February- Moments to Remember

 February, like all months, was a busy month.  We had fun memories as a family, funny moments, a friend spend a few days with us and the celebration of Valentine's day.  Soooo......here we go!

Fashion Day

One thing I love about homeschooling is that my kids really have a lot of freedom to learn on their own throughout their day.  It's just natural for them.  One morning, while I was making breakfast, the girls decided to make their own paper dresses.  Here is the final product.

Hannah- always the poser (yep....I just called my daughter a poser, hahaha)

The Dynamic Duo

Hannah also made a little outfit for her lamby

Nicole showing off her dress.

I LOVE that my son still loves his blanket I made for him.  He always gets his fingers wrapped up in the taggies as he sleeps.  It makes my heart happy to see:)

 Funny Moment

Last month, Hannah got her ears pierced.  One morning I heard a quiet "mommy" coming from her room.  It was her.  She was stuck underneath her bed.  Her earring got wrapped around a piece of carpet.  She was all the way under the bed.  There was no room to work, and her face was so close to the floor, there was no room for her to move.  I had to first throw all the stuffed animals, blankets and pillows off their bed.  Then lift the full size, double cushion mattress of the bed, then get a drill to unscrew the planks along the bottom of the bed until I could finally reach her!  I had to take a knife and very carefully cut the carpet  that was looped around her earring.  I was impressed with her calmness (um....I was m.a.d....and I shouldn't have been.  I think I was already having a bad day, and this was the cherry on the whip cream, on the icing on the cake.  I apologized later for being so upset).  She was most concerned about her cheek.  While waiting 15 minutes for me to get to her, she had drooled all over her cheek, and I think that bothered her.  hahaha...silly girl!

Looking down through the planks before I took them off to "rescue" Hannah.

On the same day that Hannah got stuck, Nate stubbed his toes pretty bad.  I refused to put his foot under the blanket at nap time because of "my blood get all over everyting".  After nap, he hobbled out of his room and called for 'Cole because he decided he needed band aids.  Dr. Nicole took good care of him and he got all bandaged up (fyi....he didn't need band aids, and he could walk just fine, hehehe).  However, he made me carrying him down the stairs later that day.  

We got to see Granny and spend the night with her.  We love Granny!

 Jeremy did a zip line at Dan's birthday party.  It would a tough climb to even get to the line.

Hi!

I don't think this was Jeremy.  I think Dan was "rescuing" Logan....but you can see how high they were.

Yummy smoothie break after our morning bike ride.

 Valentine's Day

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The kids were so excited about valentine's day.  Nicole was so excited for a day to "Love Jesus even more" and Hannah said, "I want to go to Heaven so I can love on Jesus all day".  Um....selfishly....I wanted her to stay here, but I was so happy to see their sweet hearts and love for their Lord.

It's probably better this picture didn't straighten house.  We had a 'melt down' in our heart pancake making.

Nate loved his V-Day breakfast!

Nicole put together our Valentine's Day dinner menu.  A heart shaped pizza with heart shaped pepperoni.  The pizza lost it's shape while baking, but it really was a heart shape.

And....a heart shaped cake that Nicole frosted and decorated! (Does this count for Home Ec.? )

We tried starting a new little tradition.  Each of us have a mailbox and we left little love notes to one another all week.  The kids loved leaving little notes for daddy (I even got on from Hannah) and couldn't wait to see if Daddy left anything for them while they were sleeping.

 Do-It-Yourself

We have a pretty strong DIY philosophy in our home.  Jeremy and I have had lots of fun over the years working on projects together.  Now, he has a new helper.  Nicole did a great job helping daddy

pulling wires through the ceiling

So proud!

Friends- our friend Kristina came to stay with us a for a few days.

Nate spent a lot of time playing basketball in his room.  This picture doesn't show it, but he learned to jump off his bed and dunk the ball.

Checking out some fish with Kristina while we get flowers for our butterfly garden

I love when God answers little prayers.  The girls really wanted some coloring gymnastics leotards, but I didn't want to spend $40 on one (or two!).  So, we went to some thrift stores, and we found both of these and spent less than $5!!!

Making a stone for our garden with Kristina

Nicole is a little decorator.  She decorated the living room one night while the rest of us were outside playing.  Isn't it cute!

Nicole's second beta fish, Violet, died the night we got her.  She buried by the tree in the backyard.  This is her gravestone that Nicole made for him.  "Violet ...Dead".  hahaha

The fruit of Nathan's slam dunking labors!  His basketball hoop is starting to fall off the wall.  What did Jeremy think about this????
"Cool!!!"

February School Work

 This post is all about our school work during the month of February.  Of course, we carry on daily with our math and spelling/reading programs, but this post has most of our projects and activities

Tallest Mountains on Each Continent

We drew these to scale.  One inch= 100 meters.  

This picture has all 7 of our mounts (including the two to left of picture that are on the bookshelves.)

Mt. Elbrus in Europe. Notice the mountain climber that Nicole drew on the side and the snow falling in the air.

Of course, this is Mount Everest- Nicole's favorite mountain.

Hannah had a lot of fun helping us measure, cut and color the mountains

Nicole was introduced to Venn Diagrams (I don't remember doing this before middle school, but apparently you do them in first grade now!)  She totally "got it"

I was trying to explain the difference between a line and line segment to Nicole. Immediately, she remembered something she was taught in Sunday School about God being like a line.  He has no beginning and no end.  He is eternal.  But, that we have a beginning and and end, like a line segments (to which she added, except, when we die, if we believe in Jesus we will get to spend forever in Heaven with God so I guess we don't really have an end". )  It gave me much joy that she understood that and was able to relate a simple concept in math to God.  Awesome!

After a morning of failed science experiments, we went shopping and came back with flowers and herbs to plant.  Nicole planted the herb and tomatoes.  She wanted to be able to enjoy the fruit of her labor ;)

Hannah picked out the pretty flowers ;)

We learned about Michelangelo in CC, so we spent 20 minutes attempting to paint upside down.  Easier said than done (can you imagine painting for 40 years that way?!?)

We went on a field trip to Mourning Star Aquaponics Research Institute and learned about growing plants in water using fish to fertilize the plants.  

 Ocean

The last half of the month we studied the ocean.  Here is a drawing of the parts of the Ocean floor.  Nicole made this drawing.

This was Hannah's interpretation.  Something about a little girl getting caught in a net and Nicole swinging on a sing (top center).  In the end, everyone was saved by daddy.

We also made a 3-D diorahama type project of the Ocean floor.  I helped very little.  Both girls had this down by then.  They did a great job!

Hannah's project.  I'm not sure what the cut up play doh was at the bottom...but she ran with this project and did a great job!

Nicole's final project.  That's a person swimming at the beach by the way. She included an island, ridges, mountains and trenches as well as the Continental Shelf, Continental Slope and Abyssal Plains.

This was another project we did with some friends.  These are the three zones of the ocean.  Photic, Bathyl  an d Abyssal

Rainy Day

One rainy day, Nicole said she wanted to sew.  

sewing the button

We made an iPhone case

For her iPod

Checking out crystals under the microscope.

We had a busy and fun month of February.

sweet children

Most days I feel sad when I think about how quickly my children are growing up.  We often joke with them about "not letting them" turn another year older or fake cry when they talk about their next birthday.  Well, I fake, fake cry....because deep down, I really am sad to watch them grow.  And happy, and proud, and scared, and all sorts of other emotions as well.

But recently, I realized one reason why I am both sad to see them grow up and proud to watch them grown. My husband was not feeling well and so I let the kids know that daddy may go to bed as soon as he gets home from work.  Rather than play outside with everyone, Nicole decided to stay inside and prepare for his arrival home.  I really didn't know what she was up to, but felt like I could trust her.

Well, that sweet little girl was "decorating" the sofa with all kinds of pillows and blankets.  She had them nicely displayed and ready for a nap.  She also set up a make shift table for him with a glass of water, a plate of crackers and  a sign that said, " For Daddy".  The sweetness didn't stop there.

Just before bed, the girls asked if they could make a get well card for their daddy.  Hannah's was several pages of (somewhat scary :) sad faces and one page that said, "I don't know why you got a fever."  I dictated how to spell the words, but the sentence was her idea, and she wrote it herself:)

Nicole made a two page card that said to the effect of : Dear daddy, I hope you feel better tonight or tomorrow.  Just pray to God and he will make you feel better.  Please pray to him and he will help you.  You are the best daddy I've ever met."  She included several hearts and a rainbow or two.

I loved Nicole's heart to serve her father and do something to help him feel better.

I loved their sweet little cards.  I was proud they were growing into such compassionate and loving girls (and really proud of Nicole's attempts at spelling and writing such a long letter without any help except for the word ' tomorrow').

I guess the sadness came into play because I realize these are sweet gifts from children.  Although I hope they continue to write sweet cards as they grow up, reality tells me that they may not.

I love my children.