Sparks Clubber of the Month

Drum Roll...The Sparks Clubber of the Month Certificate is presented to D. Rosales for OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CLUB FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER 2008!!!!

I just have to brag on my son!! He came home tonight so proud of himself for having been awarded the Sparky of the Month Award.
He willingly posed for me with all his goodies!! He is so deserving of this award. He has already finished his book which is a guide for Bible Memorization.

D in the middle of all the Sparks.

D stands proud as he is named Clubber of the Month!

I'm TWO!!!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday my two year old! Happy Birthday to you!

Saturday, November 29th, E celebrated her second birthday with our traditional cinnamon rolls. (Her party was the day before her birthday.)

I love this expression!
Blowing out candles...

D told me the day before E's party that he wanted to give her a gift. Some more time to prepare would have been appreciated. However, I couldn't deny his request so I scrambled to find something. Here he is opening the gift he gave to her.

E absolutely loved the gift!!!

Now L opens the gift she is giving to E! Once again, E was delighted with the ball L gave her. In fact, she seemed to enjoy more the gifts from her siblings than the one from her mommy and Papi.

E opens her last gift! She is very excited to finally have her own playmobile toys!

Let's Party

E was very excited to be celebrating her second birthday. Every time we started to sing "Happy Birthday" she'd grin so big!

She loves butterflies so it seemed a very appropriate theme for my littlest one!
The big kids were very much a part of the celebration

E has mastered the art of picking of candy from the pinata.

D and L look on as E opens her first gift.

E wears her second gift as she parades around the house.

Gift #3!

E with her butterfly cake!

Blowing out candles!

Thanksgiving at last

We finally got to eat our Thanksgiving turkey on Friday night. It was a long time coming and the kids had just about given up. However, we did get to celebrate at last!

I would love to claim some responsibility for the turkey. However, other than taking it out of the oven, I had nothing to do with it. Mom did it all!! It was absolutely delicious!
E and Grandma hang out while the last preparations are finalized.

Grandpa reads to D and L to help pass the time.

THANKSGIVING!!

Thanksgiving, Plan B

We had to go to plan B this year for Thanksgiving...unfortunately we all got sick!! E started last week with fever. L started Saturday with a stomach bug and then Derek and Mommy joined in Monday night. Tuesday was a quiet slow day in our home as all laid around while Papi worked. Wednesday we were doing much better, but then Papi started to get sick. So, we had to tell Grandma and Grandpa to wait until the coast was clear; we didn't want to share our germs. Finally on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we were all fairly well. However, it was too late to cook a real turkey so the following is the only turkey we ate on Thanksgiving Day.

L shows off the turkey she made with cookies and candies.
D has made two turkeys complete with wattles.

E even joined in the fun!!

And then proceeded to eat her turkey! So funny...when I told L at bedtime that on Friday we would celebrate Thanksgiving complete with turkey she said, "Okay, but I really don't want the brown chewy thing that got caught in my teeth" She was referring to our turkey's head, a milk dud. I quickly clarified that we would be eating a REAL turkey with mashed potatos, fruit salad, bread, etc!

Why homeschool?

Homeschooling can be such a challenge, especially with a little one, so it's good to have reminders of WHY I do this.

E watches as D looks up verses for Bible. Would we have this type of interaction and learning opportunities if my children were gone all day?
It's such a joy to be part of the learning process with my children. I get to witness them grow daily!

Here E is doing something much more characteristic than the first picture where she was "learning" with D. She has digressed to putting stickers in D's hair as he reads.

Beautiful to Brrrr

Friday Papi took the day off work so we planned a trip to the zoo. Our Saturdays are full with D's soccer games so we haven't been to the zoo as much as we like. It was an absolutely beautiful day!!!

Perfect for the zoo. D, E and I checked out the monkeys.
L checked out the people.

No, we didn't buy anything from this machine. However, L pressed every button more than once. Despite her persistence, she came up empty-handed.L has found herself a place to rest.

The kids love sitting on this Komodo Dragon.

Why is L pointing to the children in the back? They were in our picture, much to L's dislike!! There were many school children at the zoo. How did I, a former school teacher, not think of field trips?

E and mommy

We are actually dressed a bit warm for this beautiful day. We could have gone in short sleeves!

Saturday, in contrast, was very cold and extremely windy.

Here are the boys on the sidelines of the soccer game waiting their turn to play.

The girls are snuggled up with one of their soccer friends. What a difference from just the day before!