End of co-op

We just finished our first semester of home school co-op.  There was a presentation time after the last day of class.  

Here's J singing "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" in Spanish with his Spanish class.  He had a good time in this class.  He has taken a whole year of Spanish on the computer so it was good practice interacting with live humans.

This is W demonstrating some of his skills we learned in PE class.  He loved this Chinese jump rose activity.  I had never heard of one before, but we might be finding this in our Christmas stocking this year.

Both boys loved the Science class.  They observed caterpillars transforming to butterflies.  They watched as eggs hatched into chicks and learned about other life cycles.  

This is one of J's final drawings from his art class.  He has decided that he likes to draw.

It was a good experience.  It was totally exhausting for the mama and the baby, but the boys loved it.  

I am signed up to teach a Lego Machines class next semester.  The boys are beyond excited to take this class.  D should really be doing this, but here goes nothing.  Motherhood will stretch you like nothing else.  

The Hobbit

I recently discovered that "The Hobbit" movie comes out in mid-December.  I thought it would be a good idea for J and I to go see the movie, but we should read the book first.  I think I have read the book before, but it has been a long time.

He was not old enough to know about the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy when it came out so this is a new topic for him.  

Let's just say that he is hooked.

I bought us 2 paperback copies knowing that he would have more time to read than I would.  

I gave him the book Monday morning and by Tuesday morning he had read chapters 1-12.  That is a lot of pages.  Of course, he stayed up until 11pm and had a bit of a headache the next morning, but he said it was worth it.  

Needless to say, the book was finished by Wednesday and he is so excited for the movie.  

I am still on chapter 2.  Only 30 more chapters to go.  

I am just glad that he loves to read.  Hope the movie doesn't disappoint.

Transplanted friends

Recently, some good friends from church moved to my hometown.  We were able to spend some time with them on our trip.  It was great catching up their family.  It was like they had never left.  

Here's my crew (minus baby girl) plus the "B" family.

Here's a silly picture of all those darlings.  They live for silly pictures.

Aww!  HB has served with me in AWANA for many years.  It's been a privilege working with her and getting to know her better.  She interacts with the children so well.  She doesn't like to keep shoes on her feet.  She is such a delightful young lady.  We miss her in Texas.  

I am just glad that they moved some where that I can come see them often.

ABQ Zoo

One of our favorite things to do at Thanksgiving is to go to Nana's Zoo as the boys call it.  The weather is just perfect.  School is still in, so there are very few people there.  It's cooler so a lot of the animals are more active.  It's a great time.  

Hubby had the camera so the pictures are much better quality than mine.

Here's S with the seals and sea lions.  He loves the zoo!  He is a big animal lover.

Here's all the kids with my dad.

Here's the sweet baby girl with her bunny hat.  The boys just love that hat.  Have I said how much fun it is to dress her?  

A few months ago, my dad upgraded his camera.  He gave us his old one, which was still much nicer than our current camera.  J has claimed the old camera.  I didn't know he loved photography so much.  He looked like a tourist every where we went in ABQ.  He filled up 2 memory cards on the trip.  I think I need to get him in some photography classes.  

The emus are always a favorite.  We have some great books about emus so they like watching them.

Here's my animal lover.  He would go to the zoo every day if he could.  Sweet boy!

Here's all my precious kiddos!  S and W just had a big fight about who got to sit on the lion's head.  Boys!  

Happy Thanksgiving

We just returned from our Thanksgiving trip.  It was a success.  We are all exhausted, but everyone survived.  Baby girl made her first trip (12 hr drive) to the Land of Enchantment.  She did pretty well.  Very little fussing.  She was definitely glad to get out of that car seat.

It was great to visit with family and friends.  We had 29 people for Thanksgiving at mom's house.  Here's all the kids minus Baby girl who was taking a nap.  Thirteen kids in all.  The house was lined with tables.  Some Texas friends have recently moved near my parents so they spent the day with us.  Everyone had a great time.

The weather was beautiful so the kids were able to play outside.  Here's a group riding Grandave's airplane.

Now, this group played the game "Risk" for 6 hours.  I am not exaggerating.  They had a great time.  I do not recall seeing my older 2 sons much that day, because they were at this table.

We got to visit with old friends and meet a significant other.  I used to baby sit these girls and now they are ready to graduate from medical and nursing school.  Wow!  

It was a crazy holiday, but God is in charge of it all.  It has made even more thankful for the blessings that He has so richly given me.  

Four wonderful blessings

This is my crew before church.  This was my second Sunday being a solo parent.  D was around, but he was working the sound booth.  He has to leave really early for the worship leader to practice.  That leaves me trying to get everyone ready (Sunday ready) and to church on time.  

We even had time for a picture for all this cuteness.  I still love watching and listening to the boys every morning when I bring baby K out of her room.  They comment on her clothes and state how cute she is.  She just lights up when they talk to her or make their really annoying cute baby noises.

Since D has been working in the sound booth, J has stepped up.  He has saved our family a pew each week.  He has helped get the other boys to the bathroom and has helped pass communion trays.  That is so nerve wracking.  I am the only adult and all 3 boys want to help pass the communion trays.  I just have visions of grape juice and crackers flying.  So far so good on that.

We were on time because baby K decided she didn't like the time change so was up at 5am.  Not so much fun for me, but at least we were moving.  I hate those time changes with little ones.  Hopefully, she will adapt soon.  She is awful cute, so it's too hard to get upset at her.  

Mini creme cakes

W looks at me the other night and said, "I made a new recipe and it's called mini creme cakes."  He listed the ingredients and stated that he wanted to cook it for us.  He's never done this before.  

He's all the time trying to create "new" things.  He makes up new Pokemon characters.  He makes up new Lego creations.  He likes to mix and match costumes to form new Super Heroes.  He even started making up new Bible stories.  We did have to talk to him a little about that.  

Here are his ingredients.  He really wanted white frosting, but I already had chocolate so he improvised.

It was like he was doing his own food show.  He was talking me through every step.

Here he is with his final product.  He loved sharing with everyone.

You basically frost a mini Nilla wafer and place a Hershey kiss on top.  It was good.

J was not home at the time, so he made us promise to save some for his big brother.  Maybe he has a future as a chef.