February already??

Our hamster got a new home.  He was literally climbing up and down his previous cage and even started climbing across the top "monkey bar" style!  It was hilarious!

But one day his teeth got stuck on the bars and we did some research and found that hamsters often get sores from constantly chewing/climbing on these bars.
Since we love our little hamster and thanks to Pinterest, the kiddos went about creating a fun new home for our pet!


For Valentine's Day I took the younger kids to a homeschool party at a local coffee shop.  (As it turned out , there were over 50 kids there!) The kids got hot chocolate and sugar cookies and made little crafts. 

I didn't have the time or energy to find an adorable Pinteresty hand-out.  I actually did find some really cute ideas on Pinterest, but didn't have the time or energy to make any of them!  So I bought some candy for the kids to tape on their cards, got out the construction paper, glue, tape, and markers and let the kids have at it!  They were not the fanciest, but were made with love (and I knew other homeschoolers would appreciate them)!  

  The kids had me write "Happy Valentine's Day" on a piece of paper so they could copy it onto their cards.  After a while they were like, "Do we have to write this on all the cards??"  Haha!   I suggested they draw a heart instead of writing the word "Valentine" and that seemed to help.

Another fun thing the kids have been doing is creating with Perler (or Melty) beads.  Once the kids got online and saw all the ideas that others have made, they went to town!

I love that ALL my kids were spending time creating with these!

These are just a few pictures of their creations!  We now have a wall in the girls room full of their creations...horses, frogs, minions, Pokemon balls, and other random things.  It has been fun to see their imaginations and creativity at work!

And lastly for this update, we took an opportunity to go out and visit the Chisolm Family Farm on a cold day!   The family runs their farm in rural NE.  They also homeschool, which is how we met them.  They make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream and sell them at Farmer's markets and also a few stores in Lincoln and Omaha.   We got to tour the farm and see the dairy cows, baby calves, chickens, a pig, dogs and cats.  It was super cold, but I think that gave us insight into a life where you have to go out and do your chores no matter the weather!   

Little Sis loved feeding the calves.  She said, "This is so fun!"  To which the young boy who is next to her in the picture replied, "Well, you wouldn't think that if you had to do it every day!"   Haha!

We spent some time hanging out in their little onsite store.  We were fed soup and bread with homemade "creme fraiche" (cream cheese).  Then, while the kids went back out to explore, Laura, our hostess, was kind enough to let us sample some of her yogurt and ice cream!  They were so generous and kind!  We are looking forward to going back to visit when it is not quite so cold!