Around Town...

Two out of three of these outings were in conjunction with house showings. We have had several family dates while our house was being shown. Sadly, this weekend will mark THREE weeks without ANY showings! :( But God is sovereign over the sale of our house AND the timing as well.

Killing time at the mall! :)
Free face painting at a Mexican restaurant (Jeneva had her face painted too, but I think the picture is on Jimmy's phone.)....

Swimming at the Woodyard's pool...

Field Trip: The Bread Wagon

A few weeks ago, we took a trip The Bread Wagon with a group of other homeschoolers in our area. It was such a great field trip!
The sweet lady who took care of us did such a wonderful job. She started out by talking about harvests and what was being harvested in our area at the time. Then she talked about wheat which led into us grinding some wheat to make homemade cinnamon rolls and soft pretzels.

The girls loved making their own cinnamon rolls. They have watched me make them several times, so they actually looked like old pros!

THEN...they were each given a single layered cake already frosted white that they were allowed to decorate. They also got to make their own icing color and share the 30+ colors/shades that were already made up!

Here they are after their long day of baking! :) They had such a good time!

Tom Brown Park--October

One thing we are doing this school year is to visit a local park once per month to take pictures to see how things change as we make our way through the seasons. Sadly, there aren't really big changes in the landscape, but there are some! Here are a few pictures from October. Click here for September's.

Tom Brown Park

Last month while we were visiting a local popular park, we spotted a new face in the pond while we were feeding turtles...the aligator!

Jimmy pointed out some fish that were spawning....pretty interesting how they push the sand out and guard their territory.


Here are few September pictures of Tom Brown park. We are going to try to make it back each month and take pictures of the same spots to see how the landscape changes with the seasons (if it changes at all here in Florida!!!).

Bradley's Country Fun Days

Jenna and I took the girls to Bradley's. The girls love this little train! :)

County Fair

A while back we enjoyed a fun night at our county fair. Before we left, I made the girls funnel cakes (costing a few pennies) so that they wouldn't want them for $$$ at the fair! :)

Looking at some animals with our friends the McCords.

Daddy took the girls on the Farris Wheel.

We told the girls we were going to only do one ride, but somehow the workers (while switching shifts) didn't take Jimmy's tickets at the Farris Wheel. He tried to go back and give the tickets to the worker, but he wouldn't take them (no comprendo!)...so we rode the carousel!

Jewel's Birthday

Last Friday we celebrated Jewel's birthday. It is amazing that she is already FIVE years old! This was the cake that she "designed." She said she wanted flowers so I said that I would draw it on a piece of paper and she could tell me what she thought. Well, evidently, my original idea wasn't what she had in mind...I had to throw the first attempt away and start over...this time carefully following her instructions. I think that I achieved what she had in mind! :) She wanted one big flower in the middle, five little flowers around the big flower (since she was turning 5), and (my one suggestion that she approved of) spelling out her name around the edge of the cake alternating one letter between each of the 5 small flowers. She picked out the colors of blue, yellow, and pink...and informed me where she wanted each color. She also asked that the inside of the cake be chocolate.
Jewel received a couple gifts Wednesday night at church that she opened the minute she got home from church. :) Thanks, Yangs and McCords!

Birthday Morning...
I asked Jewel to tell me what she wanted to eat on her birthday. She actually picked oatmeal for breakfast (which I rarely make). As soon as she woke up she put her hat on and sat at the fireplace waiting to open her gifts. I told her that we wouldn't open her gifts until after we ate her "oatmeal" breakfast. She then informed me that she no longer wanted oatmeal...she wanted something quicker! :)...but I had already started making it so she had oatmeal anyway!

After breakfast, we assembled in the "fireplace" room for Jewel to open her gifts. She loved everything that she got. One of her favorite things was the red wallet from Nana and Papa...she told me that she is so glad she got one because she was tempted to covet Jane's that Jane received a couple months ago on her birthday. She was happy that now she no longer had to covet Jane's! :) She especially loved the "business cards" with her name printed on them that were inside the wallet.

It was time for new shoes and a new swimsuit so that is pretty much what she got from us...among a few other smaller things.

She really liked the sign that her cousin Sarah had included in the birthday box that they sent her.



Birthday Outing--Florida Caverns

After breakfast and getting dressed, we packed up and headed to the Florida Caverns. We had a fun time. It was a pretty hot day, but the cave was nice and cool! :)

Here is the one place in the cave that they let you actually touch...we were informed not to touch anything else in the cave. The discoloration on this part of the cave is from the oils in our hands.

When we first entered the cave I said something to Jewel like, "How would you like to live in a cave?" I knew that would be something she would like to think about! So in every room we went into she would say what room it would be (the living room, bathroom, bedroom, prayer room, thankful room, etc.).

A rare family picture...

Getting one last sip of water before heading to the cave tour....

Here are the girls inside the visitor's center. We were really thankful we had an hour so before our cave tour left, because we really enjoyed watching the videos about the area and the caves...especially since our cave tour guide wasn't the best.

Stay tuned for Jewel's birthday dinner...

Tallahassee Ballet

Saturday we attended the Tallahassee Ballet, courtesy of our friend from church Tabby Yang! THANKS, Tabby! The themes were Mother Goose rhymes, Cinderella (which we never quite understood that part!), and Madeline & the Gypsies. We all really enjoyed the ballet.

Saturday Fun

Last Saturday we took the girls to see a "play" of sorts put on by the Young Actor's Theatre entitled Exploring with Dora and Diego. It was pretty cute. The girls seemed to really like it. (Do you see them on the front row!) Of course, when it will all over, they stated that they didn't like the Pirate Piggies (who were somewhat the villains in the play). The characters really played up the villains more than the Dora cartoon does. I really thought that the girls might get up and run back to us. I think that if Jane had been by herself she probably would have.

Free Family Fun!

Last Saturday we took the girls to a local childrens' clothing store that was giving FREE pony rides in their parking lot! They had a great time. The store also had "princesses" walking around that made things even more exciting for little girls! :)

Bradley Country Fun Days

Catch-up Post #4

A couple of weekends ago we went to Bradley Country Fun Days with our good friends David and Michael. Despite the cold, it was a fun day!

I know this ride look totally lame, but the girls actually really liked it. :) These "train cars" were all pulled by a tractor that had been transformed to look like the train engine!