Claire's study buddy

Claire was working on some writing today and look who was her study buddy...this is our old pal Dillon.  He loves hanging with his kids. I love this part of homeschooling.  Warms my heart.  

Dillon loves to hang with the kids while they do schoolwork and the kids love it too.

Time for smooches

BB from 2/16/13

Just sharing some pics from Claire's BB game this past Saturday.  I got some pics of Ty's game, but he played at a different gym and they did NOT come out..they were all scratchy and blurry...grrrr... I think I may have to look for a new camera...but at any rate enjoy these.  The kids had great games Saturday.  Tyler got to play his best friend-which was so much fun to watch and I was so happy for him, especially when he and his friend got to guard each other!

Claire had a great game, she was the queen of steals...wow! This girl loves her game I tell ya!

Claire is in grey with the ball-she is fast!

Claire is in grey on defense, not to many balls get past this young lady I tell ya!

So anyways...great games this past Saturday!

Short Order Cook in training...

We follow a chart of sorts here with chores and each night a different kid helps with the dinner prep.  Tyler loves cooking and so Monday night he helped make individual pizzas.  That meant prepping the pizza crusts and then finding out what everyone wanted on theirs and then making them to order.  He did awesome and as you can tell he was quite happy doing this.   (Oh and the pizzas were awesome!)

He was being goofy cause he knew I had my camera out..

He did not complain when his sisters told him what they wanted on theirs, as they prefer cheddar on theirs instead of mozzarella...and veggies...where as Ty is just a plain cheese sort of kiddo. 

 

I think its important to teach kids to cook for themselves, how to properly use the oven, and how to use food wisely and make good healthy choices.  What kind of fun do you have in the ktichen with your kids? Let me know!

 

Eat and be merry!  That's life!

Jack Frost was busy Saturday morning...

It was a chilly -2 degrees here on Saturday morning..everything was frost covered and sparkly..

Mice??

This is my favorite tree in the backyard. I love it.

wow...where does the yard end and the farmer's field begin heh?

 

Winter happened....That's Life!

Basketball is good for life lessons....

My kids play Upwards Basketball and I cannot say enough good things about this program.  Yesterday's games were sweeeeet to watch! I am learning that my kids each play basketball very differently.  Tyler is the social bug and just enjoys the game and what happens happens, no biggie.  Claire is a serious basketball player and a very good team mate, but has an aggressive playing side.  Claire also learned a very important life lesson yesterday which I will explain below....

Tyler (in red) in the opening jump shot-look at that height!  The team they played Saturday is the same team they scrimmage at practice on Monday nights..so this guy he is jumping against is actually a "friend" now and like Ty said that just makes it more fun, playing BB with friends."  I love that attitude.

Tyler making a shot...this one did not go in, it hit the rim and bounced off, but he did make 4 shots during the game! WooHoo!

Ty with the ball, waiting for the screen so he can go to the hoop.

Miss Claire...my little dynamite.  She was all over the court yesterday, from shooting baskets, stealing the ball, rebounds, catching loose balls...wow, she earned herself a good nights rest.

Claire with the ball, she learned patience yesterday, waiting for her teammate to set the screen so she could shoot the ball, it didn't always go as planned, but that is okay.

Claire getting ready to shoot the ball...it actually went in, although I did not get a pic of that. I need a faster camera.

Claire on defense-she can be an aggressive opponent when she wants to be.

 

So what was the life lesson?  Well....a ref made a call on Claire saying she had double dribbled, she hadn't, she knew it, I knew it, the other parents knew it...Claire was mad.  She chucked the ball at the ref, he did not call her on that, but she looked at me because she realized her attitude was out of line and I mouthed the words "walk it off" to her...she did.  But she was not happy.  Later on she and I were talking and she said "that was not a fair call, I did not do any double dribbling." I told her "I know it, but sometimes refs make the wrong calls, they are human.  You played an awesome game and you need to remember that, but if you throw that attitude like that again, I will make you sit out, got it?  There is no place in the game for bad attitude.  Life is not going to be fair. But you can still be positive about it and focus on how well the game went."  Good lessons to learn young.

 

That's Life!   

A new recipe "Roley Joes"

Tried a new recipe with the Trio tonight.  (The Trio are my children).  Claire loves to cook and so she was helping tonight as we made Roley Joes.  A new take on Sloppy Joes.

We used Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layer biscuits...flattened them out.

used a slice of cheese and then a small spoonful of sloppy joe

then roll the side of it over and try to press the ends together (not all of ours cooperated).

Claire did good making the rest once I showed her how.

my happy lil' chef!

Ready for the oven.....we baked them at 350 for about 17 minutes

 

All done...so good!! 

 

I wonder what it would be like if we did this with pizza stuff??

That's life for ya!  (And I like it when its very tasty too!)

A book I read yesterday...

OH MY....I finished the Sacrifice by John Whitlow yesterday and while at the library grabbing more of his books I came across Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I started to read it and fell in love with it...so I checked it out...read it on and off all day yesterday and finished it around 1am this morning...it was oh so worth it! 

Basically in a nutshell its about a 50 year old lady, who is diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's disease.  Its from her perspective which was just fascinating to me.  Its an awesome book and I encourage you to look at it.    My heart laughed with her, broke with her...it was a book I hated to see end. But that's life right? 

Awesome book!