Field Trip to the Park

Last week we had a day where we knew we wouldn't have any daycare kids until late afternoon. So I told the kids if they got up and got school done early we would spend the morning at the park. It was going to be a lovely day so we were very excited!

Our homeschool is relaxed in one way. The kids have their books in in a crate in the cabinet. Each morning they get them out and put them on the table. When they have completed a subject they put those books back into the crate. In the picture above they are working on their book study together. They had to look up some vocabulary words in the dictionary.

The park we went to was our favorite park from when my older two kids were little! It is called Creative Playground and it is on Fielder and Green Oaks. It is the best! We had many a birthday party there.

They loved running around all over the place and doing the rock climbing wall. They played for an hour and then JC rode his skateboard for a little while.

We took our drawing pads to the park so that after an hour of play they could get some art in. Nick drew the tire swing but wouldn't let me keep it or take a picture of it. He did a good job.

JC decided to draw a tree. He was very serious about his drawing. He really has a gift when it comes to drawing because it is something he loves to do. He wants to get all sorts of drawing materials so he can try lots of new styles.

I think he did a great job! He put all the little limbs on it and he loves to sign and date it. I wish he would learn to do it smaller so it takes up less attention from his drawing but I suppose that will come with time.

Jenni went around finding different leaves that she liked and she traced them and then taped them to the other page. That is a style in her nature book she learned from her last school.

This is her finished product. She didn't put them in the book exactly like she drew them. I had thought she would color the other ones or draw the lines on them but I think she was too tired from our day out. We had such a wonderful day. 

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

Field Trip to the Circus

Two weeks ago we were given tickets to the circus in Fort Worth. It was such a treat because none of the kids got to go. We thought Sami was going to get to go with us but it didn't work out. We were very sad because she had never gone either. I know that sounds terrible that we never took them to the circus before, but there are a lot of things we have yet to do with our children. We are working on fixing that.

JC was the only one brave enough to ride the elephant! He loved it. It only went around in the ring twice. For $8 it should have gone around a few more times. But I suppose since we were gifted with the tickets it didn't hurt to spend that money on an elephant ride. He is the third from the front with a white cap on backwards.

The boys really enjoyed the motorcycles in a cage. There was a 10 year old riding one of them. It was something! It made me feel very nervous for them. They also liked the trapezes and high wire acts.

Jenni loved the rope climbers that spun around and did fancy moves in the air as they hung from silky material "ropes". She loved the poodles that did their act. There were also ladies that did fancy things with hula hoops.

JC took a picture of us and he did pretty good. All in all, we had a wonderful time at the circus. We love doing things with our family! What a blessing our friends are, too! Thanks so much for the tickets. It was a blast!

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

***Since then we have discovered how badly they treat the elephants and other animals so we don't have any plans to return to the circus unless that changes. We are glad they got the experience of going and are thankful for the free tickets. 

September Birthdays

Jenni is 7!!!

She had a High School Musical party, of course! She was so excited! We her a shirt to wear and a fun cake. We got Disney Channel Scene It and they kids played it. Then we had cake and opened presents!

I had to get a picture with the birthday girl!! I can't believe she is already 7 years old. Where did the time go? She is getting so tall and still a beautiful little girl. We love to hang out together and she still likes to snuggle with her mom (for now!).

She is a total daddy's girl! Every chance she gets she snuggles up with her dad or gets hugs! I know that he is wondering how she can be so big so quickly, as well. Time does fly....

She got some wonderful gifts, four of them Barbie dolls! So it was a good thing we had this wonderful Barbie Doll house made for her! She loves it! It is totaly awesome! It takes up a lot of room but that is ok. It is 5'x5'. We had Steve Hughes make it for her. I got the plans off of ebay and asked him if he could do it. It turned out fantastic! She is in the second grade and is doing wonderful!! She almost always has a great attitude when it comes to doing her school work and finishes by 11 in the morning so she has the rest of the day to do other things.

Nick is 16!!!!!!

He had a Family Force Five disco type party. We had a disco ball and party lights. We had a Wii and Playstation 2 there.

We were able to use the fellowship hall at our church so John and his band set and played a short set. It was fun but loud. 

His friend brought Guitar Hero to play. Thanks bunches!!! They really had a lot of fun playing that game.

I thought I would get in the picture since I am usually taking them! (yes, that is an earring! ugh! Not my choice or his dads. We are hoping he out grows it soon!) It is hard to believe that he is 16. That is such a weird age. They are so close to what the world calls adult and yet so far from really understanding what it means to be grown up. He is in 11th grade so we have 2 years of high school left to get him through. Then, only God knows what is in store next.

So that is what we did for our two September kids birthday's. They both had a great time and we are so blessed to have them in our lives! 

Until next time...blessings to you.

Our First Day of School 2008

Today we took longer than I had hoped to do school, in fact, we are still working on it right now and it is after 4 in the afternoon. But we took a long break, so that is fine. I am happy working with my kids a little here and there throughout their day.

My children have been working on memory verses throughout the summer. We decided that since they learned the Lords Prayer and the 23rd Psalm we needed to learn the Beatitudes. So they are taking one verse a week and they recite it everyday. Then the next week we add the next verse so they do two verses. It will keep going until they learn the whole thing. We also talk about what those verses mean as we go along. I love it! They are doing a great job. We are on the third verse this week.

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

Because the kingdom of heaven is their.

Blessed are those who mourn,

Because they will be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle,

Because they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

Because they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

Because they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

Because they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

Because they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness,

Because the kingdom of heaven is their.

Matthew 5:3-10

I was not trying to take pictures of the kids while they were working, we were too busy working! I don't know how many pictures I will take but will try to take them when we have something special going on, like a field trip or project. Please pray for our little school. God is showing me all sorts of things today and I am trying to be very still and know that He is God! I am getting more and more excited about this school year and where it will take us. Stay tuned for more home school details!!!

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

Our Summer 2008

I don't know about anyone else and their summer but mine has gone by rather quickly. JC asked me the other day "Mom, how can it almost be Christmas already?" I had to tell him that time passes so quickly and that is why we have to make sure that every day is spent doing the things that are truly important. Now as the world grows darker we have to shine Christs' light even brighter so those who are lost will see.

We did get to do some fun things this summer. I don't have pictures yet of all of them but if I wait for that I may never post! I love to post and share things on here but life gets so busy sometimes. I will try to give brief descriptions of our summer activities!

One of the things we have done a lot this summer is go to Hawaiian Falls in Mansfield. It is newly built and really great for families with younger children. We got passes and went every weekend in June and part of July. We have not had a chance to go in the last few weeks due to our many activities. But that has been a major source of fun in our summer. Both the younger kids have turned a beautiful golden brown as their skin tanned in the summer sun. Mine on the other hand, has not! My darling husband questioned me one day as to why I wasn't as dark as them since I was out there the same amount of time. I just DON'T tan, that is it, cut and dry. I did get a little bit darker but still look very fair next to them.

JC went to Preteen Camp for the very first time this year! He loved it, as I knew he would. He enjoyed every aspect of it. He enjoyed the camp pastor, which was also a comedian/storyteller of sorts. He had a wonderful wolf puppet that he used to tell stories and get the kids drawn into it with. He came home with the CD of it and we listened to it all the way home from the church, with a couple of stops in between. I don't have his film developed yet, I know bad! What can I say? I am so busy! And... I forget!

Jenni also had her first experience with camp this year. She went to GA camp. Her big sister went in my place since I had no more vacation time to spare because we used up five days for our honeymoon in April. The girls had a wonderful time, all of them. It was one of the best years the girls had at camp. She really grew up during that trip. I talked to her on the phone a few times but she didn't want to come home. She wanted to stay there and have fun with her friends and her sister. Last weekend she got invited over to a sleepover and I could tell she really had grown up a little from camp when I told her I would miss her. Her reply was "Mom, it's not that long." Too true, it was only one night, not 5 days like camp was. My sweet baby is growing up! That is a very good thing!

In between church camps we went on our vacation to...you guessed it...Colorado! We sure miss it when we are not there. We spent the 4th of July with our dear friends in Idaho Springs.

We watched the fireworks from the same spot we did last year.

The next day us girls had our day, as you can read about in the previous post.

We headed for Montrose to camp the following day. The views along the way were wonderful. We hadn't traveled that way before so it was nice to see some of Colorado that we hadn't seen. We camped there for two days. The weather was nice. We drove up to Ouray and that was a lovely little mountain town. There were shops there and I found a collection of Angels that I adore! I want to collect them but can't find anyone who sells them. So I guess I will have to make trips to Ouray periodically. We may camp there someday.

We headed to Westcliffe, our town, after that. We spent two days there. We put markers on our land where we want our house built. We also went bowling (our favorite thing to do there) and played pool one night. We also got to eat at our favorite pizza place. It was like being home for just a bit.

Then we went to Durango to camp a couple of days. This is a view we saw while driving from Westcliffe to Durango. It was fun.

We got to make s'mores at the camp ground in Durango since we could have somewhat of an open fire. We didn't get to do that in Montrose. Then we drove home in one day! LONG DRIVE!!!

The day we got home from Colorado we slept for half a day then got up for Vacation Bible School. We had a wonderful week of VBS! The songs were so fun this year. I had been working in the preschool area the last 9 years so I really missed the music time that the older kids got to do.

I helped out in the first grade class. We had a lot of fun doing pretend water activities in the classroom!

We have done the summer movie day several times this summer. The kids have been great at that. We went to Chuck E. Cheese one morning to visit with some dear friends from the school the kids went to the last two years. We have gone to get Slurpees many, many times this summer to try to withstand the heat that comes with Texas during the months of July and August.

We have gone to see full price movies a few times. We enjoyed Dark Knight and Kung Fu Panda. It is so hard to take the kids to the movies when it is new because it costs so much now. I would rather wait till the movies gets to the dollar show to pay less but it is hard to make them wait for something they want to see so badly and others they are close to have seen it. Of course, Sami saw Dark Knight the day it opened! She does that a lot.

I have been doing school all summer. I have done very well at keeping my grades up, even through vacation! Yes, my laptop and text book went with us! I am in the process of getting licensed instead of registered with the state so that I can watch more kids and carry more kids on my food program. I am very excited about what that can mean towards our goals to pay off things and build our house so that we are debt free and have a place to live when we get to Colorado. We have sat down and made our lists of things we need to do in the next few months and it is so exciting!

We could no longer afford our old school so we had to make some hard choices. But with prayer they have not been hard at all. Much to the contrary. Nick is studying to take his GED. The younger two will be homeschooling. We are all excited about our school plans and look forward to an exciting year. Nick is also working on starting his own rock band. He is so talented. He taught himself how to play the piano and bass guitar and sings very well. He is now learning to play the drums for certain songs. He is gifted with music in a way I have never seen before. I am amazed and excited to see how he lets God use him through it.

My daycare, as I said above, is doing very well and we are making some big changes. The Lord is already laying the foundations of it as the time draws near to turn in the paperwork. I am trusting Him to bring who He wants here as always. He has been so faithful to do so all these years.

We are doing well and staying busy as we take each day and do at least one thing to work towards our goals to move. It takes time but we will get there.

Until next time...blessings to you.

Mother/Daughter Day In Colorado

We had a wonderful Mother/Daughter day with our friends, Michelle and Caroline. We had been planning it for months since I told her we were coming for the fourth of July weekend. We watched the fireworks with our friends, the Hillman's, like we did last year. Then on Saturday, July 5th we went on a Mother/Daughter picture and fun day. (We ended up taking Michael with us but that ended up OK) The guys went fishing and had a good time.

We wanted to take some mother and daughter pictures since we are both nuts about pictures. I think we both got some really great ones. I love this one of Jenni and me. She is such a special little girl and I am glad we were able to capture this moment in time. I am going to put some of them in a special frame when I get the time and find the right frame.

Michelle and Caroline got some really good ones, too. It was so much fun spending the day together in the mountains. She took us to a small mountain town and we looked in the shops and ate pizza and ice cream. We went to the mall after that to shop and eat dinner. The kids rode the carousel.

Of course, the girls had to get their pictures done together. They were always right next to each other so it wasn't hard to snap quite a few pictures of them. They had such a great time together on our trip.

We "big" girls had to have some fun, too! Jenni did a great job of taking pictures of us! I got both of us a frame that says friends and holds two pictures. So we are putting these two pictures in those frames. That worked out perfectly!

Our day was a blast and I am so grateful that God sent this precious friend into my life. He is so good and knows who and what we need all the time. I love you, Michelle! You are the best ever! Thanks for always being there for me!

Until next time...blessings to you.

Happy 4th of July

I am going on vacation on July 3-13 and will not be doing any blogging (not that I have been doing much lately!). I found a wonderful poem and thought I would share it with my visitors, too. We will be in Colorado for 9 days and enjoying the great outdoors and the company of our friends that live there. We need a vacation so badly! Please pray for our safety and protection while we are on the road. We will have lots to post about when we return!!! Happy 4th!

We gather 'round to celebrate

On Independence Day

Pay homage to our country

As the children run and play.

With barbecues and picnics

And fireworks in the air

The flag we own is proudly flown

To show how much we care.

The stars and stripes spell freedom

She waves upon the breeze

While bursts of colors can be seen

Above the towering trees.

This is all quite wonderful

We revel in delight

But God above in divine love

Has brought this day to light.

With just a stroke of liberty

A touch of His great hand

He gave democracy to us

And helped this country stand.

The stripes upon our stately flag

Were touched by His sweet grace

Each star of white that shines so bright

Reflects His loving face.

So as you turn to face the flag

For battles that were fought

Be filled with pride for those who died

And freedoms that were bought.

But don’t forget to thank the One

That gives the bright display

The reason why we paint the sky

On Independence Day

Copyright © Marilyn Ferguson 2003

Until next time...blessings to you.