Woo Hoo!

I accomplished something today that I've been meaning to do for the past 5 weeks. We actually sat down and did 20 minutes of homeschooling this morning! Shad worked with Peter on multiplication and I worked with Laura on letter sounds and the hand game (a game you play with base 10 blocks to help kids really understand what a certain number is. For example, 5 can be 1 block on the table and 4 under my hand, 2 on the table and 3 under my hand, etc.). 

I hope we can keep this up. My goal had been 45 minutes of homeschooling every morning. Hopefully we'll reach that by the time school starts again in 6 weeks.

Grateful Sunday

I'm grateful that Shad and I were able to go ALONE to an Eagle Court of Honor tonight. My mom was home so we left the kids watching a movie (The Love Bug, in case you were wondering) and we headed out - just the two of us! It was nice because we could pay attention to the speakers and tributes. Collin, the Eagle Scout recipient, awarded Shad his mentor pin - which was a total surprise!

Rocket Received!!!

Here she is!For those of you not good at squinting . . .
. . . here is what we got. (I won a contest on the Deep In the Heart of Texas blog - go check it out. The blogger is a fellow dad!) According to the Estes website, this is what we are in for . . .

"The Launchables is a complete E2X starter set that includes two exciting model rockets, the Black Diamond that streaks over 1,400 feet into the sky and the Astron Outlaw that's almost two feet tall. The Astron Outlaw assembles in less than an hour and requires no painting. The Black Diamond is easy to build and finish. Includes two engines."

I'm pumped and so are the kids. They ran to the table when I opened the box and the first words out of Windy's mouth . . . "Get away from the table, I just cleaned it!!!" I don't think she is as excited. Not yet in touch with her inner geekiness.

Being New Mexico and the dry land that it is, I am searching my brain for a place to launch this baby without setting fire to the whole city. I think there is a model rocket / airplane park that I can use. More later . . .
-Shad

Swimming Lessons

Laura is taking swimming lessons. Tomorrow is her last day. It has not been as successful as I had expected. Laura's been a tad uncooperative. This week we started staying after the lesson ended for some free swimming. That seems to be helping. Here are some pics of a happy Laura (I didn't bother to photograph the screaming-for-mercy Laura).

Self-Portrait Tuesday

This week's SPT challenge is:

Stars and/or Stripes Forever

I decided to take a little different spin on this.

Last night, Shad and I went out for a much-deserved date. 

We decided to go see the "stars" on the big screen. 

That's right - we went to the movies to enjoy a little star power!

In case you're wondering, we saw Get Smart. 

It was funny, but there were a few too many 

crude jokes for my personal taste.

(P.S. The lighting in movie theaters makes taking pictures really difficult. The first picture is of us in the hallway with a bunch of movie posters, in case you're wondering.)

Gratitude Sun -um- Monday

I'm grateful to the United States government for providing me with one of my main parenting philosophies:

We do NOT negotiate with terrorists!