Saudi Arabia- Weeks 21 and 22!

 The past few weeks have been a whirlwind and I realize now I should have  blogged a little sooner.  We had a great Valentine's Day party with a few other families. It was the perfect amount of kids...

And I always love seeing the variety of valentines.  We're pretty heavy to girls in our group!

We gathered for pizza and lots of treats...

 and sharing valentines of course.  Petite just loved opening hers!  She said "I'm so happy" when she opened her mailbox.

I love this picture of Brown-Eyed Girl. I think it is hilarious.  We had "Box Day", the day our new curriculum arrives.  I was ecstatic... the kids, not so much. I know a lot of kids can't contain their excitement, but maybe those are the kids that rarely get a visit from the UPS man?  He comes here so much that he often says "I'll see you soon!". But remember- I don't get out much. Anyway, this picture is so funny because this girl LOVES art and she was actually really excited about this... she was just hamming up the unhappiness.

Next year we are doing Creation to the Greeks from My Father's World.  I really, really love what we have experienced so far with MFW so I am really excited for the coming years.  Why did I order so soon? Because there was a little sale and because I just like to have plenty of time to prepare and gather "extras" for next year.  This is another funny picture, with B-E-G creeping in.

My niece turned eight and had a birthday party at the roller rink, then I took her and B-E-G out for a "girls day". We hit Build-A-Bear, Dairy Queen, Toys R Us, Claire's, and Target.

Mister got an ant farm for Christmas and we finally ordered the ants.  He was so excited the day they arrived in the mail.  You can't imagine all the fun we have had watching them.  They are making some amazing tunnels.

Okay, right, Saudi Arabia, the focus of the past two weeks of school.  We learned about the Muslim religion, using  Story of the World to supplement MFW. SOTW is one of my very favorite homeschool resources, particularly the audio version.  We were already familiar with Arabian Nights thanks to Jim Weiss's audio CD containing several of the stories, but we also checked the book out of the library and I read a few more of the tales to them.  We had some store-bought hummus. I was shocked that Mister tried it.  I attempted to make homemade pita bread but it didn't make the pocket for some reason.  But it still tasted great.

We didn't do any of the suggested project in Global Art, the book in our Countries and Cultures core.  Instead we did this project, Glittering Tiles, from the Usborne Art Treasury.  The project is based upon tiles found in Middle Eastern architecture that follow a cross and star pattern.  Each tile is uniquely painted and covered with a glaze containing metal. We used oil crayons and then a mixture of white glue, water, and silver glitter to create our own tiles.  Above is Mister's, below is Brown-Eyed-Girl's.  They both did such a great and creative job.

 And now a peak into my world  :)  When I'm not homeschooling, attacking the mountain of laundry, sweeping crumbs, and cooking, I'm usually just trying to stay awake. Ducky Dynasty is my newest amusement.  It's a hoot.  It's how I am A-musing these days.  Everyone needs a diversion.

Next stop for us: India!