Slices of Life

The boys were content to watch some more Magic School bus episodes and Evan even convinced me that Treasure Buddies is educational because it teaches him about Egypt.  In case you all haven't noticed, it's pretty much anything goes around here this week. I knew we really needed to work on our science fair projects some more and get all three boys pretty close to ready.       I called Evan over and we read the book Soap Bubble Magic together and I had him stop me and tell me facts about soap bubbles to add to our list.  We had a list two pages long by the time we finished and then we printed it out. I find there were a few key things we did to help us prepare for this science fair: 1.  I let the kids pick topics they were interested in!  That way they are excited to read and watch movies about their topics. 2.  I let them lead as much as possible.  We bought our display boards and I asked them what they planned on putting ...

Alec has been taking karate lessons and after watching a few classes the other two boys decided they wanted to take karate too.  I was thrilled because even though we've only been at this for two short weeks I already see so many benefits to taking these classes. 1.  I see a new confidence in the way Alec carries and presents himself already! 2.  They are learning about respect and obedience as well as the other 6 tenants of Tang Soo Do:  Integrity, Concentration, Perseverance, Self- Control, Humility, and Indominable Spirit.  All of which are wonderful life skills.  These tenants are talked about often and put into practice during class. 3.  They are learning a foreign language! Much of the class is taught in Korean and my boys get to learn many new words and even a little bit about the Korean culture. 4.  It's great exercise!  They start each class with a warm up and stretches and it's a pretty physically demanding class at times. 5.  ...

We did have a few science experiments planned a few weeks ago that we had never gotten around to doing so I suggested to the boys that we take advantage of our time at home and work on those today.  We walked on eggs! I was so nervous to try this experiment but the eggs we bought for it were about to expire and, just in case we didn't break them, I really wanted to be able to use them in recipes and not let them go to waste. The boys started by squeezing an egg in their hand as hard as they could.  They were pretty surprised when they couldn't break them. Look how white his fingers are from squeezing so hard! We then laid out a dollar store shower curtain on the kitchen floor and two dozen eggs.  The boys took off their socks and with assistance took turns gently stepping on one carton of eggs.  They made sure to apply even pressure and gradually shift their weight to the other foot. The eggs don't break!  Success!  We were completely successful both times....

The Aquarium was celebrating Halloween and fall with their Falloween celebration and we decided to take a family trip yesterday to see what it was all about. With having trick or treated at the zoo twice last week, having attended our homeschool Halloween party, and having had a costume party Saturday night the boys were pretty costumed out.  Ian decided not to wear any costume at all.  Alec wore his costume suit without the mask and Evan ended up wearing his whole costume for the entire day... I had to ask him to remove his gloves and mask for lunch even!      Filling out scavenger hunt forms decorating trick or treat bags We had a great day at the aquarium.  All of the exhibits were decorated and decked out.  The kids got a real kick of seeing skeletons in the Piranha tank, gravestones in the Amazon exhibit, and jack o lanterns all around. They participated in a scavenger hunt (though my kids knew all the answers and didn't have to hunt around a...

Anytime we go to an amusement park I try to save some park maps to use in scrapbooking.  I love that in the past 8 years or so that we've been traveling off and on to Disney that we have been able to see the parks change a bit here and there.  It's a great keepsake but I always have a bit of trouble finding a cute map storage layout... well not this year!  I LOVE my map pages so much I only made two versions (even though I did make four pages!).  I try never to copy my designs from one album to the next but I seriously loved these pages so much I didn't care!  I wished I could've used my Cricut for his shorts too but my Cricut only cuts up to a 6" shape so I freehand drew the shape on the back of the red paper before cutting out... makes Mickey look a bit chunky but I still love it!

My boys love Downtown Disney-- mostly because of the Lego store.  It is pretty amazing and so much fun too!  Here are a few pages I made for the boys albums.  These amazing characters are all made out of tiny Lego pieces!  Linking Up With:

We had a Halloween party planned with our homeschooling group today.  We were each asked to bring an activity and a healthy treat to share.  The kids all wore their costumes and my boys were so excited all morning long! We made an adorable monster fruit salad to bring to our homeschool Halloween party (and I'm not trying to toot my horn by saying it was a huge hit at the party!). Our Monster fruit salad was so easy to make.  We carved a giant hole with teeth at the bottom of the melon, scooped out the melon & cut up all the fruit.  We spooned the fruit so it was coming out of the mouth and used toothpicks, ornage slices, and 1/2 grapes to make the eyes.  We packed up some art supplies, paper goods, and treats, donned our costumes and headed out. The boys played musical chairs, limbo, pass, bowling, and had fun running and playing.  We had a huge turn out for our party and the boys met a few more homeschoolers.  They played with ...