Same shirt

The kids came down the other morning at different times with their superman shirts on.  No they didn't talk to each other about it.  Just thought it was funny!  Great minds think alike!

Christian helping to cook dinner

Christian's boy scout leader asked them to design a healthy dinner and help make it for the family.  Christian wanted Chicken on the bone (we did chicken strips-baked not fried), pinapple, pickles, and yummy bread a.k.a garlic bread.  So he helped me to cut the pineapple up and put the breading on the chicken.

 Putting all the seasoning in the bag

 Shaking it up

 I have a pineapple slicer/corer and so he is drinking the juice after I got the slices out

The finished product

Greatest Show on Earth

I signed up for a site that gives you great deals like groupon, but on kids events in the area.  I got a 50% off deal on the Circus and the kids had never been so I got tickets.  Thankfully, Christian's face looked almost normal and it was not painful.  We got there a little early just in time to go on the floor of the pre-show.  The kids did the bounce house and we watched the clown do tricks.  He asked for adult volunteers and Brian didn't raise his hand, but was still picked to throw a stick for the clown so he could catch it with two other sticks.  He says,"I always get picked for these kind of things."  It is not a good picture, but here it is.

The kids had a great time and of course Christian's favorite part was the clowns and dog tricks and Piper's favorite part was the elephants.  The lions were a little scary and actually pushed the tamer into a corner at one point-Who says-"I want to be a lion tamer when I grow up"We had a great time.

On a funny note-Brian and I said several times our kids were the perfect age for the circus because there were lots of families with toddlers around us and the kids kept asking when they could go home after about 10 minutes or they were wrestling with them the whole time.  I love this age!

Scooter jumps

After we took some of the pictures in the backyard Christian wanted to show us his scooter jumps and other tricks.

You can see he got air!

 

 Then, Brian decided to get on the scooter and show them he could do tricks too!  Fun Times!

Christian's swollen face

My kids very rarely get sick, but Thursday of last week I noticed that Christian's cheek was a little swollen and he said it hurt.  I thought it was a loose tooth that was coming out and hitting a nerve because his gums were swollen and called and got a dentist appt for Monday.  Well, Friday he woke up looking like this:

Pretty bad right so we went to the doctor.  He had a salivary gland obstruction, kind of like a kidney stone except in the mouth.  He started us on antibiotics and told us heat and massage would help get the obstruction out.  So Christian laid on a heating pad all day and I tried to rub it, but it really hurt him.  He didn't look a whole lot better on Saturday and was worried, because the doctor said if it was  not better on Monday that meant surgery.  So we watched movies and laid on the heating pad and I was worried as we were suppose to go to the circus the next day and he was miserable.  Well, the antibiotics and everything kicked in because by Sunday he was his happy self again. 

Funny thing is this is not that common but who else had this same thing this year-one of his best friends, Nevin Harwood.

The doctor was awesome-called us on Saturday to see how he was doing  not his nurse and on Monday.  I think we picked a good one.

Cherry Blossom Fail and Pretty Pictures

One thing I do love about Virginia is the beauty!  The fall and spring are amazing and just show the glory of God's creation.  I decided before all the flowers on the trees turned to leaves I would take some pictures of the kids by our bush and tree in our backyard.

We did go downtown to try and see the cherry blossoms in DC, but they were not out anymore so we just went to the air and space museum.

So here are pictures of the kids by our cotton candy tree as they call it:

Krazy Krayons

The 2nd graders at Liberty(the kid's school) are learning about economics.  They have learned about consumers, producers, marketing ect.  So one way they reinforce these concepts is the Krazy Krayon factory.  The kids collect old crayons from home or other places all year long and take all the paper off of the crayons in preparation for the facotry.  The week of the Krazy Krayon factory the parents come in and help melt the crayons down and pour them into molds.  Then each class comes in for a shift each day and there are four stations the kids get to work: dunkers, unmolders, inspectors, or sorters.  They rotate these jobs each day so they have a chance to do them all.  The dunkers dunk the hot crayons in the mold into an ice water bath to harden them and they pass them to the unmolders, which do just that unmold the newly shaped crayons.  They pass to the inspectors and the inspectors make sure that they look good and pass them to the sorters.  The sorters sorted them into bags of a category they fit into like sports, nature, animal ect.  Then the next week the kids package them and sell them to the whole school.  The market them by make posters to put up all over school.

Christian was so excited to do all the stations, but a little mishap happened on day 2.  The parents melt the crayons on burners in pots and some of the wax got on the burner and created a cloud of smoke and setting off the fire alarm.  The school was evacuated for 30 minutes while the fire department came and checked everything out.  So after day 2 the factory was shut down-thankfully I got to work it on day one and see Christian be an inspector.  I thought it was a great way to help the kids practically learn.  It was sad that it was cut short.

This is not Christian's class, but loved the hats they made and you can see the whole station

Piper's field trip

I got to go on Piper's field trip with her to a Camp to learn more about animal habitats and making fire.  We had a lot of fun riding on the bus.  The rangers showed us how to make a fire and the girls had to gather all the materials and make their own fire.  Our fire got going pretty good.  They also made a big fire and made some popcorn in a cast iron pot, which was really good.  We also got to search for animal habitats and found a few snakes along the way.  We got to touch skeletons and taxidermy animals.  It was fun to spend the day with my girl and her class.

Emily, Piper, Jocelyn, and Anya

 

An adult ring neck snake-I can handle a snake that big

Basketball

The kids played Upwards Basketball this winter.  Upwards is a Christian based sports program.  They have a devotional after every practice and during games and show the kids sportsmanship as they develop into athletes.  They also try and match kids up based on skill level.  Nana and Papa got to see their first games in January.

I helped coach Christian's team and even though we had a perfect season in the losing way the boys were so fun.  It was great to watch their skill and confidence grow.  Christian scored several baskets during the games and loves to play basketball all the time in our alley.  I think it will be a sport he enjoys.

Me, Christian, Jonathan, Conner, Andrew, Joel, Coach Scott

Jackson, Jack, Harrison

Piper was on a team that had an amazing coach and some very sweet girls.  She had a lot of fun and learned some skills and improved so much during the season, but the competitive edge just didn't come out till the end.  She had fun!

Tryin to steal the ball 

Coach Peter, Sandy, Jillian, McKenzie, Katie, Coach

Kendall, Savannah, Madison

Piper, Grace