Age 8 -- Hot Wheels Room

Age 3 - 7 Jadon had a Sesame Street Room.  He just had his 8th birthday and demanded that his room be changed to a "big kid" room.  He chose HOT WHEELS.  I didn't have to change the room color so it was pretty easy.  Here is Jadon's new room so far; (The borders were cut from the table covers used for his birthday party!)

Weekend of Wheels with Dad

Jadon had a pretty awesome weekend with his dad.  On Saturday, (1/22/11), Reuben took Jadon to the park where Jadon could play with his remote control helicopter, remote control motorcycle, and remote control car (you could imagine the amount of batteries).  He then took him to an empty parking lot where Jadon sat on his lap and controlled the wheel of the truck.

After that, they were scheduled to go to the Advance Auto Parts: Monster Truck Jam at 7pm but we postponed it for Feb. 5.  Two hours before the event, we received a phone call from my brother-in-law, Frank, whom offered us 3 FREE tickets to the event.  An offer we could not refuse.  I was so excited and we all had a blast!

Winterland of Gingerbread

Today Jadon and I attended a POD field trip to Main Event for the Winterland of Gingerbread hosted by TXVA. Once we arrived and signed in, we were given a wristband to play as much bowling as we like:

 The place was pretty empty when we first arrived, but it quickly filled up.  Jadon found a couple of kids to play bowling with us. He was having a blast! 

After bowling a few rounds, we took a break to vote on the best gingerbread house and take a few pictures in front of the giant gingerbread. Doesn't he look like a little politician?



Next we sat down to eat some pizza. It cost about $13 for two personal size pizza's and 1 drink.  I just love these pictures of Jadon. He is such a gentleman:

And then he is himself. . .SILLY!!!!!!

After eating we played about 2 more rounds of bowling. You can see that the place was starting to fill up with other home-school families. These events are wonderful!!!

The score was tied 3 ways by 53. 

And here, Jadon wins the game!!

After bowling, we went to the arcade section and played $6 worth of games it came out to about 4 1/2 games.  It is NOTHING like Chuck E. Cheese's were every game cost a quarter.  

Happy Holiday's Texas Virtual Academy.

See you next year!!!!

Jadon read his first novel

Jadon is not the one to pick up a book and read for fun.  He would rather play video games. I mean what child wouldn't.  I was determined to get him to like reading. I picked up a few books from the library. Three of them were from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" collection.  This is the first novel Jadon has ever read from cover-to-cover.  He started on September 30, 2010 and read a few hours a day before bed. Skipped a few days but came right back to it.  He finally completed the book in twelve (12) days on October 12, 2010. He has even started his own journal. He is so proud of himself and so is his dad and I.  He wants to begin reading the second novel tonight. Yea!

October 2010

Every year Jadon and I paint the windows in his room with holiday art. 

 We even decorated the front porch. Did you notice the silhouettes?

Cooking with Chef Jadon

Today Jadon woke up bright and early because he was excited about making pancakes. I will leave the rest of the story to him:

Good morning, I am going to show you how I make pancakes using a recipe from my reading school work.  It is called Patty's Pancakes, but you can call them Jadon's pancakes, ok?

First you need to lay out all of your ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of flour (I used whole wheat flour)
• 2 Tablespoons of sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 Tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Don't forget to clean as you go!

Directions:

1. Preheat the griddle to high. (I didn't have a griddle so I used the skillet.)

2. Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter over low heat on the stove.

3. While the butter is melting, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder) together in a large mixing bowl.  

4.  Mix the wet ingredients (milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla) in a second bowl.

5. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir about 1 minute.

6. Pour batter onto the griddle, making each pancake about 3 inches in diameter or however big you want to make them just like I did.

7.  When the top of the pancake starts to bubble, flip the pancake over and cook the other side.

 

8.  The pancakes are done when both sides are brown.

 

 Top your pancakes with whatever you like. I chose strawberries and whipped cream

And strawberry syrup

Now it is time to taste the pancakes:

 Mmmmm, these pancakes are so good! You're gonna love it.
Hope you enjoyed watching me make pancakes.

The Old Man That Build His Own House

Abraham Lincoln's Log Cabin with a Modern Twist

By: Jadon R. Harris

Long ago, there was an old man that didn't have a house or a yard. Just until he got an idea. He found a few logs and he used the logs to build his own house. Some of the neighbors houses broke down. One of them left a roof behind and Abraham Lincoln took the roof and chimney and put it on his log cabin.  He did the same thing for the door. For the window, he found pieces of glass and glued them together.  Then he found a table from the future.  

Some of the trees fell down from the hurricane so he dug a hole with his hands and planted the tree in his yard. When he finished building his house he went inside and looked at it from his window. What a beautiful sunny day.

The End.