January Always Brings New Things

January started out with frozen pipes and no water.  We were supposed to leave for another trip to Colorado on January 2nd but with frozen pipes it was not a good time to leave so we postponed our trip hoping for a quick thaw.  No such luck though.  It took about 3 or 4 days to thaw and once it did we discovered it had broken a switch and some other things in the pump house.  After about a week with no water all finally got fixed but Joe's vacation from work was drawing to a close and we didn't get to go North.  My wonderful parents came for a visit though and we enjoyed seeing them and we did some fun shopping and Joe and I even got a lunch date!  Thanks Mom and Dad!  The kids absolutely love their grandparents and enjoyed playing games with them and spending time with them.  We had a bit of snow that came along with the cold front and the kids enjoyed that too although they said it was nothing like Colorado snow!

We planned to get back to school full time after my parents left but as soon as they left everybody got a stomach virus!  Our youngest got it the worst and it has taken a full three weeks for him to finally get better.  The other two boys fared better though and after only a few days were back on track.  We discovered a leak in the pipes in the wall and didn't have water again for about three days but that is fixed as well, lol.

We started a unit on Transportation.  We are still currently in that unit but so far we have read all about boats and trains, looked into transportation throughout history and how it has changed, learned about reasons for mass moves from a place like in the Bible when the early Christians all dispersed due to persecution in Jerusalem and mass moves to a place such as during the California Gold Rush, learned about friction and objects that float and started out major project of sewing hot air balloons.  This is our first sewing project and we still have a lot to do on it but it is a great learning experience for the kids.  I don't have pictures of it yet but will later in February.  We got lucky that the current Cubscout event is getting ready for the Pinewood Derby Race so with that we have been looking at how car design makes it faster and at friction.  That race is coming up soon so fingers crossed!

The older two boys signed up to play basketball here in town and so far have had three clinics for skill training.  We should hear back soon as to what teams they will be on.  This year they are in two different age brackets so they will not be on the same team like last year but they are looking forward to it nonetheless.

We went with the Cubscouts to the local newspaper office and learned all about how they format the paper and looked at old editions of the paper from when the kids were born.  They enjoyed it a lot.  They were able to ask a lot of questions and although it was after our unit ended it fit nicely into what we had learned about communication.

Last but not least, January was the month Epi turned 8 years old.  We took the day off school for his birthday but he started off the day at the doctors with terrible asthma.  He still managed to have fun opening his presents though and we had tacos for dinner and cake.  A week later we had his party at a cool place in Lubbock with a pizza buffet and tons of arcade games and bumper cars.  He was allowed to invite one friend and that friend also spent the night which they all enjoyed.  Overall it was a hit.