Uncle Mark and Aunt Carol's

Over UEA weekend we took off to visit with my Aunt and Uncle (my mom's brother.)  They live about 3 1/2-4 hours away so it was a nice drive, but not nearly as long as going to visit my grandma.  We read some books along the way as well as watched a movie.  We didn't end up taking off until Friday afternoon so we got there about dinner time.  Aunt Carol had yummy pork chops cooking and we had a nice visit that night.

Saturday my Aunt Madge (my grandma's sister) and her daughter, Tina, brought Arianna over to play with Karissa for a couple of hours.  Arianna is my Aunt Madge's son's daughter and is a year older than Karissa.  How's that for confusing?  It took the girls a little to be comfortable with each other but once they were they ran around outside and played.  That night we got to watch Avengers with their surround sound...awesome!  The remodel of their house turned out beautiful.

Sunday we tried to go to church, but it must have been stake conference or something because neither building had anybody there.  We went back to the house and visited some more until about lunch time and then came home so the girls could get to bed on time for school the next day.

It was a wonderful weekend!  Especially seeing the girls help Aunt Carol out with decorating cupcakes and playing game after game with her.  I love my family!!

Making the frosting.  Yummy!

Aunt Carol needs to have things gluton free so it was yummy trying her cupcakes and muffins.

Little One coloring with my cousin, Tina

Aunt Madge and Arianna

Tina and I were trying to get a picture of them but they weren't wanting it. :)

Corn Maze!

I took the girls down to one of the best corn mazes in town a couple of weeks ago.  This is the place we went last year and it was still a blast.  I didn't think we were going to be able to do the actual corn maze part of things because Little One was scared.  She hadn't liked being lost last year.  I told her if she wanted to try it out that was great, but she needed to let me know because I wasn't going to ask her about it.  Sure enough, part way into it she wanted to check out the kiddie maze.  She led Ira and I through it and decided it was fun so she wanted to do the regular maze.  She led us through that one too and we made it out without being nervous.  Success!

They had the princess area again so she had to try out a couple of dresses.

This was kinda fun and she liked going around and around.

Ira was much more of a spectator this year.  I went sliding with Little One and she just watched.  I think she decided she was too "grown up."

This one all three of us did though.

Here we are in the actual maze.  Little One insisted that last year the corn was green.  I told her no, corn mazes are all dry and yellow like this.  Well, as I was looking at last year's pictures I saw green corn stalks so I had to go let her know she'd been right.  The joys of being a mom. :)

Sorry, my camera lens has scratches for one thing and I got sunspots for another.  Still a cute one of us though.

Little One wanted to take a picture of us.

They really liked this area with huge lincoln logs.

And, of course, the big jumping pillows!  It was hard for me to get a good shot while I was being bounced around.

So fun!  We can't wait to go again next year!

Miscellaneous

 Here are a couple of things that we've been up to.  I've got some more school stuff, but I haven't taken it off the camera yet, so this satellite is all you get right now.  We've been studying space things so Little One made this cool SOHO satellite.  It collects info from the sun.

Lately, Little One has been liking to play waitress.  I got her a little book from the store where she can write her orders down so for lunch she goes and gets her apron, book, pencil, and even straws to take our order for lunch.  Not only is she waitress, but cook as well.  She can do grilled cheese sandwiches for us as well as put together left-over tacos, so far.  She also doesn't like help.  She wants us to just sit at the table and wait as we would in a restaurant.  So cute!

You can even see the straws in her pocket if you look closely. :)

Next up was the first book signing for my friend, Margot.  She's been trying for years to get a book published and it has now become a reality.  It's been so fun for me to watch her on this journey and to read her different drafts for the books she has that will hopefully also be published.  Go Margot!!!!!!  I was even privileged enough to have the author picture I took of her printed in the back.  My one and only claim to fame. :)

More School Projects

Here are a couple of other things we've done recently.  First off is the picture of the battle the kids had after making axes a couple of weeks ago. :)

This next one is something Ira did for her FACS class.  For anyone that doesn't know (like me) FACS is some fancy new acronym for home economics.  She had to do a floor plan of a house.  I was quite impressed with how it turned out.  The details on her furniture were really good.  She had drawers carved into the dressers, lamp shades on the lamps, a cord on the iron and a design on the shirt.  It's not exactly to scale because the carpet she has in there is as high as her kitchen counter, but it's still pretty awesome.  From the bottom left-hand corner and going clockwise you have a bedroom, bathroom, bedroom, family room, kitchen, laundry room and a room with an ironing board.

Birthdays and our 18 Month Mark

Tis the season for birthdays.  Mine was last Friday, my brother's last Saturday, Ira's today and my mom's this coming Friday.  Since neither my brother or my mom particularly like pictures I assume that mine and Ira's are going to be the only ones photographed.  It's been a fun few days.

First off is my birthday.  Little One is my budding photographer and took a BUNCH of pictures.  I will spare you and only post a couple.  Mom always cooks us the meal/dessert of our choice.  Trying to find something that Little One will also like is not always an easy chore.  This year I chose to have a "Roman Dinner" which is something we did for history a week or so ago.  It's just a tin-foil dinner (hamburger patty, red potatoes, carrots, onion) but is really yummy.  For our history dinner we ate without forks, but I wanted a fork this time. :)  Then, as is my tradition, we had lemon bars for dessert.

My "Roman Dinner" ready to open up and eat.

Ira and Little One drew on the envelopes.  So cute! :)

The girls got me the book and the iHome, my brother got me my first blue-ray (I LOVE Star Wars!) and Mom and Dad got me the cute shirt I have on. :)

Since the girls are with their dad tonight we did Ira's birthday stuff last night.  It was a really nice night. She wanted a white cake.  I'm very much not a cake decorator.  My writing looked much more "Halloween-ish" than like something for a birthday.  Little One wrote Ira's name and it turned out more like the Russian spelling since we didn't get the frosting to stop on the "r" soon enough.  Ah well.

Cool flame we had going, huh?

Little One got her some zebra sheets.

Mom and Dad got her some super cool nail polish and a drawing book.

Kyle got her a book.  She loves to read.

Finally, her own curling iron!  And a nifty new sketch book for her drawings.

Happy Birthday, my Ira!  I can't believe she's 14 now.  She was barely 12 when we first met.  I looked at a picture yesterday of us at the airport fresh from Ukraine and she was a LOT shorter.  She's grown a lot, in a number of ways.  I also can't believe that we've been back in the USA for 18 months to the day.  What an adventure it's been.

I Love Little Girls

I came out one morning a few weeks ago to find this.

A couple of Little One's babies had been listening to what she'd been doing at the table that morning.  This is a fairly common occurrence.  Usually she has a few of her babies/animals "watching" her do her schoolwork everyday.  So cute!

Friday Projects!

Last Friday we got together with our homeschooling buddies and did some science and history projects.  We had fun.

First we saw what would happen if our planets didn't stay in their orbits.

Then we tested Aristotle's theory about heavier things falling faster.  We proved him wrong. :)

The ping pong ball and the softball hit at the same time.

Little One was the sun and we talked about how and why we get our seasons.

Next we moved to history.  The kids made Roman signums.

A kid after my own heart.  After he made his circles, he made a Mickey head!

Here is Little One's close up. :)