Monster Jam 2010

Jerry and His Favorite Driver, Linsey Weenk of Blue Thunder

Wow! That's all I can say. What a show. My girlfriend Jen took Jerry by himself last year and it's been his obsession ever since. We decided to make it a family thing this year for his birthday and we ALL had a blast. We had pit passes for 2:30 p.m., five hours before the show! The kids met the drivers, got autographs and pictures, and were completely in awe of these machines. We'll definitely be making this an annual family tradition. I took 160 pictures! Click this link to see them all. Monster Jam 2010 Photos

Florida State Fair Results Are In!!!

Well, this is the day we'd been waiting for! John took off and we went to the Florida Center at the fairgrounds and searched out Micky's paintings she entered. 2nd place for both!!!!! She's so excited!!!

Our Budding Artist

Benjamin has always loved to draw, doodle, color. You name it, if it has to do with art, Ben's there. A while back, he entered a National Smokey the Bear poster contest. He worked diligently on his poster for about two weeks. He even drew Smokey on a separate sheet of paper to make sure he had him right before drawing him on the poster.

Tonight at Pioneer Clubs, representatives from the Temple Terrace Garden Club, sponsors of the contest in this area, presented Ben with his award......1st Place for all of third grade in this area!!! He was so excited. I had prepared him in advance that he might just get a participation certificate and not to be disappointed because a lot of kids were likely entering the contest. But we never imagined 1st Place. He won a blue ribbon and a gift card to Barnes and Noble, where he plans to buy more drawing books!

Ben was the only homeschooler who entered.

Holy Chickens!!

These are our latest painting class projects. They have the verse from Lamentations about God's mercies being new every morning on them. We had a little more freedom with these and could add swirls to the edges or spots to our chickens if we wanted to. These were not near as difficult as some of our other projects, but way fun. I could see making more of these for gifts!

Nature Projects

What fun! Being the outdoorsy, manly man my dad is, he collected some porcupine quills and beaver-chewed wood on one of his hikes last year and sent it to the kids. Seeing as how we don't have many beavers or porcupines in Tampa, FL, they were quite thrilled to say the least. With the move and all, we kind of forgot about the box of nature stuff until I was re-arranging the boys' closet the other day. So today we decided to make stuff with what we had (and a few added extras).

I made a stick figure family portrait, complete with pine cone feet, acorn hands, moss hair, and mulch and leaf clothing. Jonathan and Michaela both made crosses. Jonathan used the porcupine quills to make a crown of thorns for his. Ben made a small stool that I need to get a little plant for. Jerry wanted to make Louis, our cat, and so we used the beaver wood, porcupine quills for whiskers, leaf feet, and pine cone ears. We had so much fun once we got started!

Micky's 11!

Michaela's birthday always comes after the hype and exhaustion that immediately follows Christmas, with her birthday being just three days after. We try not to let her suffer for that which she cannot help however. Afterall, it's not her fault when she was born! This year, we were blessed that the youth group decided to have a sleepover party on New Year's Eve and the majority of Micky's friends were there. I provided the cake and they provided the friends, pizza, and even fireworks. Can't ask for a better party than that!

A few of Micky's friends, however, are too young for the youth group and Micky didn't want them to feel left out and so we had an "under 10" party the next Friday night for those girls. They spent the night at our place, got pedicures and manicures from "Aunt Jen", stayed up 'til 2 a.m.watching movies, working on craft projects, and dancing to Micky's new iPod tunes on her docking station.

Painting Class

Micky

Tara

Tara

Micky

Here are mine & Michaela's latest projects in painting class. We made snowman plates and palm tree ornaments. I am entering Micky's butterfly on canvas from last month and her snowman plate in the Florida State Fair this year. She LOVES this class. She actually turned down a Christmas party at her friend's house so as not to miss class this month. She plans on using some of her birthday money to buy the remaining supplies she needs for the class.