Proud of the boys

Our church has an Awana's program on Sunday nights. They have Cubbies for ages 3-4, Sparks for Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and T&T for 3rd grade through 5th grade. All 3 of the older boys are in Sparks this year. Since we are homeschooling Bryson we went ahead and enrolled him in Sparks since he had already done both years of Cubbies (I was his teacher the 1st year so he went ahead and went with me even though he was a little too young).

Their books are intended to take them a full school year to complete, and probably only about 60% of the kids finish their books in that year. Brandt finished his book a few weeks ago, and has been working on an extra credit book. They asked him tonight if he would like to start on his T&T stuff. Brayden and Bryson BOTH finished their books tonight, 6 weeks early. I was really concerned how Bry would do this year since he technically isn't even old enough to be doing it yet. He has completely blown me away, and I am so proud of all 3 of them.

Brandt will now start learning T&T verses and Brayden and Bryson will both start their extra credit books.

Awesome Family Day!

We had a great family day today. This morning we finished up a marriage conference at our church that was great. Brandt asked us why we were going to a marriage conference since we were already married. lol

After that we came home and decided the weather was too beautiful to stay inside. Now sadly, there are no sidewalks near us, and so to do anything we have to load them in the car and drive. I have taken their scooters several times before during the day since I can handle 4 scooters, but we haven't taken their bikes yet. As a result none of the boys could ride a bike without training wheels, and honestly I can count on one hand the number of times they have even been on a bike. Bad parents I know! So we loaded up 4 scooters, 4 bikes, and 4 helmets (not an easy task) and took off.

Bryson

Brandt learning to ride his bike
Brennan decided this was the easiest way to bring his scooter up the hill. lol
Brayden listening to daddy's instructions
Brayden really was a pro at this
He was riding a long way by himself and loving it!
Brennan
Bry getting a little brotherly help getting his bike up the hill from Brayden
Bryson wanted to try riding the bike without training wheels too
Brayden totally mastered riding his bike. He can even get on and off by himself.

Brandt was more interested in riding his scooter, but is really close to riding his bike. He fell into a throny bush (the only one remotely close to us) and has the battle wounds to prove it. I fully expect him to ride it by himself the next time. He thinks everything through and is a little more timid than Brayden on things like this. Bryson did really well, but the bike was a little too big for him. I think the next time we go we will take the training wheels off his bike and see if that is any easier for him.

Over all we spent almost the whole afternoon outside and we loved it. It was a really fun day!

Snow Day Part 2!!!

Snow Day!

Out of the mouth of babes...

In Sparks they were talking about school, and Brandt responds with "well I am homeschooled so we don't really do school everyday. It really just depends on if my mom feels like it or not".

Can't beat FREE!

In the last few weeks I have cashed in some rewards points on some of my favorite sites, and managed to get all of this for FREE...

Swagbucks is a search engine site similar to Google. Sometimes when you search you win points, or you can find codes for their site. Once you get to 450 points you can redeem them for a $5 Amazon gift card. In the last few weeks I have been able to redeem points for $10 in FREE Amazon money. I can usually earn 450 points once a week to once every other week depending on how much I am online. I use Swagbucks for all my online searching.

Disney Movie Rewards is one of my favorite rewards programs. They have sent me a free Blu-Ray movie on my birthday and anniversary of joining their program, all I had to pay was S&H. You also get points for entering codes found on Disney movies. I was able to turn in points and order both of these Handy Manny movies and the 2 DVD set of Funny Factory. I am going to put these up for Brennan's birthday, and he is going to LOVE them.

Pampers.com has a Gift to Grow program and you can enter codes found on wipes and diapers. I was able to turn my points in for a $20 Sam's Club gift card.

One of my favorite deals mycokerewards.com had was a $5 Best Buy Rewards Zone gift certificate. I was able to turn in points and got $40 in gift certificates.

A few weeks ago mycokerewards.com had a special where you could get a FREE 12 pack of coke for 30 points. I cashed in on 11 FREE packs of soda!

What are some of your favorite rewards sites?

Several of the sites have referral bonuses for both parties, so if you are interested in any of these sites I'd love to refer you.

Dirty

The other day I found some gingerbread marshmallows at the store and decided to buy them for the boys as a fun snack. They are light brown and shaped like gingerbread men. I was passing them out to the boys and I got to Brennan and he was very adamant he did not want any. He has such a sweet tooth so I asked him again to make sure he understood what I was saying. He put his hand up in front of his face and said "no, those are dirty". I tried explaining they were suppose to be brown, but he didn't buy it.