Just The Girls

The boys are at Art Is In this week (for between 4-6 hours a day!). It is a program of staff who came from all over the south to teach our kids a Broadway-Style Musical! It's called The Apostle and it's patterned after The Apprentice. They'll put on the musical on Saturday. Consequently, Anna and Mama have been spending a lot of one-on-one time together. It's been a blast! We've had tea parties (complete with "krumpets"), gone shopping (for groceries and a ring for Anna), gone out for lunch (I had a delicious salad...she had the mac & cheese with applesauce), and braided hair. This is the first time I've been able to get her fine slippery hair in a braid; only because it was wet from the bath!

Lego Creators

Here are some recent Lego pics. The boys have been enjoying building since we got home. I think Josiah realized after our trip that he was in Lego withdrawal. He didn't seem to notice while in Hawaii, but upon returning, he locked himself in the Lego Room right away. (That room was formerly known as the "school room", but it has been commandeered and is now funtioning as Lego Headquarters... and my sewing room, but the risk of stepping on an "explosive" -the little culprits that cause me to explode with anger- keeps me from entering very often.)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Today we made two different batches of sugar cookies (one gluten free and one with wheat flour) and decorated them for our fun day tomorrow. We're going to hang out with some friends at their house, then we'll pop in and drop off some treats for some other friends. Then Ryley has Scouts (so we'll see if there are enough to share there) and we even have some for Home Group tonight and some for dad to take to work tomorrow!
The real fun came when we got to the cut out part and I realized that the heart shaped cutter that I once owned was no where to be found! I ended up cutting them out with the paring knife! I made one ginormous one for Jeremy ;-) and some cute tiny ones, so it worked out fine.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Ryley's Scout troop held their annual Blue and Gold Banquet last Friday night. Ryley received some important awards, as did his fellow scout buddies. We were so excited to see Betty Bair and Brian and Pat Tracy there - our favorite IDEA staff ;- ) (our homeschoolling program).

Field Trips-Hawaiian Style

We snuck in at the Robinson Sugar Plantation, which is no longer in use. There were barbed wire fences around the plantation, but we squeezed in between and went on a little self-guided tour. We saw all kinds of things here...and we got out before we awoke the bats that were surely sleeping in some of the buildings. We decided it was good we weren't there at night; that would have been scary. (Well, at least, Anna and I decided that. The boys wanted to go back after dark!) There were all kinds of strange noises...a perfect place for an active imagination!

We visited Pearl Harbor, something we'll never forget. The boys really enjoyed that field trip.

At Barking Sands, a beautiful beach off-the-beaten-path (16 miles of sand!) we were the only people in sight! We built an amazing sand castle there, and some of us really got into body surfing in the incredible waves. (That's were the rainbow pic. is taken)

From Cactus to Palms

Kauai is amazingly diverse, for an island that is only about 550 sq. miles big! The south side is desert-like, while the north end is tropical. Many movies were filmed there (Jurassic Park, Lost, South Pacific, Gilligan's Island, Raiders of the Lost Ark and more!) and we now understand why. It is so beautiful that the pictures don't do it justice.

HAWAII

We found out just before we left on our trip that Mom and Dad Horsman were on the same flight out of Chicago as Mom and Dad Coke! They arrived in Seattle about five hours before us, but M & D Horsman waited around with Cokes for us and we were able to spend an hour with them before our departure for Hawaii. We're so glad we got to see them, even for such a short time. I think Anna finally has her grandpas sorted out in her mind!