The Pop Rocks Steelers song

Piratefest

Time again to show our support for our beloved Pittsburgh Pirates.....It's Piratefest.
You can buy today's jerseys or........you can see all the uniforms from past years
You can see the 1979 World Series trophy or.........Wait in line 2 1/2 hours to get Freddie Sanchez's autograph (very important to an almost 9 year old)

Or have the Pirate Parrot do what every adult in Cody's life has dreamed of at least once........(LOL)

Good-bye christmas

Last night was the final farewell to christmas in our community. It was the annual christmas tree burning. They collect all the trees from the neighborhood and pile them up, then the fire department lights a torch to them! It's a nice community thing. They have hot dogs, hot chocolate, popcorn, and cookies.

Tom and Jordan enjoying their free cookies and cocoa......

Here's our trusty fireman starting the blaze.......

Gettin' cold.......time to go. But not before Jordan threw a few snowballs at the fire. He started a trend. Some high schoolers were standing near us and they saw him throw it and then started taking bets as to who could reach the fire with a snowball. It was pretty funny. Like "hey that little kid didn't get in trouble let's give it a try".

We took Jordan to Red Robin first. It's a gourmet burger place. Tom got a gift certificate from a customer for christmas. We discovered that a burger is still just a burger no matter how it's made! Cody went to an overnighter at church.

inauguration

A couple of different views of the inauguration............

In Legos........And from space........

death and taxes

Your tax dollars at work. Want to see how we spend our money check out this site http://www.wallstats.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/WallStatsDATlarge.jpg

president Jordan

I thought that with the upcoming inauguration this would be a good writing assignment for Jordan "If I were president"....... Here's what it says: I would change the law around. I would make a rule that noone can buy or sell guns so people cannot kill each other. And that port authority transportation (the fliver for the elderly) sould only be 50c. I would end the war in irag and bring the souliers home to many of them are dieing. I would lower taxes for the tax payers. I would mack shore that banks do not go bankrup. I would send soldiers to fight in war cautiously. And send more doctors. I would do the best to my ability to help and protect our nation.

Out of the mouths of babes!

HERE WE GO STEELERS

Steeler nation is rocking tonight. Next stop TAMPA.....

STEELER SUNDAY

GO STEELERS!!!!!!! I GOT A FEELING.......PITTSBURGH'S GOIN TO THE SUPERBOWL AGAIN.......
Cody is at a friends house overnight so that's why he's not in the photos.Yes my shirt is very old!

game snacks

Got a new cookie recipe off the computer. Gooey Sugar cookies! Instead of yellow cake mix, I used strawberry.

I was recently diagnosed with diabetes so I could only have one. But it's fun making the stuff. Jordan helped bake them so it was even more fun.

light snow?

So Joe Denardo (okay he isn't on the news anymore) said that we were going to have light snow overnight.........Just wondering......Does this look light to you? And it's still snowing!

house of cards

There is this neat website called "think". Each week it gives kids a list of supplies, (like 2 straws, 3 pieces of paper, a stick of gum and 2 paperclips, the task is to build a bridge that can hold 5 pennies). This weeks challenge was to use a deck of cards and build a city, that's the only instruction they got.....So here is the solution that Cody and Jordan came up with....
They realized that if they folded the cards they could get them to stand better and go higher. pretty neat I thought. Good using your noggin!!!!! Here's a link to the website if you are intrested. http://kidswhothink.blogspot.com/

Revolutionary war lapbook

This year I discovered lapbooking. It is a study of one particular subject and you refold a file folder and add all the information that you learn. Then you can go back and read about it anytime you want. Cody just finished a big project on the revolutionary war . Here's the lapbook he did....

The front cover..

Boston tea party ect....
minute men........
I think he did an awesome job and it's something they can both look back on and learn from.

snow day

So homeschoolers don't really get "snow days" (I guess everyday is a snow day!) but we had a big snow storm and Dad promised to take the kids up to the high school because that's where all the great hills are...
Of course Dad had to try the "super sled" as it is aptly named at our house!What is a super sled you ask..............Well, last year Tom was out on his route and he found 2 sets of skis out for pick up. Of course he brings them home. Instead of using them as they were supposed to be used, he screwed them to a center (seat) board and voila' a super sled.You should see how fast this thing is!!!!! In the background you can see Tom sitting on Jordan's snowboard and coming down the hill. I am not sure who had more fun.....

geography

I found this great geography site. It's called statetris. It plays like tetris but instead of little squares coming down to build a column there are states that come down and you have to put them on the map at the right spot. Great for kids. (or adults that want to see how much you remember from elementary school!)

http://www.mapmsg.com/games/statetris/usa/

warm yummies

I recently discovered that my bread maker will also make dough. It's a cold miserable night here in Pgh so I decided to make some cinnamon rolls. They were sooooooogood.... The machine did all the work. I just added in the ingredients, then laid out the dough, put the cinnamon on and baked. The other day we had pasta for dinner so I made crusty italian bread dough in the machine then baked it. It too was awesome....If you don't have one I would highly recommend it! Yum!

Question

So who could this be? An old picture of Tom? I am still completely amazed at how much Tom is the spitting image of his Dad. His cousin sent me this picture. One of my biggest regrets in life is that I never got to meet him. One day......in heaven.

late christmas

Tom finally got what he really wanted for christmas...........(with thanks from all his customers who are so gracious this time of year)With a little effort it was up and ready to goHe just wanted it for the bowling! Here he is getting ready on the approach What style and grace. He's still got it after all these years......Got what we don't know.

homeschool science

Our science experiment for the day....IS IT A SOLID OR A LIQUID? Mix cornstarch with water and you get what looks like a gooey mess......however if you put your hand in and pick some up you can form it into a ball. Open your hand and it flows off like a liquid. Slap your hand on the top of the mixture in the bowl and it won't move or splatter. The boys thought this was really cool......

Welcome to science 101. (Not sure if I told everyone that Cody is back at the McKelvey homeschool. Since about the middle of December)

attack of the marshmallows

It's marshmallow Armageddon at our house today. The boys made marshmallow shooters.

It started like this, a bunch of pvc plumbing supplies. Yes, the man at the hardware store thought I was nuts! And after some assembly it turns into this......Then load a mini marshmallow into the blow tube and blow till your lungs explode!

Ammo is cheap and won't hurt anything......I think

christmas crafts?

I pick now to work on some christmas projects! LOL Anyway, every year Tom gets lots of cards from customers on his route. We usually save them. Here's a project that I made from some of the cards. A new ball for our tree.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!!! Our new years celebration was sort of a wash. Tom was under the weather and went to bed about 9pm, the kids went to bed shortly after that. I was up to see the ball drop but then headed to bed myself. So New Years day was pretty uneventful. We had a little snow so the kids played in the snow. I did manage to make Pork and sauerkraut.
After dinner we opened our time capsule that we made last year on new years eve, to be opened this year. It was fun. Inside we put small notes of what we would like to see happen in our lives in the coming year. Also Jordan put in some legos, and a bent spoon from his time imitating the "Power team" that visited our church. He then spent the next couple of months bending our silverware just like the guys bent steel rods! Tom put in a picture of Mike Huckabee because we wanted him as our next president. I put in a guitar pick as I was taking lessons at the time. Hope everyone had a good celebration and hope the New Year brings health and prosperity!