Gymnastics

Lauren, Lyndsey & Colleen are enjoying going to recreational gymnastics each week.  It is a great way to stretch those muscles!!!

Our little athelete in her perfect handstand!

ECS Warrior Basketball

Corynne played for the ECS Junior Varsity Basketball team this year.  It was an interesting season full of emotions!  Corynne struggled to find her place on the team, and her self-confidence took a horrifying nose dive which set off the Mother-defense mode in me.  It was definitely not my finest moment, but there are times when a mom just cannot sit in the background and watch her kid crumble for nothing she can control on her own.

All-in-all she had a good season, and she made a few good friends.  After so many nights in January of her begging us to let her quit because she HATED basketball; she has grown into a tough, aggressive player.  We are proud of her for sticking the season out, and we were equalled SHOCKED in May when she decided to tryout for the basketball team for next year!!

Awanas, Awanas, Awanas

Lauren and Lyndsey are having a great year in Awanas this year.  They really missed Awanas last year when dance conflicted with Wednesday night Awanas.  Lyndsey is a little fireball for learning verses.  She can memorize them so fast, and she remembers them weeks later.  By the end of December, she had completed the 1st year book and a few sections of the review book.

This year the program put together gift boxes for Operation Shoebox!  The girls had so much fun filling their boxes this year.

While I was gone to visit my friend Robin in Maryland, JM helped the girls assemble their cars for the Awana Grand Prix!  This was the first time we had done the Grand Prix!  I always avoid things like this!!!  Lyndsey was the instigator and kept begging to go.  JM being the crazy dad said he would do it with them!!!

I was a leader in the Sparks, so I have plenty of pictures of Lyndsey this year.  I have very few of Lauren in  T&T.  Here is Lyndsey showing off her Veggie Pet for theme night.

State-by-State: Maryland

"B is for Blue Crabs

that swim in the Chesapeake Bay.

Males are called Jimmys and females Sallys.

That's what the fishermen say."

-B is for Blue Crab:  A Maryland Alphabet

The girls read B is for Blue Crab:  A Maryland Alphabet and completed their scrapbook and lapbook pages.

Lyndsey makes a mini lapbook for each state using this lapbook from Currclick.com .

The girls prepared Crab Cakes for dinner tonight.  Actually, we took the easy route this time and purchased pre-made Crab cakes.

They were definitely not as good as the crab cakes we ate while living in Maryland, but they were decent!

WSFA Field Trip

While I was in Maryland visiting my friend Robin and her new baby Sarah, JM stepped up as the homeschooling dad and took the girls on a field trip for me!  They went to WSFA 12 News to learn about the TV production process!

It was a "busy" weather day, so they got to watch the meterologist go live and report on the conditions around the south.

SHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It is always fun to play on the green screen and see how it shows up on the TV.

They also taught the group about the history of WSFA!

State-by-State: New Jersey

"G is for Gardents

that fill the state's bowers

with color and fragrance,

farm vegetables, and flowers."

-G is for the Garden State:  A New Jersey Alphabet

New Jersey Scrapbook Page by La and Mini-Lapbook by Ly

For New Jersey we decided to make our easy crockpot chicken-n-dumplings.    We used Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup because Campbell's Soup Company was founded in New Jersey in 1869.  In 1897, John Dorrance performed an experiment that resulted in condensed soup.

We served the Chicken-N-Dumplings with green beans because New Jersey, The Garden State, is the country's leading grower of green beans.

It was a good "diner meal" and New Jersey is often called the "Diner Capital of the World" because it has more diners than any other state in the nation!!!!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

-capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.-

{pretty}

It is hard to believe the 80s is a decade that kids dress up in now, and that she used my old clothes to dress up in.  Thanks, Mom, for leaving the awesome sweater from my high school years!!!

{happy}

Always posing for the camera!  She is a little diva, but she loves with all her heart!

{funny}

We had just picked Tyler up from school.  I guess he had a tough day!

{real}

They all love to play games on their electronics!  Wait!!! That is my ipad Lyndsey is playing on!

12 Days of Christmas Dinner

During our family devotion time since the day after Christmas, we have been doing a Twelve Days of Christmas study using online resources.  We have studied each of the 12 days now, and we finished it up with a special dinner.

Inspired by the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, I came up with 12 menu items for our party.  Legend has it that each gift represents an aspect of our faith and it has been said that this song was used to help teach catechism to children when religious instruction was prohibited.

The Menu

Twelve Drummer's Drumming Chicken Drumsticks

Eleven Piper's Pipes

Ten Commandment Cookies

Nine Ladies Dancing Fruits of the Spirit Salad

Eight Maids-a-Milking White Punch

Seven Swan's a Swimming Seven Layered Dip

Six Geese-a-Laying Scrambled Eggs

Five Golden Onion Rings

Four Calling Birds Chicken Wings

Three Golden Coins hidden in the Twelfth Night Rum Cake

Two Turtle Dove Chocolates

A partridge Pear Salad