Spring Break Trip to Dallas Day One

My older boys and their daddy are big hockey and football fans, especially Nick.  Several months ago I had the idea that it would be fun for Art, Nick, and Alex to get to go to a hockey game.  Dallas is the closest professional arena to us so I started looking for tickets and saw that on March 23rd the Dallas Stars were playing the Buffalo Sabres.  Being from Western New York, we are Sabres fans and I knew they would love to see a Sabres game, so I talked to Art about getting the tickets.  Since it is a 4 hour drive and they would half to spend a night in a hotel anyway, and we had never been to Dallas, we just planned on everyone going, staying 2 nights and it would be our vacation for this year.

We dropped Anna off at the doggie hotel early Monday morning and were on our way.  We had to make one stop and it took right around 4 hours.  I packed our breakfast and our lunch so they could eat in the car on the way down.  Besides giving them something to do, it is also cheaper.  Our first stop was the Perot Nature and Science Museum.  We have passes for the Mid America Science Museum so we could get in for free.  I was quite excited about that!

The museum has 5 levels.  It was much bigger than I expected.  A elevator that you could see out of provided transportation to all of the different levels.  The lady at the door told us the best way to see it all was to start at the top and work your way down.  We actually started on the 4th level with space and dinosaurs.  I do want to mention that as expected the museum was VERY evolutionary but as my 7 year old said, "That's ok that they say that because we know the truth."

Then we went up to the bird exhibit

And swung by space

The we went down a level to earth.  There were many exhibits on soil, weather, gems and minerals, natural resources, and power and fuel alternatives.

Then we went down a level to learn about life.

We did not get to do everything on this level.  The girls were getting very tired and were ready to go.  The lowest level with the sports hall and children's museum for children 5 and under we never made it to.  Plus there was a Sherlock Holmes exhibit that cost extra that we didn't go into and a 3 D theater. we did not go to that also cost extra.  We left and headed to the hotel.

I chose the Irving Homewood Suites for our hotel because it was outside of Dallas and they had actual suites so we did not have to book 2 separate rooms.  The hotel was very nice.  The rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable, the staff was very friendly.  Plus they had continental breakfast with a lot of choices and an indoor swimming pool.  It was close to the airport but the plane noise didn't bother us.  the only negative about the hotel was that the A/C was VERY loud when it turned on!

We rested awhile and then went swimming.  We ordered some pizza and the boys got ready for the game.

While they were gone we watched a movie that we streamed on Netflix to Chelsea's computer.  The boys had a great time at the game!

Stay tuned for day 2.

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Review: Jesus See Us Doll and Lesson Book

Recently I was given an opportunity to review Jesus Sees Us doll and Picture Book.  Jesus Sees Us was developed by two moms who developed the products due to a difficulty in finding products designed to teach very young children about Jesus on their level.  They created the doll and lesson book as a way for children to connect to Jesus in an engaging and relatable way, comforting them when they need it and celebrating their victories.

The doll has a soft body with a plastic head, arms, and feet and mirrors the images of the illustrations in the picture book.  The book is hard cover and includes 10 different teaching topics.  Each topic spans two illustrated pages.  The first page talks about what Jesus did while he was on the earth an the second page talks about how we can be like Jesus.  Lessons include: Share With Others, Respect All Adults, Show Love to Others, Forgive Others, Be A Peacemaker, Pray, Have Faith and Trust in God, Help the Less Fortunate, Help the Sick, and Tell the Truth.  Each lesson also has a Scripture reference.

Jesus See Us website: www.JesusSeesUs.com 

Purchase: http://jesusseesus.com/buy-now/


Great idea for Easter gift!

My 4 year old daughter saw the picture of the Jesus Sees Me Doll when I received an offer to review it and said that she really wanted that Jesus Doll.  She was VERY excited when it got here.

I read the story book to Emelia, my 6 year old, 7 year old, and 9 year old.  I thought it was a really cute book that shows the things that Jesus did and what even very young children can do to be like Jesus.  The text was short enough to hold little one's attention and the illustrations were cute.  I like the included Scripture reference.

The doll itself is a good size for young children to carry around and cuddle.  It has the soft body with the plastic head, arms, and feet.  The clothes are something you could realistically picture Jesus wearing down to the sandals on his feet.  Emelia carried her Jesus doll around the entire day and even chose the doll to sleep with that night.

One thing about the doll that is a little odd is that it has a big head, large arms, but little teeny tiny feet.  That is something all of my children noticed and thought was a bit strange.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary product for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 27

*this post contains affiliate links

We do not always follow the public school schedule, but the local schools are on spring break next week and it happened to fall at the same time we had made some special plans so we are taking off next week.  This week I wanted to make sure we ended at a good stopping point to take off for a week.

Bible: We have read through chapter 12 in the book of Proverbs and are about halfway finished with Missionary Stories With the Millers.  The boys have really been enjoying this book!

History: In MOH Vol III we read the text on lessons 70-72 about George Fox and the Quakers, Blaise Pascal, and Louis XIV The Sun King.  We did the corresponding memory cards and timeline figures.

Science: We finished Apologia Exploring Creation With Chemistry and Physics last week.  I have ordered Exploring Creation With Anatomy and Physiology but it has not arrived yet, and even if it had I wouldn't have started it this week anyway.  We watched Awesome Science Explore Dinosaur National Monument one day and watched some videos from Visual Learning Systems about weather on our other science day.

Art: We have started a new review of ARTistic Pursuits.  I LOVE these books and am very excited we have an opportunity to review another one.  We did art twice this week and completed Lessons 1 and 2 in the K-3 Book 3.  We are not going to do all of the lessons in order, I plan on skipping around a bit.

Grammar/Writing/Literature: Nick and Alex finished lesson 24 of  Fix It! Grammar and lesson 18 of Medieval Writing Lessons.  Christian worked on some grammar pages learning how to use commas in letters.  Anthony and I finished reading Charlotte's Web but did not do any of the grammar pages to go along with the final chapters.  This year Anthony is required to take a standardized test for the first time and he has never taken a test before.  Also he reading is a bit below where he should be, so I have been working with him every day on reading comprehension paragraphs and questions.  To be completely honest, I could care less about how my children score on a standardized test but I do not want him to go in there not knowing what to expect or be overwhelmed, so we will continue working on the practice exercises up until the test date.

Spelling/Reading: Alex finished Level 4 of AAS last week.  I have ordered Level 5 to start up after the break.  He has been using Star Toaster 3 times a week.  Anthony and Christian finished Lesson 12 of All About Reading Level 2.

Math: Nick finished lesson 27 of Math U See Pre-Algebra.  Christian and Anthony finished lesson 25 of Beta and Gamma and Alex finished Lesson 25 of Delta.

My Father's World Creation From A to Z:

We started and finished the unit on "e" for elephant.  The Bible theme was "I will remember what God has done for me."  She completed a picture card page, handwriting page, sound discrimination page, math page, cut and paste page, blend ladder page, word list page, and drawing page.  We read about facts about elephants, the differences between African and Asian elephants, found where they were located on the globe, and watched a Wild Kratts episode about elephants.  She also made an elephant badge.  We read the book Seven Blind Mice and Lily read her first little story called 'The Sled."

She is also helping me on the Memoria Press First Start Reading review and we worked on that this week too.

Other Activities This Week:

Monday Art had to go out of town for work.  We had archery and Christian had soccer practice.  So we went to archery, ran some errands, picked up some pizzas using our Book It certificates (4 of the children are eligible and I just order a large pizza for the others), ate and played at the park, and watched the soccer practice.

Tuesday gymnastics was cancelled because the teacher was sick.  Nick and Alex had soccer practice so we loaded up and headed to the soccer fields.  I let the younger children play on the play equipment until the last 10 minutes or so of practice and then we went over and watched.

Tuesday Sonic was having half price shakes all day.  Our favorite car hop (Chelsea) was working and since it was so nice outside she hoped she could sit and take her break while we were there but it was very busy and she couldn't.  She did bring the children their yummy shakes though and even bought them for them.

Wednesday was a stay home day.

Thursday we had a 4 H meeting and all 3 boys were supposed to have soccer practice after the meeting.  The weather did not cooperate though and practice was cancelled.  This ended up being a good thing because Lily started not feeling well at the meeting and was running fever when I brought her home.  She is still not feeling well but she is much better and the dog has been keeping her company.

Daddy came home on Thursday!

Friday we were supposed to take care of some errands and go grocery shopping but stayed home to take care of Lily instead.

We have some fun things planned for next week that have already been paid for.  I am praying Lily will be better and that no one else will get sick!!

Happy Homeschooling!

*links to All About Learning and Apologia are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!

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