Fun Moments in February

This has got to be my favorite picture of Chris maybe ever!  He's so handsome in his dress blues.  Chris' time in the Air Force has been quite the journey.  It wasn't the plan, but we've made it work and I'm so glad we did.  We've gotten to do more in the last couple of years than we ever thought we would this early in our lives.  Most people have to wait until retirement to go on a cruise out of Florida, to see Venice, or to sight see in DC.  We have been super blessed.  And now we live here in Hawaii.  Just waiting to see if the next promotion to Captain comes through.  

 This is an example of something we do often.  We have this wonderful little dead end alley and the kids can ride their bikes and lots of other toys.  Vaughn loves this little car.  We got it for a Christmas for Lizzy back in Sumter.  Good thing it works for lots of kids!

 We also live very close to lots of parks.  This is our favorite one!  This is the best tree in the neighborhood.  Evie calls it the "magic treehouse" from her Magic Treehouse books.  The kids love it.

 This is little Vaughn.  This bouncer is meant to keep infants happy while they play with the toy bar.  Obviously Vaughn is a bit big for an infant bouncer and toy bar.  So, toy bar removed it's his new favorite bouncy seat!  He almost lives here in the living room.

So that's a little family update.  See you soon!

Loves!

HS - Our Presidents

I've recently decided to include some examples of homeschooling lessons that we do for those of you who are interested.  It's also fun to write everything down and I always take pictures!

So of course with President's Day this week, we had the opportunity to have a few lessons on two of our most beloved presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

I wasn't exactly sure how to teach about Abraham Lincoln since his presidency was all about the Civil War; a subject way too old for a preschooler and a first grader.  Instead of focusing on his presidency, we focused on his character.  We first found a portrait of Abraham and then we read some stories about his childhood that discussed his honesty, integrity and his love of his fellow men.  We also read a story about his hero George Washington.  It was really great to help them learn about who Lincoln was not just what he did, which will be a later lesson.  We also discovered together that he was a man of God.  He read the Bible and prayed every morning while in the White House and I'm sure before and after.  The kids really liked that since that's what we do.  As I read these stories to the kids, their assignment was to draw pictures from the stories we heard and then tell me what they learned.  They did a great job.  Then as we were finishing up they really wanted to sing the happy birthday song to Abraham.  So, in the middle of our lesson we sang Happy Birthday to Abraham Lincoln - which I'm sure hadn't been heard on this earth in a very long time.  Finally, in a way to appeal to Evie's artistic bent, we cut out a beard for each kid.  It was Joe's first time with scissors.  He did such a good job.  Evie and Joe had a great time pretending to be the president.

Our next lesson on George Washington was very similar.  We studied a portrait of George Washington and discussed how we knew him. (The kids love a cartoon series called, "Liberty's Kids", which features George Washington as the commander of the Revolutionary army.  Joe just had discovered that Mr. Washington was on the dollar bill.)  Then again, we read stories about George Washington that described the kind of man he was.  The we colored a picture of George and watched a video from our library called, "The Presidents" done by the History Channel.  We only watched a few minutes as it was a documentary and too old for the kids, but they loved the parts that we saw.  Evie especially loved seeing that Lincoln was also on our money: the penny!!! (their favorite denomination)

The lessons turned out great and considering it was the first introduction of these men to my kids, I loved the questions that they asked and the focus on their character instead of their historical achievements.

Ally's Birthday

Today is Ally's birthday and I can hardly believe it.  My little girl - adorable, cuddly,little girl - turns 2 today.  I am a bit surprised by how fast this last year has gone.  I still remember her last birthday in Sumter with all of our friends there.  And now we're here in Hawaii with a whole different set of friends.  It's so strange.  The really crazy part is how fast her little life has gone already.

She is still one of the most unique kids in our family and while her relaxed go with the flow temperment still holds true, it's now punctuated with her characteristic smile and giggle as she says, "no".  Even good kids are not exempt from the traditional terrible two's.  Her "terrible" is quite a bit more mild than some others, but hers is very annoying nonetheless.  Running away when in need of a diaper change, hitting, biting (a little), and ripping off her own diapers whenever she feels like it all fit into the mold of a two-year old.

We are so glad she came to our home.  What cracks me up is to look back at when she was first born and to see how the dynamic with each kid has changed.  Evie, of course, still adores Ally (except when she is chasing Al around the house trying to get a toy back).  Joe and Al LOVE to be together all the time.  They just really seem to get along well (except when Ally hits him for no reason).  Liz and Al get along really well at this point, but being the closest in age to Al they disagree and scream the most.  What's great is that since Al's last birthday, she is no longer the baby in the house.  She LOVES Vaughn and neither one sleeps very well without the other in the room.  They giggle and laugh and talk to each other now that he can peek over the railing of his crib.  It's super cute and reminds me that five really is a good number.

Happy Birthday my little Alexandra!