Giant Sea Tube Worm

We have been studying sea creatures with the curriculum Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. Today was the last day of reading in the book and we learned about sea tube worms. Tomorrow at coop the kids are suppose to dress up like their favorite sea creature. Hannah decided to dress like a giant sea tube worm. Here is her costume made out of cardboard and a feather duster. Tube worms live in these tube like bodies and have plumes that look like feathers that come out to catch their food. Here is a picture of Hannah and an actual picture of Giant Sea Tube Worms.

Throughout the year at our homeschool coop the girls have done reports for science class. Kristen did a report on the Green Sea Turtle and dressed up like one. She made her own shell out of cardboard and drew on it and added a belt to tie it on her back. Here is a picture of her with her Green Sea Turtle outfit.

Kristen's Baptism

What a sweet day! Kristen got baptized at our church. She has been very adamant about getting baptized since last summer. Unfortunately, we were out of town on vacation and missed the baptism classes. So she checked to make sure she didn't miss the next one. She was very clear on stage when she gave her testimony. I wrote it here for those of you who asked me for it.

"I am Kristen Davis and I am 7 years old. When I was 4 years old I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins so that I can live with him forever in Heaven. I knew that I needed Jesus because I could not forgive my own sins.

My favorite Bible verse is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

My life is different now because I want to tell people about Jesus. I want to serve others and forgive others when they sin against me.

I want to be baptized because I want people to know I have Jesus in my heart."

We always felt that the names we gave our children had meaning. We wanted their names to fit their personality. As Kristen gets older I see how her name fits her. Kristen means "Follower of Christ". So it is befitting that she would be the first sibling to get baptized even though she is younger. She has so much love and compassion for others. She always thinks of others first. One time her sister didn't have a piece of candy like everyone else and she gave her only piece to her sister and went without.

After church my mom and some of Kristen's friends and our neighbors came over to celebrate with us. We ate lunch and had ice cream cake. Kristen's cake said,"Kristen, Child of God."

Here are some pictures of her giving her testimony and of her after she was "dunked". I am also going to include the video of her testimony. It got cut off at the end, but you get the idea of what it was like.

Kristen

Pinewood Derby

The twins are in Pioneers at our church. Every year Pioneers Club hosts a Pinewood Derby. This year the twins decided they wanted to make a car. They didn't want to just buy one that was pre-made, they wanted to built it with their Daddy from a block of wood. So we bought the wood block kit that had basically a block of wood and wheels. The girls and their Daddy went to a workshop and made their cars. Today they raced their cars at the Pinewood Derby. Hannah's truck, which is light blue, won 1st, 2nd & 3rd place during a couple of races. And Kristen's truck, metallic blue, won 1st, 3rd & 4th place during a couple of races. Kristen won a trophy for 2nd place in best design from a block of wood. Kelson enjoyed eating and watching the races. Emma and her friend Emma helped at the bake sale. It was a long, but fun day!

Little Composers

Hannah and Kristen are always composing music on their own. Kristen says she hears it in her head and then writes the notes down on paper. She hasn't placed them on a staff, but remembers what position they are on the keyboard. Back in December I took this picture of the two of them composing a song together. I thought it was priceless!

Emma's First Job

Emma is very excited about her first "real" job. One of our neighbors just got an 8 week old lab. She works and can only come home at lunch. So she asked if Emma would mind letting the dog out during the day. This is perfect for a girl who begs me daily for a dog. She is not only getting paid, but she is also learning the responsibilities of having a dog.

Today Huckins, the dog, came down to our house while we schooled. The twins are now asking us for a job like Emma. So we thought of some things they could do around the house for us. They told us that wasn't a real job!

Here is a picture of our happy girl! The first day Emma had to take care of Huckins she was giving me a hard time about writing a story of two people talking. (We are learning about quotation marks and all the rules.) So I told her I would pretend to be her and she could write back to me what Huckins thought on his first day with her. That worked really well. Here is the story.

Today was the first day Emma pet sat the dog next door. His name is Huckins. Here is what happened on their first day together.

I walked into Heather's house to let Huckins out. "Huckins you already went potty," said Emma as she opened the cage door. "Let's go outside."

"OK, now let me out or I might go potty some more," said Huckins excitedly. "Ooh, ooh, I remember there is kitty poop out by the front door." Huckins charged out the door to find the poop.

"Huckins! No, no! Don't eat that," Emma said as she picked him up and carried him to her front yard. After Emma put him down on the ground Huckins sat and looked at her thinking,"What are we doing next?" Emma shook the toy duck and said,"Come on Huckins." Then she started to run and Huckins followed.

Emma ran Huckins around the oak tree many times. "I am tired, slow down," said Huckins.

Emma asked Hannah and Kristen,"Can you go get Huckins some water?"

Huckins said,"Yes, yes, get me some water." When they came back he drank and drank. "That's better. Let's play some more,"said Huckins as he ran and jumped. Emma ran around the yard as Huckins chased after her.

"Huckins, it's time to take you back home,"said Emma.

"Ah, I want to play some more. Can I please stay?" said Huckins, as he sat down not moving an inch. Emma came over and petted Huckins until he started to bite. "Let's play," said Huckins.

"OK Huckins, we can't play anymore. I have to go back inside and do my schoolwork. It's time to go home you silly boy," said Emma as she picked him up and carried him home.

Orville and Wilbur Wright

A couple of weeks ago, the twins gave an oral report on the Wright Brothers for their history coop class. They decided to dress up and pretend they were the Wright Brothers and tell their class about "themselves" (speaking in 1st person). They wrote their own reports based on the books we read. Their Daddy helped them build a glider out of toothpicks and styrofoam trays. It turned out great! They also copied pictures, cut them out and I helped them make a timeline of the Wright Brother's flying machines. Here are some pictures. Hannah is on the left as Orville and Kristen is on the right as Wilbur (because it had part of her friends name in Wilbur...Will.) They learned a lot and had fun preparing for the report.

Christmas Day

This Christmas was very relaxing. The kids got up around 7:00 a.m. and we watched them open their stockings. After we started the coffee brewing, ate a little something, we started to open presents. The tradition at our house is to watch as everyone opens presents. We didn't want our kids flying through the present opening time and saying."Do I have more to open?" So we let each person open a present and everyone watches. Plus, after the kids open one present it gives them time to play with it before they open another. They actually enjoy their presents and are not overwhelmed.

Every year our children get three presents from us like Baby Jesus got from the wise men. Sometime I get creative and make one box of stuff that goes with the theme. For example, this year the girls have really liked spy stuff after watching SPY KIDS. So they each got trench coats, spy books and other spy gadgets in a box as one present. Kelson loves watching the movie CARS so he got a winter theme car set of all the Cars characters, wooden Thomas the Trains, and a new/used bike that looks like a racing motor cross bike. Kristen got a metal detector with book about geodes, a science super ball making kit and a spy box. Hannah got a hair chair with accessories for her American Girl doll, an American Girl Doll hair book with CD to learn how to style hair and a spy box. Emma got "the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop", a digital camera and a spy box.

MeMe bought them their Vermont shirts with butterflies and Kelson got a sea turtle shirt, along with some books written by a local author. After we opened presents Pete finished cooking the ham and we ate dinner. Then we played the rest of the day. The girls and I went to see my mom for a couple of hours later in the day since she was had been down with phenomena for a couple of weeks. Nannie bought them some other little things they have been asking for like more Littlest Pet Shops, marbles, science kits and Thomas the Train tracks with train cars. When we got home from Nannie's, we ate a light meal of left overs and had Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes.