March 2016

My class at CC (minus one little boy).  Can you guess who the ONLY kid is who ever gets in trouble? :) 

My kids LOVE when we have meetings at our house.  Whoever said homeschooled kids don't get enough socialization have never been around our group. :)

We avoided a bunch of stomach bugs the first half of the winter, but we got hit hard toward the end.  (And it was always on Tuesday evenings so we had to miss CC two or three Wednesdays!)  Poor Abby HATES being sick.  She's often the first one to get it, but a few days after our Both Hands project, Caleb threw up.  Abby saw him and started crying saying "I don't want to throw up!"  This is a picture of stomach bug #1 that only the kids got.   The one after the Both Hands project we ALL got (over the course of the week) and it was very unpleasant to say the least.

Feeling better later that morning.  (Unfortunately it didn't last long, poor thing.)

Since we had to miss CC, I did that day's science project with the kids at home and Abby got to join in...

Parts of the earth/atmosphere...

One Sunday afternoon at the end of the month, we went to Charlotte to see a movie with the kids and then walked around a park downtown.  I love that spring starts in March here and is so beautiful!

Our kids are such rebels. :)  (Read the sign...) 

Making some sort of "adventure land" in the backyard.  They definitely did this before I caught them.  

I got this book with questions to ask your kids (one a day, although I'm pretty bad at remembering to do it.)  I loved Abby's answer to this.  She is just not a big fan of Karl. :)

Stomach bug #2... I'm just SO GLAD this didn't happen a few days earlier when we were doing the Both Hands project.

Since Grandma and Grandpa Kaufman couldn't come visit for Easter, they sent gift cards to the kids so they could pick out something in lieu of Easter baskets.  We went to Walmart and Micah immediately bought a basketball hoop and some basketball cards.  Abby picked out a stuffed pony and a dress for her doll.  And Caleb.... didn't want to spend his money, so he kept the gift card. :)  Like father, like son.  (This is so typical of our kids!)

We spent an afternoon at Glencairn Gardens since it was so beautiful out.

Checking out an inch worm...

Baby ducks!!!!

Superhero/princess day at CC...

Micah playing baseball.  We LOVED his coach, but the team was still pretty horrible. Micah still had fun!

February 2016

This was the Abby's first trip to the dentist.  She looked so little in the chair. :)  We switched to a pediatric dentist in Rock Hill, and the kids get to pick a show on Netflix to watch while they are having their teeth cleaned.  They thought it was the coolest place ever.

Sometimes they like each other.  And sometimes they don't wear shirts...

At CC, pretending to be Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel:

I love that we live in a place where we can go to the park on Sunday afternoons in February and play baseball and football with friends.  With a light jacket at most. :)  Caleb on first base, sticking out his rear end of course...

Micah wrote a letter to Stephen Curry, his favorite baketball player, so Caleb wanted to write a letter to someone he admired.  He decided to write it to Neil Armstrong.  So he wrote "Neil Armstrong, I very very very love you.  You're my favorite in the world.  The second."  (Because he meant Jesus is his first favorite.) Then I looked it up and found out Neil Armstrong has already died.  So I suggested that he write to Buzz Aldrin instead.  Caleb said, "Ok!" and then added to the bottom of this letter: "Buzz, when he comes back to life, give him this."

Micah playing basketball at the Y.  We were less than impressed with his coaches who never even learned Micah's name.  Poor Micah missed the two practices at the beginning (one because of pink eye and one because the coach told us the wrong time), so the first time he played with the team was the first game.  Micah was a trooper though and had fun!

Just because she's so cute when she lets me put her hair in pigtails:

Other stuff from this month: Busy, busy, busy preparing for our Both Hands project.  I'll do a whole other blog post on it someday.  We had our "kick off party" January 29th and our "envelope stuffing party" February 19th.  I felt like every waking hour was spent either homeschooling, cooking dinner, or working on details for the Both Hands project. 

January 2016

Grandma and Grandpa were here for over New Year's, so we did Christmas with them then.  Abby got an "Elsa bike" (from the movie "Frozen"), so Micah and Grandpa hid it while Grandma carried Abby out with her eyes closed.

A set of 3 battery-eaters, er, I mean, walkie-talkies.

All dressed up for church

Poor Micah had pink eye (eventually in both eyes)

A cupcake game from Aunt Darlene on Abby's 4th birthday.  They rarely play the game, but those cupcakes have been played with a whole lot.

Another outfit for Abby's doll, Gabby.

Daddy took Abby on a fancy date for her birthday:

Painting at CC.  I think this is the one where they made their own paint from ground up chalk and egg.

Everytime we do painting at CC, the kids are suddenly very inspired to paint at home too:

Pink ice cream from Mike Jette (trying to win his way into Abby's heart) :)

Our finished, authenticated, translated dossier!!!

Mailing our dossier to the adoption agency to send on to Haiti!

Trip to Discovery Place.  I caught Caleb on the "big screen" as he looked at a starfish.

Kids singing for us at church: