A Field Trip, Birthday, Recital...and More!

I feel like a blogging failure!  I really intend to keep more current on this, but then the end of the day rolls around and I'm out of steam and I put it off "one more day" and it's been a week!  Oh well! 

We've been busy around here.  Typically, we could go a few days without even leaving our house.  We're home-bodies and really like it that way.  We don't schedule a whole lot and try to keep life simple.  But with the Christmas season upon us, a bunch of stuff fell on the calendar at the same time.  Here's what we've been up to.

Todd was in Seattle and caught the red eye flight to meet us at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis.  (As a side note, finding a parking spot to accommodate a 15 passenger van is not the easiest thing to do!)  The grandmas were visiting and they came along too and snapped this photo.

After the performance, we found a place in the sky way to eat a picnic lunch that I packed.  It was fun to watch everyone watching us!

When our tummies were full, we cleaned up and navigated our way to Macy's to see their 8th floor display - A Day in the Life of an Elf.  We had seen it before with the older kids, but decided to go again for the grandmas and the younger children.  It was fun!

Grandma Pam gave Lillian a camera to use and she was in shutterbug heaven!

We came home and finished up our baking preparations for the Craft and Bake Sale that our home school co-op was sponsoring the next morning.  We made carmel corn and puppy chow.  The children also knit hats, decorated socks, and made some bracelets for sale.  They did quite well and now have some spending money for an upcoming family vacation.

Bagging the puppy chow.

Double batch of carmel corn baking in the oven.

And, did I mention, that it was also Eleanor's 3rd birthday?!  I can't believe that little munch-kin is 3 already.  We've been talking about going potty and getting rid of her diapers.  She looked at me and said, "No, mommy, we'll do that later!"  She's got it all figured out!

Eleanor with her super cool dinosaur cake that Grandma Pam brought.

All set up and ready for business at the Craft and Bake Sale the next day.

On Friday evening, Madeline and Joseph had a piano recital at a local retirement home.  Joseph is in his 2nd year of piano and he's really made some huge progress this year.  He played a really jazzy piece and got great applause.  I, of course, stood at the back with the baby with tears of pride in my eyes.  Then Madeline played her piece from memory and did absolutely amazing!  Haley quit piano this year and took up guitar, so she was not yet ready to play in the recital.

Whew - there's still so much more that happened...but again, I'm out of steam and needing to go to bed.   Quickly - 8 inches of snow, cut-out cookies with grandma, bingo at church, and another round of the stomach flu....yuck!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Family Fun Day 2010

One of the greatest things about home schooling is the flexibility that it allows.  Todd has a couple of crazy weeks coming up at work, so we decided to take a family fun day today!  We brainstormed ideas last night and came up with going to some favorite parks.  We all packed into Big Blue and hit the road.  We said a family rosary on the way in honor of Mary's birthday, which I'll talk more about later. Our first stop was Staring Park in Eden Prairie.

Here's Haley cruising down the slide. 

They all had a great time...until, Lillian tripped on the way to the car and skinned up her knee.

After a lot of drama and a little TLC, she was fine.

Our next stop was "Chutes and Ladders" park in Bloomington.  We don't get here very often, but the children absolutely LOVE it!

Joseph climbing one of the huge cargo nets.

Madeline and Eleanor looking at themselves in the funny mirrors.

Esther watching me help Eleanor with her digging.

After park stop number 2, we were ready for some lunch.  We stopped at a mall, ate, and ran a few errands.  What?  Errands on family fun day?  You couldn't expect me to be at the mall and not check a few items off my list, could you?!  The kids spent almost an hour in Barnes and Noble - love that store.  Also, did you know that home educators qualify for their teacher discount card?  It's 20% off every purchase, all the time!  It doesn't take long for that to add up!

Our last park stop was close to home at Minnetonka Regional Park.

Lillian and Eleanor trying to figure out how to walk on this rolling thing without seriously hurting themselves!

When we returned home, we had a make-your-own supper.  You know, every man, woman, and child for themselves!  I do that once a week or so to make my life a little easier and the kids really like it.  Anyway, after the kitchen was cleaned up we had our birthday celebration for Mary.  I picked up some fresh flowers to put by her statue and we made some cupcakes with light blue frosting.  We all sang happy birthday to Mary and enjoyed a cup cake.  Madeline commented, "Isn't it nice that we got to have a fun day off on Mary's birthday!"  And in her adorable little two year old voice, Eleanor said, "Mary is the Mother of God." 

Here is Mary with her fresh flowers and birthday cup cakes.  Happy Birthday Mother Mary!

I got the idea for this from one of my favorite blogs called Catholic Icing - check it out!

Now the kids are all in bed and I've really got to get sewing.  The fall craft show season is upon us and I'm not ready....yikes!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Carver County Fair 2010

Last week was the Carver County Fair.  We headed out on Friday and the weather cooperated.  It threatened to storm a few times, but held off until we were ready to go home.

The County Fair is a much anticipated event in the Kraft house.  We love walking through all the barns to observe the various animals.  I think we took more pictures of animals than we did the children!

Lillian posing next to the hungry pigs.

Esther was cool with the sheep...until he licked her toes!

Eleanor hitching a ride in the stroller while looking at all the breeds of chickens.

This year, each of the children worked on a project that they could enter into the education division to be judged.  Madeline and Haley earned a grand champion ribbon for their project last year, so the bar was set pretty high.  Happily, each of them received a first (blue) or second (red ) place ribbon.  AND - Haley earned a grand champion ribbon (purple) for the quilt that she made!  They were all so proud of their work and are thinking ahead to next year's entries.  Let's hope we are a bit more organized and start our projects earlier.  This year we did all the projects in 3 weeks...not quite enough time to really enjoy and have fun withe the whole creation process.  I do have to say, though, that it was a good reason to get a project done with a firm deadline.  I have grand ambitions of working on projects with the kids throughout the year and then the projects seem to get pushed aside for more pressing "academic" work.  I am glad that they each completed something and did it all by themselves.

Joseph did a football themed latch hook project - Blue Ribbon

Lillian made a craft project called "A Giraffe, A Lion and An Alligator" - Red Ribbon

Madeline pointing to her horse themed latch hook - Blue Ribbon

Haley standing under her colorful quilt - Blue and Purple Ribbons

Haley in front of her pink snow hat she knitted - Blue Ribbon

Madeline's "Fairyland Fantasy" diorama - Blue Ribbon

After eating lunch and riding the rides (Haley even got Grandma Pam to go on a few of the crazy rides with her!), the weather turned threatening and we decided that it was time to head for home.  It was a great time, but I am happy that it only comes once a year!  :-)

God Bless!

Heather :-)