Happy Birthday Miss A!

It was not hard to figure out what to get Miss A for her birthday.  She spends her days watching out the window for passing horses or watching the neighbors horses as they play in their fields.  Driving around our neck of the woods can be a little scary with her in the car....loud shrieks of "NEIGH! NEIGH!" sound from her every time we pass a horse.  Yea, she loves horses.  We got her one.

Not quite awake, but ready to ride!

Awake and enjoying the fun!

All ready for church; and there's still time for a ride.

Miss E and I agreed that a Teddy Bear's Picnic cake was a good idea for Miss A since she loves the book and the cake is one of her favorite parts of the book.  Miss E did a great job baking and decorating the cake.

Miss A thought the cake was nice and all, but whipped cream is more her thing.

It's bed time, but there's still time for one more ride!

Thank you Nana for the barn and animals! 

Miss A is an outgoing, independent little 2 year old that is not eager to give up her "baby" status.  She loves to help herself to food, was potty trained a couple months ago, understands way too much of what we say, thinks she can do everything the big kids can do, shows no signs of giving up the pacifier, and is a big time mama's girl/cuddle bug.  She has her older siblings wrapped around her little finger.  She keeps us all on our toes as she explores her surroundings and surprises us with new found abilities.  We are blessed to have her in our family and are thankful to God for all of the joy she brings to our lives.

He's a HAM!

Not that we didn't already know that, but now he has a license that says he is!

Mr. M has been studying for a long time to get this license.  The intensity was kicked up a bit the last couple of months so that he could have it by hunting season.

Plant cells and squash

Most of the kids have been learning about cells in their co-op classes.  To review the parts of the cell that they were learning we had a fun breakfast of plant cell pancakes.  They each had their own little plate with everything they needed to put their cell together while identifying the parts.

Before breakfast Miss A spotted Miss E and Mr M preparing spaghetti squash to be cooked.  She wanted in on the stabbing.  She did a great job getting hers ready to cook too.

Harvest Festival

This past week-end we went to a local harvest festival at a living history ranch.  We had gone to this one last time we were stationed here, but this time we know some of the families that volunteer.  That makes it extra fun!

As soon as we got there most of the kids identified the candy dash.  We figured it would be a good idea to just get that out of the way and be done with it.

She got her one piece and was all set.  Of course everyone was happy to share their loot with her later when she realized that more than one piece would be nice.

Trying out some old fashioned fun.

Picking a pumpkin.

There was much more fun to be had including checking out the historic buildings, watching the black smith, eating pie, and drinking cider. We were enjoying it and having too much time to take more pictures though. 

A new skill

Miss A has spent the summer mastering potty training.  Since she's getting so good at that one I guess she decided it was time to try something new.  This past week she learned that she can open up the refrigerator.  It's a very handy skill when Mommy keeps saying things like "no, your snack is on the table" or "wait, it's almost time for dinner."

I'm thankful that she still can't access most things in there.  About all she can do is look and let us know for sure what she wants since she CAN see it.  Poor girl, the cheese drawer is RIGHT THERE, she just can't get it open.  Well, she can also practice the skill of self control and wait; just like mama said. ;)

And so it begins....

...a new season of Science Olympiad.  Since I didn't learn my lesson last year; I now have 4 kids competing (and 12 events between them).  I'm also helping to lead an elementary level non-competitive team.  Yikes!  What was I thinking?  Well, anyways, here goes.

At this meeting the very youngest (that really are not involved) played with pasta and marshmallows to build towers, or anything else they came up with.

The youngest participants were practicing their observation skills by trying to copy a gumdrop tower that had been built earlier.  They had to pay attention to colors and direction the gum drops were pointing in order to make an exact copy.  After that they just had fun building.

The middle level guys gave directions orally to their partner in order to help their partner perfectly replicate the structure they had built.
   

The upper level had to write out the instructions for another team to replicate the structure they had.  This is harder than it sounds, but they did a great job and their structures came close to matching the originals.

While building gum drop towers may not sound very scientific this exercise was building the very earliest understanding of computer programing.  It also showed them the importance of paying attention to details and accurate communication.

During this time Miss E was meeting with her Anatomy partner for a study session and Mr. R was helping with this activity since he'd done this event last year.