Poem Surprise!

For Co-op on Friday's we open with announcements, pledge, poem, and prayer before we dismiss the kids to their classes.  Sometimes the kids who are assigned something forget so we have to ask for volunteers that morning.  One such morning the person wasn't ready with the poem so Ella offered to recite a poem for everyone.  While I was listening, I noticed that the poem sounded familiar.  I don't know if I had heard it before, but the way it was worded was very familiar.  After looking at Tiffany she mouthed that it was Talmage's poem for their power game.  At the end of reciting the poem Ella said it was by Talmage Williams.  It was a surprise for all of us!  It was so cool that she memorized it and then that no one knew that's what she was doing made it even more cool!  Way to go Ella.  Here is a copy of the poem:

The chosen ones
From all known lands
Will come to beat 
The iron bands.

That hold the world
And cover the green
Come help us
Select thirteen

One of fire
Found in the hearth
One of dirt
Living in earth

Telekinesis
Oh so rare 
One of wind 
Found in the air

One of metal
Iron and copper
One of lightning 
Quite a shocker

One of jems
Stone of the age
Other of nature
Trees and sage

One of water
Rushing round and round
Other of snow
Sitting on the ground

One of storms
Loud as thunder
One of light 
make you blunder

One more left
They're vibranium
Cats included
Love their calcium

There they are 
The chosen few
Destined to save
The world a new

They all be of royal blood
Lost a far in 
Southern wood

At first light 
Of new day
Listen for
The call of the jay

He will guide you 
You must follow
To the hidden
Sacred hollow

Where you'll find 
The select thirteen
Each of them
As a youthful teen.

A day at the Zoo!



Our co-op planned a zoo field trip at the end of February.  The zoo was doing a special for $5 admission and it sounded like a great idea.  Well, with the snow showing up that same week it ended up needing to be rescheduled.  We went the week after Spring Break instead.  It was beautiful weather and the kids really enjoyed getting to go to the zoo again.  I feel like we go to the zoo a lot, but this was the Dallas Zoo and my older kids had never been there.  There was no way we were going to spend all day at the zoo so my kids really want to go back and see the stuff they missed out on.  Oh, they are silly little, animal loving children!

It was nice to go with our friends from co-op, but also a little crazy.  We ended up traveling the zoo as a group so that was a little hectic.  Overall it was great and all of the kids loved sharing the zoo day together!

I let Talmage take pictures with the camera and I included a few animal ones from what he took.  I told him he also needed to take pictures of people.  There are a few from him and then I took some on my cell phone.  Here is the zoo day in photos :)



Cheetah!

Sandra, Ella, and Lorna.  Courtesy of Talmage

The albino crocodile.

My pictures ;)

Clark and Mhari on the elephant statues!

Grant

Lorna

Lots of friends!  Lindsay, Caleb, Sandra, Ella, Grant, Owen, and Talmage

Clark with the Elephants!  His favorite animal!

We love the zoo!

Free Ice Cream!

Dairy Queen did a day where they were giving out free ice cream cones!  That sounded amazing... because who doesn't love free ice cream?!  Well, by the time we were ready to head out it was evening and we were not wanting to be stuck in a crowd.  Instead, we chose to go to the McDonald's just down the road and pay for our vanilla cones.  It would've been nice to have it for free, but seeing how no one was in the McDonald's I would say we scored pretty good!  Here are some pictures of us enjoying our family night out!

Lorna licking and loving her ice cream!

Clark enjoying the little slide... even though he's so huge for it!

The kids were loving going down the slide...
Grant

Lorna

 Mhari 

Sandra ... so fast she was blurry :)

Talmage :)

He reminds me of someone....

Oh, yes,  his Daddy :)

Handsome boys!

 Sandra and Mommy peeking over Daddy's shoulder!

It was so great to have the place to ourselves.  I guess maybe we should take the kids out more... even if it is just for ice cream.  They had a blast at the play place ;)

Happy Pickle Parade!

Our town does an annual Pickle Parade for St. Patrick's Day.  It is very family friendly, which is nice, since in general St. Patty's Day isn't very a family friendly holiday. Our 4-H club got to walk in the parade.  This year we even decorated a float!  The kids each wore a sign promoting different aspects of 4-H too!  I think their favorite part is passing out candy to the people along the parade route :).  

I let Lorna and Clark stay home with Daddy so she can nap and Clark doesn't get too worn out with the walking.  Here is Mhari, Talmage, Grant, and Sandra with their signs on :)

Sandra and Me!  She loved wearing the green mustache!

Sandra helping walk our friends' dog during the parade.

Sandra getting a treat from Scrat the squirrel from Ice Age.

Grant ... he walked and rang the cow bells the whole time!

It was a fun time and I'm glad I get to share these experiences with our kids!

4-H Days!

We have spent almost every Wednesday this year, 2015, at 4-H!  There have been many projects going on and there so much to be doing all of the time!  Some of the projects we have done are:  Consumer Decision Making, Horticulture, Robotics, Speech, and Archery!  We spend several hours together trying to squeeze in as much as we can and then everyone separates to their different Wednesday night activities.  I think that day is a little crazy, and definitely wears me out.  I spend most of my time with my little ones, trying to keep them out of the way.  Sometimes I sneak in and take photos of the fun the older kids are getting to do!

Here is Talmage working on his robot with his team :)

Grant and Sandra's robotics team.

During archery we go to the Craig's property.  One day we got to go on the bridge that goes across their pond :).
Sandra

Lorna

Grant

We also got to help make a float (decorate a trailer) for the Mansfield Pickle Parade.  It was fun to have all of the kids working together to get it done!

Talmage practicing for speech

Grant doing speech

Melinda Craig going over the robotics board.  This is what the kids need to practice on with their robots for the upcoming robotics competition!

Archery!  My kids favorite thing!  Grant does pretty well!

Sandra does really well!  I have been told that she has wonderful form and that she has a natural talent for the sport.  It will be great to see her learn and develop in this sport as we keep going in archery!

I haven't gotten a photo of Talmage, but he is doing great too!  They all beg to have their own bows and arrows!  
4-H is so fun and keeps us very busy!

Spring!

Well, Spring Break at least!  The snow is gone and it is time to get out and play!  We had a great time in Benbrook playing with some of our awesome friends!  It's hard to believe we moved to Mansfield over 2 years ago!  It is always nice to see familiar faces and catch up with some great friends!

Talmage, Lorna and Clark playing!

Grant climbing to the top of the swing set!  He's such a daredevil!

Clark ready to slide!

Lorna sliding!

Sandra on top of the dome!

Clark swinging!

The kids playing a game in the dome... something to do with their power game :)

Sandra and one of her favorite friends, Keslie.  They joined us in the fall for co-op and that was great to see the girls bond again after we both moved away from Fort Worth.  They are such sweet girls. 

So, I definitely don't have enough photos of this fun park day.  First it was a little chilly and I didn't walk around to take photos.  Second it was so much fun visiting with my friends that I'm lucky I remembered to take a picture of Sandra with Keslie!  I loved getting see Lindsay, Shannon, Brittanie and Amanda!  They are such great ladies!  It's too bad we don't have a spring break every month so we can hang out!

My New Wall!

The game room in the house has a half wall that overlooks the main family area.  This creates a huge sound issue.  All of the noise from the family room comes up into the school room and vice versa.  Also, Jeff's office is right off of our school room and the door was never one that sealed shut.  It was time to make some changes.  While we were changing things we also decided to add more lighting.  I don't know why, but this house has terrible lighting!  

We hired a guy that I learned about from another home school mom (her hubby's business).  He did a great job and we are so happy to have the work done!

Here they are starting on the half wall.

The kids just had to watch!  It was always so exciting to have workers in the house.  Clark would follow them around and watch all day!

The drywall is going up!

 Drywall finished!

The doorway framed for the new door.

The new door!

It's a nice fit!

The family room side!  So nice to have a sound barrier now!

The door in and painted

Wall textured and primed.

I did the painting upstairs.  The green is not so army green.  It's more olive toned than this photo.  It looks sharp with the dark door.

The school room put back together!  You can see some of the new lights that we had added!

It has been such a huge improvement!

The workers painted the neutral color in the family room and finished it off with crown molding.  It turned out so well!  We almost had them replace the ugly ceiling fan, but time ran out and we didn't have a fan to replace it with.  

The new office lighting! 

There are still plenty of house projects we would like to do, but these sure have been helpful!  I love having more light and the wall and door are amazing!  I have been finishing painting some accent walls in the family room.  Once I get them done I'll add them to the blog as well :).