What We Have Been Up To...

It has been absolutely glorious weather here lately!  I'm almost afraid to look at the forecast because I don't really want to know how soon it will leave us.  I know it is only February, but really, we have had a tough winter for us Georgians.  We NEVER get snow like we have this year.  And really, really cold temps.  Too much for my flip flop wearing feet to bear.  (Yes, I did actually wear something besides flip flops during the snow storm of the century.  Crocs count, right?)

So, we have had park days, and picnics.  School outside and walks around the lake. Cookouts and sweet tea drinking.  Have I taken one.single.picture.?  No.  I know, bad mommy. I have crafted just a smidge and I did take a picture of that finished product.  It doesn't move real fast, so I was able to take my time.  :)

I plan to be back to my bloggy self here soon.  I just don't want to waste any of this precious perfect weather.  All too soon it will be hotter than Hades and I will need the sweet relief of the air conditioning.  Hope ya'll are enjoying some milder temps too!

Menu Plan Monday

I was a bad menu planner last week.  I didn't follow it very well at all.  Greg was home using some vacation time for 2 days, so we really just winged it for the first part of the week.  He will be off the end of this week, so hopefully we can stay closer to our plan.  :)

Monday

Chicken Tacos

Tuesday
Chicken and Rice (didn't have it last week), green beans, applesauce, rolls

Wednesday
Ham, Augratin Potatoes, Lima beans, rolls

Thursday
Chicken pot Pie (from freezer) or hamburger pie

Friday
Date night (kids are spending the night with friends)

Saturday
Pizza and Movie Night

I plan on making brownies for dessert this week and some apple cinnamon muffins (my apples are really close to the end of their time) for breakfast. If you would like recipes for anything, just let me know!  Hope you all have a great week! Oh, almost forgot!  Linking up here.  :)

Valentine's Invitational

Since I want this blog to be all about our life, I will be posting about different accomplishments the kids have made. I hope you will all indulge me just a little with this proud mommy moment.  :)

This past weekend Brynn competed in her first away meet of this season.  We knew that she was showing improvement at practice and she also has been having private lessons each week, so we were hopeful that her scores would reflect that.  They most definitely did!

She scored 8.7 on vault giving her 3rd place, 8.8 on bars also for 3rd,  9.125 on beam, again for 3rd, here she is on beam right before she lunges into her handstand.  Awesome form!

 

And..... 1st place on floor with a 8.950!!!! We are SO happy for her!!!  Here's a couple of pictures.  This is how she begins her floor, in a straddle split switch to left leg split.

This is in the middle of her routine, part of her dance pass...

Here she is after she finished.  She knows she did great by her score, but had no idea she got 1st!

Her coach said she was a little disappointed she didn't get a 9.0 on floor, but we are still so happy for her!  

A proud moment as she was awarded the floor champion medal.

 

The team also received 1st place at the meet.   

 

Just a wonderful day for my sweet girl.  We are so very proud of her.  She works so hard every week at the gym and sometimes has to make sacrifices because of her schedule, but I know this makes it all worth it for her.  Right before she went to bed she said "Mommy, I'm a floor champion!!!"  Love!

Menu Plan Monday

 Welcome back!  It's a new week and time for some old favorites around our house.  We tried fish tacos last week, and it just wasn't for us.  Maybe a different recipe?  I don't know.  I'm not sure I can convince hubby to try them again.  Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday

Grilled Steak, baked potato, corn and for dessert we are going to try these molten chocolate cakes.  Yummy!

Tuesday

Chicken and rice casserole, green beans and rolls.  Probably a fruit salad on the side if I can run to the grocery store.

Wednesday

Tacos and spanish rice

Thursday

Hamburgers and Mac and Cheese with a salad on the side

Friday

Pizza night!

Saturday

Brynn has a gymnastics meet, so we will go out to eat with the team afterwards.

That's it!  Hopefully I will have time to find some new recipes for next week.   Linking up here.  Have a great week everyone!

Our Week in Review

 This is our first week participating in this linky party.  I'm so excited to see how much we accomplish each week!  Sometimes you feel like you get nothing done until you lay it all out.  


Monday
Each week in our math curriculum is a planned puzzle day.  This one was for a pentomino activity.  They are given an outline and asked to use the pentomino's to fill in the empty space. The book explained that this one is the most challenging of the puzzles and may take longer than class time allows to complete it.  Yea, they finished in five minutes.  Either the book was exaggerating a bit or my kids are geniuses.  Ha!  Maybe not, but they were proud of themselves just the same.  :)

 

Please excuse the quality of this picture.  My camera battery died and all I had was my cell phone.  Parker also read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.  I had forgotten about that book.  It was really cute.  Later that day I found Parker with his toy construction equipment acting out the story.  LOVE when that happens!

Tuesday

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so we did our regularly scheduled school work and read lots of books.  No super exciting homeschool activities that day.

Wednesday

Brynn finished reading The Wizard of Oz, so we watched the movie on Netflix.  Then she made a Venn Diagram comparing the two.  Parker continued to work on the seasons and painted a mural of four trees with leaves in each of the four seasons. We also read one of my favorites, Ferdinand the Bull.   The kids really loved it!  Brynn learned about the science of wheels.  She read this book then we did an activity where she had to find anything in the school room to make her own wheels.  She used lids from our supply stash and a pencil, then rolled it on the hardwood floor, tile and carpet to see which place it worked best.  Parker decided they need to make themselves into wheels, so they curled into balls and rolled all over the house.  Fun! 

Thursday

My favorite day this week.  Daddy worked from home and joined in for a few of the subjects. We learned about snowflakes, how they are formed and the different shapes they take on as they fall from the sky.  The kids were fascinated at how a snowflake begins as a speck of almost anything.  Daddy showed them how to make cutout snowflakes and we had just happened to have a bit of a snowfall the night before so they brought some inside to observe.  Brynn also began learning about the lever. She was asked to make a lever out of household items and demonstrate how it would be used to help move something heavy.  She did a great job with blocks, tinker toys and some other small items.  Very cool stuff.  

Friday

We usually take this day to do a little reading, take spelling tests and finish up anything that needs to be completed.  Just a relaxing day.  Then we had to take Parker to the doctor for yet another diagnosis of bronchitis.  :(

I think we all really enjoyed this week.  Next week we will be learning about Mexico, clouds and pulleys.  Sounds like a complete mish mash of stuff.  Hopefully they will enjoy it!