A Strage Halloween this year

This year was a weird Halloween. On the Friday before Halloween Grammie invited us over to the Windam for their festivities. Grammie was so excited to have the girls over. It was hard to be missing grandpa as we toured the place trick-o-treating.

Jenna was Princess Diana on her wedding day

I got her hair up and it stayed

Kirra was Jackie Kennedy

she's such a beauty

That ended up being the only time they got to dress up since we had a field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium on Halloween. Cohl missed out altogether because he had soccer practice when we went to Grammie's. He wasn't too bummer.

The Big Fresno Fair

So after last year I said I would not go back for another Girl Scout patch...

well that didn't last.

Here we are, three little girls and one mommy with a very heavy backpack

full of water bottles. I am not about to spend $6 for one water.

Here is the girl's one treat.

We visited our friend's sheet in the Live Stock Pavilion.

Which head belongs to which sheep?

a little baby pig racing, one of my favorites

After 6 hours, we saw many things, consumed some fair food, smelled fair smells and left with one large patch for the vest.

'Til next year I guess :)

quill & ink

we have been studying early America for the past few months

one of the projects we were presented with was making our own ink from berries

and writing with a feather

(just like they did for writing the Declaration of Independence,

they may not have used berries)

it was so cool the kids really got into it

it worked really well

they all loved it

and so did I

Exploration Day::Woodward Park Field Trip

the kids are scoping out the creek that runs through Woodward Park (near the Japanese Garden)

even Karlie go to come

Cohl is mid-jump across the creek

they had a great time IN the creek

we talked about water flow

did a rub of leaves we found

and did a few sketches of what we saw

we followed the creek all the way through the park to the "lake"

{a fun time had by all}

some school projects

with our curriculum we have done some really fun projects so far

we made butter while studying the pioneers from Holland that came to North America

we discovered that adding salt to water can make thing float

we learned about the first explorations of North America and these famous ships

we are having so much fun and look forward to what's next

Cohl is 8

We are so excited to celebrate 8 years with our Cohly...what a guy!

He is already growing into such a responsible, confident and fun guy!

Here are some oldie but goodie pics of our guy from the FPU days.

Cohl's current interests are playing chess, swimming, playing soccer, wrestling with anyone who will let him, battling with Beyblades, playing the Wii and watching episodes of Bear Grills, Beyblades, The Pink Panther and The Cosby Show.

We love you so much Cohl and look forward to what God has in store for you this year!

Off to a GREAT start!!!

{we are starting our third week of school but I wanted to share this funny story

from a few weeks ago}

such a funny story...we are doing homeschool again this year and I threw the idea out that, "wouldn't it be funny to have uniforms..."

...well Kirra though that was a great idea and decided that her "First day of school" outfit was going to be a uniform. So of course Jenna wanted exactly what Kirra had and we just dressed Cohl with what he already had for the cute picture.

{so here is our crew, dog and all}

I guess she is our mascot :)

Basketball Camp @ FPU

Cohl was able to attend the FPU basketball camp this year

"Hendo"

he did so well!

and had a ton of fun!

Tie Dye Fun

we got to tie dye for the first time with friends the other day

what a treat...they all came out so great!

Girl Scout Camp

Kirra's first year at Twilight Camp. They have it for a week in the evenings. The older girls did a great job leading.

lots of crafts...

lots of singing

(here is Kirra's leader, Sleeping Beauty. they have made up names for the whole week then reveal on the last night. her name is Bryn)

lots of teamwork

lots of friends