Field Trips Galore . . . Carnegie Science Center!

We had a busy week, so I'm going to share some highlights before doing a wrap-up of the rest of the week, so you'll have to be patient :)

Last week my husband had classes in Pittsburgh so we tagged along.

Wednesday the girls and I spent all day at Carnegie Science Center. The best part, Little Bit's old enough to really enjoy the whole museum, instead of just the "little kid" area now!

As always, our first stop was the Sportsworks building. It's a separate building full of trampolines, rock climbing, etc. Conveniently, during the school year, it's generally pretty deserted, especially early in the day, and Lexie and Ashlyn LOVE it.  During previous visits, Little Bit found very little to do there, so we had to balance needs, this time, not only was she tall enough and heavy enough for most things, but she was willing to try them as well!

We headed to the trampoline first, because if there's ANYBODY else there, the line gets long fast.  It's a big trampoline with a harness thing so that you can do flips and such. . .  I think the big girls discovered that height can have it's disadvantages, they seemed to have a harder time flipping than they used to. Little Bit was too nervous to flip, but she DID jump, so it's a start. And she had fun, because she went back later to do it again :)

There's a "Body Zone" thing where you go on a simulated journey through the body. Unfortunately, when they tried it, the video wasn't working, and I guess bouncing around in a dark box with sounds, but no video was kind of freaky, so she wasn't willing to try it again until later. My big girls are brilliant, however. In the main museum there was a display that taught about surgery, Little Bit was enjoying it (her favorite, "zapping" wet spots in a diabetic's eye with the laser), and her sisters pointed out that, if she'd go on the body zone ride she could SEE the parts of the body that the surgery exhibits were talking about.

The human yo-yo's always a hit, even when she was little she liked it.

All three girls took turns racing against each other on the sprint track. Although crocs aren't great running shoes and they said the floor was rough so it hurt to run barefoot.

And then the rock climbing . . . THIS one, being taller definitely helped, the big girls looked much more effortless as they climbed this time. . . and, after watching for awhile, Little Bit decided to try as well. She didn't try to go all the way to the top, but she tried . . . it's a start :)

After our fun at Sportsworks we headed to the main museum. Again, there was a real difference in how much Little Bit got into things. She would have happily spent most of the day building mountains of sand for the water to run between (it WAS fascinating . . . just a table of sand with a special light over top of it, but somehow the light could sense and make it "rain" and all the water (just blue light) would run down the hills/mountains into the valleys, and if it "rained" enough the hills turned green . . . it was cool!)

The big girls took another turn with the astronaut exhibit, but said the harnesses really hurt their legs, so they didn't spend very long with that.  There was also a space exhibit where you sat or lay on a wheeled thing and had to pull yourself along the side of the "space station" and hook and unhook things. The big girls did well with that, Little Bit was still too small for the laying down one, but had fun with the sitting one.


As already mentioned, the surgery exhibit was a hit too. Little Bit liked the eye surgery, and brain surgery. The big girls were most challenged by the endoscope exhibit.

There was a building thing that all the girls played with for awhile, bit blue foam blocks. . . and then we headed into the little kid area for a little while.

Finally we headed back to Sportsworks to re-visit the exhibits there before we had to leave. Little Bit did go in the Bodyzone thing that time, and liked it.

AND this time there was somebody at the Unicycle thing. The big girls have eyed it longingly for the 5 or so years that we've been visiting this museum. It's a unicycle on a track way up high over everything. Counterbalanced so it can't fall . . . you ride it out and back, but you have to be tall enough to sit on the seat and reach the pedals and last time they were just a tad to short (the "test" is a seat mounted to the floor that you have to be able to straddle and have feet flat on the floor). This time they were tall enough, but when we were there first thing, nobody was there to let them ride it.  The verdict after riding it, Lexie's complaint was that it didn't go fast enough, Ashlyn found it kind of scary.

A busy, but fun day! Still definitely one of our favorite museums, and awesome that now all the girls enjoy the same exhibits!

Finally Wrapping Up Last Week

Whew! All of a sudden life got BUSY! And, just to make life more exciting, just as it got super busy . . . I finally succumbed to the cold that everyone else in my family had the last couple of weeks, sigh . . .

We had agreed to bring a pie to a Sabbath School meeting/supper on Sabbath, and Lexie had found a recipe for French Silk Pie and decided to make that, so I suggested that she make a trial run of it early in the week to make sure it would turn out ok. So she spent the better part of Sunday playing in the kitchen, making pie and it seems like other things too, but I don't remember what. She attempted a whole wheat pie crust, and the recipe was, apparently, not clear on the need to roll pie crust THINLY so that combination made for a not ideal crust, but the pie itself turned out well, and it's easy enough to buy a refrigerated crust, much as it pained her to do so LOL.

I feel like Monday was busy too, but I have zero recollection of what we did . . . how sad is that . . . and my internet connection is running slow so I'm not even going to attempt to download the past week's pictures and see if they jog my memory . . . (if there are some amazing pictures in there you'll get a separate "pictures" post once the internet is behaving better).

 By Tuesday I was coming down with the cold, and desperately needing to NOT be sick, so I took it super easy on Tuesday in hopes of kicking it before it got hold . . . I did manage to keep it LESS though I definitely wasn't feeling great.

Wednesday we had Bible Study group and, more importantly, the girls had plans to teach the little kids the play on Gideon that they had written, so they could all perform it, not only for our Bible study group, but also in church on Sabbath. . .

And so . . . we went to Bible Study. And the kids had a blast, and performed their play to delight us all, so it was well worth it :)

Thursday was music lessons and errands and Lexie had a busy afternoon making the pie for Sabbath, and also doing any other possible ahead-of-time food prep, knowing we'd be gone all day Friday and all day Sabbath. . .

Friday we finally made it to Grandmom's house to celebrate Christmas. She was sick most of the winter, and just as she was feeling better, the kids, and then Rodney, had colds and we didn't want to spread germs.

Sabbath was our truly busy day. The kids performed their play in church. Lexie got abit of a panic when, just before they were supposed to do the play, K & T said they were too nervous to do it. Their grandpa talked them into it, but they decided they didn't want to do costumes, so Lexie went with it.  I video'd it, but haven't downloaded it to see how it turned out, so I may post it at some point if they agree :)

After church was "Jeans Sabbath". We're reviving a ministry of playing games and doing crafts at the girls and boys club downtown, so, since it was raining, we helped with that instead of passing out lunches, etc. downtown like we usually do. L&A enjoyed helping the kids do crafts. The only downside I saw was that it wasn't really an "outreach" for Little Bit, she just played in the gym. So we shall see, I think we'll mostly lean more toward taking things downtown since the big girls enjoy both outreaches and that one also allows Little Bit to feel like she's a part of "helping", but this is another great ministry.

The rain let up and some people were taking lunches downtown after our time at the boys & girls' club, but we couldn't stay for that because we needed to get home in time to go to the Sabbath School Teachers' meeting.

We got home, got Lexie's pie, and headed over. Since Saturday was the pi day of the century (3/14/15), and our host is a math guy, we had a "pi" theme with round pizzas and round pies :) The dads and kids made the pizza while the moms/teachers talked about next quarter's Sabbath School schedule and programs. We had a fun evening visiting and eating yummy food, and I think Ashlyn even snuck in a math lesson from Jeff while I was busy in the teachers' meeting :) As a bonus, one of the teachers mentioned that she has a bunch of props she still needs to make, so next week the girls get to help her paint props and such. My craft-loving kids are thrilled :)

And that's the end of last week . . . so far things have been equally busy this week, but you'll have to wait till next week to hear about that :)  Needless to say, the week was rather light on "school" but since we're well past 180 days, I can stress even less than usual about such things :) Plus, while we may not have had much of our normal school stuff, things like helping kids learn a play, or helping toddlers and preschoolers "make pizza" are all great learning experiences too :)

Wrapping Up the First Week of MarchI

I am officially SICK AND TIRED of winter! Just sayin . . . 

I feel like our entire week was involved in trying to plan around ice storms and snow storms, sigh . . . we fit school in as we could. 

Lexie and Ashlyn are creating a play to teach Little Bit and her friends, and perform together in church next week, so they put a bunch of time into that this week. They were hoping to have their first "rehearsal" on Wed night at Bible study, but the potential icy roads lead to cancelling Bible study that night. Lexie and Little Bit did get the "clay pots" ready (the story is Gideon and his army). By painting paper cups brown. 

I have to admit, Wednesday night, I was starting to think the predictions were, once again, wrong . . . the weather reports seemed to indicate that Wednesday's rain would switch to snow by midnight or so and we'd get lots of snow during the night and a little more on Thursday. But I went to bed to above freezing temperatures, and rain . . . and when the cats woke me up around 3am it was STILL raining . . . I figured we'd gotten most of our precipitation as rain instead of snow and the snow would be a non-event. . . I was WRONG!!! 

It started snowing sometime after the cats woke me up and by morning everything was white again. It continued to snow ALL DAY. It's hard to figure out how much we got, when there was already snow on the ground most places, but considering what I had to shovel and clear off the cars, we got a good 6+ inches. 

After breakfast I suggested that Lexie put a bowl out to catch snow, on the off chance that we'd get enough for snow ice cream.  A few hours later, she brought it back in, not only full, but rounded over! Needless to say, PLENTY for snow ice cream, YUM!

Since Thursday's music lessons had, obviously, not happened due to snow, we did music lessons on Friday. Even so . . . we left for lessons on snow-covered roads, but found the roads clear as soon as we got out on well-traveled roads . . . only to find that the roads were much worse near the music teacher's house. Enough so, that I decided not to risk continuing in on to the farm where we get milk & eggs (about 20 min beyond music lessons, normally I go while the girls have lessons). By the time we left lessons, things had melted quite a bit, despite the super cold temperatures (it was sunny, just really cold), so I did make it to the farm for the week's milk and eggs before heading home.

Little Bit enjoyed having Daddy around more than usual this week (he was fighting a cold AND all the bad roads meant he worked from home more than usual), and took advantage of it to con Daddy into playing dress-up. Isn't he an awesome Daddy to humor her so!!! 

Don't forget to check out my online Jamberry Party. This is the last week it's open. Such a fun way to have pretty spring nails!!! Lexie especially liked having her fingers match her dress so perfectly for church this week :) 

Think Spring . . . With Pretty Spring Nails!!

I've seen people online talking about Jamberry Nails for awhile now, but I have to admit, I didn't really pay attention until my friend, Amy became a consultant.

When we were at her house last week, she let each of my girls choose a sample nail and showed them how to apply them.  These are SO COOL!!!

There are hundreds of designs to choose from! It would take a really good nail artist to do designs like this on your nails! You can do all your nails the same, mix and match designs, many of them coordinate wonderfully. Or you can do as my girls did, and add one accent nail in a fun print and then paint the rest of your nails a coordinating color. With that method, a sheet of Jamberries would last a LONG time!

We got home and Lexie and Ashlyn were immediately browsing the Jamberry site, making a (really long) list of all the fun designs they like.

I'm intrigued by the claim that these will stay on fingernails for up to two weeks. I love nail polish, and my toes are normally painted, but I gave up, years ago, on bothering with painting my fingernails because it seems like as soon as I get them painted, they're chipped and jagged looking. If I could take a few minutes to apply Jamberries, with ZERO dry time, by the way! And then have decent looking nails for two weeks! Count me in!

Little Bit loves the fun Jamberry Juniors, perfect for little nails!

I love that the site includes a "Mommy and Me" section so that I can easily find the Juniors and full size Jamberries that coordinate. How fun to have matching manicures!

So, as you can see, we're sold on these! There are so many benefits!

• Much cheaper than professional manicures
• No dry time!
• Easy to apply, all you need is a hair dryer and a nail file.
• No nasty chemicals (I hate it when our whole house smells like nail polish for hours after the girls have painted their nails)
• Fun, intricate designs, I could never paint flowers or kittens on my nails!
• Right now, if you order 3 sheets, you get a 4th sheet free! Who doesn't LOVE free stuff?!?!?! 

Right now I'm hosting an online party on facebook. When you order through the  "LaRee's Party" box, I get credit as the hostess of the party. If you'd like an invite to the facebook event, where Amy shares tons of tips, information and pretty pictures, just let me know your facebook name (in the comments, or e-mail me at lareehs@gmail.com) and I'd be glad to send you an invite! 

The "party" closes in a little over a week, so don't wait!  And don't forget to take advantage of the Buy 3, get one FREE deal!

In Like a Lion . . .

Come over to the SDA Homeschool Blog to see the fun calendar activity we're enjoying this month!

First Day of March . . . in Pictures . . .

March came in like a lion for sure . . . snow all day long!

Our timeline keeps growing . . .

Moccasin's current favorite spot, a box of paper by the piano . . . 

It amused me to no end that Lexie's new spelling quote today was about March (the book spans multiple years and couldn't have been set up to have it be planned)

 Lunch preparations

Snowy days mean collecting snow for snow ice cream.

MiLady seems to think Rodney's Grace Outlet Sweatshirt is laying on the bed just for her benefit

Cold Sundays are perfect for watching Nascar.

Lexie decided a cold snowy day was a good time to reorganize the spice cabinet.

Time to work on supper . . . 

 Showing off her fun Jamberry nails!

I'm linking up to First Day

Wrapping Up the Last Week of February

If February is over, that means spring has to be here soon right? Sure no sign of it around here yet, sigh . . . though a friend said she DID see some little spring flower shoots peaking out a few places where the snow actually melted all the way to the ground.

This week Little Bit started a new curriculum, she hasn't been very into school, and while I'm happy to wait until she's ready, I also want to make sure that it's not just become a "habit" to let school happen around her, because it always has. . .

When I was looking on Schoolhouse Teachers (aff) for some options for the big girls for next year, I found a cute, Charlotte Mason Preschool for Jan-June.

Before we left for my parents' house I asked Little B it about it and she liked the idea, so, once we were back home, we started on the January theme (Snow and Ice . . . .seems appropriate, given how snowy it still is, sigh . . . )

She is LOVING it! The first day we happily went on a nature walk to use all our senses to learn about winter. As a fun added treat, there were deer tracks ALL OVER our back yard! I'd noticed, when I got up to make coffee that morning, that there were 2 trees laying under the big bush in our back yard, but apparently when I wasn't watching they also wandered all over. While we'll be much less thrilled with deer in our yard this summer (but we're hoping that the farmers' fields that surround our land provide plenty of better options for the deer in the summertime.

Little Bit continues to baffle me with her love of writing. So after our nature walk she came in and painstakingly asked me to spell things while she wrote about all 5 senses on our walk.

We're also learning a poem, and she's copying it, a couple lines per day, as copywork, and Lexie's been reading her books about winter/snow each morning.

Even BETTER, on Monday, for school, we made playdough! She was soo excited. Somewhere I have blue glitter, and my plan was to make peppermint scented, uncolored, playdough and add blue glitter to make it somewhat ice & snow-like, but before I found the blue glitter she found pink glitter, so we had pink glitter in our peppermint playdough.  She's LOVING it!

Meanwhile the big girls are continuing with all our normal school stuff, doing more and more of it independently, which is timing out nicely to allow me the time to do school stuff with Little Bit now.

Another day, as I walked by the bathroom window, I saw a deer RIGHT outside the window. I think it was because that one area had actual grass showing. I called the girls to come see and pretty soon a second deer came out from behind the garage and started heading over our way too. Soo cool (since it's not garden season)!

On Wednesday, we spent a fun afternoon sledding with friends. After a solid month or more of snow and freezing and slight thawing and then freezing again, our friend's hill was PERFECT for sledding. The kids went on FOREVER . . . and burned off tons of energy having to hike all the way back up the hill with their sleds.  Little Bit had a run-in with a blackberry bush, but otherwise, it was great fun! Followed by more fun playing inside.  My friend, Amy is a consultant for Jamberry Nails, so while we were there, she let the girls each pick a sample one and do an accent nail. They LOVE them (I have to admit, they're pretty cool! Especially come summer when I can show off pretty toes . . . I'm not fully convinced that they'd stay on my fingernails for long, I tend to pick at nail polish whenever I attempt to put it on my nails). We finished it off with all the kids putting on a play (that Lexie & Ashlyn wrote awhile back, adapted, on the fly, for more kids) not only for us moms, but for our whole Bible study group.

During music lessons on Thursday, Little Bit's school continued with snow-themed pattern blocks. We haven't had those out in awhile, she still enjoys them! And branched out even more during church this week, creating her own designs without a pattern.

We ended our week, with the girls having coughs that kept us from getting to go visit Grandmom on Friday, and kept Lexie home from church on Sabbath. But, considering all the nasty sicknesses I've heard about this winter, we seem to have gotten off easy.

Now if spring would just hurry up and come!!! But after a whole day of snow today, it still seems a ways off, sigh . . .