Breakfast with Santa

We kicked off the Christmas season in mid-November with a breakfast with Santa. This is the first year that Eric even knew or cared who he was. Still not sure he wants him to come into our house, but the concept of the man with all the toys is interesting to him. (For the past couple of years he has thought all the Santas in the stores were Noah.)

Abbie, Aubrie, and Tracie joined us at Chick-fil-a for some delicious breakfast. While we were waiting for our buddies, in walked Santa (and his lovely wife of course). Eric was a little nervous about going to see them, but he got over that pretty quickly. He didn't really have anything to say to them, but he did give Santa a big hug. Then he watched them walk all around Chick-fil-a talking to other children.

Is there anything better than the genuine laughter of a child? I really don't think there is.



Eric and Brie. He just adores this sweet baby girl! What is it about those Durham girls that they can totally wrap him around their fingers?

Brilliant brother-in-law

In case there is anyone in the world that I haven't already told, Robert's baby brother recently got a perfect score on the ACT. The boy is crazy smart! We are so proud of him!

Completed Christ's Kids

Last Sunday Eric completed his Christ's Kids goal for this year. He had to repeat the first level (first man and woman, Jesus' mother and father, 7 days of creation) and then add the books of the New Testament and the 5 acts of worship. Yesterday he got his goody bag for completing his goals. After he learned his goals, he is able to start learning verses. That is the part we love. So, he said his first verse yesterday.

On the topic of verses, I have to share what he did yesterday. He was wanting to take a particular toy to his class. I told him that he could not take it because he is not allowed to take toys to class. He put it back on the table and then left the room. I heard him in the living room saying to himself "Do everything without complaining or arguing". This is one of the verses he has in his homeschool. I was so thrilled that the word is embedded in his heart and he knows how to apply it to his life. What a blessing it is to homeschool this amazing boy!

Fall Fun

In mid-October one of our homeschool Fridays was at Becky's house. She covered All About Me - 5 senses, bodies, etc. I got so many great pictures - I probably could post 50 here, but I will try to be selective...

Completely engaged! These kids have a blast and learn at the same time. It is fabulous! I love this pic because Eric and Kaden have the same pose. Those kids are so much alike!

Learning about mouths and taste buds.

After all the learnin', we walked down to the park for a picnic and some playtime.






Eric loves to take pictures. After I took several of him, he decided it was his turn. He does a pretty good job.

Verse for Unit 3

Here was his verse for unit 3.

Boo video

I have been having trouble uploading to my blogger - just got an updated Kodak Easyshare - I think the two haven't been friends. But, all seems to be well now. Here is a video from the night at Boo at the Zoo. It was funny because he was just yelling and talking to everyone. He always has such fun...
I will post more soon now that I have it all fixed.

First glimpse at Larry Boy

Ta-Da! Here is your first glimpse at Larry Boy. I want to hear how fabulous you think it is (really, I need the encouragement. I spent an insane amount of time on the thing and I still have to put some finishing touches on it tomorrow). We went to Boo at the Zoo tonight with Caleb and Shelby. Caleb is the Grinch and Shelby is Cindy Lou Who.

Eric had a great time. It was FREEZING out there tonight! I may have to look for some green gloves...

The child got so much candy! I wish I hadn't already bought candy to hand out for Halloween. Here are some pictures of him checking out his loot. This was always my favorite part as a child.

Score!

So, Eric doesn't usually score a goal. He is very involved, but he rarely gets to carry the ball all the way down the field. They played a double header on Saturday, and he really rocked the second game. He was great defensively and he scored a goal all on his own. It was fabulous! I was so busy cheering for him that I didn't get the actual shot, but here is the prep for the final kick.



This is his last week of the season, and then they will pick back up in the spring. He will be on the same team in the spring. This has been very fun, and I am sad to see it ending. One thing I love about my boy is that he truly plays the entire game with a smile on his face. He loves every minute of it. He plays hard and plays fun. I love it!

Hay ride

We went to the pumpkin patch today with Becky and Kaden. The boys had a great time. The weather was beautiful. It was a sunny day with a nice crisp wind. We went on a hay ride, which the boys LOVED! Can you tell Eric is having a good time?


The ride stopped at a pumpkin patch. We were allowed to pick whatever pumpkin we wanted. Most people wanted a large one, but Eric wanted a small one that he could carry "all by myself".




Time to ride back

Halloween is here

So, I have determined that Halloween is my favorite holiday. All fun, no stress. I love it! And I love when parties are spread out, so that we can savor all the fun times. Tonight was the Halloween party at the library. We had soccer practice first, so we missed the beginning. And, I know what you are thinking, that is not Larry Boy. I haven't finished his costume yet. But, he was an adorable pirate tonight. I bought this costume last year after Halloween on clearance. It is really cute. Since the librarian and the children's coordinator both go to our church, the whole event was basically staffed with our church members. That was neat.


The above two pictures are of the librarian and her daughter. They are currently Eric's Wednesday night teachers and are fabulous! We had a great time. And we have lots more fun things to do. I will probably be blogging a lot in the next week or two.

First game

This has been such a fun new phase in out lives. We love going to soccer. Being a part of a team is fun, practice is fun, games are fun. It is great! Here are some pictures from his first game about a month ago. I know it is late, but at least it is here now.

There was some adjustment at that first game. For the first 15 minutes or so, he ran around having a good time. Then he got a little overwhelmed. He felt like he was failing if he couldn't get to the ball. (my poor little perfectionist) But, he did a really good job. He scored one goal. And he has done great at all of his games since then.

#1

So, I know I have mentioned more than once how much we love Chick-Fil-A. For the past few months, they have had these #1 promotional cards on the table to advertise their new improved chicken strips. Eric LOVES these. I do not know why, but he thinks they are so neat. (Kaden thinks they are pretty cool too.) But, Eric always insists on sitting at a table with one of these on it. We recently went and they were all out. The manager saw that he was disappointed about something and asked us about it. Then she went and found another package to put on all the tables. I should have taken one with me to put in the car, as I am sure they will be out again soon. Oh well, it is fun for now.

Learning verses

We have activities every day to help remember the memory verse for the week. This is Eric's favorite - bouncing a ball back and forth. Once you catch the ball, you say the verse. You should see how hard he laughs at me when I am trying to catch it. Oh the fun we have....

2nd unit verse

So, I was told yesterday that I need to update my blog. We have been so busy lately. I will try to post some this weekend, because I do have a lot of cute pictures. I realize I haven't put any of his game pics on. Maybe I can do that tomorrow. Anyway, here is his second unit verse. He loves making these videos.

First real week of Homeschool K

So, you know I was planning to start on September 8, and I did, but then we had our terrible tragedy that day, so homeschool was put on hold for a little while. This week we got back on track and did a full week of work. Eric loves it, and is doing so well.

Working on some math.

If he wants to take his time, he is an excellent colorer. He likes to color things "rainbow". This was a phonics page.

Here is his history timeline. We will be adding to it as we go through the year. I thought he did an excellent job on this. You may have to click on the picture to see it better.

I was keeping Nate and Hannah on Wednesday, so we combined our homeschool with Nate. Here the boys are working on land and water animals.

The boys loved this activity. We put masking tape on the floor for numbers 1-5, then we put that number of little people on the number. You had to count and jump over all the people. So fun!





This is Eric's memory verse for the week.

Apples, Apples, Apples

Last Friday was our first Friday Homeschool Day for this year. We are meeting every other Friday with Kaden, Nate, and Abbie (and of course Aubrie and Hannah).

Here are all the kids lined up on the couch right before starting. They were all so pumped.

I was so excited about our first day. You guys know me, I am a planner. So, I had all the stuff laid out for our apple day.


Here the kids are using a non-standard unit of measurement (ha-ha, girls) to see how tall they are. Eric is 13 apples tall.

Working on their fingerprint apple trees.

Eric had the BEST time! We can't wait to do it again next Friday.

Larry, is that you?

We are doing some better here. Thank you to all who have prayed and expressed sympathy and concern for us. We have appreciated it so much. Still missing him like crazy, but it is not so crushing now.
So, I was on the computer and I hear the sound of spitting from the other room. I am not a fan of the spitting, so I went to investigate. I discovered that my son had fashioned himself a tuba. He still plays daily with the tubing that we bought for Robert's arm contraption. He was marching around in a band playing his tuba. (For those who aren't familiar with VeggieTales, I was referencing that in the title. Larry plays a tuba in the opening number.) I found it hilarious and had to capture the moment.

Heartbroken

Last night was a horrific night for us. We lost Mackenzie in a very sudden and traumatic way. He was very special to us, and we loved him very much. We are all devastated. Please keep us in your prayers. None of us really can talk about it without being emotional, so we don't really want to talk about it. We miss him terribly and still cannot believe he is gone.

Box Tops

I have recently learned that I can turn in Box Tops for Education and receive some money to go towards Eric's school costs. This is fabulous news to me. So, I am putting out there that we would love to receive any box tops that anyone is throwing out. If you are already saving them for a teacher or student or school, please continue to do so. But, if you are just throwing them out, we would love to have them. If you are unfamiliar with them, you can go to www.boxtops4education.com for more info. Thanks!

Playing in the rain

It rained here for 48 straight hours. Constant, never ending rain. No thunder, no lightening, just a constant downpour. Eric wanted to wear his rain boots to church last night, and he was looking for puddles to jump in. After church, I let him run around in the river going down our street. He had the best time. He was soaking wet, but he loved it! I had a hard time getting pictures because my camera kept fogging up from the rain. These are the best I could get. You can see everything better if you click on the pictures.
The rain has stopped today, and the water is drying up. I am so glad we did this last night. What a fun memory for a little boy! (by the way, soccer is cancelled for tonight)

First soccer practice

Well, I have been kind of avoiding my blog. As most of you know, the co-op thing was a minor disaster. So I have not wanted to look at that sweet boy's excited eyes. Anyway, we had our first soccer practice last night, and he had a blast! His coach was nice and had a lot of energy. Eric did everything the coach asked him to and loved every minute of it. Here are some pics from last night. We don't know when his first game will be - probably sometime in mid-September.

Giving the coach a thumb's up. You can see one of his teammates in the background. This little girl is Cameron and is 4.

He got so sweatty! The coach had them break often for water. I had bought Eric the Aquapods water with sports balls printed on the label. He was so excited about those. It made me laugh that his hair was sticking straight up.


Here is the other girl on his team. Her name is Savannah, and she is 5. (she is also homeschooled and goes to the co-op)

Here are the other 3 boys on his team (there are 6 children total), The boy on the right is Elijah. He is the coach's son. I think he is 5 because the coach said he played last year. The boy in the tie-dyed shirt is Jonathon (I think). And I don't know the boy's name on the far left.

What a great time! And we get to do it every week. Can't wait!