Last Day of School!

Friday was our last day of school! Tirzah completed lesson 170 for her video school from the Abeka curriculum and Hardy finished his workbooks and readers. It was really neat to see Tirzah's class at the end of activity time line up and say good-bye. Tirzah started tearing up; she loved Mrs. Chappell and her class this year. Hardy had no tears; when we finished, he just zoomed outside to play before lunch. 

This is a Christmas card from Pensacola Christian Academy; on it are the pictures of the video teachers. Since Christmas, Tirzah has kept this card pinned on the wall of the schoolroom. Here she is, getting ready to draw a heart around Mrs. Chappell's face.

Sweet, huh? I'm so glad Tirzah had a great school year. We are so proud of her and Hardy; they both do so well in school. Now they will be in the third and first grade next year. Every year at our house just gets better and better!

Our Ladies Tea

We had a good time at our Ladies' Tea today. Our theme was "Cruise into Service." We decorated the main building to look like a cruise ship, complete with hanging seagulls (one was flying--Tim attached it to the ceiling fan!). Tim also put together background music of the ocean and seagulls; it was very relaxing to listen to! The Koontz family once again outdid themselves in preparing a wonderful meal for us ladies; we had the choice of a tilapia or chicken dinner and it was great! The guys looked great as they wore sailor hats when they served us. Selah slept through most of it and was an angel. We really had a wonderful time!

 

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day here in Cottonwood. The sky was clear blue and the weather was perfect! The kids were excited about thinking of Jesus and His resurrection. At church, Tirzah played a piano piece called "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" on the piano. The highlite of our morning was when Lily, a ten year old girl who has been coming to our church with her grandma for about five years, was baptized! Then, Lily's dad had a surprise for her and he also was baptized! It was really special.

Sitting in front of our portable baptistm, the kids were all smiles.

Everyone was asking me if I sewed the girl's clothes, so let me say that I although I have been sewing lately, I did not sew the dresses. We bought the girls' dresses at Wal-Mart, and all I had to do was hem Selah's dress. (I also hemmed Hardy's dress pants--a first for me.) It was sweet to see the girls in their matching dresses and Hardy looking dapper in his new church suit.

Selah is our little sweetie.

She loves to say in sign language "all done" after she eats a meal and then claps  right afterwards. Of course, we're clapping along with her, and she has discovered she loves the attention from clapping! And this past weekend she started blowing kisses, which is so fun.

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday, and now today we are celebrating Tim's birthday! Don't we all have so much to be thankful for?

 

Homeschooling the Kids

I thought you might be interested to see how we do homeschooling in our family. Using the Abeka curriculum from Pensacola, FL, Tirzah, our second grader, does the video school while I get to be Hardy's teacher. (I used to teach K4 and K5 for six years so kindergarten is my specialty.)

We start school with Bible class at 8:30 every morning and finish school around 1:30 in the afternoon. In the above picture, Tirzah, Hardy, and Acarith are pledging to the flag in their Bible class. Hardy and Tirzah do Bible class together, and sometimes Acarith joins for fun. Mrs. Jadine Chappell is Tirzah's teacher and always keeps Bible class fun.

 

Hardy does his schoolwork at a little desk in the dining room. While I work with him, Acarith "babysits" Selah in either her room or Selah's. The roommtime is good for the girls and helps me and Hardy to have some good one-on-one time.

Acarith loves to do school. She enjoys counting, learning her letters, and coloring papers. About ten o'clock she does her papers at the table.

Here is Selah by Tirzah's desk in the schoolroom. As long as she is good and quiet, she is allowed to be in the schoolroom with Tirzah. She plays with blocks, looks at books, and says "hi" to Tirzah. Tirzah loves it when Selah hangs out with her. Ten thirty Selah takes her morning nap and the kids go outside on recess--their favorite part of school!

I love Tirzah's little desk; it fits perfectly into the schoolroom which is about ten by eight feet. Tirzah does very well with her video school and especially enoys having classmates. Our last day of school is May 16th (if all continues to go well), and I must admit, we are all looking forward to summer break!

 

 

 

 

We Have Chickens!

For a month now we have been taking care of 12 baby chicks. Tim ordered only hens from California Hatcheries. They are Rhode Island Reds and just adorable. Known to be great with kids (and I definitely agree), our kids are having a ball taking care of them. The chicks were living in the schoolroom...until today. Tim put together a pen for them outside and so we'll see how it goes! I hope it works out for them to be outside (their cage will still have the heat lamp and be covered to keep them warm), because they really stink!

On the first day we got them, Hardy's job was to make sure none escaped from the cage. This was hard because they were so little they could slip through the openings. It was hilarious watching him chase them down!

 

Here's Tirzah--acting like a chicken. She told me today that she knows the chickens like her best because she sings to them and they always like her songs. :)

 

Here's Tim with them. The chickens are totally Tim's things with the kids. I told him from the start I didn't want to do too much with them. I'm not good with animals; I never had a pet growing up. When Tim was a kid, he had all sorts of pets: turkeys, pigs, sheep, a cow and a steer, goats, bunny rabbits, pigeons, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and lizards. Tim's getting ready this week to hook up a cool watering method for the chicks so we won't have to supply them with water. Honestly, if you want your kids to be around animals but don't like messes in the house, the chickens are the way to go! And I am definitely looking forward to getting those eggs. Hopefully, the chickens will satisfy Tim's itch for wanting lots of pets-- I don't think I want any pigs in the back yard! :)

 

 

At the Park

 

We are having a beautiful spring. The weather is in the 70's and just perfect. I decided to take the kids today to the park and meet my friend Naomi and her family there. The kids love to go to the park and Tirzah and Hardy were very motivated to get their schoolwork all done so we could go after lunch. Hardy is doing well in school; he's learning to read special sound words mixed in with his two vowel words and really likes his math class, especially learning to count money.

Selah loves, absolutely loves, the swing. She giggles for the first ten minutes while in the swing. She is doing really well. She has now added "hi," "wow," and "yah" to her vocabulary. She enjoys all types of food except does not like peas. I have tried frozen and canned in different soups and fixed different ways and she picks them out and, if I'm not looking, throws them over the side (a big no-no in our family). She is loving life without her helmet and we are enjoying our happy girl.

 

 Tirzah wanted to bring her soccer ball to the park. She loves all kinds of sports, but especially enjoys playing soccer. We're hoping to put her in some kind of sport this fall. She is doing well in school and has already started learning multiplication and division, lately learning the 3's family.

Here is Acarith with her friend Ruthanne. Acarith is our fun loving, free spirited girl. She loves to call herself "big girl" and she enjoys putting together cute outfits with her clothes. She can even button up her own shirts by herself and for the most part get them all lined up right; that's pretty impressive to me.

We are so thankful for each of our kids and so thankful the Lord has given them to us.

Selah's First Birthday!

On Tuesday, March 11, Selah celebrated her first birthday. Wearing a shirt that said, "Birthday Girl," we had her party at our house and about 25 friends came. Selah looked so cute in her hair bow. Since she has had to wear the helmet, everybody commented on her headful of hair. By the way, we are DONE with the helmet! Thank the Lord! The week before her birthday we had the last appointment and also saw an eye specialist for children in Glendale and he said her eyesight is perfect, which we are so thankful for.

 

The night before her party, the kids plus their friend Lily helped me start the cake. We made a yellow cake in a 1/2 sheet cake pan. I froze it that night and next morning put it on the tray and topped it with a cream cheese pudding mix, crushed pineapple, and whipped cream. It was yummy!

Our friend Ida Larson bought the candles. The one on the left is a musical flower candle, and after I lit it, it looked like a sparkler, then each little candle lit and it spin around while singing "Happy Birthday." We all joined in with the candle, and it was so cute. By the way--the candle (which is now outside) is STILL making the music! We are wanting to see how long it lasts. It even got rained on a few nights ago but is still going. :)

 

Selah LOVED her cake...she had two pieces. She didn't even get messy and got all her cake in her mouth. Everyone was pretty impressed.



Daddy helped Selah open all her gifts. She sweetly sat on his lap the whole time for gifts. Tim for fun wore her hat, which made us all giggle. It was a fun party, and thank you to all our loving family and friends who showered our Selah with such love.