Friday, we went back in time.......waaaaaay back. We turned my house into Bedrock to celebrate my brother in law's 50th birthday. Lisa prepared the food, Robyn and Clare created the theme and I provided the place. All the family pitched in and made it a memorable celebration. *Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, I did not include the ADORABLE poster of Fred Flintstone that Robyn made.
Enjoy the photos....there are a TON of them!
Well, except for the American flag, it looked pretty prehistoric :)
A variety of animals prints, and plenty of earth tones helped create the theme.
Center piece. It was super cute and blended perfectly.
Flower pots were the perfect serving dishes.
Bamm Bamm Clubs (aka rock candy sticks) for the kids. They were a big hit :)
Aren't these great? Pretzels and jelly bean "rocks".
Baked in leopard print cupcake liners and frosted with earth tones. They were delicious!!!
Dino treats - Rice Krispy treats cut with bone shaped cookie cutters. Cleverly delicious!
The five sisters, together again. From left: Lisa Dawn, Robyn, Katy, Kelly and Clare.
Doesn't he look so angelic? :)
Happy Birthday Rob!
Brontosaurus Ribs!!!
Autumn, Mark and Gilllyan!
Autumn & Gillyan at dinner!
It was a party - they were supposed to act silly :)
Carnivore!
What a ham!
Just about the only picture Gideyon let me take!
Kelly & Katy!
Katy & Robyn!
Dad and daughter engrossed in The Flintstones!
Let the present opening commence!
My LOVE!
Sweet Gillyan!
Apparently I missed the shot of her flashing the peace sign. Bummer!
Post gift paper fun!
Jocelyn and Cayla - the clean up crew!
All tidy - a girl after her mom's own heart!
A shot of the 4 "Littles".
Still the Littles! Yes, they all share the same first name :)
I told Robyn I was going to post this. I'm not sure she believed me! I'm sure I'll owe her after this :)
Dad, Cory, Gene and Chuck!
The Birthday Boy!!! Or should that be "Birthday Old Man?" :)
Clare and her baby. Carson's delicious!
Autumn and Gillyan.
Don't they look like sisters with their dishwater blonde hair and big brown eyes? Sigh! So cute!
Jocelyn, Kelly, Katy, Mom, Clare and Lisa Dawn!
Robyn & Cory!
Yep, that's me, with my sister!
ADORABLE!
"Dino" the Dinosaur with Gideyon and Jocelyn. Gideyon wanted to live with us because he loved Chuck so much! How sweet is that?! :)
At the end of the night Gideyon produced this picture. I guess we know where his mom likes to shop?! :)
My friend Nikki made these darling 'memory boards' to use as demos for her craft class at co-op. Autumn and Cayla are in her class and each made one. I liked theirs SO much I decided to make my own.
Naturally, I made mine Americana. It's pretty basic, afterall, I managed it :) Items required are foam board, fabric large enough to cover the board, ribbons and other embellishments, such as buttons or thumbtacks. And of course a hot glue gun. Once the board is cut to the desired size, glue the fabric over the board. Place ribbons across board and hot glue them on the back. Add embellishments, a ribbon at the top for hanging and that's it. It's now ready to hold photos, notes or whatever you wish.
I put some fabric on the back simply for my own peace of mind. There are numerous lines of fabric and ribbon hot glued into place and it's rather unsightly, so I opted to camouflage it with matching fabric. Of course no one will see the backside, so it's not a necessary step.
St. Patrick's Day had everyone in green....and acting silly. Emily, Autumn and Jocelyn at lunch.
My poll on the side bar is the result of a discussion over the color purple. Specifically, a purple toothbrush. So, cast your votes. Is purple PREDOMINATELY a male color, or a female color?
In today's history lesson, the book instructed me to ask my students what they were thankful for. Here is what Autumn said, "I'm thankful that I'm not in public school where they can't learn about God."
I watched an absolutely incredible documentary loaned to me by a dear friend. It's a documentary that every American should see. In the film, "Agenda: Grinding America Down", Idaho legislator Curtis Bowers presents evidence and information he spent two years compiling. His information points to the ways America is becoming a socialistic society and in turn, a communistic society. It was fascinating. I have included the movie trailer below:
The film also takes excerpts from books such as, "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen, where the Communistic agenda is outlined. I have highlighted the ones which I personally know or believe have ALREADY taken place in America:
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15.Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17.Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20.Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22.Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23.Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24.Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25.Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26.Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27.Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28.Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29.Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30.Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31.Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32.Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40.Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41.Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42.Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Chuck insisted on helping Cayla with her math. We were trying to work on it together and he kept laying his head in between us, on the desk!
On Saturday we took a road trip to visit my husband's grandmother. It was a fun trip and we surprised his grandmother when we showed up. She was expecting Cory's parents, but not us. We had a wonderful visit, and enjoyed a nice lunch. It wasn't the same without grandpa and I had to fight off tears several times. But I'm glad we went and made a memory with the grandparents, great-grandma and my girlies!
Last week was 'Crazy Hair Day' at home school co-op. You didn't think I let them out of the house like this for no reason did you?! :)
Autumn's art class used oil based paints on Thursday and she naturally got some of it on her sleeves. See the photo above? Notice how Cayla's shirt has long sleeves? Yeah, Autumn's had those sleeves too until I decided to salvage the shirt by cutting off the sleeves and hemming them. Her long sleeved, winter-approved shirt just morphed into a summer-favorite complete with short sleeves.
Art at home. That's Autumn and me in the picture. Can't you tell? :)
Budding artists!
Cayla painted a moose for Luke. You knew that was a moose right?
