Boys to men

Yesterday we dropped jack off at high point camp in birdsboro for the week. He'll be 16 in a month. He's growing up fast....

more christmas

the boys had the homeschool choir concert which was so much fun (short and festive) and so nice to see them in ties (even if they were a little long, thank you salvation army).



friends gave us free tickets to the christmas production at sight and sound (for us over a $200 value). all peter could talk about was seeing his good friend garrett's new baby brother who sat a few rows in front of us (his dad is our children's pastor at church and in our small group):

karis gave pete a bath and took pictures (thankful she's willing to give the bath and remembers to take pictures):

the joy of new old things

we've gone "stir crazy" for our stir crazy popcorn popper that is. so much cheaper and healthier to pop your own, and the kids love to see how quickly it pops. what we took for granted as kids is fun to introduce to our kids now who think popcorn comes saturated in orange chemicals to pop in the microwave.






happy new year!

easing back in....

some things we've been busy with the past few months:

picking and freezing (and eating) strawberries




slamball (basketball hoop pulled up to the trampoline)


field day for homeschool co-op
(jack and mike only)

easter cantata/pageant

this year everyone but haley and me had the pleasure of participating in our church's Easter pageant. they used a professional actor from sight and sound to play the part of Jesus, and the tricky part was that he was supposed to pick peter up at the end and carry him out. peter kept saying, "nope. it's not really Jesus. that guy doesn't even go to our church." so they never practiced it.


that's karis holding pete's hand as they walked in for the procession of Jesus entering. olivia is in front of them, and mike is wearing a brown tunic, while jack is wearing a green one. i don't have a great shot of just jack, which is a shame because they were supposed to look adoringly at Jesus, and jack nailed that. his expression was .......... moving. really. that's karis' boyfriend, t.j. playing the guard. at one point, when they came in the side doors, something happened (i think he kicked it and stubbed his toe) where he was trying really hard not to laugh. that kind of took away from the seriousness of the situation being portrayed, but otherwise, well done.




in the picture above you can kind of get a glimpse of jack's expressions.

at this point, below, pete was getting an idea that this was the end and started holding on to olivia *really* tight. but before he knew it, Jesus had scooped him up, olivia had scooped up another girl, and they started quickly walking out the center aisle. once he got to the back and was reunited with his sisters, he was fine. robin and nick were the props guys. i didn't get a picture of them-sorry!

deal of the day

sadly, this is the first year in about 13 that we won't be celebrating easter with my brother and his family. secondary sadness, all of our plastic easter eggs are at their house since last year we were basically homeless.

enter the deal of the day. my favorite local mennonite thrift store had them for sale: .03 for large eggs, .02 for medium size.

so i got 107 eggs for $2.21.

and sorting them kept pete occupied for more than an hour.

books vs. movies

which do you think has more impact on a young person's life?

we've had this book for years:



and the boys enjoyed it, and had fun with it. it's been a couple of years since we used it, since it was in storage all last year, so i thought it would be a great way to jump start their imaginations for spring and get them away from screens (tv/computer/video games).

so i opened it and found this:



hm. inquiring minds want to know--what happened? who did it? what was the purpose behind it?

the two oldest brothers started laughing, in a reminiscent/ fond memory sort of way.
that was years ago, mom.
we wanted to hide some batteries.

did you read about that in the book? i ask.

no. we saw it in a movie.

:)

awana grand prix

each year awana does a pinewood derby and this year was no exception. the boys didn't win anything (and i forgot to take individual pictures of their cars!) but they had fun.



this car won best design. it was made by our 12yo friend, breanna.

craziness

the wireless internet didn't want to work all day so i could post these pictures of the craziness of our last 24 hours. tonight we're not expecting any more snow to *fall* but the wind is whipping around the additional 16" we got this go round.


the kids played outside in it most of the day.
the boys enjoyed sliding/jumping/doing flips off of the shed roof into the mounds of snow below.
even pete (he's 4).
i told the 2 little boys to be thankful they had two big brothers because i never would've let them do that without them.


this is looking out the atelier window....
yes, it is covered with snow. it is *that* windy.

and this is a picture of mike's frostbite that he actually got a few years ago while visiting my sister in michigan. it flares up any time he gets really cold. i know because when i was in college (messiah, fall of '84) my roommate and i walked to mcdonalds and i had a hole in my boot and got frostbite on my big toe. every time it gets cold it flares up the same way.

ah, well.
wasn't it helen keller who said life is an adventure or nothing at all?

half way through

we are officially half way through the school year.
the boys in 1st/5th grade are saying good bye to their bodies.......
and moving on to the next thing....

north museum of science and natural history

we love that our library offers free family passes to some local museums. this month we took advantage of the one to the north museum of science and natural history. instead of bemoaning the fact that we so rarely can do field trips with all 7 kids, i've decided to embrace the relative ease of keeping track of only 4 (and console myself with the fact that the oldest 3 have been to many, many more museums, even if they don't remember all of them).

it doesn't look very big from the outside, but inside there was so much to do. i feel like we went through it quickly, and we were there for over 2 hours. the discover room alone (with all those delightful labeled boxes of things the kids could touch, including animal feet, skulls, native american things, etc.). we're getting ready to study astronomy in the spring, so their whole section on that was inspiring, not to mention the traveling exhibit on blood suckers which was very well done and full of information.

the mind of jack

also before christmas.....

we are blessed to have an awesome sledding hill behind our development, close enough for the kids to walk. on this particular trip, i was out looking for the wayward puppies (who keep digging out under the temporary chicken wire fence we've put out) and took my camera with me to catch a few shots before the sun went down. their friend, veeble (sp?) was with them, seen in the picture of the jump they made.









at the end of a beautiful day....

one starry night

this year our church put on an awesome christmas dinner, complete with various entertainment and concluding with a children's play, "one starry night." mike was a shepherd and jack was a speaker. they did a really good job, and we were very proud.

mike, a shepherd


jack, the speaker

the group, including friends denae and mikayla

landis valley museum

another benefit of the library is a free family museum pass to some local museums. we were planning on going to another museum about an hour away, but their special festivities were cancelled due to the weather. it turned out to be for the best anyway, since it was only gray and slightly drizzly and robin got to go with us. the girls were all busy, so it was just me and the boys. fun!

they already had the visitor center decorated for christmas. the museum shop was having an open house, with carolers dressed in time period garb and free refreshments. jack saw his awana teacher, and robin met up with an old co-worker.

i love it all, but i especially liked the school house. that is, until the boys got carried away in their make believe outhouse adventure (but all that pretending did send us on a quest to find the nearest "real" bathroom).
silly boys.

dinner funny

after reading proverbs 9 after dinner:

mom: "what does rebuke mean?"

jack: "....throw up?"

olivia: "no, that's re-puke"

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

another guest post

made by jack, in honor of our divided household.

World Series 2009

View more presentations from rufam.

guest blogger: jack henry

sharing his favorite lunch/snack to make.

How To Make A Quesadilla

View more presentations from rufam.

neighborhood gatherings

have been happening frequently around here, mostly in the under 13 crowd.
our kids haven't had trees of their own in a while to make piles of leaves in, so they were eager to start raking.

they quickly gained a gathering of followers.the gloves prevent the "red hots" (rope burns).

(click to enlarge)

some just got buried.
some buried themselves.all had a great time.

fire safety house

one thing the pennsylvania homeschool law really emphasizes is fire safety.
it's required to be taught (with proof in the portfolio!) every year.
(and yet, it was not taught in one grade out of the 6 we were in public school last year)
so we took up the opportunity when the local township fire department had their inflatable learning house at hands on house.
jack, olivia, mike and pete had fun.

this was from inside. a little girl actually got her foot stuck in the rope ladder that went to the top of the slide. she needed two firemen to get her out (sounds like a joke, but it's all true! olivia tried to help her before the firemen climbed in and rescued her).