Sneek Peek- Music Man Characters

I just wanted to give you a small peek at the characters in this weekend's performance of Music Man

Winthrop and townsperson

Our Easter Weekend

This year our Easter weekend was mixed with shortened vacation thanks to all of the snow this winter and then we added play practice, so we squeezed things in and had a good time all the same.  We decorated eggs with the 4-H'ers,

decorated 20 dozen

Garrett is in the blue sweatshirt

 then we had the Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning. We attended Sonrise Service at Old Zion Church with my family and then we went to worship at Knox United Methodist where we attend. Then we spent part of the afternoon with my family (a first at Easter due to work schedules) and had lunch and an Egg Hunt.

 

The Crew at Sonrise Service

Checking Out Baskets

Hmm where do I start?

Egg Hunt at Nanny's

Are those carrots?

Hope all had a Happy Easter!

Easter Children's Sermon- EMPTY

I was once again given children's sermon for Easter which I totally love doing, but I do try to step it up and hit it from a different angle when I do have this opportunity. So the more I thought about what I was going to do, the more the thought of "the tomb was empty" ran through my head. So here is what I ended up with.
Before service you will need a box(empty) and you might want to make it look pretty.

My EMPTY Easter gift-
Praise the Lord it was EMPTY!

"Good Morning, and Happy Easter! You all look quite handsome and pretty in your Easter outfits. Well look what I have here- an Easter Gift! Now that is exciting, but it reminds me of a couple of months ago. You know when the snow was on the ground and we were celebrating another holiday with presents- Christmas! Exactly and you know without Christmas and Christ coming to the earth we couldn't have Easter, but well let's see what's in my box!" (With this I let a few of the kids take a really quick peek into the box.) " well what's in there?" child replied "nothing" "what- someone else had better check this out" (so I let another child take a quick peek) "so what's in there?"  "nothing" replied the child. (To this I couldn't believe that someone would give me an empty gift, so I go ahead and open then box and find that it is EMPTY!)  "Why who would give me an EMPTY box? What a dirty trick for someone to play- no chocolate, no baby bunnies, not even a jelly bean!!!" ( I am acting like I am mad, but I change me tune) "Wait a minute, isn't that why we are here to worship today? to celebrate an EMPTY tomb? But who celebrates EMPTY? Do you have a party when the ketchup bottle is EMPTY?  No one would do that? And what do you do when the milk is EMPTY? Complain to someone that we are out of milk. What do you do when the peanut butter is EMPTY? There is no party, or anything so is there anything that we have a party for or celebrate being EMPTY besides the grave of Jesus? (And the kids and the adults thought about this- one child said when the dishwasher was empty- to which I explained that it meant that the dishes were all dirty or someone had gone hungry- the dishwasher doesn't stay empty long and who ever heard of and "Empty Dishwasher Celebration?" One adult said that their bills to be paid bin was empty and I pointed out that so was their checking account- and that isn't a celebration.)

So today , Easter, we celebrate something very special to Christians everywhere- an EMPTY TOMB- which means that our Savior lives!!! Happy Easter! HE Lives!!!! And we closed in prayer.

GPS Resurrection Eggs

I have done this for a couple of years and each year I do it a little bit different, but I take our Resurrection Egg set and go out and hid the eggs in order and mark their location on our handheld GPS unit. Usually something like "Egg 1"- each egg gets it's own waypoint program.  Then I give the boys the GPS and tell them what they are looking for. Each child gets a turn to be the leader and be in "control" of the GPS and when we find the egg- we stop and read the reading that goes with it and open it to see what is inside. Then trade leaders and off to the next egg location. This has provided some good time for discussion about Holy Week and we have even invited others to join us in the hunt for the eggs- which is a great way to share the Easter Story with someone.  Maybe is you have friends that like to geocache- tell them that you are setting up a 12 stop find and then share the waypoints with them- what a fun way to share God's love with  others.

Our Resurrection Egg set is one that my mom made up for my boys years ago and doesn't look exactly like this, but these are available in a variety of locations and work just as well.

So have some fun with your GPS and the Resurrection Egg Set!

Music Man - the Musical

Keystone High School will be presenting the musical "The Music Man" on April 24, 25, 26. Which is looking like it  will be a great success. But for our family it has added some extra excitement  as both boys are taking part in this play. Robert will be playing "Winthrop" and Garrett will be a "townsperson." So we are excited to see what comes each day with the boys, but this has been a big step for them and they are having a good time with practices- so far!

Schick Scouting update!

March has come and gone in blink around here. But we have had several accomplishments this month  to celebrate.

On the Cub Scout Level- Garrett earned his Wolf rank and therefore has moved up one more level in Cub Scouts.

Gary & I had 22 of 23 of our scouts earn their Wolf rank- that's pretty awesome and we are excited at what these boys have accomplished!





Boy Scout Level- Robert had a few things to finish up. Well he finished those and that was like lighting the fuse to a rocket.  Robert finally got 2nd class and then 2 weeks later 1st Class! YEAH! But then this past Monday he was voted into the Order of the Arrow Boy Scout Honor Society. So now he has a weekend to attend for that and he will be an OA member!!

Did you celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday?

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss's Birthday and the kick off for Read America. We usually do something fun for this, and we did, but not to the same level as in the past. On Friday when I was babysitting, Haylee and I read Red Fish, Blue Fish and then she got to go fishing form the chair. Fun foam fish and paperclips, a stick some yard and a good magnet. Then we read "The Cat in the Hat" and we played a bean bag toss game. I made a "Cat in the Hat" hat from an oatmeal container and red and white paper. She then had to throw her little bean bags into the hat.  And finally we read Green eggs and ham- we made green and vanilla pudding and made "eggs" for dessert.

Yesterday for my boys I made waffles with different colored batter- pink, green, blue. And while they ate, I read to them "Oh the Places You'll Go!" With the boys being so busy, I don't get to play as much as we did when they were home and we had all day to read and have Dr. Seuss games, but they still expect something- which makes it fun.  I will say that when I started talking to them in rhyme they thought I had lost my mind, but we all laughed as we worked on that for about 45 minutes- talking like a Seuss book. 

Mucis Man Coming to Knox!

We had exciting news in our house on Saturday morning, Robert has been selected to be part of the cast for the Keystone High School's Musical- "The Music Man." The have also asked that Garrett participate as one of the Town folk- so both boys will be on stage next month. It should be an exciting month and a half!!!  "The Music Man" will be presented at Keystone on April 24-26, 2014. Plan now to attend!!!

Valentine's Breakfast

Garrett's Heart pancake

 

This year's Valentine's breakfast was rushed and became very simple.  Robert was gone and I was leaving for the day, but I wanted to make sure that I still did something special for Garrett and Gary. So pink colored pancakes it was. not just pancakes but heart shaped too. Then when I made Gary's I added some maraschino cherry juice to the batter- those were good!

Indoor Soccer Season begins

Today was the first game of the Indoor Soccer season for Garrett. This will be his 3rd year playing and he is doing pretty well. This year he is on a team with 3 other boys from our Cub Scout den so they work well together. There are 3 others that he is just getting to know. Here's to a great season!!!

Garrett in as Goalie

PA JR Holstein Convention

Robert, Andrew and friends from the Dairy club left on Thursday for State College for the PA JR Holstein Convention. This year Robert was competing in the Dairy Jeopardy contest, the display contest and 3 entries in the photo contest.  Andrew was in the Dairy Jeopardy, and 3 entries in the photo contest I went down for the Jeopardy contest just to see how it was ran and how Robert did. Well Andrew and Robert didn't have to directly compete against each other , but they were in the same age division. Andrew did well, and a couple of questions he would have had if they had asked him to be more specific, but he didn't have a score enough to move on to round 2. Robert's score got him into round 2 but he didn't move on to Final Jeopardy. In the end, Robert placed 6th and I didn't figure out where Andrew placed out of 15 participates. But they both did a good job representing Clarion/Venango/Forest Holstein Club.

Sorting with Thomas the Train

The other day, Haylee and I were playing with Thomas and she has been learning her colors and as we played I was able to encourage her to pick out certain colors of engines and practice finding those colors. I would ask for the red train to go to the farm. And for her to take the blue train across the bridge. And she would in turn tell me where to take some of the trains. Before we were done playing we had sorted all of the engines and trucks into color groups, and she was practicing her colors too!!!

Our blue group

Our Red Group

Our Yellow Group

Robert's 13th Birthday

It is official - there is a teenager in my house now. Robert turned 13 a couple of weeks ago. It was a busy weekend and a very snowy weekend so our family gathering was a limited group due to the snow. But we had a fun afternoon and celebrated Robert! His cake was his deer skull that he is having Uncle Brian take care of, but the cake had 13 points.

Gifts- yes the hat and a game

Garrett's Pinewood Derby

 

 3 of Garrett's Pinewood Derby races - he is number 29.

 

 

With all the winter weather that we have been having, we were able to squeeze in the Pinewood Derby a few weeks ago (yes I'm behind) Pack 55 raced 50 Pinewood Derby cars on Saturday morning. Each boy raced 5 races- at the end of those 5 races the winnings were totaled- then we started eliminations, Garrett entered the elimination rounds with a 3-2 record and he won a few more races but in the end, he was not the overall winner- but that was okay. He had a great time making , painting and racing his car. His Duck Dynasty Car complete with camo paint job and Duck Dynasty logos was a winner to him!

Valentine's Ideas

We are having yet another snow day, but we have things to do. Garrett's teacher was kind enough to send home the Valentine's Day list of students and asked that they make a Valentine's Day Box. Well Garrett has decided to do Duck Dynasty, but I hate putting lots of money into Valentine's Day Cards when we can make them or print them for free- just the paper and ink. A few years ago I posted of a great little website that has free printable so here is the link again to that posthttp://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day-preparation.html

and here is the link to the free greeting card website that has all sorts of characters
http://www.familyshoppingbag.com/free_printable_greeting_cards.htm#.UvJrJ5WYZHg

 But with any computer and a few graphics you can print your own unique Valentine's and with a little thought into the sayings and what your kids might be into.  We have had John Deere, Firetrucks , now Duck Dynasty- those are just Garrett's.  Snacks and crafts are a completely different thing. But why not try your hand at making your own Valentine's.

Another place that you could use is Wordle. Here you type in words and then they arrange them in fun designs of different sized fonts and colors. Have you kids make a list of words that are used around Valentine's Day, type them in and see what comes up- it's pretty cool.  Here's the site to check out http://www.wordle.net/

Click here to see my Valentine's Wordle

But be creative and have fun!!!!

God's Snowballs in our yard and area

Yesterday morning we got up to an amazing sight- there were snowballs (actually snow rollers) all over our yard and fields near our home. Gary said he watched a few of them actually roll as he was getting ready for work at 4am. He said it was kind of creepy to watch them creep along the ground - slowly! Anyhow these were some pictures that we took of them.

Shooting through a roller

Shooting through a roller

Frozen water balloons

Last week when we experienced the "Polar Vortex" and had the extreme cold, the boys and I experimented with frozen water balloons. We did this last year, but they wanted to do it again and with the extreme cold this worked well. 

We started with regular balloons, food coloring and water.  You do need to be careful that once your water balloon is filled that you carefully hold the throat of the balloon down low and add the coloring. Then grab the throat at the end and massage the coloring down into the balloon. Then tie off the balloon. We then took them out side and sat them on the porch where the cats won't bother them and let them there at least 24 hours. It does take some time for them to freeze. We have found that the balloons sometimes will break when the balloon is completely frozen. But we then take our frozen orbs and line the sidewalk and enjoy some beautiful color with our snow. These almost look like large glass paperweights - they are very cool!

Garrett with his long frozen water balloon

This one had a hole in the middle- like a bowling ball

Children's Radio programming

Family Life Network is locally available on several stations, but the neat part is that it can get your kids mind's working. Let their imagination flow. Teach them to listen better and to focus on what they are hearing. Each evening between 7-8pm there is the Children's hour. This broadcast includes Adventures in Odyssey- a program from Focus on the Family; then they have "The Pond", "The Lamplighter Theater", "Jonathan Parkes" and more.  Several of these programs are also aired on Saturday mornings starting at 8am til usually 10am.  These are great programs when you start asking questions about the shows, like well what does this character look like? This is especially true if the children haven't seen any of the video that these shows are now making.


Above is their coverage area, click on their web address below to zoom in and take a better look. This is a radio station with so much more. They are based out of Bath, New York, but we have been so blessed by them here in Northwest PA. Check out all of their resources here http://www.fln.org/

Completed quilting projects

I have still been quilting this year, I have helped Andrew finish his quilt, I made a wall hanging for my in-law's 50th anniversary and then my mom and I worked on this special project. We were at a quilt show when she saw this piece of fabric with the "Cancer cannot..." sayings. After she picked it up, she then researched what the different colors of ribbons were for each different type of cancer.  She then found fabrics to go with those colors and started making the quilt blocks. She and I worked at laying them out before she sewed them together.  Once she had the quilt top sewn, then it came to my house. While at my house I hand quilted the design and at each intersection of the black borders, there is a cancer ribbon in different colors to correspond with the other colors in the fabric.  I also finished it up with the binding.  But as we were working on this quilt, we have had some very dear people battling cancer near us, some have won the battle while others have moved on to a better place.  But as we worked on this, we had time to think about, remember and pray for those people.  We have donated this quilt to a relay for life team so that they can raffle it off.  But I just wanted to share this quilt.

I also made a smaller wall hanging for my sister-in-law for Christmas and it turned out beautiful(my opinion) and I recently saw it in the room where she is planning on hanging it and I didn't realize that the background color is a perfect match.

 

So there are some of the projects that I've been working on this past year.

New Year's Eve

Unlike many years, when we usually go to Oil City and watch the fireworks at 7pm and then spend the rest of the evening at home playing games or making crafts, we brought the New Year in with our local community at a Square Dance. The Salem Community had a Square Dance that they also had party favors, sparkling juice for a toast and we had fun for the evening together. Gary was able to squeeze in a nap earlier in the day so he was even able to join us at midnight!

Winners of the cake walk

Ready to toast the New Year

Happy New Year Nanny!