When I realized that it was QUIET and everyone was entertaining themselves, I went to investigate with my camera in hand. This is what I found.
It looks like THIS outside...
This is what it looks like inside...
Elijah is typing a story on the kids' computer
Leah is creating a 'dinner party' by emptying out the drawer of plastic ware.
Hannah is playing with her Littlest Petshop animals.
Pete is grading tests (in his pajamas at 3pm...
I made these cute little bags for the kids' Valentines present. They are filled with candy, of course. I also made some for my Sunday School class (all girls). I think they turned out really cute!! I know my kids love to have little bags to keep their treasures in, so I'm sure they'll be well received. Oh, and no, Elijah won't mind that his is pink and flowery, at least not yet. Having two sisters he's used to all things girly.
These go back to November... so there are quite a few pictures.
Elijah with the map of the world
Elijah and friend work on the squaring chains
slicing wooden vegetables
the one hundred board (one of his favorite works)
working on prepositions
Sleeping on the bus to or from a field trip (Miss Sarah always seems to get a picture like this of him... she must find it as amusing as I do!)
mixing colors (a gluing pattern work is also on the table)
gluing a pattern
the squaring chains
categorizing animals (I think)
map of the US (he knows an amazing number of states!)
making words with the moveable alphabet
another map of the US
I think this is called the 'snake game'
Elijah's close up
SNACK!!
The 45 layout (I believe this is the first time he completed it by himself)
cutting wooden sushi from the bento box
sewing (it's like a 3D sewing card)
nuts and bolts
he loves using that laser pointer for the 45 layout!
once again with the 45 layout... it's quite an impressive work for a 4 year old and he certain is proud of his accomplishment!
off to another field trip
waiting for Tales and Scales to start
the mystery number
putting the months in the correct order around the sun
putting together a puzzle of the solar system
***
Hannah's class has done some fun things, but there are fewer pictures
One of the dads taught archery
sitting during the archery lesson
watching another dad do a science experiment
demonstrating the letter H in sign language
SNOW!!
watching a classmate attempt to drill a hole, which is really hard for 1st graders!
getting off the bus for the very stinky field trip to the water treatment plant
Hannah's quilt square is A4, and is "don't let the cat out of the bag"
Wow, I can NOT believe I missed that one...
And here's the Hanukkah version
We don't get tons of snow here, and when we do it never seems to be good snowman making snow. The first winter we lived here we were able to make a snowman with the girls who lived in our apartment complex, but that was 3 years ago.
The weather man predicted we would get 1 to 2 inches of snow, and it seemed likely that it might be even less. However, when I went to bed last night we'd already gotten at least 2 inches and the grass was completely covered... When we woke up this morning, there was a good six inches of snow! Pete and I each shoveled half of our drive way, and it became QUITE apparent that this was good packing snow (not good for shoveling driveways though!!).
We bundled the kids up to build that ever elusive snowman!! Leah and Elijah weren't much help, but Hannah and I built one :)
I posted this on FB last night, but thought I'd share on the blog as well.
My house is looking great, but I'm WAY behind on my getting my photos uploaded. Heck, I haven't even moved the Christmas pics from the laptop yet... Hopefully soon.
I can't believe I haven't posted in over a month! The holidays are crazy, for sure. We had a lovely Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, then went to Oklahoma (via Kansas for a quick 'hi' to the cousins) for Christmas. We celebrated New Year's London time (6pm here) and had a fun little party, and everyone was able to go to be at a decent hour! Pete is currently watching the Cotton Bowl, live and in person at the "Jerry Dome". He'll be back tomorrow and we'll head home. The kids will miss the first day back to school, but I don't think they'll mind too much :)
Then it's back to our regularly scheduled programming, school for the kids, teaching for Pete, and domestic chores for myself.
I'm not one to write real New Year's resolutions, but before we left I decided to get my house in order (clean!) and keep it that way. I spent the week before we left doing just that. I hope to keep with the system I started (it's supposed to take 21 days to create a habit), and spend less time goofing off on the computer :)
Happy New Year to all!! Oh, and just so you know all the cool kids are calling this year "twenty-ten" (as opposed to two thousand ten).
Here are the kids' school pictures. I think they turned out quite nicely!!
I believe Leah wins the award for cutest kid :)
Elijah looks like such a little man!!
This was taken a week before Hannah got her glasses. She looks a bit different with them, but beautiful regardless!!
