Co-op

Since we are homeschooling we were joined a co-op where our kids could meet with other homeschoolers once a week and take some fun classes.  The kids took Latin, Music Composers, PE, Fun Math Games, and Science Experiments.  They had a great time in their classes!  Our Legacy co-op just ended it's last day this last week for the fall semester.  I decided to take some pictures during our PE free day time.  I was the PE teacher for the younger kids but the older ones were out at the same time.  Our cousins joined the co-op too so there was lots of playing with family and friends.  I love the great experience the kids have had and the friendships they are building!

Here are Bree and Mhari hitting sticks on some trees.

Ell, Talmage, Grant and friends on the merry-go-round

The older kids playing shark and minnows

Running

Talmage getting tagged

Sandra and Savannah

Mhari and Bree on the merry-go-round

Sandra and Savannah walking

It is so great to take pictures of my kids... especially with the beautiful fall weather and colors we get to enjoy here in Texas!

Master Chef

With joining 4-H this year we got to participate in the county Food Challenge.  We had a few months of meetings to review food, nutrition, and cooking skills. As part of a food challenge the kids are given ingredients that and are supposed to come up with the meal with no help.  They name their dish and present it before judges. The kids learned about cross contamination, proper cooking techniques, and how to speak in front of judges.  Talmage and Grant were on a team together and their team name was "Master Chef's."  Sandra and Mhari got to compete in a Clover challenge and had a great time too.  Here are some fun photos from the event:

The Master Chef's all ready for the food challenge.

Lorna had a great time playing :)

Clark had some friends there to play with.  This is his friend Anna Lee.  He calls her "my Annie."  They are so cute together!  Oh and yes, he's a head taller than her, but he's only older than her by a month :)

Talmage

Grant

Mhari cutting up her fruit for the clover food challenge

Sandra cutting up her banana

Talmage helping to prep the carrots

Grant helping

 Sandra with her finished snack 

Mhari

The clovers presented for parent judges.  I had two that talked with me.  I also got to take pics of the girls doing their presenting :)
Sandra

Mhari

The Master Chef's finishing up their dish

Their final product.  The tortilla on top was to help hold the others in place until presenting.  They did a great job ;)

Out of the 5 groups at the challenge our group finished 3rd.  They got a ribbon and were very happy.  There was some issues with their presenting to the judges, but did really well considering this was most of their first times doing something like this!  Way to go Master Chef's!

Peek-a-Boo!

Our little bug is just a cutie!  She is growing up so fast and just doing such fun things!  She made her own game of peek-a-boo that I just had to take a video of. 

She was in the kitchen pantry while I was working on dinner.  She would close the door and wait.  Then she would slowly open the door and I would say "peek-a-boo!"  I love that she did it all on her own.  Her laugh is adorable!  She is such a smart little one!
 

Gardens in November

We took a trip to the Botanic Gardens on Nov 1st with Nathan and Tiffany and family.  I offered to help by taking family photos for them.  The kids had time to play and I even ended up with some fun pictures of my kids too ;).  It was so pretty and felt more like spring than fall.  The leaves will all start changing soon and be fun for the fall!

The kids loved seeing the ponds and playing in the water.  There were turtles that they were trying to get to come up from the water.

Sandra and Ella

Lorna giving me kisses

Our beautiful kids!  Hard to get a good photo with 6 of them!

looking at the money in the fountain.

Jump!

Mhari blowing bubbles

I love my Lorna bug

A fun shot of myself ;)

bug

Grant and Bree

It was a great day!  We will be back after the colors start changing!

Happy Halloween!

With all of the Halloween festivities it seems like Halloween should have been done long before it even came.  Well, it did come and we still had more to do to celebrate ;).  I had bought pumpkins earlier in the month.  I only bought 1 big pumpkin so I wasn't helping lots of little kids scrape out their pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns.  I drew the face and then the kids each had a part to help with.  Talmage did the back, Sandra did the mouth, Mhari did the nose, and Grant did the eyes.  I think everyone enjoyed the system.  I did have to help Sandra finish the mouth and I scraped out the inside to make it clean enough.

Everyone working on cleaning out the pumpkin guts and keeping the seeds

The kids did get their own small pumpkin to decorate too.  They are in order from oldest to youngest, left to right.  I like this tradition :)

Cleaning the seeds

The finished jack-o-lantern

The seeds.  They turned out really good!  

Ready to go trick-or-treating!  The kids had fun and did good walking the neighborhood with us. 

Happy Halloween!