Fun pictures from the week

Here are just a few funny pictures from the week and how we managed to get school done before our week long Thanksgiving break.

So Thor's bed is normally on the floor to the left of the fire place.  We put it up on the hearth as we were vacumming and shampooing carpets.  Well he really wanted on his bed! LOL

School was done outside and on ledges this week.....can you tell it is almost the holidays!

Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange

Have you ever heard of the Jesse Tree?  We have been blessed to participate in this count down to Christmas devotional for several years now.  It is based off of the book pictured above.  (You can order it from Amazon.) The devotions start on the first of December and go through Christmas day.  One of the things I love about this devotion is it takes you from Creation-to the birth of Christ. Showing Christ from the beginning.  There is an old saying "The Old Testament conceals what the New Testament reveals" and this book shows this in a great easy way.  We do the devotion each morning and a different child gets to unwrap the ornament for that day.  

Each day there is a symbol/ornament that relates to the devotion.  Well there is no way I could make all 25 different ornaments.  So I have been a part of and hosted an ornament exchange. How this normally works is you get 12 participants including yourself for a total of 13.  Each participant picks 2 ornaments and makes 13 replicas of those two ornaments.  The hostess has one ornament to make 13 replicas of.  Then once you exchange them you have the 25 different ornaments.

This year was a little different because I allowed more participants.  Note to self stick with the original plan and make two separate groups if needed.  Why have I participated in this several times you might ask?  LOL  Well I would like a set for each of my kids and also we have given sets as Christmas gifts.  This year we gave a set to my sister-in-law and her kids.  Gratefully they were going to be here for Thanksgiving so we could give it to them in time to enjoy for this year.

The night of the exchange is a great mom's night out and early Christmas party.  We exchanged the week before Thanksgiving.  Everyone brought a finger food or dessert to share.  Each person brings all of their ornaments individually wrapped with the corresponding number written on them.  They also bring one unwrapped to display on the tree for us all to see.  I have never been disappointed in this exchange.  Everyone does such a great job making the ornaments.

Anastasia helped me and we actually made three this year.  The earth, the star and the dove with a crown.  I don't think I will do three again and we had to make 19 of each.  Big group this year!  

Here is the tree from both sides with everyone's ornaments to display:  They were all beautiful!

We exchanged and then it was time to hang out and relax and eat and visit.  It is always a great time with these ladies.

Reunion time

Back in August, a friend of ours contacted us through a group message on FB about getting Jay's praise and worship band (from when he served at Desert Sky in Casa Grande) together for a jam session.  We were open to the idea and have remained "FB friends" with most of them now it was just picking a date.  We finally picked a Saturday in November and by that time it just so happened that our friends the Roger's family were serving at another church there in Casa Grande.  So we met there.  It was a potluck and jam session reunion.

I wasn't sure at first how it would be going back there. We had been back just a few weeks previous to meet with another couple we had not seen since moving.  That was a really good meeting for Jay and I. Now meeting with this group and enjoying the evening I can truly say we have moved on even though it took a few years.  Everything is for a season. I am learning, through God's grace, to enjoy all seasons of life no matter how short or long. However, finding out that this past summer our house we lived in in CG sold for way under market at $90grand.  Ughhh.....  I loved that house and all of it's space!   I would love to pick it up and move it to the cul-de-sac where we live now.  Anyways I digress............

It was a fun evening filled with good reminiscing, catching up and of course food and music.  There were others that were invited and joined us as well.

I love listening to my hubby sing and this was a great group!

These kids have all grown so much!!

2nd Week of November

This month Joshua and I hosted book club so I have lots of pictures from that and none of Keeper's. For Keeper's they went on a tour of a bike shop and learned about bike safety.

Our book this month was:

We also happened to meet on Veteran's Day which was really neat and just a total coincidence.  We all picked the books and the months we wanted to teach over the summer and I did not realize our meeting would fall on Veteran's Day.

Book club meets from 1-4pm.  There are nine families and a total of 14 boys that participate.
The host serves lunch, engages the boys in a discussion about the book and then usually has an activity for the boys to do.
For lunch we made potato pancakes and beans and weenies....typical depression era food.  Then I wasn't able to get MRE's so I did get a couple of freeze dried foods for the boys to try.

The boys all said they really liked this book.  Of course what boy wouldn't with war and travel and weapons.  :)  We discussed the book and their story chart and then even gave background info on Veteran's day. It was a really good discussion and the boys seemed engaged.  For the activities after wards the boys made dog tags and wrote a letter to a Veteran.

We still had some time left because 3 hrs is a LONG time.  HA!  5 memebers of Joshua's First Lego League team are in book club so they took some time to give their presentation to the other boys.

Since the girls were at Keeper's and Joshua had book club.  I invited Jadon's friend, Bodie to come hang out with him and stay the night.  Bodie's sister is in Keeper's and his brother is in book club.  So my girls went and stayed the night with his sister.  Jadon had been so excited about this sleep over!  They made PB&J sandwiches all by themselves.  They both love to be in their jammies so by 5:45 they asked to put them on.

I was just in the kitchen and they asked if they could watch a show on the tablet.  I checked on them at 6:20 and this is what I found:

Oh my!  Jadon was passed out.  I couldn't even wake him up.  He ended up sleeping through the night.  Bodie watched a movie and then Joshua played with him some.  LOL  Easiest sleepover ever!

They at least woke up early and had time to play.  We arranged the sleepover during the week only because this family is here visiting for a short time before being back up in Idaho for a long time.


Also, the next day was Science co-op and Sherrie was teaching/hosting.  The next two chapter we have been studying in anatomy were nutrition and all about the lungs. Sherrie provided a nutritious lunch with each food serving a purpose and learning point.  Then they did a couple of activities and then we all went for a hike to give our lungs a work out.

Jadon's party

My little guy is getting ready to turn SIX! I wanted to have a party while Jay was in town and Jadon's best little friend was here (his family is moving to Idaho for two years and we are going to miss them terribly.)  So we planned a zoo party two weeks before his actual birthday.  It was simple and fun, my kind of party!  We have a zoo pass and so do most of our friends so it is a great place to hang out with a big group of kids.  The funny thing is is when we go with a group of friends we usually don't see very many animals.  The kids like to go from playground area to playground area.  We usually just go back as a family and then we get to see a lot of the animals.

We all packed lunches and Anastasia made Minion cupcakes to celebrate with. Here are some pictures of all the little monkeys at the zoo.  :)

I think he had a pretty good time considering he passed out before we got out of the zoo parking lot!