First Science Fair

Last week we had a coop about the story the Gingerbread Man. We read two different versions of the story and then compared and contrasted them. Then we got to decorate some cookies! We brought our own gluten, egg, soy and dairy free cookies and decorations. They were sugar cookies because I think gingerbread tastes terrible and I had none of the ingredients for it anyway. I also had no cookie cutter so these babies are hand carved.

On Saturday the girls went to a birthday party at a gladiator place. I didn't think Anna would participate, but she loved it! Of course, there was no doubt is would be right up Mia's alley.

Monday we had our first ever Science Fair with our homeschool group. The girls did a simple experiment of which plant will survive longer, one given no water or one given no light.

There were 18 science projects and 16 of the kids presented. The girls learned a lot and were fascinated at the presentations. They were the first ones to raise their hands after every talk to ask questions. After the presentations they got to go around and taste, handle, and participate in everyone's project. It was an amazing success.

Anna has passed another level in swimming. She is such a determined young thing! She tries soooo hard. The girls are both good swimmers now so we will be ending swimming lessons in March for good and go on to something else.

Sister Trip!

It's been awhile since our last sister trip, maybe five years? We went to La Quinta for four days. Things have changed. Bill is divorced so Michelle wasn't there. Instead, his current wife Dawn came. She got along great with us and we all got along great with each other (a first for us).

The trip was wonderful. We really enjoyed each other. It was so nice to have a house where we could spread out a bit rather than being cramped in a hotel room. It may be part of the reason we all got along!

Friday night we just listened to music and played around. I do have one particularly crazy sister.

Saturday we went to the street fair. What I have to say about that is: been there, done that. 

And then we spent the rest of the day sunning.

Saturday night we celebrated Donna's fiftieth birthday, which was in December. We went to a great restaurant, Wally's. At first it seemed like it wouldn't work. We are loud. The place was quiet. There was almost no one in the place when we got there, white tablecloths, silence, candles. etc. But they were so NICE. They set us in the middle of the restaurant. I had the best service I've ever had. They were amazing. We had them taking our pictures over and over because we couldn't get the flash to work right. And then of course we blinded the tables next to us. They made a beautiful little cake for Donna.

After dinner we went to the Frankie Valli concert at Fantasy Springs. We didn't expect much. But it was sooo good! Dar, Denise and Donna were the only people out of about 3000 that stood through the entire thing.

After the show we accosted asked this member of the band to take a picture with the birthday girl.

Sunday we pretty much just hung out and then gambled a bit. The whole trip was so relaxing.

We will probably do our next trip in the summer of 2017!

Super Bowl Week

Coops have begun again! We did not have any in December and January and we missed them. Last week we went to Hammond's Candy Factory. We have been there a few times but the girls are so young they don't remember very much of it.

They make candy the old-fashioned way. Some of the machines are over 100 years old.

On Saturday Arek drove Mia up the mountain so she could take a snowboarding lesson while he skied. She loved it! Anna wants to go next year. I was worried about her being cold but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. She came home exhausted!

We had a super bowl party! Just ignore the Raiders mug on the shelf. Dan actually rooted for the Broncos, because he doesn't like a certain quarterback on the other team. Everyone else rooted for the Broncos because they are the BRONCOS! It was fun. The rally was downtown today and I thought about taking the kids but then quickly came to my senses. It was so big you could see it from space!

Beth and Greg were here for the Super Bowl and Beth is staying until tomorrow. And they brought this cute little package with them.

She's been walking for three months and she only weights sixteen pounds! Her expressions are priceless. What a cutie! Unfortunately, she doesn't sleep! Little Oli has been sick and Paige started getting sick as well so there's been a lot of crying and wanting their moms! Becky and family usually spend the night whenever Joey or Beth are in town.

There have been happy times too!

To get the poor little sick babies to sleep we took a walk in the Colorado sunshine. No, they didn't fall asleep with three kids and a dog tagging along!

Tomorrow night the house will seem empty!

Playoff Weekend

The weekend before last were the conference play-offs. We decided to go ice skating on Saturday. The last time we went was for Anna's birthday. Mia could not go because she wouldn't put on the skates because her feet itched so much.  No one has been able to correctly diagnose her feet issues, but they are almost gone now with the special diet and supplements.  We do have one more piece of the puzzle...

Yes, she has toxic levels of mercury and aluminum. We are working on this! Notice also that not one of her mineral ratios is ideal.

Anyway, we took our little neighbor with us and bought the passes to do all the activities. That means we spent a few hours going ice skating, playing laser tag (Anna and I sat this out as she was too scared.), bumper cars (Anna was too short.), inflatable obstacle course and climbing wall. We took a break to eat our lunch in the car. 

Can you tell it was a nice day?

Mia has always been our climber!

Anna did pretty good but needed a lot more help.

The next day was the football conference playoffs. So we figured if we were gonna watch upwards of 6 hours of TV, the girls could have the same amount of screen time. You might have to rethink that when your daughter wakes up with a blister and it finally dawns on you that it's from playing on the iPad too much!