Date Night

 Last night was the Daddy Daughter Dance.  Alice has been looking forward to this since she saw the decorations at the gym after last year's dance.

 While the boys were out running errands we gave ourselves pedicures.

 Alice chose to eat at Taco Bueno before the dance.

 With her cousin

 When Jay brought her back to my parents' house, she was pretty worn out.  She got a second wind (and a third), though.

 My date for the evening was Jack!

He wanted to go out for pizza so we did that and then watched the new episode of Marvin Marvin.

After the dance, Jay and I went to a Valentine party for his work and then we went home for a Downton Abbey marathon.  We had to finish the last episode when we got up this morning, but we are now done with the third season and I can resume my chores in the evening again.

Fun Friday: Calm Before the Storm

 Today was a calm day spent mostly at home (except for the laundry/TMNT run to my parents' house tonight).  Alice got Pinkalicious and the Pink Hat Parade in her Valentine Mail this morning and decided to make her own hat.  Tomorrow will be crazy busy--fun, but crazy busy.

Since we didn't do much today, here are a few pictures from our week.

 

 Tuesday we went to IHOP for their annual Pancake Day fundraiser.  Alice actually shook the hand of one of the Shriners there--she told us it was because he had a hat like Grunkle Stan's.

 Alice copied her name on the sign.

 Wednesday was National Frozen Yogurt Day so we stopped in for a treat--and the kids deserved it, too, since they spent several hours dress shopping with me.

 

 Thursday Alice took some pictures at PE.  That's Jack in the circle there.  Alice calls the PE teacher Mr. Thora (his name is Thor) because she's watched a lot of Arthur.

 And of course you have to take some pictures of yourself!

Today's post at MetroFamily is all about President's Day resources.

Happy Friday!

Super Weekend

 We had a pretty super weekend here.  Saturday morning we stopped for donuts before grocery shopping.

 It was warm enough to spend a little time outside.

 

 Rainbow jello for dessert!

 Saturday night Jay made a fire and we watched movies and had a sleepover in the living room.  I found out that I am waaay to old to sleep on a wood floor.

 Does it get any cozier than this?

Last night we went to Jay's sister's house to watch the game and the kids got to meet their new cousin, Olivia.  Alice was alternately nervous and interested.

When we got home, Jay and I watched two hours of Downton Abbey.  My fabulous husband watched a season and a half over the weekend to get caught up to where I was AND he got season three on blu-ray so we don't have to wait on PBS!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Fun Friday: For the Birds

 Both kids are learning about birds right now and today we made treats for the birds.

 We covered toilet paper tubes with peanut butter, rolled them in birdseed, put a ribbon through the tube, and hung them in the trees.  Actually, I didn't have any toilet paper tubes and looked at a couple of rolls to see if they were small enough that I could justify unrolling them and leaving the paper next to the toilet when I remembered using up some paper towels last night and I was able to salvage the tube.  That's what I get for trying to declutter and tossing my stash!

 

 We also made birdseed cupcakes (recipe from Riki's Birdhouse) but those have to chill, so we will put them out tomorrow when we check our other feeders.

And since it's the first of February, the kids started getting Valentine Mail this morning!  This is a fun way to beat the winter blahs and the kids really enjoy it.

Happy Friday!

The Hatmaker's Sign

 Jack's latest FIAR book was The Hatmaker's Sign, a retelling of a story Benjamin Franklin told Thomas Jefferson when others were critiquing the Declaration of Independence.

 

 We mapped the thirteen colonies and made a new sign for the hatmaker.

 

 And, of course, we made hats.

 

 I love this book!  All it is is the Declaration of Independence, but it is broken down and illustrated to make the language easier to understand.  I used this with my fifth graders every year.

 We really enjoy Jim Weiss CDs and Thomas Jefferson's America is a great go-along for this book!

 This is another good one left from my classroom days.  We read some of these biographies during our morning basket time.

 The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence tells what happened to the Declaration of Independence after it was signed.  It was very interesting!

 We read the Jean Fritz biographies of John Hancock and Ben Franklin.  I love those books!

 Jack really enjoyed this one.  It's very short, but it's funny and has some good information.

 We also read this biography--Homeschool Share has a free lapbook for this one!

 One more good one!

 On Ben Franklin's birthday we had hasty pudding.  We used the recipe from Ben Franklin, American Genius: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities.

 Since Ben's father was a soapmaker (we read about this in the Jean Fritz bio), we tried making our own soap.  I was not feeling too adventurous, so we just got a kit from Hobby Lobby.

It was a lot of fun and they turned out great!

Cooking School: Blueberry Pancake Day

 My kids are always wanting to cook--this is a picture from the evening they made us Krabby Patties.  Truly, I don't like to have them cook.  It stresses me out that they will burn themselves or spill everything everywhere and when they do try it, I realize I am a huge control freak.

One of my goals for this year, though, is to have them cook more.  Today was Blueberry Pancake Day, so that's what we made!  (You can find out about awesome days like this with the fun calendars on the Homeschool Share Blog!)

 One of the books I purchased to work toward this goal was Pretend Soup.

 I got this book because it has lot of pictures so Alice can follow along.  I have Honest Pretzels (by the same author) in my Amazon cart now because I think it will have some things Jack will enjoy more.

 

 They scooped and measured.

 And they poured.

 The first one looked like a crepe, so we added some more flour and tried again.

Perfection!

No one was burned (too badly) and no one made a huge mess.  All in all, a big success!

Next Tuesday is IHOP National Pancake Day--an old favorite of ours!

Fun Friday: Show Time!

 Today we went to a show at the PAC.  Jack has been before, but this was Alice's first time.

 

 We saw Rock the Presidents, a show that was about an hour long and filled with Schoolhouse Rock-type songs about the presidents.

 Afterward we had lunch and played with friends.

Alice worked on her tree-climbing skills.

 Tonight we went to my mom and dad's to see the new episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Jay and Jack had planned on watching it together, but Jay wasn't able to leave the office, so he watched it there while Jack watched it at home and they stayed on the phone the entire time so they could discuss it.

When we got home, the kids wanted to have a sleepover, which means they get to watch a show on the Kindle while they're in bed--a rare treat.  Even Boris joined in!

Speaking of shows, I have finally gotten the chance to start watching Downton Abbey and if my children didn't require food or attention I would probably lock myself in my room and watch every episode over a 24 hour period.  It's that good. 

I often forget to share links, but I'm still blogging at the Homeschool Share Blog and at MetroFamily, so check them out!

Happy Friday!