Trip to the police station

Ethan's cub scout den had a trip to the police station this evening.  Everyone had lots of fun.

the officer showing Ethan his collapsible club

checking out the police cars lights

The SWAT truck

Decorating the tree

We had a fun time this weekend decorating the Christmas tree.  Ethan had the most fun helping me take the ornaments out of their boxes.

Fun Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's house.  We watched movies, Brandon got to practice his chess, play a multi-hour game of Monopoly with Daddy and it was nice enough to play lightsabers outside.

Add some very yummy turkey, dressing and sweet potatoes along with chocolate dream pie and it was a great Thanksgiving!

New pictures

We took a walk down to the lake after school today so I could try and get some new pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Wordless Wednesday

Biker Dudes for Jesus

Brandon dressed up as a biker dude in his Harley stuff for Halloween at Grandma and Papa's house. They went to a few neighbors houses but I think he had more fun passing out candy to all the trick or treaters.

I hope these scary biker dudes are on my side if I meet them in a dark alley.

But then how scary can you be when this is your trick or treat bag.

Sometimes your kids do things that just make your heart smile.

pumpkin time

You want me to touch what?

Okay, not so bad, I can pull out this stuff.

Ethan's pattern

Cutting out the eyes.

Popcorn break. You're doing a great job dad.

Which face is the real kid and which two are the Jack O'Lanterns.

Shoes

For part of their homework in October ,the 1st graders had to learn to tie their shoes. This is something we haven't worked on since Ethan's shoes that fit over his braces are all Velcro. He was so excited to show off what he learned.

Yeah Ethan!

Fish

We had another burial at sewer for the recently renamed fish "Flippy" He earned that name because about a month ago he started to swim with his body at a sideways angle and would sometimes start doing flips and somersaults in the water. This morning he was finally out of his misery. I told Brand he had flipped his last, and he replied "It's too bad he couldn't live to flip another day."

But all is not lost. Our 13 babies from a month ago are getting big, and I saw three more babies in the tank this morning. I knew that Mollies were life bearers and thought it would be neat if we could see them giving birth, but little did I know that they have the ability to remain pregnant and have more babies every month for five or six months. Can you believe it? this time I am not sticking the babies in the little mesh cage so they are protected. It's survival of the fittest in our tank now.

Another fish earned a new name last month. We now have "Big Mama" in our tank, I don't think anyone remembers the names of any of the other fish anymore. Brandon did suggest today we rename her "Baby Mama" but I think we'll stick with Big Mama.

Anybody want some fish? Our tank is getting too full.

Geology Night

Fish fossil

Gold ore

Fools Gold

Gold Ore

Brandon had fun at geology night with the cub scouts at MU. He got to see a lot of neat rocks, fossils, and volcanic rocks. As soon as we got back to the van I asked what he thought. His response "hundreds of millions years old? Yeah right." I love that our science book is written from a biblical world view and we've been able to teach him about the truth of creation.

Painting on Monday

Out of the mouths . . . part 6

This afternoon when Ethan and I got home from school I saw he had a couple of books in his backpack and asked if he wanted to read them. No but I could . . . to myself. Then he decided I needed to wait and he'd get me different books to read by myself. He brought them out and said "Here you go. Read these. Be quiet, don't wake up Dad. Here Mufasa (Lion King) and Star Wars. Now be quiet." He started walking away then came back. "And don't be mean."

Art

One subject that Brandon specifically asked me to teach him this year homeschooling was art. We're starting with a sculpture kit.

He started with a cog at the bottom with two wires bent into the basic shape then stuck in the cog. He filled the cog with foil to finish making the basic shape then covered it with the clay.

He then started adding clay where he needed for the facial features and taking clay away where needed.

Here is his finished product. Very good for his first try. He was so excited for this project that he did 4 lessons worth of art all this afternoon.

School

When Brandon was little, we would pass the time in the car by me giving him three words and he would have to make up a story using those words. Now, I'm making that into some of his writing assignments. Here is his first short story using the words; purple, duck and tennis shoes.

Homeschooling is going great so far. I feel like we've both gotten into a good groove.

First day of school

Ethan and Brandon on the first day of 1st grade and 4th grade.

Ethan in front of his school on his first day.

Brandon in front of his school on his first day. Yes, that is the front of our house. This year we are homeschooling Brandon. We're both very excited and after the first day, so far so good!

Ethan's favorite animal

The one thing that Ethan wanted to see was a Jaguar.

As you can see, he was pretty excited! It even made it into our bedtime prayer, along with the stingrays and pizza for dinner tonight.

Petting the Stingrays

One of the favorite parts of going to the zoo today was getting to pet the stingrays. If you held your hand down flat in the water they would come right up to you. The only thing to watch for was accidentally touching the tail or the edges of the 'wings' then they would splash you. Sometimes they'd just splash. Poor Ethan got a face full of salt water more than once.