Colleges, Farms, and Milkshakes

Eliana has been on a few field trips in the past couple of weeks. For the first trip, Andy walked with Eliana and her class down to the local Sonic for a milkshake.

A couple of days ago, Eliana's class went to Menagerie Farms. They watched the teachers have a goat milking contest. Eliana's teacher won! They also saw a western town, rode a train, and got to pet some animals.

Today, Eliana went to Mississippi State University on a field trip with her Spotlight group. Andy was on call so neither one of us was able to go with her. She was so excited that she was grinning all morning when she was getting ready to go. She told us all about it when she got home. The bus had tv's and a bathroom on it. They went to an Insect Lab where she got to hold a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. She was the only girl willing to hold it! They ate lunch at a buffet. She had two pieces of pizza, vanilla cake with icing that had sprinkles and chocolate chips on it, and cookies and cream ice cream with root beer to drink. The next stop was to a Wildlife Center. She saw a black bear that stood up on its hind legs.

Living Off the Land Adventure

Emily recently read a book called, My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. She has become obsessed with wanting to go to the Catskill Mountains and live off the land like the main character in the book. I told her maybe she and I could do something similar at some point (as in several years away) for a very short period of time (as in a few days). I was thinking maybe once we get land of our own, we could do some slight version of the book on our land.

Once she gets an idea, she really runs with it. She has been on my computer every afternoon researching a list she made of about 100 topics. Some of these things include how to make animal traps from sapling trees, how to tell which plants are edible, how to tan deer, poison ivy identification, mushroom identification, how to purify water, and how to get a fire from a block of ice. This morning, she was describing in detail how to make a birch bark water filter. She asked me if I was opposed to eating acorns. She made a model of the campsite that the boy in the book had. He had hollowed out two hemlock trees, one to live in and one to use as a storage area.

Pic 1: Entire campsite with trees having leaves and bark
Pic 2: The leaves and bark lift off and reveal inside the structures

Pic 3: Close up of the tree that was considered home
Pic 4: Close up of the tree that was used for storage with some logs inside

Pic 5: Close up of back wall with salt, nuts, and Sam sitting there
Pic 6: Close up of bed

Pic 7: Close up of the stove with pipe that sticks out of tree (see Pic 1)
Pic 8: Close up of river and raft with fishing pole behind the trees

Pic 9: Close up of campfire. I'll ask her again about the other things and update.

Pic 10: Close up of pond with fish

Pic 11: Actual dimensions of the hemlock tree that Sam used with the bed and stove's actual dimensions mapped out with paper. I'll ask her what the tree's diameter was in the book and update.

Starting To Walk

I finally got a very brief video of Luke walking. He still prefers to crawl, but he is getting more confident each day. Last Saturday, he walked from the window sill to the coffee table which was about half of the living room. Most of the time though, he will walk short distances throughout the day.

Fall Trip

The older girls had a couple of days off school last week. We decided to take a short trip to Chattanooga, TN. It was really beautiful there with the mountains all around us. We had wanted to tour Signal Mountain and do some hiking at a few of their many parks, but the days were cold and rainy. So based on some local kids' recommendations, we decided to visit the Creative Discovery Museum there instead. The kids had a fun time!

First Choir Performance

Emily had her first choir performance of the school year a couple of nights ago. They put on a program called I'm Positive. I thought they sounded really good and the choreography was awesome! I got some video, but I couldn't see Emily very well from where I was sitting. Also, the video was shaky because I had to keep handing Luke puffs to keep him busy. I haven't gotten a note about a professional video for sale, but I'm going to ask the music teacher if I can buy a video since I saw that there was a videographer on the program. I got a couple of shots of her walking in, but they turned out blurry. Here's a picture taken after the program was over:

Luke Update

Luke is almost walking. He can stand without holding on to anything. He can walk behind his car as he pushes it. He has taken a couple of steps between the coffee table and couch or between Andy and me before he falls down. He has seven teeth now, 4 on top and 3 on bottom. He has had a lot of problems that the girls didn't have. Besides the reflux when he was little, he has seasonal allergies and eczema flare-ups. We are really enjoying this age though! He has such a personality and it is really fun to watch! The girls enjoy making him laugh by pretending to fall down.

Here are his 9-month pictures that we got taken a couple of days ago:

Sarah Update

Here's what Sarah has been up to the last few weeks:

She recently retired her tricycle and learned to ride a bike with training wheels. She was very excited and can't wait to ride well enough to bike on our family biking trips, instead of riding behind Daddy's bike.

Sarah went to the dentist for the first time last week. She was so excited...when she skipped into the office ahead of us, she cried, "WooHoo!" to the receptionist as she threw her arms above her head. :) Everything looks good with her teeth, thankfully! She wanted to use her new Dora toothbrush as soon as we got home.

As mentioned in the previous post, I took Sarah and Eliana to "Disney On Ice". She loved it!

She is doing really well in school still. She FINALLY got the hang of sounding out blends. Once she figured it out, she couldn't wait to show anyone she saw! Today, she started sounding out three-letter words, by sounding out a blend and then adding a letter to the end. We are right on schedule so far with the curriculum this year. In the past, I've gotten behind by this time. I've found that Sarah needs to do school work every weekday though in order for her not to get frustrated so I hope I can continue to stay on task. She still doesn't like to color much. Most of the time when there is a sheet that says, "Color the ____", she tells me that it says, "Do today or save for tomorrow." I don't push her to color. Most of the time, we save it and she works on it with Eliana in the afternoons.

Sarah had her first choir performance of the year in church. She was one of the few kids singing as it is a group of 3 to 5-year-olds and a lot of the kids were shy once they got up in front of the church. She loves singing though and loves making up hand motions to go with songs that she knows.

Eliana Update

Here's what Eliana has been up to these days:

She is now a Brownie Girl Scout. She joined a new troop that meets weekly. I have a hard time getting her to leave after she's been there 2 hours because she is having so much fun. She participated in her Investiture Ceremony last week by lighting one of the candles. She recently earned her first badge on Playing Fair.

I recently took Eliana and Sarah to "Disney On Ice". They got to see the stories of The Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Tangled performed on ice skates. They were both really excited! Actually, I was excited too! :)

Eliana started a new school this year as well. She is now going to Emily's old school. She recently won an award for being the top reader in her class by having the most AR points. Andy and I recently went to a mandatory parent/teacher conference. Her teacher said she was doing great!

She also went to the dentist for the first time last week. She had x-rays done and the dentist noticed that there are two permanent teeth behind baby teeth on top that are at angles. We are going to go back in six months and see if the teeth have straightened out by then. Eliana was disappointed that we had to wait a whole six months before we could go back! I hope that lasts!!

Emily Update

I'm going to try to catch everyone up on things that the kids have been doing lately...one kid each day. Here's what Emily has been up to the past couple of weeks:

She was in her first chess tournament a couple of weekends ago. She doesn't play chess alot, but she enjoys it so she wanted to give the tournament a try. The tournament was for kids in grades Kindergarten through 8th grade. She lost two rounds, tied two rounds, and won one round. She got called up to receive a participation ribbon in the below picture. She plans on working on her game and competing in another chess tournament in January.

She is in a new Girl Scout troop this year. This is her fifth year in Girl Scouts. She is a Junior. This new troop does a lot of neat things. So far, she has gone on a campout in a leader's backyard. She almost made it the whole night, but got homesick around 9:30 p.m. so I picked her up. The next weekend, they spent the night in the Pink Palace. While there, they saw an IMAX Show called "Born To Be Wild", a Planetarium Show, had a Scavenger Hunt, watched a Science Magic Show, and toured the museum. She stayed the whole night without getting homesick much, but she said she was a little scared because her troop slept in the exhibit room that had the human bones in it.

Emily is doing excellent in school. She is in a new school this year. She tried out for the school choir and made it. Her first performance is next week. She recently won $1.00 and a certificate for being the top reader in her class. This year, she switches classes between two teachers which took some getting used to. She had her first official school dance this past Friday. It was during school hours and very informal.

Last Saturday, Emily and I attended a seminar called "Secret Keeper Girl". I do a devotion with the girls before school each morning (see my current reading list). The author of our devotion book created this program for 8 to 12 year old girls and their moms that emphasizes modesty and true beauty. Emily got asked to participate in a skit on stage! She played a kazoo as one of two trumpet players. It was a lot of fun and she learned some great things!

Emily recently decided to become an acolyte at our church. Her first acolyte performance was last Sunday. She did a great job and didn't spill the offering plates during the doxology and prayer! I let out a sigh of relief and realized that I had been holding my breath during that whole section of the service. Everything with the candles went well also, thankfully!