Monday, October 17, 2016

October 2016 (and a pic of Violet's baptism)

Time for another picture-post!

sometimes a killer sunset just needs to be photographed, even though it captures just a tiny glimpse of the original beauty of seeing it with your own eyes


Miss Violet got baptized by her dad - showing publicly she has put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ as her Savior

Mama Row got all the cousins together.  Only Christy was missing from the Hardinger cousins!

:)

Mama Row takes the kids to the library every Thursday afternoon.  She's amazing and the kids love going on outings with her.

She's a born-teacher - can't help but provide some sort of fun lesson along with their trips.

I was blessed to have fun/fellowship/teaching on the topic of prayer over a women's retreat weekend.  It was held in the Retreat Center at Riverview the weekend of Sept 17-18, 2016.  

Kim and I had the privilege and responsibility of leading the other women in worship with music.  This is Emily Dempster giving her testimony and shared that a song sung in worship at Bethany one Sunday is what the Lord used to speak to her heart and caused behavior change.  This was so encouraging.

I attended a Peruvian cooking class with Mama Row one evening and we cooked a quinoa dish, ceviche, and grilled pineapple with nuts.

Our mailbox flowers - zinnias and petunias!  Calvin helped me arrange them by saying "just put the tall ones in the back!"

Calvin is LOVING how to learn write cursive!  He's so good at it.

Cedar River flooded and we went to look at it.  A couple feet lower than the record set in 2008, but still impressive.

work on our basement is making progress!

Vanessa is becoming quite the little reader!

Eli - flying his blue airplane out of the window of the jeep.

counter tops going in!

Calvin came along with me to pick up Eli from preK - and always brings along something Eli loves - in this case, "Dot table, Foxie, and Woofie"

Vanessa's drawing of Rahab and the scarlet cord that helped save her life when the Israelites attacked Jericho.

Eli sporting Calvin's flat-brimmed hat Dave got for him on his recent one day trip to Chicago.  I hear it is a good year for the Cubs.


#twinning

Grandma Jo warming up the kids for a fun time at the gym before their dental appointments.

Eli loved this game in the waiting room at Grandpa Jon's office.

Um, this is Dave's halloween costume.  He got it to go along with "one color night" at Awana that is coming up.  

Grandma Jo also taught the kids how to fold paper into frogs.  They made a whole colony!

Just a snap of Eli "doing airplane" on my feet.

pumpkin pie for breakfast?! Sure! My mom used to give me pumpkin dessert for breakfast when it was leftover.  I can still taste the buttered toasted pecans soaked in whipped cream....mmmm

Violet was gifted a sweet dress from grandma Jo!

Calvin rarely wears a shirt while working on school work...I wonder if this will continue through the winter?

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Things to mention about Fall 2016!

Realizing I haven't blogged in awhile, I am just going to poke through my phone pictures to see what there is to mention that is NEW around here...there seems to be a ton!  I'll caption the moments under each pic.  I guess photos will speak louder than words in this post.


Jay, Stella and Theo came for a visit and the girls had a blast playing with baby doll things at the chapel!

Dave and Calvin sporting their matching shirts - the chicken crossed the road to get to "The Other Side" restaurant...duh

Martha gifted us a hunk of salt, haha...AKA a "salt plate" - it can be heated in the oven or the grill and you can cook food on it!  Rachel got inspired and came up with a recipe that was asian beef and it was pretty good.  

We had to fry eggs on it.

oh yeah! that thing that fall is so good at...school starting!! Our "last first"....our youngest's first day of preschool.  His teacher's name is Ms. Nies (NOT the same Mrs. Nuece that Vanessa had, although same pronunciation).  He has gone a few days so far and seems to enjoy it!

Vanessa - 1st day of 1st grade with me.  We are doing the guidebook "Little Hearts for His Glory" for history/crafts and 1st grade math, reading, and writing this year.

Calvin is going through "Bigger Hearts for His Glory" for 3rd grad this year.  New to him is dictation, learning cursive, and his reading/writing/history/math/science is all stepped up to his 3rd grade level.

Violet is going through "Hearts for Him through Time: Creation to Christ" and going deeper in to learning our roots. 

NEW THIS YEAR: Violet is learning flute! Look at that good posture! She goes to band at Waterloo Christian School on Tuesdays and Fridays from 1:20-2:15, and joins the gym class on Fridays from 2:20-3:15.  She also has piano lessons on Tuesdays after band from 2:15-2:45.

last gymnastics class until schedules get changed up.  Lunges and weights!

We had an opportunity to join a group of homeschool families on a tour of the airport control tower - really cool to see what they do.  It was QUIET in there.

They put out some of their rental airplanes and let the kids climb in and check things out!  Eli's like.."hey! there's the propeller!  See it spin!"









Vanessa drew a picture of a fox using a simple drawing tutorial and did a fantastic job!

We also joined a bunch of others from the chapel for some fun/food/fellowship time - starting with swimming at the Smith's pond.

get on a big brown bus!

it was loud and fun!

Eli didn't think so.

Calvin hung out with two of his buddies. The three Cs!  Calvin, Cade and Corbin.

This is Vanessa's new friend named Ada.  She is Max Erisman's cousin.  The two had so much fun together!

Sept 5th (labor day) the Erismans invited us to come along on a bike ride to Newton's Cafe for breakfast.  They biked to our house and we biked as a group there.  Take off time was 9am, we got to Newton's around 10.....we were hungry by that time!

huge pancakes, cheesy stuffed omelets, and bacon awaited us

we spent a bit of time at the park / skateboard park on our way home.

Vanessa, Calvin, and Violet enjoyed these ramps with their bikes

I mapped our route on the way there.  15 mile round trip.

Sept 5 - same evening, after some R&R to recuperate from the bike ride, Kim practiced face painting on our kids so she can help paint faces at the Awana kick-off carnival in a few days. 

bat girl Vanessa and crowned Chloe

two ninjas, a doggie, a kitty, a bat girl, and a crowned princess

that's all for now, folks!  Whew!