Pen Pals!

I LOVED having pen pals as I was growing up.  I had a ton, honestly.  I had kids all over the country I did a sticker exchange with for a few months.  I had a pen pal from Germany once when I lived in Vegas and was in the 5th grade.  During the Gulf War I was even pen pals with a couple of soldiers.

One of my best friends now started out as my pen pal.  Back when homeschooling was still pretty "new" we subscribed to a homeschool magazine.  There was a place in the back where there were ads for pen pals.  I put my name in it once and had a few people write back to me.  One of them, Laurie Ann, and I wrote to each other for many years.  When I ended up moving to the same state she was from our families finally met in person.  When email became the rage we started communicating that way, but her hand written letters to me are still precious.  I have a 4 inch binder full of them.  The girls and I spent a weekend with her, her husband and their two little boys this last summer and plan on making it an annual tradition. :)

Little One and I were doing grammer a few weeks ago and she was learning to address a postcard.  I though, "Hey!  I know she's younger than I was when I started writing to pen pals, but this would be so cool!"  I contacted a couple friends of mine who's girls she actually already knows a little.  One is the daughter of my two best friends in college, now living in Idaho.  The other is the daughter of a good friend from when we lived in Florida.  Both the other girls were super excited at the prospect of getting mail and so off we were.

Little One checked the mailbox every day for a few weeks.  She was SO excited to get something back.  Finally, Emma's letter came and then two days later, Kira's came.  She came running into the house both days so excited to have gotten mail. :)  She's just about got her two letters back to them ready to mail off.  What a fun adventure. :)

Opening Emma's letter.

She sent a necklace she made too.

Kira's letter.  She sent a picture and added some stickers. :)

Baptism Photo Shoot

It's been a long time since I've done a real live photo shoot.  My sweet friend texted me and asked if I would take some baptism pictures of her cute little girl.  We headed over to a local park and got some really nice ones.  These are some of my favorites.

Easter

We did our Easter the last Sunday in March since the girls were with their dad on the actual holiday.  Yummy dinner and awesome company.  Can't ask for more than that!

After church we colored eggs.  This was a marble kit and they turned out really pretty.

I went super light on the candy, not wanting to spoil things for the actual holiday.

Our yummy dessert!

It was cold outside so we did our egg hunt inside.

Belt Promotion! - Purple

Little One and I got our purple belts two weeks ago.  First was mine in the morning.  The girls we really sweet and both wanted to come watch.  I handed them the camera and let them take a couple of pictures.

Little One took forever to take this one.  I'm surprised my smile doesn't look as fake as it felt. LOL

Wahoo!  Purple belt!  One step closer to black!

I have made some of the most awesome friends here.  They are such good, good people and they help me want to be better myself.

Showing off our new belts!

Little One was going to get hers later so we went ahead and took a picture with Mr. Jade and Mr. Te.

She's all focused and ready.  Not the others so much. LOL

Look at that awesome warrior stance in her kata!

She and Josie are inseparable.

They got to be partners in self defense.

Love the smile!

She can get her leg up there for her kicks.

Always wanting to demonstrate.

I got to sit by her and give her her belt this time.  She is doing the respect thing to Mom, Dad and Ira. :)

She gave me a big hug after.

Mr. Tanner was leaving on his mission so all the kids gave him a big hug.

She is on the right-ish, in the middle with almost the tallest fist up.

Like I said, inseparable.  Her bear also got a purple belt and as such was in the picture.

Then she wanted one with Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Jade. :)

Volcanos!

We are into the earth science half of the year in science and so we did a volcano.  It was so much fun!

First we painted it.

Then we did a couple of test mixtures, trying different amounts of ingredients.

Not knowing exactly what it would do, we tried the first one outside.

Once we had it right we did it in the volcano itself.  Little One wasn't liking the smell of the vinegar. ;)

Natural History Museum - U of U

Also in February, we went to the Natural History Museum at the U.  We'd been studying about fossils, rocks and minerals in science and they have exhibits there that went along with that.  As usual, we went with our friends in the neighborhood that are homeschooling as well.  They had a blast and I was surprised they didn't want to go when we were out of time.  I love that she enjoys museums even though she's a kid.  Nothing like the school field trips I went on when I used to work at a school.

This was a sim-city kind of thing.  If you do *this* then *this* happens.  They really enjoyed it.

There is a room with windows where you can watch paleontologists at work.

The girls thought this was really neat!

There were lots of beautiful jewels!

They got to see where pearls come from.

They had a butterfly thing with a scientist there we could talk to.  That was really fun too since we studied butterflies last year.

We had the guy all to ourselves most of the time.  He was really nice to talk to. :)

And last but not least, this is how Little One had our minerals and the chocolate arranged   I'd always thought that chocolate was a vegetable. ;)