Thanksgiving in Denver

This year we went to Denver to visit My Aunt and Uncle for Thanksgiving. My brother and his family met us there. It was an amazing trip! We had so much fun laughing, talking,and relaxing.

We had such a wonderful time!

Our House

I have been wanting to get a good picture of our house with the fence. Finally, Stan was able to take a pretty good one.

Fun Weekend With Grandma

We went to the park by grandma Debbie's house and got to pet a horse in a nearby pasture.

50th Day of School!

We celebrated the 50th day of school with a 1950's party!

You Can Do This When You Homeschool...

Amelia decided these paper glasses would help her concentrate on her work.

Pumpkin Patch

Here are some pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch this year.

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

We had a surprise party for my mom's 60th birthday this year. My brother, Adrienne, and the girls came into town, and they were waiting at the restaurant when we showed up with my mom. Afterwards, we went back to our house for cake and a special movie that Chris put together recapping her life from childhood.

Here are the cousins relaxing outside in the beautiful weather!

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

Grass!

Somehow, over the last three years, areas of our lawn deteriorated and turned to dirt patches. Once we realized the extent of it we knew something had to be done. We had TruGreen come out and aerate and over seed our lawn.

Here are the before pictures:

In just 2 weeks (and watering 3 times per day) the lawn looks green and fabulous! I was so worried that we may not get good results. We are so happy with how things are growing. Come spring, our fresh new lawn should grow in beautifully.

A Peek into Green Gate Preschool...

I rarely discuss anything about Green Gate Preschool, my home-based preschool/childcare, on my family blog because I have a preschool blog for that. But, it is a large part of my life and I spend a lot of time in this space. I took some updated pictures so I thought I would give you a peek into my cozy little classroom.

This is a view from the kitchen.

This is the entrance with cubbies and the parent board.

Thanks for Looking!

IT'S OFFICIAL....

Stan has officially been accepted into the Wichita State University Accelerated Nursing Program for the May 2012 class! He will complete his BS in Nursing after completion of the 15 month program. He is one of 30 students chosen for this competitive program. He is a 4.0 student and I am so proud of all of his hard work!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS STANLEY!

Bike Riding on a Beautiful Weekend

First Sleepover!

The girls had their first sleepover with a friend from Green Gate. We went to Aunt Celia's house and they ate hotdogs off the grill, ate S'mores and ran around like crazy kids. They were worn out, but decided they wanted to look at Monster books before they went to sleep!

Sisters

My little girls dressed themselves in matching outfits and I found Amelia doing Ella's hair in the bathroom. As soon as I saw them I starting humming the song Sisters from White Christmas.

Take a listen!

Story of The World: Ancient Egypt

Over the last few weeks we have been learning about Ancient Egypt in our History lessons. Here are some of the projects that we have done.

After learning how real mummies were made, we decided to mummify Barbie.

Amelia thought it was pretty cool.

We also learned about some of the first writing. We saw real tablets found in Egypt on a great video that was Internet linked the the Useborne Encyclopedia of World History. Amelia wrote her initials in Cuneiform writing on a clay tablet of her own. She used a toothpick to etch the symbols and then she painted it in the traditional color of tablets of that time.

This is our Nile River model. We learned about how the Egyptians relied on the annual flooding of the Nile river for their survival. They would plant their crops in the soil near the river and also create canals to conserve the water for later use. For our model, we planted our seeds in the soil near the water and then "flooded" the river banks. Sure enough, the seeds sprouted just like in Ancient Egypt! You can't beat such a great hands-on experience to bring abstract concepts to life.

Homeschool Week 2

This week we began learning about our eyes. Amelia used an interactive website to identify the parts of the eye. We also read some great information in our human body encyclopedia.

She learned about pupil dialation and decided to bring a small mirror into the car with her so she could watch her pupils change in different light.

In math we began learning about place value. At first she didn't quite understand the concept, but with some practice with the place value manipulatives it all began to make sense.

Amelia finished her first Reading workbook and got a 98% on her first test of the year. She was really proud of herself and showed it off to dad as well!

It was our 10th day of school so we celebrated with ZERO THE HERO! Zero the Hero brought them a zero shaped treat and they colored a zero and placed 10 zero stickers on it. Lots of fun!