Pure Joy in the Tower of Happyness

 This is the first real snow of the year! Unheard of! We usually get snow in October, and  here it is, just a few days before January and we finally have reason to break out the boots.

So I turned in my coupon for One Day of Pure Joy at the Tower of Happyness, and I got a hand massage up in the reading loft. Plus, I went upstairs and Eva was sweeping the kitchen and had set the table so beautifully, and she also made mashed potatoes! I'm feeling pure joy right now. I wish all of you could visit Eva's Tower of Happyness.

Mystery Present

Eva gave me a coupon book for Christmas. I'm going to redeem my first coupon tomorrow. In case you can't read it too well from the picture it says, "One day of pure joy at the tower of happyness." I can't wait to see what happens!

15th Anniversary!

 Our 15th anniversary was December 27th. Fifteen years! Ben surprised me with a trip into Denver. He arranged for the kids to stay with some friends and made reservations at the Capitol Hill Mansion Bed & Breakfast. For dinner, we had an appetizer at the Hard Rock Cafe, main course at Bistro Vendome, and dessert at Chili's. It was fun to wander in and out of restaurants along the 16th Street Mall and Larimer Square.

Thank you, Ben, for a wonderful anniversary and for 15 magical years.

Merry Christmas!

 Eva and her doll Julie are all ready for cooking in their new aprons.

 Spencer's wearing the gorgeous silk jacket Yumeng's parents sent him for Christmas.

 Last year it took Spencer several weeks to put together his new Lego set. This year he was done by lunchtime.

 Emily's rockin' the Christmas spirit in that crazy hat.

For Christmas dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house we had a crepe bar with all kinds of good fillings. Yum.

Danse Etoile's Little Match Girl Production

Amanda, Rebecca, and Keira pose with their wonderful ballet teacher, Marie Payanet. This was at the end of the first show.

 Here are the girls in their Match Girl costumes. I sure enjoyed their folk dance mazurka scene.

Curtain call. Rebecca did a beautiful job. This was her first big production, and she worked very hard on it. Rehearsals began in September. Now she's not sure of what to do with herself with a couple of weeks off from ballet.

Last Day of School

 Last year when we went ice skating to celebrate Christmas Vacation, Eva had to hang on to the wall in order to keep herself upright. Well look at her now! She didn't need to hold on to a single thing. In fact, holding on to her hand just slowed her down.

Here she is with her pal Madeline.

Sunday Evening

 Sorry we opened part of your present early, Aaron, but it sure came in handy when making BYU doughnuts. Yum.

Our friends the Shannons came over to help us act out the Nativity and play musical chairs. We've never put those two activities together before, but it turned out just fine.

Dream Chaser

 Have I mentioned what a gorgeous day it was here today? Sixty-seven degrees Farenheit. There were people out everywhere, walking their dogs, slappin' high fives, driving with the windows down and Bob Marley blaring as if it were the last day of school.

So we took a field trip. We went to CU to see the Dream Chaser (see below). We didn't get to see as much of it as we'd hoped because some well-heeled NASA professionals were there to inspect it, and they didn't want a bunch of homeschoolers running around making noise (we assumed). But we did get to peek in, and then we went to the ITLL to hang out and see the Big Factory of Small Balls. I didn't take a picture of it this time, though. We've taken too many pictures of it already.

See? I wasn't kidding about the weather. This joyous sunbeam even bestowed a special blessing on this bench. Lucky bench.

This is the Dream Chaser. I don't know who this happy fellow is, but he sure looks like a Proud Papa to me. This is a prototype. The real one doesn't look so fancy yet. It doesn't have a glossy finish or anything, and there aren't any cool disco lights in the real lab. If you want to read about the Dream Chaser, you can click right here.

Vocational Classes

 In addition to Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmatic, we've added a vocational program of study to our homeschool curriculum. Here you see the kids participating in a course entitled "Tile."

 Spencer carefully collected all the scraps he could find for a backyard clubhouse project. Unfortunately for Spencer, the above specimen is not a scrap.

We forgot to feed the kids lunch before the Tile class took place, but Eva discovered that the vanilla-flavored tile wasn't bad at all.

And King Herod Died

 Eva and Spencer performed in the Nativity at the ward Christmas party on Saturday evening. Unfortunately, I didn't get Spencer's death scene on video (he was King Herod). It was quite dramatic and left an impression on everyone in the crowd. He was carried off over someone's shoulder. Several people told me afterwards that Spencer might have a career in acting ahead of him. I had no idea. A star is born. Watch out, Bad Guys.

Eva was an innkeeper in the Nativity. Here she is with her good pal Ava.

Train Track Garland

Friends and Cones

 Spencer's Advice: Make sure the dog is outside when your friends come over. Otherwise, something bad could happen. Rocco looks pretty serious.

Here's what happens when you run out of ice cream.

Turkey Balloon Launch

Souveniers

 Dad brought souveniers back from Canada. It was like early Christmas.

Cousins in Town!

 Rebecca could hardly speak through her giggles while we played Balderdash Sunday night.

 Sam and Eva played "doggies" for hours on end.

Baby Nora kept score.

Volleyball Champs

 The Broomfield 1st Ward YW won the regional volleyball tournament this weekend. Rebecca couldn't participate as much this year because her ballet rehearsals often conflicted with practices and games, but she got to be there on Saturday morning. And she had fun.

 Check out those crazy socks.

The pep talk worked!

A Suit's Homecoming

 Ben's suit was made in Canada, so he decided to take it on a little trip so it could see its homeland. Here Ben and his suit are visiting Vancouver. Ben is wearing a nametag because he presented at an engineering conference during his suit homecoming tour. The conference is called IMECE: International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. I think it's kind of like the Continental Congress, only it's in a nice, cool place, and they're not actually forming a government. Instead, they watch Power Point presentations and eat good food. I think Ben's suit is lucky for several reasons. First, the suit is with Ben. Second, it gets to hear all the cool Power Point presentations (if it has some kind of auditory sensing system). Third, isn't Ben really handsome?

It Floats!

This contraption actually floats in the bath tub and can be steered with a remote controller. Spencer's going to see if the lifeguards at the community center will let him drive it around the swimming pool.

Folk Tales

It snowed! There have only been 15 years since 1880 that Denver hasn't gotten snow in October, and this happened to be one of those magical 15 years. Ah. It was the loveliest Colorado fall I can remember. There weren't any blizzards to knock the leaves off the trees prematurely. Today, though, it's cold and white (and pretty), and we've had a fire roaring in the fireplace all morning.
For literature this week we studied folk tales from around the world. Each of the kids chose a folk tale and then presented it in a new way. Spencer did "The Half Chick" from Spain and retold it in comic book form.
Rebecca chose "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal" from India and retold it with this cool storyboard. I love her innovation with the paper cage. Ingenious!
Eva reenacted "Connla and the Fairy Maiden" from Ireland. It's cool to find folk tales about fairies, and she was excited to find out that we have some ancestors from Ireland. Does that mean we have ancestors that were fairies? Perhaps. It wouldn't surprise me to find out Eva has fairy ancestors.

Dance Festival: Thriller

Stake Dance Festival

After spending from 8:00 to 4:00 at Monarch High School for the Lego competition, we went home, rushed through our Saturday chores, stopped by McDonald's and grabbed some hamburgers, and went back up to the high school for the Boulder Stake Dance Festival. Our awesome Broomfield 1st Ward youth danced to Hand Jive from Grease. They did a marvelous job.

This is the grand finale, Cotton-eyed Joe.

Lego Robotics

Look at this great Leo Robotics team, The Thinkers. They met at Monarch High School at 8:00 Saturday morning to get ready for the state qualifying meet. It was the first time any of them had been to a First Lego League competition, so they weren't sure what to expect. But they did a great job and learned a lot.
In the morning they had several practice rounds before going in to the real competition.

Mr. Ben gave them a great pep talk before their last competition. They didn't move on to the state meet, but it was a great season.