Lunch

Roy came home after church with us today. Caleb & Blake went home with Richard for big kid fun. The little kids enjoyed lunch at Taco Bueno, then they helped Jon plant tomatoes and jalapenos!!!

'Boys' of Summer

Saturdays are now spent at the ballpark. Saturday morning Jon got this shot of Caleb pitching during practice. In the afternoon, I snapped the shot of Abigail catching during her game.

the Bunnies

Abigail asked that I put this photo up. When we lived in Oklahoma our yard backed up to a field. We often found a bunny in the back yard playing. Six years ago when we were relocating to Texas and were looking at house, we toured our current home. When we went in the back yard, Caleb announced that this was the house we needed to buy, because the bunny was already in the back yard! We've playful teased him about that bunny the hopped all the way to Texas to move with us! Yesterday, as we've always suspected, there were 3 bunnies in the back yard! Abigail took this photo, I circled the bunnies to make them easier to find!

More LTC

Yes, more LTC pictures!!! I've had emails or phone calls from 3 sets of grandparents and one proud uncle asking for more LTC pictures. Since our family are all out of state, this is the easiest way to share our day to day activities. For our friends here, who were able to share LTC with us, hang in there for just a few more photos!

!!LTC 2008!!

It is finished!! Jon & I love LTC!! We have enjoyed it since Frankie was young and we did it for the youth group in Owasso. It is fun to watch Caleb and his friends enjoying it as much as Sissy did! This year Jon taught the Bible Bowl classes for Caleb's age group. I worked with the Challenge events and assisted Ms. Teri & Ms. Belinda with Drama. I know, you guys are reading this to see what Caleb did, not Jon & I!

So here goes:
Outreach Challenge: Gold

Service Challenge: Gold

Teaching Challenge: Gold

Daily Devotional: Gold

Song Leading: Gold

Sign Language: Gold

Chorus: Gold

Puppets: Gold

Drama: Gold

Bible Bowl Team: Gold

Bible Bowl Individual: Gold

Oh, did I mention, he achieved his highest Bible Bowl score yet!

Caleb's Room

Apparently I don't look in the kid's rooms as often as should. The other day I took this photo of Caleb's room. He has his roman coluseum out, star wars stuff, some of Abigail's little people. There was no floor space anywhere. The kids had just finished telling me that their rooms were clean. After taking this picture, I questioned the whole room clean thing. Their response, 'well, we did pick up. We picked up everything we weren't playing with.' Hmm, 10 year old logic! I teased them that I was going to post this with a disclaimer to grandparents, 'no more toys!' :)

Honduras Sort

March 14

Today we went up to the building and helped with the clothing sort for the container headed to Honduras. The church has been collecting shoes and clothing for months. A lot of people showed up to help sort, it was amazing to see everyone pitching in to help those in need.

Science Experiment

March 14th

So everyone has probably put a marshmallow in the microwave just to see it expand. But if you haven't ever tried this experiment with a marshmallow peep, you're missing out! They swell to almost 4 times their original size and become seriously deformed!

Texas History

March 13th

Today several of the homeschool families headed up to the church building where Ms. Donna taught Texas history. We covered the Battle of Gonzales, Texas' Declaration of Independence, the Alamo, the Goliad Massacre and San Jacinto. The kids made their own history books as a reminder of the stories learned. Busy day!

Dallas Museum of Art Turner Exhibit

March 12th

Since we were already in downtown Dallas, we headed over to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the new JMW Turner exhibit. This is the largest and most comprehensive retrospective ever presented in the United States of the career of J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), one of the greatest landscape painters in the history of art. The exhibit consisted of approximately 140 works, divided almost evenly between oils and works on paper, and will included masterworks representing his extensive range of subjects—seascapes, topographical views, historical events, mythology, modern life, and scenes from his imagination. Many of these works have never been shown in the United States.

This isn't a great photo, but no flash photography is allowed in the museum and no photography of any kind is permitted in the Turner exhibit.

Old Red Museum

Today we visited the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture Museum. It is located in the 1892 "Old Red" courthouse and tells the stories of the development of Dallas County. The museum exhibits features interactive media presentations, hundreds of rare artifacts and photographs and specially commissioned films. It is located near historic Dealey Plaza.

Sunday Schedule

Our Sundays are crazy from January through the first of April. We enjoy services and Bible classes. After services we run to lunch. From Noon to 1:30 is Drama. 2:30 to 3:30 is National's Bible Bowl practice. 3:30 to 4:30 is puppet practice. 4:30 to 5:30 is Chorus practice. 5:30 to 5:45 is Song Leading practice. And 5:45 to 6:45 is regular Bible Bowl practice. And on special occasion, 7:00 to 8:30 pm is a second Drama practice! WHEW! But we would prefer to support his interest in LTC than anything else. It pays the biggest dividends!

Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa

Another stop on our Oklahoma Tour was at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum. It is one of the country's best facilities for the preservation and study of American art and history. They have 18 of Frederic Remington's 22 brones! This visit they were featuring a Charles Banks Wilson collection, 'An Oklahoma Life in Art.' Since no photography is allowed in this museums, here is my favorite Remington, 'Coming Through the Rye.'

Oklahoma Aquarium

While in Oklahoma, we checked out the more than 200 exhibits at the Oklahoma Aquarium, featuring thousands of salt and fresh water species and also mammals. The children enjoyed feeding the turtles and the sting rays. They also petted the sting rays, starfish and other scaly creatures. The coral reef and the shark tank were a big hit too. We'll be back to see the otters!

Oklahoma Snow

These Texas kids made a fun trip to Oklahoma to visit with my Mom and enjoy snow. They woke up to 6" of snow, by 7am Caleb and Abigail were outside having a snowball fight. Frankie never did join in the outside fun, but she did enjoy some of the snow ice-cream!

Baseball Season

March 1, 2008

Baseball and softball season has begun. Caleb and Abigail are both in Spring Training. Caleb has practice on Saturday mornings and tuesday nights and Abs has practice on Tuesday and Friday night. This morning the girls watched Caleb practice, while Dad was out in the field with the boys