EE's 3rd Birthday Party

 Here is the birthday girl trying to show me that she is now a big 3 year old!

 Mom, Dad, and EE preparing to sing "Happy Birthday."

 This was her dessert bar. I have never known a little one so delighted in eating something sweet. EE always asks  if we have any dessert when she comes to the dinner table. So, I thought having a dessert bar would be fitting to have at her party. (And let's just say that she wasn't the only child that LOVED that!)

 Since EE loves her baby dolls so much we had a "Little Mommy" party. Her friends were asked to bring their baby dolls, and the guys were encouraged to bring a stuffed animal or an action figure. There was a kitchen area, a diaper changing area, a doctor table, and a stroller path around the outside of these stations. Let's just say that it was a very busy area!

EE was excited to open presents. She had so many...and they were all full of girlie things (like lipstick, nail polish, baby dolls, and every other thing a little girl could ever want). I told her that those gifts serve as a reminder of how many people love her.

 Here she is holding one of my favorite gifts. Her oldest brother, BA, really wanted to give her some of the money he had been saving for a while. It touched my heart, and it definitely made her smile!

 This Cinderella set (Castle and Carriage) tops the favorites things EE owns. Almost every where she goes. EE tells people, "I have Cinderella stuff." Ans if you come to our house, you can be certain that she will ask you to play with her "Cinderella stuff."

Here is onother one of her favorite gifts- a Cinderella dress. She just LOVES it! I'm guessing she will definitely wear it out before she outgrows it.

All in all, the party was so much fun. We enjoyed celebrating the three wonderful years of life God has granted to our daughter. I look forward to celebrating many more. Thank-you to all of our wonderful friends and family who came, helped, and gave to our daughter...But most importantly, we are thankful for the love you give to her. May she one day grow up to love our Savior and serve him with all of her heart. Happy Birthday, EE!

EE @ 3

It is absolutely crazy how quickly this...

...can turn into this...

About a month ago we celebrated EE's 3rd birthday! It is beyond me how quickly time seems to escape these days. At any rate, I am so thankful God blessed our household with this beautiful little girl. She brings so much joy (and pink!) to our lives. EE loves baby dolls, lipstick, nail polish, playing doll house, playing dress up, and she is a huge Cinderella fan! EE is fascinated with getting married, and she regularly tries to convince her brothers to play "wedding" (much to their disgust!). Almost every where we go she has her tag- along baby and diaper bag. EE definitely has a motherly instinct, and she likes to be the one calling the shots (a.k.a. the boss!). Her will can be very strong, but she is also gentle and sweet. We are so grateful God blessed us with her! I cannot imagine life without having a daughter!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Scenes from School

This year has been a new journey for our family in that I added a new student to our home school- CJ. At first I must admit that I was a little anxious about how I would homeschool two children and care for three other little ones. God has been so wonderful in continually teaching me to trust Him. It has all worked out perfectly! Having two students has been so fun! I tried my best to document some of our activities and units, so the following is a glimpse into our first half of the school year.

 Here they are on our first day of school- BA is in 1st grade and CJ is in pre-k. Brotherly love :)

 These are dirt cake cupcakes. We made these when we studied worms and other things that live underground.

 One of the fabulous things about having school at home is that you can include everyone in the activities or lessons that are appropriate. While teaching number concepts and counting we used the M&M counting book. I highly recommend it! You get to eat your "manipulatives" after the lesson!

 While studying classification we sorted rocks by color, shape, and size. They also had their first lesson on fossils!

 We learned about seeds and how they grow into plants. It by far was one of the funnest projects. We planted about a dozen lima bean plants. Every day they dug up one plant and observed and sketched how the seed grew into a plant.

 Here the boys are drawing the tree rings in their science journals.

 While learning  the letter 'G' we made 'G' cookies.

 Here the three oldest kiddos are attempting to make a 'J.'

 I love the look of concentration on CJ's face. I am thankful we are at home and able to choose not to do much "seatwork." It's my philosophy to only do what's necessary to achieve the skill being taught. I am so thankful our boys are able to actively learn day in and day out. I love seeing the looks on their eager faces when new topics are being taught.

 BA working hard on some math.

 Hands on school- We let the boys stay up election night to learn about the process of how our country elects a president. They kept score by dry erase board and we also colored in a map of the USA which showed either a Democrat or Republican win for each state. While awaiting reports of each state they enjoyed playing card games.

 Miss EE helping us with our classification and graphing lessons. Each child got a box of animal cookies. We counted them, sorted them, and graphed the results. (And of course we ate those too!)

 My two silliest kids showing off the rainbows we made when studying how rainbows are made.

BA and CJ had such a blast letting their snowflakes fall. I had no idea what fun it would be for them. We made these when learning about how snowflakes are formed.


There are so many things that we have learned (and I do mean 'we' because many topics I must also learn as I teach them), and I look forward to another fun semester beginning in January. I cannot say enough what a joy and privilege it is to teach my children. I am also very thankful for such a biblically sound curriculum that I highly recommend to any other home school parent- My Father's World. Their mission statement says it all-"Raising up generations of families who see the world through God's eyes and live according to that knowledge." This is our prayer for our family- that we raise our kids to know him and to live in a way that reflects that. Please pray for us as we strive to honor God in our school.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 10th Anniversary

Happy 10th Anniversary. Wow. It seems like yesterday we were getting married, but then again it seems like that is the way things have just always been. I am so thankful God gave me such a wonderful, godly husband. When I said "I do" I had no idea the journey we would travel, but I have enjoyed every moment of it. There's no one else I would rather spend my days with, and if I were given the option I would do it all over again. I love you, Ben. I look forward to many more years together :)