$100 certificate giveaway

Over at Biblical Womanhood right now you can enter to win a $100 gift certificate for use at Vision Forum. Vision Forum has many great items for Christians and homeschoolers. The contest is running through Jan. 28.

Some fun Home school co-op classes

We have had some fun co-op classes lately. This afternoon I taught one here at our house on flower arranging. Each student was able to make their own small arrangement. They did a very good job and we all had a lot of fun. I also showed them how to make a florist bow.
Here they are hard at work!
Last week we got to go to the home of another family and attend a class about our body. The mother who was teaching that class had poster board for each child to have their body traced on. Then she had many of the organs and some muscles and bones copied from a neat book on the body. The kids all colored the different parts and then glued them in their body. While they were coloring the parts she talked about what that part was for and how it worked. Very fun stuff!!
Jonathan is getting some help from a friend. These boys were the speediest of the bunch but did a very good job.
Aaron is working on his body.

These classes are fun because we get to learn but it is also fun because the kids get to enjoy being with other kids and the mom's also get to have fun visiting. Both of these classes were fairly small in size, which is nice because there is more learning and less chaos.

Have any of you been involved in home school co-op classes? What have you enjoyed doing? Or maybe you have a wonderful idea for me to use next year. I hearing your thoughts.

I do have one more co-op class to teach this year, it is on "Fun with music". I will be sure to report about it.

Happy Birthday Luke!

Today is my Brother Luke's 21st birthday. We went over to my parents house today for a very yummy supper and to help celebrate. There were some of our other friends there as well.
This is a picture of Luke opening some presents from us. One of them was a ball from Aaron who decided that everybody needed a ball and he really wanted to give something to uncle Luke that was just from him.

I am very blessed to have a great brother like Luke. He is a great uncle for my kids, he is a hard worker at his job and helping out at church and wherever he is needed (often helping us). He has a great sense of humor and is fun to be around. Most of all he is a devoted Christian. Even when many people would go out and party on this particular birthday, we don't have to be concerned about anything like that with Luke.

We love you Luke.

Learning about the States ~Pennsylvania and New Jersey

This past week we learned about Pennsylvania. We started out doing a lot of research but then I got very busy and we didn't do to much the rest of the week. I didn't do as much as I wanted too but something is better than nothing.

Sarah left a comment earlier that I really appreciated that told us a lot about Pennsylvania so I thought I would share it with you.

"Some fun things about PA. Skeeball, the fun and famous arcade game, is made here! Our slogan is "Pennsylvania: The State of Independence." That's a double entendre! Our governor is Ed Rendell, who was once the mayor of the City of Philadelphia. We're a great state, because, at least where I live, we are within a two-hour drive of the beach or the mountains! (New Jersey beaches, and Pocono Mountains)Some things we enjoy eating here, are, of course, cheesesteaks! Philadelphia is world famous for the cheesesteaks, and I've heard that they cannot be replicated anywhere else. I think it has something to do with the water, which makes the rolls perfect. I have also heard that the water makes sourdough pretzels made in PA extra special. Ever had Snyders of Hanover? They're made here. Do you love those marshmallow bunnies and chicks you get on Easter? The Just Born facility makes Peeps, they're located in Allentown, PA. And of course, you've had Hershey's chocolate, that's here in PA, too!"

In our reading we decided that Pennsylvania would be a very fun place to visit. Not only is there beautiful scenery but also lots and lots of historical places. I would love to go and check out all of those places. What a fun way to learn history!

There are many Amish is Pennsylvania, so for food I pulled out my Amish cookbooks (that were written in Pennsylvania) and we tried some new foods.

We also enjoyed some Hershey's Chocolate this week as well as Ice cream sodas and Banana splits both of which we read were invented there. (Quite a lot of sweets this week but for Banana splits we went heavy on the Bananas.)

We learned that a lot of our money is made it the mint in Penn.

We learned that Stephen Foster was from Pennsylvania so we had fun singing some of his songs last week.


This week we are on to New Jersey. Is anyone reading that lives there or used to live there? We would love to hear about your state!! We would enjoy marking your town on the map and hearing what is special about your state, what is fun to do there and what is fun to eat. Why would we want to go there?

The last few days have been rather busy. This afternoon I had a booth at a local Bridal show, so I have been busy preparing for that. I am tired tonight from some late nights and lots of full days (And no nap today~ that is the hard one for me!! :-), but I thought I would share some of my pictures.

Here are some of the nearly 300 brochures that I had to fold to be ready for the show.
Here are some of the flowers ready to be used.
Here are a couple of ring pillows that I made to sell. I made 10 in all. I had fun making each one original.

Here is my sweetie modeling a head wreath.

Here is the ice sculpture and some flowers that I had at the show. Ice sculptures are nice to display because they attract quite a bit of attention. Many people like to stop and touch it and check if it is really ice.
A bright basket for a flower girl.
I had fun adding peacock feathers to this one. The green Kermit flowers look a little funny colored in this picture.
A cascade bouquet.I love these flowers.

I just thought I would share about my afternoon (This morning and evening I enjoyed some wonderful times at church , thought I had to skip out on about 10 minutes this morning.) How was your day?