It Looks A Lot Like Christmas

It really does look a lot like Christmas at our house.
I love Christmas.  I didn't do as much as I usually do, but at some point I just thought that's enough for this year.  So far the lights have stayed lit and the hubs has only had to fix one wreath.  Hopefully they will all stay lit until Christmas.  Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

This Happy Birthday Jesus is my favorite
piece in the yard.

Fall Soccer with the "Rowdy's" in Keystone

Those 5 fingers stand for 5 goals made in that game.
After the game he wanted to go to Johnny's for some steak for dinner and that is where he went.

This is his first year playing soccer with the city rec teams and he loved it.  He is looking forward to Spring and playing again.

 After being in 2nd place all season, they won the tournament and ended up in first place.  We had a few really good players on our team.

He is looking forward to playing again in the Spring.  He had a great time.

Halloween

I am so far behind on my blogging.  I even forgot I hadn't posted Halloween yet.  This year Halloween fell on Wednesday.  In Awana's they celebrated.  Tanek had a great time, played some fun games and got a lot of candy.  This year he was Aniken Skywalker.

He is a huge Star Wars fan.  

We decided not to carve the pumpkin since we were not going to be home to light him up.  We knew the pumpkin would last a lot longer too if it were not carved.  Well, we are into December and the pumpkin is still going strong.

We baked some yummy cupcakes for Halloween.

It was a fun night and Tanek's tummy is full of sugar.  Now to see if he will go to sleep.

Emily's 7th Birthday!

Seven years ago today my sweet grand-daughter Emily was born.  I can still remember being in Maryland on a cold day waiting for her to be born.  She was born just one day before her papa's birthday.  We tried to get her mom to wait one more day, but Heather wasn't going for that.  Emily is such a sweet, cute and smart little girl.  We have certainly enjoyed our youngest grand-daughter.  I hate that she lives so far away and we don't get to see her nearly enough.

Emily I can't believe you are already seven years old.  We sure do love you and are so proud of the girl you are growing up to be.  I hope your birthday was as special as you are.  WE LOVE YOU!!

Visit from Rena & Larry

Around the middle of October Rena and Larry came out for a few days.  We had a great time.  We did a tour of St. Augustine and the beach.  We didn't have time to spend very long at any one place, but just gave them a tour of the city.  Here is Tanek with his "Aunt Grandma" at Vilano Beach.

It was a beautiful day, a little windy but very nice.

St. Augustine Beach

St. Augustine Beach

Larry & Rena

We visited the lighthouse

Had lunch 

Went to the Old Fort

Stephanie, Rena, & Tanek at the Old Fort

Tanek checking out the cannon

They stayed at the "Hampton Lake B& B.
We went and had breakfast with them.  I highly recommend it.
Delicious.

Tanek telling his Aunt Grandma some of the things he has learned in school.

We really enjoyed our visit and getting to know Larry a little better.  It was just too short of a visit.  Hopefully we will have more times of getting together.  It is a little hard when they live clear across country from us in Vancouver, Wa.

School Days Fun!

During our study of France, one of the activities was to make truffles.  An activity that we were happy to do.

They were easy to make, a little messy putting them into balls, but
"very" Yummy!

Cleaning up afterwards was even yummy!

Fall is officially here and some mornings are just beautiful, so we take advantage of those days to do school outside.

Tanek always has a sense of humor.  It is never boring teaching him.  Sometimes I am the one being taught.  Recently, I told him I was Not going to teach him math, that his mom would have to do that.  He said I know you don't know how to do math and we get confused.  I explained to him that I was never very good at math and it is totally different than when I was learning it.  He said to me, "well Nana, have you learned anything from me?"  I'm thinking, Who is the teacher here?  In spite of my short comings, he is doing very well.  It is amazing to me what their brains can comprehend.  It is very rewarding being able to be a part of that.
Thankfully, Stephanie does all the lesson planning and researching what he will study.  I just help out a couple days a week.  
One more cute thing he did, last week we were studying Leonardo da Vinci and I asked him if he remembered the name of the painting he was famous for.  He thought for a minute and then said "The Great Dinner"?  I told him it was actually "The Last Supper", but it was a great dinner.