Handmade by Curtis

Curtis made himself a pencil holder today.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Julissa enjoyed her chocolate ice cream.

Busy with Lessons

It has been a busy few days. The oldest two boys had piano lessons on Friday. While they were at their piano lesson the youngest three and I went shopping at Target for beach towels and swimming goggles. The clerk said that hopefully before too long they would come in handy. So I explained to him that the three boys would be starting swimming lessons on Saturday. He then continued the conversation by saying that it was to be raining and snowing on Saturday. So I had to further explain that they would be swimming indoors. We signed them up for lessons through the YMCA but at a nearby middle school. They all three seemed to really enjoy it and will continue lessons for 6 more Saturdays. So we shall not be going away weekends for awhile.

April Snow Brings May ???

It is snowing today. A pleasant 31 degrees.

Working Hard

Curtis working hard - writing those spelling words.
This is one of his least favorite things to do.

Strolling Down Memory Lane

Our five children on Easter 2005. It's amazing the changes that have taken place in the last two years. Where has time gone?

Imaginext

Imaginext Fire Station

I went to bed last night with a sore throat and woke up not feeling much better so I gave the kids an extra day off school. Yesterday, for Easter the boys got several new Imaginext pieces so today they got the rest of what they own out and have spent the day playing with it.

Easter 2007

Our five children on Easter Sunday afternoon.

Our Boys with their Easter Baskets

Curtis

Samuel

Alex

Our Girls with their Easter Baskets

Briana

Julissa

The Finished Product

All but two of the eggs that were colored.

Boys Coloring Easter Eggs

Curtis

Samuel - He really gets into it. He dips each egg in various colors to come up with his own new color for each egg. By the time he is done he has very colorful hands too.

Alex

Girls Coloring Easter Eggs

My little ragmuffin.

Julissa

Julissa only colored one egg but she was absolutely enthralled with it.

Lincoln Log Fort

My kids love to build with Lincoln Logs. It is one thing that will keep Briana entertained for quite awhile.

Briana Reading

Briana "reading" a book I found at the Goodwill. I remember as a child going to my Aunt's and sprawling on her bed looking at her copy of this book.

Field Trip to Cool Creek Nature Center

A mounted Owl sitting in his home. The name of his home is Oliver the Oak Tree.

This is Puff the Bearded Dragon (he is actually real).

A goose sitting on her nest.

She was not at the Nature Center but outside a Shopping Center nearby.

Today after picking up Curtis from his last day of taking Stanford Achiement Tests we went to Cool Creek Nature Center. They had a nature program entitled, "Animals of Spring with Safari Steve" from Silly Safaris. Safari Steve brought out animals one at time and talked with the kids about them. He let different kids come up and hold them or touch them. The first animal that we saw was a skunk. After that we saw a large toad, a blue-tongued skink, an owl, a boa constrictor, a rabbit and some cockroaches. After the talk we walked around the nature center and looked at the different displays containing real and mounted animals.

Samuel's Thoughts

After reading this book, "Meet the North American Indians" Samuel said, "I guess Briana is a Creek Indian because the Creek Indians fought others for no reason." I think this thought came about due to the injury Sam received the other night from Briana for no apparent reason.

Home from Town

Curtis is taking Stanford Achievment Tests this week at Union Bible Academy. The rest of the kids and I went to pick him up around 11:30 a.m. From there I went to the post office to mail a package and then we headed to Costco to get lunch and a few groceries. It was quite an ordeal getting everybody out of the car and back in as it was bitter cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. After leaving Costco we headed to Sam's Club to pick up The Timechart of Biblical History and a few other things. When we came out of Sam's Club it was snowing. It was just flurries but bitter cold compared to yesterday's beautiful 70+ degrees. Today it is currently 28 degrees. The above photo is a picture of the kids after we arrived home before they got out of the van.

View From Our Back Door

The view from our back door around 8:10 p.m.

Adventure in the Woods

Curtis is building a campfire on his plot.

Alex is working on his area.

Sam surveyed the land and gave out the plots to each one of the boys. They are building campfires, etc. They love to play down in the woods and by the creek. It is nice that they are able to do it now because it won't be long before they won't be able to go down there to play due to tall weeds, ticks, mosiquotoes, snakes, etc. For some reason Alex seems to attact mosquitoes and ticks. He is extremely allergic to mosquitoes and swells most horrendously to the extent where his eyes are almost swollen shut.