Recent Field Trips

We have been on a couple of really cool field trips in the last month or so.  We went to the Mary Brogan Museum with the "C" family to see the Bug Exhibit.  They had giant moving bugs displayed and all kinds of cool bug games and facts to test your knowledge.  We also enjoyed the regular learning games at the museum.

Molly liked the bee display.

This past week we visited the Main branch of the Leon County Library to do a library scavenger hunt.  Ms. "A" found this really great list of library items to hunt for.  Some of the items  just to name a few were:

A Roget's Thesaurus

Gone With the Wind

A book published in the 1700's

A biography of any man that signed the Declaration of Independence

A Bible

The location of the newspapers on microfiche

The desk of the reference Librarian

A book containing the work of Mathew Brady

A book about the U.S. presidents

We split the four families into two teams, discussed library manners and how to speak to the Librarian.  Both teams did great!  I think we found everything except the book published in the 1700's.  The kids liked talking to the Librarian and asking for help.  Emily and I had done a little research the night before so that when we got there that she would know for instance...who were the men that signed the Declaration of Independence and who Mathew Brady was.  She asked f we were cheating and I explained to her that we were preparing and doing our research.  The kids learned how to look for the copyright date and publishing date, what microfiche is, where the reference books are located, how to look up a title on the library computer, the difference between fiction and nonfiction, and biography vs autobiography.  It was  great learning experience...even for me!

Picture of the kids minus one family

Breakfast in....

The Recliner...

John Daniel earned a ticket from me for doing good on all his jobs for the week.  The ticket that he earned was being served breakfast in the recliner...but I made Emily serve him.  He ordered cheesy eggs, sausage, and biscuits.  He LOVED every minute of being waited on by his big sister.  Then I had the idea of each of them getting a day during the month of having breakfast served to them by the sibling...CAN I FORCE A SERVANT'S HEART?  We have been doing a study called Peacemaker's about the condition of your heart and how this causes good and bad choices which can either cause or cure conflict, etc.  I thought this serving each other thing might be good practice in having a servant's heart....who knows but he sure did enjoy it this day!

Happy 12 years of being Cancer FREE

I realized after looking at the pictures I took from this day, I only took pictures of the food and sign...and not of John (the star of the show) but it WAS his six days ON at work and when he came home the morning of January 29th, he was tired and looked a little rough....but he still enjoyed sharing cake and celebration with us!  We celebrate January 29th every year as the day that John was pronounced Cancer FREE...he also passed his Paramedic State Boards that day and asked me to Marry him...he was such a busy boy that day!  The kids made him a wonderful little sign and I made him red velvet brownies with cream cheese frosting!  Praise God for healing and the many blessings we have enjoyed!

Made from scratch

We had a little of this and a little of that in the cupboard and John and I came up with this chicken and rice paella!  It was fabulous and we made it up all by ourselves! 

Happy Birthday to NeeNaw

On a very rainy January 17th, we had Nee Naw and Pop Pop over for lunch to celebrate Nee Naw's birthday.  We had wanted to take her to the Tallahassee Museum but the weather was too bad.  We instead celebrated with picnic food inside and birthday brownies!

Play Maker...

...Well not really but she is really trying hard! 

Emily decided that she wanted to play Upward Basketball for the Winter Season...she has no real experience and when we showed up for the "Evaluation", we noticed that a lot of the girls did..Emily was like a deer in headlights during their first scrimmage game...she was biting her nails and had no clue what was going on. She is a Lady Trojan on a  team consisting of 8 players.  Only 3 of the 8 players are 3rd graders, the rest are 4th graders.  Emily and a little girl named "S" are the only ones that have not played before.  The upper division is quite a bit different than John Daniel's kindergarten league....The girls are pretty big (Emily is by far the smallest)..they are serious, athletic, and aggressive....but nice, team players, and good sports.  That is the reason we like Upward so much, you don't have the screaming parents on the sidelines acting like it is a life or death play..Everyone is positive and cheerful!  She has improved greatly!  She has even touched the ball and dribbled the ball down the court a few times the last two games.  She is learning that it is o.k. to show a little aggression when playing sports.  She is getting better at defense.  She is hustling on the court.  At home, she begs us to play and she makes really good shots/baskets but she hasn't attempted that yet in a game...she has made many during practices.  She is gaining some self confidence and seems to really enjoy it.  I give her credit for going back out there time and time again. Not once has she told us she didn't want to play or that it was to hard...she has not once complained!  I would have NEVER done something like that as a kid...I was intimidated by everything but even though you can tell she is nervous, she keeps trying which I am very very very proud of!

WARNING WARNING WARNING!

....Massive blog update during the next several days while John is working.!!!!  Lots of pictures and stories to come!  First we will start with some random ones from January:

Emily has taken to curling her hair with soft curlers any night that she can get either John or I to wrap them for her.  In all honesty, I don't have the patience and John does a MUCH better, more meticulous job than I do!  She asks him to do it more than she asks me :)

We bought some mustard greens down at the round a bout farmers market by our house.  I washed them, dried them, and cooked them for hours.  I totally remember doing this with my grandmother!

And the kids ate them like champs!

Molly hates the drive thru car wash.  Even a lollipop from the bank didn't make it better.  She clung to Emily for dear life the entire time!

John has taught my children to trap squirrels.  They have to bait them with seed, wait for them to go in the trap and then pull a string to close the door to trap them inside....THEN we have to drive to the Walmart across Thomasville Road and let them go.  John Daniel is quite the pro!  This is what they did all during Molly's nap one day.  The squirrels have seemed to multiply in our yard since we got the chickens...they LOVE the chicken food and treats!

Molly's first TACO!

This boy ate three tacos!  He LOVES mexican food!