Keith Family of 7: October 2011

Goodbye Colenol Must Turtle

We were pet owners for about 7 months to this Red Slider Turtle. He was easy to take care and quite cute but we found him a new home with a turtle fanatic. She already owns 10 turtles. I know he'll enjoy the company.

He was a calm animal that loved being in his cave. His favorite hiding spot was under this desk.

Stake Camporee

Allan had a blast at the Stake Camporee this weekend. He also froze. They did all kinds of things to get warm.

I think he'll pack extra socks, gloves, and a coat for the next campout.

He completed his Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge. 15 Completed. 6 to go.

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

Joshua turned nine and I'm sad in a way because he is not supposed to grow up quick! He is my youngest boy and still sweet and I don't want to loose that. His big wish was his friend birthday party and it was a hoot. So much fun but being that we celebrated early, his birthday went on for a couple of weeks.

Part of growing up is lighting your own birthday candles!

Talking on the phone to Grandma and Grandpa.

Nine Things We LOVE about Joshua

1. He is compassionate. We watched Radio the other day again and he was sincerely concerned about Radio and how his mother died and how he was put in prison.
2. He is generous. (Shares Lego Universe with Nathan)
3. He loves music. He created his own playlist with music from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Rocky.
4. He loves the piano and is improving all of the time.
5. He is super smart and loves to do challenges. He has a mind that just seems to "get" things so easily.
6. He is a good friend.
7. He is organized. He keeps his favorite toys organized and takes good care of them.
8. He can be a really hard worker. (Loves outdoor work especially)
9. He takes such good care of his siblings. I love that Rachel loves to cuddle with Joshua or eat breakfast with him. I love that he wants to teach Emily cursive.

Roll 'Em On Out

I love having fun little adventures with Rachel. She is my shopping buddy and usually right by my side. She goes with me when I volunteer at the school and when I cook. She is my shadow.

Once a year in Allen, is the Tom Thumb Texas Stampede Cattle Drive to prepare for a big rodeo.

It is a true cattle drive. The long horns walked on the grass for about 30 yards until the cowboys directed them off and back onto the street.

This was a perfect adventure in between our errands.

Frisco Fire Safety

As a scout pack, we went on a field trip to Frisco Fire Saftey. The boys learned a ton of things about fire safety.

The sound of a smoke detector and the presence of theatrical smoke made it all seem very real. The hypothetical situation delivers a very impactful safety message.

And of course as the scout leader, Emily and Rachel do everything too.

Swing Shift

Yesterday was one of those days. I was super busy cleaning the house and getting necessary work done. I was not on top of my game and then Emily got out the white out and it spilled on the wood floor around dinner time. It is cleaned up now and no pictures taken but it was HORRIBLE! My boys jumped and helped clean it.

Sister Julie B.Beck said, "The most valuable time of the day for a family is the afternoon/evening shift. Be at the top of your game on swing shift. People are hungry, people are teachable. You feed them; that's when you serve them most. PLAN FOR SWING SHIFT, AND THEN WORK THE REST OF YOUR DAY AROUND THAT."

From now on, I will plan for the swing shift. Two week menu will be planned today.

Church Wide Service

We had the greatest time as a family clearing branches and trees from this scout camp. One week ago Nathan and Jacob were here for a Stake 11 year old camporee. The highlight for the girls were feeding the cows.

Halloween Decor

It wouldn't be Halloween at our house without the spiders with web. It is on our bushes and entry way.

New to our house is this thing peeking out of our toilet.

AIM - Activating Inquistitive Minds

Nathan's favorite day of the week is Monday because that is the day he goes to AIM. He misses most of the regular day and has to make up that work. Mrs. Georgas is his AIM teacher. She is FABULOUS and puts so much thought into her units. This year the kids are studying the 1920s but first they are doing extensive research on immigration at the beginning of the 1900's. She e-mails every week to let us know what they did and always includes pictures. This is part of the e-mail from this week.

Dear 6th Grade AIM Families,

Today we had our “Immigration Simulation!” I was dressed up as an Immigration Officer and I took the students off of the boat and brought them onto Ellis Island. Once we were there they went through various stations to get a feel for what the immigrants actually went through when they came to this country. First they went to the baggage station. They were very surprised when the teacher and students who were in charge of this station only spoke to them in another language!! The kids had NO idea what they were saying. But they were able to figure out if they had something they should not have brought into the country by the tone of voice and by how rapidly the station leader was speaking! It was frustrating and a little scary!

At station two the kids had to take several “mental tests!” They had to read a few tongue twisters, do some simple addition, count backwards from 20-0.

At the medical station Mrs. Cheatham gave the exams. She took their temperature with a pretzel stick. Examined them for any diseases, and if necessary she put them in quarantine!!

The final station was the legal station. The students had to answer various questions about where they would be living, who would be taking care of them, did they have a job lined up. Most importantly they needed to have all of the proper paperwork (passports, etc.) and $20 in order to gain entry into the country.

Some of their bags were stolen along the way and they did not have the money to gain access into the country. Some of them were detained, while others bribed fellow immigrants or immigration officers for the money!

When we got back to the classroom we talked about the experience and what it would have been like if they had really gone through that! The students began working on the next part of their immigration scrapbook. They had to write a letter to someone back in the country they came from. They had to explain what they experienced and how they felt. After doing the immigration simulation this portion of the assignment was very easy! The students just wrote about what they had just experienced!

Mrs. Georgas dressed up, mustache and all.

Nathan loved the experience today and was quarantined.

A couple more pictures of the students working on projects. He is putting together a scrapbook of an Italian immigrant family including a historical fiction story and Italian artifacts.

11 Year Old Scout Camp

Nathan went to a Stake 11 Year Old Scout Camp with Jacob this weekend. It was very well organized and Nathan passed off a ton of requirements. They worked on first aid, orinteering, knot tying, working with tools, and cooking requirements.

The rope bridge was pretty impressive!

Joshua's 9th Birthday Party

Birthdays make me giddy-go-wild and I definitely was excited about this party. Here is a picture of the invitation chosen by Joshua. Don't you love the bat idea with ribbon?

Our menu was
1. Goblin Grins - Snow Peas with macademia nuts - Although easy to make, the boys refused to eat this but Allan and Sean gobbled them up.

2. Masked Mummies - Hot dogs with dough

3. Rotten Pumpkin Teeth - Candy corns
4. Wormy Juice - Hawaiian Punch with a frozen hand

5. Maggot Spores - red grapes
6. Spider Legs - Chocolate pretzel pieces
7. Witches Brew - Homemade Root Beer
(The recipe I used this year was too sweet. I need a new one.)
8. Spooky Spiders - Ritz Crackers (This is a yummy one.)

9. Eerie Graveyard with Tombstones - Birthday Cake

10. Hoot Howling Jack-o-Lantern - Jack-O-Lantern Pizza from Papa Murphys
11. Ghouls, Goblins, and Ghosts - Ice Cream
12. Frightening Frankenstein - Kiwis with Sprinkles

(This is not my photo but where I got the idea. I used Resees for eyes since that is what I had on hand.)
13. Monsters and Mummy Eyeballs - Candy
14. Zombie Mouths - apples, pb, and marshmallows (Another yummy one.)

15. Creepy Jack-o-Lanterns - Clementines with faces

16. Bug infested Brew - Ice Cubes with Spiders
17. Fish Bait - Gummy Worms
18. Alien Grumbles
19. Witch’s Broom - Knife
20. Devilish Dagger - Fork
21. Skeleton Shovel - Spoon
22. Rat Eyeballs - Red Gumballs
23. Moldy Orange Goo - Orange Jigglers
24. Skeleton with Ghostly Goo - Veggie Tray Although cute, the boys didn't eat much from this tray.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the food and of their expressions of what they got when they ordered! It was a fun party but the boys were very loud!

They can be very silly together.

I kept the decorations very simple since I spent so much time on the food.

Some of our favorite games were bowling with a pumpkin and toilet paper ghosts. We didn't cut out the seeds from the pumpkin and they ended up all over the grass. The other favorite was freeze tag with glow sticks.

I'm so grateful for Allan, Cameron, and Sean for helping out during the party. They did a great job of serving the boys dinner and helping organize the games. Allan told me it was noisy but he had fun doing it.