Love Letter

Zora wrote her Daddy a letter today. I have to share...

Dear Daddy,

I love you SO much! I would do anything for you. Except mow the lawn or clean the toilets.

Love,
Zora

Hilarious! What else can I say???

Thanksgiving Blessings

We began our Thanksgiving festivities last weekend with my mom and step-dad. We were able to get the whole family together except for my step-brother who is currently in Mexico at a YWAM Mission Base. We were still able to talk to and "see" him via Skype, so that was a great way to get the holiday started. We had a lot of yummy food, of course, and the cousins had a great time together.

Thanksgiving morning we bent the rules a little and allowed the girls to eat breakfast in the living room on the couch while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. What a way to get the day started.
Later in the day we headed off to Ada to see more family. The girls passed the time on the road with a few books and a couple of movies...
When we got to Ada the adults had a great time visiting the past while looking at pictures of ourselves long ago. This picture made us laugh hysterically. From left to right...Rachel, Jamie, Tara, Jared & Gina. Check out the hairdos and the clothes. Gotta love the 80's!
After a delicious dinner and lots of laughs, the evening calmed down and the kids all gathered around the TV to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving...

We spent the night in Ada and headed out the next morning to come home. However, we took a long pause in the trip to visit the Jasmine Moran museum on the way. We visited once before back in July and couldn't wait to go again. If you've never been I highly recommend it! In my post of our previous visit I posted a ton of pics, but this time I just want to post a few of some of the new things we did...

Lily is the teacher. She wrote Daddy's name all by herself!!!

Zora adoring herself in the mirror with her face painted.

Even Daddy had a blast. Here he is enjoying the airplane cockpit.

The girls treated us to a puppet show.

Lily really enjoyed being a construction worker - really I think she just loved being in a huge box of rocks!
And this was definitely a room the dads all gravitated to. The girls loved learning about "servicing" a car from Daddy.

Cute little firefighters :-)

When we arrived home that evening we decided to finish off the day by decorating for Christmas. The girls were so proud of their very own trees in their rooms!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

School Update

Well, a lot has been going on since my last update on the girls' schoolwork, so it's time to get up-close and personal :-)

Zora's favorite subjects are still science and history/geography. Right now we are studying earth science (rocks, fossils, etc.) and she is really into it. Here's a pic of our fossil experiment...

This experiment was fun for her and got her really interested in fossils. The results weren't exactly what we had hoped for, but it was a learning experience anyhow. That's why it's called an experiment, right?

In history/geography we started a unit on Mexico which will be a lot of fun for us. We are learning about ancient Mexico and how the ancient peoples there have influenced the culture of Mexico today. We're only a couple of lessons into it, but she is already fascinated by it. It's sure to be an interesting and cultural unit!

She also continues to do well in her handwriting, phonics & math! And, as always, in all of her spare time, she can be found with a book in her hands. She's still our little bookworm!

Lily is still enjoying her "homework" and begs for it on a daily basis. She is doing very well with her letters and is still learning a letter a week. I'm so proud of her and how she motivates herself to do much more than I ever would have expected out of a 3-year-old!

One of the most exciting things that's been going on with our "school" lately is our homeschool co-op, Shine. We have completed two sessions. In each session the children had 3 courses. The courses in the first session were Psychology, Speech and Scratch (a computer programming language for kids). In the second session the courses were Art, Science Lab and Beginner Spanish. To finish off our semester we had a Showcase where the children shared their projects and portfolios with friends and family.

Zora's Display Table

Lily's Display Table

Cute little Besties :-)

Here is a portion of the song I taught them to remember their colors in Spanish.

This last pic doesn't have anything to do with school, but I just have to post it because it makes me smile. Although the girls have their own rooms and beds, about once a week they love to sleep together. I just think it is precious to see them have their own little "sister sleepover" :-)

Manna From Heaven

The other day we were at the store grabbing a few things for a lunch "on the go" and I decided to "splurge" a little and allow them to get some chips. Since I knew we would be in the car and other places I settled on Pringles to prevent the chips from being crumbs by lunch time. I don't think I've bought Pringles since my girls were born - those poor deprived souls - so they were both resistant to eating chips that came out of a can. Of course, I didn't insist that they try them - because they are unhealthy and that leaves more for me! - but Zora was curious enough after a while to try one. She ate one chip and then said, "Mommy, that was delicious! Those are like manna from heaven!" :-)

Check back soon because I'm going to eventually work up a "real post" on the girls!

Fall Leaves!

Today the girls went outside to play for a little while and I was inside do motherly things :) Zora came bursting through the door and said, "Mommy, you've got to come outside! We're doing something amazing!"

I went outside to find this...




Love it!!! Here's another pic from the park the other day.
That's all for now :)

Pictures Galore!

I must admit that I am a sucker when it comes to taking pictures - especially during the fall. I love the scenery and of course I love taking pictures of my kids :) Just between yesterday and today I took almost 150 pictures. So here are just a few.

We just began studying habitats in science. Our first habitat to study was forests, so we talked about trees yesterday. For our science activity we studied the trees in our back yard. The girls drew the leaves and did tree bark rubbings in their science journals.


When we were finished studying the trees and leaves we got a little sidetracked with grasshoppers and the swingset...Today we went to the zoo. Of course, we couldn't pass up the usual photo spots!




The girls took along their science journals to draw some of their favorite plants and animals and classify them according to their habitats.The animals were very active today. I guess they are enjoying this beautiful weather too!






Besides the beautiful animals, we enjoyed the beauty of fall today!





After being at the zoo for several hours we started getting a little goofy. We ended the day with a snack and some silly pictures.

And as we pulled out of the parking lot we saw a sign that winter is just around the corner!!!