May 2016~by Beth

May, May, what can I say about May except it was jam packed with loads of events.  It began with Christiana's graduation party on the first.  We needed to schedule it ahead of the actual graduation because that was the only time we could fit it in.

some of our guests playing a game

Her grad board, table and decorations

Next came Charity's 16th birthday on May 4th.

Following that was the soccer tournament.  We had games several days during the week, but it culminated on Saturday May 7th.

Emma and teammate Ben in a game

Abigail running in play

Johanna watching

Emma

2016 LCHS team took 3rd place

Coach David talks to the team after the last game

 Christiana slipped in a dance just before her graduation.  We found this lovely dress the day before at a thrift store for $1.  Score!!

Best date ever (actually he just dropped her off)

Graduation morning, May 14, 2016, we took pictures before heading over to the church.

Dad giving Christiana her card from us

Smile

Happy grad, proud parents

Sibs and the grad

Ready to leave for graduation

 CHESF class of 2016

Christiana walks down the aisle

Christiana plays at grad

Stephen and his buddy Emily

Stephen, Emily, and Benji, former kindergarten grads

Kelsey, Joel and Christiana after grad

Charity, Amanda, Paige, and Emma

Cynthia, Donna and Beth, home school mamas together for 2 decades

Mother's day gifts for Beth, Yea!!

Mother's day was the next day so it was a treat to get taken out to my favorite spot to eat, especially since graduation was a long day, and also included going to a grad party that evening.
The very next day we left for a week at our ATI home school conference.  We were able to get David to his program on time Tuesday because we left Monday and stayed with Caleb in Gainesville for the night.  We certainly enjoyed the pool at his apartment that evening.

Johanna and Abigail

All the girls swam, along with Stephen

Caleb joined the fun

One, two, ready, JUMP!

Caleb was a nice host and had ample room as he has no room mates at the moment.

I taped the presentations of all the programs our children were involved in.  But one of the pictures that I snapped turned out okay.  Wish my camera took better photos.

Emma is in the center with the chevron scarf, and Christiana is behind her with her eyes closed

We drove through the night to arrive home on Saturday, exhausted, but none the worse for wear.  The jv girls had a party that afternoon and Christiana was in a play and had practice that day.  More on that at the end of this long post.  Tired of reading?  Well we were tired doing all these things!  But we enjoyed every minute.
Christiana had her birthday on the 24th so here is her 18th birthday photo.  She made her own cake and it was very good.  The last day of May she also got her driver's license.  What a year of milestones for her!

Christiana's 18th birthday

At the end of the month, yes we are getting there, was the production of Neverland by One Room School, which is a private umbrella school for home schooled students.  Though Christiana was not in the school she was allowed to participate as a pirate.  She had the time of her life and I am so glad she had the opportunity to do it.  The play was loads of fun and the student actors were so very talented.  We were impressed.

Christiana is the pirate in the striped skirt

The cast of Neverland, written and produced by Sarah Ascol

One other thing happened this month:  Stephen learned to tie his shoes.  NOT.  Can someone please teach that boy?  He is almost 8 and he still has not gotten the hang of it.  But he can tie them this way!

Next month is the children's recital.  I have been attempting to upload the videos of them here, and haven't been successful doing that yet.  Hopefully I can add them.  They are so precious.

Israel 2016~by Beth

For the third time my mom took me on a trip to Israel.  My daughter Katie also joined us.  Here are just a few photos of our time from April 9-19.

Katie met me at my gate in Newark, NJ and we grabbed a Starbucks before joining our group

Ceasarea with palace ruins and the hippodrome on the right

Mom and Katie on our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee

Me at the front of the boat on the Galilee

First century boat found and petrified, called the Jesus boat

Everywhere we went flowers were abundant and beautiful

Ruins of a Roman city at Bet She'an

Cardo, Roman street, at Bet She'an

Cave at Qumran where early scrolls were found of the Bible

Dome of the Rock up on Temple Mount

Dome of the Tablets where archaeologists believe is the site of the Holy of Holies

Katie, Mom and me in front of the city of Jerusalem

Closed Eastern gate where Jesus will one day enter again

More of the beautiful flowers

Sculpture of Peter denying Christ outside the Church St Peter in Gallicantu

Window in a church along the Via Dolorosa of Christ before Pilate

sign in the garden of the tomb

sign on the back of the door in the tomb

View of the Dead Sea

Katie wading in the Dead Sea

Mom, me and Katie before touring Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum

There was a lot more to see, but this gives you an idea of some of the places we visited.

March 2016~by Beth

March was a fun month for our family.  We have 5 family birthdays this month.  Emma's was on the first and she turned 14.

 Our granddaughter turned one and our son in Texas sent us this photo.

Sophia Blikstad turns 1

March also means going to the FCAA basketball tournament.  Our varsity boys and girls teams again went to state.  The boys did okay, but the girls were the defending champions.  They played for the first place again this year.  In the 2nd quarter our team was behind by 7 points.  Christiana had the ball at the top of the key.  When she could not find an open person to pass to she decided to shoot a three pointer.  Swish, it went in and changed the momentum of the game according to Jonathan.  By the half they were ahead by one point.  The final score was 46 to 30, and our girls won the championship game two years in a row.  Christiana had 8 points in that game.  This was a special year for the girls as they have 6 seniors on the team, 5 of them starters.  Their coach, Pastor Ascol is also retiring from coaching since his youngest daughter is also graduating.  Three of his older daughters will continue coaching the girls team next year.  This is a picture of the team on the bench during the game. I (Beth) was unable to attend this year as the date of the tournament was changed 6 weeks earlier and I had a previous commitment to work early voting that week.  Jonathan kept me updated with texts.

Christiana is on the first chair left, and Charity is on the first chair right.

The jv girls, Emma, Johanna and Abigail, had a few more games after their tournament.  They are a part of two leagues.  The GCACC ended with the tournament in the middle of February.  But a few of our FCAA teams have a jv team, giving our girls more opportunities to play.  At our last game our girls gave their coach Sarah Ascol, a lovely gift.  The three girls who will age out of the jv team presented it.

Isabelle, Ashley and Emma give coach Sarah a gift

 At the end of March we celebrated Easter.  I still give the children a basket which they have to find.  Here are a few shots.

Johanna

Emmaline

Stephen

We also have some angels in the family.  Here are two of them.

March was also a month of preparation for me to get ready for a trip to Israel.  I also prepared menus and got groceries to help the family left behind.

February 2016~by Beth

I promised you more basketball news and here it is.  Our middle school league has their tournament in February.  We had to scramble to get all our games played before that happened during the second week and weekend this month.

Emma plays in a tournament game.

Em listening to her coach after a game.

Johanna poses after a game.

2016 team after tournament, Abby, #10, is in front center holding the trophy, Johanna, #13, front right, and Emma, #20, in the 2nd row right next to Johanna

Earlier in the month we celebrated Jonathan's birthday on the 3rd.

We always have the Petersons present their character based ministry at our RV park services in February.  Here we are after church.  Gerry and Cynthia have been our close friends for over 20 years.

For Valentines Day Jonathan and I went out for a nice dinner.  He surprised me with 2 dozen roses before we left.  They were pretty.

And, finally, another shot of Christiana playing in her senior year.  Their team went to the state tournament in Ft Pierce in March undefeated.  Christiana is a starter and plays most of all their games.

January 2016~by Beth

January at our house means basketball in full swing.  Our children play on a home school team and play in two leagues, one for middle school, GCACC, and one for high school, FCAA.  Some FCAA teams also have a middle school team so our jv girls get a few extra games for fun.  Emma, Johanna and Abigail played on the jv team and Christiana and Charity played on the varsity girl's team.  Jonathan coached the boys varsity team again this year, but we did not have any players from our family playing as David graduated last year.

Christiana and Charity play in a game.

January brought several plumbing projects.  During a big storm our ladder knocked over and broke off our spigot on the side of the house and had to be fixed.  Our girls shower also had some issues.

Due to the above average rainfall, 13 inches in January (normal is about 1/2 inch) our hibiscus plant bloomed beautifully.  Here is a shot of one of the flowers.

More basketball news in next month.

December 2015~by Beth

December is always a busy time with celebrating Christmas.  It means putting up and taking down the decorations and lights.  Other than the baking and gift wrapping we did enjoy some relaxation during the holiday and the time off from school.  The weather was very warm this year, so we had the air on the whole month.  Johanna's golden birthday arrived and she turned 12 on 12/12.

Jonathan and Beth by the tree

Earlier in the month the volleyball team got to celebrate the end of their season with a banquet.  Here is a photo of the seniors on the team.

Amelia, Hannah and Christiana

Now we are back in school and finishing up the last of the clean up from Christmas.  Jon got a light gun that helps repair strings of light so they are all fixed and packed away in the attic.