Agent L, A Man

Today I overheard Agent E (7 yrs) and Agent L (5 yrs) discussing something-or-other when Agent L finished off the conversation with his very sincere bravo ". . . don’t do that because I’m a man!”.

Never Fear!

Never Fear . . the General, Shortcake, and lamby are on the job!  

Learning to Write Your Name

Someone is learning to write their name . . .  in all the wrong places.

Beautiful Blessings

Big box fun

The fun to be had with a big box is endless - especially for these budding artists. This one stood in our living room for a couple of weeks while it was worked upon.  Having a functional toilet was a bonus.

Agent E's 7th Birthday

Happy Birthday Agent E!  I love how this kid expresses his joy!  In our family, the kids get to open a present at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Here is the first in the line up.  He really had his hopes set on this sling shot!

He was thrilled that his brother bought him the next level for his Star Wars Angry Birds application.

Time for some Facetime with Papa (who was at work) while Agent E opens his next gift.

Ed discovered the Pizza Ranch (pizza buffet!) in Champlin and said we HAD to take E there sometime. Pizza is a food group all unto itself according Agent E.   So in lue of a birthday lunch down near Ed's work we headed to "the Ranch" for dinner.  

Here he's trying out gift number three!

Agent E chose a family party this year.  He asked for a Halo cake (thanks to his big brother we had plenty of figures/vehicles for the cause).  So decorations, family, cake, and some presents and we called it a good time.

New Years 2012

We've seen our share of flu bugs, colds, and nastys this year.  We barley made it to Thankgiving, Christmas, and we didn't make it to New Years.  Here is our post New Years celebration.  I made up special bags and we opened one on every hour.  One hour was New Years resolutions, another games to play, a kids Wii dance game we borrowed from friends, a movie, and treats.  Making memories!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2012

Time for Pumpkins

Expedition Earth: Our Final Review

It's our final geography review for the year - it really is!!

Back in the very beginning we made paper mache earths.  This is what ours turned out like . . . opps!  The picture below is what it was supposed to look like.  Our friends brought theirs along and kindly made it into a pinata!  Of course someone needs to run off with "the world of loot"!  He is soo his father's son.

Then the kids enjoyed their last game of Jeapordy - I was pleasantly surprised with what they all remembered! Whew, I'm going to pat myself on the back a tiny bit and breath a sigh of relief.
















Then we ate lunch and for dessert we had these fantastic world cupcakes that our friends brought.  Seriously KS, they turned out so cute!  Can you believe they left the cake for us too? YUM!

Rain, rain, go away

It's been a rainy spring.  The General hasn't minded, except when it thunders.

Expedition Earth: Animal Study

With each new country we studied six new animals and then posted them on our animal classification door.  The mammal kingdom outnumbered the rest by a land-slide.

Expedition Earth: Egypt

Here we come Egypt! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

This was our last stop in Africa.  Only one continent to go after Africa folks - I've got to say I'm ready!

As you can see The General was really concentrating on his heiroglyphic rocks!

We made a nice little village of oragami pyramids too!

Since cats are a very important part of Egyptian culture I had to include this photo of Agent H's Mr. Kitty with our creations.

Oh these headdresses were FUN to make!

We also did the apple mummification project.  Eight slices of apples (equal size) burried in specific mixtures to see which one would be best preserved.   

Here is a link to my Pinterst board for Egypt.

Expedition Earth: Nigeria

Here we come Nigeria! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!


All I can say is be sure that your kids are ready for some quicksand talk.  This topic turned out to be a bit too scary for my six year old.  Poor guy had dreams our whole house was submerged in quicksand for a couple of weeks.  Of course it all originated from this YouTube video (I fast forwarded part of it for modesty's sake).


We made homemade quicksand - The General played with the left-overs for an hour plus! We scrapped a fork across the top, submerged army guys, and just got messy.

We also prayed, read stories, and played mancala.   Here is an online link to coolmathgames.com's mancala. 


Here is a link to my Pinterest board for Nigeria.

Expedition Earth: Morocco

Here we come Morocco! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!


We had some fun videos to watch with this country:
The harvesting of saffron
Cactus farming
AND the Moroccan Mall (the largest mall in Africa). Being from Minnesota home of the Mall of America we HAD to see that one. 


The boys had fun swishing around the Ilukeres fly whisks we made.

Here is a link to my Pinterest board for Morocco.

One morning the boys woke up to find a message posted in their dirt pile out back . . .

They were quiet bewildered by it . . .

It read . . .

They went right to work digging . . .

And they found GOLD, five pieces for each . . . 

The mystery still remains (to them) about who Wu Chin is.  Thank you!

Tenting

The boys received these old army issue tents from their auntie and uncle for Christmas.  As soon as the weather turned nice this spring we had to get them out and set up.  

Don't ya' love General Curly Locks there?  I love the trying to-be-serious-smile as he marched on guard duty.