Snow Creek

Grant and Brady and, of course, Nick were dying to go skiing this year. We just didn't have time with sports schedules and work to fit in a trip to Utah. We heard about this ski resort called Snow Creek in Missouri. Skiing in Missouri? What?!?

Our friends went last weekend and had a blast, so we decided to give it a try. It was small (we're talking Missouri here...not really known for their mountains) with only 4 lifts, but we still had an awesome time. We'll definitely go back in the future since it was an easy 4 1/2 hour drive. It was a perfect weekend trip.

Grant and Brady took a snowboarding lesson for the first time.

This was Drew's very first time to go skiing with us. It really was the perfect place for him to learn. There were lots of easy runs for him to practice on. He took a one hour private lesson, and then was pretty confident to ski all over with me.

Grant riding the lift

Breakfast at Waffle House on the 2nd day. Eating here made us thankful for Oklahoma's "Clean Air Act". We're definitely not used to sitting in a smoke filled restaurant. Gross!

Drew riding the lift with Nick

Brady on the lift

Drew

Drew was so fascinated by how the ski lift worked. I thought he was going to fall out of the chair since he kept leaning back to try and figure it all out.

Taking a break for lunch

Drew picked up skiing so fast. Our other kids didn't learn to ski until they were 6 and 8, so I wasn't sure how Drew would do. I think being close to the ground is helpful. I learned to ski when I was 18, and it wasn't so pretty.

Drew was exhausted by the end of the day. He skiied 6 straight hours the first day, and 7 the second day with just a short break for lunch. He did way better than I could have ever imagined on this trip. Hooray for kids growing up and making vacations easy!

My four boys!

Grant goofing off with his Waffle House hat. Trust me...he wasn't the goofiest looking person in the ski rental area. We definitely saw a different crowd of skiiers at this resort.

We finished off our trip by tubing for a couple of hours on this hill. It was so FAST! I was scared, but I don't think any of the kids were. (That's Grant at the bottom of the hill)

Proof that I was also on this vacation. :) When you're behind the camera, you're noticably absent from all the pictures. Drew was playing around with my camera in the hotel and snapped this pic of Brady and I.

We came home on Sunday evening after visiting some of our church's historical sites. We spent time at Liberty Jail and Independence. None of us had ever been to those sites, so it was a great way to spend our Sunday.

Hopefully next year we'll be able to take a bigger ski trip, but for this year, we were just happy to spend a little time on the snow. Nick said it's like eating a bite size cookie. It tastes good, but it leaves you wanting more.

Bowling

Saturday was a relaxing fun day. The boys played a basketball game in the morning, and then we went bowling with our friends the Johnstons in the afternoon.

I asked the kids to pose for a picture. Nice.

K'nex competition

The University of Tulsa had a K'nex building competition on Friday. Grant, Brady, Jared and Faith formed a team and entered. When all the teams were signed in and ready, they gave them a packet of k'nex, some wheels, and a motor. The kids had 1 hour to design, build and test their final product, then they went head to head with the other teams. This year's assignment was to build a machine that would knock another team's machine off of a table.

"Team Red" with their final product getting ready to go compete.

On your mark, get set, go...

(Their design is on the left)

Uh-oh...the competition is taking over. They eventually got beat in this round. Fortunately, they had time between this and their next match, so they redesigned the front of their machine.

The new design

(on the right)

This was a great learning experience for our kids. I think it's cool that the TU engineering department would put something like this on.

Webelos Field Trip

Grant is so lucky to have such a great Webelos scout leader. She is always planning such fun things for the boys to do. Last night they went on a field trip to the Aquarium. There was a special "Science under the Stars" presentation that the boys got to participate in. Nick went with Grant while I coached Brady's basketball practice. Nick snapped this picture of the boys and their leaders in the shark cage.

Drew's Class Valentine's Day Party

Drew's class had a Valentine party on Friday morning. In all the years that my kids have been in school, this was the first time EVER that I wasn't the homeroom mom. And guess what? It felt so great to just show up at the party and not be in charge of it. It was Amazing! And guess what else? The party was super fun and super organized. Turns out that school parties can happen without my help, and now that I know that, I may stop volunteering for everything. They had all the usual goodies--ice cream sundaes, sugar cookies, chips--all the yummy stuff.

I've actually never seen anyone so excited over opening their Valentine's. He was genuinely excited over every single one.

Goofing around with his buddy Owen

Drew was admiring his glitter heart before he took it off the wall to bring home. Have I ever mentioned how much I love it when my kids bring things with glitter home from school? Who wouldn't love glitter that gets all over their van and their house?

Percy Jackson

My kids have been so anxious for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians movie to come out. They both read all 5 books at least once and loved them. They both like to read, but I've never seen them so involved in a book before. It's been great.

The best part of being homeschooled is getting to do things while your friends are at school, so when the movie came out on Friday, we went to see it during the day. The kids loved it and are already planning to go see it again on Monday with some other friends.

Hmmm....I wonder what new book series they could get hooked on. Any suggestions?

Ok, totally unrelated, but have you noticed Drew's hair in the past few posts? He insists on brushing it straight down on his forehead and won't wear it any other way. We think he looks like Jim Carey in the movie "Dumb and Dumber". Hopefully this phase will pass soon!

Homeschool Valentine's Day Party

There are definitely some things that my kids are missing out on since they aren't in school this year. One of those things is school parties. I thought we'd throw a Valentine's party at our house for some homeschool friends, and I'm so glad we did. We ended up with 15 kids, 1 baby, and 5 moms here. It was such a fun day!

I baked 5 dozen heart shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate.

Yes, Drew is wearing a cape at the Valentine party. He is always dressed up in a costume all day long. It's something different every day. As I sit here typing this, he just came downstairs dressed as a clone trooper. I love that kid's imagination!

We played Valentine bingo.

Then we played this game where you pick up conversation hearts from one pile by sucking through a straw and move them to a different pile. We had race after race to see who could move 20 hearts the most quickly. It was pretty funny, and some of the kids looked like they were going to pass out when we got done.

Our last game was this relay. They had to run to the other end of the entry way, grab a heart, then come back doing whatever the heart told them to do. The hearts said things like "hop on one foot", "crawl", "crab walk", etc.

Later, after some of the younger kids left, we tied balloons to all the kids ankles, and they had to run around and try to stomp on and pop everyone else's balloons. Fun/crazy/chaotic game that the kids LOVE.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

This was Grant's last pinewood derby and Brady's first. This was the first year they used an electronic finish line, so it was getting pretty high tech. This was also the first year that the Webelos, Wolves and Bears just competed against their own age groups. Then, the winner from each of the three groups faced off in the championship. I was just happy that Grant and Brady didn't have to compete against each other.
Here they are getting ready to race.

Brady and Tyler were the first race of the night.

Brady, Trent and Jared ended up in the championship.

Drew and his little buddies were the cheering section at the finish line. Actually, they were way more interested in the batman toys that they were playing with, but occasionally they cheered.

Here are the car cookies the kids and I made to take to the pinewood derby.