Fiesta texas 2014

This year's Fiesta Texas trip was extra fun because Jonas earned his free ticket and Troy took the day off to join us!  I was worried about crowds since it was a Friday but we were all pleasantly surprised!

We spent time at the regular park, headed to the water park, and then went back to the main park.  

Jonas loved the Roadrunner Express and rode twice alone while I watched!  Reef was over at the Boomerang, his most favorite roller coaster ever.

The big swings were closed all day, so they had to settle for the small ones.  These make me much less nervous!

This is the Pandemonium.  They loved it, but I absolutely think I'd throw up on it!  That car spins while it moves on the track!  They rode it 2 or 3 times in a row.  No, thank you!

It was a super fun day with our 2 oldest guys!

Teach Them Diligently 2014

In June, I headed to Dallas for the Teach Them Diligently homeschool conference.  At the last minute, Kristin and Kristina were able to join me to make it even more fun!  Us girls took no pictures but came away inspired by all the awesome speakers we heard!

Mike and Troy got the kids together for pizza and a movie while we were gone, and they did manage to take pictures!  Looks like they had a good time, too!

Last day of school!

We celebrated that last day of Kindergarten and 2nd grade with milkshakes from Sonic!  Overall, we had a great year!

Book It!

Nothing beats free pizza for doing something they love: reading!

Strawberry Picking 2014

In the spring we had a great field trip strawberry picking!  The kids have never done it, and the crop this year was great.

Jonas decided he wanted to make a strawberry pie with his berries.  I made him help.

I forgot to take a picture before we ate some.  Oops!

It was enjoyed by all!

Valentine's Day 2014

These are the kids' valentines for their friends this year:

We went all out with homemade ones for Reef and Jonas this year since it was their first co-op Valentine's Day party!  Poor Poppy and Lachlan were stuck with store bought.  But I got to buy Barbie ones for the first time!

 The little kids decorated bags at school this year, but Reef and Jonas made these purple minion containers.  They totally look just they did on Pinterest!  

Can I just tell you that after I had all the supplies set up, Jonas says to me, "You know I don't like gluing things!" I'm sorry, but how did he think the purple stuff was going to stick?!?

Homeschool Day at The Witte

Reef and I have enjoyed homeschool day at the Witte the last 2 years and were excited to have Jonas and the Ebroms with us this year!

Reef made it all the way to the top of the rock wall!

Ellie gave it a try and made it even higher the second time!  Jonas wasn't into it this year.

Finally, he was tall enough for the tightrope bike!  Jonas really wanted to do this one but was a smidge too short.  Next year for sure!

The Texas exhibit was new to us, and there was so much to see, do, and touch!

Love that tongue sticking out!  He was concentrating hard on that Labyrinth-type maze!

We had a great time but quickly learned that the special CSI exhibit that we paid extra for was definitely age-appropriate!  We raced past the crime scenes but enjoyed looking at different fly larvae in the microscopes.

Can't wait till next year!

Fall Co-op Fun!

I'm attempting to jump back into the blogging...again...

We continued with our co-op in the fall and had a great time with friends.

Our art was to make fall leaves.  This was the sample:

 These were their projects:

 Totally nailed it.
We also packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  It was so funny to watch the girls and boys shop!  The boys were all about getting what was on the list while the girls wanted to buy every pink thing in sight!  In the end, they did great sticking to their "budget".

 Our finished boxes.

 The girls, Molly and Ellie.

 The boys.  Can you tell Jonas was having a bad day?

South Texas Maize

In November, Kristina and I took the kids to Homeschool Day at the South Texas Maize.  It fell on a preschool day, and we were glad to have the big kids (and Lily).  The maize was crowded, with a long line to get tickets, but not nearly as bad as the Sea World Homeschool Day!

First item up for business, group photos while the moms waited in line.

First, just the boys; the girls were checking out the bathrooms.

All 5!  What great friends we've made this year!  How did I ever homeschool without these other 2 families?

 Climbing on hay bales.  See that big slide in the back?

 We splurged and got the package that included all activities, including this slide.  They loved it!

 The bouncing pillows.  This was our first time trying these out.

After all that fun, we headed to the actual maze.  There were 2 sides to the maze.  The first side we tried was so hard that we walked in the same circle over and over!  Luckily we were able to figure the second side out!

Taking my inspiration from the Crafton family, who always do a silly picture!  Obviously Molly and Jonas were too cool for this.

We had a great day and can't wait to go next year!

Sea World Homeschool Day

We were so excited to check out Sea World’s Homeschool Day.  The tickets were very inexpensive and the place was PACKED!  We had a good time, but I’m not sure we’ll be going back next year.
We made a quick trip through the aquarium and spent some time at the seals.

The highlight of our day was finding Ms. Missy in her department.  The kids loved the hands-on opportunities away from the crowds.
First, we met Wilson, the armadillo.


Then we met this cockatoo and had turns holding her!  Ellie’s courage increased as the picture-taking went on.

Reef didn’t need any coaxing.  He is his father’s child.

Jonas didn’t want anything to do with the bird.  Ms. Tiffany wanted a turn too.

Then we checked out the lemurs and got to feed them too!



Jonas liked them but still didn’t want to feed them.  Maybe next time we visit.

Thanks, Missy, for making our day great!