Dordt Indoor Track

Caleb is running indoor track for Dordt, usually the 600m or 800m and often as one of legs on one of the 4x400 teams.   His faithful fans sent me a few pictures to post.   We really wish we could watch him run.  We love the boy and we love track meets!

Post-race analysis with Uncle Marlon and cousins Rachel and Andrew.

Squirrels, Samosas, and other Stuff

We did manage to finish studying France in homeschool before Christmas and then moved on to Germany before spending three awesome weeks in Kenya, Africa.   I think one of the favorite parts of the school day is read-aloud time.  I highly recommend the book Walking Home by Eric Walters.  It gives a good introductory political, social, and economic picture of Kenya especially if used with the accompanying website.   

We found Caleb's 3-D Eiffel Tower puzzle and put together instead of constructing one out of popsicle sticks as was recommended.

Root beer, brats, and sauerkraut to finish out our "travels" in Germany.

Samosas were a tasty way to end our Kenyan travels.  I forgot to take a picture so borrowed this one from the internet.  They are filled with spiced meat.  

 The kids all worked together to make this awesome diorama of Kenya.

In his free time (which he has in abundance) Seth likes to play around in the kitchen.  To make his dabbling more meaningful, we bought him the book Kitchen Science Lab for Kids for Christmas.  Of course, he was immediately drawn to making rock candy!

While visiting a second hand shop downtown, Seth found the cutest cast iron skillet pan that is only about 3-4 inches in diameter.  He has loved cooking veggies on the stove and adding his own spices for us to try.  Without fail, they are quite tasty.

After a year of diligently working on her latch hook, Anna finally finished!  Now, we just need Grandma's sewing machine to finish it off into something special:  pillow, wall hanging, (any ideas Grandma?)  Lydia was working on crocheting a scarf and hat from a kit she received from Hobby Lobby.  Unfortunately, as she was finishing up the scarf she realized the kit did not contain enough yarn to finish the project.  We contacted Hobby Lobby and they sent her a $10 gift certificate to purchase some new yarn.  In the meantime, I am teaching the girls how to embroider and they are each working on a pair of pillowcases.

Seth is back at the zoo once a month for a homeschool zoo science morning.  The last time he was there Russ and the girls and I decided to walk in Julia Davis park and along the river for a bit.  We noticed that the squirrels seemed pretty tame so I grabbed a peanut off some snack bars that I had along and they ate right out of Anna's hand!

2015-2016 Winter Activites

1.  I think we only had one snow fall in the Valley so far this winter that dropped enough snow to actually play in or make a snowman.  The kids took advantage of the wet sticky snow and built a huge snowman in the park across the street. They needed Caleb to help lift the midsection and head onto the bottom.  

2.  Seth and Lydia took ski lessons at the Bogus Basin ski slopes for three weeks in January.  The lessons were on Tuesday mornings and open to homeschoolers.  Anna had absolutely no interest in riding on a ski lift or skiing down a steep mountain slope so opted out of this activity.

Dad even came up on the last day to see what these two had learned.

3.  Last weekend we drove to the Winter Carnival in McCall, ID to see the snow sculptures.    It was a fun birthday outing for Anna again and just an awesome way to spend a Saturday...other than having to get up early to be on the road by 7:00.

The Jetsons won first prize.

Although they did throw out a good share of candy at the Mardi Gras parade in McCall they also gave away a ton of  Mardi Gras beads!

Visit to the Capitol

Anna had suggested several times since we moved to Boise that it would be a great idea to visit the Boise Capitol.  She was even more insistent after they visited the Capitol in Salt Lake City.  "How can we tour Utah's Capitol, but not visit the one in Boise where we live!"  So, when Flat Stanley came from Iowa to visit us for a few days (thanks, Romee!) we thought it was a perfect opportunity to tour the building while showing Flat Stanley some of the sites in Boise.

The legislative session had not begun for the season; I think we were a week early.  We were, however, able to tour the chambers and just enjoy the beauty of the building.  We thought about heading over to the Capitol today for Legislative Pie Day (the annual day each year when the Idaho Coalition of Home Educators brings in an array of homemade pies, and home-schooled students show off displays on what they're learning), but decided to catch up on schoolwork at home.  Maybe next year?

We found Lori's seat in the Senate chambers.  Scott and Lori are members of our church; Scott is a fellow Sioux Center native.