There really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for some of it but we keep working at it.

I found this video clip on the Internet today. I laughed out loud as this young man makes fun of English spelling rules.

You really have to check it out. It reaffirmed to me that this is a challenging subject to teach and that you might as well just memorize the spellings of words because our spelling rules are just DUM.

Breakfast In Bed

2012-01-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

Nicholas got up before me this morning. He went down to the kitchen and came back upstairs to bring me breakfast in bed!

He made me two pieces of toast with sliced bananas between them, the rest of the banana, and a cup of milk.

Isn't he the sweetest thing?

We Choose Virtues Review

2012-01-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons we homeschool is because we want to be the primary influence in what our children learn in their early years, not only academically but in values and virtues as well. If they were in school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it would be harder to find time to work with them on things like character development. But with them at home, we can really study character and virtues as part of our school day. Hopefully this will help them in these foundational years to be better citizens with Christ-like character that just can't be taught in a public school setting.

I have heard that a lot of homeschool families use We Choose Virtues in their curriculum but I had not had a chance to check it out myself. So when I heard that the TOS Crew would need reviewers for it, I was excited to try it out.

We Choose Virtues was created by a mom who is a preschool teacher and children's pastor. This is not unit study that you use once and then move on from. It is actually a character development tool that you use every day, every year. You introduce the Virtues, then demonstrate them, memorize the catchphrases, then learn the antonyms, then capture teachable moments when they are being used…or aren’t.

We have been using the Virtue Clue Cards each morning. This is a set of 13 colorfully cute cards that each cover a different virtue, a virtue catchphrase and antonyms, and on the back is a "You can do it" challenge for the day. We continue to review one virtue card for a whole week before moving on to the next. However, there have been times that we needed to go back and pull out a card we've already done to review again if someone isn't choosing to use good virtues.

The kids have also enjoyed the Kids of Virtueville Coloring Book in which they can color 12 of the Kids of VirtueVille, learn their names and and do a word search!

I think this is a great program to just keep virtues fresh on the minds of my children. There are many different kits available from the We Choose Virtues website. There are full kits to use in a classroom as well as several different options for homeschool families. Check out the Product Comparison Chart to help you decide what will work best for your family.

We Choose Virtues has a special right now. For the months of January and February, the 100 Days of Virtue Poster and Stickers will be included FREE with any Homeschool Kit purchase during these months.

Also, here are some promo codes that you can enter at checkout. These are only good for one use.

VIRTUE15 for 15 % off the shopping cart is still available
SHIPFREE for free worldwide shipping

There is also a clearance sale on a few items while they last. They have lowered prices AND upgraded the paper quality on their 3 MOST POPULAR posters!

Prices for these thicker posters:

Kids Virtue Poster now $11.99 (from $14.99)
3 Rules Poster now $9.99 (from $11.99)
100 Days of Virtue Chart with Butterfly Stickers now $13.99 (from $14.99)

What will happen to the 3 posters we currently have in stock?

CLEARANCE SALE!
2011 Kids Virtue Poster $9.75 (from $14.99, 35% savings)
2011 100 Days of Virtue Chart and Butterfly Stickers $11.99 (from $14.99, 20% savings)
2011 3 Rules Poster $7.75 (from 11.99, 35% savings)

Also, The Virtue Clues are on sale for $5.99 (from $7.95)

For more information, please visit the We Choose Virtues website and make sure to like them on Facebook!

If you still have questions, check out some of the reviews of We Choose Virtues by other members of the TOS Crew.

Note: I was provided with several products for free in order to review this product. I was not provided with any other compensation and the comments and opinions here are all my own.

File Folder Games for Kids

2012-01-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

My kids and I love file folder games. They can be used for any age and any theme, educational or just plain fun. They are super easy to make and there are lots of free templates online that are really cute and creative.

Click over to Quirky Momma to read more about how I make these.

Tour of Frito Lay Headquarters

2012-01-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

We're a member of a Plano homeschool group and they planned a most awesome tour for our group...

A tour of Frito Lay headquarters!

Yes, Stuart works for Frito Lay/Pepsico but he doesn't work in the headquarters building so we never would have seen all of this if it wasn't the for our homeschool group.

We started our tour learning about Sustainability and Recycling. I love that SunChips has experimented with compostable bags and that Frito Lay does so much to ensure that they minimize waste and recycle as much as possible.

The campus is really nice with a lake on the property as well as a credit union, salon, and fitness center too!

Although there were a lot of people from PEACH attending the tour, we were divided up into 6 groups that rotated between tour guides so the actual group we were in was rather small.

We learned about the Research and Development process.

We saw the test kitchen where the chefs create new products and flavors. We saw the packaging department where they test new packaging. We even saw this machine that tests how hard someone has to pull to open sealed bag of chips.

We watched some Cheetos product being made in the R&D manufacturing room and felt how warm and soft it was when it first came out.

We saw the grocery store setting where Frito Lay tests their products in an environment similar to a store to see how light and heat are affecting the various products. Some poor person gets paid to sample the products every day to make sure that each batch is staying fresh for the estimated time that they would stay on a shelf. How do you get a job like that?

We learned how Lay's potato chips are made. Just potatoes, salt, and oil go into these salty wonders. But Frito Lay doesn't use just any potatoes. They have done research to find the perfect species of potato for making their chips. It was so interesting to learn all about the process.

We decorated our own chip bag.

Chose the salty snacks to fill the bag.

Helped turn on the heat seal machine.

Our chip bags were sealed for us.

Ta-da! Rachel's very own chip creation!

Her bag lasted approximately 0.23 seconds before she opened it up and ate all of the contents right there!

Thank you PEACH and Frito Lay for an exceptional tour that was both educational and fun for all ages!

Seven Lies About Homeschooling Debunked

2012-01-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share this cute YouTube video about some of the silly ideas that people have about homeschooling.

A Present From Rachel

2012-01-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

Rachel played in her room for a little while this morning after she woke up. When she came out she found me and said, "I brought you a present!"

Two little pieces from her Calico Critter house. I love getting presents like this. It meant a lot to her and that's what melted my heart.

Sketching

2012-01-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was working on the flower bed in the front yard this afternoon while Rachel took a nap. Nicholas went back inside and came out with drawing supplies.

He plopped down in the grass and just started sketching things around him.

We do random art projects at home but he also takes a homeschool fine art class at Art House where he learns about famous artists and real art techniques.

It was such a beautiful day. Cool and sunny, my hands were in the dirt, and Nicholas was creating art outdoors, even if it was just a sketch of our mini-van. I loved it!

Science Experiment: Erupting Soap

2012-01-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

We recently learned about Charles' Law with some Ivory soap and a microwave.

Click over to Quirky Momma to see what we did.

60 Piece Puzzle

2012-01-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

Nicholas has never really had the patience for puzzles but Rachel has always been a wiz at them.

She quickly put together 24 piece puzzles when she was two so for her 3rd birthday we got her a 60 piece puzzle. She pulled it out this morning and started working on it at the table while I worked with Nicholas on his school work.

There were many more pieces than she was used to so I talked to her about sorting out the corner and edge pieces first and helped her understand how to put those together to make the outer edge.

But she really put the whole thing together and was so proud of her accomplishment!

I think 60 piece puzzles are a good number for her now but I think we'll have to go bigger by the time her 4th birthday rolls around.

Boy In The Box

2012-01-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

Nicholas got an assist on the 1st goal of the game. Check out the video below (he's in the white helmet). For those of you that don't follow hockey, an assist doesn't make the goal but sets it up for another player to make the goal. It is still a big deal, even though there isn't as much fanfare as if he had actually scored the goal.

Later in the game, Nicholas tried to knock a stick out of the opposing team player's hand. That's not nice and he got a penalty for it.

In hockey, a penalty means that the player has to sit in the penalty box for a designated amount of time and his team has to play short-handed.

When a team gets their first goal, they are "on the board", meaning on the scoreboard.

Well, I can look at this board and see my boy's number 9 up there as his finishes out the remaining 1:48 on his penalty...so I'm going to say that he finally made it "on the board".

We Won!

I love this video of the boys after their win! Nicholas skates out eventually but once he is lined up, he gets all into throwing stuff and celebrating. They are all so cute out there!

Melting Ice Experiments

2012-01-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

My kids experimented with different ways to melt ice. Click over to Quirky Momma to see the fun they had.

R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish Review

2012-01-02T00:24:00.000-08:00

We haven't done much Spanish in our homeschool this year. I just couldn't find something that would make it fun for Nicholas yet also help me learn Spanish along the way too.

As part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool review crew, I recently had the opportunity to try out REAL Homeschool Spanish. I was given a downloadable bundle which included the book, activity book, audio files, answer guide, and the daily curriculum planner. I was excited to check it out!

The first thing I was curious about is rather a silly thing but I wondered what the "R.E.A.L." stood for.

R - Relax
E - Enjoy
A - Aspire
L - Learn Spanish

What I like about the program is that it is designed to teach conversational Spanish. We don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about writing, spelling, and such. We're just focusing on how to use the language in our day to day conversations. This makes is easy and super fun to practice with each other throughout the day because the vocabulary words that we are learning just easily fit into our normal conversations.

And the audio files are a must for me and have been very helpful. My only complaint about the entire program though was that it took me a while to figure out how to access and use the audio files. I think it's just because I'm not as tech savvy as I'd like to be but I do think this could be made a bit clearer in the directions.

The Book includes 10 units, 55 vocab clusters and 15 idea sections of ways to further learning. The planner helps me plan ahead and keep track of what we have learned.

The Activity Book is my son's favorite part. It's full of fun activities like word searches, crosswords, word scrambles, and more! You can check out a sample of the Activity Book HERE.

It's a relaxed and easy to follow program that we can work on at our own pace. We are learning a foreign language and having fun doing it!

REAL Homeschool Spanish can be purchased from the REAL Homeschool Spanish website. You can download it for $49.95 or purchase a hard copy for $89.95.

I love that it is a one time price and not a monthly online subscription like another program I was considering.

Check out what others on the TOS Homeschool Crew are saying about REAL Homeschool Spanish.

Note: I was given a free download of this program in order for me to complete this review but no other compensation was given. I was not given any suggestions about what to write about and all opinions here are entirely my own.

Bike Ride Around the Neighborhood

2011-12-31T17:07:00.000-08:00

Nicholas and Rachel love their new bikes from their grandparents!

Nicholas has a 24" bike which seems a little large to me but he hops on it and rides around just fine.

Rachel has a 16" bike. It's her first bike. She didn't even have a tricycle for very long because it got stolen from our yard a while back. She is so excited to have a big girl bike!

I love this video of her riding it for the first time. She says, "I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!"

We rode up and down the driveway for a while.

Then went for a ride in the street around their grandparents quiet neighborhood.

I'm sure Nicholas and Daddy will be riding all over when we get back home. Rachel still needs a little help from time to time but she will be zipping along with the boy before you know it.

Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans

2011-12-31T13:30:00.000-08:00

We spent the day in New Orleans with my Dad. I realized as we were driving down there that we haven't been in the city since before Hurricane Katrina. I know parts of New Orleans will never be the same but everything we saw was just like I remembered it.

Here's my favorite street in New Orleans. Can you sound it out? HA!

We parked in a lot behind the Westin hotel on Canal Street and walked over to the Audubon Insectarium.

We've been so busy on the weekends lately that it has been a while since we've gone to a museum or outing like this as a family. But this was so much more fun because we were out exploring with my Dad!

Stuart was showing something to Rachel so I went to check it out.

Eww! Giant Cave Cockroaches!

Rachel enjoyed watching these Red Swamp Crawfish walk around their tank. They are the same species that we eat but instead of being red-brown, these particular crawfish are an amazingly beautiful blue. It's not natural though. The color comes from an unexpected result of an experiment by the Aquaculture Research Center of Northwestern State University. They still don't know why these guys turned blue but they stay that way even after molting.

Nicholas liked this huge Tarantula. Cool!

We watched these little ants up close as they carried cereal flakes around their home.

We could even watch them on the Ant Cam!

We were all fascinated with the green leaf bugs but the kids were especially impressed.

But I didn't know that there are also dead leaf mantis that hang out underneath dead leaves to hide from its predators. It's amazing what you can find in nature.

From the moment Nicholas saw the map of the Insectarium, he was on the lookout for the Underground Gallery where you can be the bug! Visitors "shrink" to the size of a bug with surprises around every turn.

I wasn't quite sure what this was at first but as you look through the ribs in the walls you watch a video of a dead rat being eaten by maggots and totally disintegrating into the ground and plants growing up from the soil in its place.

We found a hole in the wall that teased us to stick our hand into the pitch black abyss. Stuart enjoyed messing with us as he pretended something was getting his arm!

There was a cool skylight in the roof of the cave that had an animated bird peeping his head in the hole. What a neat feature!

Nicholas found this fun kitchen cabinet that had a clear dome in the bottom. If there is a dome then he must stick his head in. He was surprised to find himself at eye level with a bunch of cockroaches running around in the cabinet! Thank goodness for the dome!

I was personally looking forward to the cooking demonstrations and tastings. Oh wait! We're at the Insectarium. What kind of cooking demonstrations and tastings could they actually have here?

Yep! Bugs! There were Southwest Waxworms with taco seasoning and chili powder, Cinnamon Bug Crunch which are waxworms with cinnamon and sugar, and Crispy Cajun Crickets which supposedly taste like BBQ sunflower seeds.

If you'd like a chilled selection, they also offered Hoppin' Herb Dip which contains cream cheese, sour cream, onions, bell peppers, Italian seasoning,and crickets. Or you could try the Mango Chutney. Who doesn't love Mango Chutney with mangoes, apples, and waxworms. Finally there was the Six-Legged Salsa made from mealworms and salsa.

But who could resist these Chocolate Chirp Cookies made with what else but Crickets!

I was proud of my picker eater who tried a Chocolate Chirp Cookie.

See, he really did bite into those crickets!

Stuart tried a cookie too. You can see a little bit of concern on Rachel's face in the background.

Stuart offered her a bite of cookie but she squirmed away.

But eventually even she took a bite.

I thought the grossest name and most disgusting food was the Six-Legged Salsa. Here it is up close.

But even mealworms can taste good on a Tostito!

We learned about termites.

And posed with a gator.

There was an entire room full of butterflies and beetles in display cases.

The variety of butterflies was amazing.

The colors were beautiful.

I love catching special moments like this one below where Nicholas is teaching Rachel.

This display shows what Beetle Jewelry looks like. This type of jewelry has been found throughout cultures from Asia to South America. The beetles are adorned with rhinestones and attached to gold chains that act like a leash to tie the beetle to the pin. The beetle can then roam around on the person as far as the chain will allow. So odd!

We looked at butterfly wings under a microscope.

And studied the steps of metamorphosis that caterpillars go through to become butterflies.

The kids loved learning about the armor that insect have to protect themselves and they even got to try on a suit of armor themselves.

Here is Insect Nicholas.

And of course, don't forget Insect Rachel.

We ended our exploration in the Butterflies in Flight Japanese Garden.

Butterflies fly freely around this room and surprise you as they land on you.

This little guy hung around posing for pictures for a while.

Nicholas stood there with his arms outstretched waiting for more visitors.

Butterflies would just appear out of nowhere.

Dad had several land on him as well.

Rachel had trouble staying still enough for butterflies to hang around long but Dad helped her get a few on her hand.

She was just amazed at watching them fly all around her.

Look at these giant Owl Butterflies that protect themselves through self-mimicry. "Eye-spots" help prey escape predators by giving predators a false target. A butterfly has a better chance of surviving an attack to the outer part of its wing than an attack to the head.

Of course, we couldn't pass on a stroll through the gift shop that is full of toys and t-shirts and other fun souvenirs.

The Audubon Insectarium was an incredibly fun and unique museum and I would highly recommend it. The Audubon Insectarium is located at 1 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130-1175. Their hours are Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm. For more information, please visit the Audubon Insectarium website or call (504)410-2847.

Taking In The Food and Sights of New Orleans

2011-12-31T13:29:00.000-08:00

After the Insectarium, we took a little walk over to Maspero's for lunch. My Zeta "big sis" introduced me to Maspero's back in college so it was fun coming back to it again.

The food is Cajun-Creole influenced and the atmosphere is classic old New Orleans.

We started with an appetizer of Atchafalaya Alligator, straight from the bayou, marinated in Cajun seasonings then fried. Served with Creole mustard for dipping. It was great. But you know what they say..."Tastes like chicken".

I had a hard time deciding on what to order for lunch and I almost ordered the Cochon De Lait but finally decided on an original New Orleans Muffaletta.

There was a lot of walking and fortunately Stuart carried Rachel for a lot of it.

He got some sweet kisses and hugs from her for it too so I think he would say it was totally worth it.

I wish we had time to take a ride through the French Quarter on a horse drawn carriage but we had just enough time to get to the Riverwalk for the Audubon IMAX showing of "Under The Sea in 3D".

On our way, I enjoyed watching Stuart playing and jumping over the train tracks with the kids.

We listened to sidewalk musicians.

And paddle boats on the Mississippi.

Nicholas balanced along the walkway of the Riverwalk.

We spent some time just watching the boats go by.

The IMAX show was great, especially with the 3D effects. It was especially fun watching the kids reach out in front of them as if they could really touch the fish they were seeing!

Aquarium of the Americas and Beignets

2011-12-31T13:28:00.000-08:00

We've been wanting to visit the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans since before we had kids so I was excited that we were able to fit it in on this trip.

We began in the cool tunnel aquarium with sea life swimming all around us on the sides and over our heads!

Nicholas loves stingrays!

They looked especially neat in silhouette as they swam above me.

I didn't catch the name of this fish but his white spots had a glow to them that looked almost like little lights.

We tried to get the puffer fish to puff up for his but he was just hanging out and didn't want to perform for us.

Nicholas was pretty excited and bounced from aquarium to aquarium soaking it all in.

Rachel was excited but she was getting tired and wanted to be held from time to time.

When fish would swim up next to her at the window, she would smile and shout, "They like me! They really like me!"

My kids have been swallowed by a shark!

The seahorses were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn't get very sharp pictures of the actual seahorses so I'll just show you this one with the two visitors hanging on to him.

We learned all about frogs.

The aviary was one of the highlights. We bought several food sticks for $1.00 each and walked into an enclosure with hundreds of birds flying freely around us. They came to visit us and eat.

We would often get two or more birds land on us at a time.

Dad got a little brave putting this little guy so close to his face but the bird was too busy eating to worry about biting anyone.

Rachel was just fascinated with the birds. She liked to watch them, almost study them. She talked sweetly to them too. That was the cutest part!

Suddenly there were birds swarming all over us. It was fun but a little nerve wracking when there are wings flapping all around you and birds coming and going off your arm, shoulder, and head!

Nicholas likes feeding the birds but he usually gets a little squirmy at first when more than one lands on him at a time. But he usually relaxes and has fun with it quickly.

Daddy and Rachel feeding the birds.

Be careful! There are birds on perches and in the trees all around you in here and they just might drop a surprise on you at any moment!

There is a great interactive display on sting ray and we even got to touch them as they swam by us. They are such graceful creatures.

My little sea creatures!

Stuart got this great shot of the Mississippi River from inside the Aquarium.

The jellyfish section was really great.

I was absolutely amazed watching them pulse through the water.

There were so many beautiful exhibits and aquariums to see.

I think this bubble in the aquarium where Nicholas could sit almost "inside" the aquarium was probably one of the coolest spots to watch the little fishies!

When we finished, we were about ready to head back to Baton Rouge but I just couldn't imagine being so close to Cafe Du Monde and not stopping by for some real New Orleans beignets. So we made our way down the riverwalk.

Rachel's feet were tired so she took a little ride on Daddy's shoulders. Daddy shoulders are so great for carrying tired little girls! I know my Daddy carried me on his shoulders many times when they brought me to New Orleans as a child (usually for Mardi Gras!).

I loved taking in all the sights and sounds of the Big Easy. In high school, I came down here with friends to shop and we had fun browsing and dining in what used to be the old Jax brewery.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square was especially pretty at dusk.

It seemed a longer walk that I recall but we finally made it to Cafe Du Monde. Tired and hungry we were all ready to sit down and have a sweet treat. But there was a line of people looking for tables and even a line of people at the To Go window. We were stuck standing on our feet a little longer. But fortunately Dad saw an empty table and asked the waitress if it was available. Yes!

We got a neat opportunity to watch beignets being made. They roll out the dough and use the neat metal roller to make the square cuts.

The squares of dough are tossed in the fryer until they are golden brown.

They are served up to the hungry crowds day and night.

Drowning in powdered sugar is the only way to eat a beignet. Washing it down with a little Cafe Au Lait too, of course!

You can't truly enjoy beignets unless you get a little powdered sugar on you!

The Aquarium of the Americas is located at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas is located in Downtown New Orleans where Canal Street meets the Mississippi River. #1 Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. Their hours are Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm. Tickets are $21.00 Adult Admission, $14.00 Child (2 -12) Admission, $17.00 Senior (65+)/Student but there are also several packages available that get you in multiple attractions for a really great combined price. For more information, please visit the Aquarium of the Americas website.

Chuck E. Cheese

2011-12-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

I had a gift card for Chuck E. Cheese so while we were in Baton Rouge we let the kids have some fun there with their cousin Jessica. Nicholas was running all around playing video games but Rachel has never been here before so it was all new and exciting for her.

She rode on some of the rides.

This one bounced around a lot and she started crying so I had to try to reach up and pull her off of it while it was moving. That was a bit scary.

This one was more her speed!

We watched the animatronic characters on the stage but it was kind of disturbing to watch Chuck E. Cheese dancing around with a missing ear! What in the world happened to him and why wasn't that repaired right away???

I showed her how to aim this water gun and she did a really good job of hitting the target on her own! You go girl!

Where Is Your Joy?

2011-12-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

It is so easy to get wrapped up in the details of each day and lose that precious joy in our lives. I love this post from Doreen at Our Homeschool Ohana called Where is your Joy?

No one and nothing can rob me of my JOY! It's carved into the Rock (Psalm 18:2).

Snowman Pancakes

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hop on over to Quirky Momma's site and take a look at our Snowman Pancakes. The kids (and even Stuart) loved these!

Rachel's First Haircut

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

Rachel is three years old and hasn't had her first hair cut.

At first, we didn't want to cut it because we had heard that the little ringlet curls wouldn't return after the first haircut. It just doesn't make sense that a hair cut would affect this but she hasn't really needed a haircut anyway so it wasn't an issue.

But her hair is long now and while I don't want to lose the length, she does need a trim on the ends to even it up in the back.

Rachel was super excited when I put her in the car and told her that she was going to get a haircut.

When we got to the hair cut places, she was absolutely giddy about the big event.

I take the kids to a special salon that specializes in kid haircuts. There are colorful walls and Rachel got to sit in the fun pink car seat for her hair cut.

Of course, my kids also love that they can watch DVDs while they get their haircut.

Rachel was oblivious to what was happening with her hair or what I was doing. She just wanted to watch Dora!

I finally got her to turn and look at me but you can tell it was all she could do to keep her head from flopping back to watch Dora again!

I worried that she would get upset about the hair dryer. I don't know why I was worried. She handled it all like a trooper.

My cute little girl got her first haircut and a special lollipop treat for her bravery.

Santa's Coming

2011-12-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm very late publishing these pictures. There are lots of pictures from Christmas that I uploaded and just haven't gotten published yet. Sorry!

We took our annual picture with Santa at Scott Young Photography. We have scheduled appointments at the studio so we never have to wait an hour in line for the Santa at the mall. And what is really cool is when Santa comes over and greets the kids at the door, he knows them by name which makes it so special for them. Nicholas knows that this is the "real" Santa so we don't go anywhere else for our pictures.

Although Nicholas is always excited about Santa, Rachel usually hasn't been. We have the screaming baby pictures and we have pictures with Santa secretly standing behind her just so we could get him in the shot. I was expecting the same kind of thing this year. But my little girl surprised me.

Although she was hesitant about the big guy at first, she eventually sat on his lap and relaxed enough to start telling him about what she wanted for Christmas.

Finally, a picture with both of my sweet children sitting on Santa's lap. As much as I love the picture, I'm a tiny bit sad that my little girl has grown up enough to outgrow her fear of Santa. There was just something so cute about it.

Santa sent letters to the kids again this year. Nicholas recognized the envelope as soon as he saw it in my hands.

He read his letter to us and got really excited when Santa said that he would visit Nicholas at his grandmother's house first on Christmas Eve.

I read Rachel's letter to her.

I don't know that she really understands the idea behind Santa's letter yet but it is fun starting the tradition with her this year.

Check out Package From Santa for more info on these awesome letters. I really love this company!

Of course, we were all excited about the letters from Santa that we made a practice batch of Christmas cookies for him. You've got to test these things out before you leave them for him on Christmas Eve, right?

Handblown Glass Ornaments

2011-12-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time today at Vetro Glassblowing Studio in Grapevine. Stuart and Nicholas helped in making their own handblown glass Christmas ornaments. Isn't that neat? Nicholas made his ornament for me as a Christmas present and Stuart is going to give his to his parents. What a unique Christmas gift!

There were quite a few people going through making ornaments so they already had the bowls ready with the four color combinations to choose from. To make the ornament, the Vetro worker, Kevin, got some molten clear glass from the furnace on to the end of the wand. Then Stuart rolled the glass into the colored glass chips.

He made a purple and gold ornament for his parents in honor of the LSU Tigers.

Kevin then heated the glass in the furnace and rolled it to blend the colors.

Next, Kevin used tubing to blow air through the wand to expand the ornament into a globe.

Nicholas used my camera to take pictures of the whole process too! I love that he is so interested in photography.

After the glass was blown, Kevin cut it free from the wand and added a loop of glass at the top for hanging.

Next it was Nicholas' turn. Kevin showed him how to roll the glass to pick up the colors.

I was a little worried about Nicholas getting too nervous or acting silly. But I was very proud of him. He realized the need to be calm and careful and did a great job making his ornament.

Kevin did his magic with the furnace and blowing.

Then he added the molten clear glass to the top.

And then Curled it over to make the loop.

This was a fabulous family activity and the guys made two beautiful and unique Christmas gifts. I highly recommend making your own art glass at Vetro. I'm sure they will do the ornaments again next year but they also have other holiday workshops throughout the year. For more information, please visit the Vetro website.

Learning Virtues Through Reading

2011-12-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Every now and then we catch Rachel in a lie.

Mommy: Did you eat that piece of candy that was right here?

Rachel: No.

Mommy: Please open your mouth.

Said candy falls out of the wee one's mouth and on to the floor.

Busted!

Nicholas heard us talking to Rachel about doing the right thing. He disappeared into his room and came back with his book, "The Children's Book of Virtues" by William J. Bennett. He invited Rachel to sit on the couch with him so he could read to her.

He shuffled through the pages until he came to just the right spot. Then he read to her the stories "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and "The Honest Woodman".

Rachel sat quietly and listened to everything her big brother read to her. He summarized the stories for her to try to make sure she understood why it was important to always tell the truth. I was just amazed to watch this. Nicholas did this entirely on his own and he obviously understands the value of learning from "living books". It was a beautiful moment!

Salt Dough Snowmen

2011-12-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

We love creating with salt dough. It's cheap and easy to make and it hardens so you can keep your creations forever.

Check out Quirky Momma to see how we made these funny little Salt Dough Snowmen.

First Win!

2011-12-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

The Wolves had a hockey game at 8:30 in Allen this morning. It's about 45 - 60 minutes away and we have to arrive early in order for Nicholas to get all of his gear on so it was a REALLY early morning for us. Rachel has been sick so I kept her home and let her sleep late. I'm really sorry that I had to miss this one though because the Wolves won their first game of the season! Woo hoo!

In the dressing room the boys still looked a bit sleepy.

Coach Rick got the boys pepped up and talked about plays for the game.

Warming up on the ice with the other team. They played the Allen Americans which is a REALLY good team that really whooped them in an earlier game this season.

Nicholas has gotten really good about playing his position as a wing and he gets so close to scoring his first goal but it just hasn't happened yet.

But he's having fun and getting better each week.

The big motivation for today though is that the team won their first game. Many of the boys, like Nicholas, have never played on a hockey team yet they are playing other teams that have more experienced players. They have worked hard these last few months and you can really see it on the ice. They play as a team and making a difference on the ice.

Go Wolves!

Caramel Apple Wraps

2011-12-17T15:33:00.000-08:00

I love caramel apples! We've made them in the past by melting the little cubes of caramel and dunking apples in the warm pot. However, with hot pot always made it too dangerous for my children to participate. So I was excited to find Caramel Wraps in my grocer's produce section because my kids could be more involved in actually making the caramel apples, instead of just eating them.

The directions are super easy. The packages comes with sheets of caramel that you wrapp around an apple, put in a stick, and warm in the oven.

Here is one of the caramel wraps. What a great idea! They look great and they peel right off the wax paper.

It easily wrapped my apple in delicious caramel. Mmmmmm, caramel....

But unfortunately, the wrap didn't entirely cover my apple. The directions said to use medium apples and these were actually the smallest apples I could find at my grocery store.

I tried to stretch the caramel some and then decided to just put the stick in it and call it done.

Rachel couldn't wait to make her apple. She did a really great job of wrapping the caramel on her apple and then she stretched it just like she had seen me do.

Then the caramel stuck to her plate and pulled off as she picked up her apple.

Nicholas had about the same success with his apple.

Ok, so Daddy is the perfectionist in the bunch. Let's see him do this.

Nope, same results.

But that didn't stop us. We put them all in the oven. The caramel got a little bubbly but never melted over the open gaps on the apple.

The caramel was delicious and the wraps are certainly easier and faster than melting your own caramel. However, to make them look their best you really must use small apples.

The World's Greatest Stories Review

2011-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

We read the Bible often during our school day. The stories are a wonderful way to teach virtues and character traits that we are studying in our Konos curriculum.

I'm always looking for interesting ways to tell the stories. Sometimes we draw a picture about the story or re-enact it. But I recently discovered an audio collection of Bible stories that are told so well that you can't help but sit on the edge of your seat to hear what happens next. I'm so glad I was asked by the Homeschool Crew to review The World's Greatest Stories CD by George W. Sarris.

There are six volumes. We have listened to Volume 1: The Prophets which contains the following stories:

1. The Blazing Furnace, Daniel 3
2. The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel 5
3. Daniel in the Lions' Den, Daniel 6
4. Elijah and the Prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 17-18
5. The Prophecy of Jonah, The complete book of Jonah

These CDs are beautifully rich story telling, word for word, straight from the Bible. The voices and drama on these CDs is so good that you are really drawn into the story. I am really impressed.

Nicholas loves listening to stories on CD so I'm excited to actually have Bible stories for him to listen to. He listens to them when he is in his room building with LEGOS or as he's lying in bed at night. We also listen to them when we are driving around town in the van. Nicholas has a memory like a sponge and easily remembers the stories and enjoys retelling them.

Nicholas even made some dioramas about some of the stories that we listened to.

Here Daniel is praying in the Lions' Den when an angel comes to save him.

This is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego tied up in the fiery furnance with King Nebuchadnezzar looking on.

And of course, Jesus joins them in the fires and the four of them walk among the fires unharmed (well, except that one that is missing his hand but that was from a previous incident!).

I love how The World's Greatest Stories CDs bring the Bible to life and help enrich my children's learning of these great stories.

The stories come in either CD or cassette tapes and you can choose NIV or KJV. They are $7.95 each and can be purchased on the World's Greatest Stories website. You can also listen to sample clips from the CDs here. There are a total of 6 volumes - The Prophets, The Life of Christ, Beginnings, Joshua and Esther, Joseph and His Brothers, and Defeating Giants. Right now you can get free shipping when you order 6 or more items!

Check out what others on the TOS Homeschool Crew had to say about The World's Greatest Stories HERE.

I received this product for free in order to complete this review. The opinions are entirely my own and I would not bother reviewing a product that I did not truly want to recommend to others.

A Card From Grandmama

2011-12-14T15:38:00.001-08:00

Rachel got a card in the mail from my mom. I love how excited she got as she squealed and hugged the card as soon as I gave it to her.

It's hard being so far away from our families. I appreciate that our children's grandparents make great efforts to keep building strong relationships with them even though we only see them once or twice a year.

As you can see, little Rachel appreciates it too.

Nicholas' First Cowboys Game

2011-12-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Stuart has a friend who often invites him to go to Dallas Cowboys games with him. They have lots of fun tailgating before and after the game.

But what a treat! This time Mark invited Stuart to the game against the NY Giants and asked if Nicholas might want to come along too.

Of course!

So we got Nicholas a Cowboys sweatshirt and loaded up some tailgating food and the boys had a great time. They grilled burgers and snacked on chips and cookies before the game.

Nicholas was really excited to be at the game and had a great time. He doesn't watch much football so Stuart had to explain a few things to him. I love it because I remember having so much fun tailgating with my Dad and his friends at LSU football games and I remember him having to explain a lot of things about what was happening on the field. I may not have understood much about the game but those are cherished memories for me. I'm so glad that Nicholas got to make some special memories with his Dad at a Cowboys football game.

The only thing that would have made it better was if the Cowboys had won!

Fractazmic Card Game Review

2011-12-12T02:38:00.000-08:00

Fractazmic by I See Cards is a fun card game to help children learn and practice calculating with fractions.

The cards are colorful and eye-catching. They come in three suits:
Red cards are Sixteenths - 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16 and 1/2
Blue cards are Twelfths - 1/12, 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, 5/12 and 1/2
Green cards are Tenths - 1/10, 1/5, 3/10, 2/5 and 1/2

The basic Fractazmic game can be played with 2-4 players. Each player gets dealt a set of cards and they try to make a "hand" by collecting a set of cards in the same suit that add up to 1. This involves converting fractions, multiplication, and addition. The rest of the cards are placed face down in the middle of the table with one card turned up to start the discard pile. If a player can not make a hand with the cards they have they can either choose a card from the stack that is turned down in which case they then have to place one of their cards in the discard pile or they can pick any card in the discard pile but they must take all cards placed on top of the card they want.

The game ends when the first person runs out of cards and the winner is the person with the most hands that add up to 1.

Although the game states that it is geared for students in grades 1st-8th grade, I think most 1st graders would have a hard time with all of the calculations that have to be done. My son is in 2nd grade and he seemed to take a long time doing the calculations to determine if he had the cards he needed to make a hand or if pulling a card from the discards would make a hand.

However, he never grumbled about doing the math and seemed to have fun the whole time.

...especially when he beat Daddy!

There are many different ways to play with the Fractazmic cards. There is a booklet on the I See Cards website that explains some of them.

Fractazmic include 60 cards and an instruction sheet. They sell for $6.95 and are available on the I See Cards website.

Summary:
Fractazmic is a fun way to help teach and practice math skills with fractions. It can be challenging for younger children but game play can be adapted to accomodate early fraction skills. My son gives it a 4.5 stars out of 5 because game play can slow down at times if there is a lot of calculating that needs to be done. He would also like to see the corner numbers adjusted so that they don't appear upside down if the card isn't turned just the right way.

Some other games by I See Cards include Pyramath where students add, mulitply, subtract & divide their way to perfect math and Prime Bomb, the most fun kids will have learning prime numbers.

Take a moment to go over to the TOS Crew Blog to see what my other crew mates are saying about the Fractazmic card game.

Note, I See Cards sent me a Fractazmic game for free as a part of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, in exchange for my honest review.

Hockey Game at Arlington

2011-12-11T23:47:00.000-08:00

Nicholas had a hockey game at the Ice at the Parks at Arlington mall today. Sometimes there are two games going on the same ice rink where each game is just played on 1/2 of the ice with a barrier across the middle. But today was a full ice game which means a lot more skating for the boys.

The team looked good on the ice and have really showed improvements since we've added a Saturday morning practice to their schedule.

They have been working on making sure the boys understand their position and know where to be on the ice instead of everyone just following the puck in a tight little group. We were really proud to see Nicholas at the side of the goal, right where he was supposed to be.

He still looks to us for praise during the game which is sweet but distracting for him since he's not watching the puck if he's watching us!

I love watching the boys all huddled around the coach. I know they think they are big tough boys but I just think they are so stinking cute!

Nicholas made a few good attempts on scoring a goal but it wasn't meant to be today.

While we still haven't won a single game, we are making progress. I think this is the first game where we had 6 goals on the board and it was a hard battle to get those.

I'm proud of our Grapevine Wolves!

Weekends are for snuggling

2011-12-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

Weekends are for snuggling.

Rachel likes to lie on the couch with her pink Princess pillow that Grandmama sent her and her blankets and her pink baby. But today she had to make room for Daddy to lie down too.

I eventually carried Rachel upstairs to her room so she could nap in her bed.

Next thing you know, I find these two snuggling and asleep on the couch.

Poor Daddy probably doesn't even know about the sticker on his head but he doesn't seem to mind.

Sweet Siblings

2011-12-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Nicholas and Rachel are so sweet and loving towards each other. I love catching impromptu moments like this.

Nicholas is big enough to be able to pick up Rachel and carry her around. They both love it!

Rachel loves doing school with us. Sometimes she does her own school but sometimes she just likes to sit with Nicholas. Here they are sharing a seat as Nicholas talks to Rachel about the Grammar work he is doing.

Such sweetness!

Countdown Calendar to Christmas

2011-12-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

We used the countdown calendar to Christmas that I made last year. Each morning the kids take turns opening a drawer to get a small treat. It could be a small piece of candy, stickers, or a little toy. We started it on December 1st and Rachel was excited to be the first one to open a drawer.

I have to never had all of the drawers filled up at the time that we start it. I may have a week's worth of drawers but then plan on getting other treats later to keep some variety to the surprises. But it is hard finding things that aren't candy but are small enough that I can fit 2 of them in these little drawers. Some days I have to just leave a note in the drawer and give them a clue as to where to go to find their treat.

This morning I hid their prizes in our nativity scene and left a note for Nicholas to think of where Jesus was born.

Next year, I hope to be more prepared and have all the drawers filled at the beginning of December. We'll see if that really happens!

Cub Scout Ornaments

2011-12-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

We had our weekly Cub Scout meeting tonight. We talked about safety but while we talked the boys made Christmas ornaments.

Our den leader had lots of foam wreaths and cool stickers out for everyone to use.

Even Rachel made a few ornaments during the meeting.

1st Dance Recital

2011-12-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

Rachel had her first dance recital today! ~~I was~~ She was so excited!

We went backstage which was really just an adjoining gym room where all the girls were lining up by class waiting for their number to come up.

I can remember my mom being back stage with me so many times at my dance recitals. It was a neat feeling to think of her while I was back there with Rachel.

Of course, my little girl is the epitome of grace and beauty often found in ballet dancers as they wait patiently to go on stage.

Here she is pulling up the tape on the carpet that is supposed to be marking where her class sits while they wait and she is taping it to her shoe.

Finally, the girls are going on stage next. I really didn't know what to expect when it was their turn to go up. All of the girls are really little and I was worried that the audience and the new stage would be a little too much for them, at least for Rachel. So as we were backstage, I held Rachel and let her peek out at the audience so she would know what to expect when she got out there. She quickly found Daddy and lit up!

...and then she stuck out her tongue at him.

When it was time for her class to go on stage, Rachel was first in line. She walked right up all by herself and then stopped and laughed. I just love this picture that Stuart captured!

The girls are used to having their moms in class with them and without some help they wouldn't be able to make it through their very short dance on their own. Fortunately their teacher, Ms. Jenn, was there to help them. Here she is giving some quick reminders about what to do.

There was a little drama with who would hold whose hand. Rachel loves the little red head girl but couldn't get the girl to hold her hand. The teacher tried to fix the problem but Rachel insisted on holding the little girl's hand. Ms. Jenn has a lot of patience!

(If you are reading this through an email subscription, you'll need to click on the title of the post to go to the actual blog post in order to see this video.)

Rachel was so excited and proud of her performance! So are we :)

Chimney Arrives!

2011-11-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

We got our Christmas tree up this weekend. However, I just haven't had time to get the boxes of lights and ornaments down from the attic so it is looking kind of sad and naked.

Included in these boxes is our little Christmas elf, Chimney. Usually I get our stuff down the day after Thanksgiving so Nicholas is used to seeing Chimney around that time. He's decided that perhaps Chimney doesn't come until he sees that we've decorated our tree and are ready for Christmas. Seems like good logic to me.

So the boy took matters into his own hands yesterday. He quickly grabbed some paper, scissors, and colored pencils and handmade tree ornaments on the fly.

I love this double layer ornament.

Our tree still looks bare but I absolutely love our new ornaments!

And I guess it worked in a round about way because it ~~guilted me~~ inspired me to get the lights and ornaments up so that Chimney could appear on the tree this morning.

Merry Christmas, Chimney!

A Graceful Ballerina

2011-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

Rachel sits through so many different activities for Nicholas each week that I thought it might be time for her to try a little class of her own. I couldn't decide between dance or gymnastics so I was delighted to see that WinKids had a Mommy and Me class for little ones that combined both ballet and gym. Of course, the "Mommy and Me" format means that the moms are in the class with the students because they are still so young.

The class starts with ballet for about 20 minutes. The teacher uses a lot of fun activities to introduce the basic ballet steps. She shows them how to use ballet steps to gallop on a horse, plant seeds in their garden, dance with teddy bears and magic wands, and sprinkle magic fairy dust. It's really cute.

But sometimes, ok a lot of times, she just doesn't want to move on to the next step when she is having fun doing something else. She's not the only one in class that does this. They are still only 2-3 years old.

I took dance lessons for most of my youth so I was really excited for Rachel to take this ballet class. And don't little bitty girls look so cute in the little pink leotards and tutus? I had visions of my little Sugar Plum Fairy dancing around our house.

Rachel really likes practicing her sautes (pronounced "so-tays") which in ballet means jump.

This is about the only thing I can count on her to do correctly.

Unfortunately, she prefers to use the balance bars in the dance studio for climbing on.

And while practicing for their upcoming recital, she decided that their holding hands and dancing in a circle was an awful lot like "Ring-A-Round the Rosie" where you all fall down....and play dead.

Graceful ballerina, she is not.

After ballet class, we move to the gym for about 20 minutes. Rachel loves her coach and can't wait to hear what she will learn each time.

She pays attention and remembers each activity that she is supposed to do along their gymnastics "course", even if she can't quite do all of the activities properly.

Of course, what child doesn't love jumping on a trampoline?

Or a giant foam pit? I love the little wiggle she does just before she jumps.

Rachel is definitely calmer and more quiet than Nicholas but she still has a lot of energy and likes being active. I think gymnastics may be a better fit for her right now (although I can't promise that I won't put her back in ballet because I'm still dreaming of a Sugar Plum Fairy).

Bible Stories

2011-11-27T21:30:00.000-08:00

We've been attending Valley Creek Church for several months now. While it isn't as theatrical as Fellowship, we love the music and the pastor is phenomenal.

Most importantly, the children seem to have a good time and are learning more about the Bible. Nicholas brings his Bible to church each week and they have races to look up verses and win prizes.

Although Rachel's class doesn't bring their Bible, she sometimes insists on bringing one so she can be just like big brother. Unfortunately, she has destroyed the one that she received from Fellowship Church at her Parent-Child dedication.

But for now, she is quite happy with her Bible Stories book which was passed down from a friend of ours.

I love watching her "read" the stories in the car as we are on our way to church.

Calling the Tooth Fairy.....

2011-11-26T23:18:00.001-08:00

Nicholas has had a wiggly front tooth for well over a month now. The baby tooth has been getting pushed out of the way by the new permanent tooth coming in. But instead of coming out, the baby tooth has just moved further down until it flops and wiggles in all directions but still hangs on for dear life while the new tooth keeps pushing its way in.

Nicholas happened to have a regular dentist appointment a couple of weeks ago for a cleaning and his dentist suggested that we wait a little bit to see if it will come out on its own but if it doesn't come out in a couple of weeks then she wants to pull it because it might affect how straight the new tooth comes in.

After dinner, we had our ritual of checking on the tooth.

Yep, still hanging there by a thread, still dangling, still twisting all around. But not coming out.

I suggested that we might need to call the dentist on Monday to just get the thing pulled out because I'm tired of seeing it dangle. After Nicholas went to bed, I imagine he must have been lying there twisting and pulling on his baby tooth because he soon came out of his room to show me that the tooth was about to come out. He went downstairs to show Daddy and ended up pulling it out himself right there!

He's pretty excited about getting a dollar from the Tooth Fairy (Stuart is getting on his shoes to head out for change now!)

I think this tooth has been such a hard struggle that the Tooth Fairy might have to leave two dollars this time!

Games For Girls Summit by Activision

2011-11-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

Black Friday! The holiday shopping season is officially underway!

What is on your little girl's wish list this year?

Every kid loves to play games and video game systems such as the Nintendo DS are really hot this year.

I recently attended the Games for Girls Summit by Activision at the beautiful Hotel W in Dallas.

I brought Rachel along with me and we were able to see 6 new games that Activision has just released that are geared towards girls.

Moms got to sit at the tables while the kids played in the back of the room - yes, childcare was provided at this event!

The Mom Tables each had the 6 new Activision games and a DS system to play them on. We even got to try out the cool new interactive Wappy Dog. My friend and I had a lot of fun with these!

Of course, each time I checked on Rachel, she was playing one of the DS games too. I think Wappy Dog is one of her favorites too!

Wappy Dog is truly the next generation of interactive toys. It connects a physical pet toy with the virtual world, where young gamers care for and raise their very own interactive puppy to adulthood through an immersive experience communicated through the Nintendo DS, truly touching both the pet toy and videogame audiences. Wappy Dog can sing several different songs but can be trained to learn up to 16 tunes as play continues. More than 18 conversational prompts are answered with more than 350 evolving responses, with a “barked” response translated by the Nintendo DS software.

Each Wappy Dog is a personalized experience enabling players to customize both the virtual version with different colors and accessories, as well as the physical dog with spots, colors and accessories via in-pack sticker sheets. Players train and care for their Wappy Dog to determine their pet’s constantly evolving personality, skills, and happiness, as well as use their game system to communicate with their dog.

Rachel's other favorite game is ZhuZhu Babies. In the game, Razzmataz has wandered off during a safari trip in South Africa and the friends back home need your help to find him! You’ll travel around the world and visit exotic cites with the ZhuZhu Babies to help find Razz and bring him home safe and sound. There are 11 Babies to Play With, familiar and new characters, each with their own adorable personalities, include Razzmataz, Luana, Izzy, Sox, Legend, Bandit, Riley and more!

There are lots of levels to explore. 35+ levels of twists, turns, and big surprises! ZhuZhu Babies is intended for ages 4 and up so even young girls can have fun playing!

Although the games we looked at were being promoted as games for girls, I know my son likes Moshi Monsters. It is the world's fastest growing online game for children. Now Activision has released Moshi Monsters: Mosling Zoo on the Nintendo DS and Nicholas has it on his Christmas wish list. The games lets you explore the Wooly Wilderness in search for ULTRA RARE Moshlings to add to your Moshling zoo! Play exclusive Moshi mini-games to help boost your Moshling’s level, mood, health and happiness. Explore all new areas of Monstro City including Buster’s Baby Care, the Glormatorium and Raaghly’s Stararcade. Unlock ULTRA RARE Moshi Monsters rewards including achievements, trophies and super secret items to be unlocked within MoshiMonsters.com.

It was a fun event! I played all of the games at our table. Lalaloopsy is a really cute game where your doll magically comes to life from the fabric used to create her. She plays with her friends in a silly colorful world. I also played Squinkies 2: Adventure Mall Surprise. I've seen Squinkies in the store as cute tiny little squishy figures that you can collect but I just learned that there are DS games for them too. Both of my kids like to play with Zoobles magnetic figures but they are going to flip over the game!

And I truly hope that they enjoy playing with all of these new Activision games. They are cute and model friendship and caring for others.

Not only did I have a good time playing games but I also learned a few things. I realized that although I try to limit "screen time" for my children, there have been recent studies showing that playing kid-friendly non-violent games can have developmental benefits. Some of the physical benefits include faster reaction times, increased hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity, and increased spatial skills. Video games can also have mental benefits. The ability of games to ignore the rules of reality actually help kid's expand their minds and their creativity. Children learn to be more resilient to failure since they fail so often in games but get right back in there to give it another try. Games can also improve children's ability to reason and problem solve.

It is important to be aware of what games your child is playing. Here are two resources to help you screen out the good games from the not-so-good according to your child's age.

Common Sense Media
Entertainment Software Rating Board

The moms attending the summit were all bloggers so it was the typical blogger scene with everyone holding the phones to take pictures and/or tweet about the event!

If you want to follow the chatter about these fun new games from Activision, please join us over at Twitter -
@ATVIGames4Girls
#ActivisionGames4Girls

Now, back to your holiday shopping....

Gobble! Gobble!

2011-11-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

Stuart and I always make a full Thanksgiving spread, even back when it was just the two of us. Now there are four and the 2 little ones don't really care what we eat. But we still stayed up way too late last night (or is that this morning?) preparing a full Thanksgiving meal.

We could have slept later this morning but with little kids in the house that is a foreign concept to us. We eventually got the bird in the oven and finished up some last minute details for our big dinner. While we were puttering around in the kitchen, the kids did a great job of playing together on their own.

Well, I thought so until I realized that Rachel had been standing on TOP of her play kitchen!

So to keep my wild little Indians entertained (and safe!), I printed off a turkey template from DLTK and put them to work writing down what they are thankful for.

I loved hearing about some of the things they were thankful for.

We cut out all of the pieces and put them together to make little turkeys of gratitude. Nicholas listed that he is thankful for music, a roof, trees, TV, God, food, a DS (Nintendo, that is), my family, and Legos.

Rachel is thankful for stop signs, chicken, my play kitchen, my family, my big brother, pink baby, animals, and turkey.

Speaking of turkey....it's done! We always use the Alton Brown Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe. It uses a brine so there is some prep the day before but it's easy and oh, so worth it!

We also had Stuart's family recipes for dressing and sweet potato crunch plus I tried a new recipe for a corn and bacon casserole. ummmm, bacon....

We even got out the charger plates, china, and crystal to do it up right.

We are thankful for our health and our families.

We are thankful for our home and our jobs which provide our home and put this delicious food on our table.

We are thankful for determination and willingness to try new things.

We are thankful for the laughter in our home.

We are so thankful for hugs from our children!

But we are most thankful for those that have gone before us, who followed their dreams and their destiny to fight for freedom and the making of this great nation.

Thanks Be To God!

Konos Stewardship: Muscles

2011-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: NERF - Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun

As we are studying about keeping the body healthy through exercise, Nicholas has been learning about the muscles of the body. He's learned about the tree types of muscles - smooth, skeletal, and cardiac.

I picked up a steak in the "manager's special" (aka "it's going bad soon") section for $2.00. I cut muscle fibers from the meat and prepared them on slides so that Nicholas could look at them with the microscope.

He really likes his microscope. Granddad gave it to him as a Christmas present a while back. He had been too young to work with it reliably by himself but he is an old pro at it now and can entertain himself for an hour at a time with it. It's a cool microscope because it is digital so he can see the image on my laptop. This makes it so much easier for me to see what he is looking at and to point to things on the slide that I want to be sure he notices.

We can even capture video and still pictures. Here we were looking at the muscle fibers and the black striations that cross the fibers. This is only found in skeletal muscles.

Nicholas has also learned to identify the names and locations of some of the major skeletal muscles in his body. He has also learned how a muscle works through contracting and extending. He even made a model of his arm to demonstrate it. He used a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper and cut out a piece the length of his humerus bone. Then he measured his forearm and cut out another piece of cardboard to match. He cut this forearm piece in half lengthwise and taped them together to form his radius and ulna bones.

He labeled his bones carefully.

He straightened out a paper clip and used that to connect the humerus to his forearm bones.

He attached the forearm bones together with a rubber band in place of a wrist.

Then he blew up two long red balloons just slightly and I helped him attach them to his bones. He then demonstrated how the bicep muscle extends when the arm is straight...

...and how it contracts when the forearm is pulled up.

It was neat that he finished up his model while Granddad was here so he was able to show off his work to Granddad.

Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers

2011-11-22T21:46:00.001-08:00

I've recently started relying on frozen meals for my lunch because, unlike my children, I just can't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day but I've got to many other things to do than to spend a lot of time fussing over making a tasty meal for myself.

I recently learned that Healthy Choice teamed up with Bravo’s Top Chef to introduce an exclusive line of eight Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers.

Oooh, I love Top Chef so I knew that these would make a yummy addition to my freezer!

The flavors are bold, innovative, and exciting and include such delicious meals as Barbeque Seasoned Steak with Red Potatoes, Chicken Fresca with Chardonnay, Chicken Linguini with Red Pepper Alfredo, Chicken Margherita with Balsamic, Grilled Chicken Marinara with Parmesan, Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables, Grilled Vegetables Mediterranean with Rice, and Roasted Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms.

They offer exactly what I'm looking for - food that is healthy, delicious, and easy to make! The packaging uses a proprietary steaming technology that produces a fresh-tasting meal in minutes. It's not like some microwave meals that just come out limp and unappetizing. Healthy Choice uses a unique steaming technology that separates the sauce from the rest of the entrée to steam the meal in the microwave, allowing for crisp vegetables, tender meats and al dente pastas.

One of my favorites is the Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables. I made it for lunch today so I thought I'd show you just how cool this steaming process really is. You remove the meal from the carton and put it in the microwave. Don't puncture the cover or open one corner. Don't touch it! It is self-venting and will cook just fine if you don't do a thing.

My meal cooked for 4 1/2 minutes. I removed the film from the top and then lifted the steamer basket which was full of chicken tenderloins, rotini pasta, zucchini, and spinach. Then I stirred the steamed food into the outer sauce bowl.

So simple! Quick and easy as well as healthy and delicous!

Check out the Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers for yourself. Make sure to grab a Healthy Choice coupon before you head to the grocery store.

For more information about the Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers, please visit the Healthy Choice website or Bravo's Top Chef website. You can also follow Healthy Choice on Facebook Twitter at @Healthy_Choice.

Note: Healthy Choice provided me with two Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers to try. The opinions here are entirely my own. I would not choose to promote a product unless I truly felt that it was worthy of a recommendation.

Granddad's Visit

2011-11-20T23:44:00.001-08:00

Grandad came to visit us for a few days!

No special reason...just because.

It's nice when he comes to visit us because we can just focus on spending time with him. When we go to Louisiana to visit, we have to juggle our time between him, my brother, my mom, and Stuart's side of the family too. It makes for a busy trip with lots of running around and occasional headaches.

For a few days, we got to just sit around and let Granddad soak up fun times with his grandchildren.

Playing with puzzles.

Going for a ride in the rocket ship...that's Granddad sitting on the couch in the Care Bears tent while Nicholas flies their ship out in front. Thanks for being such a good sport, Granddad!

We got a little bit of school work done while Granddad was here but we'll catch up on what we missed next week. Since we have been studying about being a good steward of our bodies, I found an Amelia Bedelia book where she plays a doctor and sees several patients. We love Amelia Bedelia books because she is just so silly! It was fun letting Nicholas get his reading done by reading to his Granddad!

There is always time for snuggling on the couch while watching TV.

We had a nice dinner at Magic Time Machine but for some reason the wait staff just wasn't as much fun as they were the last time we went. It was still an unusual experience and the food is yummy.

Nicholas had two hockey games this weekend and Granddad got to see him play at the game on Saturday in Richardson.

Rachel and Granddad had frosted mini wheat cereal for breakfast. Rachel made sure to scoot her chair as close to Granddad's chair as possible. Once Granddad had finished his cereal, Rachel proceeded to share hers with him by giving him a spoonful of milk and cereal in his bowl.

She had a lot of fun transferring the cereal with her spoon.

Then she said, "Eat it, Granddad! Eat it!" And he did!

...much to Rachel's delight...and of course, she did it again and again after that!

We had fun at a park exploring the creek bed and collecting leaves.

Rachel showed Granddad one of her file folder games where she matches the different butterflies.

Granddad tried to trick her and tell her to put the butterfly on the wrong spot but she just laughed and did it the right way. I love how silly he gets with the kids sometimes.

Heading out for the airport, we got some quick pictures together. Dad just turned 70 and although I didn't get to be there for his birthday, he got to come visit as kind of a late birthday celebration...although life with the kids is so busy that we didn't really do anything for his birthday like I had planned. But still it was nice getting to spend quality time with him.

And of course, my kids have had a wonderful time getting all of Granddad's attention!

The whole visit, Granddad rode in the back of the van so he could sit next to Nicholas. He only sat in the front seat like a big boy for one short trip while Nicholas was at art class. I know it's not the most comfortable ride back there and the conversation is off the wall but the kids love him for it and their little lips roll out if he tries to sit in the front seat next to me.

As we were dropping Dad off at the airport, Nicholas suddenly decided to get out too and pretend to be heading back to Louisiana with Granddad. Rachel got very upset and grabbed Nicholas arm as she said, "No, stay here! Don't go!"

One more hug before you go!

Thanks for coming to visit us. We love you, Granddad!

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

2011-11-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet "On Children"

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies, but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannont visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you,
for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark on the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with his might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hands be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so he also loves the bow that is stable.

Konos Stewardship: Exercise

2011-11-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: NERF - Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun (Stewardship of Body)

As part of learning how to be good stewards of our bodies, we have started an exercise routine. We have a list of simple exercises that we try to go through each morning. It works well to do these as part of their morning break to help them get the wiggles out. The kids start with trying to do 8 of each exercise then slowly increase the number of repetitions if they can.

Here Nicholas is demonstrating the Lateral T. He stands straight with his arms at his side while holding a soup can in each hand. Slowly, he raises his arms to the side until they are shoulder height. Then he slowly lowers his arms to his side.

Rachel's smaller hands had a hard time holding the soup cans so I found something that was more her size. It was two jars of candy sprinkles. No, I did not think this through very well. Her 3 year old brain just could not get past the idea that she was holding thousands of little candy sprinkles in each hand. She couldn't finish a single exercise because she kept getting distracted by the candy and the constant questions of "When can I eat this?"

Nicholas loves doing squats.

I eventually got the sprinkles away from Rachel and gave her some little squishy balls instead. They were much less distracting for her. She was able to use them for her palm squeezing exercises as well as bicep curls.

Nicholas does push ups.

Rachel tries to do them but she was just funny to watch because she just sort of flops down to the floor and springs back up.

They both do shoulder lifts which are like sit-ups but with only lifting the shoulders off the ground.

Not only does exercising get the wiggles out, it also works up their appetite so they are ready to actually eat their lunch instead of just dilly dally with it.

Today's lunch was chicken noodle soup with crackers along with banana, grapes and tomatoes to nibble on, all washed down with milk to drink.

Konos Stewardship: All About Chocolate

2011-11-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: NERF - Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun

We've studied and read a lot about food lately. We've even had some fun learning about chocolate!

We've read library books about how chocolate is made and we just finished reading Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the book that became the movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

So I was super excited when a last minute opportunity came up for us to go with our homeschool group to visit Schakolad Chocolate Factory (pronounced shaq-oh-LAD) and learn more about chocolate from a true chocolate connoisseur.

When we opened the door to the store, the delightful smell of sweet chocolate came flooding out. But that was just a teaser to the beautiful creations we would see inside.

There are many beautiful works of chocolate art in display cases.

Of course, there are cases of smaller bite-size treats as well.

We had a small group of 9 people. We started our tour with the owner talking to us about cacao beans. They grow only in the warm, wet, shady areas of the rainforests around the equator. The ancient civilizations of the Aztecs and Mayans used cacao beans as currency in their early societies. They created a drink called chocolatl which was kind of a watery cocoa drink without sweetener. Although it was bitter, it was considered a luxury and only consumed by the wealthy and powerful ones in society.

After our class time, we moved on to the taste testing. What better way to get educated on the different components and flavors used in chocolate than to actually sample them for yourself?

We gathered around the owner with his tray of bite-sized pieces.

He let us try each one. There was milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, flavored chocolate, and more.

Most were yummy but Nicholas wasn't very fond of sugar-free chocolate.

We saw a real pod that the cacao beans grow in when they are high up in the tree.

Then we saw the real cacao beans.

Finally, it was time to make our own chocolate creations!

Everyone started with a thorough hand washing.

There was a beautiful machine keeping melted milk chocolate churning around, all warm and creamy. Nicholas scooped some up and poured it into some candy molds.

He added a stick and after they cooled he had his own handmade chocolate lollipop!

Then we hand dunked marshmallows in the yummy chocolate and let them cool and harden.

Once we were all done making our confections it was time to clean up.

Schakolad Chocolate Factory is located in The Shops at Legacy, 7140 Bishop Road. Suite 1122 in Plano. They are open Mon-Wed 11:00am-8:00pm and Thurs-Sat 11:00am-10:00pm. For more information, please call them at 972-801-2577 or visit the Schakolad Chocolate Factory website.

Konos Stewardship: Nuts and Oils

2011-11-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: NERF - Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun

We've been studying the four major food groups - grains, fruits/vegetables, dairy, and meat/nuts

Today we took a closer look at Nuts in the Meat Group. We read about them and looked closely at their shells. We cracked some shells and tried some.

I bought several different types of nuts in bulk from our local farmers market and made a sampling tray with each nut labeled.

We studied the different sizes, colors, textures of each and then we sampled them all. It was neat to see which ones were their favorites.

Nicholas was reading to Rachel before her nap today and picked out the book, "Nuts to You" by Lois Elhert to tie reading time into our school work. I love how he did this entirely on his own!

They both love this book about a squirrel and his silly tricks.

After she was down for her nap, he scuttled off to his room and made this cute Lego creation to celebrate Fall complete with a squirrel and two yellow acorns.

We also recently studied Fats and Oils.

Nicholas did an experiment to test for oils in certain foods. He used a paper bag and cut it into little squares to use as his test strips and then we gathered some foods to test.

He first made 2 control swatches. One square of paper had nothing on it and it was labeled, "without oil" and another swatch had just olive oil on it and it was labeled, "with oil". Now he had two test swatches to compare the actual food swatches to and determine which category the food most closely fit in.

He rubbed a carrot on a swatch.

He tried some water although he already had his own hypothesis that there was no fat in water.

He rubbed a nut on a swatch.

He also made a swatch for 1% milk, wheat bread, crouton, and mayonnaise. He let the swatches dry for an hour.

Once they were dry, Nicholas compared his results and separated the swatches according to whether they resembled the swatch "with oil" or "without oil".

Water and carrot had no oil. The wheat bread had just a touch of oil so he placed it on that side. The nut and the mayonnaise looked just like the "with oil" swatch so they went on that side. The crouton and the milk went in the center because their oil content fell somewhere between the two extremes.

Nicholas As Goalie

2011-11-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

Nicholas has been doing well in his hockey league. He usually plays right wing, an offensive position, but recently expressed interest in trying out goalie. Goalies have a lot of bulky, specialized gear so instead of going out and buying it, the current goalie let Nicholas try out his equipment for the first time out. We are very grateful for this.

Nicholas put on some of his own basic gear but then had to lie down on his tummy in order to get his giant leg pads on. Fortunately, the other dad helped Nicholas get in the gear and showed Stuart how to do it.

It was funny seeing everyone, even Rachel, helping to buckle up the back of the knee pads. I can't help but wonder if NHL players have to do this too or have they discovered a trick to getting these things on?

Look how big those pads are!

Here he is in full goalie get-up.

Nicholas played a little bit as goalie at the last practice session but has never played goalie in a game and has never even tried on this bulky goalie gear before now. It was a bit of a challenge just walking around getting used to it before the game. Fortunately, the coach also took some time before the game to teach Nicholas a few pointers.

Once the game started, Rachel was her usual self - either wandering away and having to be chased or wanting to be held and entertained the whole time. Both of which are distracting for a proud mama who just wants to watch the game.

Fortunately, Stuart got some pictures of a few pictures of Nicholas in the net.

And making a few good saves as he batted the puck away with his stick.

Watch out! Here they come!

Crash! Right into the goalie and everyone around them! Thanks goodness for all that extra goalie padding!

Here's a video of a save Nicholas made. Notice how long it takes him to get up on his feet with all of the gear on. Just a reminder though, this was his first time wearing the gear.

Most importantly, Nicholas is having fun and I'm proud of him for getting out of his comfort zone and trying something new. He said he might want to play goalie again because it was kind of fun.

Olivia Newton John and the Toothbrush Facial

2011-11-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

Rachel won't usually keep bows and headbands in her hair but this night she was excited to play with this pink headband. She did look kind of cute in it although it reminded me a bit of Olivia Newton John from back in the '80s.

Rachel is an independent little thing. She wants to brush her teeth all by herself but I insist that we "take turns". She can brush her teeth first but then Mommy wants a turn at brushing them too.

After brushing her teeth, she giggled as she decided to brush her cheek too.

And then she started giving herself a full facial with her toothbrush...which, by the way, still had toothpaste on it!

Learning About The Post Office

2011-11-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

We love playing outside with chalk in the driveway, especially on a beautiful fall day like this.

While we were out there, Rachel saw the mail truck approaching our house and she watched it as it stopped at each house.

We have a wonderful mail man who waves at us all the time. The kids love it!

Nicholas has always enjoyed checking the mail box.

When he brought the mail to me, Rachel started asking questions about the mail man and why he brought those envelopes and catalogs to us. So I spent some time talking with her about it. Shortly afterward, I stumbled upon the perfect book at a used book sale. It is by one of my favorite children's authors, Gail Gibbons, and it's called "The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves".

We read the book and then we set up a little post office in our front yard so the kids could pretend to be mailmen!

Each of them brought out a couple of stuffed animals and chairs and we set them up in their "home" complete with mail boxes.

Can't forget "Big Dog". I love this dog. Nicholas' Aunt Marinee and Uncle John sent him to Nicholas before he was ever born. I'm so glad that Nicholas treasures him as much as I do.

I grabbed some empty cereal boxes and other boxes that were about to head out to our recycle bin and wrapped them in shipping paper complete with "to" and "from" addresses filled in. I let the kids have a blast delivering mail, then pretending that they were picking up outgoing mail so they could bring it all back to the post office to re-sort.

Rachel loved it! We helped her read the names on the packages and she was off!

Nicholas has actually done this post office game in a playgroup when he was about Rachel's age. He loved it then but still had fun with it now.

Rachel discovered a rose bud and decided to go visit the whale family as she studied the bud and took it apart.

Love her curiosity about the world around her.

Nicholas was excited to sit with her and watch what she was doing and even talked to her some about buds and flowers. He is a good teacher!

As we were collecting the packages up for the last time, Rachel sneaked over to the front door and hunkered over as she unwrapped one of the packages. I guess she was thinking this whole time that they were real packages and there might be something in there for her. Poor thing. You know she was disappointed to find it was just a box of Rice-A-Roni...and empty at that!

Nicholas put one of the packages in the mailbox just so we could let her get it from the mailbox.

With Nicholas, I talked about every new experience to make sure that he understood what he saw and experienced each day. I want to do the same for Rachel so I was surprised that she didn't understand the mail service yet. Unfortunately I find that I miss these opportunities for teachable moments with her during the day. I think this is mostly because I'm so much busier and more distracted than when Nicholas was this age or else we're running late for something (probably some activity of Nicholas) and don't have time to just sit and talk about things. I'm so glad I was able to catch Rachel's moment of interest in the mail man and take that to another level to help her to learn more about the postal service.

Konos Stewardship: Macaroni Art

2011-11-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: Being a Good Steward of Our Body - NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun)

Since we've been studying how grains are an important food group, we decided to incorporate some grains into art work.

I gave Nicholas and Rachel each their own tray of various pastas.

Then armed with some colored paper and glue, they went to work on their masterpieces.

Nicholas was very precise and planned out his work before gluing anything down.

Rachel said that this is Dora and Boots in a car. Ummm, yeah. I see it!

I love the quiet concentration anytime we have art supplies out.

Here's Rachel's final piece. I imagine it will take a week or two for all of that glue to finally dry.

And Nicholas' masterpiece.

There is a robot at the top that runs on wheels. Those are antennae on his head, not horns! A dinosaur, a bike, and a race car on a track.

I love their creativity with such unusual art mediums!

Konos Stewardship: Grains

2011-11-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: Being a Good Steward of Our Body - NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun)

As part of our study on the grain food group, we made homemade bread. We used an awesome recipe for Anadama Bread from Family Fun magazine. I'm so thankful for my friend for telling me about it.

Ingredients

1 cup cold water
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, cut into several pieces
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 package (2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 cups (or more, plus extra for dusting) unbleached bread flour (see tip below)

Rachel helped with measuring the ingredients. It's hard to see in this picture but it was cute to watch her scoop the ingredients because she was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't realize that she opened her mouth wide each time she scooped.

It was a little messy but she is such a good helper!

Nicholas was chomping at the bit to help too so I let him measure the salt since it required a little more control.

Again, Rachel was very focused watching big brother do his task.

When Nicholas raised his arm up to pour the salt, Rachel subconsciously raised her arm up too! Isn't that funny?!

We mixed up our cornmeal, salt, and water to make a mush.

We simmered the mush in the stove for just a little bit until the cornmeal thickened slightly. We put it back in the mixing bowl.

Nicholas measured the molasses...

...and Rachel poured it. I love how my kids have so much fun in the kitchen with me but I do have to be sure to divide up the tasks equally or lips may pout.

We added the molasses and butter to the bowl of cornmeal mush and stirred. Then we let it cool off for about 10 minutes.

Next, we talked about the wonders of yeast. I explained that the yeast is active and alive but it is packaged in a dormant "sleeping" state.

Nicholas sprinkled the yeast over a 1/2 cup of warm water to help it wake up. We watched it for about 10 minutes as the yeast started getting foamy. I jokingly said that I could hear them all waking up and yawning and Nicholas put his head down to listen! Hee hee!

Then Rachel stirred the yeast into our cornmeal mush.

We used the mixer to slowly beat the flour into the cornmeal. Once the dough was forming a ball, Nicholas pulled it out of the mixer and put it on a floured surface where he and Rachel kneaded it for 10 minutes. It's good to have helpers!

We let the dough proof for about an hour and half while we went to play at the park. Here was our results when we returned home.

Nicholas loved the next step where he got to punch down the dough!

Then my little team kneaded the dough on the floured surface again for about a minute.

We used a rolling pin to shape the dough in a 12x9 rectangle then we rolled it up along the shorter end and put in the buttered 9x5 loaf pan. Nicholas covered it with plastic wrap and we let it proof again to double its size for about an hour while we worked on an art project.

Heat oven to 400 degrees with the oven rack one level below the center,remove the plastic wrap from the pan and place the bread in the oven. Turn the heat down to 375 degrees. Bake the bread until it starts to brown, about 30 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool thoroughly on a rack before slicing and serving.

The waiting to cool is definitely the hardest part of this recipe.

Yum!

Kid Puzzles Review

2011-11-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to have discovered these awesome handpainted wooden puzzles by Kid Puzzles. They are so beautiful and the quality is exceptional.

My little girl Rachel just turned 3 years old and she absolutely loves puzzles. She gets so excited when she fits a piece in its proper place.

We got rid of the big chunky wooden puzzles with knobs that she used last year because they were just too simple for her. All of the wooden puzzles I've seen lately are just too simple for her so I thought jigsaw puzzles were the only puzzle that would give her a challenge. I'm so glad I was wrong. Kid Puzzles offer just the perfect challenge for kids but still in that beautiful wooden puzzle style that I love so much.

These pictures are from the first time Rachel worked on this puzzle. She spent some time on it but was able to complete it with help on just one piece. As soon as she finished it, she dumpled the puzzle out on the table and started working on it again. I love how intensely she worked on it.

This puzzle has multiple pieces in one open frame. There are no pictures at the bottom to tell her where to put the pieces. She just has to start working from the edges and figure the rest out on her own.

Rachel is definitely challenged by the puzzle which is just what I was looking for. Puzzles are not only build cognitive, reasoning, and problem-solving skills which are so important for young developing brains but they also help to improve fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination. I love being able to offer a variety in the types of puzzles for my daughter to play with.

And of course, puzzles are just fun and a big confidence booster when the child finally solves it.

Check out the beautiful puzzles for yourself at www.kidpuzzles.com.

They make puzzles with knobs for younger children.

There are also some cute personalized step stools

My favorite is their new 3-D multi-later puzzles. Check this out!

Kid Puzzles are made with quality you don't find much these days and then handpainted in brilliant colors. Puzzles can be personalized with your child's name and will make excellent Christmas presents.

I was given the butterfly puzzle by Kid Puzzles so that Rachel could review it. I did not receive any other compensation. This review is completely genuine and the comments and opinions here are all my own.

Baking Up Some Memories and a Giveaway!

2011-11-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

What do you think of when I say "Betty Crocker"?

I think of the kitchen in the home I grew up in and making chocolate cupcakes with my mom. Yum! What fun and simple way to make memories with your kids.

My Blog Spark recently send me an wonderful prize pack which included these goodies! My favorite is the Betty Crocker brownie mix!

Well of course, my kids huddled in the kitchen with me and we baked up some warm brownies to enjoy on a cool Fall evening. I just love it when our house smells like chocolate but I really love making special memories with my kids in the kitchen.

Thanks Betty Crocker!

I'm also thankful that Betty Crocker partners with Box Tops for Education. Each Box Tops coupon is worth 10¢ for my daughter's preschool and as a previous Box Tops for Education coordinator for her school I can tell you that the money adds up quickly!

Be sure to enlist your children in collecting Box Tops for Education. Both of my children love looking over our groceries to help me spot the Box Top products and my son has always helped me with counting them.

It's easy to find Box Tops…in fact, you may have some in your home right now. They can be found on over 250 participating products, including all Betty Crocker® baking mixes, even the new Fun da-middles, cupcakes with a fun, creamy center (I can't wait to try these!). Schools have earned over $400 million through the Box Tops for Education® program since 1996, helping them to buy much-needed supplies, fund school programs and more. For more information, please visit the Box Tops for Education website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Now for the giveaway...

I'm giving away one prize pack identical to the one I received. To enter, take a look at the products on the Betty Crocker website and leave a comment here telling me which favorite Betty Crocker dessert mix you plan to purchase to collect Box Tops for Education for your child's school. Please include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win.

For additional entries, follow Better Crocker on Facebook and/or Twitter. Please leave a separate comment including your email address for each of these.

The contest will end on Sunday, November 13 at midnight CST. The winner will be selected by random at www.random.org and notified directly by email.

The Betty Crocker products, information, and giveaway have been provided to me by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.

The Need For A Paradigm Change in Education

2011-11-07T13:27:00.001-08:00

I just ran across this YouTube vidoe and it is fascinating. First, you have to get used to the animation and not let yourself get so absorbed in that piece that you don't listen to the speaker. It's a great message about the how the public education system is based on obsolete times, the need for a change in how we look at education, the importance of divergent thinking, thoughts on ADHD, and more. Wow!

Ooka Island Review

2011-11-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

Ooka Island is an early reading program for prescholers through 2nd grade. It consists of a downloadable program for your computer and an online subscription.

Through the game, your child plays with a customizable online character who navigates through various missions. There are training lessons to help your child understand the mission and then guided activities based on various educational components of phonics and reading. If your child struggles with a level, the program will continue to work with them on the same level but present the information in a different way to help them understand it. Once your child succeeds through the levels then free play is their reward and they get to play whatever games they want for a limited time before returning to the guided learning activities again.

There are 85 books and accompanying activities for reading comprehension.

We don't let the children use the computer much at all so both of my children were super excited when I told them they could play a game on the computer. I didn't tell them it was educational!

Rachel is 3 years old. She knows her ABC's in order but is still working on letter recognition. She did well through the first exercise on letter sounds. She loved this game most of all because your character rides in a cart through a mine shaft. Rachel called the cart a train and loved saying "Whoo! Whoo!" as she pretended to blow a whistle for her character.

There is a game where the character goes rock climbing up alphabet mountain and has to step on the letters of the alphabet in sequence. Rachel was able to tell me the next letter but she needed a little help knowing which letter to select.

This game allows the child to interact with it through the use of a mouse. I was surprised how well Rachel's hand was at controlling the mouse around the screen and clicking on what she wanted. I love that she is exposed to using a computer at such a young age, especially with fun educational programs like this.

After alphabet mountain, there was a fun skateboard game and she was so excited when her character got a celebration at the end of game.

On Ooka Island, your character is a hero on a mission - My son loves anything having to do with heroes and missions! But he also thought that the characters in the game were really cute.

Nicholas is seven years old and a good reader. He thought Ooka Island was a fun game. Actually, he asks to play it every day. Although he is a good reader, there were still some challenging parts to the game as he had to really think about the phonetic components of the words. I plan to use this with him as a supplement to reading and a review of some basic phonics. However, I also think this might be helpful for him in spelling which he struggles with a little.

He also loves that the program uses voice recognition in some activities to match sounds with letters. He thought that was really cool!

Pros:

~ I like that this one program covers all of the early years in reading and phonics. I know it will be something that continues to grow with Rachel as she continues to learn in these areas.
~ The program uses an innovative algorithm that adapts game play according to each child’s needs. If a child struggles with any skill being taught, they are rerouted to an activity where that same skill is presented in a different way. This pattern is repeated until the child has mastered the particular skill.
~ My children love the fun characters and the games were easy for my 3 year old to play with the mouse. It made learning fun for them. I was impressed with the graphics and songs as well.
~ It is a good way to review phonics for students who already understand the basics.
~ The voice recognition part of the games is unique to other educational games we have tried.
~ You can purchase actual hard copy versions of the books for your child to read on their own offline. I love this because we do so much reading in their rooms as we are snuggling up before bedtime.

Cons:

~ It took a little while to download the program since it was over a 2 GB file. Now for me, I'd say it was maybe a 20 minute download. In the world of a 3 year old, it was just taking FOREVER! But once it was downloaded, the installation went fine.
~ When we were starting the program for the first time, we accidentally skipped through the section where you can customize the character to look like yourself so we ended up with a boy with black hair which doesn't look anything like our kids. It doesn't affect the game at all but my kids would like to be able to change the way the character looks and I haven't found a way to go back and fix this.
~ We have a big computer monitor and I couldn't figure out how to maximize the program to full screen. I opened up a word program and let it run behind the game just to give a white background instead of our distractingly busy desktop wallpaper. It would be nice to be able to expand the program to full screen though.

Pricing

Ooka Island is only available for purchase on the Ooka Island website. Although you do download software to your computer, the game is run through an online subscription. There is pricing for 1 child, family of 4 children, and there are also school packages available.

Be sure to take advantage of a special promotion running right now! Just enter LAUNCHSPECIAL30 at checkout for 30% off!

You can also purchase the hard copy books. Here's a good sampling of the books.

And you can download some of their cute songs right HERE for free so your children can listen to them anytime.

Check out what other TOS Crew members had to say about Ooka Island by clicking HERE.

I was given a complimentary 6 month subscription to Ooka Island for the purpose of this review. I did not receive any other compensation and the opinions stated here are entirely my own.

Angry Birds Cake

2011-11-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Nicholas' Cub Scout den has a cake auction every Fall around Halloween. The scouts have to decorate the cakes and at the Pack meeting the cakes are judged in three categories - scariest, scoutiest, and funniest. All of the cakes get entered into a silent auction that takes place during the meeting. One of the Pack's alums is a professional auctioneer so some of the best cakes are pulled from the silent auction so that he can run a live auction on those. All of the money from the auction goes straight to the Pack for activities for the boys so it is really for a great cause.

Last year Nicholas made a scary cake. This year he decided he wanted to go with a funny cake based on his favorite game to play on our cell phones, Angry Birds.

Nicholas wanted to make the birds and pigs out of cake balls. I found the basic recipe for them and they are amazingly easy. Make a cake - something yummy but simple like my favorite, Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mix. Crumble the cake up into crumbs in a big bowl. Get a tub of frosting and mix about half of it into the cake crumbs. Then mix well with your hands.

It will feel kind of weird in texture but there is something fun about getting your hands all covered with cake and frosting.

Now take out little clumps of your mixture and roll them into balls. This is fun too!

Once you have your cake ball foundations made, chill them in the freezer for a little while to let them firm up.

Then melt some chocolate or candy coating and roll the balls around in them.

We found a great tool that can help with rolling them and removing them from the candy coating. We took two plastic forks and removed the center tines. It worked great without always stabbing the cake ball or wiping off the candy coating.

Remove the cake ball from the candy coating and set aside to harden.

Now you can eat them as is or you can decorate them in all kinds of fun ways!

In the game, these little green pigs steal the eggs of the red birds. The red birds get angry and throw themselves at the pig house via a sling shot. Nicholas set up a knocked down pig house with pretzel sticks and used a piece of Twizzler for the angry bird sling shot.

The cake was quite popular and Nicholas won first prize for funniest cake. The cake even made it to the auctioneer for the live auction.

....somehow we ended up bidding on our own cake again this year. Nicholas just has so much fun making these that it's hard to let it go to someone else....plus that darn auction fever will get me every time!

Of course, the first thing the kids wanted to eat when we got home were the cute little cake balls. We're definitely making those again!

Scooters at the Park

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

I love spending sunny days at the park.

We all enjoy the fresh air outdoors and the kids get to burn off some of the boundless energy!

They like riding their scooters around.

They ride through the woods...

...and around the playground.

Nicholas is really good on his and zips all over the place.

Rachel tries to keep up and be cool just like her big brother and she'll be able to catch up with him soon.

Sometimes Rachel gets tired and just prefers to walk along the side of her scooter. She won't let me carry it for her because it HER scooter!

When they are done scootering around, we like to walk in the woods.

Rachel was so excited to cross a little puddle on this makeshift bridge that we found...that is, until she actually stepped out on it and then she grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her.

Our friends built this awesome tree house way up in the trees. I love it!

We always love to explore the creek bed while we're there.

We've been coming here since Nicholas was really little. What sweet memories of this park.

Learning About Recycling at IESI Recyling Is Fun Day

2011-11-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

We recently visited IESI in McKinney to learn about recycling.

They opened their facilities to the public and hosted a free educational event called "Recycling Is Fun Day".

There was an electric train that carried us from the parking lot to the facility.

The kids loved it!

The train dropped us off at the back of the property where all the recycling action takes place. There was a long row of booths set up from businesses and organizations in the community to help us learn more about reducing, reusing, and recycling to protect and conserve our environment.

We started at the first booth where the kids were given little passports that they could get stamped at each booth they visited. At the end, they could turn in their passports for a prize!

There was a great exhibit by the Texas Agri-Life Extension that demonstrated how important ground cover is to prevent run-off of water and soil. There was a tray of concrete, bare soil, mulched soil with plants, and lawn grass. There were spouts at the bottom that dripped run-off into other containers underneath so we could study the amount of water and soil that was running off. It was a great way to show how a healthy yard and properly prepared flower beds can better use and retain water and soil.

We took a peek inside the recycling facility.

My kids loved watching all of the newly delivered recycling material getting pushed around and scooped up.

IESI has a new, $1 million optical sorter, which is used to scan plastic to determine the kind of plastic and in which category of plastics it is to be placed. Other conveyer belts separated cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum into their own sections as well.

I was amazed at the mass amounts of paper and junk mail that just kept piling out of the sorter.

We talked about this diagram which shows a simplified explanation of what happens to trash and recyclable materials once it leaves your home.

We headed back outside to visit more booths. We learned a lot about conserving water.

We saw an exhibit which clearly showed how much healthier plant roots are when they receive deep, infrequent watering vs. frequent shallow watering.

We played bowling with re-used 2 liter bottles.

The kids loved this following activity and kept going back to it over and over again.

There were buckets of water with fish and pieces of trash. They had to use the grabber tools to pull the trash out of the "lake" in order to save the fish. Super cute idea and a great way to demonstrate the importance of putting litter in its proper place.

Rachel made a caterpillar craft out of an egg carton.

Nicholas made a cyclops creature from another planet.

The McKinney Fire Department was there to teach us about fire safety and handed out some cool things for the kids.

We loved looking at all of the different bundles of recycled materials out front.

This bundle is just plastic water bottles.

Here is a bundle of cans.

We had a great time visiting the facility and all of the booths. The kids returned their passports and were given these cool re-usable drink bottles filled with cold lemonade.

Downtown McKinney

2011-11-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

After our fun morning at the IESI Recyling is Fun Day, we headed to downtown McKinney for some lunch.

We walked around the square until we finally decided on a little restaurant called Sauce. We ate outside on the patio. The weather was beautiful and the food was delicious.

Nicholas has claimed this to be his new favorite restaurant. He's pretty serious about his spaghetti and meat sauce!

Before we left, we went back inside the restaurant to wash up. I love this beautiful piece of artwork on the wall made from painted plates. Wow!

As we walked around the square some more, the kids stopped to check out this old tractor.

Several years ago, I remember taking Nicholas to a little popcorn shop in the square and I was excited to find it once again. It's called Mom and Pop Corn.

They don't just sell popcorn! They sell 45 different flavors of popcorn!

Plus tons of other old-fashioned treats.

I let each of them pick one small bag of flavored popcorn and one piece of candy. Needless to say the decision was a tough one.

Nicholas tried to sneak in this as his one piece of candy! That's a whole pound of Sugar Daddy!

I picked a piece of homemade fudge from the case at the back of the store. It was so good!

We headed back to the car and Nicholas loved this little statue he saw. He asked me to take this picture for him. Super cute!

They munched on their popcorn in the car. I'm afraid the carpet in the van has never been quite so sticky after that decision!

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina

2011-11-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

Since we were already in the north part of the Metroplex, we decided to hop over to Celina to visit the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm.

There were pumpkins but the kids had the most fun feeding and petting the animals on the farm.

They started with feeding the cows. I really didn't expect them to actually hold the food long enough for the cow to eat it but they both did!

I love the look of excitement on Rachel's face at what she had just done.

And I'm so proud of Nicholas. He is sometimes skiddish when he gets close to animals and these were big animals. But he fed the big cow like a pro!

They both fell in love with the sheep and goats who were all sticking their heads out of the fence trying to get your attention for a piece of food.

There were no shortages of animals to feed. They were all clean and friendly with the children.

Nicholas made friends with this black sheep and fed most of his food to him.

I loved watching him have a little conversation with the white sheep who tried to get a little bite of food too. Nicholas gave him some but politely explained that he was going to feed the black sheep some more and he would just have to wait his turn.

Rachel did great with hand feeding the animals.

She enjoyed petting them and talking sweetly to them all.

I loved just watching her look at the animals as she checked them out.

And then to watch her expressions change as they did something cute.

We hopped on the hay ride for a tour around the property.

My little guy with his new tooth coming in!

The hay ride was nice and relaxing.

There were fun hay bales to see such as pumpkins...

...and this giant spider!

Oh how I love this little guy!

He's growing up way too fast but he'll always be my baby!

I tried to get a picture of the kids together but Rachel just insisted on making silly faces the whole time.

Admission to the farm includes a small pumpkin for each kid to take home. There wasn't much selection left at this time in the season but the kids seemed to enjoy looking at every single pumpkin for just the right one.

Time to go! Rachel grabbed one and hurried along.

The perfect pumpkin!

The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm is located at 5518 County Rd #126 in Celina. Admission is $7. Price includes hay ride, feed for the animals, and a small or mid-sized pumpkin. Hours are M-F: 9-6, Sat: 10-6, Sun: 12-6 through the first week in November.

Konos: Stewardship - Where Food Comes From

2011-11-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: Being a Good Steward of Our Body - NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun) - Where food comes from

We're into our next unit of Konos studies which is Stewardship. For the first part of this unit we will discuss how God has given man dominion over His creations, how man produces and grows food, and how to be a good steward of our bodies. We will review the four food groups, study the six food nutrients, learn about healthy vs unhealthy foods, exercise regularly and learn about the muscles of the body.

We reviewed the basic food groups and I pulled together some of their play food to let Nicholas do a hands-on exercise of sorting the foods into the correct food groups. We don't have many proteins so we had to make do with fried chicken and chicken nuggets which he kept saying was partially protein and partially grain because of the breaded coating. He likes to be precise!

We've been learning about where food comes from, how vegetables are grown, cattle raised, and dairy products made.

We went outside and talked about our own tomatoes that we are growing on the side of the house.

I found this great "How It's Made" video on You Tube that explained how sugar is made.

In the produce section at our grocery store, I found some real sugar cane.

It's funny to find it packaged like this. Back home in South Louisiana this stuff is grown in fields and around harvest time you can find lots of cut cane along the side of country roads that have fallen off the truck as it takes the cane from the field to be processed. I remember my Dad picking some up for us to sample. It was fun to let Nicholas try it, even if it had to be packaged and shipped to Texas for him to try it.

Nicholas spent some time just studying the cane.

I cut it open so we could study it further.

Nicholas chewed on a piece and seemed disappointed when he didn't instantly get a sugar fiz. It took him a few minutes but then he gave me a thumbs up to let me know that he had figured out how to get to the sweet sugary juice inside the cane.

It's amazing to study how food gets from its natural form to the processed result that ends up on our table.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween and the kids looked cute as ever. Nicholas was a Ninja and Rachel was Minnie Mouse.

Rachel didn't seem to remember much about Halloween from last year so it all seemed kind of new to her this year. We had a few visitors to our house before we went out to do our own trick-or-treating. We explained to Rachel that she was supposed to give the piece of candy to the little boy. She did it but I don't think she really understood why she was giving such a yummy treat to this kid at our house.

However, once we got out and she did a little trick-or-treating of her own, she quickly caught on when she realized that there was candy loot in it for her. She was bold and felt fine going up to doors on her own even if Nicholas wasn't right beside her. She knew her lines,"Trick-or-Treat" and "Thank You" perfectly.

We went trick-or-treating with a really sweet friend of Nicholas' and her mom. It was a lot of fun and I loved that Nicholas realized that they were both dressed in a Japanese theme since he was a Ninja and she was a Geisha. They have a big crush on each other and it is just so cute to watch them together!

Everyone came home with a fine collection of sugary treats.

But I particularly loved these silly glasses that they both got at one of the houses. Rachel really looked funny in them!

Of course, they nibbled on some goodies before getting a good tooth brushing. A few more pieces may have mysteriously disappeared during the night.

We also had some fun experiments with some of the leftover candy. Check out my post at Quirky Momma on Science Experiments with Candy.

Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

We went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch for our annual fall fun. I usually dread this outing because it dusty or hot or the kids are acting up or it's packed out the wazoo but this year the outing was perfectly wonderful! We went early during the week, the weater was nice, no wind, and the kids were fed and well-behaved.

We always start in the little hay maze for kids. Rachel had fun figuring out which way to go.

Nicholas spent most of his time just trying to keep up with Rachel! It was easier for him though since he's tall enough to look over the maze path from above.

Rachel was thrilled with all the wooden cut-outs of her favorite characters.

"Hi Piglet!"

As always they played on the trains.

They were even nice to each other and shared the driver's seat!

"Choo! Choo!" He's still a little boy, isn't he?

I asked Rachel to pose with Dora since this is one of her favorite characters. She didn't really understand what I meant because she just kept standing BEHIND Dora. I love this picture of Rachel's little fingers poking out the top of Dora's big purple hat!

A sad little ghost. I don't know why she looked so sad

Nicholas and Elmo made a cute pair as they both said "Boo!" to people that passed by.

There was a lot of aimless running around by all involved. Go ahead and burn off that energy. Nap time is coming!

They love Toy Story and spent a lot of time with these guys. Which one of these is Buzz Lightyear???

Rachel tried to imitate Jessie the Cowgirl too but just ended up looking silly...and cute!

Here's the whole gang! Rachel thought it was cool to stand between Jessie and Woody.

We have to get this picture every year just to see how they kids have grown from last year. Wow, he's tall!

I think this is the first picture that I've gotten of Rachel here where she is actually standing up in front of the ruler. In the past, she would run away as soon as I'd get her in position. Hooray for age 3!

I love this picture of Nicholas scaring Shaggy! It worked out perfectly!

Both kids walked by The Flintstones and said, "Who are they, Mom?" Funny that such classic shows from our childhood are already lost to this generation.

But not The Smurfs. Somethings do come back around to let the next generation meet them. Rachel loves the little blue people.

Oh no! The witch has cooking the boy in her witch's brew!

Of course, she had to have a turn in the witch's pot too!

I love that both of the kids played well together and enjoyed exploring and looking around at everything.

Nicholas requested that I take this picture with the giant pumpkin he found.

We went over to the giant play area and the kids played on this old fashioned playground ride that spins around in a circle.

You simply can not find this ride anywhere else in our area. It was a lot of fun to ride on when I was little but I'm sure there are concerns about safety with kids falling off as it spins quickly around or even a child that is on the ground pushing it could fall under it and get hurt. *sigh*

What fun they are though!

I did worry a little about Nicholas as he ran around while pushing it. They got it going really fast and I could just see him falling and getting hurt or even trampled by the kid behind him. But how many times have we played on these and not gotten hurt? And he was having so much fun!

Off to the bounce houses and obstacles courses!

Rachel spent most of her time on the slides.

I love this happy face!

Wheeeeeee!

Mommy, look how high I am!!!!

Lots of tunnels to play in.

Nicholas came over and joined in the fun.

He tried to keep Rachel still for a posed picture. She was very squirmy and just wanted to go slide again.

I pulled them in wagons through the pumpkin patch.

They love this giant pumpkins with lots of doors and windows to play with.

One tough boy.....ahem, playing with the giant orange pumpkin.

One sweet girl opening and closing every door she could.

Smile!

Where's Nicholas??? Yep, he's still little :)

Such cuteness! I just love spending every day with my little blessings.

Rachel wouldn't pose with Nicholas so I was going to just take a picture of her by herself. But Nicholas figured out a way to get in the picture too. Pretty creative and it turned out to be a cute picture.

We took the hay ride around the farm. I love that we still have horses and cattle in our town even though it has grown exponentially since we moved here.

The hay ride was a good thing to do right before leaving. It seemed to calm everyone down a bit which is just what I was hoping for before trying to get them loaded back in the van to leave.

Even the little squirmy one was sitting still just looking all around.

Good-bye Pumpkin Patch! See ya next year.