Snow in December

We were reported having 7 inches of snow. It was so beautiful falling.

A few pictures of the kiddos.

Bryce's Death Star Destroyer. He was very pleased with his creation.

Aubree had a great time playing.

Saturday - ice on top of the snow.

Such a good Daddy - the ice made great sledding. Sadly Daddy had to do all the work!!

Both kids got dumped but survived and continued on.

Their ice sculpture!! Bryce is still hoping for a White Christmas....

Children's Christmas Program

A Gingerbread Tale was the title of the play. The story was rewritten from the Gingerbread Man to show God's sacrifice and love to us. The music, play and sets were created by two wonderful church families who lived and breathed this play for several weeks.

Aubree did her parts very good. The kids interviewed a senior adult and shared about them. Aubree remembered her part about their Senior Adult and her verse.

Bryce was a townsperson and one of the narrators. He said he got a little nervous about the Senior Recognition part because he couldn't remember how to start his, then he remembered.

Aubree's Creations

While everyone else was unpacking the van from the Asheville trip, this was Aubree's project. The jar was make in Literature Club. Aubree brought back flowers from Outdoor Mission Camp. She came in the house and filled the jar with water. Then she cut the circle out and punched a hole in the middle. Finally she put the flowers in and taped the paper down. About halfway through, we realized she was not helping us...

Her Lego Car creation.

I think she used Bryce's drawing book to get started.

Also, Aubree took all the pictures. I think I've gotten her down to taking two or three pictures of each 'creation' instead of TEN!!

Science Experiment

Making ice cream on Saturday night. And yes, they do have gloves on. They had to shake and turn the bags for 6-8 minutes.

The results were yummy. Bryce said it was the messiest and yummiest experiment yet!

Mountains

My favorite picture

We visited friends in Maggie Valley. This is the view from our short and very steep hike.

Before the unpacking was finished, this was Aubree's project. She made the vase at Literature Club and wanted flowers to put in it. This is her "orginial" design to hold the flowers in the vase.

AWANA Grand Prix

Bryce's third Grand Prix.

This is the first year he showed the desire to work on the car for more than 5 minutes. He designed a tank for his car and him and Daddy even added a turret (I think that's what it's called.) He sprayed painted it and put the wheels on. Bryce won 3rd place in Design for the T&T Clubs.

Aubree's first Grand Prix.
She was excited to pick out her design and paint her car. We were afraid she was going to run out of paint. Bryce helped her put her wheels on her car. Aubree won 3rd place in Speed for Sparks Girls. She was so thrilled to get a trophy she really did not notice there were only three girls in her division.

Fall Festival

I had a great plan and thought it was going to work. Aubree got this outfit a few years ago in a dress up box. It's a beautiful shirt and skirt. The skirt has butterflies outlined in glitter. The problem is that the glitter literally FALLS off. (Read: lots of glitter everywhere in the house.) Since she has decided to wear it for the Fall Festival, I think how great it will be to leave all the glitter in the church parking lot. Well...as soon as we get to church, the outfit came off, because it was 'too itchy.'

Bryce did not want to dress up this year. He tried to come up with several Star Wars characters, but never settled on one.

My anxious children 'posing' as they are ready to go!!

Sweet butterfly girl!

Bryce won a cupcake in the cake walk.

Bryce rode the horse and after standing in line, Aubree 'changed' her mind. He wasn't quite to sure what to think about the bouncing, but I think he enjoyed it.

Aubree and her snow cone. (Yes, she is holding an ice cream bucket. She informed us the didn't want a Walmart bag.)

One more Fall Festival gone. This year the kiddos were able to go around by themselves and play games. I think they spoke to their friends, but they didn't really hang around with them. Aubree was so excited a new friend came that she dropped all of her candy because she was jumping up and down.

State Fair

Our first family trip to the State Fair. A friend and I took the kids when Bryce was 2 and Aubree was 5 weeks old. I'm sure they don't remember anything. All I remember was my arms hurting from pushing the double stroller. Also, this was Newman's first trip to the fair.

They both touched the baby chicks!! Bryce tried to pick one up, but he got scared and let it fall.





Both kids got up to the ride, then Aubree decided she didn't want to go around in circles and got off. I was very impressed Bryce stayed by himself. He even got the hang of turning the tea cup.

This is somthing they both have been wanting to do. Newman paid for both of them, then Aubree again decided she didn't want to do it. As she was backing up, I pushed (gently, of course) and told her Daddy had paid and that she was going! They both had a blast and even wanted to do it again.

The more Bryce did the more excited he got. My kids are not very adventurous and that's probably an understandment. So, I was very surprised he wanted to go down the slide. Now all we need to do is add the water!!

Two cute kids posing!!

They love riding the carosel. As you can tell, they had fun pretending while they were on there and even wanted to do it again. We ended the rides with the kiddie roller coaster which was a major accomplishment!! I was prepared to listen to Aubree scream she wanted to get off once we went around once. But she did great. She even told me it would have been more fun it I had leaned like the other people in front of us!!

We ended our time at the fair with a funnel cake, my favorite.

As an aside, while eating dinner that night, we talked about reading books. Bryce told us while reading a book you could imagine the movie going on in your mind as you read. I told him that is why you read the book first!! We are reading Robin Hood now and all I can picture is foxes and animals. I just thought that was really neat.

Picture Catch-Up

Aubree's 2nd lost tooth - Papa Don had the pleasure of "pulling" this tooth. From my understanding the tooth was getting ready to fall out!!

Bryce and Daddy went to a Scout Day Camp (Aubree and I were signed up to go, but she had a fever.) Bryce's experiment with static electricity worked quickly!!

Each Wednesday we go with our homeschool group to Youth for Christ where the kiddos get to play with each other and the moms get to visit. This year, the awesome leaders are doing Campus Life with the younger group. They sing, do crafts, play games and have a Bible Story. On this day, they fingerpainted. Pretty brave if you ask me.

Aubree's fingerpaint creation.

Aubree had a soccer make-up game. She was the only one who left on her hat and gloves the whole time.

Fall Lapbook

Lapbooks are a fun way to learn. We've only done a couple, but I thought I would share.

This is from a great homeschool magazine called The Old Schoolhouse.

The Joy...

When you get a glimpse into their hearts....

We try to do a Bible time during school. We read from different Bible story books, study their AWANA and pray.

Today we read a story called "The Death of a Rich Man" Luke 16:19-31 from a Precious Moments Storybook Treasury book. I read the story and the kiddos had questions. Aubree got a little confused on the details when the rich man did not go to heaven.

He looked up to heaven and cried out in pain, "Please, help me! Come down and give me cool water to drink. I'm burning alive. I can't stand it."

So, we talked about this being a picture of how eternity will be separated from God if Jesus is not the Lord and Savior of our lives. Bryce was sitting beside of me and started talking. As he was talking, his lips started quivering and tears were in his eyes. He's still not really sure why the story and questions affected him they way did. I think the parable shows the distinct difference in heaven and hell and it really touched his heart. He even asked about being sad that you were in heaven and missing earth. Needless to say, one of the awesome blessings of homeschooling!!!

Florida Pictures

On top of the St. George Lighthouse.

At St. George Beach - Bryce was excited to be in the Gulf. He even wanted to know if it smelled like the Atlantic. (He said it does.)

Downtown with the boats.

Aubree's first boatride. Can you tell she's scared? He was, too. They both wanted to stop and go back. Thankfully, it didn't take long for them to enjoy the ride.

We're ready to go back!!