An edible history lesson

We have been learning about Napoleon in history and his many conquests. During his invasion of Egypt, his soldiers uncovered a very valuable piece of history-the Rosetta Stone. This stone was discovered in the city of Rosetta (hence the name) and contained heiroglyphic writing, which, up until then, had been indecipherable. This particular writing, however, contained a Greek translation of the writings, so they could finally be translated. An amazing accomplishment in learning about the ancient world. For our project, the kids designed their own Rosetta stones, copying some of the heiroglyphics. The "stone" was a giant sugar cookie, and the writing was done in frosting....

The finished products....

Not bad! And tasty, too!

Happy President's Day!!

Hopefully you knew that Monday was President's Day! With the exception of being off school, i don't think most people do a whole lot to celebrate it-I surely never did, but in trying to stick with our commitment to celebrate most holidays this year (big and small), we decided to do something fun. We had a wonderful lunch, featuring Franklin-furters (yes, I know Franklin wasn't a president, but he is on the $100 bill!) ; George Washington's cherries (yogurt with cherries on top)...


Hamilton and cheese crackers, and lincoln legs (rod shaped pretzels). The kids scarfed it down!


And for dessert (excuse the sideways picture please) we had cupcakes, complete with the heads of those printed on our bills. That's Alexander Hamilton you see there...

We played a fun game of throwing coins in a bucket-the winner got a shiny quarter!

And then on to scrubbing pennies with vinegar and salt to brighten and clean them up. I glued each one onto some green felt and they wore them as pins. Cute!

Sorry, no Obama activities at our party-i'm thinking he won't do anything significant enough to end up on a coin....

My little sweethearts

Okay, I'm not quite sure why it will not make my pictures right side up, but here's my little sweetie after helping Dad plant some pretty flowers in front of the house-she had so much fun!
Love the boots...
My 11 yo and 8 yo saw these sparkly shoes at Walmart (Wizard of Oz-like) and decided that was what they wanted to spend some of their money on-they were on clearance, so they got a great deal, and I must say, they were grinning from ear to ear! It's so cute to see them wanting to be so girly-I would have loved a pair of these when I was younger. By the way, they get worn with EVERYTHING-from dressy to casual. Too cute!

Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day at our house, the kiddos wanted to make heart shaped cookies and then frost and decorate them. We used our giant heart cookie cutter to make a good looking cookie, then i let them loose with red, pink, and white frosting. They decorated to their hearts' content and had a ball. We had lots of cookies, so we were able to bless some of our neighbors with a little treat, too! Here are some pics from the fun time (sorry for the sideways ones...computer won't cooperate!)

Home improvements

Over the past dozen years, it has been on our desire to move out to a home in the country, to give the kids more breathing room, more running space, and just have a more open area. We lived on 2 acres when our 2 kids were little and always desired to go back to it. Well, fast forward many more years and many more kiddos, and it has not become a reality. It was something that used to bother me, wondering just why it had not happened, but I have come to realize that there is a very good reason why it has NOT happened, and maybe never will. At this point, the Lord just does not want for us to be in another house. Maybe it will happen in the future, maybe not, but for now we are staying put. To help make our house more liveable, we will gradually be doing some home improvements-nothing major, but significant enough for us. The first one was to replace our worn out carpet. It was only 3 years old, but after being trampled on by so many little feet, it was looking pretty yucky. Our decision on which carpet to choose pretty much came down to the $$ amount and the color. Yes, after 10 kiddos, we realized that light carpet looks nice, but really does not hold up to the abuse we put it through. We needed dirt colored carpet-seriously! We shopped around for a good couple of months, and after haggling the carpet store down, we found what we wanted. This past week, the installers came and put it in-a two day job-and we could not be happier. Here's a look....
eSee what I mean..dirt colored! Now if only I had the dirt colored tile to go with it-we wouldn't have to mop nearly as much! Well, this is a gradual process, so one project down, several more to go!

New blog

My 11 year old daughter just started her own blog...you can visit it here and take a look!

This week's happenings!

So what's been happening with us lately? Well, my 12 yo son had his court of honor for Boyscouts this week and received his next rank of second class. He worked very hard toward the requirements (especially the swimming part) and truly deserved it! He is looking forward to working toward his next rank. Congrats sweetie!

My 8 yo daughter just started her violin lessons a couple weeks ago and is loving it. She had been asking me for quite some time to start, so I'm glad it has become a reality. Her teacher is wonderful and so patient and I am glad she is able to express her creativitiy in this way.

In case you're wondering about her artistic side, she is my only one that has this God-given bent for art in any form, whether it be singing, drawing, instruments, whatever! It's truly something she loves to do. Here is her wall in her room....just a sampling of the many pictures she has drawn! Like an art gallery!