Nothing in particular

 These are just some random photo's taken over the last month.  

Here is Hannah, putting together a model of the ear.  She did this while reading the story of Helen Keller.  

Joshua playing the xylophone.  This was given to Riley two christmas' ago.  Recently Joshua has become infatuated with it, he plays it all the time.  

For the co-op, Hannah had to do a report on a person from non fiction book that she's read.  Hannah decided to do her Alexander Graham Bell.  She did a great job drawing Bell.  She presented the speech, well half of it, just like this.  

David and Hannah, putting together a puzzle. 

Joshua's little red wagon that he got from Grandpa Bob for his birthday.  

I had a picture of Riley doing this, but I don't know what happened to it!  This was what we did for Riley's school work a few weeks ago.  She made about 10 different animal creations.  on this picture, Riley picked out and attached on her own: the ears, eyes, nose and mouth.  

Hannah, at a recent dr.'s visit.  I took this picture to show off her outfit; it's all her own folks!

Seriously, how cute is this guy!

Here is Riley and David playing kismet.  They were a team.  Riley rolled the dice for David.  She was an excellent dice roller, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

LIFT Trip to the Zoo

At the beginning of November, our homeschool group to a trip to the zoo together.  It's part of a program we enrolled in: Zoo Club.  The zoo makes two trips to us and the we make two trips to the zoo.  During these trips, the kids are taught an hour long class about a pre determined  topic.  It goes perfectly in line with our science class, which is Land Animals of the 6th day.

As with most things done for the first time, there were a few hiccups.  

Most of our coop made it to the class, which was all the way on the opposite side of the zoo from the main entrance.  

The kids actively participated and were well behaved.  

After the class, we all split up into smaller groups and wandered around the zoo at our leisure.  

David had taken the day off to go with us, and we ended up spending the day there, not leaving until 4 pm.  

We didn't see everything, but we weren't trying to see everything.  You see, with our zoo club membership, the girls and I can go to the zoo on any school day, for free.  

Plus we already have our spring trip scheduled.  The only thing we attempted to see, and did not. were the polar bears.  

Homeschooling outside the box

One of my favorite aspects offing a teacher is finding the fun ways to teach.  Like using a game.  

Yesterday David sat down and taught Hannah how to play how to play Kismet.  

Kismet is like playing poker, with dice.  Your score is based on adding your dice and another number based on the hand you play.  

She played two games with David while I went for a run.  

Then I sat down to play a third game with them.  I was amazed at how quickly she had picked up on the game.  

David and I tried to keep our opinions about what she should do to ourselves, and tried to just simply answer questions for her.  

She had to add up her won scores.  

She did a really fantastic job all three games.  She beat me!  

These are mine and David's scorecards.  Mine is above and David's is below.  Notice those 400+ scores!  I actually beat David, twice.  It happens rarely, and I so love when it does! 

United Special Operations Command Halloween Party

I'm slowly catching my way to current times!  These pictures are from Art's work Halloween party.  We went last year and the kids had such a good time.  I knew, when he told me abut it this year, that I'd take the girls again.  

Here are the girls with my mom.  

Riley, at the candy corn bowling station.  

Hannah, bowling as well.  

Hannah, at the fishing station. 

Riley, at the fishing station.  

Grandpa, fixing Hannah's tie.  I realized this Halloween that I have never tied a tie.  There's never been a reason for me to do it.  

Participating in an egg relay game.

Grandma Fox and Riley

Grandpa Fox, Joshua and Riley.  Joshua had a super cute monkey costume but it was so warm.  If I had put him in his costume he would've been to hot as it was unseasonably warm that day.  

Wonder Woman and the witch

The most adorable Minnie Mouse ever!

Hermoine Granger (from Harry Potter)

It's a fun little thing they do.  There is a lot to do, and most of it is free.  They had pumpkins to carve; I brought home 3.  All the games gave out candy, the cotton candy was free.  There was a costume contest, which we entered but sadly, did not win.  After a couple of hours, we packed up and headed home.  

Recently Running

Where does my time go?!?  Seriously.  I uploaded these photo's a few weeks ago with the intentions of writing out the post the week I did it.  I guess we all see how that worked out for me!  I'm going with that saying: better late than never!  

So a few months ago, I volunteered to run with a group homeschooled teens.  We met twice a week, at 8 am.  Now it was never easy to get my 3 little ones out of the house that early.  I normally grumbled until we were in the van.  But once I got to the park, I was always happy to be there.  

Here's group picture of 90% of our kids at the second annual Run for the Pink 5k.

I ran with a small group that wanted to run a 10k.  A large portion of the group were training for a 5k, which we all ran together.    

Don't let this picture deceive you: Hannah did better this run than every before.  This is after 3 miles and the first part of the run that she got frustrated.  

We struggled; me to keep Hannah positively motivated and Hannah just struggled.  But she finished with a smile on her face and her best time yet (40 minutes).  And despite her grumpy expression, she said she wants to do another one.  Also of note was the course layout, which I was so impressed with.  The run itself was condensed to a small area of hope mills.  But the coordinators did a fantastic job laying out the route.  There wasn't a double back, it was mostly flat and lots of neighborhood running, which is pretty scenic.  

The treadmill continues to serve me well.  To date, I've run 60 hours and 311 miles.  I LOVE my treadmill.  Absolutely love it.  I've also lost a total of 18 pounds.  Because of this new found ease for running, I'm a much more sane person.  Trust me on this one.  

This is the 10k my group of kids ran.  It's a 10k I've wanted to do for a long time: The JSOC Special Operations Trail Run.  

It was my first trail run, and the route was challenging.  Lots of sugar sand.  And it was cold.  I finished right at an hour, which I was pleased.  Having never run a trail run, I was expecting it to take little longer.  The kids did fantastic!  And more importantly, can't wait to do more.  

As of now, my running group is on a little break, because of the cold temps.  And a lack of runs.  We'll meet up again in the beginning of March and tackle some spring/summer/fall runs.  

I have found that I enjoy running with kids so much!  It motivates me, and I love sharing with someone else what running has done for me.