Hannah is 3!

Today has been an extra special day.  We celebrated Hannah and her third birthday all day long.  It was a fantastic day filled with friends at the park and a family party in the evening.  We are so grateful we have had three fun filled year with this little giggly ball of energy, smiles and love.  We love you so very much Hannah Grace!  Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Hannah.  This outfit was made by the incredible Kirsten DeWitt!

Set up at the Park

Hannah and her friend Emma

Hannah and Harrison

Hannah and Vanessa

Hannah and her wonderful big sis...Nicole

Hannah and Nolan

Olivia, Hannah and Isabella

Snack time!

Hannah loves this spinning toy at the park.

Going for a little birthday drive with daddy

Hannah's adorable Minnie Mouse birthday cake

The trick candles were making sparks.  This was Hannah's reaction.  She was worried about it.

This is the classic "Hannah Face" that I LOVE!

Yummy birthday cake.

Liking the bottom of Minnie.  Nicole really, Really wanted this job...but she was so good at letting Hannah "get her way" today since it was her birthday.  I was so proud of the way Nicole acted today. She really tried to make Hannah feel special.

Nathan loved the cake as well:)

Playing wit the paper and tissue after all the gifts were unwrapped. 

All of Hannah's Loot!  A "Minnie's Birthday Bow-tique", beach toys, Tangled (the movie), play doh, money, some clothes, and a few other odds and ends. 

Nate enjoyed watching the commotion from daddy's arms.

Hehehe...Nicole wanted a picture with all the gifts as well.

Now that the girls are preoccupied...Nathan takes his turn to play in the tissue.

Checking out Minnie's Bow-tique

Show me the money!  Thanks Mimi

As special hand made card from cousin Seth.  Hannah said, "Mommy, did Seth write this?" Perfect gift from a cuz.

N is for Nest T is for Turtle

A few weeks ago, we started going through My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum.  Our first week was N-Nest "God takes good care of me".  Each week, there is a phrase to memorize and then I pick a corresponding Bible verse for the girls to memorize.  We have a book (or two or three) that we read often throughout the week.

The Bible verse I chose was Mathew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

We spent time outside pretending we were birds picking up supplies to build our nests, and then we came inside and built our nest (I used the bottom of an oatmeal container for our shape). 

Since a nest is a home for a bird, we talked a lot about other homes for animals.  A really fun book to read was "A House is a House for me" and "Animal Homes".  We also happened to get a book on animal homes from a Chic-fil-a kid's meal that went perfectly with our unit.


The next week, we did T is for Turtle.  The phrase was "I don't quit; I persevere"
the bible verse we learned was Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."


We talked a lot about perseverance last week.  We read and watched the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. We read about turtles and how their shell is their home (tying into last week).  Honestly, school work wasn't much of a priority last week....so we didn't get a lot done.  We had a couple of days doing some worksheets.  My favorite for these letter units have been from here.  It is a letter search that even Hannah can do.  Then, they practice writing the letter on the bottom (a tip, for those who are learning to write like Hannah, use a yellow marker to write the letter for them, then they can trace the letter with a pencil). 


We also used worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  While Nicole was working on her math, Hannah was sorting turtles according to color and according to size.  Nicole later sorted according to color as well.  The words were in gray and she had to match the color of the turtle with the correct word.  So, she had to figure out how to spell some of the colors...or least make an educated guess. 

The phrase for this week really "stuck", especially with Hannah.  When she found out that our friend Dan was quitting his job, she said to Jeremy, "But daddy, He shouldn't quit; he should persevere" :-)

I don't have any pictures form last week (Jeremy had the camera out of town), so that is why I combined these two weeks.  This week though, I ought to have lots of pictures:-)

Easter 2011

What a wonderful day to worship our RISEN Savior!  Over the past several weeks, I have been learning and studying about Jesus, salvation and the work of the cross and resurrection...and it has led to a much more worshipful time for me this weekend as I reflect upon the absolute humility of our God, coming to Earth as a baby, raised as a young boy, into a hard working man, and later into ministry.  The insults that were hurled at him along the way, even to the point of false accusation, false trials, and the cruelest of deaths on a cross between two thieves.

Friday night at our Good Friday service, major portions of the book of John were recited as they describe the three "trials" that Jesus went through (I say "trials" because they were not followed by law  and in fact were against the laws of the day.  They were secret trials the should have held no legal authority).  Anyway....during one moment between Pilate and Jesus, Pilate is getting frustrated because he knows that Jesus has done nothing wrong, but he can't find a reason to release him and he (Pilate) says, " You do not speak to me?  Do you not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?"  Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above..."  When I heard, and later read that...it floored me!  Even while standing in mockery, with a crown of thorns and scourges on his back...at any moment he could call down a multitude of angels and completely wipe away any  (or all) of these people.  But he didn't.  He didn't because he knew that in order for man(kind) to be saved, he must be the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice for our dreadfully, ugly, awful sins.

Jesus, 100% man, 100% God humbled himself, even at his last hour to be the absolutely perfect, wonderful sacrifice that we could never give.  John 19:30b says, "He said, 'It is finished!" And he bowed his head and gave up His spirit".  He was not killed....his life was not taken from him.  NO, he gave up his spirit freely...as in "handing it over" as an act of his will.  John MacArthur says,"No one took his life from Him, for he voluntarily and willingly gave it up." (check out John 10:17, 18 for more on that)

But, the story isn't over with his death.  Nope...no way.  He rose again, three days later.  He defeated sin and defeated death! "Where O death is your victory? Where o death is your sting?"  It isn't there any more!  His resurrection reminds us that his sacrifice was accepted.  He was perfect.  "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  Did you catch that?  Jesus....who knew NO sin...was perfect, sinless, a spotless lamb....BECAME sin for us SO THAT WE might become the righteousness of God in Him.  We were the ones who deserved to hang upon that tree...yet it was the sinless perfect Christ who did.  And now, if we believe in him, accept his gift of grace, repent and believe....We may become the righteousness of God.  NO one deserves that.  Yet, it is offered, gifted...and that is what we celebrate and why we worship him. 

It is precious to hear my sweet four year old say "Happy Resurrection Day" to everyone she saw at church today.  And precious to hear her say "He is risen" so that I will reply back "He is Risen Indeed" over and over (and over and over) today. 

We did spend the afternoon with family.  It was a very enjoyable and relaxing time.  We had a delicious dinner, yummy dessert and way to may sweets from the Easter baskets.

Want to see some pictures?

Coloring eggs last night.

This is Hannah's "daddy face"

Beautiful little girls

SOOOO excited about their chocolate bunnies

Nathan got a baseball bat and ball.  He carried the bat around all day long.  Yay...he likes baseball!

Fun times with the kiddos (anyone see anything interesting in these pictures?!?!)

Botanical Gardens

Earlier this week, a friend from MOPS, Liz, invited me to bring the kids to the Botanical Gardens.  I have heard a lot of friends talk about this place but always thought, "what's the big deal...it's a place with a bunch of plants". haha

It actually was very beautiful.

very peaceful.

and very fun for the kids.

We did not see the entire thing...we basically hung out in the children's area, which was so much fun!  They have a large, contained butterfly garden.  All three were excited to be in there. 

But, Nathan and Hannah enjoyed it the most.  

Nathan, I'm sure, wanted to catch a butterfly and crush it in his hands...Hannah was desperate for one to land on her finger.  None did (mostly because she was running around chasing the poor things).  She did touch one though and squealed with delight.

They also had several small garden areas for the children to play in.  One had a little house, complete with a table and brooms to sweep the house with. 

They also had water pitchers to water the flower with. 

And, the only way to get water was from a pump....not from a faucet, so that was great fun.

Everything was cut really low for the children. There were arches to play under, plants to water, items to find, and floors to sweep. 

We also found a "tree house" (except it wasn't in a tree).

And we spent some time playing in the water area.  All three are maniacs in the water. Even Nathan was sticking his head, face first into the water spouts.  After about 20 minutes, he finally crashed, and found a place by a rock and just sat alone for a few minutes. Wish I had a picture of that.

It was a very enjoyable morning/afternoon.  Thanks for inviting us Liz...we'll have to do it again sometime.

Train them up

I believe in training my children early

 Actually, Nate always sees his sisters helping me, and he voluntarily helped me unload the dishwasher the other day...while Nicole (the official dishwasher unloader) played.  

He seriously took every piece of silverware out of the dishwasher and put it on the counter for me (except of course the knives....I grabbed those first).

He is such a sweet sweet boy.  I love him so much. 

Last Day of school

The foundations group for Ft. Myers Classical Conversations

Yesterday was our last day of CC for this school year.  It was bittersweet.  Nicole really enjoys going to school every Tuesday. She always wakes up, runs out of her room and yells "It's school daaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!"

We are leaving our sweet group next year and joining a new group much closer to home.  It was a difficult decision that I labored over for nearly 2 months.  I really enjoy the people in our group but it just made more sense to be in the group that is literally minutes from our house.  And....right now, I have plans to tutor next year.  That will be exciting.

Back to yesterday.  Unlike most schools, the last day went just like normal.  We went through all of our typical schedule.  Mr. Jackson introduced new material, the kids played games and learned new movements, and we had the grande finale science experiment.

Mr. Jackson teaching the kids their science memory work

Nicole is writing a "V" for volts

Learning their history sentence

For the past three weeks, the students have been paired up and they have been working on an egg protector.  They could use up to 50 Popsicle sticks, 12 napkins, and 20 rubber bands.  As a team they came up with a plan and design to make a contraption to keep their egg from breaking when dropped from ten feet high.

Nicole and Anders working on their egg protector

 Nicole worked with a little boys named Anders in her class.  I helped guide them as they got started last week (both missed the first week of this experiment, so they had to work fast).  They built two small triangles about 5 Popsicle sticks high.  then they wrapped their egg in all of the napkins allotted to them, gently placed it between to the two triangular pieces and held the top and bottom on by a bunch of rubber bands.

Nicole and Anders

Dropping their egg from 10 feet high

Did it break?

What do you think?  Do you think their egg broke?

Patiently waiting to see if it broke

Nope...it sure didn't!  It was kept perfectly safe.

NOOO...it didn't!  They built a great protector.

They were excited!

As a reward, they got to pick a piece of candy and an Easter egg out of a gift bag (I  just want to note that I did NOT steal her candy!  I did take a bite of the chocolate bunny...but it was with her permission.  I must have a bad reputation when that is the first question the grandparents ask when they find out Nicole wins chocolate:).

We had a pot luck buffet lunch as celebration.  Then, after lunch, we were all invited to stay and listen to the older group, Essentials, do their final presentations.  Essentials is a writing program for ages 9-12.  This year, they each picked a famous person that lived during the mid-evil times, researched that person and then tried to dress like them and do a 5 minute presentation about their person.  They did a wonderful job!  I learned so much about people we mentioned in history sentences this year but did not know their story.  It was so encouraging to see these young people do such a wonderful job researching and presenting their person.

The Essentials group before their presentations

It has been a great first year of Classical Conversations.  I am happy we were able to be a part of the Ft. Myers group.  We will miss our friends our next year, however it will be exciting to make new friends again. 

Nicole's little friends- Rebecca, Abigail, Ruby and Nicole (and Banner, Ruby's brother:)

We are not finished learning though!  I am exciting for this summer. We will be finishing the My Father's World curriculum that we started in the fall but put on hold through CC time.  This will be a fun, lighthearted study that I know even Hannah will enjoy.  I hope I can write one post a week on our adventures through My Father's World.  Until then...

Grace and Peace.