Adjectives~by Beth

Adjectives are describing words. They describe nouns like persons, places and things. I teach this part of speech many times in the early elementary grades. Emma, age 7 and in 2nd grade, is working on it right now in her English. She had some very nice adjectives for her nouns in yesterday's assignment. For cat she had white, small, cute. For dress she had soft, pretty, and colorful. Ah, nice words Em. For home she wrote warm, hard (?), big. For Father she wrote loving, strong, and working. Very nice! For Mother she wrote loving, pretty, old. WHAT?! OLD???!!! Emma, what do you mean old??? I have not even hit 50 yet!! But, it was an adjective. When I asked her what she meant, she said that she meant older. How come father was not the "old" one?? lol

Football Season 2009~by Beth

Here is the homeschool football team. We had a hot, hot season. The games lasted 2 hours and were miserably hot. We looked for shade at every game. Caleb had an eye injury around the first of September, but I was able to use those steri strips and avoid stitches PTL. David is on the far right as number 20. Zach is standing in the center back row as number 22. Caleb is in a three point stance in front of Zach. His number is 4 but you can't see it very well. We did not get the football pictures until just before Christmas so this post is sort of out of order with the others.

Christmas Was Special

We had the whole crew here for Christmas plus some extras. We were blessed to have Nathan and his new bride, Hannah, with us from Texas for two weeks during Christmas. Along with them, Hannah's sister, Stacey, and their friend (Nathan's former roommate), Andrew, joined us. We were 17 altogether. Can you find all of the children in the picture? Mom and Dad are not in that picture. Lots of big dinners and fellowship. Thanks to Beth's great organization and hospitality, coupled with lots of helping hands from the family, we were able to eat well. Besides that, our children were introduced to a few new games, like a variation of scrabble called speed scrabble. This was Hannah's first visit at her new in-law's home, and so we were filled with joy to have her here. Preceding them by two weeks, Katie surprised us by flying home in early December. She had been in Texas for two months working at ALERT. We so enjoyed having her home, and appreciated all the help she gave us with all the goings on around the house. Our Stephen took a liking to Stacey, and Johanna took a liking to Andrew, so that was fun to watch.

We trust your Christmas celebrations were a joyous time for you with family, and centered on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Abby lights the Advent candle~by Beth

Another Advent season at Tamiami means lighting the Advent candle. Here Abigail lights her first candle. She may have done it last year with one of her sisters, but not by herself. Her brothers are in the background in the front row. You can also see two of the new windows the park put in this summer. We were very surprised at all the improvements when we returned this fall. It all started with a roof leak and lead to a new tin roof (not flat anymore but with pitch), new entry, new windows and doors, some new improvements in the kitchen, opening up some doorways, and moving one door. It looks really updated and nice. I am trying not to covet the kitchen!

A Field Trip~by Beth

I did it. I actually took the kiddos on a museum field trip this past week. I had tickets for our local hands-on museum and thought I better redeem them before time ran out. The above photo is of Emma doing a weather forecast. There is a closed circuit camera and tv that allows the children to see themselves doing the weather. Emma did a fine job. I helped her with placing all the icons for the different weather. It is quite unusual to have snow in Minnesota and a hurricane in the Gulf at the same time. The children also got to see gravity in motion with various tracks and balls, air, clouds, a thunderstorm, wind tunnel, and a live demonstration of feeding the sting rays. We also were able to get to a show that featured a python, some sort of frog, and an alligator which they all got to touch. Can anyone say "Hand Sanitizer?" We had a nice time and even stopped for a quick lunch on the way home.

Abigail's 4th Birthday~by Beth

The day after Nathan was married was Abigail's 4th birthday. While all the relatives were around, like Grandparents and a great Aunt and a great Uncle, we had a little celebration. Here is our beautiful Abigail.

Caleb and Joel are both Referees~by Beth

Last August Caleb took the referee course to become a certified, Florida soccer referee. He passed his test, ordered his uniform and got on the roster of refs. Here is a photo of my two guys headed to Caleb's first game as a ref.