Thanks and Giving

We have taken the opportunity this Thanksgiving season to think about what it means. Each year, I have the grand notion of doing a collection of thanks in some way.  However, the project never comes to fruition.  This year, I spied this Thanks and Giving Tree idea on someone's blog and loved it!!!

We started at the beginning of November and wrote down one thanks for each day and one way that we were giving. We wrote them down on little leaves that the girls colored and then glued it to the appropriate tree.

 

The girls love their trees and were excited each day to add a leaf!  By Thanksgiving, the trees will be full of colored leaves and we will have a visual for thanks and how we have been giving:)

Autumn

We took a much needed break and got out of the house to enjoy this fall weather.  The girls and I took a brisk walk around Spring Lake~~ it was pleasant!

...it is finally fall here in Northern California:)

                                    A little cooler than I thought, but we made it around just fine.

Our Girls

Some recent pics of the growing girls

Faith~

Dalaina~

Academy at CCA

I am teaching 17 1st-3rd graders on Fridays and we are having so much fun!

tug of war

Simon Says 

attempting to get a peice of pasta onto a toothpick between their teeth--no hands allowed!

In geography, the children learned that rubber comes from trees in the rainforest.  So, we passed out balloons and had them try to blow them up-- a few succeeded:)

In HomEc, we had a green eggs/Dr Suess day.

For those not wanting green eggs, they had eggs in a nest:)

We are having a great time!

Jenness Park--Homeschool Camp

We went to a homeschool camp for a few days with some friends!  What a great time we had:)

This was our cabin-full of bunk beds.  We had 15 people in our cabin!

Elora, Hannah, Rachel, Elena, Faith and Dalaina~

David took a mountain bike ride with one of the locals-this was him smiling upon returning!

...the chow hall

David teaching Faith how to shoot paintballs:)

David's turn!

Dalaina learning how to shoot a  bow and arrow

Faith's turn

The Survival Training Obstacle course was a lot of fun:)

To the Leap Of Faith~~ I went to first to show the kids to have no fear:)

...up the 35foot telephone pole I went

...and, I took the leap to the trapeze and made it!

David's turn:)

Faith's turn...

Fire Building

Dalaina learning to light a match!

....SUCCESS~ they started a fire

Faith getting a quick kayak lesson from David

the rock wall

go karts!

David and the gang heading out for a hike...

Learning to track animal prints

Practicing setting a trap 

...the zipline 

just hanging with the gang--having fun

We had an amazing time there.  We learned about the persecuted church, bible couriers and voice of the maryrs!   It was an eye opening experience.  We are looking forward to next years camp!!!