Spelling...

We had the annual Spelling Bee tonight. I have always enjoyed spelling. Not all my children share my enthusiasm but we had a few kids participate. It was fun to watch Moriah spell. She is so animated. Her shoulders move with each letter she says or her eyes or something else. I don't have pictures because again I forgot my camera to a major family function, the last time being the Ball last weekend when it was Isaac's first time attending. We had fun anyway but a few pictures and videos would be nice. The spelling bee was fun. It was Jordan's last year. :( I have to train up a new generation of lovers of spelling because the next three didn't participate. Rebekah, Gideon and Moriah were up for the challenge though.

We got home and my darling girls are out milking and giving our 5 goats wormer. Giving them 1/2 tsp of a powder might sound easy?! Right?! Not if the goats refuse to take it in molasses which all goat things tells you they love. Guess our goats didn't get that particular instinct. We tried the molasses since it would be so healthy for them to take a good dollop each day since we are sure three are pregnant. Again, not likely. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get the five to take the wormer. Jordan did finally get them to take it in their mineral and oats. They are so smart though. We have tried that before and they will eat everything but the stuff you added. We have to do this for three days, morning and night. I wish animals came with no extra care required, just feed and water!

Have a good weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours.

Here are the children having their "Valentine" luncheon. They got their school finished early and helped prepare a special meal for our impromptu celebration. Kevin got me some flowers (bulbs) to plant this Spring as our centerpiece (for Valentine's Day). We are using my Grandmother's Fostoria glasses and pitcher (yeah!, we haven't gotten to use the pitcher yet.)

Heart shaped turkey sandwiches surrounded by Hot Buffalo Wings flavored Popcorn Chips.

Pigs in a blanket, chocolate cake and ketchup in a fancy vessel.

Cottage cheese surrounded by bananas and oranges.

Our cute little penguin friends joined our celebration!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa...

We received a package in the mail yesterday and here is what was in it; pajamas for the boys; Isaac and Gideon. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday presents. They sure look nice in them! We know Grandma likes to print off pictures of the kids so this post was for that purpose.

Symphony...

Here is the section of violins that Jordan is sitting in. You cannot see her. Even enlarged more, I cannot find her but I know she is in front of the percussion. They had their Pops concert Jan. 30th and it was wonderful. The songs were enjoyable and memorable. One particular favorite was a medley from Fiddler on the Roof. There was a Saxaphone piece that was incredible. I wish I had this one on tape! We have one more concert in April and the year is over and so is Sr. High and Jr. High Symphony for each of the girls since Jordan is a Senior and Emily will be in high school next year. I will miss the enjoyment it brought our family.

Here you can see Emily 3rd one in looking at the music on the stand. Again, a very enjoyable performance. It has been an amazing experience for Emily. She has grown quite a bit in her playing ability with this experience.

Bread...

Here is the bread I made two weeks ago. I had soaked the wheat for more than 12 hours in yogurt and then added the rest of the ingredients the next day. It rose two times before being put into bread pans to rise again. It turned out great. It tastes good. It is not sour like other soaked bread I have tried. This actually cuts and tastes like "regular" bread. We had tuna sandwiches on it and no-one complained. If someone doesn't like the look, smell or taste unfortunately they let me know. I think you should keep most opinions to yourself about those things but they don't understand me on that point :)

Since making that bread we have soaked wheat with yogurt to make pancakes a few times and now today we had it made into blueberry muffins. We haven't noticed a real taste difference. It takes a little longer to cook and the pancakes aren't as puffy. It sure uses a lot of my precious yogurt. Our goats have noticeably slowed down in milk and I am hard pressed to keep up with making yogurt. I am praying all three goats are having babies here in March or April.

We had a great day Saturday at a late "New Year's Eve" Party. It was cancelled because of the storm we had that weekend of the 31st. The kids played a lot of games and there were a lot of kids. There was great food and great conversations. Kevin and Isaac had to stay home due to a lingering stomach virus. A virus took us out most of last week. Most people were throwing up but it hit Kev and Isaac differently. At the party we found out 3 other families came home from the previous camp weekend with the same thing. Something more than fun and games was being shared at camp!

Now 13...

Isaac turned 13 on Saturday. We were at family camp and it was a perfect way to celebrate his birthday. We got him high-impact daggers to practice fighting with, thus the picture of Isaac with Caleb. I was excited to find Happy Birthday candles because Isaac turned 13 and there are 13 letters in Happy Birthday. I would not recommend purchasing these though. As you can see they melted away. They melted away before I got the cake in front of him and the candles kept going out.