Our last day at CC

 Sam in his class.  He loved the social aspect as much as the academic aspect.  He enjoys his friends very much and learned so much this school year.

 Not sure what he was doing here!

 Ben was giving his presentation, like a show and tell.  He had a toy hidden in his backpack and was giving clues to his classmates to get them to guess what it was.

 Coloring a compass.  Always Ben's favorite part of school.

 Playing our review game.

 Another favorite part because there was candy involved!

Ben enjoyed school also this year and learned so much. CC has been such a blessing to our family.  It gave us direction in our homeschool, along with accountability and friendships.  We are excited for next year (and also excited about a break this summer!!)

Easter Sunday, 2013

 Ben and Sam, rocking the bowtie!

 Emma in her beautiful purple dress.

Emma and Daddy

Random Pictures

 Be sure and look again at these family pictures.  Someone is being very silly!!

It's been how long??

Over 2 weeks.  It's been over 2 weeks since my last post.  I don't know where the time goes sometimes- it just seems to fly.

• We had our end of the year celebration for the classical school we are involved in last night.  What a great time we had.  I have pictures to post of it- both Sam and Ben did a great job reciting with their classes.
• Anna turns 17 next Sunday.  Wow.  It doesn't seem that long ago that she was Emma's age.
• Ellie was able to return to Kansas with her grandparents for a month.  She was so excited (as was her Grandma, her Aunt Rebecca and her cousin Emily).  We will miss her.
• Paul and I leave on our 25th anniversary cruise to Alaska next Sunday.  Woo-Hoo!  We are both so excited. This is a dream come true for both of us.
• Except for nighttime, Emma is completely potty trained, and she's very close at night.  I'm so relieved to have that over with.  Diapers are not one of the things I will miss about babies!  I've been buying diapers for over 8 years straight, so to not have that in the budget is very nice.
• My parents were here this past week for a visit.  They had not been here in over a year.  We had such a nice time.  My kids just love it when they come.  Emma was Grandma's shadow the entire time she was here.  But, she couldn't get it straight which one was Grandma and which one was Grandpa.
• Ben has an obsession with coloring.  He loves to draw, cut, glue and color and is the happiest when he is doing this.  A few weeks ago we ran out of paper and the boy was almost frantic.  He is so serious about his creations.
• Sam thoroughly enjoyed playing baseball this season.  He is pretty good at it and loves the camaraderie of being on a team.
• Ben, on the other hand, really had no clue what he was doing when it came to baseball, but he had fun nevertheless.
• Emma loved going to baseball because it meant she could play on the playground for a long while.
• Lots of pictures coming. (maybe!)

Buzz Cut Boys

Silly boys!

Sunday Morning March 11

Ben looked so cute!

The Museum of Arts and Sciences

Red touches yellow, kill a fellow.  Or something like that.  (They were looking at a coral snake)

 Big bird.  Notice how far away I am.

 Notice how close they are.

 This was a special day.  It was called an Instrument Petting Zoo.  Several local musicians came in with their instruments and let the kids try them out.  The kids were also able to make several instruments.  Here Sam and Ben were making rubber band guitars.

 All of us enjoyed it. 

 Sam loved the gyroscope!

 He was determined to get it to flip all the way over.

 He came close several times, but never was able to get it to flip.

But he had a great time trying!