Caleb's Birthday Party Highlights - May 2011

If you know our family, you know that May is a time for birthday parties! Here's some photos from Caleb's Star Wars party:

Light Saber Training Drill



Pin the Light Saber on Yoda

Light Saber Cake

Best Friends

Star Wars Trouble - The perfect gift for a Star Wars party!

Star Wars Wii Game on the 'big' screen!

March and April Highlights 2011

Let's start with some photos. They usually give a good idea of what's going on. Like they say,  "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Here's some pictures of what we were up to in the March and April:

Caleb did an Art Class where he created this plasticine 3-D artwork of a dragon. See the castle on the hilltop in the background?

My three dress-up detective/spies trying to act casual.

Having fun Ice Skating!

Our St.Patrick's Day Snack. Our fruit and veggie platter was in the colours of the Irish Flag, then cupcakes with green icing for dessert. Yum!

Dragon Boating with Auntie Karen and Uncle Macky.

Washin' Windows

Making Easter Cookies

Not Since March

Have you ever said to yourself, "I'll get to that soon," and then it gets longer and longer and then at some point you feel silly that you waited so long and it's harder than ever to get started. So that's basically what I did with my blog. I haven't posted since March! Well, new school year, new goal. I've gotta get more consistent with this. That's my intent. Let's see how I do...

I Learned it From a 7 Year Old

Children sometimes surprise you with their perceptions. We've all read the Bible story of Namaan, who is told to go wash in the Jordan river seven times so that he can be cured from his leprosy. I've always thought of this story as a reminder for us to trust God even when what we're asked to do is not what we expected or even what we think is the 'right thing to do.' Apparently all these years I haven't dug deep enough and this was brought to my attention by my 7 year old son. We were reading together a children's version of this story in his Grade 2 reader today. When we were just about done the story, he interrupted and said "Mommy, I think God gave the leprosy to Namaan, so that he would be able to trust in God when God healed him." Wow! I somehow had never got that from that story, but it's so true. God puts hard things in our lives to grow us closer to Him. We may see these things as anything from small annoyances to downright devastating; and God's purpose for them? To draw us to Him. Now that's exciting, and I learned it from a 7 year old.

Napoleon, Tchaikovsky and 1812, aka History Comes Alive!

I don't know if your History experience in school was like mine, but all I remember of History growing up was BOooorrrRING! I remembered very little and was forced to 'memorize' ridiculous facts that I would never have any reason to recall again once the test was taken.
So, in our homeschool, we are taking a different approach, and history is coming alive! Now, don't get me wrong, some of it is still a little boring, but on the whole, we are learning so much and having fun doing it. Much of the things we are learning about, I've never known before, so here I am just as much the student as my kids are, and it's exciting!
This week we are learning about Napoleon's attack on Russia. It's so interesting. Did you know that the Czar Alexander I of Russia lured Napoleon's army in, allowed them to burn and destroy towns and villages along the way and then arrive at Moscow, and he did it on purpose? He had a brilliant plan! He made Napoleon wait to hear his decision of whether he was going to surrender, and while Napoleon waited, winter came and his army was only dressed in summer uniforms. Napoleon was forced to retreat and on the journey back his men began to freeze and starve to death. The reason they had no food was because they themselves had burnt and destroyed the countryside on their way in. By the time Napoleon arrived back in France 600,000 soldiers had died and there were only 40,000 left! We learned lots more, but I thought that part was so interesting.
Today, we learned that Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture was written about this very event. So we read a little about it and then listened to the whole 1812 Overture played by an orchestra on a Youtube video. It starts out with the solemn Russian imperial anthem, then there's a battle sequence where the Russian and French anthems battle for dominance, then Napoleon's retreat and Russia's victory are symbolized by the sounds of military bands, bells and cannons. It was very powerful to listen to the music with the knowledge of what it was about freshly in our heads. All of us sat and listened intently to the whole 15 minutes. Christine remarked at one point in the music, "it just felt like a wave came crashing down on me!" and near the end her comment was "I feel like I'm right there in the battle." Now that's history coming alive!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Some days at our house are great! Some days are not that great. And some are downright awful. Yesterday was one of the awful ones. The kids were fighting and bickering ALL DAY LONG! I felt at times like I couldn't keep up with it all. I was busy dealing with one problem and another would be presented to me, and in the midst of it, I was trying to help someone with their schoolwork. Daddy stopped in for lunch and tried to help with disastrous results. Children melting down, everyone frustrated, some angry. Then I went to make pizza dough in the breadmaker, and got to the last ingredient when I realized that I didn't have any yeast! How on earth could I make dough without the yeast? Well, I ended up borrowing some from our neighbour (and getting a quick lesson on how to activate the non-instant kind of yeast). Then it was time to turn on the bread machine, at which point I discovered that our bread machine is not working! Thankfully I was able to borrow one from Mom (Nancy) upstairs. By this time I was realizing that the chances of this being ready on time to have pizza for supper was getting slim. So I start frantically pushing buttons to start the bread machine and I pushed the 'bake' button instead of the dough button. The bread machine started heating up, NOOOO! How do I turn this thing off!! Where's the instruction book!! Ahhhh!! Ok, calm down. Found the instructions, held down the cancel button for a few seconds. Waited for bread machine to cool down. Okay, now it's ready to go. I guess we'll have pizza tomorrow instead. Then off to the church for Girl's Club and Boy's Hockey which went pretty smoothly until right at the end. I was just about to tell the kids that it was time to go when Joshua was suddenly in tears saying Christine had shoved him and Christine when confronted melted into tears of embarrassment. Then she stubbed her toe and Oh boy! I was ready for this day to end! Do you ever have days like that?
Same home, different day. Peace, quiet, everyone working together. Well it's not quite that perfect, but certainly a good day. We are all on track and schoolwork is done early. I'm in the kitchen working on a project and Caleb is quietly painting a picture, when he observes "Mommy, I like listening to the sounds the birds make outside, it's so pretty", then a few seconds later "Mommy, look at the beautiful colour I made by mixing green and blue!" Just a quiet moment of appreciation shared between Mother and son, and my heart melts and I feel like it's all worth it.
Would you believe these two days happened in the same week? God's 'good' day reminder to balance out the 'bad' day frustrations. This is real life at our house, in our home. Our sin mixed with God's grace, and we continue, sometimes with joy, sometimes wishing the day would be over, but always in the palm of His hand.

A Blessed Christmas Season

With the flurry of activity that the Christmas season brings, my attention was drawn away from blogging and towards the celebration of Christ's birth. Each day of Advent passed, more quickly than the last and suddenly Christmas has come and gone.
So here are some highlights of our celebration:
1. Decorating and more decorating. That's one 6 foot tree, one 5 1/2 foot tree, one 5 foot tree, one 4 foot tree and 4 small metal trees. Also, 2 large nativity scenes, 2 small nativity scenes, one Christmas village, Snow Baby display, lights strung everywhere, wreath on the door, window clings on various windows, stockings hung and one Christmas star hung. I think that about covers it, whew!
2. Hosting the Homeschool Christmas Craft Party.
3. Advent Readings and Singing each night using our Waiting Tree and of course the chocolate advent calendars.
4. Christmas Baking including Santa cookies and a Gingerbread Train.
5. Turkey Dinner x 2
6. Christmas morning - Christmas breakfast including, among other things, Grandma's Cinnamon Pull-Aparts, yummy!, then time to open stockings which always include a chocolate letter and lots of other goodies!
7. Grandpa reading the Christmas Story.
8. A whole 10 days with Daddy off work!
9. New Year's Eve games and fun at the Jackson's.
Now that we're all caught up, here's some photos to enjoy!

Rebecca helping Grandpa put up the lights



Homeschool Christmas Craft Party

Joshua made the Engine

Rebecca made the Caboose

Christine made the Lumber Car

Caleb made the Coal Car (filled with M&M's)

Grandpa reading the Christmas Story

Joshua LOVES his T-Rex !

Merry Christmas to All!