February is almost over, do you know what that means?  It means that spring is getting close enough to start getting excited about!  This week is February Break and although TLC Academy didn't meet I assigned a "life skills" week.  The focus is on things that we often do everyday but emphasizing and drawing attention to their importance as skills to learn.  Some of our life skills for the week included practicing something, nurturing relationships, problem solving and communication within relationships, budgeting, time management, organization, goal setting etc.  It's been a fun week.  I am failing in the time management area because as I blog I should be planning out our lessons for the next 8 weeks or so... I'm such a procrastinator, not a very positive life skill.  However, blogging will help me recap the last month or so and what we have accomplished before I move on.  I'm also good at justifying my procrastination...also not a very positive life skill.
I tried to be a little better about getting the camera out the past few weeks.  Here are some pix of the kids hard at work on an average day at TLC Academy.

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One fine winter evening Bella decided to have a go at curly hair.  I wrapped her thick locks up tight and in the morning...

 The curls abounded. 

 That day we went bowling at a local candle pin bowling alley that hosts an afternoon for homeschoolers!!  Forgot the camera but Isabella's curly hair reminded me that we went.  It was so cute to watch her bounce around with curls while she bowled.

On February 8th we celebrated our 100th day of school!!!  That has become a tradition of ours that the kids look forward too.  This year we did some of our favorite 100th day of school activities and added some new ones. The overall goal of the day was to accomplish 20 things for 5 points each.  If 100 points were reached they would earn a free time day.  It came down to the wire because we needed 100 people to answer our survey about favorite holidays, but in the end, we made it.  They earned their free day (and redeemed it the next school day hahaha).

 We made a snack mix of 10 each of 10 different things to munch as is our custom on the 100th day of school. 

 A new addition was the hunt for 100 colorful circle stickers.  They had a 100's chart and had to hunt for the 100 stickers around the house and correctly color in their chart.  Then at the end they had to find all the stickers and put them on my color coded answer chart.

 The boys made a 100 piece puzzle (very quickly I might add).

 And the girls did a 100 piece mosaic picture.

 One thing I didn't do this year was a require a 100th day of school project.  Hannah did one anyway for extra credit.  It was 100 bebes controled by a magnet.  Very creative.  Her daddy helped her make it the morning of the 100th day of school just before he left for Africa!!  He's still there and God's doing some amazing things in Kitale Kenya through an organization called Africa Connect...maybe I'll blog about it sometime...

 I made a 100 shaped lunch.  It was meatloaf muffins frosted with mashed potatoes.  They all ate more than one carrot but I served it that way for effect.  In case you haven't noticed, I like to do themed things with food.  Wait till you see Valentines Day, I went a little overboard with the heart shaped cookie cutter...

 Speaking of Valentines Day, my kids got to go to a Valentines Day Dance.  It was soooooo cute. 

 It took a little prompting to get the boys on the dance floor but not Bella, she was out their cuttin' a rug!

 Eventually everyone joined in and had a great time.

 Isaac got a little crazy and started doing flips, in his clod hopper snow boots no less!

 It was a fun night and it inspired us to dance a little more often.  In fact, 2 days later we had our own little dance party with Amira and Hannah and did it again a few days later!  Nothing like a little dancin' to kick out those winter blues!

 Here we go with the cookie cutter.  I made some cocoa crispy valentine treats.  Ian went gluten free back in January.  It has made quite a difference for his digestion and we are adapting well to the new lifestyle.  Its not easy but I have had a lot of support (and food) from my gluten free friend Jen so we've made the transition well.  It's not easy to find good, healthy, inexpensive gluten free treats but rice crispy treats fit the bill!

 I also served heart shaped pbj for lunch.  I had colored the kids milk pink in their cereal for breakfast too!  Later on that night I made meat hearts for my sweet hearts by cutting ham steak with the cookie cutter.  I am allergic to pork and I almost never serve it but it sure made nice hearts.  We had beets too because they are definitely the most naturally Valentines colored food I could think of.  I know I have weird food theme issues.  Don't judge me.

 Rice crispy treats are so much more fun on a stick in a vase.

 We decorated our Valentine boxes and traded Valentine cards and treats.  So much fun.  We also had a very interesting discussion during our Bible lesson about the 3 types of love in the Bible.  Eros love is a selfish love that takes but does not give in return.  They pointed out that i have an eros love for chocolate.  I take it and don't share it lol.  Phileo love is a friendship type love that gives and takes.  Agape love is God's perfect love for us and the way he calls us to love others by the strength of His Holy Spirit within us.  It was a great lesson and they have continued to talk about it so I know they really understood. 

 It was a pretty nice day and everyone got outside for some fresh air.  Lots of melting and no leakage into the house (that day)!  The kids made a cute snowman.

 Here is Bella in front of one of the snowbanks that had already melted a lot!!

 Can you feel the love?  I'm such a blessed woman!

 We had art club and book club the week before our break.  For our art club we studied Van Gogh's Sunflower painting and talked about warm and cool colors.  We made warm and cool collages and did a little painting project by warming up and cooling down different colors.  On Book Club day we studied the book Island of the Blue Dolphins.  We had a marathon of sorts to finish it (that procrastination thing again) the morning of book club.  I was amazed and how attentive the kids were as I read chapter after chapter.  They really enjoyed the book.  

 Last Friday it was 60 degrees!!!!!!  Oh so nice.  We played outside all afternoon.  We chipped all the ice off the driveway then we rode bikes, jump roped and hula hooped.  Ian tried to go barefoot.  I applauded the effort but decided footwear was necessary when there is still 2+ feet of snow on the ground.  Either way, those are some cute little feet.

 At the beginning of this week we had the joy of spending 3 whole days at my mom's house!!!  It had been so long since we had some good quality time there.  The weather has been detrimental to our travel more than once which certainly doesn't increase my affections to the fluffy inconvenience commonly referred to as snow.  But, alas, we finally made it down for a good long visit and it was soooo enjoyable. 

 There were some nice sunny days and I really enjoyed taking Annika outside.  She was so cute in the snow with her little pink boots and marshmallow coat! 

I wasn't very excited about today's frigid precipitation as you can imagine, but I did use my snow day wisely to accomplish a decent amount of work.  Unfortunately the amount of work I have let pile up is indecent so doing a decent amount of it barely made a dent.  Remember the procrastinator's motto...always put off today what you can do tomorrow haha...