7 Quick Takes Friday!

~~1~~
As a surprise, Steven planted some colorful pansies in the window box outside the kitchen window a few weekends ago. They are still making me smile!


~~2~~
Recently we've made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Toast and Quickie Homemade Chicken Strips. The toast was a little too rich, but you can never go wrong with chicken fingers in this family!




~~3~~
We've completed 3 days of homeschooling! It's getting a little bit easier. The girls are starting to get into the "groove" and SJ was finding things to keep himself busy too (like playing with the box of non-frozen Pop-Ice popsicles and biting them open!).

~~4~~
Note to self: Don't read and respond to urgent emails, or make phone calls in the middle of the Wal-Mart toy section with your 3 children. It's not pretty. Aside from a birthday gift, a few homeschooling things, and items for a silent auction basket, we somehow made it out of there with only a $1 pack of silly bands (apparently the hip new bracelets), a $1 miniature butterfly kite, and a $2 foam sword. This is why I like Wal-Mart.

~~5~~
Tonight is the big dance recital! Well technically we're not allowed to call it a recital, it's a "show" or "performance" and the girls and I are so excited! We enjoyed watching the older girls rehearse the other night and it was really interesting to see how they're interpreting the Book of Revelation through dance. We'll have some family members coming from across town and even staying overnight, so it should be a really fun weekend! Here are the girls at the stage rehearsal the other night.

~~6~~

Mary Clare is the girl "Shark of the Week" for her age group at swim team this week! That means she took off the most time for one of her strokes last weekend, 17 seconds off her freestyle! She gets to use a special kick-board. We missed 2 practices this week and they'll probably only swim one event for the last dual meet on Saturday since we'll have family visiting. I hope we can make it to practice in the morning; it's so hard to get there at 7:30am for Ellie's group!

~~7~~
Speaking of Ellie, she was so proud to help bring up the gifts at our End of the Year Homeschooling Mass last night. What a big girl she is getting to be! I am proud to say I survived the mass with my out-of-control toddler and no husband to help (working late), and also made two special treats for the dessert social afterwards...Cheesecake Sopapilla Bars and Candy Covered Pretzels! We had a fun evening with friends, but I forgot my camera :(

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Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Check out Jen's Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!