Journey to Excellence

Bowling parties have become a favorite for the kids. And they are great for mom because they require, mostly, no planning. The kids pick a theme, we put together a cake, some table decorations, and party favors. The kids show up, play a few video games, bowl a couple of games (blackout bowling is FUN!), do some dancing, and eat some cake.  Eli chose a Lego theme this year and requested an Emmet cake. I added a few easy decorations and we were all set for the party. The winner got some Hershey candy bars. The answer was 229. You can obtain this printable at Homegrown Learners . Thanks, Mary! Big brothers are the best! And sometimes little sisters. Bowling is Eli's absolute favorite sport. This was his 5th game of the day. We gave mystery mini-figs as party favors. Big hit!! Eli has been wanting this set to complete his Batman collection. It was a double thumbs up party!

Welcome to Day 2 of "The 12 Days of a Simple Christmas". This is a repost from the simple Christmas we had in 2010. Yesterday we talked about the tradition of the Bayberry candle . Today we are talking about fresh wreaths and swags. In Colonial days, the families made their own fresh wreaths and swags. We don't have any evergreen or pine trees in our yard. (I could go across the street and cut some off the neighbor's tree, but stealing is frowned upon, especially at Christmas.) But, we do have boxwood bushes. Boxwoods are a very popular bush here in the Midwest. They can be used to decorate a mantle or twisted into a pretty wreath. I like these ideas ... And this is a great idea! You could also do other words (such as NOEL) and even hang in windows instead. Here is what I did on our mantle in 2010 ... This was an easy decorating option. This year we used the extra clippings off our Christmas tree to decorate our mantle.

As I have posted about for the past several months, the kids and I have been using Prairie Primer as our main unit study for this year. We have read the first three books in the Little House on the Prairie series and will continue to read the rest of the books throughout the year.  For the past two weeks we have taken a break and done an author study on Tomie dePaola, specifically reading many of his Christmas books. I posted all about that study yesterday. In 2010, the kids and I read a book by Tomie dePaola called An Early American Christmas . I loved that book. It is all about how Christmas traditions came to America. So that year we based our entire Christmas around it, especially our decorations. I posted a series that year called "The 12 Days of a Simple Christmas" and each day I highlighted one of our simple traditions from that year. Since we have been reading about the simple and homemade traditions of the pioneer Christmas in the Little House serie...

Over the years we have read books here and there by Tomie de Paola. He is a great author and even better illustrator. I really enjoy his books! For a little Christmas fun, and a break from Prairie Primer , we decided to do an author study on Tomie de Paola for the last two weeks before our Christmas break. It has been an easy going study, reading all about him, reading several of his Christmas books, and then doing fun activities to go along with the books. First we started out learning about Tomie de Paola himself. We read two books: Tomie de Paola by Julie Berg and Tomie de Paola by Mae Woods, and then watched a couple of videos with interviews with him . We also browsed around the Tomie de Paola website and his blog . Then we launched into the goodness of Tomie's Christmas books. He writes in a few different ways: from his experiences as a child (especially his Italian, Irish and religious upbringing); from Christmas traditions and legends from other countries; and in re...

1. I thought I was all done Christmas shopping. But then when I was looking at the case of the ONLY thing Brynne wants for Christmas (a video game), I noticed that it was an expansion pack and you have the have the original game for it to play it. She has this original game, but it's on the Xbox. And the expansion pack game is only for the computer. So now I have to buy the original game for the computer. Uggghhhh .... they get you coming and going! 2. Eli's birthday party is tomorrow and he wants me to make him an Emmet cake from The Lego Movie . This is what I am planning on doing ... but with this expression on his face ... Wish me loads of luck! The first look on Emmet's face might be what my expression is by the time I get done decorating it. I am always so stressed when I decorate my kids' cakes, yet they always insist I do it instead of buying them from somewhere. 3. Every strand of lights on my Christmas tree has burned out except for one. So I...

Do you still need a Christmas gift for the little one in your life? Would you like to support a new author and her endeavor? Then I have the opportunity for you! My sister-in-law, Shawna O'Neal, has written a children's board book called The Wheels on the Bike . She has joined with Kickstarter to jump start her endeavor and there are only two days left until her campaign is complete. She still needs about $800 in pledges to reach her goal. Here is the vision behind the book in Shawna's own words: I feel passionate about living life as locally and sustainably as possible.  I wanted this passion to translate into my book by writing, illustrating and printing it all locally.  I was very discouraged at first to not be able to find a board book company that printed within the United States.  The vast majority of board books are printed in China. I finally found the only company that prints board books, in New York. It is not local by any means but is in the United S...

When we lived in Oklahoma two of our favorite Christmas traditions were to go to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops and to walk through the Christmas light display at Rhema Bible College. After we moved we still wanted to experience those traditions, so each year we pick a weekend a couple of weeks before Christmas and go to Tulsa to have some pre-Christmas fun. And it's great for Rick because we come to him and he gets a weekend off from driving. It is a total treat to be able to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights. To our kids, that is all the vacation they need. We alternate years between two different hotels, a Holiday Inn Express next to Bass Pro Shops and a Wyndham that has a cool indoor swim park called Leapin' Louie's Lagoon. This year it was the Holiday Inn Express. I love this particular hotel because it is in a perfect location to everything we want to do. This year we arrived in Tulsa on Saturday afternoon. We dropped Dawson off at Tonio's so that he could ...