Pilgrims and Native Americans

Over the last several weeks we have been reading about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. We have also done many projects. The highlight has been making the Native paper sack outfits and headdress (not to mention the face paint). Grace enjoyed the picture opportunity too.

We also enjoyed going to a museum to learn about the first farmers. Jonathan, Katherine, and David were able to grind corn using a stone grinder.

If your house is feeling a little too small like ours, or a little cold these days, here's a reminder of what it could be: (this is the other side of your bedroom!).

Boy am I reminded to be thankful for our present comforts and communications such as blogs! Have a wonderful thanksgiving. We will be staying at home this year joining the Harris family and some friends here in town. Blessings!

Col. Richard Harris- Change of Command Ceremony

C 130

Last Saturday, Brooke's father, Rich, officially handed over his position as wing commander of the Tennessee Air National Guard base in Nashville. Here are a few pictures of the grandchildren waiting in the wings for Grandad's ceremony.

Once we were inside sitting with the kids, the ceremony lasted for about 30 minutes. I think we offered some entertainment to all the soldiers standing along the side and back of us. Brooke was pulling everything out of her purse to try to distract Grace and keep her quiet. The rest of the kids did great. Grace was passed between Jeffrey and Brooke at least 3 times and was almost escorted out a number of times whenever she let out a sound of disagreement to sitting still. When the ceremony finally ended, the kids were greatly rewarded with the goodies at the reception as well as a trip into Grandad's airplane. This was definately the highlight of the morning.

Katherine

David

Jonathan

Grandad tells us how to fly

Rich will continue working as a civilian at the airguard until December. Then his retirement will be official. What's next for Grandad? The sky is the limit.

JONATHAN'S BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to Jonathan, who is today........6 YEARS OLD!!!!!!

We celebrated his birthday yesterday with Mia (Brooke's mom) who shares the same birthday as Jonathan. He is very excited about his new gifts. He has already used his new rubber stamps several times in an art book journal. Jonathan is very artsy and loves to create all the time. Here is his journal entry from this morning. He is also very excited to try out his new motorcycle legos and computer program. What a big boy he is.

Mia

Mia's blows out the candles

Joanthan's turn

Updated Pictures

Grace is now 14 1/2 months old and quite a cutie. One of her favorite phrases is "I want that." She just dropped her morning nap, which makes homeschooling very interesting. We are still amazed at the similarities between Grace and Katherine's pictures at her same age. Here they are today.



David is on the go constantly. He is always wanting to do what everyone else is doing- including homeschool stuff. He brought me a book the other day and asked to do his reading lesson! AGH! I can't wait until he and Grace begin playing together.

Everyone pile on Daddy! How many can climb on?

That's all for now. Hope you are all well.

Sweet Grace

Grace is walking quite well now. She is very difficult to keep up with outside! She loves exploring the outside world. Every time someone gets ready to go outside she squeals and runs to go too. Today she got into Katherine's dress-up jewelry. She put the bracelets on and held the neclace up to her head to be put on. Barrowing David's glasses was the finishing touch.

Happy, Happy, Birthdays

Birthday at Grandma's (only 2 of David's 6 cousins shown)

Grace turned 1 on June 27th and David turned 3 on July 3rd. These events were a big hit- celebrated at home and in Ohio at Grandma and Grandpa's house with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Grace really enjoyed her cake!

David requested a pair of rollerblades for his birthday. Here are some shots of his first moments wearing them. I was a bit scared.

Here he is outside as the real pro.

Just days before Grace's birthday she began taking steps across the room with more confidence. Here are some of her moves early on.

Bikes! Bikes! Bikes!

We celebrated David's birthday a little early by getting him a new bike today. It has been a big week for bikes at our house. Both Jonathan and Katherine learned how to ride without training wheels. Katherine's little bike blew out a tire and we decided it was time to upgrade. So, Katherine and David both got new bikes. It was an exciting evening. The joy rang out around the culdesac as they made the loops. More birthday days are ahead in the next couple of weeks. For now David is enjoying his first present very much. He kept squealing with excitement While Jeffrey adjusted everything for him. As you can see in the picture he is very, very, pleased.

Katherine was equally pleased with our purchase for her. She now has a bike that matches her helmet. She and Jonathan are travelling at speeds a little bit frightening to me, but they love it. We had an unusually cool evening here so everyone enjoyed being outside for a long time. It was almost chilly for Grace and I on the sidelines. Jeffrey got his bike out and began making the rounds too. The kids love that and pretend they are racing daddy. Jonathan made the comment that he wished Grace had a bike too so everyone could ride together. Well, she does have a little bike, but it may be a while until she is mobile on it! She does like to push it to practice her walking.It won't be long until she is off and running.

One Week Later (June 19th) the bikes are still going. We took the kids to a park that has a mile long, paved trail. Jeffrey brought his bike along and I pushed Grace in the stroller. I think Jonathan and Katherine made five speedy laps on their bikes. David made about one and a half laps with Grace and I. This was the first real exercise I have been able to have in a long time!

Get Set....GO!

Katherine, David, and Jonathan enjoy our new olympic sized pool. They are racing from one end to the other to see who is the fastest swimmer.

Jonathan and David complete their syncronized swimming routine.

Anyone want to play ball?

David practices throwing the football to dad.

Katherine is quite good at softball. She is very determined and would practice for hours if we could keep up. At times she almost knocks you off your feet with her return hit.

One more driving casualty as Grace takes out Jonathan. She loves her brother.

Grace Is Growing Up

Sweet sister kisses

Grace and Katherine match as often as possible-Katherine's suggestion. I'm thankful that Katherine has a sister to match. I might not look as cute in striped overalls!Katherine and Grace are having more and more fun together now that Grace is getting bigger.

Grace's bath tub mirror

Grace loves the "baby" in the mirror

Grace gets very excited and kisses the "baby"

Everyone else is growing up too.

Jonathan has recently taken off in math exploration. He told us "hey, 5+4+2=11." I asked him what on earth made him think of that and he said "my fan." I looked at Jeffrey for an explanation- 5 blades, 4 lights, and 2 chains. Oh. My mind is not naturally mathematical so I am amazed. He also has made the connections of groups of numbers. He said just the other day "6 2's is 12. 3 2's is 6." He and Katherine are also learning to read- at different rates. I really had not been working with Katherine on reading other than letter sounds and a few three letter words. She, however, is so quick with languages that her intuition often helps her to guess the content of a story and what should naturally come next. Needless to say she does not want to be left behind in the world of reading so she is trying with all her might to keep up with Jonathan. The two of them are making our kick off to homeschooling quite easy. I am relieved and really enjoying the process. I hope to always keep learning fun.

David has his own version of school. He is not satisfied to go and play toys alone. He tries very hard to hang out and be patient. When the level of difficulty is too much for him, I always try to include him in any possible way. Jonathan and Katherine enjoy watching his version of our activities. For example, instead of asking him which bear is 3rd in a line, I ask him which bear is red. Jonathan always laughs and thinks it is funny that David is doing colors instead of ordinal position. Because David already knows his colors he always feels quite successful. Another favorite activity is playing store. I allow them to go shopping for an item in the house. They then pay me using pennies and dimes. David always gets to have some change back when he goes shopping. Somehow he does not count by 10's yet! It is hilarious to watch.

God always sends me some kind of teaching activity at just the right time. Suddenly the world is full of learning opportunities and the kids are always ready to learn. Just recently we had a robin build a nest on our front porch light. The kids and I got to see the robin's eggs and see one baby that hatched. For a couple of weeks we watched the mother and father robin feeding the baby bird. They are all gone now, but any time we see a robin in the yard everyone says "there's mama bird."

That's all for now. Hope that you are well wherever you are in the world.

Spring Is So Beautiful

some of our iris in bloom

It has been a beautiful spring weekend. Once again we spent many hours outside, which the kids love. This evening was perfect for bike riding out in front of our house. I tried capturing a few pictures of the kids. David now has a new bike helmet and is riding a tricycle.

David's new biker look

Jonathan showing off his new toothless grin

Katherine ever so dainty

Grace watches from the side lines

Happy Easter

Katherine, Grace, Jonathan, and David

The Whole Family

Well, here we are on Easter Sunday. This was an all around fun day for the kids. They did what they love best...play outside. We went to Brooke's parent's house and let the kids run around all day long. Just when they were about to slow down we had an egg hunt and let them eat some candy...the rest is history. David gets the award for the most creative egg hunter. He would find an egg, open it up and dump the candy in his bag, drop the empty shells and move forward. He left a whole trail of empty eggs and a laughing daddy behind him.

The trampoline is always a favorite. Jeffrey got some good snap
shots of our kids in action.

I had a complaint that there were not any pictures of the Harris family included in our Spring Break blog. So here's one for Sherry-

Mia and Grandad

That's all for now...we are still recovering from our fun filled weekend.