The kids on a recent visit downtown for cupcakes. Yes we go downtown for cupcakes every now and then. I think if you had them, you would too. They are yummy!!
All's well here at our home. We're getting into a busier time of the year. The kids have two more soccer nights. I really love the league we're in. It's just for instruction and fun. Of course the kids add in their own bit of competition, but there's no official score keeping or anything like that, it's just for fun.
We're getting settled into our new church. It's a much, much smaller church than our previous one. It's nice though that people actually notice if you're not there. They do a monthly brunch after church and it rotates houses. I love this. It's a great way to get to know everyone better. There are a lot of homeschoolers in this church. That was something we were kind of looking for. We really wanted to have some encouragement from other believers/homeschoolers. They also believe in family worship which was the biggest thing we were looking for. Everyone from infant on up, stays in the service during the prayer time and worship singing, then 3rd grade and younger can (if they want to, there's no pressure) go to either the nursery (infant thru K) or to the one and only Sunday school class (1st - 3rd). After third grade they are expected to stay in the service with their parents and here the sermon. I love it. We were doing this already at our other church, but there we were looked at as oddballs when we brought all of our kids into the service. We just believe it's so important for kids to learn how to worship, learn how to sit respectfully, learn how to hear God's Word in the church setting. Did I mention , I love it? Anyway, so starting this week we are also in a small group that meets in homes twice a month and we're studying a biblical parenting book. We went to our first meeting last night. It looks like it's going to be a nice time of learning and fellowshipping. I'm excited about that too. And, Noah will be starting their version of a "youth group" tomorrow. I say it like that, because they make it very clear that their group looks nothing like the silly, entertainment driven youth groups of most churches. They are very serious about it. They planned extra times throughout the year to do fun things like on Saturday afternoons and such (like a scavenger hunt and an amazing race), but Wednesday nights are for serious learning about God's Word.
I thought I would use the time that Noah was away at his group to mentor my little girl. So I'm making up a little schedule and every Wednesday we will learn to either cook or bake something and then learn a specific chore or domestic responsibility in depth. My plan is to over the year, get to each thing at least 3 or 4 times with the hope that at the end she would be able to do some things on her own, like bake a banana bread or fill the dishwasher, etc... I've also ordered us a sewing ebook, as I'm just a beginner like her!! So that's something else we can work on in that time. She is VERY excited about all of it. This morning she said "tomorrow we get to do our girl time!!". I'm so blessed to have this girl.
So we have soccer, church, church brunch, small group, youth group and girl night. We also have Upward starting in November. Noah in basketball and Abby in cheerleading and I called yesterday about seeing about piano lessons for Abby. She is very interested in the piano, especially after getting a keyboard from a cousin last year. During MAD camp (music, art and drama) this summer she and Noah learned a few easy songs like twinkle, twinkle and old macdonald and she has been playing them over and over. Hopefully I'll be able to work that out for her too. So with all of that going on, we'll be pretty busy, but I always limit the kids to 2 outside the home activities at a time, so it doesn't get too crazy.
In Joshua news: He is eating like a pro, still taking bottles, but slowly transitioning to a cup. He still hasn't taken those first steps, but seems closer every day. His 8th tooth is popping through and he officially has at least one word in his vocabulary and it's "bite". When he wants another bite he says "bi". He definitely says mama and dada, but I'm not convinced he knows what those mean yet and I'm fairly certain he says some form of "doggie" when he sees Jasmine or another dog. It's a two syllable sound with and "ie" ending. I've been working on that one with him. He amazes with how easily how learns things. Show him how to work a toy once and he's got it. He's super smart! We went to the a reunion picnic at the hospital. We got to see some of our nurses and they were all amazed at how big he was and how much hair he had. The picnic was one the one year anniversary of his first surgery. I can't tell you how strange it was to sit in the cafeteria with him, feeding him, laughing with him and remember that day exactly a year ago, when I sat in the same cafeteria full of worry as he was in surgery. On the way out I looked up at the windows where the surgery waiting room is and just thanked God I was not sitting there and was instead taking my baby in the car home with me. I guess it was kind of a closure thing. That part is over, no looking back.
In school we're about to start a study on the Revolutionary War. I'm very excited about it because we're going to read close to 50 books during it, plus act things out, cook period meals, wear period costumes (made by us!), do crafts and activities and lots of hands on learning during it, all leading up to a trip in the early spring to visit a lot of the war sites in Boston and Philadelphia. I can't wait to learn right along with them! I'm also making up a study of Ohio's canal history and have some field trips in mind for that. I thought it would be fun to make a scrapbook of that study since we'll be visiting so many sites. We're working along in math, spelling, english, and writing. Abby has made huge leaps in her handwriting this year. I'm so relieved!! I think I was just like her, even remembering that I got C's in handwriting in first grade. And then all of a sudden, I just wanted it to look nice, so I made it neater. I think that's what's happening here too. We tried all kinds of different curriculum too and now we're using Handwriting without Tears and it really seems to work with her. So she's zooming through the printing book, just to polish up her writing and then we'll start the cursive book. The kids have already read through Phillippians and Genesis in their Bibles and we're about to start Acts. Noah is working on copying Proverbs this year in a notebook and he's on chapter 4. He does 5 verses a day. We're about to finish a cute book called the 21 Balloons. We read two books recently that were really good, one was the Matchlock Gun and the other was the Courage of Sarah Noble. Both are relatively short, but very good. The Matchlock Gun is very suspenseful and well written.
Abby's going to be 8 in less than 2 weeks. We're planning her a party. She wants a horse theme (mare and foal). I'd love to find someone to bring over a horse for the kids to see, but I don't know yet.
Well that's most of what's going on around here. Thanks for reading!!
We visited the zoo this fall. It's nice to visit during the cooler months. It can be really hot there in the summer!! The kids have been studying animals of the 6th day of creation, so we go often so they can see some of the animals up close.
Here's Joshua's awesome big brother showing him the flamingos! I am so blessed with my kids. 
My uncle is working on the remodel of the cat house and he told us that these white tigers are super gentle and loving!! He said you can pet them and play with them. How cool would that be!!
Joshua was fascinated by all the neat bugs in the insect house. I love that he's starting to take interest in these things.
And we saw this condor (I think) stretching his wings and boy were those some awesome wings! The wingspan was over 6 feet!! God's creation is incredible!!!
