Coughing, Kleenex and Marshmallow Guns!

Howdy friends! As you can see from our title, we are still battling sickness in our house. Now it's Lizzy, and looks like Dan is coming down with it next. Unfortunately, it seems to be one of those polite viruses that only afflicts ONE person at a time! I think I'd prefer it if we just all got sick at ONCE and then could resume normal life! :)

On Friday night, we all went to watch Nathan and his speech class present their Demonstration Speeches. It was very fun, and the youth all did a great job! Nathan demonstrated how to make a Marshmallow Gun out of PVC pipe. I will post the instructions for anyone who might be interested in making one. Lots of fun!

Saturday we hung out as a family, and Sunday we split the day to go to church due to Lizzy being sick. Today we canceled all outside activities to rest and try to get better. Hopefully by this time next week we'll all be better!

Tonight, Nathan and Tim are at a piano workshop at their piano teacher's home. They really enjoy those. Their teacher has almost 40 students, so she splits them into 3 groups and does the workshops with them once every couple of months. They get to play for each other, do group music theory related games and have dessert.

As promised, here are the instructions to make a Marshmallow Gun:

HOW TO BUILD AN M.A.R. SHMALLOW GUN


~~~SUPPLIES~~~

- 3 ft of half inch pvc pipe - A ruler or tape measure

- A saw or pipe cutter - 2 caps, "T's", and turns

- A permanent marker - Mini-Marshmallows
optional
- Spray paint - Colored tape

~~~STEPS~~~

1. Get the 3 ft of pipe.

2. Mark the pipe at 12", 6", 4" four times, and 2"

3. Cut the pipe where it's marked.

4. Get the 12" piece and stick a T on one end of it.

5. Push a cap on the end of a 4" piece. Stick the open end of the 4"
segment into the leg of the T on the 12" pipe.

6. Stick two 4" pieces into the right arm and leg of the other T. Put
the 2" pipe into the left arm of the T.

7. Insert the 2" segment into the T on the 12" pipe with the 4"
piece sticking up that's on the second T.

8. Get a turn and stick the 6" segment into it.

9. Stick the open end of the turn onto the 4" pipe sticking up.

10. Put a cap on the last 4" piece. Stick the pipe into a turn.

11. Put everything made in the last step into the 4" segment below
the 6" mouthpiece.

Happy Thursday!

Ah, another morning here at our home. I just returned a little bit ago from my morning walk, had some breakfast and now I'm enjoying my first cup of coffee at the computer. It's somewhat quiet this morning b/c Miss Lizzy slept in! Nice! :)

We have had a busy week so far, with all of the normal activities a week holds for us. Dan got to go to a birthday party for his new friend Justin on Tuesday, which he very much enjoyed! Speaking of Dan, I was just listening to him play "Canon" on the piano, and it was very pretty! When I told him "Dan! That is sounding so pretty...good job!" he got the BIGGEST smile on his face! Very cute! Thanks to Stef for teaching him and encouraging him along his piano journey. He's gotten over the fact that he can't sit down and play as well as his brothers do, and he is really starting to improve!

Well, Lizzy is up and dressed now, and ready for breakfast. She is very excited because tomorrow she gets to go visit her friend Claire! :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!

You too Carol! :o)

Weekend..

Hi friends! We're having a nice, relaxing weekend. We had absolutely NOTHING on our calendar today, and what a treat that is! :)

We had a good week, although I was sick (feeling MUCH better). Went in to Livermore yesterday for Nathan's speech class and hung out with Meg for a while. Last night we had pizza (of course...Friday IS pizza night at our house!), boys went to TaeKwon-Do and then the kids watched a movie while Kenny and I went to Starbuck's. We enjoyed our Toffee Nut Mocha (a regular mocha with Toffee Nut syrup added...mmm!) and visited with Emily there. We watched 24 last night (still finishing up Season 5).

Tomorrow is Sunday again already, and we anticipate another nice day at church. Hope everyone is enjoying their January, which is going to be over before we know it!

Bye for now....

Sick

Hi all...it's already the middle of January?! Where does the time go.

Well, nothing much is new here other than ME being sick. Thankfully yesterday was a holiday, so Kenny was home to help and I was able to rest all day. :)

It's so cold here too...we had to pick all of our oranges the other night so they wouldn't freeze and be ruined. Some of our oranges were as big as softballs (see picture of Dan holding one). I think it was in the low 20's on Saturday night! Our grass is still frozen in spots that don't see the sun!

Hope everyone is staying warm! :)

Just stuff....

Ah, another week has gone by already. It's true...time does go faster as you get older. And since I'm officially "old" now, it should start really speeding. :)

We had a good week, getting back into school for the kids; even though they don't necessarily like starting school again, it's refreshing to be back in a normal schedule.

We went ice skating on Friday night with our Keepers of the Faith group. Well, Kenny and the kids ice skated...I took pictures. :) It was our kids' first time to ice skate (except for Dan who had skated once before at Katya's birthday party). They all did great, especially Tim who seemed like a natural at it! Lizzy, of course, had to take it at her own pace. She eventually went around the whole rink hanging onto the wall. Dan and Nathan (and Kenny) did fine too. It was fun to spend the evening with our home school friends!

Saturday we had a nice, restful day...Kenny got to play ping-pong with Jason, and we just hung out at home. Sunday (yesterday) was a good day too...church all day, and then fun at Stef and Jason's house last night with the Clappins, Kempers, Em and Brock.

Today starts a new week, with piano lessons, dance class and TaeKwon-Do all starting back up full swing. Hope everyone has a happy Monday! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had a great time tonight at our annual New Year's Eve party! We took this picture at around 8pm, so there are a few people missing (we had 46 people total). Lots of fun games, good food and wonderful fellowship!

We wish everyone a Happy and Blessed 2007!!