Fire safety

IThe girls have two wonderful AHG leaders.  They make their meetings SO fun!  Last night, they worked on their Fire Safety badge.

They talked about proper clothing, behavior, and supplies needed when working around a fire.

They also made a snack in the fire.  They hallowed out an orange, poured brownie batter, and covered in foil.  These foul balls cooked in the coals while the lesson continued.

And, here us go!  An orange brownie!

I am not sure the taste fully met their expectations.

It was quite fun nonetheless.

Let the Little Children Come

Hannah has been wanting to earn the "Kid Care" badge for AHG.  This is the first badge she has asked to earn on her own.  We have spent much time this week talking about taking care of toddlers.  What kind of rules should they have?  What types of toys are safe for them to play with.  Do you know of any songs you can sing with them?  What is difficult when watching a toddler?  What is fun?

Part of her badge requirements were to be a "mom's helper" for an hour.  We thought it would be fun to let her help in nursery this week.  She took this to heart and spent the rest of the week planning her class. She wanted to teach the children a Bible story, do songs with them, lead a craft, prepare snack, and also have a signal to get their attention.

During our regular fellowship break, Hannah went into the nursery and set it up to prepare for her little students

This was a task taken with MUCH seriousness!

Hannah's friends Esther and Noelle volunteered to help her today

Let the class begin.  She is explaining her "rules".  Two claps mean to sit down.  And (with finger going across your lips) Ziiiiiiiiiip, means to stop talking.

 One of my favorite pictures.  She is leading the boys in "Jesus Love You", and she is pointing to our friend Henry.  Henry...Jesus loves you!

 Now it is Bible story time.  Hannah chose to teach them about the first two days of creation.  She is using her Bible reader from My Father's World

 It was very important to her to hold the book so the kids could see the pictures.  She also said she wanted to keep her lesson short because, "they might get bored and start walking around and playing".

 She is showing Isaiah the picture and explaining darkness and light to him.

 I love the interaction she chose to have with the boys (thankfully there were only two today!)

 For craft time, she chose to help them make a lion using a paper plate.  She showed them, step by step, on her little board how to make a lion.  She exhibited much patience!

 Realizing that part of her job as the teacher is clean up, she dutifully swept the floor and wiped down the tables.  She even "washed" the boys' hands with wet wipes.

 The boys were allowed to pick their favorite color, and she marked a sticker to show they were here today.

I am so proud of this girl!  She put a lot of thought into this class (and even told them that she would teach about days 3 & 4 next time!).  She had the parents sign a sign in/out sheet so she could keep track of the children.  She kept their attention, led a lesson, crafts, and cleaned up snacks.  I saw one moment of "me" when she covered her ears and said, "Ahem....you guys are getting to loud and my head is starting to hurt, please be more quiet".  Hand to face!  That statement had me all over it.

For the most part though, she did a wonderful job earning this badge.  I am pretty sure I will now always have a nursery helper by my side :)

Pioneer Woman

The kids recently discovered cooking shows.  Nicole, in particular, likes The Pioneer Woman.  

Last week, I was sick and spent a large portion of the day in bed.  We watched a number of cooking shows, including one called Cedars by PW.  

Once I felt better, we had to make it for dinner.

Nicole is making the yummy garlic cheese bread.

We also made a salad bar salad.

And our main dish... Chicken marinara over pasta.

Hannah finished off the meal with peanut butter cup cookies.

It was a fun night, and a delicious dinner.

bits & pieces

 Here is my weekly random photo blog post.  My goal is to start getting better at blogging these things, having shorter blogs, and fewer that are super long with lots of pictures.

My little sweetie. This was my first photo on my new phone.

 School Daze....yep....this is what it comes down to sometimes.  Falling asleep at the table while I drone and on and on....ahem...I mean...while I read.

 However, sometimes school work looks more like this :)

And, hopefully there are some smiles to go around too.  

 The girls wanted to work on spending more time together doing fun things that they both enjoy.  One day, they decided to work on their cake decorating badge for AHG.  They had to make their own cupcakes, learn about different types of food coloring and tint their icing, then decorate their cupcakes.

 These are suppose to be little fish.  But, I made a turkey.

 The girls are enjoying their horsemanship lessons.  They learn basic stable manners, riding, and care of the horses.

 I love that she had to clean the horse's shoe.

 While the girls are at horse lessons, Nate and I get to go on a date.  Silly antics are a necessary.

 This particular day, he got to play in the Chick Fil A play area for a while.  He spent the whole time entertaining me and trying to make me smile.

 After a long day of cleaning in preparation for the selling of our house, we ended up at Chilis around 8:00pm.  Yep, Nate has on his jammies, Hannah got super dressed up (tights and all), and Nicole is wearing a simple dress.

 I have a whole rant in my head about children, chores, and how hard it is to let them help...but how great it is to teach them to help.  However, this is not the time.  Maybe tomorrow.

 The best part about selling a house is that I have great kids who want to help clean.  The worst part is that I have great kids who want to clean (but end up making a bigger mess....or work too slowly).  I'd rather go with the help and deal with the consequences of their childishness than be to picky over a perfect home.

 Nate's been on a roll lately! The girls are expected to do their laundry.  They have to bring their baskets down, and put it in the washer and dryer (they love that part).  Occasionally, I'll grab the clothes at night at fold, but usually it is their job to fold and put away.  They have been doing this for a while.  It's generally a slow process.

Anyway...I do not expect that of Nathan (yet).  However, yesterday the girls were putting their clothes away, and Nathan wanted to make sure his got put away.  I told him I would fold his clothes after my shower.  Apparently, he wasn't interested in waiting.  While I took a shower and put my own clothes away....HE sorted, folded, and put away his clothes all by himself!  The only thing I had to do was hang the shirts up in the closet because he can not reach!  I was super impressed.  Hopefully, he'll make a great husband one day!

Nathan is also a bit confused about the selling process of the house.  Before we can leave to go anywhere, we always make sure the rooms are basically cleaned up.  I asked him to check his, and this is what I found.  His suit case crammed full with his jammies, a pop gun, and all of his cars.  I asked him why he did this and he said, "Mommy, if someone comes to look at our house and buys it, I don't want them to have my things.  We have to take these with us".  He's still not convinced that the sale will take longer than buying groceries at the store.  He's worried someone will take his cars and jammies.  Cut boy!

Yep, it's that time of year....chocolate sales for AHG.  How can you resist these two little cuties, selling chocolate door to door!

Watershed & Sinkholes

Another day at Crystal Springs Preserve brings us to a class on the watershed, aquifers, and sinkholes.

After a brief description about the watershed and pollution, the class was split into teams.  Of course, we went for a boys team and a girls team.  This division brought very interesting results!

The kids had about 15 minutes to design a small town that had to include a river, two ponds, a zoo, a farm, a construction area, a golf course, a neighborhood, and a garbage dump.

The boys had a town with protective walls, army men, and lots of bridges.

The girl's town was really pretty, neatly organized and cute.

However, the girl's town had more pollution run off (golf course right on the river, garbage dump surrounded by water, etc.

Before they were finished, they created three sinkholes (a problem in our part of the start).  The sinkholes were made by  burying a water balloon and covering it with dirt.  This simulates the aquifer system that is just beneath our feet here in Florida.  Usually, the aquifers (like underground caves) are filled with water.  However, when there is a drought, or we use to much water, the aquifers begin to recede and can no longer hold up the ground that is just above it.  So, when the children "pop" their water balloon, the ground above the balloon collapses and creates a sinkhole.

For the first time ever...I understand what a sinkhole is!

We love Crystal Springs Preserve!