Advent Has Begun

Advent has begun. We are trying to celebrate it more fully every year. We have put out our family advent wreath and the wreath that A6 made in Religious Education last Sunday. We are also unwrapping a nativity piece every day during Advent. It's kinda like our version of an Advent calendar. You can see the first pieces and the stable. The wrapped pieces are in the basket.

We put out our Fisher Price nativity too. The kids always love seeing it, and it's been playing music pretty constantly since last night. Isn't it cute to see all of them playing together? This was definitely a Kodak moment.

This week we are focusing on St Nicholas. I explained to the kids that St Nicholas was the first Santa Claus and all the Santas we see now are his helpers.

Field Trip!

We spent Saturday morning in the Hill Country at LBJ's Ranch. They have a German living history farm from the turn of the century. The kids made candles (see pic above), decorated Christmas cookies, and enjoyed seeing the animals. We saw a lot of things that reminded us of Little House in the Prairie, so it was quite fun.

Isn't she cute? The other kids would never have gotten a taste of ice cream at 7 months. I'm getting pretty lax.

I guess we wanted a silly tourist picture too.

Note to Self:

Do not type your ideas for the kids' Christmas gifts on your blog and then let your 6yo read the blog. Thank goodness that girl doesn't have any idea what play silks are.

Gravity Lessons?

Hmmmm. If I didn't know better, I would say that Little S is trying to show up her siblings. Yesterday she started an advanced study on gravity. She secretly climbed a couple stair steps and fell back to earth. She tried to re-create her study today, but she was foiled!! I swear she says mama, but Mark just laughs at me. I have the other kids almost convinced of it, too. If you visit, you'll have to give your opinion. Happy belated 7 month birthday, Little S!

Lentil - Five Senses

It's a big posting day! We were learning about the five senses this morning. Here are the kids smelling various kitchen items.

Here they are learning about the different taste buds. They tasted lemons (sour), chips (salty), m&ms (sweet) and cocoa (bitter). The cocoa spurred a fast furious rush to the sink for water.

And here's Little S hanging around below the action.

Samson Strong

We've been watching The Greatest Heros and Legends of the Bible on TV, and the kids (but especially J4) are on fire! J4 was showing me how strong he is - just like Samson - and the other two got in on the action. I have to watch our little Samson since he is a little dangerous in some of his strength challenges.

Our Zoo

They come up with some of the cutest games. Yesterday they made a zoo. Can you see the animals sorted by type in the cages? They had cats, monkeys, dogs, and rabbits. Then, A6 put on a red outfit and J4 put on a blue outfit. You might think they are just matchin' kids, but really, they are wearing zoo keeper uniforms. :) E2 is wearing all blue as well, but that's a complete accident.

Little S is always around somewhere. Here she is mugging for the camera with E2.