April was full of field trips

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Brennan at the National Zoo was definitely a highlight of the month of April 2014.  We had a great time in DC.  The metro itself was awesome for the kiddos.  We took two strollers and gave all the kids plenty of breaks from walking to maximize what we could see in DC in just a couple of days.  We enjoyed watching the changing of the guards at Arlington Cemetery on Day 1.  We walked from Georgetown to Lincoln Memorial down the National Mall.  We ended the Day 2 at the Smithsonian.  We spent Day 3 at the zoo.  Of course each night we visited the hotel pool; the necessary part of each family vacation.   The next week we took at field trip to NC Farm Animal days on Thursday and a trip to Maple View Farms on Friday.  The kids are now pretty sure they want to be farmers.  That weekend led Jeff and Brennan to a father-son camp-out.  They had a wonderful time with a group of Fathers/Sons from our church.  Brennan was excited to catch fish and do it the whole job beginning to end on his own.  The girls and I had our own "retreat" at home.  My friend and her daughter came to spend the night.  The following weekend we celebrated Easter.  My nephew Ryan and his friends came for lunch and then we all went to the park for our church picnic.  It was such a great day!  We all slept well that night.  We didn't want to slow the streak and did one more field trip last week to a place called Three Bear Acres.  It is a beautiful outdoor classroom/play area.  The kids learned a lot and had a lot of fun too!  Ava got paint everywhere and we stayed until it started to rain on us.  We went to the lake this past Saturday.  We got to go visit our dear friends that moved this past September.  We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and beautiful friendships.   Even Ava Jane was on a boat!  All the big kids enjoyed tubing at super speeds!  We had parents night at AWANAS and we were very proud of Sarah, Jenna Grace and Brennan.  I included a few pics of when they got their awards.    This week we went to Great Harvest bread company and toured their facility.  The kids get to roll our there own dough and learn a lot of milling wheat and making bread.  So in between all of our trips, we had 6 baseball games!  Brennan has been spending most of his time pitching and catching.  He is very much enjoying the sport and being trained in sportsmanship.  Jenna Grace started gymnastics this month and is just thrilled to have the opportunity.  I included the kids beautiful Easter picture.  So Sweet! This month was certainly a memorable one and we look forward to several family visits during May.  

Sarah at NC Farm Animal Days

Brennan and Mommy on the metro in DC

Brennan from the mound

Maple Ridge Farms Field Trip 

Dying Easter Eggs (and my coffee)

Sarah is working hard to find eggs in the yard

Brennan looks high and low for his eggs

Ryan still has to find eggs! 

Ava Jane is a serious driver

Two girls cruising in Apex

I love the hair, just had to share!

The paint wall at Three Bear Acres

In the Lake :) 

Great Harvest Field Trip

Easter 2014 Picture

Yes, we match!  

Don't they look small!  

Over the edge

Camping at Camp Agape

Our Cubbie Bear

Jenna Grace finished year 2 Sparks  book! 

Brennan finished 1st TNT book! 

At Arlington Cemetery

New WWII Memorial, beautiful! 

Picnic right on the national mall lawn!

    

March Madness 2014

It is time to fill out our brackets and prepare to watch some basketball! We had another wave of illness early March, but we were very blessed slowing down and having quality time together. We celebrated our late Valentine's party with friends. The girls especially loved decorating their cookies. We also did a cool experiment, growing cystals on charcoal! We had several park days with friends in the past couple of weeks and during one adventure I was able to catch an awesome shot of Brennan in mid air launching a rocket. We also went to the puppet show "Cinderella" because we were studying China and read Yeh-Shen, the original Cinderella..... dated over 1000 years ago, isn't that COOL? We had a FAT TUESDAY celebration and enjoyed our first Kings Cake. Brennan got the baby in his piece so he was King of the Party. It was fun to learn the traditions that go along with Mardi Gras. Jenna Grace finished her last cheerleading game and Brennan finished basketball. Brennan's last game was his first game in new shoes and he had his best game of the year. Their team was excited to win their last game. They finished the season with 4 wins and 4 losses. Brennan starts baseball tomorrow. Sarah has been enjoying our Five in a Row books and doing some of her own schoolwork. She is very motivated to do things properly. She is a great helper and such a JOY to us! We did a tour of the green McDonalds and I have included a picture of Ava in the playspace. She didn't do the tour very well as she wanted to play. She loves to climb and say "DADA" over and over and over again! She is talking more every day and up to almost 27 pounds. The other children loved the tour, especially going in the freezer. We are enjoying a study of insects. We are watching Ladybug larva, Butterfly Crysallis, and Harvester Ants daily in our kitchen. We are learning a lot of insects and learning a lot about God's amazing creation. We also found a storytime we can go to while Brennan is at CYT on Wednesdays so I included a picture of that as well!

Valentine's Day is upon us!

Hey all! Hope you all enjoyed Valentine's Day on Friday. Our family has postponed it until Wednesday, how do we do that you say? We are home-educated, we can do anything! So on Thursday evening we cancelled our coop plans for Valentine's Day due to the weather. But as we woke Friday morning, we were all sick. A little fever here, stuffed up there, vomit here, runny nose there, coughing here, losing voice there......... it was all here and there floating around our house. So as Brennan joyfully announced at 7 am, "Happy Valentine's Day Mom", I politely said, "Thank you Brennan, but it has be postponed until next Wednesday". This was not out of the ordinary to him because in the last few weeks we have had so many schedule changes because of winter weather. The snow comes, 3 days later it is 60 degrees and it is all gone. This coming Friday is supposed to hit 70 degrees. So now that we have made it to Sunday, we are all on the mend. Brennan had a basketball game tonight and we were very proud of his sportsmanship! Sadly, Jenna Grace had to miss her cheerleading game because of illness on Saturday. We have a fun filled few weeks. We made perfume for our Egyptian mummies (they kids have faces to show how stinky it is!) We also made real snow cones from our snow outside. We took a trip to the History Museum and the kids took a class there. We also visited Marbles Museum, Ava Jane loves it there (as do the other children). We were finishing up learning about the human body and our study of China. The kiddos made some clay bowls and we finished reading our most recent favorite lamplighter book, titled "Basil". "Basil" was written in 1856 by Charlotte O'Brien. All the lamplighter books we read were written in the 1800s, early 1900s and every single one we read is our favorite. I am also including a few pictures from the play "Heidi" that Brennan was in at the end of January. We are looking forward to attending this month's cyt play on the 22nd, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Sarah had her 4 year old well check up and all is well and she is right around 50% for her height, weight, and head measurements. She screamed louder than most when she got her vaccinations. She was the first one to fight off the nurses, we had to hold her down. It doesn't surprise me, as she is a child that God has provided with tremendous leadership qualities. She is very determined but underneath has one of the sweetest hearts I have had the pleasure on knowing. I got to have a special date with Jenna Grace and Sarah at Red Robin; they got speckled lemonade and smoothies. We took a picture of ourselves together, it looks rather funny. Well as we get ready to celebrate presidents day, let us all remember what unites us. The reason George Washington didn't want to be a king, is because he worshipped the "King of kings". I am thankful he set the precedent that no president alone would have too much power.

Happy Chinese New Year 2014

This year is the year of the horse, how are you celebrating? We made a Chinese lantern (Thanks Lauren) and read the Story of Ping which takes place in China. I love that we are always learning new things! I had no idea that the Chinese celebrated their new year for 15 days, if you want to learn more as we did, feel free to click the link. So this past Christmas, each member of our family gave Jesus a gift. I chose to give Him this blog. I committed to update this blog at least once a month, but hopefully more often. God has revealed time and time again that this is a way to honor our extended family and friends! We have had a wonderful January. We got to see a Frozen at the theater, WOW was that a great movie. I am pretty sure it is my favorite animated movie. The music was wonderful and it was a rich story of genuine love. Which always reminds me of my favorite story, God's story for us. John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Sarah now tries to freeze us all and she likes to be called "Elsa". We are studying ancient history and are learning a lot about the human body. :) You can also see in the picture where the kids made a snowman on a skewer out of foods. That was really fun! (Thanks Kristin) Doing school work has turned comical when both Ava Jane and Mazie are awake and out with us. Those two are partners in crime and their primary offense is getting us off task. They are both so cute, they woo us over! I am SO thankful we got an invisible fence for Mazie, it was my Christmas present. Honestly, if we didn't get the fence I am not sure we could have kept her. She loves to run wild and now she can do that :) Brennan got started back to basketball and Jenna Grace is doing cheerleading. Brennan was also in a play "Heidi" which was a wonderful experience. He was a mountain kid and one of Clara's friends. The entire play was a testimony of God's faithfulness......... amazing! Brennan, Jenna Grace, and Sarah all enjoy going to AWANA on Sunday evenings. We had a wonderful visit with Gramma and Pop-Pop this month when they came to visit. They got to see Brennan's play, Jenna Grace 's cheerleading, to go to church with us and pick up kiddos from AWANAs. Then they got a nice warm day to play before they had to head back to the bitter cold in PA. As they left, snow came our way. We had several inches of pretty snow and the kids were thrilled to get to play with their sleds and their neighborhood friends. Jeff worked from home for 3 days and we tried to be somewhat quiet, that is rather comical. Somewhat quiet is a mild roar as opposed to the entire zoo. There was a lot of hot chocolate and hot tea for a few days. Jenna Grace had a special date with Daddy and they went to a frozen yogurt shop and the craft stores. She also had a special date with Mommy as we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant together. Jeff took Brennan and Jenna Grace to Home Depot and they made box calendars that are pretty cool. The kids enjoyed making their own markers with their marker set (thank you Gramma and Pop-Pop) and Mazie is enjoying her dog bed (thank you Granny Bee and Pappy.

Noahs landing

Held snakes, pet a crocodile, and heard a bird sing old macdonald had a farm !!! Great field trip Friday !

Happy Halloween ! It was George Washington, Colonial girl and bat girl this year :)