Soli Deo Gloria

I am becoming more and more passionate about teaching our kids theology through the practices of our lives.  This is how young Jewish children were brought up in the faith.  Daily, weekly and holiday practices re-enforced the stories and tenants of their faith.  I believe our theology shapes our practice and if we don't know our theology, how can we live righteous lives?  The girls and I have studied the Reformation and Reformation Day (which happens to fall on Halloween every year) the last few years. See our favorite book above.  This year we invited the GEMS to have a Reformation Day celebration with us. To prepare, the girls and I made a giant Wittenberg Door

And what did we happen upon at the thrift store..but a Martin Luther costume for PD.  He did a great job helping me teach the girls with a little skit we wrote.

We also had a craft time and learned the Five Solas. We made a little book.  Each page had one Sola and a verse to explain it.

Everyone had a good time and learned something, which was the whole idea.

Special thanks to my best friend, who I did not take a picture of.  She showed up with a lovely dessert for my guests and served it with grace and efficiency while I madly finished up the craft time. Everyone should have a best friend like that.

Halloween 2011

I almost dropped the ball on Halloween this year. I knew it would be ok to take a few days to go to
Chicago, but when I came back, the girls and I got really sick with a cold. Then I hosted a Reformation party...all while doing my regular things like homeschool, help PD lead our small group, follow up with my IFI volunteers, nursing home ministry, take the girls to a Laura Ingalls play and help our friends get ready for a trip to Uganda! Really the only thing that made it difficult was being sick.  Everything else was pretty much a regular week for me. The costumes were not coming together smoothly.  I kept waiting for someone to come give me a medal for walking around JoAnn Fabrics in a Nyquil fog with Kleenex stuffed up my nose, but alas, no such luck.

We were going to dress up as a theme with our besties (as usual).  But we had half super hero costumes and half Ancient Egypt costumes.  It was crunch time and we ended up pulling together three ancient Egyptian princesses and the cutest mummy you ever saw.

Gram and Papa came over and helped me at the last minute.  Gram brought me some blue eyeshadow from her archives and helped me finish up the food I was taking to the neighborhood party.  Papa helped me carry it over.  They also brought their usual bag of goodies for the girls.  I will tell you, Gram's goodie bags are the best.  She puts in all these individual sized snacks like Ritz and pretzels and graham crackers that I am too cheap to buy.  They usually last us quite awhile and it is so nice to just grab one when we are headed out the door.

Of course we took a ton of pictures:

Little neighbor girl stopped by:

The whole neighbor gang.  You will notice a lot of coats over the costumes.  It was COLD this year. 

Last minute trip to Chicago

A couple weeks ago (before Halloween for reference) my sister called and asked if we could throw together a last minute visit.  She home schools with another family and they were going on a trip, so she had a free week.  The lure of the city and a fun week with cousins was too much to resist.  I packed up and was out the door in 18 hours!

Our schedule was the same every day. The day would start with nummy french toast made by Chicago Aunt and Uncle, drink coffee and let the kids play until they start to bother us, then pack up for a day of adventures, then collapse on the couch after 8 and have Chicago Uncle bring us things to drink.  Our first day there, we went to a cute little restaurant that delivers your food on a little model train that runs all around the lunch counter. It is called 2 Toots.

Sweet baby watching the train...don't get saliva on your computer screen trying to kiss this baby.

Don't the burgers look yummy?  I wish I had one right now!

Then we walked around:

And stopped in the tiniest little candy store.  Can you see who is posing for the picture, and who couldn't wait to pick out his candy?  We told him to pick out ten and he could eat 3.  He picked out 25 and ate them all.

We also took the train downtown:

...to American Girl.  We saw all the displays but did not buy anything this time. The new AG girls this year are Cecile and her friend Marie-Grace.

The bigger hit this year anyway was the Lego Store. Their store window display is a giant Lego model of downtown Chicago.  Those are all Legos, not a big picture!

Best of all was just hanging with the cousins. 

Especially this funny little boo boo:

Ok, now go get a tissue and wipe off your computer screen. You know you couldn't resist kissing it.

GEMS at the Pumpkin Patch

The girls' scout troupe went on a hay ride and to the pumpkin patch.

It was supposed to rain, but it held off and was a really fun time.  We had cider and donuts and picked pumpkins.

Oh look at me and my bestie! Wow, I am sty'lin.  I was afraid I would be cold and grabbed PD's fleece jacket at the last minute.

PK2 in the field:

Pretty girl...I have this one as my screen saver: