Greetings from the east coast!

We are having a wonderful, restful time on the East Coast. We spent our first few days in Harvey Cedars, a beach town off the coast of New Jersey. It is actually on this sand bar - it looks like a finger of land surrounded on both sides by water. It was gorgeous - but the weather changed the next day, and it became bone chillingly cold (at least for this California girl) and windy. Still stunning, though.

We were at Harvey Cedars Bible Conference to attend a retreat. All of the kids had a blast, and I was able to attend most of the sessions since they all happily went to their respective classes. Even Lily was content to be in her little toddler class after I would stick around and get her settled in. It was a rich time, and I received a lot from the ministry time.

After the retreat, we stayed at our friends' home in Montvale, New Jersey. The Chens are such dear friends of ours - Dave and Daniel go back probably 25 years. Our kids had so much fun staying with them and playing with their kids every day (and we are going back tomorrow to their house). See them ready to save the world in their various vehicles?

Do you like photo of the magnet I saw on a friend's refrigerator over here? Tee hee. Dave concedes that it is true in our family :-).

Lastly, the kids are refreshed by te discovery of so many insects here. Praying mantids as long as their hand, and woolly bear caterpillars. Of course they want to take all of them home, but reality checks and they know it is not possible.

More later. We are at Aunt Vicky's house now in Morristown, and I have to get ready for the day :-).

Around Here. . .

Some shots from the last couple of weeks. . .

Lily's early intervention teacher, Lorraine, brought a new toy to play with last time she was here - POM POMS!!!   Apparently, they are available at the 99 Cents Store right now because of the beginning of football season.

As you can see - they were a hit!  The K boys stayed over night and Nicky decided to participate in Lily's class instead of playing with the other boys.

The boys have been doing a homeschool P.E. class once a week at a nearby park.  This month's sport is soccer!

You can barely see him - but that's Matthew throwing the ball  in.

And look at Aarbear and his fancy foot work.  I am so proud of him!

What does Lily girl do during P.E.?  Well, she and I sit on a blanket under the shade.   We hang out.  I bring along my Bible and notebook, or other reading I want to catch up on.  I also try to bring some special toys just for this blanket time.  I brought rice and scoopers for a sensory bin.  This is just about her favorite thing to do - scooping, dumping, making a mess.

Haha - just showing off my close up shot.  I was amazed by how clearly this came out.  Go, Canon!

We are preparing for a big trip to the East Coast.  Hopefully, I can blog a bit from my phone while I am there.  Please pray for us?

Around Here

School is in full swing, and we have been learning and playing together :-).

I am doing this post on my phone, which means I can't move my photos around or caption them. Hopefully, it will all make sense.

Lily has been growing in every area! Physically, she has grown so tall and now has some meat on her bones. She and her brothers have been taking swimming lessons. She loves it! No big surprise - as she really is a very active girl as I have said many times before. Over the weekend, she also discovered that she loves to throw and kick the football to her daddy.
Yesterday, we went to a homeschooling co-op, and you can see her right there doing the art lesson with everyone else. Yup-she is a lefty!

This is Aaron's first year of more formal learning. He is registered in kindergarten with our charter school's homeschooling program. Honestly, I wasn't sure how things would go, as he is very sensitive and can be scared of learning new things. Things can be especially hard, I think, when you have two older brothers ahead of you who seem to know soooooo much more than you.

As an aside, there's a drawing below of a little girl trying to touch her ear with her opposite hand. In one of Nathan's social studies books, we had read about a small village in Africa where people do not know their ages. It is simply not a way they keep track of life or a marker for milestones. In order to determine if they are ready for school, they need to be able to touch their ear with their opposite hand by reaching their arm over the top of their head. I don't know why, but I love this! Nathan really got a kick out of this, too.

Anyway, Aaron has been really thriving and blooming! He has taken the plunge (not without initial tears, though) to swim lessons, soccer (he is really good), learning to read (he asks to do reading practice almost every day), and participating in classes and groups. I am so proud of him! It is so fun to see him come into his own, and enjoying it!

Below you can also see the siege tower that Matthew built out of Lego. This was a social studies assignment. We are studying the Assyrians, and their amazing, effective and often cruel methods of war.

And...we did school last Friday on our driveway in the morning. We were waiting for the space shuttle Endeavor to fly over us to its retirement. We finally did see it, and it was so cool! That photo was not taken by us :-).

Ok, off to start my day :-).

Lily's Gotcha Day!

One year ago today - we met our Lily Claire for the first time!

This is Lily's photo from when she was 9 months old.  It is the oldest photo that we have of her.  It is the photo that is on her file that came from China.  Look at those big brown eyes, and that rosebud mouth.  She has already healed from her lip repair that was down in China when she was 7 months old.  I don't like to think about her enduring that surgery all by herself.

Gotcha Day!  This is when she was first handed off to us in our room at the HuaTian Hotel in Changsha, Hunan.  

This is the two of us last week.  Look how happy she is!

So at home and right in the middle of everything - doing a science experiment with brothers.

Manning the remote for Sunday afternoon football with Daddy.

I cannot imagine our family without her dear scrappy adorable self.  She just warms out heart every day with how much she trusts and loves us all.  What an honor it is to be loved by this little child.  Her brothers all dote on her and have accepted her so completely even from the beginning.  I feel so blessed to get to be her mama.

I miss China.  Such fond fond memories of such a special special time!

Queen Hatshepsut and the Best Job

Nathan building a pyramid out of sugar cubes and frosting for our study of Egypt.

About a week ago, we were listening to the story of Queen Hatshepsut (of the New Kingdom of Egypt) from The Story of the World Volume 1.  She was a woman who wanted to be Pharoah.  But, at that time, women could not be rulers.  She ended up being able to rule because she was the regent for her nephew who was next in line for the throne.  The people did not accept her in a power of authority because she was a woman.  She told them to think of her as a man.  She would dress in a man's clothing, and even wear a false beard when she was on the throne.

When we discussed the story later, here's how our conversation went:

Me:  Remember, back then in Egypt, the only jobs women could have were. . . 

Matthew:  A priestess in the temple, or a dancer or - 

Me:  A mother and a wife.

Nathan (looking at me):  I think that's the best job of all.

I would have to agree, sweet boy.  It is the best job of all.  

Of course, I kind of get to be Queen, too - sometimes. . . in my little kingdom here :-).  

8 {Nathan's Birthday}

My not-so-little guy turned 8 yesterday!!!

First, a stroll down memory lane. . .

The sign that Dave and Matthew made.  It was hanging on the front door for when we came home from the hospital after Nathan's birth.  The black blobs are Matthew's contribution (he was 3.5 then).

I found this in a pile the other day while I was decluttering:  it is one of those print-outs you can get at Chuck E. Cheese for one token. 

Yup, Nathan and me.

He was 20 months at the time.  Sniff.  My baby.

Yesterday.  Strawberry cupcakes with homemade strawberry cream cheese frosting.

I love his dimples!  Oh, and the goose egg is from a pretty bad fall at the park on Labor Day afternoon.  We *almost* went to urgent care.  Thankfully, Dave has some connections - called 4 ER docs who all confirmed that Nathan was ok to head home (we did have to observe him, and also wake him up every hour or so a couple of times after he fell asleep that night).

What can I say about Nathan?  He is just the more loving, funny, fiery guy.  He loves his family, and has loved babies ever since he was practically a baby himself.  He defends those he loves, is fiercely loyal, and brings tears to my eyes sometimes with the touching sweet things he says.

We thank the Lord for you, Nene!  You are such a blessing to all of us :-).

The Big Catch Up Post

Sorry - we have just been so, so busy around here!  And not taking a lot of photos.  Which makes for less blogging!  But I will attempt to catch up a bit here.  

We have started our school year.  All of the kids are home this year, and they are not attending the Chinese school at all.  It was just taking too much time - even though they only went until lunch time.  By the time they came home and had lunch, it was hard to switch gears in order to complete all of the other subjects.  It has been soooo nice to have a change of pace.  No more rushing out the door with half eaten cereal and spilt milk all over the kitchen table in the mornings.  We are still easing into getting a good routine going, but I am optimistic.

"Roamschooling" at the car wash.  Doesn't Nathan look cute with the pencil behind his ear?

Yes, my little Aarbear is in kindergarten this year!  Yikes!  He is doing so well.  He is very apprehensive of learning new things.  In fact, when I told him we would learn to read this year, he started crying :-(.  I think it is hard for him having two older brothers who seem to be able to do so much more than him.  In actuality, he can hold his own with the "big boys," and he certainly has more experience than many kids his age dealing with older kids.

I love my new beach chair from Costco!  And so do Nathan, Aaron, Lily, and her babies.

We are studying ancient history this year.  We read together about the Egyptians and papyrus.  We decided to make paper out of paper pulp from scrap paper.  You can see everyone is getting into it - even Lil.

We put radish seeds in the purple paper so that the recipient of a letter written on it can plant the paper afterwards and have radishes!

Matthew's (top shelf) and Nathan's (second shelf) school books for this year.  That is not even all of them.

The daily report, dictated every day by Aaron.

Nathan doing a front kick.

Jumping front kick combination.

Woohoo - and Matt and Nene tested for purple belts!!!

They are high fiving their class mates after receiving their purple belts.

I am also going to list here the curriculum choices for the year, even though I know that this will be pretty boring for everyone who is not homeschooling.  This is for posterity, so bear with me :-).  Also, I am including (totally non-affiliated) links - just in case you want to check out what they are studying this year and where to find the materials.

Matthew (6th grade):
Math - Singapore Math 5B, 6A and hopefully we can get to 6B later in the year.
Sonlight Core G reading list
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Language Arts - Matt is participating in the Classical Conversations Essentials program which covers
     grammar, spelling, and uses the Institute for Excellence in Writing for writing.
Science - Matt is participating in the Virtual Homeschooling Group which will be using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science for the textbook.  By the way, this is an AMAZING resource if you have older kids (middle to high school).  It is completely free.
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Nathan (2nd grade):
Math - Singapore Math 3B, and then I think we will do Teaching Textbooks 4
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2
Language Arts - Rod and Staff 2 Phonics, Rod and Staff Spelling 2, Writing With Ease Level 2
Science - Studies Weekly and Hands-On Science Fun! Microscopic Explorations, Insects, and Light
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Aaron (K):
Math - Houghton Mifflin California Math workbook, and then we will move to Singapore Earlybird
Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Language Arts - Daily report (see above), lots of being read to, Rod and Staff Preschool Curriculum
Science - Studies Weekly and tagging along with Nathan with the science kit

Lily (toddler):
Be cute
Bother brothers
Get into everything
Hang on Mama's legs

I am also including this scripture memory system (which is ingenious by the way) with the kids (and myself) in addition to our usual morning devotion times.

Wow - if you made it through this far - thank you!

I am trying hard to be more critical of where to spend our time and energy and have more margin in our lives.  It seems like we are always rushing around, and I do NOT like that.