When two worlds collide...

With an equal amount of both boys and girls in my home, we have all kinds of toys, from the very dainty to the rough and tumble. But when the two meet together, it can be quite a sight! What a surprise when my kiddos pushed this around the corner yesterday, proudly showing off their new creation.....

Doesn't Barbie look great behind the wheel of that Tonka truck? Hate to say, I think it might be time for her to take a trip to the body shop!

Outdoor learning

With Dad gone for a couple days, we needed to do something fun, so I packed up the kids and headed down to Bass Pro Shop down the street to take part in their kids summer camp. They offer workshops on all different outdoor topics. My 4 girls participated in 3 of the workshops, pet safety, bird watching, and camping basics. They had a great time and earned pins for each of the ones they completed. While they were doing their classes, the litte ones and I had fun checking out the huge fish tank. My 1.5 yo thought it was just the neatest thing.


Between workshops when they had a few minutes to spare, the girls practiced their casting from one of the big boats!



At the end of the workshops, they had a s'more making time, complete with an open fire to roast them over. This was, by far, the highlight of the afternoon.

This little guy couldn't quite figure out what s'mores were, but he sure had fun trying to find out!

What a fun afternoon! We will be visiting next week again so the girls can earn the rest of their badges.

Cake decorators!

Today my 4 oldest became cake decorators! I had 4 cakes baked up and stored in my freezer, awaiting some creative kiddos to frost them. They each picked out what color they liked best and, after frosting them white, they tried their hand at decorating them. They did very well, especially since it can be quite hard to hold the bag shut while squeezing the frosting out.

Here are the finished products. I was very proud of their creativity and they had a great time!

The latest from the chef....

Check out hubby's latest cooking spot yesterday on TV. He made a yummy meal for father's day!

Video 1

Video 2

Dino birthday

Today was my 9 yo daughter's birthday party. The theme? Dinosaurs! Funny, it seems, for a girl, but she just loves them. Every time we go to the library, she checks out a stack of books on dinosaurs! So the theme was very fitting. We started off with a dinosaur egg hunt, filled with little treats.


Then onto the pin-the-head-on-the-fossil game.


A dino relay race...

Then a game of "guess how many dino-rocks are in the jar"

And the last game was musical chairs. Nothing to do with dinosaurs, but I had an extra prize I needed to give away!

On we moved to opening presents.

And finally, cake and ice cream.

Her cake was, of course, a dinosaur. And a very feminine looking one, too!

What a fun day! I think this little chocolate faced guy had a great time!

Haircuts!

It was long overdue, but I took all the girls yesterday for haircuts. Their hair was getting quite long and a hassle to take care of, especially during the hot summer months. Ironically, my 3 yo had just chopped the side of her hair (again!) with scissors. Fortunately, it doesn't look too awful-we'll just have to wait and let it grow. I've heard the comment that maybe she is going to be a hairstylist when she gets older. I don't know about that-aren't hairstylists supposed to make your hair look better? My 10 yo was our biggest change-she got so much cut off that they nearly had enough to donate to Locks for Love. Yes, I did offer that option to her, if she wanted to go a little shorter, but for her, shoulder length was short enough! They had a great time on our girls day out and were admiring eachother's 'dos. I am looking forward to less hair to comb!

A refreshing weekend.

I spent the last two days at our local homeschool conference and, as in years past, I have been truly blessed. We ended this year a little tired and weary, needing some down time. Since we start school back in July, the time between when we end and July is when I do all my planning, but more importantly, find the motivation and encouragement needed for the upcoming year. One of the places I get that from is the homeschool conference. I was able to attend several workshops by some amazing speakers and I can truly say that I am encouraged! It's funny, when I first started out homeschooling, I was so concerned with the how-to's. How to teach this, how to teach that, how to find the perfect curriculum so I don't mess my kids up! 12 years later, that's really not my focus because it's really not why I'm homeschooling in the first place. Now, it's a matter of reaching my kids' hearts and pointing them toward the Lord. What good is all my homeschooling if my child can recite his times tables in record time but doesn't honor Jesus? I try to keep in mind that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at our hearts. That's where the battles take place and that is where my focus as mom and teacher needs to be. The rest is secondary to that! So while I wandered through the vendor hall, I no longer felt the need to find that perfect curriculum or believe the idea that a certain program would certainly "fix" the problem I'm having with a particular subject. Instead, they're just tools to help us out, but we should ultimately depend daily on the Lord for our strength and to "fix" our hearts. I can't say I didn't buy anything this weekend. I did buy 3 things that I am very happy with. The rest gets ordered online in the near future. I'm looking forward to the upcoming year and what the Lord may have in store for us. He never ceases to amaze me!

Binky twister!

Look at the cool talent my sweet little guy has!