John Daniel's Fish

The boys went fishing on our recent camping trip and John Daniel was delighted to catch some fish.  Here are some cute pics of him and his fish!

Emily's Latest Art

I have to say I am quite proud of my artist...she has really taken to the art classes that she attends each week.  She works diligently to finish her projects and truly enjoys it!  These are her latest creations...and they are not traced or copied...it is all free hand with the instructor teaching them about form and proportions.  I'm so impressed!  There are four girls that take the class out of the instructor's home.  So far, it has been well worth our money.  Emily really enjoys it and loves the imagination (like the clown's hair) tha she gets to use. 

Sideways Jellyfish...couldn't get it turned around

She named the clown Candy

Falling Waters!

Recently, we went to Falling Waters State Park with 3 other families....that 8 adults and 14 kids.  We had campsites next to one another so the kids had 4 sites to play in.  They had an absolute blast!  We never heard a squabble or a fuss.  They played so hard!  The weather was a bit cooler than we thought so we stayed close to the fire.  We did a hike to the "falling waters" on Saturday which was fun.  We all cooked and checked on kids and talked and laughed.  I've had so many people ask to go with us after seeing our pictures on Facebook!  It is one of our best and most fun past-times and I'm so glad we have friends to do it with. 

The little girls watching a little Strawberry Shortcake in the camper

We have a Boy Scout Book that John and John Daniel work through...one of the tasks that JD had to do is plan, cook, and prepare a meal on a campout.  He made breakfast for us one morning.  sausage, eggs and biscuits in the dutch oven.  It was fabulous!

John Daniel and his su chef Coop

The kids rode their bikes EVERYWHERE!

walking through nature with 14 kids means nature runs from us for sure

Falling waters

Lots of sink holes on our walk...Emily was so intrigued, she now wants to do her science project on sink holes, which I think is fabulous!

Hiking from the falls

Our group picture! 

We all inhaled way too much smoke this weekend....with the wind and cold and wet wood...it was inevitable~  We had fun around the campfire though...we did a game where someone started a story and then stopped and the next person had to add to it...very funny!

This is one dirty pink jacket~

Bible

Last year we committed to reading through the entire Bible. So far we have read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth..... I'm very proud and excited that we've accomplished this as a family! It's the best commitment we've ever made!

Young Dancer's Workshop

We heard about the FSU School of Dance's Young Dancer's Workshop through Mrs S (Emily's Ballet Teacher)...she is apparently on the board and helped organize the YDW.  The YDW was a 2 day all day set of workshops teaching ballet, jazz, and modern dance.  The classes were taught by FSU dance faculty and the guest Instructor was the world renown, Suzanne Farrel.  We googled her and all I can say is WOW!  She has in her career danced all over the world and was the protege for the famous Balenchine (probably spelled wrong) ballet instructor and choreographer....There is tons of information on her online. She has been apart of the NYCballet and all over Europe....so we were super excited.  NeeNaw and Pop Pop paid for the workshop as part of Emily's Birthday present.  Emily was positive she wanted to go, even though she didn't know anyone that would be there, she still wanted to go...this is so unlike her mommy!  I was proud and scared all at the same time!  It was very very hard to leave her!  I sat there for forever and made sure she was in the right spot and o.k....she didn't know a single person but when we walked in, Mrs. S was the first person we saw...I took pictures through a glass window.  Emily danced for 5 hours the first day and for 4 hours the second day.  She was sore, tired, and hungry!  But so excited!  She came home and said, "Mom, I need to work on my flexibility!"  Mrs. S said she was excited for Emily and that maybe it would give her a focus for what she really wanted to work on in ballet....and encourage her to work even harder.  I gave her an extra cell phone to take and she would call me at each break...it was so good to hear her voice.  They worked constantly, there wasn't much goof off time or talk time...ballerina's don't talk while dancing!

One of the coolest things was that during the classes they had live piano music....in upper level college dance classes, live music is preferred which never ocurred to me...they had a pianist in each class. Emily thought this was neat!

We weren't allowed to take a picture of Suzanne Farrell but if you look closely...she is walking in the middle of all the girls in the picture above :)

Suzanne Farrell did autograph Emily's shirt!

Improvements~

Since the horrible chicken massacre, John has needed to do some improvements in our coop area...he and J.D. have been working very hard...they have a porch now!