Peanut Butter Pie

The traditional peanut butter pie during Grandma's birthday month!  We do this during my birthday month too.

Tennis

Nathan has been doing well in Tennis this year.  He really enjoys it!

Date night

Emma and Daddy went to a Chic-fil-a Daddy-Daughter date night.  They had a blast!  They ate dinner, danced to Let it Go, and had a carriage ride.!  What fun!

 Waiting for the carriage to return so they could ride!

 Ready to ride!

Ice cream afterwards

 

Meanwhile the little boys and I had our own date night.  We had dinner at Wendy's, checked out Toys-R-Us for a costume necessity, and played a bit of Wii once we were home.

My dates!

 

Kidsworship

The video I just finished to promote our Sunday morning kids program.  You will recognize a few members of our family!

There's this boy

First field trip

On Wednesday we took our first field trip of the school year.  We went to Connor Prairie.  The rain almost kept us away, but it ended up being a perfect day to visit... not many other people were there so it was easy for us to see everything.

I hadn't been there since I went there on a field trip in elementary school.  Brian and Nathan went several years ago, also on a field trip.

 Candle-making demonstration

 We met the Doctor's daughter.  She talked to us about their somewhat privileged life and was happy to indulge Emma in a little photo op.

 The carpenter was a nice fellow who was very interesting

 Samuel didn't care for the chickens running around here and there

 Emma loved the pottery display.  We watched a lady make a bowl and then the kids got to try our some pottery wheels (without the clay).

 These turkeys were funny.  One of them tried to eat my wedding ring!

 One room school house

This was a very timely field trip for Emma in particular.  Lately she has been watching episodes of Little House on the Prairie- we are up to season 4!  We have also read Little House in the Big Woods, and Little House on the Prairie which take place just a few years later than these settlements.  We recognized quite a few items and situations from the books.

As we crossed the bridge we entered Civil War territory.  

 We saw an interactive presentation telling us how Confederate General John Hunt Morgan & his raiders entered the town and burned down buildings...  This was Samuel's favorite part, but the other kids didn't like it much. 

 Samuel trying on a soldier's hat

 At the Lenape Indian camp

It was a great field trip!  Daddy even took the day off to go with us!

laugh

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.

William Makepeace Thackeray

 37:52 Laugh

Class Action

This year we decided to participate in another local home school group called Class Action.  They meet at our church one morning a week.  There are around 45 families involved in the 8th grade and under categories.  Some additional families participate in the high school classes as well.  There are over 100 kids each week.  

We pick classes for each child based on what is offered for their grade level at 9am, 10am, and 11am.  We have lunch at noon and some play time afterwards.  Classes are taught by home school parents, and non-teaching parents sign up to help in various classes as well.  We didn't do this last year since it seemed a bit much with CC for our first year of home schooling, and it may prove to be too much this year, but we are going to try it.  The kids really enjoyed their classes!

Ready to find their classes!

 This was Lucas's first school experience.  He has a preschool class from 9-10am and then the rest of his morning is free play time.  I help in the preschool class and it was fun to watch him soak it all in.

Here he is telling his friend that yellow is his favorite color (his friend didn't want to put any yellow on his own letter F paper).

Lucas did great and is happy to have his own class!

Emma is taking:  Sewing, Science, and World Cultures

Samuel's classes are:  Unit Studies, Character Training, and Literature

Grandma's birthday

 Emma made Grandma a strawberry cake with purple icing and we decorated it together.

 Lots of love!

CC

We are doing the Classical Conversations (CC) program again this year.  This is Emma's second year in it and Samuel's first year.  We meet one morning a week for this and both kiddos SO look forward to it!  

First day of CC this year (two weeks ago)

 There are three classes of 8 kids.  There is an all boys class , an all girls class (approx ages 8-12), and mixed class of younger kids.  Each class has a "tutor" who introduces the weekly memory work, and parents assist in each classroom as well.

Emma's class- she loves being with all girls this year!

 Samuel really likes his class and asks "how many more days until CC?"

They made this cool flip faces!  This is Emma's: