Poem Co-Op

For our second co-op this week, the girls went and learned about poems. They read several nature poems, then did a nature craft, and then worked together to write a nature poem. The girls could have spent hours on their craft- they loved it! They used a lot of different items to make nests, birds, and nature scenes.

And, here's the poem they wrote:

The leaves crunch under our feet as the birds peep

The leaves are swishing as they fall on my nose and head

The trees look bare and I know I'm there

I feel the cold wind

The smooth leaves swish over me

And I look forward to the taste of hot cocoa

A Hike, According to Audra and Claire

On Saturday the weather was nice and warm so we decided to take advantage and go on a hike. We let Audra and Claire be in charge of the pictures, and this is what they documented:

Notice her face. She cried the entire time. It was awful, and made us think twice about hiking in the future.

Funny Story

We just finished listening to the original Peter Pan on CD. Last night at dinner Claire said to Camille in perfect Tinkerbell fashion:

"Stop doing that you silly ass."

Who knew the Brits were so bloody improper?

Homeschool Odds and Ends

We have been exceptionally busy the last couple of weeks- and things won't be slowing down anytime soon. I signed the girls up for 19 co-ops this semester, which is a lot. It means we are all over town all the time doing a lot of different fun things.

I put together a Valentine's co-op for the kids to exchange Valentine's. I realize it's a little silly, but one of the cons of homeschooling is the kids missing out on school holiday parties. I end up doing a lot of holiday parties, and I have never regretted it. The girls were all super excited for the exchange (and were mad when it got bumped because of the Broncos parade). 17 kids came, and it was great. It was really simple- we met at a park, let the kids play, and exchanged the Valentine's. Perfect.

Then on Wednesday we went to an Egyptology co-op. That was awesome- the girls mummified Barbie dolls, made heiroglyphs, ate Egyptian food, and a whole lot more. It was awesome.

Lots of fun and exciting things- it should be a fun semester!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Tonight Ben took the girls to a Daddy Daughter Dance at their Options program.

I ended up going over at 2 to help set up. I was supposed to be done by 4, but they didn't have nearly enough help so I ended up staying until after 8. It's a good thing I did- there were only three of us for all of the food prep, so we were all running around the whole time.

Do you notice the chocolate strewn everywhere? I had a pretty bad mishap with the chocolate fountain. Thankfully, it was a bunch of men instead of women. Whereas women would have been all judgmental and worried about the mess, the men were all like, "This is awesome! What a great decoration!"

While decorating, I had visions/nightmares from homecoming 1996. Remember that, Danielle?

When Ben and I first started dating, I invited him to go to prom with me. I know that sounds weird, but I was teaching high school at the same high school that Ben graduated from (he likes to tell people that I was his teacher. That is false. We graduated high school the same year). Anyway, Ben never went to his high school prom, so I thought it would be cute if he came with me and got to finally go to prom. But, he turned me down. Something about graduating from college Magna Cum Laude and having an awards ceremony or something lame like that, so I went with somebody else. Anyway, I think Ben was glad to have an excuse not to go. He doesn't seem to like big dances like this, and he was nervous to take the girls.

Well, they ended up having a fantastic time. The girls were so incredibly excited to go with him- they LOVED it. The girls sure are lucky to have such an awesome dad!

Swim Lessons

I finally took the plunge (see what I did there?) and signed the older girls up for swim lessons at this really great swim place that we have in town. It's about a thousand times better than the rec center swim lessons.

I signed them up for semi-private lessons, but it works out that they are the only ones in their respective classes and so they are getting private lessons, at least for now. I am sure classes will fill up in the summer time.

Once they reach a certain level, they can join the swim team, and they happen to have a homeschool swim team which is pretty awesome.

So far, they are both doing great- Audra even started diving yesterday which was pretty neat.

Super Parade

We had to do some rearranging of our schedules, and Ben had to take the day off of work, but today we went to the Super Bowl Parade downtown.

What an adventure! We knew the crowds were expected to be about a million-plus (and it was), so we left at 9:15. We took the bus to the light rail, and the light rail downtown. Thank goodness we went this route! Because we took the bus, we could buy all our tickets for the day while on the bus. It took us a couple of minutes, and one rider was upset with Ben because the driver gave Ben the wrong tickets and it took a little time to sort that out. That meant we missed the train, but the next one was only in 6 minutes so it wasn't worth getting upset over.

Anyway, when we got to the light rail, the line to buy light rail tickets was over 100 yards (going with our football theme) long! It was insane- and we were very glad to skip over the line, believe me!

The girls started out pretty strong, but it didn't last. Thankfully, I was armed with snacks, lunch, plastic bags so they could sit on the curb, and my phone. Even so, though, there was a lot of whining. A lot of "I'm bored!"

Overall, they did really well considering. We ended up standing for over 5 hours! Plus, there was a lot of walking, a lot of loud screaming, and very little action. We asked a lot from them, and I can understand why they whined (even if it was annoying and I kept asking myself "Why did we have children?")

We got there a little after 10, and the parade was supposed to start at noon. It ended up not starting  until about 12:30. We found a great place along the parade route that had a direct view of a large TV screen. The screen showed highlights from the Super Bowl and from the season. It was a little emotional, I'm not going to lie.

Finally, the parade started!

I made Ben take a selfie of us, and he was not happy because he just wanted to enjoy the parade (which is why I never should have allowed him to be in charge of pictures). If you look incredibly closely with a magnifying glass, Peyton Manning is in the upper left corner wearing an orange shirt and dark vest waving at the fans.

Here's Emmanual Sanders (10) and Demarius Thomas (88)

And the runningbacks- CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman

My favorite part of the day was when the team made it up to the podium and then the whole crowd sang "We Are the Champions." It was awesome- I got a little emotional. It was just really cool to really, truly feel united with the million-plus crowd that was there (how do they know it was that many? No idea).

A couple more fun shots:

So many people! It was so insane!

But getting  home was a pain, to be sure. We should have found a restaurant a few streets over from 16th and killed a couple of hours. We waited for a train for about 45 minutes, and then poor Claire just about got crushed loading in- I had to yell at the people behind us to stop pushing. But, we made it home: EXHAUSTED!

I'm really glad we went. I know we would have both regretted it if we didn't. It really was a lot of fun, and it is something Ben and I will remember forever. And, in 20 years when the Broncos win again, my girls can say, "I was at the 50th SuperBowl parade, too!"