Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day for our family
stretched over several days this year.
It started on Thursday evening
when I made 80 cupcakes.
I had a virtual cupcake factory going in my kitchen,
given that I only have enough tins
to bake 18 at a time!
Mix up and pour the batter,
in the oven for 18 minutes,
cool for 10,
pour the next batch,
and on it went.



As the cupcakes cooled,
I loaded them into a box with
three cardboard tiers
so I could transport them on Friday.
Chocolate, strawberry, and yellow cake--
we had a variety.


After I mixed up two huge batches of buttercream frosting,
we spent Friday morning over at
the Cunninghams' house
for two of our writing classes.
When Shannon wasn't in her class,
she was busy with the other girls decorating
her Valentine's box and making signs for our
carnival booths.


At noon we headed over to the Valentine's Carnival
with Home Schooler's Loving God.
The FitzGeralds had two different stations.
Shannon, Abigail Cunningham, and I
ran the Cupcake Decorating Booth.


Here are Abigail and I adding
the vanilla and strawberry buttercream frosting
to the cupcakes.


Our visitors were thrilled with all the sprinkles and
colored sugars they used to decorate their cupcakes.


Many of them really took their time to get the little cakes
to look just the way they wanted!


Meanwhile, Joshua and John ran a booth
with a Wham-O game called "Pop-Bang."
The kids were lined up to play
for the duration of the entire carnival!
The boys did a terrific job running their booth
and helping all the kids play the game.




Here's a picture of the little cake
that I made for David on Sunday
as a Valentine's gift.
(This is what it looked like
before the cat found the cake on the table!
BAD Kitty!)


I had also arranged to have some beautifully
decorated sugar cookies made for the kids
by my friend Eliana who operates Desserts Divine.


Love . . . it's definitely a family affair!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Schoolin' Around

Sometimes I think that
if we could hold still long enough,
we could hear the sound of our week
"wooshing" by with all that we're
doing right now!

The kids just finished their third week of a swim clinic.
Our goal is to have them build up some endurance
after their long winter break, and
work on some of their strokes, dives, & turns,
as a way to prepare for our
swim team which starts in early April.


Sarah is a fantastic instructor!


One morning a week we head to drama practice.
The group was assigned their roles in
the spring musical and read through the entire
script last week.


One afternoon a week the boys are participating
in an Introduction to Debate class
with several other homeschool students.
We're learning all about how to make an argument
and that in debate, everything is debatable.
This year's resolution has to do
with environmental policy.


My "Jots & Tittles" writing class
consists of four 5th & 6th graders.
Here is a picture where they are trying
to act out prepositions.


We have finished Julius Caesar!
Here are the kids during our last
Reader's Theater.


The play ends with several deaths,
so the kids created a reenactment
as we read the final scenes.


USO Swing Night

Each year our AWANA Leaders
have a special evening
just to celebrate the ministry.
This year's theme was
USO Swing Night
where everyone dressed up
in 1940's and/or military attire.
The boys were able to wear
their grandfather John's navy uniforms
from WWII
while David wore his father's hat.
A great time was had by all--and yes, there
was actually some real swing dancing!


John is posing with the military men from the group.