Gingerbread house

The kids received a Gingerbread kit for Christmas from a friend. Our Christmas celebrations have been quiet and low key.
I am thankful for the change of pace and the opportunity to just enjoy the season.

Coming to a mail box

near you....
The kids and I worked from 11am - 3pm yesterday folding, stuffing, addressing, sealing and sorting 450 Christmas cards. Some families "go big" on gifts; some on decorating; some on food and feasting. About the only thing our family goes big on during the Christmas season is Christmas cards. Each year our total number creeps higher and higher. I am not really sure what possessed Peter and Emma yesterday but they were on fire. They truly wanted to work on the Christmas cards. They were on a roll and didn't want to stop until we were finished. I never intended to complete the entire task; we even had some helped lined up for the next day. They were determined. It made me super proud. We had Pandora going on the computer; we even opened the windows. Ryan and Nathan played together just about the entire time except for lunch and a nap.
If you get a Christmas card from us and the fold isn't perfect or the mailing label is a little crooked or even upside down, just know that it was done with love from us.
I hope you enjoy it! If you don't get one in the next day or two, let us know and we'll add you to our list. There's always room for more.

Sleep over

Last week Peter and Emma had friends over to spend the night. We all had a great time. Philip built a fire; we roasted marshmallows. We had a dance party. They played outside and read stories inside. All through the evening, I kept having visions of what is to come for our family as our kids keep getting older. Philip and I want our kids to invite friends over. We want our house to be filled with kiddos on weekends. We are thankful for the friends that God is providing for our kids. We realize that it's our job as parents to help our kids cultivate good relationships. What better way to build relationships than to have sleepovers.I just need to start figuring out who to feed everyone!

On to Animals

We've about learned all we want to about the American Revolution, the Native Americans, the Pilgrims and all that history stuff. I have decided that we would move from history on to science. I will admit that it Peter who did the majority of the American History studies so far this fall. I did my best to bring it down to all levels but I found that to be quite challenging. I also have a hard time balancing history and science so I decided I would just alternate the subjects. We are going to be studying Animals. I know this is a subject that all the kids can enjoy and learn from together.

I knew that the concept of the animal classification system would probably be a bit to complex for Ryan. I figured he could always understand something having to do with candy!I dumped all the Halloween candy we have left in the center of the kitchen table and divided it amongst the three. I sent them off to private areas to categorize the candy as they saw best.I loved seeing how they each had their own system, each being age appropriate.It really worked out to be a great introduction to classification. The following day, I did some teaching on the classification system. Remember: King Philip Called Out For Goodness Sake. Then I dumped all the stuffed animals I could find into the center of our living room and gave them the job of sorting between animal, reptile, amphibian, bird and fish! It was a fun start to hopefully a great learning semester.

Christmas Tree

With Thanksgiving right behind us, help from my parents and friends, we gave into the kids request of putting up the Christmas tree before it was even December.

Admittingly, I think it took longer to get everything out of the attic than to actually decorate our little tree.

I don't think that deterred the kids excitement one bit.