Merry Christmas!

Church Nativity

This morning was the annual church nativity.  All of our kids were big enough to participate this year. (Trying not to sob...)  All the kids did really well and looked adorable.  Liliana even had a speaking part.  She made a beautiful angel.

Our lovely angel

Hi Mom!

What are those shepherds doing?

                                      

Micah being....well, Micah.

Look at that cute camel!

Squirrel Problem

We have a big squirrel problem in our yard.  I don't have a problem with squirrels on their own, but I firmly believe that the particular squirrels in our yard have three missions in life.  1. To find a way to break into our house, 2. to find a way to break into the bird feeders and 3. to taunt the dogs as much as possible.

Here are some hilarious pictures of one of the squirrels trying to figure out how to steal seeds from our supposedly squirrel proof bird feeder.

It was at this point that the squirrel gave up.  Look at the panic in his eyes as he held on by one claw!

Recent Field Trips

Warning...since I don't blog that frequently, there are going to be lots of pictures!

Recently, Curtis and I have taken the kids on several field trips to help them get their hands on some of the things they've been learning in school.

 OKC Zoo
This year we are studying birds in zoology.  It's been fascinating for me because I've never considered myself a birder, but after all we've learned in school this semester, even I am looking through field guides to identify birds.  We went to the zoo to take a look at all the different birds.  But the kids were far more interested in the baby elephant than they were the birds.

Curtis took this beautiful monarch photo.  The monarchs were migrating.

These little birds escaped from their habitat in the aviary.  Curtis opened the gate and I chased them back in.  We were animal heroes! :)

The kids were trying to get the Lorakeets to land on them.

Harn Homestead
Curtis' mom came down to help me take the kids to the Harn Homestead a couple of weeks ago. It's a real landrun homestead that has been turned into a museum.  It was the perfect place for the kids to tour since we are studying pioneer times in history right now.

At the homestead, the kids got to attend a one room school house.  My girls were especially interested since they thought they were in a Little House on the Prairie story.  The kids also got to tour the home and the barn and learn about farming work and grinding corn.

Don't I have the most adorable 4 year olds?!

Bella was intent on keeping up with the older kids in their lessons.

Joshua and Micah got up to sing.

Micah read from McGuffey's in front of the class.

You'll never take the country out of Joshua!

Learning how to mill corn.

The Nina and Pinta Experience 
We are not currently studying Christopher Columbus in school, but when we heard that there were going to be replicas of the Nina and Pinta on tour in Muskogee, we decided we should go see them.  So we went yesterday with Curtis' family.

Before we went, we read Columbus by the D'Aulaires.  This couple has some truly amazing, fact filled books.  I learned things I had never known.  The kids learned things they had never known, as well, because well....they are kids.  And then we went to see the ships.

The ships didn't disappoint.  The main thing we walked away with from that trip was amazement over how small those ships truly were!  They were tiny!  The crew was never allowed below deck and those ships would have rocked like crazy in turbulent seas.  No wonder his crew threatened mutiny!



Okay, to finish....  These aren't from a field trip, but we stopped by Rhema for their lights display on our way back from Muskogee.  The kids love that place!