Science Fair 2013!

Our girls participated in this year's Heartland Homeschoolers Science Fair.  Jocelyn has participated before, but this was Katelyn's first year participating.

Jocelyn's topic was to find out if people liked higher fat cookies over low-fat cookies.  She had 15 friends and family members taste test and rank 4 different kinds of cookies...she proved her hypothesis was correct...people do like higher fat cookies.  Surprise, surprise! 

For her presentation she talked about different types of fats and then went into her science experiment.

Overall she did a great job and was able to answer all of her judges questions.  In the end, she was part of a tie breaker for 2nd and 3rd place...and lost the tie breaker and got 3rd place and a purple ribbon.  She got a perfect score.  We are obviously very proud of her...but she is a bit bummed today.  Suck it up buttercup...can't win everything!  I know harsh...but I am not expecting my kids to always expect to be perfect.  Failure...which was not failure in this case...is good sometimes.

Katelyn's experiment was to see what brand of popcorn popped the most kernels.  We popped 4 different types of popcorn three different times.  That is a lot of popcorn and counting!  I threw out most of it and made goodies for friends.  She found that between Trader Joes, Act II, Pop Secret, and Orville Redenbacher...Pop Secret popped the highest percentage of popcorn.

She did a really good job on her presentation.  She actually had it memorized, but was nervous and used her notecards as a crutch.  She stumbled on their questions and basically froze.  She was able to answer a few, but at times she said she didn't know...even though I know she knew the answer...but any how I think she did a great job.  She lost a few points due to not answering the judges questions.  I am very proud of her and she got a 2nd tiered ribbon-- blue!  She is a bit bummed today, because she doesn't like the color blue...it is a boy's color.  Purple is much prettier.

Here are a few pictures from the awards ceremony and the girls' with their ribbons!

**Thank you Rautenberg's, Reed's, Samson's, and my family for taste testing cookies!!**

Some random happenings!

It is Sunday.  I usually don't blog on Sunday, but we stayed home from church today to recoop a bit.  I was gone all day yesterday...from 7:30am-8:30pm.  Not used to that...I was drained.  Sean was out of town 3 days last week and is set to have a crazy busy week with more traveling...so we needed a veg day.

This blog post is another random blog post with what has been going on with our little family.  Enjoy!

~~A few Sunday's ago I took the girls to a University of Nebraska gymnastics meet.   They are serious gymnasts, but they do take classes at the Y and enjoy them.  I thought this would be a fun little event and it was.  We met a friend there and the girls had a good time seeing how many gymnasts would wave to them.

After wards the girls met a few of the gymnasts.  These girls' were twins!

Here is a little pic of the girls & I.

and the girls with their friend Sarah.

~~Our cat.  A funny little thing.  Most of the time he just sleeps, but sometimes he has a funny little streak.  Like what I caught him doing this morning....

someone left a little trickle of water on in one of our bathroom sinks.
He is drinking the water....
Catching it with his paw....
and then licking it off of his paw.

I tell you what cats are really a lot more entertaining than dogs.  Our doggie Maggie just whines non-stop about her ball being stuck underneath something.  I think I am becoming a cat lady.

~~We had a few firsts over the past few months!
Sean skied for the first time in the great mountains of Iowa!!  Well ok...bluffs, but we will just say they were big mountains in regards to the flatlands of Iowa.

Our first lesson was on the coldest night of the year.  I had friends texting me and sending me e-mails saying...are you crazy?  Yes.  Do you have any idea what the temp is going to be? Yeppers...we did and we were prepared.  We bundled up and we were not cold at all.  The other gals in my class...not so much.  There was even a news story on one of the local stations about that very day how many braved the cold.  Funny.

Sean did ok for his private lesson.  I caught on really fast in my ladies class...since I had been before back in high school.  Sean has a few issues due to his height.

We took another lesson just last weekend and we feel we are good to go for next weekend when we hit the real (bunny) slopes of Vail, Colorado!

~~Another first for me was learning how to shoot a gun.  I was a little nervous to learn, but it wasn't as hard as I had anticipated.  I can't wait until our entire family learns how to shoot to we can do things together.  Patience...I know.   I took a conceal and carry class yesterday and passed...woohoo!  Now lots of paper work to file with the State Patrol and after they process the paperwork I can legally carry a gun!

Easton caught a pic of me practicing at home.

~~This is what happens when a little boy wakes up super early...he can't make it through lunch.  My friend Erica recommended a special little alarm that turns green...signaling that it is ok for the child to come out of their room.  So we purchased this little clock.  The green wasn't working out so well, because their lights are bright and Wes doesn't know his colors yet.  So we switched it to alarm mode.  They do pretty good staying in their rooms until 7am.  Sometimes they forget, but they usually go right back.  Sometimes...I am "that" mean mom who turns their alarm off...and they stay in their room...patiently...waiting for their alarm to go off until like 7:45-8AM so I can sleep in.  I didn't feel bad at all.

had to throw this pic in...our grocery bill is getting larger and larger.  Totally fine...we have to eat, but Weston licking up every last drop!

~~We got 4 inches of snow last week and we are gearing up to get a few more inches this week.  I took the kids to play out in the snow for around 20 minutes or so.  They don't last long.  I need to buy better gloves.  The ones I got for this year, don't stay on, so then the put their cotton ones on and they get all wet.  So 20 minutes....but they had fun.  I believe it took me an hour or so to gather everything and get everyone dressed.  Oh well. 

                                                                                                                                                   ~~Kate lost her first tooth.  She is 5, so we were kind of surprised. She is gearing up to lose 3 more according to our dentist.

~~We moved our art cabinet from our laundry room to the school room.  I don't mind if the girls get into the art stuff unattended, but the boys...they are messy.  So I put this on it.  Sad.  I know.  I feel they are getting better at not getting into things, but then they regress a bit.  Boys.  Love them though!

~~And last pray for us for this coming week.  We are getting more snow.  Sean is traveling by car for work related things.  The girls have their Science Fair.  My parents are graciously keeping the kids for 4 days...so Sean and I can fly out to Colorado.   Busy times!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Valentines Party!!

Every month I plan a meet-up for local homeschooling families.  Because of this meet-up we have made some pretty good friends.  If you have little ones friends are pretty important.  For adults...just the same! 

This months meet-up was a Valentines Party at our house!  There were 18 kiddos in all!! I love throwing parties!  My aunt has stocked the kids up with Valentines decor galore...so thanks Nan for all of the paper products!!

I had to take a picture of my kiddos:)  Aren't they so cute?:) 

Each child was supposed to bring 1 Valentine to exchange.

These are ours.

This is a pic of the groups.  Such cute Valentines.  We then had a little exchange and everyone ended up with a Valentine.

I had the kids assemble their own goodie bags and mom's went away with some chocolate popcorn treats as well!  The cookie tray is empty...I didn't want the boys to snatch them.  The girls made heart shaped rice crispy treats and we dipped them in chocolate and covered them with sprinkles.  So cute!  Thanks Pinterest!  Jocelyn made heart crayons for everyone.  We also gave away glow sticks, pencils, and skittles!

We played BINGO!

and the kids made Valentines for a loved one.  It was so sweet...some made Valentines for their friends at the party!

 

 We also collected nickels for nets!  You can find out more info:  HERE.  My friend Erin's little guy is collecting them!  Jocelyn counted them after the party.

 All in all it was a great party!!

Some random Monday thoughts!

A scene from this morning...this is my life.

 I haven't had anything to write on...surprise. Surprise!  Right!?  Well actually I can think of many things I can write about...but time seems to slip by these days...and some days I don't rev up the laptop...and I can't blog on an iPad very well.

Here are a few things I have been thinking about lately:

--I have received confirmation that a lot of my friends and family have perfect little boys who do no wrong.  Way to go!  But for those who don't...does anyone else have boys (at the age of 2) who run around naked and pee all over their brothers bedding....right when you have finished the last load of laundry for the day.  I swear he waits...and plans his attack. 

--Everyone has an area for their collections of screws that are collected from around the house from their little kids...right?  That happens in everyone's house?  Correct?

--What is up with girls clothing when they reach the seven-ish age?  I am so sorry....this is just our (Sean's and my) opinion here...and I am sure no one else will agree....but what is up with 90% of the clothing having peace signs on it?  Make me want to throw up.  Talk about brain washing our kids at an early age. Peace.  Really?  What a bunch of liberal "crap" if there wasn't already so much in this world.  But little girls?? So we should have our little girls be accepting of everyone they come across...and be peaceful about it?  Hmm.  Sorry, I think I will pass on the peace sign stuff. 

--I have been reading through the entire Bible.  We have reach 21 days my friend!  AND I am still on track!!!  Woo hoo!  My friend Erin reported a statistic on our Facebook feed that it takes someone 21 days to do something to create a "good" habit.  We are there!  If you haven't read the Bible....front to back.  You really, really, really should.  I already knew this, but it is amazing what mumbo jumbo is out there and then you come across it is the Bible and think...wow I can't believe church so and so or religion such and such teaches XYZ...when right here in the Bible it says something completely different.  Craziness.  I wish everyone would pick it up and read it.  I mean everyone.

--So never, say never.  If you have followed my Facebook feeds and a few of my blog posts, we brainwashed our sweet Jocelyn into thinking we would never get a cat. Well never say never.  We have one.  I just have to say, that I would much rather have a cat over a dog.  They are really so much easier.  This sweet thing doesn't go bizurk when his ball goes under the TV stand a million times over the course of 15 minutes.  He doesn't need to be put out to go to the bathroom and doesn't get super anxious when we are putting on our shoes.  Cats are pretty low key and ours is super sweet.

--I am on day 2 of my 1/2 marathon training.  Set my alarm for 6am to go run outside.  My running clothes and gear and still sitting nicely in our bathroom.  Haven't been moved.  The boys were up at this lovely time...so hopefully I will get out tonight.  Root me on!  This is big people...big!

and those are a few thoughts I have going through my head. 

AND now I know why I don't sit down to blog very often anymore, my sweet little 2 year decided to take this time to climb up on furniture and pull all the clothes down from his closet.  Lovliness!