Cousin Zane's 8th Birthday

So, we were invited over to my brother and sil's house for their son, Zane's 8th birthday.  And the first thing we did was to use the pitching machine.  Standing there watching, it doesn't look so hard.  But once you get up there and take your turn, you realize that the ball is going REALLY fast.  

Art Class

Today we tried a new art class in Surprise with some of our homeschool friends.  Quinn decided he didn't want to try and Sloane went ahead with it.  She seemed to have a good time in class.

On our way home, she informed me that she had a much better time in our pottery class the other day.  I asked what she liked about that class that she didn't like about this class and she couldn't put her finger on it.  This class goes every two weeks.  So we'll see what happens in two weeks.

Green Smoothies

Dave and I have been drinking GREEN SMOOTHIES since October.  We have both gotten healthier in the sense that we don't get sick and we are losing unwanted pounds.  Connor has since started drinking them.  He is starting out slowly and I DO mean slowly.  Dave drinks one 8oz glass a day.  I drink (usually) two 8oz glasses a day and Connor drinks one 8oz glass a day sometimes.  I haven't heard from him any changes he's experienced yet.  But I'll keep you posted when I find out.  

So, drinking green smoothies means having LOTS of greens available to put IN the smoothies.  So that means going to the market OFTEN.  Well, I've been doing that and loving finding all kinds of fun greens to put in our green drink.  

Then one day I went over to our neighbor's house.  (Hilda, you may remember her from a previous post)  She has the most wonderful raised bed garden in her side yard.  And she is growing GREENS ~ all kinds of chard, spinach, cilantro, parsley.  And she had been most gracious to offer it to ME.  OMG, it is Wonderful.  And the best part is she says I can have all I want because she doesn't eat it.  WHAT!!!!  I've been trying to get her to drink them like I do.  But haven't been successful yet.  I'll get there.  

Kids helping Haiti

My neighbor, Hilda Brown is the Founder and President of her non-profit organization called The Umbrella Project.  She has asked our homeschool group, LIFE is Good Homeschoolers to decorate some umbrellas for her latest Haiti Project.  Of course, we said "YES!"  Below are some examples of umbrellas from past projects.

Our group has about 12 children.  So we will decorate 4 umbrellas.  They will sell for $50 each and our group will have helped a very needed cause.  Doesn't that just warm your heart.

Park Day by ourselves

Today was a gorgeous day.  Everything was fresh and new from the gobs of rain we got last night.  It has been AGES since we've seen rain.  

Anyway, all the other members of our homeschool group backed out of park day so we decided to go out and enjoy the day.  And what fun we had!  The kids played together and laughed.  I love it when we can play together

Early morning walks

We are still walking Emma in the mornings.  And the kids' favorite place to stop is Walton Park.  Sloane loves the bar to hang from.

The kids were digging in the wood chips and found lots of worms that are coming to the surface from the rain.  Sloane thought that was pretty cool.  She wanted to bring them home.  I had to do some pretty tall talking to get her to leave them there.

The reason they were digging in the wood chips is because Quinn was making a house with a garage.  He is forever building, and pretending to live in his creations.  He is so his daddy!

Today Quinn and Sloane went to our neighbor's house to hang out and they had their handyman there putting in a doggy door for their new dog they got for Christmas.  What a great babysitter he is.  All the kids were very interested in what he was doing.  My kids came home all excited about doggy doors.  We don't have one for Emma.  But the kids think we NEED one now.

Fun Monday

Today was a fun filled day. First, we went to our regular Monday park day a little early to attend a cool Mad Science class. The picture below with all the kids at the table was taken before everybody got there. We had about 10 families attend which was 30 kids. Great turn-out ~ GREAT class!

The first experiment was a mixture of cornstarch and water. Then everybody got to take turns HITTING the mixture to see what would happen. As it turns out, your fist bounces off of the mixture. But if you stick your finger in, your finger goes right in and gets messy. ewww!

Next, they made green slime. That was so fun to watch everybody get excited as it thickened up.

After Mad Science, we quickly got a bite to eat and headed across town to our part I pottery class. We even ran into 4 friends that we didn't know would be there. Below, the kids have just gotten their clay and they are pounding away on it to get it pliable.

Now they have made a ball nice and smooth to begin their first project ~ a pinch bowl.

Here is Quinn, working away on his.

Ta-da! Here is his first one.

Now, he has put some stars on the outside to jazz it up a bit.

Quinn's second bowl has stamps on the inside along with his name and a picture of something I can't remember right now.

Here is Sloane's mug. She put a couple of flowers and a star on the outside...

and stamped her name on the inside. I can't wait to see these when they are finished. In two weeks we go back. They will have been fired and ready to paint. Then they will be fired once more and we will get them a week later. Check back for updates...

Today I went to the first meeting for the new Verrado Photo Club.  Here are the founding members.

After the DBG, we headed over the a nearby park for some play time. Here is Sloane on the tire swing with her buddy Tryson. Sunday and I pushed them around and around for probably 30 minutes! They just couldn't get enough. These two are our roller coaster lovers. So it doesn't surprise me that they both loved swinging on this crazy swing. :o)

Now Sloane is checking out this cool tree that hangs over the duck pond. Too bad we didn't have bread to feed to the ducks.

Today we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. We started off by joining a tour. It was 45 minutes long and full of cool information.

They gave the kids a scavenger hunt of things to find in the gardens with a prize at the end.

Sloane loved this delicate little flowers on the cacti. I think she like any kind of flowers. ;o)
Here is our Gamers group that we went with. Usually we get together at one of the houses on Fridays to play video games, X-Box 360, computer games, trampoline, make-believe and anything else they can dream up. But today, we ventured out of the house to get some fresh air and check out the local plants native to our region.

On our way out, I stopped the kids to get this photo with a Chihuly. They are so beautiful. These are the only ones left after a giant Chihuly exhibit last year.

Gettin' back on the horse

It's been a while (a LONG while) since I've posted anything here. I guess I was on a hiatus. But now we're back and you'll have to see all the fun things we've been up to.

Poor Emma (the dog) has been needing to go on walks and we just have not been good owners. But we are turning over a new leaf this year. It has been almost two weeks and she has gotten a walk and sometimes two walks every day. She is so much happier! And she is slimming down. Yay! for Emma and Yay for us!!!

While we are on our walks with Emma, we stop at Walton Park to play. The other day we found a flat soccor ball. But the flatness didn't bother the kids at all. They kicked it around for quite some time while I walked Emma around the field.

Next stop on a different day was the playground. The kids love to climb and use the monkeybars.

Just some random shots of the kids at Peaceful Park day.