Wordless Wednesday- serving in His house

Easter 2015

This year at our Easter celebration, we also celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday, my Dad's mom.  We had our yearly tradition of cascaranas, grown-up Easter eggs hunts, and great food.  Everyone made it in honor of Grandma's birthday, with the exception of two cousins.

Austin murals

Ben and I recently went on a double date with our friends, Joel and Heather to discover the murals of downtown Austin.  We used the geocache website to locate the most popular murals that Austin is known for.  Located within each mural was a clue to the final coordinate of the actual geocache, but by the time we made our way through the list of murals (including a couple of mistakes) had dinner at an awesome food truck, it was too dark and we could not find the treasure.  After our defeat we stopped at Lick, b/c ice cream makes everything better.

New hobby? Geocaching

I was recently searching for cheap date ideas around town and found an idea of geocaching around downtown to find all of the murals.  I have heard about geocaching as it is popular among home schoolers, but was not exactly sure what it was.  After some research, the girls and I decided it sounded like a fun project.  The premise is to log into the geocaching website and locate nearby geocaches which have been previously hidden.  You then use the coordinates to get within twenty feet of the hidden cache and then you use clues to locate it.  Our first search led us to our neighborhood park.  The hidden cache was the size of a film canister.  It was not easy to locate and we had to use a cheat to finally find it hiding in a sprinkler drain.  We have been on a couple more searches, but hoping now that summer is upon us, we might be able to take up the hobby a little more seriously.

spring break

The girls spent spring break with grandparents and the boys got some special two-on-one time with Mom.  We had fun feeding the ducks, jumping on the trampoline, enjoying the beautiful weather.  Then we traveled to get the girls for a long weekend.

space day at the capitol

This semester Boo has shown a real interest in space.  She has been reading every book she can get her hands on about space and astronauts. Because of her interest we braved space day hosted by NASA on the grounds of state capitol.  Our home school group was there, but we ended up spending most of the day by ourselves.  It was a cold and rainy day, and there were LOTS of kids.  I pulled the wagon with the boys, lunch bag and backpack and we literally walked around the capital grounds twice and once into the capitol building.
The girls did lots of space experiments, including manipulating puzzles and using tools while wearing over sized gloves.  They also built a space suit that needed to protect an astronaut from an asteroid.  
The field trip solidified her interest and she is sure she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up.  They completed sixteen stations of experiments, crafts, puzzles and lectures.

nursing home visit

Ben's schedule has recently changed and he is going into Dell on different days.  One of the things the girls and I had been wanting to do was sing with our friends Ken and Peg at the nursing home again.  With his new schedule, we can leave the boys napping and sneak out to join them for an hour.  We really enjoy visiting this assisted living home, it is where we play BINGO each month too.

Power for Parkinson's

This past weekend, we celebrated the Power for Parkinson's 2nd anniversary.  I was asked to present a 2-3 minute demonstration of my class and some of my participants presented two dances they had been working on in their dance class.
I am so blessed to be a part of this amazing organization.  This past weekend through Amplify Austin, the organization raised over $20,000 in donations.

zoo members again

We visited our favorite zoo this past weekend and decided to renew our zoo membership again this year.  The kids love the day out and by the time we visit twice in a year, our membership pays for itself.  We were glad to see the vultures had moved on from the black bears, they are now in the flamingo exhibit.
Less than two months away and Daddy will be on our way to see the real deal, hoping we can make it to one of the many safaris in Kenya.

dedicated reader

This is exactly what I had in mind when I wanted this space in our bedroom, I just envisioned me using it, not this big kid.
She is reading the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle.  She started the series last fall.