Family School and Fun

Here is just a smattering of photos about what our family has been up to the last couple of weeks!

After the birth of Caleb, we did take a short break from school. We discovered fairly quickly that our family runs best on a routine, so we picked up with our school work pretty soon after. We are holding off on our Tapestry of Grace materials until probably after the holidays to give Mommy a chance to plan. (It was originally on the to-do list the week Caleb was born early!)

We were finally able to finish up a science experiment about Mercury and Asteroids that we did not get to before Caleb joined our family. We learned about the huge craters on Mercury caused by Asteroids. We also learned that Mercury is susceptible to these craters because it does not have an atmosphere to protect it as Earth does. Our God is a perfect Creator for life on Earth! We dropped different size marbles and stones from various heights into flour to hypothesize which ones would make the biggest craters.

Here Gracie is making some pre-election cookies! Actually she wanted to bake cookies with me, and I only had red-white and blue sprinkles, so Grammy declared them to be pre-election cookies! :)

We like being the little ones.....we get to still stay in our PJ's and cuddle on the couch when it is cold instead of doing school work! :)

Mommy discovered a funny thing. Luke and Ben love grades. I mentioned one day something about grades, and found it to be a surprising motivator for the boys to work hard on their school work. They love to tell Daddy that they got an A+ on their spelling tests! :)

They also love the end of the week handwriting project. All week they practice words from a Bible verse. On Friday they get to pick out a special piece of writing paper, then they write the verse, color the picture and mutually get to decide who they will send it to for that week. It is amazing how the knowledge that they will be sending their completed work to a loved one is a huge motivator to be diligent and work hard!

It hasn't been all work and no play! While Daddy was off of work to help Mommy with Caleb, we took advantage of the time to play and have fun as a family.

One day we were able to go to Pullen Park. We have not been there since Mommy was pregnant with Gracie since it was closed for renovations. The best part about the park is the train! Jacob is absolutely infatuated with trains, although in real life he is a bit overwhelmed by them. He was so serious, but kept talking about the "choo-choo" all afternoon once we left.
 

Luke and Ben thought they were so old since they got to sit together without an adult on the train!

Note to self, when taking a newborn on the train, don't sit in the front.....it is noisy and smelly! Thankfully the Ergo carrier kept him from noticing!

All the kids enjoyed just being able to play outside. We have had some pretty chilly weather already, so it was great to be outside on a warmer day!

This is just a picture of Ben, Gracie and Jacob being silly and having fun together.

Another fun family outing was to the NC Zoo. They had a special on Veteran's Day that a child's ticket was free with each adult ticket. With Jacob and Caleb under 2, we only had to buy two adult tickets and one child's ticket!

That day was supposed to be unusually warm, so we thought it would be a perfect visit. Turned out it was much cooler and sprinkled on and off the entire day. The kids didn't seem to mind, and we all still enjoyed our visit and time together as a family.

With cooler fall weather we were able to see a lot more of the animals, who normally hide when it is warm. One of our favorite exhibits, the polar bears, was closed for renovation much to our dismay! We did get to see some VERY active otters!

Luke's favorite were the bison and elk.

One of the main reasons we went this fall was that the NC Zoo has two new baby gorillas!!! These precious little ones were the favorite attraction for the rest of our family.

Despite the inaccurate weather forecast, it was still a very beautiful fall day.

Finally, our traditional family photo by the rhino! :) This was both Jacob and Caleb's first visit to the zoo, and first time at the rhino!

We miss Daddy now that he is back to work full time, but are slowly adjusting to our schedule and learning how to create somewhat organized chaos!