We get a lot of leaves in our yard. The family actually works together (imagine that!) to clean it up. This year they worked harder than ever before. Even Bethany got in on the action.

We also did a photo shoot with our friend.

She got some of the cutest pictures of the kids.

And isn’t this a handsome man!

November also was the month of Emma’s first Synchronized skating competition. She was so excited. They are a very young team compared to the other teams on their level but they are learning a lot and getting better every week.

November is also Caitlyn’s birthday.

December

Benjamin turned four.

Daddy took him to a Monster Truck Show

There are so many things that I can say about this year and I’m sad that I didn’t post more often. Christmas was fun and, as always, overwhelming. I always gain weight, go a little crazy with all the stuff that gets brought into our home, and have tons of fun with my children. It snowed here on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Very pretty. Abbey received boots, Emma got a personal ATM machine, Caitlyn got an MP3 player, Ben got a wooden work bench, Bethany got a baby. I’m so thankful that we all have Jesus.

There was a huge change of pace here as there is in every home with children come September. Abigail went to school. REAL LIFE SCHOOL. A Public charter school. We always knew that if any of our kids were going to go to school it would be Abbey. We also always thought that as each child got older we would send them to school eventually. It was definitely time for Abbey and we have seen her grow in many ways in the past few months.

October

The rest of September flew by trying to figure out how to do it all. For the rest of the children we joined a “sort-of” co-op called Classical Conversations. It was a life savor for our homeschool. I was floundering the last year or so especially when it came to history and science. We are in the foundations program and I am a paid tutor. Hear that people… I have a job. I don’t really see any of the money though. It all goes to the kids tuition to the program and the books and flashcards that go with it. No matter though, it’s really fun to do and keeps me on top of things. In this amazing program the kids are memorizing science facts, history sentences and timeline, math skip counting and formulas, Latin declensions, geography, grammar lists, doing science projects like dissecting an owl pellet and a crayfish, and learning the Tin whistle. Whew it seems like a lot but the kids really love it.

October is Bethany’s birthday.

We also went pumpkin picking… well, at least we tried to.

It was pretty cold and muddy and most of the pumpkins were rotten. The fall weather didn’t cooperate this year.

We can’t forget about Halloween. My kids love it so much they consider the fall to be “Halloween time”. I really dislike that way of thinking and try to dissuade those little minds. Futility.

August

We were away from home for most of this month. We took our annual road trip and this year we went to NJ.

We met our cousin Lilly.

Spent time on the boat.

Went to the boardwalk.

Visited the Grandparents.

and went to the real beach.

When our time in NJ was up we headed back in our car and drove down to West Virginia to see some nature and visit our friend’s parents.

Our last destination was family camp. It was our first year trying something like this and we really loved it.

We made crafts, sang songs, tried our hand at archery, target shooting, rocket building and launching, rode horses, and saw millions of stars. This camp was amazing for me. We had two family helpers that took the kids to play and sat back at our room when the little ones went down for a nap. We had a date night at the bowling alley in town (that the camp owned!) and I didn’t have to cook (or clean up) one meal!

And here I go with being vulnerable!

January

The year started out with a trip to Disney… Need I say more?

Ok, I will say that these two lovely people came with us. Actually, they basically took us!

February and March

Spending a lot of time indoors waiting for the snow to melt and the temperature to rise above the teens.

There was skating lessons:

and a lot of pretending it was summer:

April

We had some snow but it warmed up pretty quickly. We spent Easter with friends. I didn’t get any pictures of dresses or of the day itself. All in all Easter in Minnesota is not widely embraced (other than a religious holiday - it is the day we celebrate Jesus defeating death! He is risen, risen indeed!). It is still quite cold here and nothing is growing yet. Still brown grass and leafless trees. We did have some bare feet though:

May

We started to visit the Arboretum again. There is a very short window when we can go into the woods without being attacked by monster mosquitoes!

And we can’t forget about Emma’s birthday!

June

There was a lot of Girl Scout “flying up”

July

Abigail’s birthday

And some “beach” time.

Well, that is about half the year and this post is getting very long. I will post the second half of the year tomorrow. I’m sure we will be resting some after staying up late tonight! Happy New Year!

Bethany was a little scared at first, but she got used to it.

Emma had a good idea about wearing goggles to keep the smoke out of her eyes!

Caitlyn was blowing bubbles.

mom took some pictures of the bubbles.

Bethany was being cute!

we have flowers like this all over our yard!

A by accident picture!

I was so glad it was warm.
we have played outside all day every day!
dad put up a rope swing and we have been playing on it alot!

This Easter was not very “eventful”. No new dresses or ties (I was hoping to make one but didn’t get around to it and realized that I had a cute white vest for Ben that looked great). But - we had a great time with friends and ate delicious polish fare. David wrote an Easter hymn for the choir and it was sunny and warm!

We only took a few pictures of the egg coloring. We did a whopping three dozen this year! I thought I had some leftover PAAS but found out there were only 3 pellets of color left. So… we got out the old food coloring. It was great! Do you know that there is even a picture of easter eggs on the front of the box. Why did I never think of using it before?

Bethany got into it….

REALLY into it.

She is ok… it washed off right away and all was well with her….

Especially after she got to eat one!

Hope your Easter was blessed.

These are from Emma. She took them this morning while I ran around trying to get the little ones ready for church. The sun came out this afternoon and it is all gone now. Beautiful while it lasted. I have a friend who says it’s like waking up in Narnia.

Fist we played Candy Land. He liked it. Then we played the “Things in my House” game. He seemed to really catch on then. We were given the game by Nana (David’s mom) when Abigail was a toddler. I have played it with all the children so far and was amazed I hadn’t tried it with Ben yet. He seems to be just the right age.

What amazed me the most is that when someone picked a card that belonged in his house and they would say “Who has the……?” Ben would answer, “Me Do!!!” Just like all the other girls did before him at his age. I know it’s probably developmental but it is so dang cute!

Early spring here is still very brown. From the leftover leaves and the dead grass to the piles of dirty snow on the side of the road (ewww….) there isn’t much new life yet. We are still waiting for the buds to even form let alone bloom. But the change is VERY welcome, welcome indeed!

Now I’m waiting for the April showers to bring May flowers!