Lunar Eclipse 2011

For school this year the kids & I are studying Astronomy. We ALL are learning a ton of amazing facts about planets and our solar system. I had one of those "you know you're a homeschool mom when..." moments back in December. I learned that there was going to be a total lunar eclipse. Last one until April 2014! Having just finished a study on the moon there was no way I was going to pass this experience up. I set my alarm quite early, like an ungodly hour. Spent the first hour watching the moon, drinking coffee and sitting under the heater in our backyard by myself. Now I don't even get up on school days this early! Here I was on a Saturday morning waking myself up like it was christmas to see the lunar eclipse :) Around 5:45 or so I woke up Taylor and she joined me in the awe watching of the moon getting swallowed up. Trevor joined us shortly there after but didn't hang quite as long outside as Taylor and I did. Eventually the sun began to rise and the moon was setting to the point where we could no longer see it from our house. Tay & I jumped in the car to get a better view of the horizon but I think during that three minute drive the sun came up to much to see it fully eclipsed. Either way it was totally worth missing my opportunity to sleep in on a Saturday morning. We will however hike a mountain or get a little more out of town for the next one...

What an amazing creator God we worship!

Fall 2011 Pictures

Some of you lucky few out there received Christmas cards from us. That was before one of my children spilled water all over the remaining "to go out" pile. Bummer. So I apologize to those who felt like they were missing out. I just couldn't bare the thought of buying more cards from Costco to be unsatisfied with. Why oh why do I keep going back? Cost I know. The color is AWFUL!! I must do something different next year...

Anyhow here are some pictures from a little November session in the park with my kids.























These already feel outdated to me. They grow SO FAST! Oh how I love them... I am one blessed mama.

Medieval Feast

A little before November we had a Medieval Feast celebrating the ending of our Unit 1 in Tapestry of Grace. There are three other families that we know using this same curriculum, so together we threw a pretty awesome feast, 21st century style :)




I don't know how Medieval my costume really looks but it was the best I had. Taylor said it was a gift from Marco Polo while he was in the court of Kublai Khan. Sounds good to me.


I think the people behind us were a little confused.... isn't Halloween over?!?









We did the feast outside by the fire & tiki torches in a friends backyard. We took a little pilgrimage together outside where the knights protected the ladies :)



Taylor & Sarah... close friends!




All in all it was a great night. I'm grateful to have families and friends to walk this crazy homeschool journey with. About every other week one of us wants to quit and we dream of having all our kids in school and getting coffee together with uninterrupted conversations. But we don't. End of Unit celebrations are just as much for the mom's as they are for the kids :)