PRESCHOOL

When I ordered curriculum for this school year, I made sure to include the three-year-old. There is a Japanese company called Kumon that puts out some very colorful and creative preschool books. You can see how pleased he is to do his "school" too. He has 4 books,

1 book for cutting....
1 book for folding....

1 book for coloring....

and 1 book for pasting....

I never get tired of seeing them learn new things. They are so enthusiastic and thrilled with their accomplishments and new skills.

Hurray for Calvin!

BIKE RAMP

Peter set up a quick bike ramp for the boys to try. After Benny started riding his bike on his own, everyone got into a bit of a bike frenzy. Here is William giving it a go.

Sam's turn. He got his front tire off the end of the ramp before he was off of it. Good job, Sam.

Calvin just wanted to jump.

Peter couldn't stand it. He didn't have a bike of his own, but he just had to jump the ramp too. So here he is, holding onto imaginary handle bars and jumping his "bike."

NO TRAINING WHEELS

I have delayed teaching Ben to ride his bike without the training wheels. It's not that he isn't big enough. I was pretty sure he could do it, but I wasn't sure I was ready for him to be peddaling around our shared parking area where the neighbor's cars are. The older boys are good about staying away from the neighbor's cars and avoiding any collisions, but as a beginner, Benny would be unpredictable, I'm sure. Well, he decided on his own that he was done waiting. He just took off last Saturday. He basically taught himself and was riding solo within a few minutes.

Way to go, Benny!

HELPING OUT

Sam was asked to help out by washing Calvin's hair the other day and he thought this "horn" he created was pretty funny. We thought Cal was cute enough to take a picture, too.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

I thought I would sum up our Labor Day Weekend because it turned out to be so fun. I didn't get pictures of most of it, but the following post includes the pictures from the first part. First, on Saturday, we spent a good part of the day at the home of another homeschooling family who invited us over for a project on their property and a barbeque. They have a lovely 10 acres and another friend of theirs had offered to bring over his tractor and dig out a pond for them. They invited our family as well as another young couple from our church over for the day, though we didn't help much with the pond project. You can see the pictures below for more about our fun day there.

On Sunday, we spontaneously had a family over for dinner after church who are visiting the area from Arizona. They are such a delight to be around and we enjoyed the fellowship with them so much. They are the Simms family from Phoenix and they had 3 of their children with them, 2 girls and a baby boy. They were so easy to have as guests and flexible with the thrown-together meal. Very fun.

Lastly, a family from our church in the Pittsburgh area invited us over for dinner on Sunday night. We hadn't seen them in a long time and it was so refreshing to catch up and be with their family for the evening. We enjoyed being in their yard to eat, roast marshmallows, and watch the kids play. The Glenns are always very encouraging friends.

All of this may not seem very significant, but to us, it was a real blessing. We are so blessed and encouraged to be with other families and share fellowship. We were grateful to the Lord that He had planned that kind of a week-end for us and we went into the week feeling very renewed.

SATURDAY AT THE OLDLAND'S HOUSE

The Oldland family have a very nice playset, as you can see.


This is William Oldland, who is 5 like Ben.

Katrina Oldland is about 3 months older than Amelia. They were very cute together.

Putting on boots was necessary with all that mud.

Digging the pond.

The mud that was dug out was put into a pile that the kids enjoyed climbing on.

Ultimately, the kids took the mud and worked very hard to create this wall. Isn't this cute? They really worked hard on that wall. From the left is William and Samuel Jones, Samuel and William Oldland, Megan Oldland, Ben Jones and at the back is Sarah Grace Oldland.

Sarah Grace

PAINTING THE BIKE

These pictures aren't too exciting, but you can see that the boys did paint and reassemble the bike this week.

VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

This is a post that I made a while back and it somehow never published. Take two.

Peter has been trying to spend some time after work once a week (Thursday) teaching the boys about tools and fixing things. In these pictures they are working on taking apart a bike, discussing the different parts and how they work. They plan to spray paint it and put it back together in the coming week.

At least the three year old must be learning something. Sam recently asked Peter at dinner if he knew the two tools that were on the flag for the Soviet Union. Peter replied that they were the hammer and sickle and Calvin added, "...and a flat-head screwdriver!" :-)

Amoretti

Doug Wilson's daughter, Rebekah, is getting a clothing line off the ground for little girls. She just started a new blog to get people informed and interested in it and I think, plans to launch sales in the Spring. She is already selling a feminine underlayer that is adorable and practical for little girls in skirts, called the "skirty." To see it for yourself, look here, Amoretti.

FEASTING

Here's a little bit of background on this: We usually have our Sabbath feast on Saturday night in preparation for our worship on Sunday. We just try to make it a special meal, the best meal of the week. The food isn't always super special, but we always try to set the table nicely, maybe add some flowers or other decoration and include singing. We want the kids to look forward to it and to Sunday. Occasionally, we do manage to get some really good food on the table. Last Saturday we tried something new that was an all-around success, so I thought I'd share it. As you can see, Sam helped me and enjoyed it immensely. We made: Cheesy Basil-Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Once it was made we thought it looked very pretty in the pan and so we took this picture. I have never done any stuffed meats before. I don't know why I've been a little scared to try it, it wasn't hard and was REALLY good.

This is the least patient of the feasters. :-)

The finished product. We served the chicken with pasta with pesto and pinenuts and toasted sourdough bread.

Recipe as follows:

CHEESY BASIL-STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup minced fresh basil

2 Tbs. heavy cream

1 Tbs. lemon juice

3 garlic cloves, minced

salt and pepper

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 Tbs. mayonnaise

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine cheese, 2 tablespoons basil, cream, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt and pepper to taste in medium bowl.

2. Cut pocket in chicken breasts (see directions below), stuff with cheese mixture, and seal. Transfer stuffed breasts to 13 by 9 -inch baking dish and spread tops evenly with mayonnaise.

3. Combine bread crumbs, remaining garlic, remaining 2 Tbs. basil, and 1 Tbs. oil. Sprinkle crumb mixture over chicken pressing lightly to adhere.

4. Toss tomatoes with remaining tablespoon of oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Arrange in baking dish around chicken. Bake until crumbs are golden brown and thickest part of chicken registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, about 25 minutes. Serve.

Directions for cutting pocket and stuffing:

1. Working carefully, use a sharp paring knife to cut a pocket in the thickest area of the chicken breast (Fat chicken breasts work best for this meal). Gently work the knife back and forth until the pocket extends down into most of the breast.

2. Use a small spoon to scoop one-quarter of the filling into each chicken breast.

3. Seal in the filling by threading a toothpick or wooden skewer through the chicken about 1/4 inch from the opening.