Preschool

Kenzie and I have been teaching Ashlee's preschool this week. It's a lot of fun and I love that Kenzie wants to come help me. We have a couple more days after Thanksgiving too.

Kenzie and Leah

A funny thing happened the first day. One of the little girls said she brought a show and tell and got it out and told everyone about it. All day she wanted to keep playing with it, even though she wasn't supposed to. Then when her mom came to pick her up, she asked whose guitar it was. I told her that her daughter had brought it in and showed it to everyone. The mom said it wasn't theirs. Then another mom said her daughter had brought it. That little girl thought she had brought something, but didn't see anything in her cubby so she thought she forgot it. The first little girl was so sad she couldn't take the guitar home. Her mom told me the next day that even at bedtime the little girl was complaining about how they stole her guitar. haha! It was so funny! Preschoolers are so fun!

Excited for Christmas

Mackenzie is already so excited for Christmas. She wears Christmas shirts most days and often a Christmas headband. When I went in her room one night, I noticed she had put up several decorations in her room:

She kept the Nativity set we got last Christmas from the Kenyons. 

She made this at Super Saturday when she came with me (Since I don't really love crafting, I signed up for all the cooking classes. When she decided she wanted to come she really wanted to make these. Luckily there were some nice women willing to help her when she needed it so I could still go watch the cooking demonstrations. She did it mostly on her own though.) I think they turned out so cute! 

She made this at Activity Days last year. 

I also found a Christmas note on my bed that night. On the other side she wrote me a very nice letter telling me how wonderful I am and also talked a little about Christmas. We think she's just trying to butter me up so I'll buy her everything she wants!

This Week and Last Week

The kids built the strongest tower in co-op

They played Sushi Go in games class.

Jordan's been crocheting again. He did a great job on this hot pad! 

For science the kids made chain reactions.

Jordan loved it and spent the rest of the afternoon making them. 

For Jackson's half birthday I got him some whipped cream. He always wished we had some. But I accidentally bought him the almond milk kind, so it's not quite as yummy as the normal kind. 

Jackson passed off all his piano books! As his reward Robyn gave him his favorite ice cream. He actually finished them a couple weeks ago and she kept forgetting to buy his ice cream so she also gave him some chocolate syrup:) He's not going to be using any books anymore. He will just be picking challenging songs and working on them to improve his piano skills.

Mt. Rainier

Doug and I took advantage of our kids having no activities last weekend and left the kids with Ashlee while we escaped to Mt. Rainier. We stayed at the Nisqually lodge, which was a few minutes away from the entrance to Mt. Rainier. We didn't realize that we had to have chains in the car to enter the park, so we had to turn around and find a chain rental place. Luckily they were only about $15. And the park entrance was free because it was Veteran's Day.

We went to the visitor's center in Paradise and then did short snow hike to Myrtle Falls. 

It was beautiful up there! 

Doug didn't bring any ear warmers so he borrowed mine and I borrowed Kenzie's. His head was too big to wear hers :) 

Doug and the Falls. 

 Mt. Rainier.

Other than the hike, we mostly just hung out. Doug played his switch a lot while I read. My goal (which I accomplished!) was to finish a book I've been reading for a week or two.

The kids had so much fun with the Crabtrees. Kenzie and Cam lost a kitty and made some signs that they hung up around the house:) I love having family close by!

7th Grade Basketball

Last week Jackson tried out for the middle school basketball team. 60 boys tried out, and about 25 made it.

Jackson was one of them!

When he got close to the car when I picked him up on the day of final cuts he raised his arms to show he made it! His coach said he probably won't get a lot of game time because he's so small. But the coach said he's a good player, listens well, and learns quickly. We're excited for this new sports adventure!

Mackenzie's Crafts and Christmas Lists

One Sunday she really wanted to look on the computer to find crafts. We found this Mayflower one and she created it. 

Then she decided to make this Easter decoration.

She is also very excited for Christmas. She has started wearing Christmas clothes and listening to Christmas music. She also made her first Christmas wish list. Some of the highlights include: picture with Watson (the Schofields' dog), real life pet (mostly puppy), guitar, and my personal favorite: magical power to help me at math :) I also love that she drew a picture of a worksheet with a question mark by it. 

LIGO

Doug took Jackson and Jordan to LIGO to learn about gravitational waves the day after Halloween. They had to get up at 5 and drive 3 hours to eastern Washington to go the homeschool activities they had available that day. Then they had to drive home three hours. It was a long day!

All the homeschoolers were split into 3 different age groups and rotated through the different activities. First there group went on a tour. 

They're standing with one of the arms on LIGO that they shine a laser through to test the gravitational waves. It's 4 km long.

This is the control room.

Next they explored the exhibits.

They also listened to a lecture. Doug wishes they would have done the lecture first so the kids would have known better what everything was during the dour and exhibits. They still seemed to have fun and learned a lot!

Picture Dump

Kenzie and Aubree made a hideout while they waited for their cookies to finish baking.

Kenzie found a spot to put our new Paxton poster.

She also made a guitar.

Coleman painted his volcano.

After Kenzie, Coleman, and I sold back our candy to the orthodontist we went shopping at Claires (Kenzie has been dying to go since she got birthday money). Coleman had to take advantage of this photo op. 

Kenzie bought lots of things and found some great clearance deals!

Coleman was still in his costume from the candy selling.

A few things about Coleman

Last week my kids were talking about how some moms get up and make their kids breakfast in the morning. Coleman said "Yeah, but they don't get to choose what they want." Then Jackson mentioned the mom's will make pancakes sometimes. Coleman said, "Yeah, dinner food." Haha He's probably never had pancakes for breakfast. (And he would probably never choose it. He loves his yogurt :))

Recently I changed how we do video games here. Before we would have a certain time they could play that was about two hours long. But hoping to motivate Jordan to work harder I changed it to that they could play whenever they were done with their work. It hasn't really helped Jordan's work ethic,  but it has changed how hard and fast Coleman works He is usually finished with all his tasks (practicing the piano, brushing his teeth, doing a clean up breakfast job, cleaning his room, reading, plus moving the Roomba around the house) and his typing program on the computer, and his handwriting workbook by about 9. After that we just have scriptures and history that we do as a family at 9 and then math and language arts. He's finishes everything so quickly and uses his time wisely and is able to play video games longer than everyone else. (Jackson and Jordan do have more things they have to do each day, so it would take them longer even if they worked as hard as he does.) Coleman is also usually the only one that will actually remember to do all his tasks (especially his clean up breakfast job.)

Halloween Fun!

We've had a great time celebrating Halloween!

Our ward trunk or treat was on Saturday.

Colemans' costume was so cute!

We had a party at co-op.

The first hour we had normal classes (we played Lego Island for Lego class.)

We gathered all the kids up for a group picture. We have about 40 kids!

Then each of the second hour teachers led a station that the kids rotated through. Coleman's outdoors class teacher did freeze dance.

Anna and I did Bingo..

and a cakewalk at our station.

There was also some sponge painting. 

There was also a skull coloring project, but I somehow didn't get a picture of that.

On Halloween we had dinner at Ashlee's house with my parents, the Schofields, and the Merrills. Then we all went trick or treating.

The kids got a ton of candy!

Kenzie ate a lot of candy that night and proclaimed she was dying afterwards. 

She made herself a cute bat costume. I love her creativity!

Cam was a cute pirate.

After trading their candy, the kids chose all the candy they didn't want to sell to the orthodontist. They ended up selling about 6 lbs. I loved that it made them really think about if they wanted the candy or not, instead of just thinking they would probably eat it sometimes, even it wasn't one of their favorites (when they probably wouldn't.) With the candy, canned food we brought, and costumes Kenzie and Colie wore (Jack and Jordan were on a field trip with Doug) they each got $4.

It was a great Halloween!