It's been a really long time, since I have been back on here. My camera decided to give up on me, and I am actually hoping Santa will get me a new one for Christmas!:) For those of you who don't know, we have just moved... again. We were sad to leave our first new house and all of our friends, but are trusting that God is wanting us where we are at, for some unknown reason. We are getting settled and working on finding a good church for us to get involved in. The churches seem to be very few in the area, but we think we have found one.:)
We are busy getting ready for birthdays and Christmas now! Our oldest turns six, five days before Christmas, and our other daughter turns five, two weeks after Christmas, so it is a very busy time for us!
On to something else exciting! My friend makes the most beautiful glass beads and jewelry. Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5276023 to see all the goodies in her shop, The Orange Blossom! She is offering free shipping through December 7th!

Park Day...

Yesterday we went to the sports park with our homeschool group. The park is very new and it's awesome! They have several really nice playground areas and a huge soccer field. They also have a nice big fountain area for the kids to play in. The kids had a blast!

Abraham trying to stop the water from coming out of the fountain.:)

Abraham says he's taking a shower.:)

Audrey throwing another "Aunt Lindsey pose".:)

Olivia posing for a pic.:)

Our Afternoon trip to the Mountains..

We headed up to the mountains yesterday for a picnic. The weather was so nice... in the 70's! It's so beautiful up there! Between the fresh cool air,that smells so good... like pine trees, and the sight of the mountains looking down or up 6000 ft., it just amazing! You can't help think about the Creator of such a masterpiece!

The kids took every opportunity to pose for a picture.:)

Pictures from the top looking down to where we drove up to the moutain. It's a pretty steep ways down there from where I took the pictures. Abraham kept telling me, "Don't fall off the mountain, mommy!"

I like to look down from the top, but am not too found of getting close to the edge.:) Not to mention there are some pretty narrow roads up there! Freaks me out in a few spots!

The pictures of the Sequoias don't do it justice. You really have to be there to see. It's really overwhelming!

The kids making silly faces, like Aunt Lindsey loves to do!!

We took a path around to look at the trees. Mommy wanted to get a shot of the family.

This tree makes me laugh, because the first thing that the kids noticed about this tree, was that it had a belly button.:)

This is the Sherman Tree, 1000 years old. Absolutely amazing! You can see the comparison in size to the people standing in front of it.

One thing we learned about the Sequoia that we didn't know before, was that it produces a tiny acorn, the size of a chicken egg. All along, we had thought it produced the bigger acorns that we have found... about a foot long. Those are from the sugar pines. But, it was pretty neat to see that such a big tree produces such a tiny acorn.

The kids really enjoyed the bear movie that we watched at the visitor center. Audrey came out there wanting to be a Ranger, to protect the forest! She is on a mission!! The kids too, got junior ranger books to fill out, and then when they come back, the get a real ranger badge. They thought that was really cool!

Weeks 5 and 6

These weeks have been a lot of fun, with lots of activities! Here is just a small sample of what we have been working on...

Olivia working on addition and subtraction.

Audrey working on thinking skills... identifying patterns.

During week 5, we talked about clouds. Funny thing about living in Ca... it can be quite a challenge finding a cloud in the sky. It took us 3 whole days to complete this experiment.:)

The kids made 3 types of clouds out of cotton balls.

We are now into week 6, and yesterday studied the different layers that soil has. In our experiment, we made our rocky layer out of chocolate chips.... Can you guess where this is going? Our second layer, top soil layer, was made from crushed graham crackers. Our top layer, the humus layer was made from rice crispies. See how much fun it is to home school! You get to do yummy experiments like this!

Of course, our favorite part of it, was that we got to eat it!

Abraham turns 3...

My baby turns 3! I can't believe it! We had a pirate party for him and he loved it! We had a nice group of 12 kids, and only 3 of them were boys. Thank goodness that we had my good friend and her boys come, otherwise Abraham would have been out numbered by girls!:) The girls had a lot of fun too, though. All the kids got a bandanna, patch and earring to take home. They made a pirate bag for a craft, played Pass the Cannon Ball ("hot potato"), and colored a fun pirate sheet. The best part for me, was to hear Abraham say, "That was a great party, mom!" Melts my heart every time.:) I am a bit biased, but just look at him in his pirate outfit.:)

The kids acting like pirates.... Arrr!

Simple pirate table decoration. I had one table with pirate colored balloons.... The cupcakes, just have a gold coin in them.

My Pirate Gift Bags...

We are just getting ready to celebrate Abraham's 3rd birthday. I can't believe my baby turns 3! Makes me so sad that he's getting so big, so quick. Well, I decided that I would try and give him a party, and knowing me, I don't ever do these types of things half way.... it's full steam ahead! One of the ideas that I came up with was for these gift bags, for the kids when they leave. I just stenciled a ghost pirate on the front of a lunch sack and then snipped the edges to look raggedy. I then tied it with a bit of raffia. So simple and very fun to make! You could personalize your own, for any occassion. Have fun! Oh, and by the way, I can't help but give you a sample of Abraham's pirate costume... Just love it! I will post more pics after the party.

Week 3

We had a fun week this week with lots of experiments. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but here are a few.
One of our science experiments this week was how we use our senses. We matched different scented cotton balls to the correct spice or flavoring. All the kids enjoyed this.
This week, we also got a chance to go with our homeschool group to the park. That was a lot of fun for the kids to meet other kids their age. We are just coming into the school year, so we will be going to the park about twice a month and meeting other times for other activities.




The girls worked on their numbers 6-10, and mommy laid out all kinds of things to count. The gummy worms were hard to keep Abraham out of.:) It was so funny, because we started out with 9, and I had Olivia count them. She kept coming up with 8 and I made her recount them several times.:) Till finally I recounted them myself and discovered that there really was 8! Abraham snatched one. That boy!:) After we were all done with this, we of course, divided up the gummy worms between the kids. They loved this!

God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham trusted and believed. So, we decided to dress up like Abraham and play the part. Abraham thought it was pretty neat to have the same name as the Abraham in the Bible, and mommy thought He looked so cute dressed up.:)

Abraham learned that God promised Abraham a son and more children than the stars in the sky.

He had so much fun making a tent and painting stars above it.