Ack! It has almost been a week since Valentines day! I assure you, we celebrated it. Luke's Birthday is tomorrow so I thought I better catch up a little on posting pictures before I get too behind. Here are some shots of our V-Day celebrations. First with Luke at preschool.
Making Valentines!
Then at our traditional Valentine exchange and family dinner. We served butternut squash soup, steak, and salad. I almost burned down the house when the steak drippings created an inferno in our grill. The steak got a little charred and except for peeling of paint on the grill, the fire didn't do too much damage. We invited our friend Lorrie over to dine with us. What fun!
Max made a variety of origami hearts for his valentines, and I probably should have taken pictures of the other kids.
We also made some cut out cookies. In addition to hearts we tried out our new woodland animal set we found on our last trip to Ikea.
Oh and Mer got her first Rose from a boy. And so it begins. She came home laughing about it. She'll have to tell you the story if you are interested. In this photo she is also wearing the high heels she borrowed to wear to her science fair judging the next day.
Mer went to the regional science fair this weekend it was a long ordeal that I will tell you about tomorrow, for now I must sleep! I will tell you one thing, She won 4th place in her division. Details coming soon!
This is what it looked like at our house on Saturday morning.
Sure do love these mischievous little men.
Saturday Night we went to the Dark Sky Festival in Harmony Florida. Harmony is this little community in the middle of nowhere that has huge beautiful homes with a Desperate Housewives feel to it. It is a little eerie there. This was our first trip to the Dark Sky festival. There were vendors and lots of telescopes to look through. We saw Jupiter through one telescope. We could actually see it's rings and 3 moons off to the side. It was amazing. As we were walking away Luke whispered to me in amazement "Mom, I sawed all the way into space!"
We also ran into some storm troopers who evidently taught the kids how to use their laser eyes.
Sunday Mer and Jack drew signs for the super bowl. We had some party food and had a couple friends over for a little while. Max and Jack called the winner and earned soda for their prize.
I am thankful for beautiful clouds to calm me on the drive to school as we drive away from the whirlwind of the morning. There were at least 2 mornings with these clouds waiting to greet us this week.
A Sunset
Luke is very excited for his up coming birthday. He will be 5 on the 20th and asks me frequently if his birthday tomorrow. I've told him over an over that his birthday is after valentine's day so to provide a little distraction and a little fun we are counting down to Valentine's day with Valentine homework and activities every day. Everyday when he get's home from school he finds his "assignment" in his envelope. We read a Valentine story, do a game or play activity, and a learning one. It has been a ton of fun. We set up a little area on the back porch and Jack joins him when he's done with his homework too. Here are a few things we've done
sorting Conversation Hearts...
..with stacking and counting
"V" is for Valentine
Melted Heart Crayons
Bath Crayons + craft foam = Heart match
Luke agreed to let me take pictures of him if he could take a few of me.
I have been going through the files of our filing cabinet trying to make them a little more user friendly.
and pretty!
Wednesday Mer got dressed up for school to present her science fair project. She took 5th place, she was so excited.
Today (Friday) has been a beautiful day. It was 45 degrees when the kids went to school but now it is absolutely gorgeous. Days like this make it fun to live in Florida. Today Luke and I met some friends to play at the new Pirate park. Here he was captain of the ship.
I signed all the boys up for soccer yesterday. Mer's soccer has been practicing all year round. Luke gets to play this year. I'm thinking 4 kids in soccer is a little insane, but they all love it so much, (including Doug) so I play along. I might coach Luke's team, we'll see.
Max had a little award ceremony for the AB Honor roll and Citizenship award. He is growing right up.
They hold these awards ceremonies every 9 weeks and I don't always make it to them, but I should because I know he likes it when we come. I love his smile, especially when that dimple comes out.
He took his kindle to school today and it was confiscated when he was caught playing video games at lunch. Oh Max! We must think of a consequence I guess.
He has a new primary teacher that gives assignments and rewards with candy when they are completed. Max will do anything for candy. He taught FHE last week for candy and is reading all of Joseph Smith History for candy.
Can you see those sneaky little Halloween votives up on the ledge. They made it through Christmas and I still haven't taken them down. They are so sneaky I forget about them.
Last Monday we had no school! Well most of us. Meredith went in for the day to work on her Science Research project. Her project is called something like "the effects of Ultraviolet light on Microscopic Paramecium". I may have gotten that wrong. The rest of us went swimming and to explore our favorite park for the day.
It was a little chilly even though the pool was slightly heated. Luke figured out that if he swims and keeps taking breaths he can swim really far. He swam a half of a lap all at once!
Here's Luke playing Mer's huge hopscotch game.
Mer had a piano recital right after we came back from vacation.
Max is taking piano lessons too but he wasn't allowed to play in the recital yet. They did want him to come up for the picture though. Can you find him in his "too much awesome" shirt?
Mer did great. She played 3 songs. I uploaded them onto youtube if you can hear them well enough to enjoy.
The recital was a whopping 2hrs long and this is what our bench looked like for the duration.
So that's what we've been up to since we've been home.
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