Goodbye February! Hello March!

It's crazy how fast time flies.  Sadly, I don't blog as much when I do not have deadlines to meet.  I enjoy participating in the TOS Crew because it encouraged me to blog a lot more...  I didn't go back for this season because...oddly enough...I was having trouble blogging as often as I should.  LOL.

Well, February is done and gone, but here are a few highlights of our month!

My nature girl enjoyed getting outside and doing some of her favorite things... she started constructing a native american longhouse... 

And even found an arrowhead in our backyard!

She made this Algonquin purse-thing as part of her history project.

We have made a switch back to Heart of Dakota for the rest of the year, but that is a long story...and I'll save it for another blog post.

Maggie still works diligently at piano, practicing often and without prompting.

It's awesome! 

In our Literature Studies the girls both did hilarious interviews of book characters... 

Kayley built a glider in science that actually flew! 

We also enjoyed our poetry tea at the beginning of March!

We did a Dr. Seuss theme.

Crazy hats were essential. 

We also stepped out last Saturday and did a road clean up with our neighbors!

These cows thought we were crazy and stood there and moo'd at us for quite a while.

In Maggie's history lesson (also Heart of Dakota) we learned how the pioneers pulled their wagons up and down the mountains.  It must've been really challenging! 

I do believe that catches us up a bit.  

Thanks for swinging by!

Check Me Out {Book Review}

Assistant Librarian, Greta, absolutely loves everything about her job.  She loves books, she loves people, she loves the library.  One day, in the poetry section, she meets Mac.  He is everything that she loves about books...he's handsome, smart, and well-read.  After interrogating her bestie, Will Marshall, she learns that Will has sent this handsome dude to the library, just for her!  Could it be love at first sight?  Maybe.  He seems like the perfect guy as he begins to woo her and shower her with affection.  As they get to know each other, mostly through text messaging, she begins to wonder why he seems so different in text that he does in person.

When the library starts running into trouble with money, Greta decides to do everything she can to keep the library from becoming obsolete.  Enlisting the help of her bestie Will, she realizes that it has always been Will who is there for her.  Will who jumps to her aid.  Will who she turns to for advice... Maybe this Mac guy isn't all he's cracked up to be?

Much of the conversation in this book takes place as text messages.  How apropos in todays world where I think more and more people are getting to know each other through social media and texting!  I thoroughly enjoyed this quick and quirky read!  

Purchase Check Me Out by Becca Wilhite from your favorite retailer!  

Disclaimer:  I received Check Me Out by Becca Wilhite free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed here are my own.  Thanks for swinging by!

Wonders of Wildlife Museum - Bass Pro Shops, Springfield MO

We had a great time visiting the brand new Wonders of Wildlife Museum located at the Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.  I had heard people grumbling that the museum was quite pricey...and it was...but it was so amazing and so well done that I really thought it was worth every penny.

The girls with a statue of "Uncle Buck."

Of course, this being the wonders of wildlife you can expect to see lots of different types of animals.  Not too mention, in pure Bass Pro style, you can see LOTS of antlers.

The Conservatory. 

They had penguins! 

And also amazing dioramas of animals in other countries.

The aquarium is a second portion of the museum and requires a separate entry. 

They have divers doing live shows. 

And a touch pool. 

We were really quite impressed.  I think the thing that really amazed me the most is how family oriented the museum is.  Everything is focused on creating and maintaining strong family relationships and you can just feel it throughout the museum.

We really felt that the museum is competitive with any that you would find in a "big city."

We are also excited to see that they will soon be offering educational classes for kids, including homeschool classes!

We bought annual passes to the WOW museum and can't wait to go again and again.

Catching Up on January...

We sure enjoyed our company through the holidays and well into the new year!  We did get back on track about 2 weeks ago and are getting back into the swing of our school days.  A lot has happened since I posted!  Here are pictures that sum up January!

First of all, this awesome girl had a birthday!  

We enjoyed a visit to the brand new Bass Pro Shop's

 Wonders of Wildlife Museum.

It was worth every penny! 

Maggie got baptized shortly after her birthday! 

Kayley continues to sew weekly with our wonderful neighbor!

She started sewing from a pattern last week, it's been awesome! 

We got our fireplace up and running after finally getting it fixed!

It's been so fun to have a roasty fire and has saved us money on our electric/gas bill too! 

We've gott a bit of snow and Papa got out the mower and had a great time pulling the girls around on the sled...   

We have enjoyed using the bread maker that I got for Christmas!

Please don't mind the lumpy-look.  It just adds character to the loaf. 

Playing outside in the cold and snow has required copious amounts of hot cocoa. 

We also took a quick trip off to Texas for a weekend and enjoyed doing a few things and especially seeing cousin Milo!  Of which I didn't get a single picture.  Oops.

We enjoyed eating at In-N-Out Burger.   

And the Ft. Worth Zoo was really awesome!

The weather was SO nice! 

I think that about sums it all up!

Thanks for swinging by!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas!  We were so busy and excited that I ended up taking very few photos.  Of course Santa Claus came and the girls were pretty excited!  He did a pretty good job this year getting a couple of really great gifts and that's about it.  

  

The biggest hits were a sewing machine for Kayley and an Easy Bake Oven for Maggie.  

These have already seen a lot of use and we've eaten many easy bake oven treats and have been impressed over the doll clothes made by Kayley.  

It was a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to another great year!