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!

Christmas with our Family

This year Christmas was spread out over a whole week!! Caren was home the weekend before Christmas, so we had Christmas with her and the rest of my family on Monday. Then Christmas Eve was a full house with 10 have dinner at my house before heading to church with 12 of our family all in attendance. Following the Christmas Eve service we got to provide a friend with her Christmas Gift from her husband with a small live nativity in her front year. We had Mary, Jospeh and baby Jesus, 3 shepherds, 2 angels and a narrator and a goat (no one has sheep in our family so we have to make due and use goats) This was really cool with it being Christmas Eve- it was a neat way to remember the real reason for the season.

Caren opening her scarf from Robert that looked like a "nest" when she started opening it

Christmas Day we spent at home, the boys were busy assembling their new garden wagon to haul supplies to the barn and shooting each other with rubberband guns. Gary's parents came and spend the day with us too and it was a nice relaxing day.

You mean they know how to read the directions

Friday we went back to my parent's for Christmas with the Walls' side of the family and you just never know what might happen there.

Oh it's a heat lamp- not a hat, but it looks so good!

And Finally on Monday we were able to get together with the Schick side of the family and exchange gifts and spend the day together.

Robert with "his girls"

Garrett taking on Elizabeth

I must say it is kind of nice to be able to spread out the events into several days rather than cram it all into a short period of time.

Santa withe the Schick Boys

Santa- how can you turn down those big brown eyes?

Honest I'm not too old for this!!!

Christmas Events

Yes I am once again behind in updating and posting, and I have no excuse other than I like to sleep once in a while. December came and went with all of it's merriment. Garrett had 2 performances and Robert had 2 performances.  Garrett was in our Church's children's play "Star of Wonder" and then he was also in the school play "A Day at Santa's Workshop"  He did a wonderful job performing in both. He was the "Falling Star" at church- which was the comedian's part of the play.

Garrett as the "Falling Star"

Garrett was "elf 12"

Robert had 2 performances also, first was the Keystone Band concert and then the Choral concert. Both concerts were very good and added to the Christmas season

Robert at his band concert

Venango County Conservation Hall of Fame

We were honored to be able to attend an awards presentation program for my Father-in-law, where he was inducted into the Venango County Conservation Hall of Fame. He was recognized for his years of service of teaching the 6th graders through a Conservation Camp that he began in 19709 and the camp continues today. This program has brought the outdoors to hundred of youth in our area and an understanding of how to care for our environment and how to appreciate what we have been given.  To be able to develop a program where youth are taken to the outdoors and getting them out of the classroom has been an exciting event at the school. To be able to teach the children in a hands-on way, makes it more real and important to the students.

 Congratulations Ed Schick!

The world is a better place because of your work! Thanks

Operation Christmas Child

I know that I have already posted about Operation Christmas Child, but I just wanted to share that our church reached Robert's goal of 200 actually the surpassed that goal and turned in 225 shoeboxes that will change a child's life somewhere in the world. We turned these boxes in during Collection Week towards the end of November, but I am just now getting time to sit and blog like I like to do.  Here is how the boxes were presented in our church before moving along to the next destination. So here is our "Operation Christmas Child Christmas Tree" with the shoeboxes from our church.

 

Merry Christmas and please continue to pray for the boxes as they are being sent around the world and for the children who will receive them, may they change their lives!

Clarion County Music Festival

Robert was selected to participate in the County Band Festival. He had a good time during rehearsal and the day out of school.  Here is the program, but they didn't perform the songs in this order and the director decided that he wasn't happy with the 1812 Overture and so they didn't perform it. The performance was very good  and I wish this would load the videos that I took of the performance, but for some reason the video won't load :(

Children's Sermon- What is Advent

To begin the Advent season, I had the Children's sermon. I was torn as to do I discuss "hope"- which is what the first candle represented or do I discuss "Advent." After some prayer and thinking things through, I decided "Advent."
So I asked the children what that wreath was called that they lite those specials candles on was called- one child came up with "Advent wreath" so I then asked "-okay but what does that mean? We have the Advent wreath, the advent calendar, the advent season, but what does that mean???" They looked at me with blank stares. So I asked if any of them were the big brother or sister in their families and they raised their hands. "So do any of you remember what you did before your younger brother or sister came along or maybe what your parents did before the arrival?" I got cleaned and paid attention to me. "Cleaned- exactly they cleaned the house because who wants a dirty house with a brand new baby? and did they get a room ready? Did they maybe paint the room, get a crib and furniture? So they got ready for the baby. Hmm What happens at the end of this month? "Christmas!!!" Right and that's who's birthday? So what should we be doing? Getting ready for a baby?!?! YES- Advent means to prepare or get ready for Jesus. Now does Jesus really care if our houses are clean and perfect or does he care about our hearts and minds being clean and focusing on him? Right - he wants us to focus on him. So throughout this month, when you hear the word Advent, I want you to think "get ready because Jesus is coming" and I want you to take a little extra time thinking about, talking about Jesus and his story of coming to the world as a baby.

I then shared that we had Advent Calendars available in the entry for families that didn't have an Advent Calendar and that there were Advent devotionals
available for the adults. And we closed in prayer.

Thanksgiving ideas and activities

As November starts our family has a tradition that helps us slow done and focus on the things that we are thankful for. We start with the overhead projector and enlarge a Thanksgiving picture, this year it is a Cornucopia, that we trace out and then post on the wall in the kitchen- when we get a chance we can stop and color in part of our picture. But each evening when we have dinner, we try really hard to sit down as a family and during dinner we take turns listing something/ someone that we are thankful for and it is added to our picture that come Thanksgiving will be completed. 

Robert has also led our family to be involved with Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes. He has lead our church to packing over 200 shoeboxes this year, but it helps us focus on something other than the things that we need but rather the simple thing that others might not have and how we can help provide those to others.  It makes us think a little bit about all the little things that we have- soap, wash clothes and running hot water. Pencils, paper and eraser- schools and books and soo much more, but it helps us be more thankful for what we do have.

If you are interested in Operation Christmas Child here is the link to the website to get you started http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

Some of the boxes that our churches youth packed for Operation Christmas Child