Lancelot Acres

Awana Grand Prix

The Awana Grand Prix was held Wednesday, February 3, 2010.  The kids did such a great job on their cars.  I loved just walking through and seeing all the creativity.  My favorite (other than Lilli's of course), was an ice cream sandwich car.  It was made by Lilli's friend Ramsey.

Lilli didn't place, but we had fun anyway.  She did come very close.  It was a double elimination-type race.  First place winners move on to the 'main' race.  She came in 4th of out of 6 in her first race, but her car and the car next to her jumped track and slowed each other down.  The second race she came in second place.  So close to moving on, but not close enough :)  She enjoyed it anyway, and was happy with her blue ribbon for participation.

Here are a few pictures of Lilli (and Papa) making her car, and then pics from the race. 

Papa shaping the car to Lilli's specifications:

The base coat of paint...pink of course :)

Adding details:

The finished car:

The Races:

Lilli with her car and ribbon:

Lauren with her pull-toy (horse on wheels).  She thought she needed something that would roll since Lilli had a car.  LOL

Meet Lauren, our new Cubbie! (Awana)

There is a funny story behind our new Cubbie. 

Lilli is in Awana, and she is  a 'Spark'.  Lauren really wanted to stay each week, but she had missed the age cut-off by one month.  She had to  be 3 in September.  Hubby's cousin's husband is the Awana Coordinater, and his cousin said I should ask him if there was any room in the Cubbie room for an extra. 

So I asked him, but she (cousin) was standing there and said they really aren't flexible on the age requirement.  Ben (coordinator) said, "and besides that, we just lost a teacher in the cubbie room". 

I mentioned that if they let her in, I'd stay and help each week.  I walked over to get Lilli from her room and Ben caught up with me and said Lauren could start next week.  Then he gave me my paperwork for a background check.  LOL.  He introduced me to the leaders in the room and they gave Lauren her booklet to memorize in order to receive her vest. 

So we both started our new venture on January 20th.  Lauren did pretty good, but had a hard time sitting still for so long (not long, but long for her).  She enjoyed it though, and was proud as could be when she said all her verses and earned her vest on her first day :)

I enjoyed it.  It's hard not to have fun with 12 children aged 3-5 years :)  I have been recruited to supply a craft each week, beginning in a few weeks.  We love crafts in our house, so that shouldn't be difficult.

Awana is such a wonderful program, and I feel very blessed to be involved and have the girls participate in it.  Especially at such a well-organized and pleasant church :)

The girls and their buddy Jonathon, who rides to Awana with us each week.

Lilli helping Lauren study and memorize her Awana verses.

Family Links - Early On - Parents as Teachers

We participate in a state funded program for children.  It's for ages 0-5 yrs.  A person comes to our house once per month and tests Lauren on things adequate for her age.   They do activities together and then I'm given paperwork with activities to work on with Lauren throughout the next month.

This is a wonderful program and we've used it since Lilli was only a year or so old.

Here are a few pictures from our last visit.  They were working on ramps and figuring out which items rolled the furthest.  Lauren loved this activity.

Lilli's Homeschool Co-op

Today was the first class of the new semester.  This co-op is the same as last semester, with 90 minutes of gym class, and then 90 minutes of art class...every other Friday.  The semester runs January through April.  The cost for the first semester was $75, and the cost for returning for the second semester is $60 per child.  There is a discount for having more than one child, but I'm not sure what that was since it doesn't pertain to us (yet).

It's a small class.  It's for grades K-3rd, with another class for 4th-7th graders.  I believe there are 7-10 kids in Lilli's class.  Two of them are her cousins, and she attends Awana with everyone there.

They are thinking of posting in a homeschool newsletter, in which case  the class will be a bit bigger.  This was their first year, so they wanted to get a feel for it before advertising.  We are the only ones there that don't attend the church it's affilliated with.  Lilli does attend Awana at that church, and Lance's cousins attend, which is how we were included.

We feel very blessed to be involved in this co-op.  Lilli LOVES it.  It's fairly close to home...about 20 or 25 miles I'd guess.  For us that's pretty close, as there aren't a lot of things near our home.

Today they played soccer and dodgeball in gym.  There is a lot of variety in what they play, but the kids LOVE dodgeball, so they usually do that for at least a small amount of time each session.

Here are Lilli and her cousin, Isaac, going for a soccer ball during their gym class today. 

Here they are in their art class.  This is called the 'craft shack'.  Miss Emily does a good job and like I said before, we feel very blessed to be included.

Christmas Dance Show (Picture overload)

I am so very proud of our girls.  They did so great today.  They had shows to dance in today.  One at 2PM and another at 7PM.  After the first show, we went to eat and Lauren fell asleep for only about 5 minutes...so we completed the second show with no nap.  She was pretty sleepy by the end, but still made the final bow...and without a meltdown!  Lilli has been sick for three weeks, but pulled out of it just in time for the show.  She loves dance, so I'm happy she was able to participate after all her hard work.  She not only participated, she did a GREAT job.

I am one very proud mama...and maybe a little relieved that it's over and we have our Saturdays back again (practice was every Saturday for two months).

Here are a few more pictures from our Christmas Dance show.  I took these in between dances today.  We aren't allowed to take pictures of the actual show, so these are from the dressing room and such...

Lilli, Jordyn, and Lauren:

Lilli:

Snowball buddies, Lauren (w/ Buddy) and Alaya:

Lilli and Kaylee:

All the littles from "Walk on Air" (Lilli is third from left):

Friends from our Decatur studio (Lilli is second from left):

Keeping Lauren awake (no nap) before her second dance.  She spent over an hour putting make-up on Buddy.  Doing his hair and getting him dressed.  Luckily, after the first black (eyeliner) that I found on his eyes (and washed off), we only PRETENDED to get Buddy ready to dance:

Lilli and Kaylee keeping busy in between dances (coloring in a quiet corner):

Lauren saying she is too tired to put her coat on after the show was over (note the grin):

The girls on the ride home: