a week off

We've been dealing with a lot of sickness in our household for the past several weeks.  Fortunately I've been well, but the rest of the family... my hubby, both girls, and our cat, have not been so well.  Last week we just decided to take the week off and have a chance to rest and recover.  But this week we are finally back in to school!  Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post by the end of the week.

I've got to share something funny my daughter said to me over the weekend...  we were at the store, and I was holding my youngest daughter's hand.  She's 7, and is at the point where she doesn't want to hold my hand in public.  She'd rather walk a step or two ahead of me, as I guess that way she feels more grown up.  When I asked her why she didn't want to hold my hand she replied she wanted to be like her big sister, and not have to hold my hand anymore.  Well, my older daughter still likes to hold my hand when we go out.  So when she heard her younger sister say this, she came back and held my other hand.  I thought that was so sweet... and then she said, "Mommy, do you know why I want to hold your hand now?"  I thought she was going to say something sweet, but instead she said, "Because I know it won't be much longer that I'll be able to hold your hand... before we know it, instead you'll be holding a walker."  That stinker!  :-)  At least being sick hasn't hurt her sense of humor!

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World Cake

I've got the pictures on my computer, so I decided I might as well go ahead and upload them.  At first I had around 20, and decided that was probably too many.  :-)  It's tough to decide which pictures to put up here, but I've finally whittled it down a bit.  :-)

 Here's D, outlining Australia.

 Europe, Africa, Asia...

 A is filling in the oceans.

 I thought about just leaving the continents bare with no frosting, but my kids weren't having any of that!  :-)

 Filling in the continents...

Voila!  Our finished Cake!

 Two proud girls  :-)

 But of course no cake is complete without sprinkles! :-)

 Yum!

Sugar!  :-)

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Week 2

We've only got one more day for week two, and we're doing great!  We did have a light week of school this week, though.  The girls are going to VBS every morning from 9-12, and it's just too much to have 3-4 hours of school in the afternoon.  So we've been doing the fun stuff, and the things that would be too hard to catch up with next week. 

I didn't take many pictures this week, until today.  We made a cake and decorated it like a map of the world.  That was so much fun!  I took lots of pictures of this activity, and will try to post them this weekend. 

This morning the girls got up early so they could help me make the cake and get it in the oven before breakfast.  Once it cooled I found a map in one of our school books that was about the size of our cake.  I unfolded a paper  napkin and placed it over the map, then carefully traced the shapes of the continents in pencil.  For the continents that were very close or touching (Africa, Europe, Aisia; North and South America) I made it all one shape, to make it easier for my girls to decorate.  Then I cut out the continent shapes and carefully placed the napkin shapes on our cake in the correct places.  This afternoon the girls mixed up some blue and green frosting, and took turns tracing the shapes of the continents with the blue icing in a ziplock bag with the tip cut off.  Next they filled in the blue oceans, then took the napkins off the cake and filled in the rest with green.  Oh, my oldest daughter suggested we use the plain white frosting for Antarctica, since it's not green that far south.  :-)  The finished product was great!  We lost quite a bit of detail when spreading the frosting, but you can still tell which continents are which.  The perfectionist in me really wanted to take over and do it all myself, but I had to keep reminding myself that this is for my girls, not me.  :-)  And they really did a great job!  I did help a little, and did just a bit of touch up work.  But for the most part, my girls decorated the cake! 

I'll try to post pictures either later today, or sometime this weekend.  Enjoy your weekend!  :-)

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