Final Projects

After the completion of our Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day textbook, Micah & Lilly each selected a swimming creature to overview & present.

• Micah - Nautilus
• Lilly - Sea Star; Starfish

Gymnastics Showcase - Tumble in the Jungle

Lilly's gymnastics gym, North Valley Gymnastics, hosted their annual Devo Showcase on Sunday - "Tumble in the Jungle".  Lilly's class, Junior Elites, were part of the event.  All of the girls moved from event to event:  floor, beams, bars and vault.  Lilly invited several of her friends, who were all able to attend.  She had a fun time and said her favorite part was "the vault".
Thank you family and friends who attended to support her!

On May 1st, Lilly will move up to the pre-team class.  Next spring she'll be in her first competitions.  We're very proud of her and enjoy watching her have fun learning this sport.

Spring is in the air!

The mornings are so beautiful this time of year - spring is in the air!  This morning the kids made their favorite cinnamon apple muffins and we ate on the back patio.  Afterward Lilly spent some time on the balance beam, Micah in his shed, and I in the garden.

Alice's printer

Today we went to Alice & Charlie's house after horse lesson.  Our main objective - get videos of them for Christopher's graduation ("I remember when" ... "and I know"...).  Alice & I combined food items to make a nice lunch, we visited, and we got the videos.  When we first arrived, Alice asked if I could help set up her new printer.  Before I had a chance to answer, Micah says "I'll do it."  What a great opportunity for him to challenge himself!  So, I got busy cutting up fruits and vegetables and Alice & Micah went upstairs to the office.
When I went to check on them things were 'loading' and the two of them were contently talking and relaxing.  They tested it by printing one of Alice's church newsletters, and it worked great.  I told Micah "you get an A for the day!"

Picture for their videos.

This tree is so beautiful for the month of April.

 

Cephalopods

Our science experiment for cephalopods was to learn about buoyancy.  We displaced the amount of water and air in the eyedropper to make it sink and float.  We decorated our droppers to look like octopuses, experimented to get the right amount of water in the dropper, and then released the droppers into the water bottle/s.  When we squeezed the bottle the dropper sank and when we released the bottle the dropper rose.  When water enters the dropper it becomes heavier and sinks, when there is more air in the dropper it becomes lighter and floats --- the cephalopod, nautilus, can control their buoyancy in the same way.

Unspoken - Bury the Workman

Micah turned on his tablet today to play some songs while we were straightening up.  He plugged it into some speakers and we happily hummed along as we got our work done.  He's been listening to a new group, Unspoken, and I don't know many of the songs yet.  When the song "Bury the Workman" came on he said "mom, that's exactly what we've been reading in our Bible this week."  Sure enough it was about the disciples in the book of Acts - Stephen, Peter, ... and their dedication to spreading their witness account of Jesus - no matter what.
Speaking of Unspoken, last week he brought in to me a song he had written out.  His spelling is still quite phonetic and so he asked me if I could tell what it said.  (I, personally, enjoy reading his invented spelling and can read it very well.)  I said "yes".  He said "I'd like to play the song for you.  I really like it."  He played "My Recovery".  He was so excited to share.  He sang as he pointed to the words on the page, strumming to the beat.  It was so beautiful to hear what touches him.  Yes, I cried.

Arabian Horse Show

This year we attended the 59th Annual Arabian Horse Show hosted at West World Arena.  It was a great time to go since Lilly is taking horse lessons and is so interested.  Our friends, the Gravels, said they would like to go, so we all went together.  We saw English riders and Western riders competing.  We walked around and saw warm-ups, breeding sales, and beautiful RV trailers.  It was a great day enjoying the horses and learning so much.

Toy Washing

Today we got to wash the toys in the Sunday School classroom that Lilly used to be in - a few years ago.  This is done every few months to refresh the toys and help reduce the amount of germs the kids can pick up when at church.  We ate our brown bag lunches, turned on the radio (K-Love, of course), and got to work.  Micah was all about beating our time from the last cleaning (yes, he remembered & yes, we did).  We had so much fun singing and scrubbing.  Each time gets easier as the kids get older, can clean better, can stick with the job longer, and know the routine.  Yes, cleaning toys and putting them away can be fun.  :)

 

School Schedule Resumes

"Sneakers, Sneakers"

This week we were able to resume our school schedule.  Lilly had been asking "when are we going to do science again?" and Micah was ready to get started on his new math curriculum (Teaching Textbooks 6).  Ahhh, it felt so good!
The most exciting part was our reading time.  We all pull out books, circle up, and read to each other.  Micah showed such confidence in his reading, but it was priceless to see his enthusiasm, encouragement and excitement for his sister's reading.  Lilly, even though she hadn't been reading much lately, read wonderfully.  God used that time, while we were focusing on other matters, to help her mind process what's she's learned so far.

Teaching Textbooks

Horse Lessons

Lilly LOVES horses!  She's talked about riding horses for several years and one of her grown-up dreams is "to live on a ranch and have horses."  For her 7th birthday, Matt and I got her horse lessons.  A friend in Eastside has a niece who gives lessons - minimum age 7, or a 'large 6' (that's not Lilly).
Her first lesson was just before our trip to Mexico.  It was amazing!!  Emalee (her teacher) had her hands-on with everything as she modeled, explained, and directed.  Lilly brushed Jed (her horse), cleaned his hooves, saddled him up, and walked him to the back area.  Behind the fence Lilly was riding Jed, giving him directions to "go", "turn right", "turn left", "go backward", and "stop".
She was quiet as she listened to Emalee and focused on Jed, but her smile was HUGE and her eyes sparkled greatly.
Today was her second lesson.  Emalee had Lilly braid Jed's mane - so cute, while we waited for her classmate Cloe.  She reviewed everything from lesson 1 and added "trotting".

Baseball Season Begins

We are overlapping a few weeks with baseball & flag football, but Micah has the same coach for both, so there shouldn't be any practice overlaps.  This week Micah has: Baseball practice Monday & Wednesday; Football practice Tuesday & Thursday.
Here he is grabbing a quick RKT before first practice.  He should sleep well Friday night.

Fun Day with Gravel Kids

Our dear friends the Gravel's had a special occasion come up for Dana (mom).  Her grandpa had his 101st birthday.  They all traveled to celebrate his 100th birthday last year, but this year just Dana went.  So, on Monday, Keith brought the kids to our house for the day.  It was wonderfully fun!  The house, front yard, and back yard were full of (each in their own place of course) ... mud pies, jumping, laughter, dart guns, remote cars, bicycles, nail polish, card games & board games, crafts, and more.  I was able to get a group photo during our smoothie break.

Superbowl XLIX

Superbowl 49 - wow, Phoenix got to host again!!  This meant Micah and Matt got to attend the NFL Experience again.  Wednesday night they spent hours playing games, sitting in Skittles, and looking at past Superbowl rings on display.  They closed the place down at 10pm and came home with lots of stories and photos.
We had a great Sunday - just stayed home and watched the game by ourselves.  Snacks included homemake pico de gallo, quinoa burgers, and RKT. We watched out the window for the fighter jets and/or fireworks, but weren't quite close enough for them.

 

LaPaz day 10 - travel day home

Malacon


In just 10 hours we traveled from the Malacon beach in LaPaz, Mexico to our driveway in Phoenix, Arizona.  Martin and Susie dropped us off at the shuttle bus station at 7:45am this morning.  We rode along the coast for three hours (enjoying the scenery), hung out at the Cabo International Airport until 2pm and arrived in Phoenix at 4pm.

Shuttle bus

We've now had dinner, showered, and the kids are snuggling in their own beds.  We've come full circle with lots of amazing memories and wonderful friends we've shared them with.

Home - Micah with pizza in hand