Daddy-Daughter date meets the Jimmer Express!

Yesterday David took Anna to the SDSU v. BYU basketball game in San Diego. They had the time of their lives! They seriously have not stopped talking about it. And yippee, David even took some pictures! They left early in the morning and went to the "Chalk Talk" at the SDSU institute building where they listened to the BYU athletic director and a former BYU football player talk about their experiences with the gospel and sports. David said it was very powerful. Then they walked over to Viejas arena for the game and watched BYU beat SDSU! Funny thing....Anna came home with a large kitchen trash bag FULL of white dress shirts from the San Diego's student section who were dressed as missionaries during the first half of the game.

Anna with power forward, Noah Hartsock, from Oklahoma. YEAH! :)

before the game started.

The Declaration of Independence

The girls book club reenacted the signing of the Declaration of Independence at their last meeting. Everyone was supposed to come dressed as the founding fathers. They also came up with their own declaration of sorts which they all signed and will travel with whoever is hosting book club.

Our wigs didn't not turn out very good. I stink at following directions without pictures. We might have to try again for our next component when we will be doing more with the founding of America.

Archimedes' Stomachion

There is a puzzle accredited to Archimedes that involves 14 pieces that when put together make a square. Supposedly there are over 500 ways to accomplish this. We are struggling with one! Our attempts are quickly abandoned though as we start making interesting shapes instead.

February

Early in the month found four of our children gathered around Davie's scrapbook. Anna was telling the boys all about their big brother they never met. The boys asked questions and Anna told all she remembered...which is more than you would probably think. David and I quietly observed and savored the moment. A little later, for family scripture study, we deviated from our normal Book of Mormon reading and instead read about Christ's resurrection. With just a few tears we discussed the significance of that event for our family. Then we sang the primary song, "Families Can Be Together Forever" as we held each of our living children close and dreamed longingly of the day we will be reunited with our little guy. 

February 16th was the day Davie was diagnosed with anencephaly and the day we began a roller coaster of a ride that was his life. We didn't do anything special on the 16th this year, a first since he died, but he was still remembered this month. And maybe the fact that it was spontaneous and unplanned made it more memorable.

(The girls had crazy hair day for book club, hence Alahna's strange do.)

Boston Tea Party

The girls book club read Johnny Tremain. After they read the chapter about the Boston Tea Party Alahna hosted a tea party for their book discussion. Our fare included homemade cream puffs, finger sandwiches, cookies, and herbal tea. 

The girls hung this on the front door to welcome their guests.

They had so much fun creating costumes, making food and preparing their table.

For most of the children this was their first experience with herbal tea and most decided they never need to have it again!

 

 

 

 

Eureka!

Archimedes and simple machines have been one of our funnest topics this year. Look at all the simple machines we found around our house and neighborhood as we went on a simple machine scavenger hunt. Even William started finding them! 

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is watching the chickabidees get excited about learning!

More about Cookie

 The agency we adopted her from found Cookie in an empty house with her two puppies. (The puppies were adopted before we met her.) She is the sweetest dog and just wants to be loved. She is mostly house broken and stays off the furniture. She loves, loves, loves the kids and wants to be wherever they are. She gets sad whenever we leave and is ecstatic whenever we come back. She does so good on walks even William can take the leash without fear. She never makes a noise in the house and rarely barks outside. She sheds a little more than I would like but not enough to drive me completely crazy. All in all Cookie has been a wonderful addition to our family.

Her brand new smile!

The braces came off this morning and this is one happy chickabidee!

When she first got her braces we made a deal. If she stayed away from all the icky-sticky candy I would take her to the store and buy her all the candy she wanted the day the braces came off. Well... we didn't have to go to the store today.

Happy President's Day

This has been an extremely lazy President's Day. David had the day off and we could have gone and done something fun and exciting... we didn't.  Anna has been sick. Like, won't move from the bed because she might die, kind-of sick.  So instead of going and enjoying some quality family time we laid around the house and watched movies and television pretty much all day long. I did a little shopping and attempted some visiting teaching, but other than that, nada. I didn't even cook. We have had left overs all day. (I think I have enough for tomorrow too!)

It has been a wonderful day. Thank you Anna for being sick. Your parents needed a day to do nothing but snuggle on the couch in front of the tv.

Pythagoras

We had another visitor. Pythagoras came and taught us about his life and teachings. Most of the stories we hear about Pythagoras are more legend than truth, but it is still fun to learn about him.

It is told, Pythagoras observed that when the blacksmith struck his anvil, different notes were produced according to the weight of the hammer. After this the kids were broken into 2 teams, boys v. girls, and given PVC pipe, rubber bands, string and a pipe cutter and told to make a xylophone. After several attempts the girl team decided on a human xylophone! They even roped Pythagoras into helping.

The next day we used legos to demonstrate the Pythagorean theorem.

Our Grandma Bos

A long time ago we adopted this sweet lady as our grandmother. She has no children of her own and was happy to fill the role! We love to have her over for FHE and dinner.

a first for Robert!

He was super excited to lose his first tooth, especially when the tooth fairy brought him a pack of sugar free gum!

Introducing Cookie

 

We went to the pet store to price guinea pigs and came home with another member of the family! She is a 2-3 yr. old terrier mix and we love her.

artemis archery

Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, fertility, women in childbirth, and a couple other things. If she were more than a myth she would be very busy. Our current component in our Hero's Quest school year bears her name, so the older children were invited to an archery class from one of the dad's in honor of The Huntress. David took Anna and she loved it. She may have found herself a new hobby!

More posts coming soon....