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.

She did it again!

Here is a picture of Emma back in 2007, the first time she broke her right arm.  She was trying to use her bunk bed, as you would, a set of monkey bars.  Emma found out very quickly that bunk beds do not work as well as monkey bars and ended up breaking off a piece of her elbow.  Her arm had to be set and the poor girl had to wear a cast for 3 weeks.

I've decided that Emma's right arm doesn't like to be used to catch her entire body.  Right before Christmas Emma was trying to keep up with some friends and tried to run down some icy stairs, but ended up landing on her right arm at the bottom of the stairs nicely landing on a rock slab.  She put a crack through the bottom of her humerus, again on her right side.  Three weeks of itchy torture is enough to make a whole family nuts, but alas, we all survived and Emma's arm is again back to normal.

December Moments

December gave us some snow...

and beautiful frosty mornings...

a Nativity musical put on by fine acting...

Christmas movies, one made quite an impression...

 lots of Christmas celebration and remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We took a trip to temple square to see the lights and had friends over for fondue on Christmas Eve.  We went to church on Christmas morning and enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying each others company.  December was a good month.

2011 Family Pictures

Robyn age 12

Emma age 11

Aiden age 9 

Gwen age 5

Eva age 2

Yard work

Having a large yard has it's benefits and drawbacks.  The amount of leaves that fall from the many trees is amazing.  I raked the part of the yard about three times and there are still leaves on the ground.  I'm grateful for all the leaves to put into my compost pile and for my kids to play in.  Raking is a good workout as well.

This was Robyn's idea of "helping"

Aiden's first Pinewood Derby

Last week was Aiden's first pinewood Derby.  I hadn't been to one since my brothers were in scouts.  Man, has it come a long way!  I remember the track being some large wooden contraption.  Now look at it!  It's even computerized with laser sensor at the finish line.  His car did not win, but he had some good bonding time with his dad making the car.

Bathtime!

Robyn took these fun pictures of Eva and Gwen.