Soccer

Cameron started a soccer class today. He was so excited to go. He said he's been waiting his whole life to play.

DCT - The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

We met up with the SAIL homeschool group to see the True story of the 3 little pigs at Dallas Children's Theater. Great performance! Apparently the big bad wolf has a bad rap. Carson particularly liked that the audience participated in the show.

Fancy Dinner

Cooking steaks on our new pit tonight, baked sweet potatoes and zucchini. The kids keep saying that we're camping at home.

Jr Engineering - Door alarm

Today at jr engineering, the boys made door alarms. First they played a circuit game with their friends and then they put together their circuits. Carson needed minimal help, but Cameron was not into it today and I pretty much did his. Once all the wires were connected, the alarm worked pretty well. Carson even wired the door where is the class was held.
At home, Carson rigged the alarm from the garage door that leads into the house. When my Mark arrived home, he actually tried to do it quietly so he wasn't attacked by children before he had a chance to change his work clothes. From the other side of the house, the alarm gave him away. It was so funny to see the look on his face!

Heritage Farmstead

The boys and I took a step back in time this morning. We visited Heritage Farmstead in Plano (http://www.heritagefarmstead.org/) for a special homeschool day. They turned butter, made their own homemade biscuits over a campfire, toured a historical home decorated in period furniture, took a wagon ride, visited a one room schoolhouse, learned about vintage toys, and played with their friends. It was so cold but they loved it.

New Year Party

We met up with one of our home school groups today to celebrate the new year. The kids had a good time with laser tag, bowling and arcade.

My little scientist

Sitting at breakfast today, daydreaming 7yo chimes in, "Mom, if the atoms that make up my chair weren't stuck together, they would be all over the ground!"

Dallas World Aquarium

The boys and I met up with dozens of friends from one of our homeschool groups at the Dallas World Aquarium. We had most of the facility to ourselves and we just ran from exhibit to exhibit enjoying them with friends. The manatees and otters were so fun to watch. The boys were right next to the penguins being fed and as you can see from the photo, Carson didn't like the smell of their food. We stayed long enough to enjoy the shark feeding which was pretty exciting. What a great day it was!

Finished!

Carson just finished reading the 7th and final Harry Potter book. He read the entire series on his own. He really enjoyed them and I expect to see him read them over and over again.

Book Club

Carson read Edwina Victorious for book club this month. Good book that brought about a lot of issues the kids enjoyed discussing.

Chess Club

Carson joined a homeschool chess club today. It's only once a month, but he is thrilled to meet and play with chess buddies.

2nd front tooth

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Snow!

Big snowflakes this morning! Cameron's ready to go make a snowman in Carson just wants to read all day.
We finally all went outside and had a big snowball fight.

PE Class

This is Carson in his new athletics class. The class is huge and this photo isn't even half of the boys. They play kickball, football, soccer, baseball, and all kinds of other games. He loves it.

Art class

This is what art class looked like this week.

Missing tooth

Carson lost his first front tooth this morning. He's growing up way too fast!

Happy New Year 2011!

We had some friends over with kids the same age as our boys to celebrate the new year. We had some fireworks and sparklers and had a great time. Everyone made it to midnight except Cameron. He missed it by only 30 minutes.

Christmas Eve 2010

Mark and I spent most of Christmas Eve cooking and the boys spent it making more decorations and gifts and playing in the rain. After an early dinner, the boys and I took a pie and gift to one of my meals on wheels clients and then we spent the rest of the evening reading and playing games. They were so excited about the next morning!

Realization

Out riding bikes with the boys this evening, Cameron looks up at the moon and exclaimed, "Hey, that's where the astronauts walked!"

Jr Engineering - LED ornaments

Today at Jr Engineering, the class made LED ornaments. First they illustrated different kinds of circuits using the kids holding hands representing parts of the circuit: wire, light, battery (I thought this was really clever). Carson volunteered to be a light in the circuit. Then we put together our LED circuit. We did the first one together and Carson did the second one on his own. Then the boys painted the round bottles which became their light housing. It was my favorite class yet! Thanks Deb for all the hard work putting it together!

Horse drawn wagon ride

We enjoyed this evening with four other families by taking a horse drawn wagon ride through a neighborhood famous for it's elaborate Christmas lights. We brought cookies to share and Carson tried so hard to get everyone to sing Christmas carols. The boys loved enjoying the lights with their friends.
With Mark starting his new job today, we weren't sure if he was going to make it but he did and it all worked out.

Christmas PJs

Here is a picture of the boys in front of our Christmas tree in last year's Christmas pjs. They still fit!

Star Wars Museum Exhibit

We traveled to a galaxy far, far away. Well, at least another state and the entire family thoroughly enjoyed the museum. Carson said that he feels like the 7-hour drive was worth it. The Millennium Falcon experience (although very short) was one of the highlights. Carson has read all of the Star Wars novels, but hasn't seen any of the movies. The short Star Wars movie clips they played illustrating fact from fiction were just enough as to not overwhelm them and brought a lot of pictures in his head (from reading) to life.

Carson's 7th Birthday

It's hard to believe my boy is 7 years old! He is such an amazing person and I am so fortunate to be his mom. He is bursting with new ideas daily and contributes so much to our family. I feel like he is not only my son, but he is my friend and I love spending time with him every day. He is a thoughtful and caring brother and is such a positive role model.
His big birthday wish was to go visit a science museum in Louisiana that currently has a Star Wars exhibit. That's a 7-hour drive!
We started his birthday with a quick breakfast and he opened a few gifts (one of which is a helium tank which is 'just what he wanted' for experiments!). After that, I finished packing and we hit the road. The trip was pretty good and just 30 minutes from our destination, we watched a beautiful fireworks grand finale. We called them Carson's birthday fireworks :)
Finally, in our hotel room in our pajamas, we sang Happy Birthday, ate some cake and installed his computer flight simulator - his first computer game. He was so excited!