Game Night

Game night with some or all of the kids is always a blast, but we've had a couple good ones lately with just the younger two, while Marian and Andrew have attended some exciting basketball games at the local high school.  Here's a glimpse at the hilarity.
First, Hi-Ho Cherry-O with goggles.  If you don't understand this, you've never played the game with this guy!

 Then a rousing game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, one of Reagan's favorites.  Goggles wouldn't be such a bad idea here, either!

 Uh-oh!  It looks like Ellie's hippo is still hungry!

Now, on to Hedbanz.  Check this out: an ant and a watermelon.  Does this strike anyone else as funny?

Also, if you've never played Hedbanz with three-year-old, you should!  At this age, Reagan has no idea what process of elimination means... or yes/no questions... or accumulating knowledge from one round to the next.  He's hilarious!  It didn't take long to realize that he was just making guesses based on what he saw on everyone else's foreheads, which made it really easy to guess your own card.  My telling of it may not do it justice, but trust me, we laughed 'til our faces hurt.

And one last look at our crazy cherry picker...

4th Annual Family Valentine's Dinner!

Happy Valentine's Day!!
With this being such a busy time of year for Dwayne, we have in recent years, given up the idea of a date on Valentine's Day.  Instead, we have made it a family affair!
The kids made the decorations... even Reagan got in on it this year.  Then, we worked together to rename all our menu items to go along with our Valentine's theme. (Ellie really got on board with this this year!)  The girls wrote out menus; Andrew helped me get the decorations put up.  This is really a group effort every year, and something the kids look forward to... and so do I!

So this year, we had...
Hearts on Fire Peppered Steak
Give me A-more Salad
Wild About You Rice
Wrapped Up in Love Crescent Rolls
Swee-Tea
Red Lip Kisses on Spice Cake

All of that translates to pepper-crusted steak; romaine salad with tomatoes, toasted almond slices, shredded Swiss and Parmesan, a little bacon, and a olive oil/lemon juice dressing; wild rice; crescent rolls with cream cheese and dry ranch mix rolled up inside before baking (yum-wow!); sweet tea (of course); and tomato spice cake with cream cheese frosting and red lips (or my best attempt at red lips) piped on top with red frosting.

We hope your Valentine's Day was as love-ly as was ours!! 

History + Art = WOW!

Let me just start by saying, art is certainly not my strong point!  We have recently taken a look at Rembrandt, a great portrait painter, so were inspired to bring a bit of this creativity to our history lessons.  We had fun following some online instructions (here) in our attempt to capture the visage of our first President.  Judge kindly...

Marian's

Ellie's

Mine!

Andrew's

And then, in "meeting" John James Audubon and in watching the Tufted Titmice out our window, we were inspired again.

Ellie's

Andrew's

Marian's

The kids were much more pleased with their bird sketches, but I'm proud of them all.

And we're all proud of Reagan's, below.  He titles this one, "Swirlies".

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2014!!

We love to welcome in the new year with a big party at our house and invite as many friends as can come-- lots of food, fellowship, games, and fun!!

This year made our 7th annual New Year's Eve party--- at least that's our best guess.  We've never bothered to keep count, but we know we've been doing this since Ellie was a baby, probably longer.  So just to be safe, we decided to use Ellie's age to help us keep track from now on.

This year was the best party of all, of course.  The kids made a huge poster so we could have a picture wall.  Didn't they do a great job?  I actually remembered to take everyone's picture at some point during the night, as well as some candid shots.  I wish I'd remembered the camera after the games started around the table, but I was too focused on winning to think about pictures!

We were delighted to meet a new family that recently moved to this area, as well as spending time with dear, "old" friends.  Everyone had a great time, ate plenty, and ushered in the new year with lots of laughter! 

Here's a bit of the fun, but I'll only share a few since I'm not sure that everyone would want to be posted.

May God bless all of us richly in 2014 as we choose His ways 

and serve Him with gladness.

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas from all of us!

For your enjoyment, one of my favorite singers with excerpts from one of my favorite films...

Our wish for you this season:  that you would know the Christ of Christmas, his love, his life, and that you may believe unto salvation.

Here comes the parade!

Our homeschool group put together an awesome float for the local Christmas parade again this year!  The theme was "The Sounds of Christmas", and to that we added "Around the World".  So the kids all dressed up in native clothes from different areas of the world.

Reagan was from Switzerland.  (No one ever looked cuter in lederhosen!)

Ellie was from Germany, with her little friend from Brazil.

Andrew dressed as a Pacific Islander, though it was a hard look to maintain once we added the cold-weather necessities! Beside him, we had a South American gaucho.

Marian, dressed in a sari, represented India.  And her friends (from right to left) were Spanish, Dutch, and Alaskan Eskimo.

We also had someone dressed as a Russian and as an American cowboy.  Anytime we can involve different costumes, the kids, of course, have a grand time.

 Each of the kids had a small American flag to wave, and one of the homeschool mothers made flags from other countries to put on posts on the float.  We also had a large inflatable globe on one trailer and music notes with the title of our float on the other trailer.  And of course, music blaring from a boss sound system thanks to our sound guy!

Is it any wonder we won Grand Prize?!?!  Woo-hoo!

Happy 11th, Andrew!!

So many things were happening around Drew's birthday this year, it was hard to squeeze it in!  We ended up having a couple of his friends over to play for the afternoon, then celebrating with cake and such at a local restaurant that evening.  Andrew was very pleased with his cake (the '11' was formed with KitKat bars) and downright delighted with his gift-- a long-requested remote control helicopter! 

Happy birthday, Drew!  We love you times eleven!!