Getting Down and Derby

This was Kaleb’s first Pinewood Derby and he did an amazing job.  He came in 2nd place.  The 1st place rival was our neighbor (whose car we actually built too.  Seriously,  did we really build the neighbor kids car better than our own son’s).

Kirk was one of the official “car setters”. 

Kaleb’s arch-nemisis

Grandpa got out his old pinewood derby cars for a quick race and guess who won… yep, Kaleb!  In grandpa’s defense, his car had not been graphited  

Katelyn loved watching Kaleb’s car race and would give me a high five when his car won.

The other two kiddos loved these treats I found from here. http://http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/01/pinewood-derby-treat-cars.html

(1 Twinkie + 2 oreos= derby treat)

And the precious pinewood derby car.  Kaleb says he wants to do this again next week.  Maybe he and the neighbor kid should built a track and have a face off. 

I made each boy a drivers license with a picture of their own car as their participation award. 

We had a great time and are looking forward to it next year. 

February adventures

Here is what we have been up to.

Kaleb is now a cubscout and is doing his flag duty.  He doesn’t officially turn 8 until March but since we recruited all the neighbor boys to cubscouts and I help with den meetings we slipped him right in.  He earned his first award, his Bobcat, and had to bob for apples to get show us he was worthy.  Now it’s on to Pinewood Derby.

Katelyn and Kaleb were part of Cavalcade this year.  They worked hard on their duet parts, and sounded great when they performed with the other 20 piano dueters.  We are glad Cavalcade is over and Kaleb is now learning new songs. 

For several weeks we have been anxiously waiting for Katelyn’s caterpillars to turn to butterflies.  At last the day came and we set them free. 

Emma and Carter’s new favorite thing is to go downstairs and beg Grandma and Grandpa to take them to the duck park.  They pack up the bird seed, car seats, and children and head to the park about once a week.  The kids love to catch a ride on Grandma’s walker.  They usually stop off at McDonalds for a little treat too.  Grandparents are the best. 

Every month we go to Extreme Air for the homeschool day.  The kids love to play dodge ball, get themselves stuck on the velcro wall, or just bounce around. 

I know this picture is so blurry, but how could I leave out this handsome guy stuffed into a velcro suit.

This month we have been studying machines and how they work so we scheduled a field trip to Pima Air Space Museum to check out the airplanes.  Do you remember the movie “Can’t Buy Me Love” when they go to the airplane graveyard, well this is it!

Also, did you know if you are an education group of any kind, and call ahead,  you can get in for free.  That just saved us $50- Sweet!

carter riding his bike

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.2

Some homeschool perks…

1.  Getting into the State Fair a couple of hours before everyone else-AWESOME!

We fed butterflies in the Butterfly Garden

Petting farm starring a kangaroo (no pics=fast kangaroo)

Enjoyed 3 free rides for reading books

The kids had such a great time and were so exhausted that they fell asleep while sharing a stroller.

2. One day when we were suppose to be doing History we put this 1000 piece puzzle together (almost 2x’s because Emma got a hold of it)

3.  We started the Christmas Holiday off by going to the Phoenix Symphony for their Christmas Concert.  It was a lot of fun with ballet dancers, and sing a longs.

4.  Our favorite field trip in the last month was “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” play.  We read the book last year and loved the play just as much.

Happy Halloween

 

Katelyn made most of her costume this year.  It was awesome.  I would send the material with her to sewing class and it would come back all finished.  Way to go Katelyn!

Buzz was carrying his girlfriend Jessie’s candy bucket too.  Buzz insisted on having black lines under his eyes like Kaleb.  After we went trick or treating he sampled tons of candy including  1/2 of a sucker that he put on the counter to save for later.  I didn’t know he meant to save so I threw it away.   The next morning Carter inquired about his sucker and I told him I threw it away.  He was so disgruntled and told me “you are not a good mom.” 

Kaleb scored big on the candy.  Go Cougars!  This was an authentic costume that we borrowed from our BIL who use to play for BYU.

We also hosted a Halloween party with several homeschool families.  We played a relay where each person had to race and find the spiders in the noodles, played the candy bar game, and the mystery bag game, where you guess the object in the bag just by feeling it, and made edible mummies.  Boy was I glad when Halloween was over. 

 

California Beach House

Every summer when I was growing up, my family camped on the beach in California.  Several years ago we tried it with our kids and I realized what saints my parents were because I vowed to never to it again (at least until they are older).  This year my parents  decided to restart the tradition but modify it a little.  We stayed in a house right on the beach and LOVED it! 

We were in heaven with the beach out our back door, amazing ocean views while cooking dinner INSIDE, watching dolphins in the morning,

staying warm by the  fire and eating  s’mores, and best of all… coming inside when we had had enough, taking a shower, and sleeping in a bed. 

Carter didn’t want to come home to AZ and still talks about getting rid of our house and getting a new one on the beach,  I agree!

Mostly we just hung out at the beach, collecting shells, building sand castles, boogie boarding, and enjoying everything else about the beach.  (Although much to Kirk’s dismay I never got completely in the water, maybe next year.  In my defense, it was cold.)

I would  highly recommend the Mormon Battalion.   It is super interactive and entertaining, and at the end of your “tour” you get to pan for gold.

San Diego Temple

Kaleb always has to make things a little more exciting.

Are you wondering why I am on Kirk’s shoulders??? Me too!  Actually this is Kirk’s old stomping grounds from his mission and he has a picture of him on the shoulders of another missionary in this same spot 14 years ago.  

Good buddies.

We also raced Grandma and Papa up and down the beach  on a  surrey and ate lunch on the Pier at Ruby’s; the best hamburger joint  ever. 

Along the way we met Charlie

Needless to say this was a successful vacation and we will be making this a tradition.  We are already booked for next year. 

Summer Garden

The only thing we could grow in our summer garden this year was watermelon, and boy did we have a lot of it.  We planted 2 tiny little seeds and this baby grew  and grew.  The watermelon vine took up about a 15 ft wide spot in our garden and grew onto our lawn.  It was not very economical but we loved going outside every couple of days and spotting new watermelons in the vine.  We grew close to 15!