Presenting Her Cutiness

Okay, I'll be honest. This isn't really an update. This is really just the easiest way to show a video of Charlotte to her adoring grandparents. She's only said her name a few times, and we were really excited when she did it on camera for us! Oh - and that's William practicing the piano in the backgroud.

Puppets

Monday is craft day in our little homeschool. These next few months we'll be working on re-vamping the church bag. First on the agenda - finger puppets.

Esther and Will worked very hard to make this stunning assortment. 

Top row: a missionary, Iron Man, a cow, a mouse and a chicken

Bottom row: Queen Esther (with her pet cat), a bird, a cat, and a dog.

Not So Boring

To your average person, a few paper towel tubes look like trash, or something to be recycled. 

In the eyes of William they are a didgeridoo

or a ninja sword.

SUMMER!

Random outside fun from this week.

First Day of School

In order to make lots of time for breaks, we got an early start on school this year. This is from our first day, July 30th. Our first week was great!

Macbeth

We do quite a bit of memorization over here. A few months ago Esther was required to memorize this little speech. William was expected to. Alex was just along for the ride, but I love hearing my 3-year-old quote Shakespeare.

Art Time

Sometimes it's okay to color on the wall.

Yesterday

Yesterday Esther was challenged to a game of chess by a little boy. They were pretty much neck-and-neck until he had to leave.

After he left Esther made his pieces fall into the trap she had set up. She emerged victorious.

Here are some other things we did on our trip to the Children's Museum:

Boys!

This is where Alex took off his shoes after playing outside. Yes, there are beans in there. Somehow he got dry beans in his shoes.

This is what the bathwater looked like after his bath.

And this is what the tub looked like after draining.

I was planning to mop the house and clean the bathroom this morning. I'm glad I procrastinated until this afternoon.

The Winner

Cameron's been fencing. Did you know that?

He's the guy on the left.

This is him in the finals for his club's novice tournament (Cameron's first tournament).

Here he is with his FIRST PLACE medal! Not too shabby!

Recess

This is what homeschoolers do while all the other kids are trapped inside.

February Fun

Reason # 2,371 why Cameron is an awesome dad:

The End

And that brings us to the end of my photo-a-day January. Now why did I do that in the first place? It's obvious that I am NOT a photographer. But I've been thinking back to the beginnings of this blog. I started it when I was living far away from family in a place that they probably couldn't really picture. I wanted to have a way to show family our regular lives. After a while I stopped blogging about the ordinary stuff, and only included the big events. This blog basically turned into a travel-log.

But really, those "big" events aren't what make our lives. It's all the little things that add up. I figured by posting a photo every day I might get myself back into the habit of recording all those insignificant things that end up being the most significant of all.

It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I did it. But don't expect a new post tomorrow :)

Fossils

We made fossils today.

I love the kids' expressions as they unearthed their fossil creations.

Park Day!

Handsome Boys

Say "Bow tie!"

Random Saturday

We attended a fencing tournament today. Lots of fun!

Friday Projects

Esther's Magna Carta:

Will's Valentine Mailbox:

Science

Okay, so you know how under the earth it's really hot, and there's molten magma swirling around?

Say you take some different rocks and minerals...

And put it under there with the rest of that magma...

It'll all melt and mix together forming a brand new substance.

Usually you shouldn't lick magma, but today we'll make an exception.

When it cools it'll be a new sort of igneous rock, different from what it was before it all melted and mixed together.

Or maybe it's just an excuse to make fudge.

Sweet Moments

Cookies!

Tuesday is cooking day in our little homeschool. It was William's turn pick the recipe. He chose this:

(Green Lantern and the Cookie Prints)