April Misc.

 Here is a little of what our family was up to in April:

New Things for Adley

Our little girl is not so little anymore. This month Adley learned to ride her bike without training wheels! After only a couple of attempts with me holding the back of her bike and running behind her, Adley took off! She confidently rode down the entire street without needing to stop. No wobbling or falling! Learning to turn around and start on her own took a few more days, but she progressed amazingly quickly. We are so proud of our big girl!

I took this video of Adley only on her THIRD riding attempt!

While cleaning out for a family garage sale, we uncovered this build-your-own-straw kit. Adley loved it and built some fairly large and intricate straws.

Adley's Pre-K Events

Adley's Butterfly class had an Easter egg hunt right before Easter break. She was so excited to help fill eggs and bring her basket to school.

After the egg hunt, her class had a picnic lunch.

Adley has made some sweet friends this year. I love that when we get photos from her teachers, Adley's always sitting by someone different. She tells us that she is "friends with everybody!"

To celebrate spring, Adley's class made these cute butterfly headbands. So sweet!

Piano Recital

Near the end of the month, Jaden and Cody had their spring piano recital. Both of them selected at least one song that was a significant challenge, so they spent quite a few weeks learning and practicing their songs. By the time the recital rolled around, both boys were both nervous, but they pulled it off!

Jaden played "He's a Pirate"

and "Song of Kilimanjaro."

Cody's two songs were "Pachelbel's Canon"

and "The Fly's Adventure."

We were very proud of our musical kids! Abby, Nathan, and Ryan performed in the recital as well. We sure have some talented relatives! The kids especially enjoyed the post-recital reception.

Library R.E.A.D. Program

One day while at the library, Cody saw an advertisement for this reading-to-dogs program. All three kids were excited to participate, so we signed up. On the day of the program, we met two Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) and their handlers. Each of the kids got a 15-minute time block to read. The dogs were quiet and very well-behaved. Jaden, Cody, and Adley loved reading to them!

Adley was so proud to be able to read all by herself!

Strawberry Picking

We have had such good memories from visiting Atkinson's Farms in the past, so Adley and I repeated the adventure this month. Adley did a wonderful job of finding strawberries at just the right stage.

She even gave me some pretty cute poses. Ha!

Adley picked a yummy bucketful!

Last year, the farm added some great playground equipment, so of course we had to stay and play for a while.

Back at home, we enjoyed some fresh strawberries with whipped cream on waffles. Soooo tasty!

PSIA State Competition

At the end of April, Cody and I traveled up to TCU (Texas Christian University) for the State PSIA competition. We loved riding with Matt and Kim's family, as Ian and Ryan had also qualified for state. Cody was very impressed with the college campus. It was beautiful! Cody was a little nervous for his maps, graphs, and charts test that afternoon (and to be honest, his momma was nervous for him!), but he handled his nerves like a pro.

Here is Cody's relieved post-test photo. He did it!!

We stayed for the test verification and awards presentation later that afternoon and found out that Cody tied for 5th place! This was the last place that was awarded a medal, so he was very excited. We were so proud of him and his awesome test-taking!

Our one-night overnight trip to Ft. Worth was short and sweet but a great experience and a wonderful excuse to spend time with cousins.

Around the World: Part IX

 For our next set of countries, Adley and I "journeyed" to the United Kingdom area. We learned about Ireland in March to tie in with St. Patrick's Day. Then, we moved to Scotland. Adley had been asking to learn about that country for several weeks since she's currently on a Scotland soccer team. I was happy to oblige!

IRELAND

We kicked off Adley's Ireland learning by making the country's flag with watercolor.

Then, I showed Adley some pictures of Celtic knots on the Internet, and she chose several of her favorites to color.

Naturally, we had to do some activities with leprechauns, pots of gold, and shamrocks. This pot of gold number hunt was so fun to create and play! First, Adley helped me cut these gold "coins" with my circle cutter and numbered each one.

Then, she traced the gold coins into a pyramid and painted a rainbow over the gold.

What a beautiful picture!

The best part was using this picture to play a fun game. Adley closed her eyes in another room while I hid all 15 gold coins. Adley's job was to find the gold pieces and place them in the correct spot under the rainbow. We took turns hiding the gold from each other and played this repeatedly over the next several days. So fun!

The shamrock activity we chose was painting shamrock designs with marshmallows. Adley was particularly excited about this craft since I let her sample a couple of marshmallows before we started!

Then, Adley tried out this Leprechaun Obstacle Course. I placed 10 leprechauns around the house for her to follow. She had to stop at each one and complete the activity listed. The leprechaun cards contained a wide variety of moves for her to try.

Adley also made this cute leprechaun craft. Our favorite part was adding the beard with a painted fork!

It was all her idea to extend the craft and add the leprechaun's body, complete with a shamrock shirt! She also wanted to draw a gold coin and two shamrocks in the leprechaun's hands.

Two other things that are famous in Ireland are potatoes and Irish dancing! So, we did some potato stamping...

...and watched some clips from Riverdance.

We even found a little instructional video to try out our own Irish dancing. This didn't last too long, however, as we quicky learned how difficult it was! It was sure impressive to watch!

Finally, we talked about how castles are very prevalent in Ireland, and I cut a castle outline for Adley to decorate. Although my intention was for her to cover the castle with bricks, she asked to paint on flowers instead. Her idea definitely made the castle turn out much prettier!

 One Irish castle in particular has a very unique tradition. Visitors who kiss the special Blarney stone at Blarney Castle are, according to legend, supposed to receive the gift of eloquence. The challenge is that this stone is at an awkward location in the castle, forcing the kisser to lean backwards and upside down to properly find the Blarney Stone! Adley and I watched a few videos of tourists kissing the Blarney Stone and then decided to act it out in our own home. We set up Adley's princess castle in a prime location and had her kiss our pretend "Blarney Stone." How funny!

The cultural treat we made was Irish soda bread, dotted with raisins. I was the only member of our family who actually enjoyed this recipe. Everyone tried it, at least!

Here are the Ireland-related books we read during our studies. Adley's favorite was the Leprechaun Under the Bed.

SCOTLAND

When you think of Scotland, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Quite likely, bagpipes! The first Scotland activity Adley did was to color and create this cute TP roll bagpiper.

Then, we made some homemade bagpipes from a Ziploc bag and two noisemakers.

Here is Adley demonstrating her very own bagpipes!

We watched a little dueling bagpipe video and, not surprisingly, Adley wanted to play right along with the bagpipers.

Another day, we learned about the legend of the Loch Ness monster. First, we watched a little Disney short film, The Legend of Nessie. Adley liked it so much, we viewed it twice! We followed that up by reading a couple books about the Loch Ness monster and then making a Loch Ness craft.

I figured since we had the blue paint out, Adley should paint the Scotland flag next. After she fully completed the flag, however, Adley decided that the blue wasn't quite the right shade. She was right! So, we darkened the blue a bit until Adley decided the color was more accurate, and then she painted her flag again.

Much better! ;)

Scotland is also well-known for its kilts and family tartans. Adley came up with a pattern that she thought could be labeled as the Schleicher family tartan.

Ta-da!

A study of Scotland couldn't be complete without talking about the Highland Games. We both enjoyed watching a few videos of the unique events at these famous cultural games. Then, we held our own version of the Highland Games. First event... caber toss!

Next up, the Scottish hammer throw (our version was much safer!).

Last, we did the sheaf toss. Our beanbag substitued well for the traditional bundle of straw.

To learn a bit about Scottish culture and to see some of Scotland's landscape, we watched a Katie Morag video, a series which is set in the Isle of Struay.

We also learned that Scotland's national flower is the thistle. Adley practiced a bit of sewing to make this Scottish thistle craft. She sewed the flower's purple top and sewed on the button.

Another craft I found was to make these origami Scottish terriers. Adley wasn't interested in folding origami on this particular day, however, so this project was all me. I thought they turned out pretty cute, though, so I'm posting a photo anyway! ;)

The recipe we tried was Dundee Cake. Not bad, but not likely a recipe I'll be repeating.

Here are the books we read on Scotland.

What fun adventures in the United Kingdom area!