We started school the day after New Years and I thought Ezra was exceptionally adorable in his concentration on that paper.
I took a little video.
The kids were not happy about starting school before the rest of their friends, but I wanted to get it done. Here is another of the poems Evie had been memorizing for her grammar book, the longest yet.
Samuel has also been memorizing poems with his first grammar book. It's been good for him to learn to articulate and enounciate himself more clearly, or at least that's what we've been working on.
And another one.
The family that reads together stays together.
Thought the boys were pretty cute while Samuel was working on his math. Ezra likes to play with the blocks.
On New Years Eve Terry left the house as usual for the youth group party, but he had one last wresting bout with the littles for the year before he left. He had a pretty good time at the church and came home just after 1am, which was nice so he wasn't as exhausted as normal the next day.
I believe he slept in a little, as did the rest of us. We didn't do a whole lot that day, except play around the house. Evie made this little sign to ring in the new year.
"Happy New Years Day!" with lots of 2018s.
We had a bit of snow the night before so the kids went out to play in it.
There was a bit more snow to pad the pile of snow daddy had dumped there earlier in the week and the kids just let it rip when they came out of the slide.
Plop!
Luna will play with anything, including the deflated and wrecked soccer ball. She also occasionally brings it inside. Ew!
Ezra pushed all the snow off the porch benches.
The kitty was quite enjoying himself in the sun on the kitchen table.
What a majestic kitty.
Meanwhile Daddy scooped the snow off the sidewalk.
That night I brushed the livestock and then snuggled them on the floor. Terry took our picture. :)
Here's another post I forgot to write! Noah and Evie's third Christmas piano recital took place on Saturday December 2 at Primrose Retirement Community (first and second years here).
I had to work that day so I wasn't able to go! Evie went first.
I forgot to post about the church Christmas program! The kids practiced very diligently and Evie was so excited to perform. Boy does that girl like to stand up in front of people. Perhaps there's a future for her on the stage... Samuel played Joseph. Terry and the other staff guys were included in a game of "Stump the Pastors." Ezra brought down the house in laughter with his shout-singing. So all in all, everyone but Noah and I were involved.
The preschoolers always go first since they're so wiggly. There's Ezra on the projector screen with Silas pictured above him - that's who he was competing with while he was singing.
There's Ezra with Sydney on his right. She was covering her ears at one point because he was so loud!
All throughout their program there was one voice that was louder and more obnoxious than the rest, but since we were sitting further back, I couldn't quite make out who it was until this moment. Ezra was yelling out "J-E-S-U-S!"
He got progressively louder as their program went on. This was their last song and he was out of control. It was completely and totally hilarious. It turns out he was in competition with Silas as to who could sing louder. He told me later that Silas wasn't singing loud enough. Ezra more than compensated. The shaky recording was due to my laughter.
Next up was Samuel's first and second grade group. He's in front of the microphone.
Not long into it Samuel disappeared behind the curtain where he donned my bath robe and other paraphernalia and came out as Joseph. He was so cute. He kept looking over in the front row at Daddy, whose phone you can see pointed at him.
Here's some of Terry's footage.
Last up was the rest of the kids, which included Evie. She's in the middle while they all get set up, all smiles.
Singing or laughing?
She had two lines for the program, which she was excited for. She so badly wanted a part.
The kids all participated in a game of Stump the Pastors with Dave, Russ, and Terry with Paul as the game show host. Terry was a cowboy rancher. Russ a nerd, and Dave a rabbi (since he's Jewish)
They were hilarious.
I don't remember what Terry's question was, but he explained what Immanuel means.
Dave shared the gospel at the end.
Lauralee closed it up and we all sang a couple Christmas songs together. It was such a fun night, the best Christmas program I can remember. Great job everyone!
The week after Christmas, Evie spent the night at Grace's and then Grace spent the night at our place. Before we brought Grace back to her house, we all went ice skating. Surprisingly it was warmer in the ice arena than outside where it was near zero.
I decided I didn't really want to skate in order to keep the cost down and so we wouldn't have to rent a locker for our stuff, including my new camera. But I totally wished I would have once Terry was on the ice with all four kids.
It was only moments before three of the four kids were on the ice and Terry was "drowning." He said they would have all died if the water hadn't been frozen.
When he got everyone over to the wall I did go over and offer to come and help him but he said to stay with our stuff and camera.
Finally he was able to get ahold of a couple skating supports and that helped immensely. It was incredibly busy that day since it was still Christmas vacation. We went because it was discounted for homeschoolers.
Finally they were all off and skating.
Samuel and Grace were super cute, being about the same size.
They all switched up partners quite often. I like Ezra's legs here. After the skating break we went and got the littles figure skates, which had toe picks to help them "walk" around easier since they didn't skate properly.
A pretty little girl stopped to smile for me.
Here is a funny progression of photos. First Grace is up...
Whoops!
Even though they had the supports, they still fell a lot.
Here is a progression of Ezra falling too...
Down he goes! But at least he's smiling ;)
And he's down and Terry's holding onto only air.
Terry skated around helping everyone up from the ice.
I got a picture of everyone but Noah before they got off the ice.
I tried another video with my new camera, from which all of these photos came, but since it was shooting through the glass I think it was hard for it to focus. It goes blurry but then clears up when Terry and the boys get close.
The days after Christmas are for building Legos, like this AT-AT of Noah's that he patiently waited until the day after to finally put together.
Samuel thought it was fun to watch. Notice all the lovely snow outside and that Samuel was still in his pajamas even though it was two o'clock in the afternoon.
All done!
Next we played downstairs with the new train tower.
Not long after, we bundled up and went into the frigid 6 degree weather for some sledding. The kids hadn't gone at all since last season and were begging to go. One of the last things Terry got me for Christmas was this unexpected seat warmer. The drivers seat heater is broken and I had no idea how cold leather could be without one!
So off they went.
Due to the cold it was very empty.
Going, going...
Gone.
Terry and I were sitting in the van due to the cold and I was testing the zooming capabilities of my new camera. I took this from like 30 feet away inside the van!
Of course I got in and out to take pictures and video though.
I took this video with my new camera. Much better than our previous camera, which would lose focus if you moved at all.
I love that tree.
Samuel and Ezra's hats kept rotating on their heads, making the ears cover their faces. :D
We had to fix them several times.
We had treated ourselves to some Starbucks with a gift card after a stop at the vacuum shop.
Just a couple more trips down.
Ready, set...
Done.
The following day we spent inside just relaxing. Samuel played the old Wii Fit biking around.
Noah and Evie raced cars on the new car track Terry built before Christmas.
The littles played with their tower and trains.
Each of the kids got some Lego tape in their stockings. Most of it is in their rooms but Ezra opted to stick some on the edge of the Lego table.
My parents gave the cat one of their old toys but he was a lot less interested than I thought he'd be.
For bath time that evening the cat entertained himself by watching Ezra get washed up. He does that every time. I think he has grown used to his twice a month cat bath and maybe doesn't mind the water as much as usual for cats.
