More Crayons!

We loved the "Day the Crayons Quit"  (want to see what we did for that project?) and we got very excited to find out there is a sequel!

For Literature class at coop - we had even more fun with crayons while we read our new favorite - "The Day the Crayons Came Home".

We made our own "postcards" and sent them off to friends :-)

For our project, we took all those crayons bits and melted them into Crayon cakes.   I used my silicon baking cups and we were able to pop them right out after they hardened and they had a great ridge too!

We used the microwave for our test ones, and they came out great.  The only problem is that we had to microwave them for around 10 minutes!  In the oven, we could do more in less time...

Stage Stars

My talented boys were part of a small community theater group.  This fall's production was "Lincoln's Little Jewly" - a play about President Lincoln told from a family perspective.  It was a great show!  It was written by a very talented, young, homeschooled teen as well (just couldn't leave that part out!)

I am so grateful for the opportunities for them to participate in these productions!  They have learned so much.  From acting, to back stage tech - they are getting to experience all the aspects of live theater while making new friends!  I HIGHLY recommend you check out your local community theater for an unforgettable learning experience!

Noah got to perform his Illusions at the intermission too!


Thank you STAGE ELFS!

Christmas Lizards and Advent!

What?  How do these two things go together?

Well, one of our all time family favorite Christmas books is "The Christmas Lizard" by Cory Edwards - it's a story of how a pet lizard travels up through the Christmas tree to discover the real meaning of Christmas.  It just isn't the Advent season until we cuddle up and read this one together.

Of course - I couldn't wait to share it with my literature class at co-op!

Our project was an Advent paper chain, in the shape of a Christmas Tree.  I found this cute idea on Pinterest.  Check out my Christmas board for lots of great ideas!  It just takes 25 colored paper strips and a stapler!!


It was a tad more complicated to assemble than it looked...and we ended up using up all our time and missing the literature part of literature class - opps!  But, they loved having their very own countdown to Christmas.  Both my girls think it's too cute to pull apart - so they just hung them up.

It's a great story,  you'll love it!

Our Thanksgiving 2015

I was so blessed!  I had my family all together (including Kris!) and we had absolutely NO ACTIVITIES that we had to rush around for.  It rained on my "hoped" for family picture, but other than that... it was delightful.

Here's a couple of Bentz Family Traditions I thought I'd share with you...



Our Thankful Tree - we each add a leave a day with something we are thankful written on it.  Our tree was pretty packed.  I put it on our sliding glass door, it comes off easier that way.

Our Turkey Coloring Contest - we each decorate a turkey, and we let Facebook decide the winner!  Everyone did an amazing job this year.... "Quilt Turkey" won hands down!  Can you guess mine...

PIE - My sweet daughter stepped into the pie making role this year.  I almost hate to admit it - but her pecan pie is way better than mine!

Family -