November 21, 2014

This morning i got a haircut.. i didn't want it that short.

 

Then daddy took jessie to get her drivers permit!

These are the decorations for Jessie's sweet sixteen party! 

i got too blow up all the balloons! 

we had TONS of candy...

These are all the props for the photo booth...

they are really crazy

I got a stomachache after eating all of that candy.

And there was even more candy than that....

And that was Jessie and Katie's birthday cake!  

It even matches the decorations! 

And i got to put on all the props!

see what i mean by crazy?

Daddy got to make the punch!

with sherbet, raspberrys, ginger ale and raspberry lemonade. 

Then everybody danced to "cha cha slide", "cupid shuffle", etc.

And the festival dancers teacher came so all the festival dancers that were invited got to dance to some of the dances that they do

After all the dances, Jessie and Katie got to cut the cake! 

Then they all danced to"don't stop believing" 

Then Jessie and Katie got to open presents!

And so the party ended. and there was no more squealing and screaming ever again....

November 20, 2014 - TJ

Today was Jessie's birthday, so we started off the day with breakfast in bed for Jessie.

We did school this morning, then ate lunch. That after noon, David folded his first load of laundry that he washed all by himself; when he turned 10 he got to do his own laundry.

Later on, I left for a piano lesson in town at 3:30, then came home to eat dinner. We had Jessie's favorite meal, Stromboli, which is an Italian bread crust type thing, with sauce, cheese, and meats such as salami, pepperoni, stuff like that.  

After dinner, we enjoyed cake and ice cream to celebrate Jessie's birthday, as we discussed her party plans.

So that's it. Now to get ready for the crazy crazy party tomorrow! Goodnight everybody.

November 19, 2014

From Anne:

Today I woke up and went downstairs and this is what I found:

Poor TJ.

He was all stuffed up so he got the day off school.

So me and David got a lot of his work done. Here we are reading Robinson Crusoe. He has just found his man Friday. David thinks Robinson is hilarious.

We incorporate a lot of drawing into David's school since it is his favorite way of expressing himself. Here is how he studies geography. We are reading Minn of the Mississippi and drawing the route of the Mississippi as Minn travels down it. As you can see his borders are a little off, but he is still working on his maps which he is not tracing but drawing mostly from memory.

We do nature study with drawing after studying things outside. Believe it or not we still have green clover in our backyard despite the fact it is 10 degrees outside.


He also has to find the Latin name for all his plants and animals.

But mostly he was worried about his brother so he laid next to him and talked to him in funny voices.

Jessie volunteers at the library on Wednesday afternoons, and when she came home at 3 she was very hungry (but not too hungry to put her iPod down long enough to open the fridge with her right hand).

After TJ got some powerful meds, he felt better in the afternoon so I made the boys clean their room together. It looked awful, as you can see.

David was excited because we picked up his violin a couple days ago. We had it repaired and new strings put on in preparation for David starting to take lessons soon. The repairman said it was a German violin from 1843, and probably worth some money since the quality of the wood was good and someone had spent effort into repairing the cracks.

Homemade pizza for supper! Earlier we went to Walmart to pick up yet some more party supplies. Jessie also wanted to go to youth group, which is why she isn't in the picture. TJ was too sick to go.

David entertained us with stories at dinner, as usual. Here he tells a funny story about TJ. "When TJ plays soccer [with the church group on Sunday afternoons] and it is rainy, if his shirt gets wet then he says, 'My shirt is too heavy' and so he just stops and stands in the middle of the field, put his hands up by his eyes and goes, 'Woo, woo!'".

TJ does not deny this story so we think it might be true.




Tomorrow Jessie will be 16! She requested pop-tarts for breakfast. Yuck.

November 18th

From Tim

So, I was at work all morning and afternoon and didn't get to witness much of what happened at home.  It was  a typical Tuesday, so I had to take Jessie to Classical Conversations.  The boys got to a chilly morning to do their math, literature, and Latin.  Today was the "Thanksgiving Feast" at Classical Conversations, so Anne, TJ, David, and I got to enjoy a lovely potluck meal with all the CC families.  Of course, Jessie and TJ sat with their friends, and eventually David sat with friends of his.  Anne and I were alone...martyrs of the popularity of our kids....."sigh".   My favorite part of the meal was the Watergate Salad and the homemade pumpkin pie.  David liked the mac and cheese.  Jessie liked the chicken casserole "thingy" with broccoli, some kind of cheese sauce, and rice.  TJ liked the stuffing.  And, Anne liked the fact that we didn't have to cook it!!!!

Our afternoon was full of friends and celebrations.  Liz Fritz, a good friend of ours who lives in Wisconsin now was in town and stopped by with her friend for afternoon tea and coffee cake. David attended a birthday party for our missionaries' son, Joel, at the Bounce House in Richmond (a kid's paradise where you can jump around on large inflatables, then eat pizza, cake, and ice cream).  Anne had to lead her small group study at the church at 6:30 and I had to help with childcare since Jessie and TJ (two of my 3-person childcare team) had to perform with the Berea Festival Dancers tonight.

After small group ended, Anne and I drove to Berea College to catch the end of their performance it was great, as usual.  Afterwards, we all went to Dairy Queen to celebrate with friends, just in time for David to return from his partying for MORE ice cream!  Anne and I finally had dinner....at 9:30!

As we came home, we were mesmerized by the clear night sky and all the stars, meaning one thing:  it is COLD tonight!!!  It was so cold, David was trying to warm up by the fake fire!

It is so cold, even Daisy is enjoying a warm night in the laundry room instead of outside in her hay-filled dog igloo.












Of course, we are looking forward to being in Wisconsin next week, so I guess we better get used to the cold now!!!

Love,
Tim

November 17th, 2014

From Jessie

This morning I woke up and looked out the window to see that it was snowing!

I went downstairs to get some breakfast, but as usual I was the last one to get up so everyone was downstairs ready to greet me.

I spent most of the morning doing school work. I am learning about very long and complicated equations like these ones in algebra:

It is getting REALLY hard, but the accumulating snow seemed to help my mood.

 Sadly we didn't get very much snow after this, but we had flurries all day and it was in the upper 20s and lower 30s all day!

After lunch we spent the rest of the day shopping, and I had to practice my Shakespeare presentation in the car. Tomorrow in class I will be acting out a scene from "Taming of the Shrew" with a couple of my friends for our drama strand!

The boys and I also had fun in the car as we drove around town

(I'm not sure what TJ was doing in that last one, but I felt it was worthy of posting here)

We were mostly shopping for things for my birthday party which is on Friday, so we bought some candy

Then we dropped the boys off at home and mom, dad, and I went to pick up my friend Katie from school so we could go shopping for party decorations and new dresses for us to wear at the party! We stayed out pretty late (which is why I am posting this late) but we had lots of fun. This is the dress I will be wearing to my party:

Now I have to get some sleep before class tomorrow! Hope your day was as great as mine!
Love, Jessie.

November 16, 2014

From David:

This morning we all went to church, and I got to see all my friends. And after church TJ and Jessie left to dance at the berea festival dancers.

This is TJ getting ready for festival dancers with his suspenders and his bow tie. 

after mom took TJ and Jessie to festival dancers dad made darn good chocolate cake and coffee cake for the staff meetings we had here at the house. and while they where meeting i got too play games on my new ipod!

Then after mom picked up Jessie and TJ from festival dancers, me Jessie and TJ all watched Back to the future 3, while eating yogurt and chicken and dumplings.

Saturday, November 15

From TJ:

Today is Saturday, the day we don't do anything. Except today we did do some stuff. Jessie is in Gatlinburg at a youth retreat with some friends, so everything's quiet. Very quiet. Too quiet.

We had a pancake breakfast, then Pop, Mom, and David went to the store to get a new router so our internet would cooperate. I stayed home so I could write a paper on the periodic table for school.

We ate lunch, then I made cookies to take to the church for our shoebox wrapping party. We filled shoeboxes with toys and stuff to send them to kids around the world for Christmas. Although I was supposed to take photographs, I forgot :) :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Anyway, that's our day. Now to get a good nights sleep for the day ahead. I have to be up at around 5:30 to get ready for worship team practice. I'm playing electric guitar.yay

--TJ--

November 14, 2014

From Anne:

Morning school. Jessie reads her essay out loud to us.

It's about Dr. Who. David listens while playing with his new Star Wars legos. As you can see he is still in love with your green robe.

David's schoolwork includes some easy grammar lessons. We are talking about what makes up a sentence, starting with subject and what we say about the subject. He has great fun making his own sentences out of the prompts:

My fingernail is broken.

The phone is broken.

TJ's glasses are broken.

The glass cup is broken.

TJ cannot do his math.

Daisy cannot do her math.

The upright bass cannot do his math.

My rock cannot do his math.

Ian and Joel played for an hour (or maybe 10).

I played for an hour.

My cereal played for an hour.

My laundry played for an hour. 

The poor sailor ate a rat.

The poor sailor was as dumb as Robinson Crusoe.

The poor sailor didn't have a stuffed animal.

My brother Tom is dumb.

My brother Tom is pooping.

My brother Tom has constipation.

My brother Tom is weird.

The red flowerpot is pretty.

The red flowerpot is stinky.

The red flowerpot's spirit animal is a flea.

The red flowerpot broke.

Bread and jam tastes good.

Bread and jam made a mess.

Bread and jam... (singing) "tea, a drink with jam and bread"

Bread and jam makes me hyper.

The white pony stomped on my foot.

The white pony has constipation too!

The white pony gnawed on my table.

The white pony eats my cow's personal flies. [??????]

David and TJ do Latin together:

Lunch: Ham sandwiches!

After lunch, the boys play music. TJ plays guitar while David sings Ralph Stanley's "Little Birdie". They crack themselves up in the process.

Then David practices his piano while TJ does lunch table chores and I do laundry. They all take turns cleaning up after meals. When they all do it together there is too much goofing off. 

David is playing "Ecossaise in G" by Beethoven.

He says he NEEDS the iPod for practice (???). His practices have been getting shorter since he's been saying that!

Jessie's schoolwork takes longer and she still has to work on it after lunch. Her algebra is getting harder and not much fun.

After tea, TJ convinced me to take him to the corner store to buy sugar so he could make cookies. 

When Tim came home from work, he checks Jessie's math. David tries to distract him with his new lego ship. "Look, Daddy, it does this and this and this!" He is unsuccessful in his distraction techniques. Algebra is hard!

Jessie is going on a weekend retreat with some friends at another church's youth group. We have to get her to their church by 4:30. She will be gone until Sunday. 

Tim and TJ are going to a concert tonight, it is a Christian concert in Lexington with TobyMac and others. They are going with a group from the church. He didn't have time to make his cookies!

So me and David are home alone! Tortellini for supper and David does the dishes. Then, he gets to have time playing his new video game he got for his birthday, Lego Batman.

Goodnight, David! He really wanted to stay up until everyone got home, so I let him draw and read in bed. He stores all his half-read books by draping them across his bed rails. He falls asleep drawing, though, so I turn out his light.