This week & 2015's First Snow!

 Minus a couple of families (which for Christian homeschoolers means another 5 or 10 children) this is our co-op!  We took this picture on Monday because we have to get all pictures in to the yearbook committee by the 28th.  There is nothing like a deadline to make you get things done!

 Jake and I both finished another book.  My book #6 for the year was Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery (the first in a series of 3 books).  It is a darling book.  I love the imagery she creates with her word choices.  I started off highlighting like crazy and then realized I would end up highlighting the whole book if I wasn't careful.  My favorite quote from the book is from a man named Dean Priest who saved Emily's life and became a very important friend to her.  He said, "..you have the itch for writing born in you.  It's quite incurable.  What are you going to do with it?"   Preach Dean!...well really Lucy!  I love those words.  The speak to my heart...
Jake's 7th read for 2015 was Brisingr, the 2nd book in his favorite book series.  He loved it all over again.

We only have 7 weeks left of co-op so we are on over drive doing lots of projects that will let us use as many mediums as possible in art clas.  This week we were working on Value (shading) and used oil pastels....

...and worked with clay again because it is everyone's favorite.

Our friends that missed it the first time got to make shaving cream and ink paper. We were busy!

In Physical science we are were busy reviewing and conducting more experiments.  I take pictures and clean things and fetch things so I really can't tell you what we are talking about.  Jake does his science on his own at home.  He loves it and gets it so he doesn't need me and I am okay with that!

After co-op we went to lunch with some friends.  The guys had their own table.

After co-op and lunch we headed over to our old house (the one we rented from Aaron's parents and friends of ours, the Chapman's, from church now live in) to let our friends dog out.  Kell was in the hospital after passing out a couple of times in a row (and several times over the past few months), so we were happy to help in any way we could.  While Izzy (their dog) was stretching her legs, Jake took the opportunity to climb the tree he was was forever climbing when we lived there.  This is the tree that a snake was sunning itself in when we lived there...

Izzy was so happy to have company!

 I forgot to mention that we are dog sitting for Nana and Papa while they go on two back to back cruises.  Penny and Lucy came over on Saturday.  These dogs are buddies.  They were at our house when we got Sadie four years ago so they love hanging out.

 You probably noticed Jake was wearing short sleeves in the pictures above so the fact that this next picture is of our adorable house in snow just the next day may surprise you....but that is how it works down here.  It always snows after it is warm.  Last week it was cold so we only got ice.  Warm always precedes snow down here.  Tuesday the 24th was our first snow of 2015.

 We also had Izzy come and hang out since Kell was still in the hospital and she had pretty much been living in her crate (besides people stopping by to let her out and feed her) for 48 hours.  She sat on my lap on the trip over to our house.  She is a such a sweet dog!

We had a lot of doggy foot prints in the snow at our house!

Sadie LOVES the snow.  

Penny likes it too....wink wink..do you see how she is winking at me?   She is too sweet to complain.

And I cannot reiterate enough how much this dog LOVES it. 

This boy loves it too.

 

We attempted a selfie.  Aaron had to go to work. :(

This isn't a picture of Jake trying to shove snow in Sadie's face.  This is the after shot of Sadie eating it out of his hand.  She likes it better when you throw it at her face so she can catch it.

This one was a little more successful.  And no I do not have a coat on.  It wasn't that cold and there wasn't enough snow do really do anything in any way.

The two little dogs were not what you would call fans of the snow.  A few minutes was more than enough for them.

I love this picture of Penny welcoming Izzy into the pack (the picture above where she is running by is out of order but I am too lazy to change it).  There was a whole lot of butt sniffing going on.  Jake told us when he was little that that is how dogs give high fives.

After we all had enough we came in and broke out our last remaining (Jake didn't even know we had it because I hid it in the fridge...and we didn't use it all) Uncle Dave maple syrup right out of his trees in his Hundred Acre Woods. :)

We got some nice clean snow.

We boiled the syrup...

and poured it on. 

It didn't quit work (I don't have a candy thermometer...I should probably get one) but it was yummy!

Izzy was standing on the back of the couch taking it all in!

The snow pretty much melted by that afternoon but we were ready to celebrate National Toast Day on Wednesday!  We made French toast!  Then I realized I had put it in my calendar on my phone...on the wrong month.  National Toast Day is next month.  And there is actually a National French Toast Day in November...So that was pretty much a fail-but a happy one!

All church activities on Wednesday night were cancelled since our 2nd snow of '15 was supposed to start that evening...and it did!  More on that later...





One more thing...I almost forgot this adorable picture:

I can't even...!!!  Finish that sentence because this is all sorts of adorable!  I love how her little sweater (one of three Nana sent to our house for her stay) matches the bird pillow!  I love my adorable retro chair!  It is all too adorable....