Pictures from the past week....

Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted. Here are a few pic's from the last week or so that were on my camera. Two weeks ago on a Saturday I came home from getting a pedicure with some of my girlfriends and lo' and behold look what was sitting on the counter when I walked in. The roses were absolutely gorgeous they were red and yellow and all opened in the next few days. I read the card Ben left for me and started crying it was so sweet. You could tell he read all the cards and picked out the one just for me. I don't get flowers to often but when I do he goes all out. Thanx again honey they were beautiful! Oh, and the pedicure I've only had two in my lifetime both years ago. I decided that the foot rub was the best part!
Here's a few pictures from the parade on Monday. Here the boys were waiting for it to start.
Waiting for more candy to come all the kids had a full bag by the time the parade was done. It was crazy how much candy they all got.
I think there was at least six fire trucks in the parade this year they were Romans favorite. We visit the local fire station almost every year on a field trip so the boys recognized some of the fireman. Looks like we'll have to go this coming year Roman loved them.

School Blessing's

How blessed my children are to be homeschooled. It really struck me this week how very blessed we are as parents to have this time with our children. It goes by so very quickly I'm so thankful for these times to see our children learn and grow. This week Lucas took the Iowa Basic Skills tests do you remember taking those? He's hitting Jr. High next year and I wanted to make sure that he's where he should be grade level wise before than. He had testing for two days from 9-2 each day. I was more nervous for him taking them than he was he was not one bit nervous. He came out on Monday with a big smile on his face and said "Mom, that was fun I had a good time today"....What excuse me as a kid I would get so nervous about taking tests like this that I would want to ..uh...vomit..pee my pants you get the idea. I would do horrible on them and would feel so for lack of a better word dumb. When I new I wasn't I just would get so nervous that I couldn't focus at all. My children are so blessed to not have that pressure when taking tests I'm so so thankful we can homeschool them! Now mind you he did get a lunch break for 30 min. to quick scarf down his lunch and then play b-ball with his friends the remainder of the time. Plus as an added bonus the teacher made a boy and girl sit at a table together. It just so happens that the girl he has a crush on picked to sit next to him:) Maybe that's why he had such a big smile on his face:)

Race Results

Here are my pic's from the race on Saturday I didn't post them all up sorry they're so small I can't get them to upload any bigger. I completed my race in 2:16.00 which is two minutes faster than last year. I was excited I beat my time from last year I honestly didn't know if I could. I had a fun time running it as much pain as it was I always do enjoy it. Ben came down with the boys to watch me race and they had signs they were holding cheering me on. The boys looked so cute it was so fun to see them they had a fun time watching me. Thanx to all who came down to cheer me on and see me race it was fun..till next year:)
If you could see my face clearly in the above picture you would notice the pain on it looking at it larger makes me laugh.......now..hahahaha:)

Greenfield Village

This is the time of year when we're done with school for the year and I always try and get in a few extra field trips while everyone else is still in school. Yesterday the kids and I went to Greenfield Village in Detroit. It's about a 21/2 hour drive for us but oh so worth the trip it was incredible. All of us learned so much it is one of the coolest places I've ever been to. I do enjoy history quite a bit so to me it was really neat. The boys and I studied Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and the Wright brothers the past two weeks. Once the kids each wrote me a report on one of them I told them we could go. Lucas wrote one on Thomas Edison he was so enthralled by Edison's house, factory, offices and research facility. The cool thing about the village is that all the buildings are the actual houses where the people grew up or lived at one time. Nothing is a replica all are the original and they are very well preserved keeping a lot of the furniture the
families had.
The boys and I on the train the elderly gentleman behind me who Roman had made friends with asked if I would like my picture taken with my kids. I of course didn't turn him down:)

Here is the wright brothers shop.

All the people that work there are dressed in the period costumes so you really get the authentic feel for the "good ol' days". Model T's are common on the streets you can take a ride in one if you want to.
At Thomas Edison's park we watched this actor portray Thomas Edison. He did a short skit and told us all about Edison it was really good this guy did a great job. He called some of the kids up front to read different things here is Kaleb reading his line.

This was Roman's favorite part the steam engine train. It was awesome to say the least. We paid our train fare and boarded on for a ride Roman was just all smiles the whole 45 min. ride.

Can you tell he enjoyed the train ride?:)
This was Henry Fords house that he lived in.

Race Day

Tomorrow is my race I've been training for since Jan. It's a 25K race which is 15.5 miles I'm super excited about it but also very nervous. I've ran it the last three years and I always ask myself why I'm doing it again. I can't come up with a great reason only that it keeps me in shape and I honestly love running and the high you get when your finished running that far in a race. The above picture is me running it last year I know terrific pic right:) Here's my hubby's from last year.
He always gets a good one looks like he stopped and smiled at the camera....he's not running this year so maybe he'll be able to take a better one of me. Anyway wish me luck and say a prayer I can still walk after running it:)

Tulip Time

This week our annual tulip festival is going on so I decided to take the boys to learn about our dutch heritage. We went last year to and had a great time but seems like you can always learn something new. The boys really enjoyed it and learned a great deal to. Here they are in the old dutch pioneer house dressed in dutch costumes. Aren't they cute!
A picture of myself and the boys don't get enough of those.
The senior dutch dancers doing a dance. They even taught the crowd a dutch dance and we got to perform it with them in the square. The boys did it for Ben after dinner that night.
Here we stopped and learned about wooden shoes. They show you how they are made and you can try them on. Roman tried convincing me he needed a pair:) He didn't get them.
Here were some ducklings floating in a pond they were so adorable we fed them pb&j sandwiches from our lunch. They were so fun to watch they entertained us while we ate.
Kaleb driving his horse and buggy he thought it would be great fun to own one of these.
Little Roman on the way home all worn out he crashed almost immediately.

"The Snake" by Kaleb

The Snake

Once upon a time there was a snake. In the forest the snake was lonely. One day people were taking a hike. Then they found a snake. They took the snake home and fed it. The end.

He wrote this in school today I thought it was really cute.