A Special Book

I am not sure this is the exact book that Tanek has, but it is this story.  This is one of the best training books I have ever seen for children.  It teaches them how to be kind and shows how important their words and actions are and how they affect other lives.
Stephanie has read this book to him and one of his favorite things to do is "fill your bucket".  It tells how when you do or say nice things to people you fill their bucket with happiness and how that also fills your bucket.  When you talk mean or do mean things it takes happiness out of their bucket and out of your own.
There are so many times Tanek will ask me "is your bucket full?"  Or did I help fill your bucket today?  It is so sweet and such a great way of training using a positive and fun approach.  If you have young children or grand-children I highly recommend this book.
It is so much easier when they do something that isn't pleasing that you can let them know they are taking from your bucket.  It is a gently way of disciplining, when the action doesn't require stronger measures.  

School Days

This week was an interesting school week.  We spent some time with papa in the ER on Tuesday.  He will be having surgery soon and is having to take it easy until then.  Papa and Tanek were having some special reading time together.  Papa usually reads to him from his Kindle a book that Stephanie has chosen.  It is usually a classic and this particular one Tanek is really enjoying.

Tanek and his papa have a very special relationship and you can see they are enjoying this time together.  They make many memories every day.

We have been studying about the Pilgrims and how they came over on the Mayflower.  Also, we are studying about God's creation.  This week we were learning about nature and how things grow, seasons, and wild life.  We are very interested in this and love studying about God's creation.

Tanek was very concerned about his papa having to go to the hospital.  He was so good while we waited for them to take care of papa.  He was right there to give moral support.  He was also very happy that he got to go see his mommy at work.  We were very happy when we got to go home though and papa got to come with us.

Crazy Hat Night!

Wednesday night they had crazy hat night in Awana's.  We started out with papa's old yard hat and went from there.  We went out into my "room" that has who knows what out there and found all these things to decorate it with.  It was a very special hat because most of the things we decorated it with came from Meme Anita and we like to think she was able to see his hat and know she had a part in it. She is such a special part of his life and he loves her so much. Tanek wanted a spring on his hat (not sure where that idea came from) so we started by  putting his slinky around it and went from there. After we were all finished we were very proud of his hat and certainly thought it was a crazy one.

 It actually turned out to be a patriotic one.  It was a little top heavy and hard to keep on his head.  He was happy that papa didn't want his hat back, because he didn't want to take the decorations off and likes it the way it is.  Maybe we will just add more to it next year and make it even crazier.

 He is all decked out in his hat and Awana's vest.  He loves going to Awana's.  They have so much fun while at the same time he is planting a lot of God's word in his heart with memorization.  He has already finished his first book and is moving right along. 

School Days

 Thursday was such a beautiful warm day we did school out on the porch. 

 We were doing math.  It makes it a little more interesting when you can use objects to eat for adding and subtracting.

 Tanek wears many hats

What I Like At 5 Years Old!

On Pinterest I saw where they took a picture of a little girl and put everything she liked at age 5.  They suggested keeping a scrapbook of it and giving it to them when they graduate or get married.  I thought that would be a great idea.  They used a really cool background and I thought maybe some of my photographer pro's could come up with something creative.  I did what to record it before he turns 6 next month.  Here he was reading the chart we made and making sure I got it right.

Look Who Lost a Tooth!

Tanek had a loose tooth the other day.  Today they found it in bed when they woke up.  It sure fell out easily.  Tonight the tooth fairy will make a visit to his house.

He came over to show his papa that he lost his tooth.  That made papa's day.

What a cute little hole in his mouth.

Gary's Surgery

Gary had foot surgery on Tuesday.  After the surgery he came home and was relaxing on the couch with his two buddies.   Daisey wants to be everywhere he is and Stanley loves to just lay on top of him or by his side all day.  He is doing well and we have managed to keep the pain level down for the first couple days.  Now after 3 days he is having almost no pain.  Hopefully this surgery will be successful and he will be able to walk without so much pain.  When this one  is healed he will have the other one done, so it will be awhile before things around here are back to normal.  

Christmas Day 2011

It has taken me since Christmas to try to post this.  Blogger has changed something and won't take my browser .  I had to change it and I dislike the new change.  ANYWAY.  Here are some pictures posting last first. Go figure.

We had a birthday party for Jesus.  Tanek and his mommy made this delicious cake.  We were sure Jesus liked it too because it is chocolate. 

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Tanek blew out the candles for Him

 Tanek loves lego's and can never have enough.  SO he was quite happy to have more lego's under his tree.  And under our tree too!

 He is very good at putting Lego's together.  He and his mommy spent lots of time building lego's and he has a whole lego city with all sorts of things in his city.

 This was his city "before Christmas".  It has grown larger now.

 He was very happy to get a globe for Christmas.  Not what your average 5 year old asks for on Christmas but he was very pleased.  He loves to learn about other countries and states and loves talking about where he was born.

 More lego's from his Uncle Richard, Aunt Heather and his "cousins".

 And a pogo stick.  He is having fun learning how to do this.

Tanek had a very Happy Christmas. I love that after each gift he would say thank you and let you know he wanted that gift.  He was also very concious that everyone else got their gifts to open too.  Another Christmas has come and gone, but I think we did really well celebrating the "reason for the season."

A Night Out in St. Augustine!

Tonight we along with Charles and Charlene went to St. Augustine for dinner and to see Christmas lights. We ate at Schooner's with "a lot" of other people. This seemed to be the place to be tonight. The food was very good and the wait was worth it. We also went to a church (I can't rememer the name) on hwy 16 not far from the outlet mall. They had a wonderful display of Christmas lights. You drive through and see all the lights, and they have a big tent with all sorts of Christmas trees. There were Disney characters as well as things for kids to do and refreshments. It really was a neat place and a lot of work by this church. We started out at Schooners and ate way more than we needed too.

Waiting for dinner.

These are a few of the decorations they had in their display of lights.

Gary and Charles relaxing while Charlene and I looked around and had our picture taken in a sleigh.

Mickey and Minnie had made the trip from Disney to help out.

They had a lot of different displays. This was one of my favorite ones. Love the peanuts gang.

We had a very nice time and got to see a lot of pretty lights. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Program & Parties!

The children's choir put on a great Christmas musical. "Back to the Manger". It went back into time all the way to the First Christmas. They did a great job and it is always so much fun to watch the kids sing and perform. They do it from their heart. Love watching all of them.Tanek was very much into it.

Love th 50's era.

The Library had a nice Christmas party for the children too. Even had a visit from Santa.

Mrs. Chris does a wonderul job getting the Library in festive decor.

Tanek always enjoys story time

Last year when he saw Santa he surprised him by telling Santa that "His" mommy and daddy were his Santa. I told him this year he might just want to go along with the program and tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He did. He told him he wanted Lego's and Santa told him He still played with Lego's.

Mason's Mimi, Mrs. Jan, had a "Happy Birthday Jesus Party" at her house. The kids had a lot of fun playing birthday games and celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Tanek and Mason have been buddies since they were 2 years old. They don't get to see each other very often now, but they sure did enjoy getting back together.