Cake Decorating 101....

I had a little bit of icing left over from the wedding cake I recently made(see main blog), so we decided to have a family cake decorating class.

Above: Eloise is icing one of my small cake pans.

Somebody give that man a cookie! He is a genius. By placing the bag in a cup(tip down) and then pulling the bag down around the glass he created a free standing, mess free way to fill the pastry bags. Some people just pull the bag down over their hands, but these were small bags and he has big hands.

Not too shabby for his first attempt.

School Is Really Exciting....

...If you are fortunate enough to be a home schooler.

Carpentry:

Cullinary Arts:

Get the scoop on these cuties on our main blog "No Greater Joy"

(button on side bar)

Our Latest Acquisition.....

Now Eloise can put her contact lenses to good use. She loves her new microscope, but I don't think she  realizes how blessed she is. I remember my microscope. It was plastic and only had a cheap mirror as a light source. This one is the real deal. So far she has only viewed the 45 prepared slides that it came with and watched the instructions on, "How to Prepare Slides".  Hopefully next week she will be able to view her own blood cells and  skin cells!

Just A Note About Our Progress:

We have had many challenges this year. I have thought about taking a different course of action, but the benefits of homeschooling have outweighed the cost. I don't know if this will always be the case, but it is for us....for now. Most of my homeschool friends will agree that it isn't right for every family or every situation. At the moment, my daughter is growing closer to her father and I. Also,we feel that she has been afforded many opportunities that she would not have in the public school setting (i.e. swimming with dolphins, real art projects, flexibility of schedule, and hands on science). I will admit that there are days that I feel like pulling my hair out, but when I stop and think about it, I realize that I had plenty of those days during the 6 years that she was enrolled in school. Hmmm...I'd better think of a better way to vent my frustration or I'm gonna be bald before the teen years even hit! LOL.

GOD BLESS.

We can still say that, because this is our school and our blog.

Our latest P.E. project....

Eloise loves this. Unfortunately, she will now have to wait a couple of weeks to resume her studies in archery, due to her recent arm issue. Link to my main blog on the side bar for the scoop.

Field Trip Update...

In case you haven't figured it out.....

we went to a corn maze in Mississippi.

Our children young people were able to get lost, search for arrowheads, play in corn, slide, have water pump races, rope plastic steer, and pet the animals. I think the part they liked best was being able to forget their book work and hang out with their Cool Moms all day.

Special Update....

 "Justin Creeper"

2nd Place in the Funny category

 "Scare Croak"

1st place in the Funny category

(click to enlarge & see the huge dried bug on his tongue)

This was my personal favorite. It is made out of gourdes, leaves, & loofahs.

 "Anne Bowling"

1st place in the Original category.

 "Marie La Crow"

Best In Show

I am so happy for our girls. I'm not sure of the exact number, but I think that there were over 70 miniatures that were judged. The small scarecrows are positioned around the mini train tracks in the Botanical Gardens at City Park. The small, as well as the full size creations, will be on display through the end of November.

These girls are crafty....

 Yesterday we took a field trip to "Plain Old Kristi's" place.

The girls used bits of this and scraps of that along with a bunch of creativity, to design scarecrows. The scarecrows will be placed around the train display at the botanical gardens in City Park.

Above is a pic of the girls with their finished products:

SCARE CROAK

MARIE LA CROW

JUSTIN CREEPER

QUEEN ANN "BOWLING" (BOLEYN)

LIL CAJUN GIRL WITH PEPPERS

(SORRY I FORGOT WHAT HER NAME WAS)

You can click on the image to get a closer look.

I almost forgot to mention....

Kristi fixed us a fabulous meal that included Asian Green Beans Flambe!

Thanks Kristi.