Down on the Kibbie's Farm

So we had a miracle last week.  This tree was so close to my neighbors house that we needed to hire someone to come cut it down.  We were planning have it cut down the following week when a nice windstorm whipped through.   The whole time it was storming I was praying that the tree wouldn't fall.  Later my neighbor told me she was praying it wouldn't hit the house.  The next thing I knew, my kids were yelling that it had fallen.  My heart sank.  I looked out the window and saw that it fell perfectly between their house and ours without touching anything.  No kids were out there either.  Our prayers were answered!

We added three new friends to our farm last week.  Three Nigerian Dwarf goats.  In a year we will be able to milk them.  In the mean time they are fertilizing my future garden.

The Shakesphere Ball 2012

 

Every year my homeschool buddy puts on a Shakespeare ball for kids ages 12-18.  She invites the vintage dancers to come to give instruction and lead the kids in group dancing.  They play games and get to be social.  They are invited to come in costume.  For me, an opportunity to sew something fun!  

 

Getting ready

 

 

As the older girls were getting dressed, the younger girls took the opportunity to go through their dress up clothes and adorn themselves for the ball.  Eva was very sad when she found out she was not going.  We had our own ball at home. Aiden made his presences.

 Emma designed her own head dress.

The girls greeted by some of their friends.

Emma and Robyn with one of their first Utah friends, Raven.  Robyn and Raven call each other "bird friends".

 Beautiful Emma

Dancing...

Emma and Robyn with their friend Savannah.

Sledding

Here we are, sledding the next day.  The great thing about homeschooling: getting to the slopes before the other kids get out of school.  I'm sure it was torture for the school kids that were watching across the street from this park...

Eva insisted on walking up the hill on her own.  She did, without complaining.  It took her about 20 minutes to walk up.  She looked so tiny.

Eva

The Nielby, Kibson Klan  (for those of you who don't know what that means, it's our last names put together using both the beginning and the ending of our names).  They are long time friends of ours.

Utah Snow Storm 2012

I thought you might like to see what it is like to be in a snow storm, in Utah, in the month of March.  If you look closely, you can see the waves a snow from the wind blowing it.

JoAnne...I didn't forget you!!

I was browsing through my pictures this morning when I came across these pictures my sweet friend JoAnne took this summer.  I can't believe I did not post them!!

JoAnne is a good friend of mine that I met when Aaron and I were living in Kent, WA.  We met when we both had just 2 kids.  We hit it off as buddies.  She would call me almost everyday to tell me about great deals she had found, to chat about being moms to young children and life in general.  I don't think she knows it, but at that time in my life, I was really struggling with physical problems and was fighting depression.  Her phone calls ment so much to me and helped me cope with all that was happening.  JoAnn's humor is one to leave you in stiches.  She taught me some tight wad skills like, dumpster diving and using coupons with sale items.  We would have girl nights out and have dinner with our families.  I really enjoy being with her!

She now lives in a land far away (but not for long, they are moving to Utah!! WO WHO!) and comes to visit her parents who live in Utah once a year for a month at a time.  Her parents live 2 hours away from where I live so this past summer they invited us to come for a visit at her parents house.  Our kids had a great time, but I think JoAnn and I had a better time.  She took us to a cheese factory, to the park, we got away to go thrift shopping and hike and the kids had a fun time playing in the yard.

The following month she came back for Ed week at BYU.  I spent the last night with her in the dorms and went to a couple of classes.  Then she came to my house for a couple of nights and we went out on the town.  You can read more about it on her blog here.

She is an amazing photographer and I was lucky to have her take some beautiful pictures for us.  You can see more of her work here.

JoAnne and I

All of our kiddos

Slip and slide fun!

All worn out from the slip and slide and hanging out playing games.

At the park.

Beautiful Gwen

Eva's pretty Eyes.

Here are some pictures I took.  As you will see, her dad loves to garden and has an amazing yard.  I wish I had taken a few more pictures!

 

Her parents love to collect rocks and have quite a few.  Her dad let my kids pick on to polish in his shop.  They were so excited about this.

His wonderful vegtible garden.  I like how he used carpet for weed control.

It reminds me of a secret garden.  What a beautiful way to build a green house.

I like how he used old tires.  I didn't even notice at first that they were tires.  He turned them inside out and filled the stairs with concrete and the flower boxes with soil and some of the most beautiful flowers I have seen. 

We had a great time!

Aiden's Unit Study: Electricity

My kids are required to study a subject for a month and then report, at the begining of the folloing month, during  Family Home Evening. 

Aiden chose to study electricity this month.  This is his first experiment:

Mom: Aiden, what have you learned so far about electricity?

Aiden:  I don't know.  Just kidding!  It's really really really fun. We used what we had at home to conduct the hot dog experiment.  We only had to buy hot dogs and aligator clips.

Mom:  Would you like to add what you learned about electricity?

Aiden:  Electricity cooked the hot dog because the salt caused the electricity to run through the hot dog.  Salt is a conductor. 

Mom:  What else is a conductor?

Aiden: I have no idea.  Just kidding again!  Copper wire, tin foil, metal and water.

Mom: Any thing else?

Aiden: People, though that would hurt.

Mom: So what happens if you touch the hot dog while it is cooking?

Aiden: I haven't tried, buzzzzzz, woah. 

We found this definition on the internet of what a conductor of electricity is:

The substances which have free electrons(which move freely ) act as conductor while those whose electrons held tightly (which can not move freely) are insulator.

The Ball

Thanks to a few of my friends, I have some pictures to share from the Regency Romance Ball we attended for Valentine's day.  So with their permission, I share these pictures of our fabulous evening with elegant events and wonderful friends.

As each person arrived they had a man (dressed like he was about to preform an Italian opera, and whose voice added to his appearance) announce each couple by name and where they were from.  Some people were very creative with these details.

Here is our group shot made by adding all of our single shots together.  It was humorous to hear a few of them ask the picture editor to make us, "a little taller" or "a little shorter" than the rest.  It was fun to see the results.

I was amazed at how far dance photography has come since the awkward school dance photos of the late 80's and early 90's.  No more balloons with a splattered paint canvas back drop and a Polaroid camera my friends.  These were done with a green screen. I felt like I was in Hollywood!  Once taken you could choose from three shots BEFORE they were printed.  I even got to choose the background.  Yes photography has come a long way

 

Aren't they handsome?

Some of us ladies.

The night started with some dancing...

then some delicious food.

The dinning was delectable.  Before hand they asked if we had a special diet to please let them know.  So I emailed my long list with the side note of "if it's too much work, please let me know so I can eat before hand".  I did not have high expectations due to past experiences.  To my surprise I received a response that they would indeed cater to my long list of food restrictions.  The food was amazing because I did not have to prepare it or clean it up! The best part, I did not feel sick the next day.  The table settings were beautiful and complete with real silver.  Can you find us toward the end of our group?  That's what you get when you arrive fashionably late.

After dinner, to my enjoyment, there was more dancing.

Here are some finalist in the costume contest.  Our very own Andrea Flynn is on the far right.  She did a wonderful job with the assembly of her dress and bonnet.  The fabric she choose, the ruffled collar, and the embellishments she added to her hat made a very elegant ensemble.  She also made a vest for her husband to match.  I'm not too sure why they second one in made it as a finalist for the "Regency" portion of the costume contest.  They did have a contest for other time periods.  The lady on the far left won.  Her costume was amazing.  She probably thought I was crazy because I kept walking by her trying to see details on her dress. She told me that her sister made it for her.  The fabric was a pale blue paisley brocade (which I saw here, a wonderful place to buy high quality fabric.  Watch for the deal of the day and you can get great fabric for cheaper than Joann's.  I'll be watching myself to purchase fabric for next year. Thank you Liz for telling me about them!) trimmed with a gold trim.  The outer jacket had a ruffle collar and was made out of cream pin tucked silk, trimmed with a bridal beaded trim.  When Betsy noticed her, she said to me "Tina!  It's Jane Bennet!".  Yes, I said, she is! If my cameras battery hadn't died, I'm sure I would have made an awkward scene.

The night was grand.  This will make a Valentine tradition we both enjoy and can afford.  In the past Valentine's Day for us has been a little like this:

(taken from here)

But alas!  Now our Valentine's Day can be a little more like this: