Emily is Diving!

 

Emily graduated from AcroKidz, the dry-land prepratory dive class we had her in last spring and is now in AcroDive where she actually gets to dive into the pool.  She trains at the Natatorium, which is the fanciest facility I have ever seen, and is loving it!  We are lucky to have her in the homeschool class because there are only 5 or 6 kids at her level.  Fewer kids means more attention and more times going off the board.  These kids get quite a work-out getting in and out of the pool so many times!  Here is a little sampling of what they are doing. 

 

In the first video, I think I comment something like, "That's better!" because the dive before her legs were kind of flopping all over the place and another dive her legs almost flipped over her head!  She was making good progress!

 

 

 

I think coach Stephanie is trying to help them with their "hollow body hold."

 

 

 

 

At the end of each class, the kids get 3 free dives.  The younger ones like to go off the high dive.  It kind of scares me to watch them do this. 

 

 

An Afternoon in Ancient Egypt, 9-28-12

A family from our co-op hosted a really fun Ancient Egyptian party back in September.  We study world history in order and our co-op is currently on "Ancient History" this year so it was a good fit with our studies.  As we walked up the driveway, we encountered a timeline on the driveway so we knew we were entering the realm of 3000 BC!  The kids were told to come dressed in white and were given an egyptian collar to decorate.  I love the way they decorated their pillar with hieroglyphics.  What a photo opportunity!  By the way, David promptly removed his collar after I took the picture and told me I could wear it.  ;-)

 

Mary had all the details covered.  Her guests brought dates, figs, lentils, cous-cous and she served grilled fish for us to eat.  The Egyptians ate with their hands and so did we!  As you can imagine, eating with our hands was not a problem for my family.  We felt right at home!  So why are the kids standing in a line with toilet paper?  No... it is not the line for the bathroom....

They were standing in line to make mummies out of themselves.  Now this is the easiest party game ever and the kids were occupied for well over an hour with this.  Mary took a freestanding toilet paper holder and told the kids to roll themselves up and not to break the paper while they did it.  Oh my goodness, they loved this!  And they waited patiently for their turn for a very long time!

After mummifying themselves, they got to raid the tomb... and found (stole) these little Egyptian charms.  (I found them on Oriental Trading... what a great idea!)

 

She also had twenty-sided dice to give as party favors... and again, my crew thought these were the best gifts ever.  What an awesome gift for a bunch of home-schooled kids!  Love it.  What a fun party!

 

 





David is a Cub Scout

David started cub scouts this fall.  We found him a homeschooled cub scout pack and this will be his first year as a Tiger cub.  His Tiger den has 19 boys and David is loving the weekly meetings and being loud and silly with his buddies.  These pictues are from his first pack meeting where he received his bobcat badge for memorizing some important cub scout matters, making a family scrapbook and attending his first Go See It.

 

 

 

David's Tiger Cub den went to the Sam Houston Museum to see how family life was different many years ago.

The way things worked in the kitchen were certainly different... but the importance of feeding the family remains unchanged.  The kitchen was and still is a very important part of family life.

The boys also got to meet Wyatt, a boy scout, who will be their Den Chief this year.  The boys like Wyatt because he likes to play games with them!  At their last meeting they played several versions of freeze tag and Red Rover.  Excellent boy time.

Happy Birthday Emily Video

Emily's 9th Birthday Party

Eight was great, Nine is fine!  We decided to host Emily's birthday at the newly remodeled Sawmill pool.  We were very lucky to snag a table to celebrate on and really enjoyed having the party in the evening hours.  The weather cooled off a little for us and we stayed till the pool closed at 8:00.

 

Happy 9th Birthday Emily!

Emma, Elle, Emily, Maci, Rebecca, Mia and Lia

A friendly dragon.

And a splash pad for safety breaks!  What a fun pool.

Emily's Birthday Cake (August)

Hooray!  I made it to the big August post... Emily's birthday!  I'm on a roll and David's birthday is approaching so I better get to work.  Emily decided on a brownie/cookie cake and the kids are preparing the mix to go into the oven.  This picture makes me laugh because it is always very silly when I try to get all three of them to smile sweetly for the camera.  But here they are:

 

Emily is clearly in charge of this operation.

Look closely, David is missing a few teeth in front!

 Now it is the day of her party and the brownie/cookie cake has cooled and is ready to be decorated.  What will the theme be this year?  Well, the icing will definetly be pink.  Emily chose cherry icing from the baking aisle at Walmart.  And take notice, Peg... still using the special frosting knives!!!  Nothing else would do.

And now you can see the theme...  a penguin princess theme, of course!  I was actually out shopping when the penguin was drawn on the cake.  I think Emily did a great job.

And I put on the final frosting touches with the star tip to make Penguin look fluffly... I think it came out awesome!

And now, let's have a party!

Beach Week: KG's surprise shower (July)

After ladies night out, a surprise shower was held for KG in anticipation for her wedding coming up this month!  And it is nice to see I was really on this vacation... I had to snag these off Facebook.  Thank you to Madison and Stephanie for posting!  I know Emily and Lia were very excited to go to the "girl" party.  David was a little miffed asking, "When is the boy party?"  Ah yes, little boy, only women can make a fuss like women do.  It makes me glad to be a girl.  What a fun celebration for KG!

Group Picture

The Bride and her Flowergirls
 (they are wearing their special shirts)

Olivia, Madison, Lexi and Me

I think Lia is enjoying the party with Ainsley

Olivia, Ainsley, Madison, Annaliese, Emily

Enjoying the goodies...