Adventure Day and Birthday

So last Tuesday was Adventure Day.
That is all the kids knew, but not where we were going.
We started out at the hospital, dropping presents off. We usually visit BJ, who has now been a part of our family since Rhaevyn was born, twice a year. We were so glad to find her in on Tuesday. It is always such a treat to get to see her. She has promised Rhaevyn and Aeva a hospital tour that will count towards their homeschooling lessons. We are looking forward to that.
After that the kids got to pick where they wanted to have lunch.
Then it was off to the Scholastic Warehouse Book Sale. Rhaevyn guessed it on our way there.
After perusing the books we drove along Marine Drive past the airport and got to see planes take off and come in. Myles guessed our last stop, the carousel.
What a fun day!

Aeva was holding on for dear life.

Myles started off on a horse, but changed his mind and sat with his older sisters.

Getting ready for take off..........

After our fun adventure day, we dropped Aeva off at the

Old Spaghetti Factory to have her daddy date with Chris.

They got to sit in the trolley.

Aeva had quite a fun birth-date. Chris took her to the music store

and got her the Charlie Brown music, as she has been wanting to learn how to

play it. Then it was off to Target to spend her gift card.
Happy 10th Birthday, Aeva!

December News

We are ready for our Christmas break.
Let's see.........what have we been up to............

*school work
*watching lots of interesting documentaries (Teddy Roosevelt, 1918 Flu, Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony and the Crash of 1929)
*making goodies (Oreo truffles)
*a tour of Christmas lights
*replacing a garbage disposal
*Fencing
*music lessons
*a piano recital
*reading Little Women, Good Wives and Little Men
*work.............

Well, you get the picture.
Tuesday is Aeva's birthday, and I can't believe it has been almost 10 years since our little Aeva was born. Chris wanted to do something really special this year. He decided to get the piano tuned for her. We got the piano several years ago for free and have done nothing to it and really new nothing about it. We could tell it was really out of tune, and poor Aeva has been so good to limp along on it even though all of her songs truly did not sound right.We have now learned that it is from 1925 and was kept in decent shape, except for a few pieces here and there.
The piano was tuned on Thursday, and my best friend took Aeva for the day to do school with her kids and play so it would be a surprise. When she came home it took her a while to finally notice that the piano had a ribbon on it.

What a difference the tuning of a piano makes. She loves playing the piano even more now because the music actually sounds like it supposed to. I hope to have a video on here soon of the songs she played for her recital (Rainbow Connection, Oh Christmas Tree).

I love having music players in the house. I wish I had the musical talent of Rhaevyn and Aeva.
On December 11th Aeva had her piano recital, and today she played Away in the Manger in Primary at church.
Here are some pictures we took of the kids today before church.They are all getting so tall. I think they have all gone through a growth spurt in the last month.
They all wanted to be measured last night, so they lined up on the wall so I could mark their heights. Rhaevyn has about half an inch before she is as tall as me. Her goal is to be taller than me by her birthday.

I'll leave you with a bit of Elsa singing.

This week is already looking pretty busy. I am taking the kids on a fun adventure day, Chris is taking Aeva on a date for her birthday, Alayna "the infamous babysitter" is in town for Christmas so Chris and I are going on a date, and then it's off to Ben and Stacey's at the end of the week.

Wishing you all a wonderful week and a very merry Christmas.

May you be surrounded by many friends and family and much love.

Life, Thanks Giving and Flurries

It has been a while since I have posted.

I haven't had that many pictures to post, and although it probably only matters to me, I like a post with pictures. I am definitely a picture person. I love looking at photos. To me they say so much..........they are worth at least a thousands words and thoughts.

The girls made flannel baby blankets.

This was a science project. We were studying human cells.

We used gelatin, ziplock bags, and candy.Two love bugs.
Can you say "Pumpkin Juice!"

November appeared and then ended with some flurries.
Our Thanksgiving was very quiet and restful. It was nice to not have to worry about anything really (school work and work) and just enjoy the company of our little family.

And now here we are at December's doorstep and the door has opened.
Hmm, what will December hold, I wonder, for us.
We put the tree up on Thanksgiving evening and decorated it. The lower half is bare, but Elsa has managed somehow to reach even the high up ornaments. I have a line of them on the TV that need to be put back together. The girls were so eager to put out the presents they had got for each other, but they had to go back into the closet because Miss E was ripping into them.

We've just been keeping busy with school and goals, piano lessons, violin lesson, and Rhaevyn has returned to fencing. Chris has been busy at work. Both girls are trying to learn Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Aeva's recital is coming up next Saturday, and she is a bit nervous, which is something new for her.

Myles is keeping me in stitches with things like............
"Humormous"...which I believe is humongous and ginormous put together.
We also have a dragon that lives on our roof. I haven't exactly caught a glimpse of him yet, he is too quick for me, but Myles spots him out our window a lot flying around. I love the imagination, it makes life exciting and never dull.

Miss Elsa is keeping me on my toes with baths in the sugar canister, contents of my purse strewn about, into the toothpaste, and my favorite...............jumping naked on Myles's bed. If it is quiet and she isn't in the kitchen, my bedroom or the living room, it is safe to bet that she has managed to get her diaper off and ether run free, hide in laundry or jump on a bed.
Well, that is all the happenings around our little happy abode.
Wishing you all a dapper first week of December.

Out of the Mouth of Myles...........

Pumpkin Leg Myles

I love the things that come out of the mouths of kids. It is so funny, entertaining and interesting how their little minds work and how they are so honest in an innocent way.

Two weeks ago Myles was running errands with me. There we were in the van at a stop light, and I was watching five ducks fly round and round in a circle over a house. In my head I was asking myself, "Do they have a home at one of those houses?" Myles commented on the ducks, and then I said, out loud, "I wonder what those ducks are doing?"
Myles replied, " They are flying you silly."
I couldn't help but laugh.

Sunday morning Myles and I read a book about spiders. There was a picture in the book of a spider molting. I was telling him about how my tarantula would do that. How its new body would be so bright and colorful. I told him that it is similar to when snakes shed their skin. They shed their old skin when they grow.
Myles sat next to me at church. At one point he took one of my hands in his, caressed it, and then leaned over to say "You have old skin, mom. I wish you were a snake and could get new skin."
I just about busted a gut.

I love how fulfilling being a mother is. I love the frustrating times, the sleepless nights, the "I love you-s", and the "your the best mom I could ever have-s" (even when you feel you aren't ). I don't know what I did to deserve these children, four great and sweet blessings, but whatever I did I am glad I did it. I can't imagine my life without them.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night........

What a fun Halloween night we had last night.
We decided to think outside the box this year and do something a bit different.

Aeva made a Boo-quet at Activity Days.

For costumes, we decided last night to go on a hunt around the house to see what we had that the kids could dress up in.

Elsa was a little calf.

Here is Princess Aeva.

I thought this was so cute.

Myles wanted to be Darth Mal from Star Wars,

so the girls tried to figure out how to dress him for the part.

I printed out a picture of a Darth Mal face and cut it out.

Elsa didn't know what to make of Myles.

After costumes, it was time for pumpkin carving..........

..........and candy eating.

Time to turn off the lights..............

Spoooooooooky!

Then it was time to take turns reading the Tell Tale Heart by candle light.

To top off the evening we played two rounds of Jenga.

I think we all agreed that thinking outside the pumpkin this year turned out to be a lot of fun.

Just a side note, Myles wrote his name all by himself for the first time this morning.

Last night he wrote the letters in blue. I wrote out his name at the top for him, and then this morning he wrote the green letters just about the blue ones. It is always so fun when your children learn to do something by themselves.

The people he drew in the picture are Oma, Opa and Cash.

Wishing you all a nimble November.

Are We Famous?

Things have been a little hectic around these parts lately.
I have been working at overhauling our school schedule as well as school curriculum.
This has been our first week with "new" ways of doing things, and my goodness what a breath of fresh air it has been.
I have had several great reminders of why we/I wanted to home school. It is like having a light bulb come on. I don't have it completely how I think I want things to go, but that will have to wait until January or possibly next year, (compromise, compromise) but at least things are better now. The girls are back to actually enjoying learning.

We received a very wonderful gift and surprise the other day.
Let me back track a bit. A person at our church asked if they could paint a portrait of the girls. This was during the summer. The girls had been seen wearing white one Sunday, and this person loved the white with their dark hair. One Saturday, I put the girls' hair up in buns and they dressed all in white (or almost all white), and a picture was taken of them. The picture was used for the portrait.
Thank goodness it isn't like long ago where you had to sit absolutely still while your portrait was done.
Anyway, it is finished! I had to laugh when we put it up on the piano (not sure where to hang it yet) and Aeva turned to me and asked, "are we famous?" When we have studied portraits in art it has always been of very famous or wealthy people that got their portraits painted.
Anyway, here is the finished product.


Chris and I were studying it last night and were thinking how interesting it was that the personality of each girl shows, right down to Rhaevyn putting one foot on the other. That is so her.
We feel so blessed and privileged to have this beautiful work of art of two of our precious girls.
Just two random and fuzzy pictures.
I peeked into the girls' room last week, and there were Myles and Aeva working side by side.
It was just too precious.



Hope you are all enjoying your month of October. Can you believe November will be here next week?