For some reason I decided I’d be real crafty for Valentine’s Day. I made cards for Jeff and Hayley then decided to try a new recipe for my sweeties, cake balls. I basically used the cake balls recipe by the awesome Bakerella. I was going to finish it all myself but the final decorating part was too fun not to let Hayley help. I’m sure next time we make them they’ll look even better but they were so really tasty and cute.
See more photos from this set: Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print) Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
Hayley’s school had an early release day today (Friday) and a Valentine’s Dance scheduled for that night, so she had friends come over to go see the Justin Bieber 3D movie, hang out and get ready and then grab dinner before heading to the dance. Ahh middle school.
Hayley has lucked out and has an exceptional science teacher, Bill Ferriter. Hayley and I have enjoyed talking technology with him over the first semester and she lucked out when he asked her to do a neat project for him. Over break, he got a Livescribe, a smart pen that records while you write and connects the audio to the text or drawing. Think of the possibilities of taking notes (for school, work, whatever) and then being able to touch the pen to a word and you hear the audio recorded at the time) or being able to explain and draw out something with words and images – for visual learners, this is really cool. Also when you write in the special notebooks it can also create a combined visual/audio ‘tutorial’ that can be uploaded online. Way nifty.
If you want more background (and I suspect Grandpa John will), you can read this post of his about getting the pen and his ideas for it, Teaching and Learning with Livescribe Pens.
He wanted to get some examples to share at school so he selected Hayley and gave her the pen for the weekend to see what she could create. We had a lot of fun playing with it and she was really proud he picked her to work on this. He was thrilled with her work and posted them online. We are really proud of her!
(this is one of both of our favorite childhood poems. It’s too hard to draw in depth and read at the same time so I read it so Hayley could draw all the trash, haha)
You can see the posting/email her teacher sent to all the other parents about the project, Livescribe tutorials.
We didn’t do all that much the last few weeks of trackout break before the Hayley went back to school – between the snow, her new laptop, scooter and video games, she was content to lay low and goof off. But she did go to a cheerleading day camp for a week, we hit our favorite museum, got mani-pedis, read a lot, had dentist and orthodontist appts, a couple of sleepovers at friends and her basketball season is in full swing as well (I’ll post some hoops photos soon)
What a great Christmas! It started off with going to the Carolina Ballet performance of the Nutcracker with Jenn and Mason. We did lots of crafts and baked, did our Christmas Eve Gingerbread house decorating and then our Christmas day Demolition Derby, the sixth annual! Between them, we opened scads of gifts and then had a full house for dinner. Top it all off with snow for a white Christmas and I don’t think we could ask for more!
We caught up with Hayley’s grandmother, grandfather and great-grandfather from her firstmom’s family for dinner the day after Thanksgiving. Her Nana & Poppy live in Florida so it was a nice treat to see them on their visit up here! Hayley always loves to see them.
See more photos from this set: Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print) Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
As most of you know, I tend to shoot almost every sporting event Hayley plays in and share the pictures with the team. Of course fall soccer, playing for the Triangle United U13 Breakers, was no exception. For this set, I pulled out the shots of just Hayley. Updated Jan. 3rd, I’ve added all the ones of Hayley now.
See more photos this set: Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print) Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
Hayley got tossed from a horse this week and she was shaken up but was just fine pretty soon after. Since I’m always overprotective, I took her up to the ER just to check things out. Turned out she has a small closed fracture in her right thumb (and yes, she’s right handed, ugh).
Despite her fierce mugging below, she is having fun with all the attention and cast signing. She’s in almost no pain, more annoyed by the cast issues.
Hayley and I made a fantastic cheesecake. It was the first time we made one completely from scratch and we didn’t even get any cracks. Hayley decided it was better than Cheesecake Factory!
Recently Hayley had a chance to hang out with one of her half-sisters from her first family. They went to Build-a-Bear, lunch and then goofed off in the mall riding their carousel and this cool bounce/jump thing. They had a lot of fun and it was a great afternoon for them to spend together.
See more photos and video this set: Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print) Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
