Cub Scouts: Blue and Gold Banquet

 They each received a couple awards.

  Then they put on some skits...  From what I heard when they got home the skits were hilarious.

Family Schooling: Hapkido, Preschool classes, Master Builders, and Snow days

Big sister A and brother M heard from FW that hapkido was tons of fun.  They are glad they decided to try it this session. They have already learned some fun moves and I think it is helping M's coordination a lot. 

 I am one of the assistant teachers in the class so I get to stay for the whole lesson and even help out with sparing.  I love that it teaches them self-defense moves -- like what to do if someone grabs them from behind or grabs their shirt sleeve.

 Miss L's preschool class was out on the parking lot this week making chalk drawings since the weather was so warm. Of course she wanted me to help her draw rainbows and unicorns.  The boys and I drew a dragon and a sword.

 The master builders teacher emailed me these pictures so they are a bit blurry.  Their first week's challenge was to see which team could build the tallest structure with pipe cleaners.

We had a quick and pretty type snow on Wednesday.  It melted the next day.  The chickens usually don't march out into the snow like this... still a mystery why they ventured so far from home in the white stuff. 

 On the other hand, the parka wearing furry buddies are so happy when it snows.  They run around tackling each other and leaping about with wolfish grins. I can just hear them in my mind, "Best day ever!!" they say.   It is hard to get a clear picture of them because they immediately run to greet me.  I as trying to get a picture of them relaxing out there on the snow like it was a nice comfy pile of hay.

 These kids are pretty happy to roll around in the snow too.

Farm Bags -- Embroidered with Love

While Grandmama was visiting I found these farm fresh embroidery designs and sent her home with some canvas fabric...

  We received some lovelies back in the mail and I sewed them into bags.

 They were immediately put to use with primary materials (I was called to be the primary president a couple weeks ago), library books, and I hope lots of Amish market goodies some day soon.

 The kids had especially like the horse and the chicken. Great job Grandmama!

Miss L's Birthday Activity

Despite the many other fun activity ideas presented to her, Miss L's four year old birthday wish was just Tutti Frutti.  It was an experience that had us talking about businesses and how franchises go out of business.  The local one was closed and emptied with no sign anymore. We drove to another one and found a similar situation. Finally, we went to Menchie's, which still had a lot of candy toppings to choose from, but no fresh fruit.   I can't imagine how these places go out of business.  It is so expensive!  Granted they each got as much as they wanted, but we could have gone out to dinner for the same price.

 Drunk on sugar.

 

Field Trip: Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

This weekend hubby and I took turns going to the Philadelphia temple while the other watched the kiddos.  Happily, the temple is an easy walk from the Franklin Institute and a bunch of future field trip spots --  The Academy of Natural Sciences is next on my list.  We went to the Franklin Institute last year to see the Terracotta Warriors.  That day we didn't have time to visit all the regular exhibits and the kids have been anxious to go back and see the rest. 

The Train Factory exhibit:

 They had wonderful displays showing the way steam, electric, and maglev trains work differently.

 

 

 I never get tired of the "touch an asteroid" exhibits. It fell to the earth from space!

 Lots of people are excited about going to Mars.

The exhibit about flight made us wish Grandpa J was with us.   

 The kids sat in a fighter jet.

  They each tried on some wings in a wind chamber to see what happens when you tilt them this way or that.

 

In the body exhibit, they went through the giant heart several times.  We entered via the vena cava into right atrium, through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle.  We talked about how sometimes people have the valve replaced in their heart... Then on into the lungs to get oxygenated. it is a detailed model.

 They also had a real video of a heart surgery projecting on a mannequin.  I watched in fascination and then proceeded to stagger and nearly black out. Seriously. Just as bad watching a video as watching my kiddos get stitches in real life. Good thing I did public health instead of medicine.

 The brain exhibit had this fun jungle gym area representing the many synapses and pathways that messages are transmitted within the brain.

Another part of the brain exhibit demonstrated perception vs. reality and how you can visually trick your brain. 

 We went back to the kids favorite sports exhibit from last time.  We had fun playing all the games.

  Daddy showed off how high he could jump.

 They also had a lego exhibit... of course they could have stayed there all day.

 A liberty bell made of legos.

 A model of Philadelphia made of legos.