On February 2nd we went to SEP conference. Faith is doing great and just has to work a little more on her reading comprehension. Well, actually she just has to read more. That's the kind of extra work that I'd like to have!
That evening we celebrated Groundhog Day by watching the movie of the same name and eating sausage (which is made from ground hog).
I began our membership contest. It's hard to tell from this picture, but each of the brown papers look like bowing lanes and the little colored circles are supposed to be bowling balls. The kids get their name on a bowling ball for each parent with a PTA membership, and the class with the most bowling balls at the end of the contest wins a Wii Bowling party.
On the 4th we had a Valentines party with Ann+kids and Natalie+kids. It was so fun to visit with Natalie, we hadn't hung out since last fall! Unfortunately Ann had to leave early, but Natalie had the kids do a fun craft with red paper plates, sparkly pompoms and glitter made into shakers (here's a similar tutorial if you would like to make some).
We saw Megamind at the Kaysville dollar movie on the 5th.
Faith got her braces off on the 8th!! I forgot to take a better pic at the orthodontist office and hurried to get this one just before dropping her off at school. Those teeth look like a million bucks! And only cost thousands!
On the 11th Faith and Buddy got another sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's, this time with Sierra and Lily.
On the 12th the kids got to make music boxes at Lowe's.
The weather was finally a little nice, so we stopped by Barnes Park on the way to visit the family on the 13th.
My mom had a Valentine's party for the kids that night. Mylar balloons, gifts,
and these awesome pop-up balloons:
On the 14th we got the anual ding-dong-dash of gifts from Grandma Braegger and Tammy. Then we had "special" dinner of pasta with spaghetti sauce and alfredo sauce, served on china, with goblets of sparkling pomegranate juice and a lit candle (which firebug Buddy obsessed over the whole time). Daddy had even gotten us this fabulous ice cream cake!
On the 18th I did my Fun Friday teaching for Faith's class. I thought the subject I came up with--attraction, was perfectly appropriate for the month of February :) I did some experiments with ring magnets on a pencil, showing how like poles repel and opposite poles attract. I made a compass out of a magnet and a needle and talked about how the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is actually a magnetic field south pole. I had a bottle of baby oil with tiny clippings from fine steel wool in it and used a magnet to show magnetic fields (similar to this video). I showed the effects of static electricity with a homemade electroscope (here's a fancier one in action, I used a glass with a paperclip hanging through cardboard and a comb that we ran through several kids' hair). I even bent water with static electricity! At the end I had the kids do an experiment in pairs with balloons on string--seeing how they interacted initially, after one was rubbed on a kid's head to negatively charge the balloon, and then after both were. Lastly I gave the kids some cardstock, a magnet and a paperclip so they could make a moving car on a road (like this) or any other moving item on a background. (Just now while I was looking up an example for the blog, I came across this fun idea of ice skaters on an old cd.) It was another fun lesson!
Afterward, we ate school lunch. I wasn't excited about it being hot dogs, but I have to give them credit for trying to make them healthier. The buns were whole wheat, the fries were baked sweet potato fries, and the other sides were applesauce, grapes, salad, carrot sticks, and a frozen peach cup.
Probably not enough to make Jamie Oliver happy (especially the chocolate milk), but a good try. (Have you been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? It's good t.v. with a purpose!)
Hot dogs for lunch again the next day, but this time they were free! R.C. Willey's was celebrating President's Day.
Here the kids are on the 21st poking their heads out of the moon roof of our car while we were waiting in the parking lot somewhere.
Buddy took some pics and ended up with two gems--this colorful one of cereal and the camera's strap:
and the ever fluffy Dusty's backside:
On the 25th we had Ann and the kids over for a playdate and the kids enjoyed the Just Dance 2 Wii game that the kids scored because Faith traded in her Sims game that she didn't like. They are so funny!
(sorry to those who can't watch YouTube, it was too long to upload in Blogger)
I scored an awesome deal on gift certificates to Sweet Afton's candy shop in Gardner Village from Deals That Matter. They had a $10 certificate for only $5, but you get a $5 credit just for signing up. Tony and I each got one so we had $20 for free! (Sorry that I didn't notify anyone of the deal--total brain fart!) On the 26th we headed down south for some sugary goodness.
Of course we easily collected $38 worth, so we still had to shell out some cash. We mainly came for the Taffy Town saltwater taffy (which is a million times better than Sweet's) since Faith is braces free and can have chewy stuff!
And lastly, Christian asked me to capture this moment of love (and sheer strength) between him and his fluffy (and I'm not just talking about the fur) cat.
(my favorite quote from the movie Ice Age-- Sid: "I mean it's hard to get fat on a vegan diet." Mannie: "I'm not fat! It's all this fur. It makes me look...poofy." Sid: "All right, you have fat hair. But, when you're ready to talk, I'm here." )
We had such a busy December that we kept January very low key. Christian did lots of snuggling with his Dust Buster.
We volunteered at the school giving children the DIBELS test (counting how many words they can read correctly from selected stories). It took nearly three hours and Christian was a trooper!
Faith did this great animal habitat diorama.
It had to include four living things in addition to the pandas which were the main subject (bamboo, leopard, red panda, and a Hupeh Rowan tree) and four non-living things (soil, Chinese temple, clouds, bones from the leopard's meal). I think she did an amazing job! They each made their main animal out of Model Magic clay in class and Faith was super busy helping all of her classmates after they saw what a great job she did on her own :)
Buddy and I visited Faith (and did some PTA work) and had lunch at school with her.
Christian LOVES sending the bank cylinder through the pneumatic tube at the bank. He also loves receiving Dum Dum suckers.
For our January Fun Friday lesson in Faith's class, I told the children about elements and compounds. We made molecules out of colored mini marshmallows and toothpicks and I had them invent their own creative compound and write out the formula (example: PU2C-->Fairytale Land Molecule, with P=princess, U=unicorns, and C=castle).
On the 27th we went to the school for a reading activity. They had real-life applications for reading which included a short talk by author Val Bagley, reading the instructions to make a gingerbread man craft, writing postcards, and doing the written exam for their "driver's license" test. If they passed the written part, they got to do the driving test on wiggle cars! At the end they received a license which, as Faith was disappointed to find out, stated "License to Read." So cute!
This was taken on the 26th and I had to include it because the kids were looking so cute!
On the 29th we went over to my friend Ann's for a playdate. The kids especially loved petting the guinea pigs.
On the 31st we picked up the kids from a sleepover at my parents' with Sarah's kids (where they got the cute doggy pillow pets), then stopped by Chick-fil-A to pick up cole slaw for the party that evening. We decided to get a whole platter of nuggets instead of individual meals to feed us for lunch and have leftovers.
The Braegger New Year's Eve party was amazing, as always. Lots of Chili's baby back ribs and all the trimmings,
fun party supplies,
and wingo!
We brought the blow-up beds so the kids could watch a movie while we waited for the big countdown. This pic is just seconds before 2011. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Santa was good to us! Faith got a red camera and a Sims 3 Wii game,
and Buddy got a Lego Harry Potter set, Epic Mickey Wii game and Lego Star Wars Wii game.
One of the kids' favorite things was that we gave them each $3 at the dollar store and let them buy gifts for each other. They were so excited to exchange!
We got the kids these inflatable beds with attached sleeping bags, which were a big hit.
As a Christmas surprise for my mom, Tony hung the picture she gave us six months before. In our defense, it did need a good deal of repair work.
We met up with Sarah and family at my mom & dad's. We got Lagoon passes, money, toys and lots of other goodies.
I must have been caught up with the celebration because I hardly took any pictures over there. Oops!
Then on to Braegger's. We received Shakespearean Festival gift certificates (for myself and Faith), Steelers emblazened apparel (for Tony), and loads of gorgeous clothes and a remote control truck for each of the kids.
Crumpet's gift was spending the day at her grandparents'!
Lots of pics there! Guess I was trying to make up for my earlier mistake.
We stopped by to visit Grandma Mitchell.
(don't know what Christian's doing, he was acting crazy and asked me to take a picture of it!)
We also stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Quinn's.
We actually got back home before dark this year! We had a very wonderful, merry and blessed Christmas.
