Mousse Mustache

We usually use our avocados to make guacomole and are still adjusting to the taste of avocados.  There are still a few of us who do not even like guacomole so I thought I would try this recipe to get some healthy avocado into their diet.  It was very good and they didn't even complain about the avocados in it!  Plus it made for cute photos of Maddie who actually does love guacomole too!  She not only had a mustache but also a beard!

Winter Wonderland

Leah made this snowflake using old cds for her grandparents for Christmas.

 

 Even though winter can be seen as a hassle to many of us adults it is usually seen as a wonderland to children and for good reason.  God has provided so much beauty in every season including winter and we love looking out our window at the snow covered trees and the fluffy feathered birds!  The kids love sledding, building snowman and snowforts, skating (with their boots since we don't actually own ice skates) on the pond, exploring, and especially coming indoors to warm hot chocolate or cider!  Thank you God for the beauty you have so graciously provided us and thank you for our children to help remind us of its wonder!
 

Bella's "baby" snowman

Leah's snowmen

A message in the snow for Daddy with a heart made out of corncobs.

Hiking & Sledding at a park near our home

While hiking we found 2 different really well made tepees and had lots of fun playing in them.

Magna Tiles Creativity

Leah & Bella received Magna Tiles (100pc set) for Christmas and all of the kids have been enjoying them since.  We first learned about them from their cousins at a birthday party and so we thought it would make a good Christmas gift encouraging creativity and it certainly has.  They use them almost daily and make all sorts of set ups and designs and use them for all different toys like barbies or army guys etc.  Now they do come apart semi easily if you put any sort of  real pressure on them but they do support a toy like a My Little Pony so the kids just learn to play with them carefully if they don't want their structure to collapse but if it does they really don't mind too much since it is so simple to rebuild and so much fun.  And they actually enjoy picking them up since it is such a cinch!  They are a pretty pricey but so far have been worth it and have held up really well especially since part of the fun is knocking them down.  Here are some of their creations:

KONOS: Determination Culmination Night Part 1

These nights are always the most fun for the kids.  They get to decorate, display their handiwork, and share some of what they have learned with their dads & grandparents.  Oh, and eat yummy food too!  So, here is some of the decorating we did.  We had the arctic/ antarctic upstairs and the ocean downstairs.  We also very lightly covered mountains as part of this unit study but didn't get together as a group to learn more about them.  The kids love to get creative and add their own personal touches.  They did most of the decorating and I gave suggestions and helped tape it up.

Arctic/ Antarctic

Now it is time to enter the abyss.  Beware:

 You don't know what creatures lie down there!

Leah wanted to have her dolphin's head look like it 

was popping out above the surface of the water.

They even decided to decorate their bedroom for the fun of it!

Curly Girly

 I have been wanting to try rag curls for a long time and finally I did!  I used these two sites to help me.  Bella was the lucky girl (in my opinion) to be the guinea pig!  She loves girly things so this was right up her alley.  It also ended up saving me time since we were doing this the night before Easter and we leave very early Easter morning to head to Grandma & Grandpa's church.  Soooo, not having to sit and hand curl her hair in the morning was a relief!  I think they turned out well and looked super cute!  They lasted for quite a few days as well which Bella loved! 

 

 

KONOS: Determination - Oceans Week 3

The ocean continued to enthrall our kiddos!  There is just so much to learn about the ocean and the diverse life that lives there.  This week we learned about water pressure, coral and coral reefs, Jacques Costeau, and the Atocha (a Spanish galleon that sank with lots of gold, etc. that was found 300 some years later by a man named Mel Fisher that took him 16 years or so to find - talk about determination), among other things.  

Feeling the weight of water pressure.

 

The kids being "determined" to pile as many

  kids on top of one another as they can!

Another water pressure demonstration.  We also blew bubbles into our

 water higher up and lower in our cups to notice the difference.  

Edible Coral Polyps

 

Some of Mel Fisher's Treasure

KONOS: Determination - Ocean Exploration Week 2

Exploring the ocean this week was a lot of fun!  We learned a lot about the ocean floor and the creatures that inhabit the deep depths of the sea with their unique traits and beauty.  God is so creative!  And now because of people continuing to explore God's magnificent creation we are able to see actual footage of these deep sea wonders!  Our kids thought these videos were so neat! I included one below.

  

Making our own scratch art paintings of deep sea creatures.

  

 

These turned out soo cool! 

How they originally measured the depths of the ocean 

demonstration and the difficulties this method produces.

 

Some objects on the "ocean floor".

 

Discussing the ocean floor.

 

Paper mache ocean floor

 

Top Ten Deep Sea Creatures Video